DynaCab vs. legacy IR shootout

Which cab setting do you prefer

  • I prefer scenes 1&3

    Votes: 28 93.3%

  • I prefer scenes 2&4

    Votes: 2 6.7%
  • Total voters
    30
App12 said:
People hate these blind tests because they can’t confirm their bias and what if they are wrong? So they will find some sort of fault with the methodology or the signal chain or it is too loud, too soft, must be solo / must be in a mix etc.
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Unless the two being tested remove every variable except for only the things being tested, then the test is invalid. Where there are two or more variables and only one is supposed to be compared, there is no way to determine what affect the others had. That uncertainty is what many of us don't like.
 
Smittefar said:
If you really made identical setups, the resulting IRs would be identical except for the legacy IR being longer - and yes, I think longer sounds noticably better
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Folks seem to gloss over the auto assigned IC sub feature of Dynacab in these type discussions - the tonal impact of IC on IRs is huge (since the day ICs were introduced some time ago). To compare two IR captures in complete isolation I think the IC has to be set the same in both samples.
 
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App12 said:
People hate these blind tests because they can’t confirm their bias and what if they are wrong? So they will find some sort of fault with the methodology or the signal chain or it is too loud, too soft, must be solo / must be in a mix etc. I prefer 1&3 and suspect they are the legacy.
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Nahh, this guy gets it.....it's cause we're all biased! laugh.gif
 
Personally I think the huge plus with Dynacabs is not the individual IR sounds but the extraordinary ease of use. Pick a cab, move the mic around until it does what you want and done. The minus side is you don't benefit from a pro producer's judgement of what is the "sweet spot", but you get to make your own sweet spot - and it might not be the same as the aforementioned producer's choice.

Whenever I bought a 3rd party IR, I always load the "ready mixes" because I guess I'm too lazy to scan through hundreds of IRs. With Dynacab I can scan through 100s of IRs just by sweeping the mic through positions.

That being said, a "shootout" like this is - no offense meant - useless. I might've set the mic(s) in different positions, at different distances, and with a different blend, and the result might've been quite different.

Just use your ears and use the tool you want to make good music. The rest ... whatever.
 
Soon we will all have both new DynaCabs and existing IRs available for our use. I am looking at the release of DynaCabs as an expansion of the tone pallet we have available to us. The question isn’t do DynaCabs sound better or worse tha existing IRs because they aren’t mutually exclusive…in any preset we can use either or both. So, we now have more choices when designing our presets…not less. Each of us will decide what sounds best to us in our presets. What I find “perfect” others most likely will not…just like when we use existing IRs currently.
 
Patzag said:
Personally I think the huge plus with Dynacabs is not the individual IR sounds but the extraordinary ease of use. Pick a cab, move the mic around until it does what you want and done. The minus side is you don't benefit from a pro producer's judgement of what is the "sweet spot", but you get to make your own sweet spot - and it might not be the same as the aforementioned producer's choice.

Whenever I bought a 3rd party IR, I always load the "ready mixes" because I guess I'm too lazy to scan through hundreds of IRs. With Dynacab I can scan through 100s of IRs just by sweeping the mic through positions.

That being said, a "shootout" like this is - no offense meant - useless. I might've set the mic(s) in different positions, at different distances, and with a different blend, and the result might've been quite different.

Just use your ears and use the tool you want to make good music. The rest ... whatever.
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Agreed.

When listening to presets using the Legacy IRs prior to testing with the Dyna-Cabs, I've been impressed by the sound of the regular "old" IRs. They sound really good still. Finding a sound I like with the Dyna-Cabs is easier, and in a couple instances I ended up with a sound I liked a lot more, but I can't say that I couldn't have gotten there by searching through my 3rd party IRs or the factory ones more than I did. When building the sound with the Legacy IRs I was in a "good enough" mode, and I'm more inclined to explore with the Dyna-Cabs; there's no guarantee the result is better, but getting there was faster and easier.
 
Legacy IRs still sound fantastic, Dyna Cabs sound fantastic as well. Some users prefer Legacy IRs, some prefer the Dyna Cabs and still others don't really have preference. At the end of the day, what works for you and provides the tones you want is all that matters.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
Unless the two being tested remove every variable except for only the things being tested, then the test is invalid. Where there are two or more variables and only one is supposed to be compared, there is no way to determine what affect the others had. That uncertainty is what many of us don't like. - which ones do you like? Then vote. Or move on.
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Aren’t you one of the big use your ears proponents? If so, use them and vote or move on. It is not like he is doing a scientific study here, just getting people’s opinions with in informal poll on which sounds best to them.
 
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App12 said:
t is not like he is doing a scientific study here, just getting people’s opinions with in informal poll on which sounds best to them
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which what?: speaker?, mic?, IC?, pre?, mic placement? Any of these could sound different between the samples - to any ears.

tests need to be at least somewhat scientific. Less rigor / too many untracked moving variables = less meaningful results - just the way it is
 
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The first thing I did with dynacab is compare to TV Mix 7, which has been my anti-IR-choice-anxiety security blanket since it came out. I was amazed how easy it was to get close in just a few minutes. I got it so that I could switch and not really notice much difference.

But then - the freedom to tweak it and make it my own! That's the glorious thing about DC to me. Objectively, does it sound 'better'? I dunno, possibly. But I feel like that's not the whole point.
 
App12 said:
Aren’t you one of the big use your ears proponents? If so, use them and vote or move on. It is not like he is doing a scientific study here, just getting people’s opinions with in informal poll on which sounds best to them.
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I am one of many who says use our ears, including Fractal. But, that has nothing to do with a “which is better” poll.

If we are TRULY trying to weigh “which is better”, which a two entry poll implies, then it needs to be a much more rigorous test.

Again, reduce the variables to those two things. If they are not the only two variables, then exactly WHAT is it that was liked more when using our ears? What sounded best to those who voted a particular way? Why did it? If they can’t say, especially because it wasn’t defined, then what was learned and what use was it?

Opinions are wonderful when trying to determine something that is tightly defined, such as one thing vs. another, but when multiple things are affecting the result then opinions are meaningless because nothing can be determined as a significant influence without a lot more investigation.

Suggestions were made that would help equalize the comparison and reduce the variability. Those should be incorporated.
 
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sprint said:
Folks seem to gloss over the auto assigned IC sub feature of Dynacab in these type discussions
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I was pretty sure, I used the same IC, but the auto impedance thing got the better of me. They are different, but only ever so slightly.

I must say, I think, it is weird behavior that it switches back and forth when I switch between legacy and DC channels in the cab block - I think, it makes sense that it switches the first time i choose a DynaCab. Anyway, the difference is this
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Listening again this morning, I still prefer clip one (scene 3) over clip two (scene 4), although when I jump back and forth, the difference is smaller.

Between clips 3&4 the difference is much less apparent in the frequency spectrum, but I think there is a bit more depth and dimensionality in clip 3 vs. clip 4 - This makes me guess clip 3 is the Legacy IR. (I did have to put on mastering grade headphones (Ollo S5X) and go back and forth many times to hear this difference)

And now for the reveal (also to myself): It turns out 1&3 is LT TV Mix 7, and 2&4 is the DynaCab
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To me, this means that in this attempt, I did not succeed in blending my dynamic and ribbon as well as Leon did, when he made his IR. It does not mean that DynaCab sounds worse in any way (also it is a different cab, and the ribbon might not even be the same model).
It also means, I still hear the added benefit of longer IRs.
If I did not have any IR packs already, DynaCab would definitely be my go-to over the factory cabs. It really is quite easy - even fun - to get in the ballpark. But I have bought many 3rd party IR packs, and when York Audio says "This one sounds good", I tend to trust him more than myself :)
 
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