VOX AC30 Top Boost Cabinet - who makes the best sounding IR for this amp?

Bob G

Member
I know the Axe-Fx is very powerful and has many options but my favorite amps in real life are the VOX AC30 Top Boost amps and after spending two years trying out all the different amp and cabinet combinations in the Axe-Fx, still my favorite go to amp sound in the Axe-Fx is the VOX AC30 Top Boost model with the 2 X 12 Brit cabinet that goes with it.

So far, all I have used is Fractal Audio's built in 2 X 12 VOX cabinet and to me it sounds fantastic.

However, I've been poking my head into the forum here a bit and I see that there are a lot of people that seem to be really prefering the sound of third party speaker cabinet IR's from companies like Redwirez. They seem to be the most popular?

Anyways, I'm just curious if anyone else that is a VOX AC30 Top Boost die hard like myself has assembled all the different available VOX AC30 Top Boost Cabient IR's and compared them and come to some conclusion about which one sounds the best.

Does anyone think that the stock IR's are the best and these 3rd party IR's are just more stuff for the tweakers to play with rather than adding any obvious improvement in sound?

I do mostly recording so I am looking for the most realistic amp like tone in a recording.


Thanks a lot for reading and taking the time to respond if you have any knowledge to share on this.
 
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Honestly, I prefer the stock Vox cabinets to the 3rd party ones. And I see alot of patches by people on here that use RW's and OH's, but for Vox tones they use the stock cabs. Its probably one of the best stock cabs IMO.
 
Wowzers! I hope you are right because that would save me some time and money!

Let's see what javajunkie and Don Peterson have to say about it...
 
I have tried some alnico blue IRs I've found around the web, but I prefer the stock 212 brit really and that's what I use in my main Topboost patch. I have not tried the RW or the OH though, which are obviously the most popular third party ones. I don't really find the 212 brit to be lacking anything though, so I haven't really wanted to buy any others.

D
 
I really like the OwnHammer 1x12 Blue with the Top Boost. I started with the 1x12 because I thought that be more like what you would see on AC30-type amp (1x12 or 2x12). I haven't tried their 4x12, and I don't really feel the need to because the 1x12 was just what I was looking for. For $3, it's definitely worth trying out if you are curious at all.
 
I prefer and use the stock cab (112 or 212 Blue). OwnHammer and Red Wire have great alternatives. Comes down to what sort of Voxy tone you are going after; and what guitar you are using to get that tone.

In other words, there is no one universal answer here.

Except, it depends.
 
I prefer and use the stock cab (112 or 212 Blue). OwnHammer and Red Wire have great alternatives. Comes down to what sort of Voxy tone you are going after; and what guitar you are using to get that tone.

In other words, there is no one universal answer here.

Except, it depends.

The 112 or 212 Blue stock cabinets are JBL speakers, not Vox (Celestion) alnico blues. Cliff confirmed this on the original forum.

I asked that question a long time ago because the 212 Blue cabinet didn't sound like blue dogs to me but the brit cab did. CC confirmed that the 212 brit is the vox cab.

I think Yek wiki'd that info a while back.

D
 
I WIKI'd that a long time ago (about 212 Blue).

I use the Redwire Blues or Silver 2x12

I have started to use the OHs for some stuff where I what a fuller bodied sound.
 
I'm a vox freak. Best and most versatile amp in the world IMHO......

Having compared various Blue/Silver IR's running FRFR against the AC30's that I own, these are my conclusions:
- the stock Brit 2 x 12 sounds very close to the real thing (Celestion blues)
- the Redwirez AC30 Blues SM57 Cone 0-1 inch also sound very close to the real thing but perhaps with a little more high end grit when driven
- the Redwirez silvers sound a little less midrangey with a little more high end than the blues - kind of more U2 chimey on clean, or classic 70's rock when driven
- I like a little more hair though, so Redwirez Blues and Silvers 57 Cap Edge 0inch are my go to cabs at the moment - on their own or mixed together. They just seem to sit in a live mix really well.

Have to admit though, the stock 2 x 12 brit is great, and really should get a lot more use.....
 
I would say that since your primary concern is recording, the Redwirez IR package is well worth the $10-$20 investment for some AC30 IRs. IMHO the biggest advantage of the RW packages (and perhaps the Ownhammer--I have no experience with them) are the full length IRs. I have found that these (via a convolution plugin in the DAW, while bypassing the cab sim in the Ax) let me dial in sounds very very close to sounds I've gotten using nearly identical signal chains and my real AC30 with Alnico Blues.

I am a long time owner/user of such an AC30, and have recorded with it in a variety of studios with a variety of mics through a variety of preamps. I've been fortunate enough to record in some studios with some of the same mics and preamps offered in the RW package, although never the same A/D converters. When I compare the recordings of my real AC30 through some of those mic/pre combinations and the sounds I can get out of the Ax and comparable full length IRs I find them to be nearly identical. I am wonderfully happy with them. So much so that I am always a bit sad to go back to 1024 sample length .syx IRs in the Ax. They sound good, and I love the sounds I get from my Ax--but for me the single biggest fault of the Ax is its inability to use those longer length IRs. Those room reflections and whatever else is happening after that 1024th sample (which is about .021 seconds) are well worth hearing IMHO.

My current go to IRs for recording and in the Ax are various combinations of close mic'ed TAB-Funkenwerk SM57 and "further away" Royer 121 and/or the Neumann KM84 room mics.
 
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I like the Redwirez silver

here's my formula:

VoxAC30Silvers-R121-Cap-3in.wav,0.50
VoxAC30Silvers-R121-Cone-3in.wav,0.50
 
@Morphosis really cool of you post that one for free! I love your approach and look forward to the cabIR.eu 2x12 IRs.... (love the cabIR.eu Orange IR's)

The free IR's from forum member @indeloon85 (use forum search by member) are really good for me. A little less polished maybe? But very amp like.

E.g. http://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/1965-vox-2x12-sm58-ir.107945/

Thanks for the compliment :) Appreciate it! Have to try the on from indeloon soon! Thanks for quoting his work!

Well, "polish"?! Priority No1 is to me capturing authenticy. So, no post EQ or something here, but it may sound more "polish" to you due to the fact, the MULTI IRs are mixes from different mics & mic positions. On the other side, you achieve well balanced results with this tecnique, IMO. Of course, the Cab-Pack will also include all the single mics (of course also SM57 beside others) with all their "keep it simple, stright along roughness", some prefer ;)
 
Well, "polish"?! Priority No1 is to me capturing authenticy. So, no post EQ or something here, but it may sound more "polish" to you due to the fact, the MULTI IRs are mixes from different mics & mic positions. On the other side, you achieve well balanced results with this tecnicque, IMO. Of course, the Cab-Pack will also include all the single mics (of course also SM57 beside others) with all their "keep it simple, stright along roughness", some prefer ;)

"Mix ready" might be a better term than "polished".

I use a lot of mix ready IR's and find them very useful.

The @indeloon85 IR's struck me as more (dare I say the words :) ) amp in the room. So in a mix I would probably EQ these differently than when using other IR's. But they sound very good through my CLR's from a player's perspective.
 
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