Axe Fx cabinet IR versus Mesa Cab Clone

Tremonti

Tremonti

Fractal Fanatic
While I do know that the IR's is way to go for all you FRFR peeps....I use a real power amp and cabinet and found the process a little daunting to balance my stage sound with FOH with choosing between a billion IR's and all their parameters. In addition I couldn't find one IR that sounded good on all 50 patches.

Enter the Mesa Cab Clone. Got used for $200 and couldn't be happier. Simple and sounds great. While yes it limits the sound possibilities, it gives me a great sound across all patches and is simple to use. Reviews I saw online were horrible for it though! Definitely glad I gave it a go.
 
Well, doesn't the Cab clone use an IR to make it's tone? So, it's pretty much the same thing, just that you have more hardware. And you don't need it. You could just capture the IR of your cab clone if you like it so much, then sell the cab clone and the amp...
I've heard a comparison between a real mesa cab and cab clone and it did not sound anywhere near as good... If you can't find an IR you like, maybe the best idea is to borrow a real mesa cab and capture your own IR, which you would.
 
Cab clone is just an eq based emulation. Had it built into my V25 and sounded decent, but still like a cab sim, just like a redbox etc. Some people do find that the tone it produces suits their taste, just like Palmer users etc

If it works for you, well and good, but you could easily capture an IR that does the exact same thing, and get the same tone without needing the extra hardware.

An IR of a cab sim is even easier than an iR of a real cabinet since it's more static

There are some Palmer and redbox irs floating around, might want to check those out too, could sound great to your liking
 
Tremonti said:
While I do know that the IR's is way to go for all you FRFR peeps....I use a real power amp and cabinet and found the process a little daunting to balance my stage sound with FOH with choosing between a billion IR's and all their parameters. In addition I couldn't find one IR that sounded good on all 50 patches.

Enter the Mesa Cab Clone. Got used for $200 and couldn't be happier. Simple and sounds great. While yes it limits the sound possibilities, it gives me a great sound across all patches and is simple to use. Reviews I saw online were horrible for it though! Definitely glad I gave it a go.
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I think it does simplify creating patches, especially in my setup (4CM). The results of the axe's IR's seem to produce a better result when run to the sound man, but the cab clone does an adequate job. Recording something? Just use the Axe...

Mesa Rig.jpg
 
Tremonti said:
Enter the Mesa Cab Clone. Got used for $200 and couldn't be happier. Simple and sounds great. While yes it limits the sound possibilities, it gives me a great sound across all patches and is simple to use. Reviews I saw online were horrible for it though! Definitely glad I gave it a go.
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De Gustibus non est disputandum. Personally I prefer other hardwares, like ADA Ampulator. Cab Clone sounds to me like a plastic toy. I agree with FreeMind:

FreeMind said:
Well, doesn't the Cab clone use an IR to make it's tone? So, it's pretty much the same thing, just that you have more hardware. And you don't need it. You could just capture the IR of your cab clone if you like it so much, then sell the cab clone and the amp...
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You can capture the sound and have less hardware.
 
Remember too that even though there can be 10.000 IR's, you don't have to use all of them. I honestly have 2 or 3 IR's I use for every patch, just like I used to own just a couple of hardware cabs back in the day

Set-up one global cab and call it a day. Heck, set up one global cab that is a capture of the Cab Clone and call it a week
 
FractalAudio said:
1. Shoot an IR of the Cab Clone and use that.
2. ??????
3. Profit (sell Cab Clone).
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I was just about to post this. Actually I'm contemplating buying a Cab Clone, shooting IRs and then selling/returning it.

@OP
Can you shoot IRs of the Cab Clone and sent them to me? Should be quiet easy as no mic'ing is needed.
 
I've used the Palmer IR's that are posted somewhere on the forum. They are also just an EQ curve.

Since the addition of the Dephase parameter, they have been less needed for me.
 
wcfieldskx said:
I wouldn't pay too much attention to anything he says. Isn't he the one that trashed the Axe-Fx II also?
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Yeah, he was. I personally wouldn't listen to what that guy says. Even Rob Chapman gave it a piss poor review. Then in a latter video, a Mesa rep showed up to do a video showing them how they used it "wrong". It still sounded like ass. :D
 
B:ASSMASTER said:
Yeah, he was. I personally wouldn't listen to what that guy says. Even Rob Chapman gave it a piss poor review. Then in a latter video, a Mesa rep showed up to do a video showing them how they used it "wrong". It still sounded like ass. :D
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Agreed...but even the Mesa rep guy there didn't sound like what mine does in real life. Not sure what happened, but most of the reviews sounded horrible. Regardless....think I'll sell and try 1 or 2 IR's and call it a day. I know....I'm fickle....but isn't that why we have an Axe Fx II!
 
Can someone point me to some stock cabs that are great for Fender, Vox, Marshall and Mesa tones? Just bought the Misha Bulb pack and wondering what stock cabs are great, plus any packs I should buy in addition?
 
I owned a cab clone for a VERY short period of time. Glad to hear it's working out for you. My experience was unfortunately much different. The unit sounded like garbage for me, which was confusing because in Mesa's Video it sounded pretty good. I tried just about every method possible of running it, and no matter what I did it sounded horrible.
Glad to see it's working for some people, because I really wanted to like the product. I was able to get much better results with my Rivera Rockcrusher and IR's in my DAW.
 
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