IRs - to Mic or not to Mic?

G

Gabaghoul

Inspired
This could be a really dumb question but as I was rolling thru presets and trying out different cabs, I noticed that there are a bunch of presets that do not use Mic IRs.

I know this is all subjective because if it sounds good it is good but technically does a cab IR actually contain the response of the mic it was captured with already baked in? And would selecting a Mic IR to be used in conjunction with those cab IRs create something inaccurate? Ie. using a 212 V30 cab IR captured with an SM57 and then selecting a royer 121 as the Mic IR.

What exactly would that combination give you? The sound of v30 cab recorded with an SM57 then recorded with a Royer or just the V30 recorded with the Royer 121(no Sm57 at all)

And in either case do people prefer on method over another? Hopefully that makes sense.
 
Gabaghoul said:
...does a cab IR actually contain the response of the mic it was captured with already baked in?
Click to expand...
Yes. If the IR was captured with a neutral mic, it sounds the same as no mic curve at all...unless you add one with the Cab block parameters.


Gabaghoul said:
And would selecting a Mic IR to be used in conjunction with those cab IRs create something inaccurate?...What exactly would that combination give you? The sound of v30 cab recorded with an SM57 then recorded with a Royer or just the V30 recorded with the Royer 121(no Sm57 at all)
Click to expand...
It would give you the sound of a cab that was miked with an imaginary microphone whose frequency response is a combination of the two mics.
 
That's what I thought. So if that is the case, how do you know what the IR was captured with? Is there any indication in the naming convention used by Fractal?
 
This might help you, as per "yek":

CAB (block) - Axe-Fx II Wiki

Stock cabs:


The "old" FAS (Fractal) cabs: recorded with a neutral mic. Leave Mic Sim. off, if you don't want mic coloring. It'll still be a close-mic'd tone! Switch on Mic Sim. if you want the specific tone of a microphone added.
Red Wirez (RW): see above. Or instead of using Mic Sim., buy a Red Wirez pakage and use an IR with that mic already "baked in".
OwnHammer (OH): these stock cabs already have mics "baked in". No need for added mic sims. If you want other mics / mixes, buy an OwnHammer package.
Kalthammer: these stock cabs already have mics "baked in". No need for added mic sims.
Mix (Producer Pack) cabs: these stock cabs are a mix of several mics. So no need for added mic sim. Buy Pack 1 if you want the IRs with just one mic and other variations.


If you don't use the built-in Mic Simulation in the Cab block, the Proximity parameter will have no effect.
 
Gotcha. It all makes sense now.

BTW, what Mic is typically considered to be "neutral"? Just wondering what OH or RW would use to capture a cab neutrally.
 
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