AX8: what is "must have" IR ?

M

metallica86

Inspired
Hello guys,

Love this forum so far, a lot of in depth info about tweaking and presets etc...

I have my Ax8 for a month now, love it so far.

I read a lot of thread in this forum regarding "IR", some people even mention they spent more time in Cab IR than amp selection.

So what is the best and must have IR in your opinion, ? and where to buy it ?

I'd love to try and don't mind spare few extra bucks to experiment. I already tried every single cab in factory and its sound great to me, wonder how it will improve my sound with good IR.

So far I used these amp the most: Hiwatt for Floydish, Fender Deluxe Verb, HBE, Marshall JS410

I'm not into high gain territory but more in Satriani lead tone, Gilmourish, sometime slash and ACDC crunch tone :)
 
dpeterson said:
Rabbit hole, opinions vary widely, 9,000,000 irs availabl. Factorys are plenty good imho. Not sure why everyone dumps on factory IR's.
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Well I think too much option will kill you !!, simple is better but I can't beat my curiosity, everybody keep swearing about IR so I'd like to give it a try :)
 
There is no one size fits all with IR's. You just need to try them and find one that works for you. Also, dont get caught up with the brand names, I have used Fender IR's with Marshall amps, and the other way around. Download some patches and figure out how other guys have mixed and matched IR's
 
The AX8 Factory IR's are just fantastic & seem to be the best of the best of the best (sir)! They cover EVERYTHING you'll ever need & more in my eyes, but I do understand the desire to buy & try others.

Great IR's are a HUGE factor in getting the final tones you're looking for. I would say that it's at least 40% of the end tone if I had to put a number on it.

I love the following STOCK IR's, but all for different types of tones & reasons.

Factory 124: 4x12 5153 MIX #1
Factory 146: 4x12 MAR-CB H-PR-55 MIX (OH)

The 2x12 Boutique Factory cab is also just great as well.

Purchased Own Hammer IR's:

I love the Bogner & Mesa 4x12 cabs that they offer & find that these are all I need for most Modern Rock tones.

Own Hammer: OH 412 BOG-ST T75 MDRN-04
Own Hammer: OH JY-MES-412 BL 57B4+121

The purchased Fremen Preset pack comes with some frickin STELLAR IR's & I have no idea where they actually come from.

I'm really hooked on these right now & can't believe how well they sit in the mix.

Fremen IR's:

Egnater MTS 4x12 - Killer scooped mids & seems set-up for Heavy Metal
Bogner Helious 4x12 - Clear, Big & lots of mids - Great for leads
Marshall JS410 4x12 cabinet - This is my new favorite & that might be because the AX8's JS410 Orange & Red channels are my favorite high gain amp models.

Between the great Factory IR's, the Own Hammer Mesa & Bogner cabs.....& now this great list of Fremen cabs......Well....I'm more then all set. I'll never use all of them & will just keep working w/ a small handful of the ones that are getting me the tones I want & need.

Good luck & Peace! X
 
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In my opinion, the factory IR's is what separates Fractal products from others. Helix and Amplifire have good core amp tone but the IR's are less than desirable. The Basketweave TV, G12H and G12M cabs are killer offerings, as well as the 5153 cabs. I also use the stock Bogner cabs a lot, they sound great. In short, when I had the Helix and AF, I was constantly searching for IR's, with the AX8, the IR's are good enough that I don't stray far.
 
I would say that everything essential is in the factory cabs. IR packs add flavor, and you need to figure out which flavors you want/need. I am going to buy just about everything in the cabir.eu store along with an AC30 cab from Ownhammer.

I like my British flavored amps and cabs
 
Factory Cab 55- 4x12 PRE-ROLA 75 M160 (ML) — Based on a 4x12 Marshall 1960 cab with G12M 75Hz greenbacks, UltraRes.

That is the one I have been using on almost all my patches with Bogner Shiva Clean, Friedman BE and HBE, CAE3 Clean, and the AC-20. They all sound great to me.
 
Then you factor in how you're monitoring….. In-ears, floor wedge, recording, or actual guitar cab…then options get even more scientific. I to use the factory cabs. Strap on a lab coat :p
 
The beauty of IRs is variety. You can load in a few hundred that are all in the same vein (e.g. 4x12s) and just scroll through tons of usable tones.
 
Thanks guys for all suggestion and input, much appreciated, I purchase Fremen pack as well, killer, and sound good at rehearsal volume so far.

Also thanks for saving me $$, stop search for IR and using what I have for now

any other factory cab suggestion would be appreciated, still learn this black box
 
Speaking of Ir's. I haven't downloaded CabLab yet but I was planning on doing so so I would be able to create custom cab mixes.

So a question of mine would be by doing so would I be conserving on CPU power by having a custom mix cab IR versus using the stereo cab feature of the AX8. I would think so but has anyone gone that route and had success?

Plus with CabLab I believe you could mix more than just two cabs together to get a custom mix.
 
Dan Hill said:
Speaking of Ir's. I haven't downloaded CabLab yet but I was planning on doing so so I would be able to create custom cab mixes.

So a question of mine would be by doing so would I be conserving on CPU power by having a custom mix cab IR versus using the stereo cab feature of the AX8. I would think so but has anyone gone that route and had success?

Plus with CabLab I believe you could mix more than just two cabs together to get a custom mix.
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yes you'd save cpu since you'd be using one IR instead of two...especially if you use Ultra-res.
 
fwiw, i believe cab packs are the huge difference makers. sure there are good factory ir's, but you are limited by what's offered, no way to choose mics, mic position, etc. It opens up a whole new world...not to mention that, for my ears, there are some tones that just aren't covered that well by the factory IR's.

I know the people who shoot down any notion of needing other IR's have found their favs in the factory offerings and don't need anything else as far as they are concerned, but there's a whole world out there, and the companies that make them couldn't stay in business if there wasn't a demand/need for them.

Could i get by with factory? sure....but I'm much closer to my ideal tones with 3rd party. ymmv
 
metallica86 said:
Thanks guys for all suggestion and input, much appreciated, I purchase Fremen pack as well, killer, and sound good at rehearsal volume so far.

Also thanks for saving me $$, stop search for IR and using what I have for now

any other factory cab suggestion would be appreciated, still learn this black box
Click to expand...

147 is my #1.
 
this demo by Lance Keltner looks like it would be a good one to have.
At $300 per speaker though, a little too much for me at this time.

 
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