How do you choose your IR's?

Sorenspete

Sorenspete

Inspired
What criteria do you use when choosing an IR? I find this is the only part of the Fractal experience that gives me option paralysis. Why is your favourite IR your favourite?

I have a few York IR's but a lot of the patches I've made have ended up featuring either Leon's IR's or stock IR's.
 
All of this is my opinion and nowhere near gospel!
1. Do you want this tone for your own edification or to fit well in a mix at volume?
2. Use "neutral" amp settings to try out IR's or you might pass up on IR's that would work great, except you dialed in your amp for a different flavor of IR.
3. Make a preset with multiple scenes dialed in for different IR's (after you've already picked a few), so you can quickly compare them.
4. Listen to them over multiple days with fresh ears....I can't tell you how many times I dialed in the "prefect tone" only to find out it was LESS than so the next day.
5. This really shouldn't be at the end, but you get what you pay for. LISTEN to your preset/scenes in the Mix. IF you're playing in a band the perfect tone is what makes the song/band sound best.
Bonus: Use the looper block to try different cabs, dial in tones, etc. as you can focus on tone, not your playing (Leon was the first person I saw mentioning it and it makes a HUGE difference.
 
I use a MIDI for controller (Logidy UMI-3) going into Bome MIDI Translator, where I’m able to use my controller buttons as keyboard up and down keys. This way I can scroll as I play, so I’m not only hearing the frequency response of the cab, but I can feel how it interacts with what I’m playing at the moment. I find that invaluable.

I also set the Speaker Impedance Curve to match the group of IRs most closely to start, as well as Speaker Thump. Then I can still alter the curve from there once I land on a good IR.

Next, I don’t like room sound in IRs, and I don’t like phasiness, so, for a group of IRs that are from the same creator, I’ll shorten the length if I hear room sound that bothers me, and I turn up Smoothing until there’s no phasiness. It’s a very personal thing, so probably a lot of people would think what I do is bullshit, but it’s what works for me. You’ll find your own way.

Finally, if you’re having trouble, I think running your Axe into a guitar plugin with movable mics is the most helpful. Amplitube, Wall of Sound, TH-U, the MIKKO plugin, and others have this ability, and that can be a quick and easy way to land on a good spot for you and even blend mics. Then you can capture an IR from any of those and import to the Axe.
 
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I had a rough idea where to start (cab, speaker, 57+121) and once I found what I liked I stopped looking. Only bought 3rd party IR’s this year. I have some freebies but they arent used.

I have a few presets I built but my main sounds are only 3 IR’s.
 
To get my head around IRs I've spent time trying to learn what different popular speakers cabs / pres / mics / mic positions / mic combinations sound like. Still a long way to go but I feel like if I can get a sense of this, I'll be better able to quickly drill down into my large ir library to a smallish subset of capture files that match the ballpark of what I have in mind.
 
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My approach is to find the amp I think I am going for and keep the default settings, then go to the cab block and have only one cab activate. Next open the cab picker and pin it. Next think about what you are going for... Darker maybe v30s or oversized V30 cabs. Brighter maybe Marshall style 1960 or GT12 or even Friedman cabs that are in that Marshall vein. If you want more scooped think engl or other high gain style cabs.
Then I go back and adjust the tone on the amp just enough to get it close. If I want more brightness with a V30 cab I will add a Marshall style cab with a 57 in and bring the level of that cab down just till it hits the mark. Sometimes rolling the presence down a little bit after that just to make it perfect.

Those are how I approach it and just my style of thinking.

James
 
When you find a few with the eq curve you like, try fine tuning them with the different impedance curves, to me it's a make your favorite ir sit in different situations control.
 
When I try a new amp I start looking the CAB recommendations at Yek's Amp guide, or I open the related presets from Austin Buddy's Live Gold or Naked Amps to see his CAB selections. If I want to expand the options, then I start loading similar IRs from the many packs I have purchased. ValhallIR, Owhnhammer and York Audio are my favorites.

Anyway, for the last years I've been using almost exclusively one IR only, even though I have almost 350,000 IRs at my hard drive: the first IR from Live Ready Sounds Vinai T pack. It is the perfect pack because it only contains 4 different IRs, and they all sound good. Little room for option paralysis
 
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One of the biggest issues with IRs is that your ear adjusts to what its hearing (this is also why "ears not eyes" is not always the best advice). For example if you spend some time listening to very bright IR and move to a more neutral one, it will sound dull because your ears have become used to the brighter sound.

To combat this I try to first narrow down to the sort of IR I'm looking for* (by looking at speaker size, speaker model, cabinet configuration, mic(s), mic positioning and so on) then I move through them quickly so my ears don't become too used to any particular sound and hopefully any comparisons are against the group as a whole. Sometimes it's helpful to shortlist and do the same thing again. It's helpful to record the guitar part into the looper first so you can just listen.

*having a tone in mind before you start and looking for something that satisfies that is usually a better idea than just listening for something that sounds good.
 
I find since there are many versions of an SM57 for the same cab I break them in to brands

1. Pick only 1 SM57 for each brand of cab and go through them (57+Recto, 57+Orange, 57+Marshall etc etc)
2. When you find one you like, go through the different versions of the 57 for that cab.
3. Do the same for the other mics and do a 57/121 combo if you like.

I found for me I really liked the ORNG cabs and ended up using those for nearly all of my presets
 
no expert, ymmv, full disclosure: i have no idea what I'm doing.
if i'm using a princeton amp I am looking at princeton 210 cab, a bassman 410 with jensens, a twin gets 212 w jbl d120, a vox then 212 celestion blue/gold, an old marshall - greenbacks, engl - v30s, a hiwatt - 412 w fanes, if it's a soldano then 412 x1200. sometimes I google "soldano original speakers" but yeks guide is a lot of help too. similar approach w mics: if fender then SM57+R121 or C414+R121 or M160+R121 or U47+4038. If it's a high gainer - E609+MD421 or SM57+R121 and sometimes just an M160 - all good places to start. Start with a factory ir, save that in the first slot or two, mute it... then experiment with some similar things, then go back to the factory and compare. the factory irs... pretty hard to beat. that said, variety is the spice of life. I just try to use my ears.
 
My advice is to audition IRs (and all the tweaks) with the "minus guitar" backing track played along. This will prevent you from choosing IRs that don't work in a mix - no matter how it sounds well isolated, it can't be used if it can't be heard at all in an ensemble. In that sense, though having more than a thousand IRs the usable options are in fact limited.
 
Some great advice above! Very true about the ears quickly getting used to a tone. Like when you have 1 amp channel sounding great and move on to the next. Then after that one’s sounding good, you go back to the 1st channel and it sounds way too bright. And after 5 minutes it sounds great again. Which is why I like @km 202257 advice the best. Playing a track is always going to sound the same. It’s like a baseline for your ears. A recalibration. It’s good for IR selection and for finishing a preset.

The advice above about setting the amp flat when auditioning is spot on too.

My strategy right now is simple. I’m using LT’s TV Mix 7 for almost everything. I’m used to it, I know how to dial it in, I know what to expect. I’m probably missing some great IRs and I still try others but end up with the LT mix 90% of the time. I’m happy with the results, works good in a mix. After awhile I’ll follow all this advice and maybe find another IR to sit on for awhile.
 
After doing it for a very long time I know in general what the various speakers sound like, and what the various mics sound like in the different positions.

But there's no substance for running the racks, you'll never learn the cab block if you don't.
 
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