Anyone Want to Test This Beta Firmware

No, why would it?

I'm beginning to regret this. It seemed pretty intuitive to me.

No regrets, the curve will catch up. You see, Fractal is the cutting edge, redefining guitar amplification and recording, because of your relentless pursuit of perfection. You couldn't stop if you wanted to, its in your dna. Great work Fractal!!!
 
It means it will be true to the amp model you selected from the 200 available, uncolored by somebody else's power amp that was originally used to capture the IR.



True. But in this case, you're in complete control of your departure from accuracy. Your knobs aren't being bumped by a cab IR that behaves differently from the actual cab itself.

Maybe that doesn't matter to you. No harm, no foul. Just don't use the reference IRs. On the other hand, if you don't care about this level of cab accuracy, then your workflow will be entirely unaffected by this, because you'll still be tweaking the same stuff. You'll just wind up at different settings.


ok, we are in complete agreement.
 
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Sort of.

Every speaker cab has a non-flat impedance curve—in other words, the cab's impedance is different at different frequencies. This varying impedance is in addition to the cab's actual frequency response.

Every power amp is affected by the impedance of the cab its connected to; the power amp itself will have a different frequency response because it sees a different impedance at different frequencies. And that changes the way the cab sounds.

The purpose of an IR is to capture the frequency response of the cab, not the frequency response of the power amp. That's because the Axe's Amp block already simulates the way the power amp reacts to a cab's impedance curve (that's what the SPKR page in the Amp block is all about). In other words, the Axe already models the way a cab's sound changes when the power amp reacts to the cab's impedance curve.

So we want to get rid of the influence of the power amp that was used to capture the IR—let the Axe's virtual power amp work its magic instead. That's what this new IR capture method does.



The release notes only talk about distortion to point out the fact that you no longer need a clean signal chain to make a good IR. Using this new capture method, the Axe will pick through any distortion to get the information it needs to create an IR.

Best explanation of the entire concept in one post. Well done!
 
Best explanation of the entire concept in one post. Well done!
Thanks, Scott!


For anyone wondering why all this wasn't spelled out in the beginning, remember that this is a beta test, born of a brainstorm that Cliff had, at a time when Fractal Audio is officially closed for the holidays. It was originally intended only for distribution to the beta team. As a holiday spiff, Cliff decided to drop it here for anyone to try, in between spending quality time with his family. No frills...just a chance to play around with it, if you're so inclined.

So give it a spin! Compare your results with and without the new IR capture method. And let us know what you discover.
 
So basically this new feature allows to subtract an IR of an amp from the IR of the same Amp+Cab removing the influence of the power amp?

I was mostly under the impression that using a solid state poweramp the resulting IR would be close to 100% "correct". I allways thought the solid state captures sounded thin and the tube power amp captures were too bassy in contrast.

Thank you very much Fractal, the constant development is immenselly appreciated.
 
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So does this render the current batch of ultra-res cabs obsolete?
all depends on the way you look at it. the current batch (and many earlier released IRs) will still continue to sound great. there are many variables in the studio that can and will affect tone, if you like what you hear, all is good. if however your brain instead of your ears tell you that something may sound better without having it even properly heard, well then I guess you'll have to wait for the technique being used on new IRs. I'm not saying one is gonna be better or worse sounding over the other, it's just gonna be like before, some IRs may sound great to you, some may not, all a matter of taste...
 
In the 1 clip sond is more open, less... boxy, in a good way. Sound seems to breath.

Uh, 2nd clip *should* be the slightly better (more pure) one ... :)

Great showcase :)

First: The differences are audible, but IMHO this is not a better/worse discussion, more a accuracy discussion. Which one is more accurate depends of the setup you use.

a1. If you play for example a Matrix through Guitar cabinet, a IR from that setup will be for FOH more "accurate", if you don`t compensate.

(a2. Or - to confuse now all ... hehe ...you have do "double compensate" as i describe here: http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-f...ne-want-test-beta-firmware-4.html#post1132145. Think about it!)

b. If you Use IRs independend from real cabinets (FRFR monitoring), the "reference IR" setup will be more accurate and is the way to go (when it all comes down to that one point: accurateness!)

Second: More accuracy don`t guarantee subjective better sound. All the guys prefering the Tube-Amp IRs from OH are super unaccurate in this way! But they will be often more prefered!

Third: A Mic placement difference from 1 inch will result the most time (with good clean Power Amps like a Martix) in more difference, as the difference "amp referenced IR" vs. "not amp referenced IR".
 
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I'm interested in trying this. As for the DI boxes recommended in the release notes, would there be any difference in tone between say, the Suhr ISO, Behringer DI100, or ART Z direct in this application (i.e. without nonlinearities)? Would you recommend any particular DI you mentioned more highly than others? I'll have to buy one of these before I try doing this, but want to make sure I get the one that is the most transparent. Also, the suhr is 4X the price of the others, so only want to go that way if there could be a possibility of audible improvement. And when I say audible, I mean audible to Eric Johnson. Because I'm a wanker. Thanks!
 
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I'm interested in trying this. As for the DI boxes recommended in the release notes, would there be any difference in tone between say, the Suhr ISO, Behringer DI100, or ART Z direct in this application (i.e. without nonlinearities)? Would you recommend any particular DI you mentioned more highly than others? I'll have to buy one of these before I try doing this, but want to make sure I get the one that is the most transparent. Also, the suhr is 4X the price of the others, so only want to go that way if there could be a possibility of audible improvement. And when I say audible, I mean audible to Eric Johnson. Because I'm a wanker. Thanks!

Shouldn't matter right? The deficiencies of the power amp and DI are what is being compensated for with the new feature.
 
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