FREE - Fractal Mic Sim IRs from the Axe-Fx II Cab block

@Moke : noticed a 6dB volume drop when using your IRs in the IR player put aftert he normal cab block, is it normal ?
Also noticed a lot of bass loss, i don't remember the AxeFx II mic sims lost such amount of bass
You are right. I forgot to mention that the Tone Match process that I used results in the IR being 5 to 6 dB quieter than most IRs. As for the loss of low-end, not sure about that? I was very careful to capture them correctly? I will re-examine my process and results. I usually added some proximity when I was using them in the Axe-Fx II. Try adding some in the Cab block?
 
You are right. I forgot to mention that the Tone Match process that I used results in the IR being 5 to 6 dB quieter than most IRs. As for the loss of low-end, not sure about that? I was very careful to capture them correctly? I will re-examine my process and results. I usually added some proximity when I was using them in the Axe-Fx II. Try adding some in the Cab block?
Yes could be that, thumbs up :)
It would be great if the 6dB difference could be avoided
 
Well done sir, missed that feature a lot. Just wondering was the M160 mic in there before on the Axe FX II XL+? Thought it was but I could be wrong and I recently sold my IIXL+ so I cant look and see. It's not listed on the wiki's list of mics.
 
I like the contributing effort Moke!

I was one of those people who was happy to see this feature gone. The reason is that it's misleading and not authentic like everything else on this unit. I wouldn't resist it if these presets existed under some other names than microphone names so they don't give people the wrong idea. At some point I used to get the occasional question:

"Can't I just use one of your IR's and then use the mic type function on the Axe-Fx to get all the rest of the mics?"

Yes that has happened a couple of times. :eek:
 
Thing is, I dont see what is really misleading about it. In the real world, I could in fact, mic my CLR up with any microphone I wish.
Has someone actually miked up a CLR? Why would anyone ever do that? You get the best possible signal straight out of the Axe-Fx.

Anyways I think it's very misleading.

Some users don't understand what an IR is but instead they see a cab name like an amp name in the amp block and then change the mic type thinking it's a realistic mic up of that cabinet which it most definitely is not. Then they judge whether the Axe-Fx is a realistic sounding modeler using those functions which in my opinion leads to the whole unit sounding like something else than real tube rigs. This is not an opinion but a fact.

The thing with microphones and capturing sounds with them that gets overlooked is that you can not have a microphone without a microphone position. So if you have a virtual mic option like this, where is the microphone placed? If you've ever miked a cab you'll know that one inch of movement on a microphone can be as big a difference as having your presence knob at 0 or at 10.

Even if the virtual mic would work realistically, you would be stuck with all the mics being placed in the same position in front of a speaker which is something that you never do with real mics. All the mics work differently and that's the point of using different mics.
 
Has someone actually miked up a CLR? Why would anyone ever do that?
Me actually, the results are great. I often bring the signal back to my DAW and blend it. I urge you to try it. Take some samples and then do a blind fold test, to see which amp/cab/mic sounds best... The truth is... Its all subjective. And one amp might like it, the other might not. If you start with the tiny voltage which comes from a guitar pickup, and then end with the actual sound waves which hit your ear drum. the amount of filters eq's, wave shapers, rectifiers etc, it is mind boggling... But it sounds great!

Another twist, is the actual microphone used to capture the IR in the first place.... Who is to say my SM58 sounds exactly like yours?? (or any other commercial IR company) In fact I bet it doesn't... How many hours has yours got on it? what cable did you use, how long was the cable? etc etc... Point being if you lined up 5 IR companies and said go get one of these cabs, one of these microphones and shoot it exactly like this. The results will differ. And that is what is great about these mic sims, you can get many different voices from the same cab..And there is absolutely nothing but positives to take from that..., Unless you sell IR's for a living... I'm honestly not meaning to sound derogatory in any way, I have quite a few of your IR's and enjoy them, but this microphone sim offering from Moke, has nothing but positives for me.
 
I'm wondering if these can somehow be used to substract the mic response from a signal, i.e. by inversion.
Not reliably. The mic response is heavily influenced by how the mic is positioned with respect to the speaker. It’d be a real coincidence if the mic you’re trying to cancel was captured using the same mc position as the IR.
 
Given the lack of knowledge with regard to how IR’s are captured, what an IR is and isn’t, and how mic’ing a cabinet works, I can certainly understand how these became very problematic and misused.

I think these should really be thought of as fixed EQ curves, as a mic’d cab has variables in axis, position etc.

Instead of calling them mic xyz I think it would be more appropriate to call them like “2 kHz 1.5dB boost”, if that is essentially what is happening when you select a specific one.
 
Instead of calling them mic xyz I think it would be more appropriate to call them like “2 kHz 1.5dB boost”, if that is essentially what is happening when you select a specific one.
Or more like “2 KHz 1.5 dB boost with notches at 3 and 6 KHz and a comb filter spread across the mids and highs on top of a broad 120 Hz hump.” :)
 
Or... just not use them because there are far better tools for making better sounds in the unit. The Axe-Fx III has f.ex. 100 ML IR's now and I believe a similar amount of IR's from other producers as well. I'm asking why? WHYYYYYY would you use these? :D
 
Or... just not use them because there are far better tools for making better sounds in the unit. The Axe-Fx III has f.ex. 100 ML IR's now and I believe a similar amount of IR's from other producers as well. I'm asking why? WHYYYYYY would you use these? :D


I certainly admit to using them ages ago, like Axe II firmware 5 era. There was limited IR’s back then, and if you wanted a little more “sizzle” for example, you could dip through the mic sims and find one that had that little boost. Other ways to change the tone back then too, but it was an effective go to. I think Misha actually used the sm57 mic sim on some old patches ?

The new IR player blocks would be great for this, but there are generally so many great IRs I usually find something that works for me, with no extra stuff needed, and there are plenty of ways to shape tone a bit too.

Truth be told, these days I feel like the amps are so good they really require next to nothing, same with the cabs. We’ve got a ton of power and options but darn if some stuff, Friedman c45 for example, that you don’t need to touch anything, just sounds great as is.

I think some of us are used to having to adjust all that advanced parameters to really make the tone shine, and that used to be true, but these days it’s almost less is more
 
I tried an experiment with Jay Mitchell's farfield 412 IR and these sysex files!

AxeFx III w/ Skull Crusher amp into Jay Mitchell's 412 IR into the Mic IR's shared by Moke as sysex files
1. Raw - no Mic IR
2. 57
3. 87a
4. 57 + U87
5. 57 + 421
6. 57 +R121
 
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