Anyone Else Find Dyna-Cabs Overly Bright?

Piing said:
And how do you know that some of these legacy cabs are not already using EQ that is more radical than that? Or a combination of mics slightly out of phase to smooth the brightness?
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I don’t, and that’s not what I was asking. I didn’t say there was a problem, I was just asking if anyone else thought the dyna cabs are overly bright sounding. Sheesh. Have a good and peaceful day.
 
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Anthony76 said:
I don’t, and that’s not what I was asking. I didn’t say there was a problem, I was just asking if anyone else thought the dyna cabs are overly bright sounding. Sheesh. Have a good and peaceful day.
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I am just suggesting that the brightness can be compensated with extra EQ and combining 2 mic positions. Just like they do when they create the Legacy Cabs. I am sorry if you read something different. English is not my first language.
 
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muudrock said:
Keep in mind that on the hardware, we are limited to one axis plane from cap to edge of cone with the dyna-cabs. In CabLab 4 the mics are moveable around the entire speaker, on any axis plane, which yields all the different sounds on a speaker. There are frequency notches and spikes depending on where the mic is moved in 360° around the speaker that we can't explore on the hardware. I think this why some feel the Dyna-cabs are bright. We're limited to one plane across the speaker and comparing to CabLab, that axis plane seems to have a lot harsher highs. At least compared to the current Dyna-Cabs available for CabLab.
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Ah yes that is something I had not thought of. On a “normal” cab the difference is pronounced when moving a mic around, so far, to my ears, it appears to be less so with dyna-cabs. It does change a little but not much, as compared to similar/same mics moved around on a physical speaker cab. I’ll keep messing with it from time to time, it’s not like I can’t get results, I just have to be more extreme with settings.
 
Piing said:
I am just suggesting that the brightness can be compensated with extra EQ and combining 2 mic positions. Just like they do when they create the Legacy Dyna Cabs. I am sorry if you read something different. English is not my first language.
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Apologies, I shouldn’t have jumped on your comment like that. Yes, I can get results that aren’t anywhere near as bright, I just have to high cut much lower than usual and have a ribbon and dynamic mic as far off the cap on the speaker that is possible. I was just wondering if anyone else find them to be overly bright without extreme settings. Thanks for your input.
 
Most IR vendors process their IRs in one way or another.
I think Dyna-Cabs are a straight recording of the speaker+mic without any additional processing besides normalizing and peak alignment, they are not record ready like OwnHammer for example.
 
Rex said:
That's unusual. When I run the mic all the way to the edge of the cone, all of the Dyna-Cab stuff is too dark to interest me — jut like a real physical cab.
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Yeah that's my experience with "real' cabs also, but I am finding the dyna cabs overly bright, compared to similar placement on a physical cab. My go to is a Royer 121 and sm57 at the edge of the dust cap but maybe a tad further out, if I do that on dyna cabs its still hella bright, to me and a couple of others that were listening in the room. It's no biggie though.
 
After dialing in a good AITR type of tone with the dynacabs, I found my old go-to IR was overly dark and muddy. I found what I like from dynacabs is a single ribbon mic about 20cm away, position to taste. I think the big difference between that and most normal IR's is not so much the dynacabs themselves, but that the normal IRs are shot much closer to the amp.
 
Depending on mic choice/placement I can obtain what sounds like extended high-freq response that some might hear as “overly-bright”. Then again, as an engineer I’ll take an overly-bright source anytime b/c I can always EQ it out if need be (which can also reduce background noise) but it’s harder to put HF back in when it’s not there to begin with (which can increase background noise)…
 
If I use the ribbon mic and it's close to the edge it's really dark and has no brightness at all with Dyna-cabs. Maybe try the ribbon and a dynamic mic together?
 
James Freeman said:
Most IR vendors process their IRs in one way or another.
I think Dyna-Cabs are a straight recording of the speaker+mic without any additional processing besides normalizing and peak alignment, they are not record ready like OwnHammer for example.
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I'm pretty certain that @York Audio doesn't post-process and I don't find them to require much tweaking.

Great mic placement is the key...
 
With the Dynamic mics I do, with condenser and ribbon I have less of the issue so I tend to use what my ears tell me instead of what my eyes do. I used to mic my old Mesa 4x12 cab just with one 57 and putting the Dynacab mic in the same position and distance that I would in my real cab it sound much more thin than what I was expecting.

Still need to play more with Dynacabs but as I had limited time so far with it, I tend to go back to my usual York Audio ones that I’m more familiar with.
 
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Anthony76 said:
Ah yes that is something I had not thought of. On a “normal” cab the difference is pronounced when moving a mic around, so far, to my ears, it appears to be less so with dyna-cabs. It does change a little but not much, as compared to similar/same mics moved around on a physical speaker cab. I’ll keep messing with it from time to time, it’s not like I can’t get results, I just have to be more extreme with settings.
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I wonder if something is wrong here because to me you can get significant changes with relatively small changes on the Dyna-Cabs. Putting the mic at the very edge of the cone should make it unusably dark.

Maybe you can post a preset or even just a screenshot of how you set up the cab?
 
Ok I’m intrigued now. I want to know. If you could post a preset and a sound recording if possible, then there will be one less mystery in the universe.
 
Piing said:
And how do you know that some of these legacy cabs are not already using EQ
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We at Fractal Audio never apply any EQ to the cabs or cab mixes we created in any product. This goes for static IRs and DynaCab IRs. Our philosophy is that a Cab IR should reflect exactly what's coming from the cab/mic. While preamps have some color, we never engage any cut or boost options.
 
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Admin M@ said:
We at Fractal Audio never applied any EQ to the cabs or cab mixes we created in any product.
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This ^^
I think this has a lot to do with some the comments on Dyna Cabs. Unprocessed IRs can sound overly harsh and bright and/or boomy. In the "real world" one would typically engage at least one stage of EQ (if not multiple) on an mic'd speaker/cab, whether live or recording. Don't be afraid to apply high and low cuts in the cab block or an EQ block, or adjust the amp for the IR. One size does not fit all.
 
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I find the Dynamic Mics to be on the brighter side compared to the Condenser. I prefer the Condenser on most cabs. However, I've found that it's preferable to get the brightness from the cab (or IR), rather than increasing the treble/presence on the amp which can bring out more noise and/or interference in a home studio environment.
 
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