Fractal IRs

[FractalAudio]

Hmm, I thought I had read a post from Cliff that stated that one of the things that made the IR and the amp respond the best together was to adjust the speaker resonance in the amp section to match the speaker type. Perhaps someone else wrote and I mistakenly attributed to Cliff. Certainly don't want to undertake an exercise in futility....lord knows I have plenty of this as it is!

Yes, I said that, but it's still nitpicking.

 

[666was999]

I agree. However I have had every POD ever made, an Ultra a II and a Kemper. By far the "presets" on the Kemper were most usable out of the box. Sure we all have different gutars etc. However on the kemper there are profiles that guys dialed in on a 335 that sound fine on a strat and tele profiles that sound great on a gretsch. I don't think they did any rocket science. People naturally profile an amp with an appropriate cab, and the amp close to some sort of "sweet spot". The Axe has grown the "sweet spot" greatly in the past several months.

I think Fractal can easily make the Axe more accessible to non tweakmeisters, but Kemper would have a harder time making the Kemper appeal to the guys that love getting "under the hood".

Again if Fractal does that. They win.

I wouldn't say that my patches are limited to some special guitars. I own many different kinds of guitars and they all sound good with my patches. Sure the sound changes, but it will not turn from a good sound into crap.
There is no such limitation of the axe-fx to me. If someones patches are limited to certain guitars it's in the patches, not in the firmware or hardware. Imho.

 

[Rex]

On virtual mic placement: don't Proximity and Mic Spacing cover this?

Only part of it. They don't address horizontal adjustments (from the center of the dust cap to the edge of the cone).

 

[boleary2]

....uhhh....ok...:? I have not spent any time delving into this concept and associated parameters. I was just thinking while reading this discussion and remembering your statement that I should, and if I found anything useful, to share with those interested. I'll admit since I started using 9 I don't feel much want to dig deep. I'm pretty satisfied as is, but I am curious about your recent statements concerning the importance of the IR to the equation and am looking forward to the developments throughout this next year in the IR category. Didn't mean to nitpick, just want to maximize my ability to dial in the axe. I'm excited to turn more engineers/producers/players on to this machine this year.

Yes, I said that, but it's still nitpicking.

 

[cobbler]

 

[barhrecords]

I agree with the win/win of an easy way to get a particular amp type + killer IR going.

It would just be a feature like anything else, use it or not. It doesn't take away from anybody. But it would showcase the killer amp models in a simple and elegant way.

Richard

 

[Muzick]

Will the new IR's actually be an "improvement" over the current ones? If so, how? Or will they be a different flavor?

 

[Stratoblaster]

Encouraging IR capture and sharing those IRs was a goal of mine but, alas, the community hasn't done much in that regard..

I think the reason community based IR's hasn't taken off is because it's really quite hard to get a great sounding IR ....

I would agree...getting a good IR is tough. I spent the afternoon a couple of days ago shooting close mic'ed IR's of my cab but just couldn't get one that didn't sound 'distant' and thin as compared to many others I've tried. I just don't have the proper space and/or mics to get even a decent one that I'd use I think. I've done a few trails shooting IR's over the last few months and just haven't been happy with them.

I'm going to make it a goal to find time to sample many cabs in a couple of studios here and know a few guys who could help me out. They have top mics/outboard gear, etc. and a lot of cabs hanging around and are knowledgeable guys so I suspect we could get some good captures. It would be a fun project...

I also like to use an IR that is neutral/balanced, and when I'm going thru cabs to find one to use I reset the AMP block so that a given IR sounds 'right' with the controls at defaults and make adjustments from there.

 

[Dramelot]

The factory IRs were hand-selected by me after auditioning thousands of OH and RW and other IRs. Some of the IRs are custom mixes of mine. My rule-of-thumb was to select as neutral sounding IRs as possible.

Ah I guess thats why I like em!!

 

[rickgk]

I agree. However I have had every POD ever made, an Ultra a II and a Kemper. By far the "presets" on the Kemper were most usable out of the box.

I think the thing here is that the kemper people got a lot of studio engineers and studio session players involved in the capture/preset process, people with vast studio experience and well honed ears.

Looks like fractal have started to do similar with the Santiago ir's.

I would like to see it taken further with maybe studio engineer/session performer/artist preset packs.

 

[andyG]

Best Gift for new year!!!

 

[skintone1]

One of my primary goals for next year is to build up a library of pro-quality IRs. We are reserving studio time to capture as many cabs as we can. This will include classic amps (i.e Fender Champ) as well as separate cabinets.

I can't overemphasize the importance of IRs. The amp modeling is down to the point that it is so close to the real amps that it doesn't matter anymore. It's all about the IR.

The Axe-Fx II was designed with a lot of extra storage space for factory IRs and I would like to take advantage of that soon.

This is truly music to my ears 8)
I have been singing the praises of the amp modeling abilities of the axe Fx to all my musician friends for so long. To have a huge range of IRs to add to the mix is just perfect.
Bravo Cliff.
The Axe Fx is truly the future of guitar processing

 

[setzinger]

Thinking about ...

Would it be possible do model CAB-IRs by software?

Or to make a "software Uber-Cab-IR"?

Without having a real cab and a real mic in the process.

What do you think - or know?

 

[barhrecords]

I would agree...getting a good IR is tough. I spent the afternoon a couple of days ago shooting close mic'ed IR's of my cab but just couldn't get one that didn't sound 'distant' and thin as compared to many others I've tried. I just don't have the proper space and/or mics to get even a decent one that I'd use I think. I've done a few trails shooting IR's over the last few months and just haven't been happy with them.

I'm going to make it a goal to find time to sample many cabs in a couple of studios here and know a few guys who could help me out. They have top mics/outboard gear, etc. and a lot of cabs hanging around and are knowledgeable guys so I suspect we could get some good captures. It would be a fun project...

I also like to use an IR that is neutral/balanced, and when I'm going thru cabs to find one to use I reset the AMP block so that a given IR sounds 'right' with the controls at defaults and make adjustments from there.

I agree about the challenges to get professional results from IR capture.

It kind of makes sense though, some of the AxeFx users would be folks that don't want to or don't have the skill / gear to mic up cabs and get stellar tone. That would be one reason to buy and use the AxeFx in the first place. Those folks would not be shooting their own IRs.

And ironically, Kevin at Ownhammer doesn't currently own an AxeFx but is creating some of the best IR's yet.

Richard

 

[kev]

This is very good news to me.
I bought into the OH kickstarter cabs but after trying and trying to get them to sound right to me live with anything other than a clean amp, I went back to the factory IR's and prefer them much better for live use. The OH's get used on tracks in my DAW because they are eq'd pretty well for that but are too bright and have a comb-filter sound to me when used with any of the Marshall type amps, which I prefer, live. Just my preference and not putting down the product at all.

Love all the options and choices...bring'em on.