HERE YOU CAN FIND TIPS ON HOW TO GET GOOD TONES IMO. IN NO WAY ARE THESE RULES WHICH YOU SHOULD OBEY BUT IF YOU LIKE MY TONES, GO AHEAD AND LEARN FROM THE APPRENTICE! THESE TIPS WON'T GIVE YOU TALENT... SORRY.
I did this experiment with the Mesa cab.
I'm on vacation right now and when my girlfriend came home from work she decided that it's cleaning day. So... I escaped it by spending this evening trying out different IRs until I found what I was looking for and I did. (Yes, I'm a lucky guy and she's hot too! :lol: )
Now first of all I want to explain what I was looking for. I hate to hurt people's ears (like what I did with the cali cab) so what I'm looking for is a super creamy yet clear and cutting IR. The cone position sure is creamy but it's loose and I want tightness so I went through all the "CapEdge 0in" positions and the mics with the least sizzle fizzle were these three: U87, L47 and C414. I don't take distance with mics. Not in real life... not in this digital cyberworld either. Why? Distance adds that phaserish chorusing weird tone that your ears must get used to. I hate that and you can't hear it in a mix anyways so why should we have it there? When I'm looking for a good mic position in real life I'm looking for a balanced place where there's no sizzle.
The next thing I'm looking for is a cab that's as flat as possible. I noticed that these three combined together had the most cuttage and the super IR that came from those three ended up being really flat in the low register. Now for me an IR is flat if it peaks flat. A good IR has way less highs than lows and mids. Check your favorite guitar tone and I promise you there are at least 5dB less treble than bass. This is a stupid generalization but you get the point. The IR peaks flat. (when I pick hard it has the same amount of lows mids and highs)
Another thing I've had a lot of problems with is the low end. I've mic'ed real cabs for about four years before I got the Axe-Fx and I've never had as much low end as the stock IRs and Redwirez have in the Axe-Fx. When I record stuff I always use a lowcut but I wanted to take care of this in the Axe-Fx so my tones work live too. So I ended up doing the lowcut with the Global EQ.
63hz = -12dB
125hz = -5dB
and this actually works perfectly with the stock cabs too if you use the NONE mic option like I do. Why do this? Why not roll down the bass in the amp block? Because the amp block effects the overall feel and tone. More bass leads to smoother and easier playing. F.ex. a real Recto is easy as hell to play with if you crank the bass. (Tremonti does it) If you don't have this lowcut in the global eq you can't do it without clipping. Same goes for all those amps with depth in them. FAS Modern and Das Metall can finally be played without clipping! Hooray!
So what did we learn. Good IRs:
MesaRectifierV30s-U87-CapEdge-0in
MesaRectifierV30s-L47-CapEdge-0in
MesaRectifierV30s-C414-CapEdge-0in
Use them for an unsizzly but clear and cutting tone. Combine them. Axe-Fx passes unnecessary low frequencies which you can cut with the global eq.
I also found my second favorite Redwirez cab: the Marshall1960B-V30s. Really nice and flat!
I did this experiment with the Mesa cab.
I'm on vacation right now and when my girlfriend came home from work she decided that it's cleaning day. So... I escaped it by spending this evening trying out different IRs until I found what I was looking for and I did. (Yes, I'm a lucky guy and she's hot too! :lol: )
Now first of all I want to explain what I was looking for. I hate to hurt people's ears (like what I did with the cali cab) so what I'm looking for is a super creamy yet clear and cutting IR. The cone position sure is creamy but it's loose and I want tightness so I went through all the "CapEdge 0in" positions and the mics with the least sizzle fizzle were these three: U87, L47 and C414. I don't take distance with mics. Not in real life... not in this digital cyberworld either. Why? Distance adds that phaserish chorusing weird tone that your ears must get used to. I hate that and you can't hear it in a mix anyways so why should we have it there? When I'm looking for a good mic position in real life I'm looking for a balanced place where there's no sizzle.
The next thing I'm looking for is a cab that's as flat as possible. I noticed that these three combined together had the most cuttage and the super IR that came from those three ended up being really flat in the low register. Now for me an IR is flat if it peaks flat. A good IR has way less highs than lows and mids. Check your favorite guitar tone and I promise you there are at least 5dB less treble than bass. This is a stupid generalization but you get the point. The IR peaks flat. (when I pick hard it has the same amount of lows mids and highs)
Another thing I've had a lot of problems with is the low end. I've mic'ed real cabs for about four years before I got the Axe-Fx and I've never had as much low end as the stock IRs and Redwirez have in the Axe-Fx. When I record stuff I always use a lowcut but I wanted to take care of this in the Axe-Fx so my tones work live too. So I ended up doing the lowcut with the Global EQ.
63hz = -12dB
125hz = -5dB
and this actually works perfectly with the stock cabs too if you use the NONE mic option like I do. Why do this? Why not roll down the bass in the amp block? Because the amp block effects the overall feel and tone. More bass leads to smoother and easier playing. F.ex. a real Recto is easy as hell to play with if you crank the bass. (Tremonti does it) If you don't have this lowcut in the global eq you can't do it without clipping. Same goes for all those amps with depth in them. FAS Modern and Das Metall can finally be played without clipping! Hooray!
So what did we learn. Good IRs:
MesaRectifierV30s-U87-CapEdge-0in
MesaRectifierV30s-L47-CapEdge-0in
MesaRectifierV30s-C414-CapEdge-0in
Use them for an unsizzly but clear and cutting tone. Combine them. Axe-Fx passes unnecessary low frequencies which you can cut with the global eq.
I also found my second favorite Redwirez cab: the Marshall1960B-V30s. Really nice and flat!