Narzugon
Power User
Disclaimer: As you will hear I don't play slide. You will also hear that I don't know the intro to the Bonamassa song that I was butchering. But I was looking for fat Marshallesque riffs and ran across that song. I spent 5 minutes with it and recorded it. Great riff and fun to play even if I was playing it wrong. Oh, and this is meant to be played loud. Very loud. If not the track, the preset if you choose to create it. \m/
I wanted to share some basic concepts with those who haven't tried mixing IR's or those who have problems getting basic tones. There is no right or wrong way but this is how I approach it. I hope it helps someone. I encourage posting you're own ideas/concepts, micing techniques and mix recipes.
Ideas for basic tweaking:
1: Treat the virtual gear as real world gear. When you plug into a real amp you usually tweak the knobs on the front panel. Do the same in the Axe. Start with the amp's basic controls. Most people don't take the amp apart and start changing things. So don't feel that you should with the virtual amp. If the amp isn't getting it for you at this point you probably need to choose a different amp or different cab. There are plenty so don't feel guilty. It could also be that you don't have real world experience with the amp you're going for. Therefore you may have unrealistic expectations. Don't sweat it. If the basic controls aren't getting it, move on.
2: Start simple and try to keep it as simple as you can. Start with amp type that interests you then choose it's best matched cab. IE: The cab type it may have been paired with by the manufacture. Dial in the amp using just the basic controls. 15 minutes tops.
3: Once you're feeling good or at least in the ball park it's time to pick the IR(s) that you're going to use. I can't stress this enough. Do some homework and get familiar with basic mics and micing techniques for your style of music. Treat these IR's as real world mics. By having at least a little bit of knowledge in this area allows you to:
A: Choose a cab type without auditioning 100's.
B: Choose a mic that you like without auditioning 100's.
C: Choose a few mic positions to audition without auditioning 100's.
D: Choose a second or third mic IR with an idea of how they will blend with the first mic without auditioning 100's.
4: If I'm happy with my results at this point I would consider this my foundation. My "amp in the room". I can take my "amp in the room" anywhere now and adapt it. Like a real amp, if I were to record with it I would probably need to do some pre or post EQ to make it fit in that particular mix. The same for a live situation. If so add the appropriate EQ where needed on the grid. You don't need to open your amp and start soldering.
On to the amp and cab in my preset. This is not the greatest Marshall tone ever but I like it and I didn't have to over think anything to get it. It was actually pretty easy. My goal was to create a raw Marshall tone that I would want to play loud. \m/
I chose a Jumpered Plexi 100 watt head to work with. For vintage Marshalls the stock TV cab is my pick for a match. So I put those two on the grid and draw my connections across the grid.
I do basic front panel tweaks to the amp at this point just as I would on a real amp. From years of experience with old Marshalls I usually turn everything to 11 \m/ and then adjust to taste. Less low end if it gets woofy or less highs/pres if it gets too ice picky. In this case I wanted to start w/o the Bright Switch engaged.
As I work the EQ to taste I'm also working the amount of drive or distortion (Treble Drive and Normal Drive) IF I need to. The input trim is handy if you can't get the preamp gain where you want it. You could also use it to compensate for stronger or weaker pickups. It's similar to the Boost switch but obviously allows you to dial the amount up or down. Experiment.
The more Master Volume you add the more it will compress the highs and lows which will pump the mids. I generally do not like a lot of compression so I will usually back off of the MV to open up the sound a bit. Personal preference. Experiment. Find the MV setting where it starts compressing to see if you like it. Once you find that play with the amount of gain. More or less. See how the amp sounds and feels.
One last thing that I like to change on most of the vintage Marshall models is the MV location to Post-PI (Amp block > Power page). I could copy and paste the rocket science info on it but I don't fully understand it. However, I can hear the difference!
Now that I'm happy with the amp's sound using a temporary cab, I'm ready to mix my own. I want to use the new UR version of the TV cab from Fractal's new Cab Pack 5. Here's where real world knowledge of mics and techniques come in. There are an astronomical amount of IR's available. So just flipping through them is an insane waste of time. Take 30 minutes and google some mics and how they're used. Look up who produced your favorite music and then Google tips and techniques they've used. A little goes a long way.
Generally speaking, a real world micing technique is auditioning a mic at different locations on and away from the speaker until you find the spot you like. If you're starting from scratch you may want to start at the center of the speaker (the cap) and audition. Move the mic a little or a lot depending on how methodical you want to be and audition.
Some IR collections will give you a lot of positions for each mic. Such as Cap, Cap Edge, Cone, Cone Edge, Cap 1", Cap Edge 1", Off Axis, etc. Some collections may only include what they consider to be the best mics and positions. Cap positions are generally brighter while cone positions get darker.
With "simple" in mind I chose the SM57. Probably one of the most used mics in live and recording. When placed around the cap it gives a raspiness to the top end that I like. Since I know I'm wanting a Cap position I load just the SM57 Cap IR's. Cap, Cap Edge and Cap Edge B. I audition those and prefer the "Cap" position. So I load it into my cab and turn the Mic type to "None". I normally add a bit of Motor Drive as well. It emulates a speaker being driven but I forgot to add a little here. Note to self.
By itself my single cab is pretty trebly. But I also want to add Room IR's which I know will add some low end. So I load up the TV cab ambient IR's and auditioned. 121Back, Room C, Room L and Room R. I really liked the 121Back IR but I didn't care for the others. So I tried other Basketweave Room Mic IR's from other collections. I settled on The Amp Factory's Left Room Mic from thier "Legends" collection.
I added a second cab to the grid and made it a stereo cab. I load the 121Back and the Left Room IR's and turn the Mic type to None. By turning the mic type to None you are turning Mic emulation off as well as any mic related controls such as Proximity.
Time to mix these and make final adjustments if needed. My idea for this preset is to attempt to capture the essence of a Marshall being played loudly in a room. By default things are panned to noon. I leave the 57 there and hard pan the 121Back and Room_L opposite each other. Audition and tweak the levels.
The idea is again real world. I have a Marshall in the middle of a room being played. While I have the 57 panned center I have the Back and other room mic panned wide to create the space of that room. The low end of the back mic and the other freq's of the room combine with the speakers to give a whole sound. Much like a real cab in a room does.
A fun thing to try at this point is delay one or more cabinets (Cabinet page - Delay). It can really widen the sound. I like delaying just one of the ambient mics to create an even wider space.
At this point I have my "Amp in the Room" that I can adapt to other situations.
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There are a few ways to load, audition and mix IR's. But since I basically knew what I wanted I just loaded x number of IR's at a time via Axe Edit and auditioned there. I also loaded a mono cab and a stereo cab because I had a good idea of what I wanted. In this case mixing the room mics along with the 57 into a single IR wouldn't achieve the same effect as using the two cab blocks since you can't "pan" IR's in Cablab.
While listening to that Bonamassa track I noticed how dark his tone was. If I was going for that tone and I knew he recorded it with a similar Marshall and cab I could try using EQ's or I could try using different mic IR's. In some cases a darker mic is all you need.
Experiment. Remove the room mics but keep the 57 in place. Try blending a darker mic on a different position of the speaker. If you find something you like, mix those in Cablab and replace the 57 IR with it. If you like the room mic load them back into a stereo cab block. A lot of famous guitar tracks are done with anything from single mics to multiple mic's.
A classic combo is a 57 and a 121 or U87. A fun thing a buddy turned me on to is a single 121 dead on the cap. Add a wide bell EQ and boost 5k to 7k to taste.
My approach has always been use real world concepts, techniques and logic when you can. But keep in mind that the Axe allows us to go beyond real world boundaries.
The more experience you have with the real world counterparts (amps-cabs-mics-recording-live) the easier the Axe is IMO. The bulk of my experience is in live performance. I'm just now digging into recording techniques and mics which I find really practical with the Axe.
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For the Bonamassa part I used an Epiphone LP copy with a Bare Knuckles Nail Bomb pickup. A bit hotter than my other PAF style PUPs but for that tune it pushed the front of the amp just a tad bit more which sounded good to me. Everything after that was a Suhr Custom Classic strat with a DSV+ bridge and the ML Classic single coils.
The beginning of each section is recorded w/o reverb. I like hearing the raw amp and cab w/o effects first. I then added verb just for ear candy. Turn it up. It's meant for loud play. \m/
