Help with cabs

ModelGuitarist said:
This is a great idea. The cabs have definitely been the rabbit hole for me. So many choices, I have perpetual FOMO if I don't scrutinize every possibility.


To the OP, I've had luck tweaking the High and Low cut for the cab model. Bringing them somewhere in the 80Hz and 10kHz ranges; soften them with small Room adjustments. Mixing mics on the same cab type and blending them. It's been decent going so far. Being able to pin the IRs in the menu, and audition them on-the-fly is a great feature.

Nothing wrong with getting attached to one cab type either. Whatever works for ya.
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im enjoying the tonal differences that a new cab block can bring... guys who say stick to the one cab you like I can see where they are coming from but then the majority of the Amps just end up sounding the same...
I found a pdf with amps and their matching cabs but the amps I am interested in don’t have the matching cabs in the Axe III 😕
like many other users I go straight to to amps and effects and the cabs tend to be ignored yet, they really shape the amp tone...and admittedly i have not fully explored the cabs as I find it a little confusing. I have never used more than one cab, two at the most, but four seems a little over the top for me anyway.
it seems many prefer to use other makes of cabs rather than the ones that come with the Axe... what are you finding different?
 
andyp13 said:
it seems many prefer to use other makes of cabs rather than the ones that come with the Axe... what are you finding different?
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I seek out Weber VST cabs and the less-usual stuff. Weber has a nice variation on the Vox/Celestion Blue that really sounds great, called the 'Blue Dog'. The dog on the original labels is a portrait of Ted Weber's old hound dog. I used to have a couple in a 2x12" a long time ago. Now I have their sound available, as captured through a variety of mics by RedWirez. Same with the Blue Pup 10" - I found an Ownhammer capture of a Bogner 4x10 loaded with them. I also tend to look for "not the same old same old". I found a nice Marshall 8x10" guitar cab over on Cab.IR and a fantastic Marshall 4x12 with 20W Celestions that sounds absolutely superb - one of the few "same old same old" cabs that seemed to be a bit off the beaten track.

I am still looking for a good capture of a brown Fender Concert with the AlNiCo Jensens. Currently a ceramic Jensen cab from a Super Reverb is standing in. I'd also love to find some captures of the old piggyback cabs from the '60s. Some of the early ones were ported, and some had JBLs in them.... :)

I tend to like a mix of a 57 with a ribbon mic, either a 160 or 121, mixed in just enough to fill out the low end a little. It sits well in most mixes, and sounds great to me. Once in a while, if there is a room mic available, I will mix a little of that in as well, to help pull the sound out of the speakers and into the room....
 
To the original poster: I suggest literally going through every 4x12 cab in the Axe FXIII and color highlighting which ones sound the best to you. It will be a pain, but you'll never have to do it again, and you'll know which ones work for you.
I suggest not having any high or low cuts engaged in the Cab block when you are auditioning cabs. You can always add them if you need to.

I was able to combine some pairs of mics from Factory Bank 2 that sounded pretty good. If I was using just one cab, I liked the Legacy cabs best in the Axe FXIII. You can always add a Parametric EQ block to try and dial out what you don't like in an IR, or to dial in what you feel it's missing. You can use high cut or low cut in the cab block if you feel you need to also.
 
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andyp13 said:
I found a pdf with amps and their matching cabs but the amps I am interested in don’t have the matching cabs in the Axe III 😕
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When looking for new IRs to try, I take the same approach I did with physical speakers- research the factory speakers and what guys tend to replace them with. Cool thing about the Axe is the ability to swap speakers out with the click of a button.

Finally found the list for the amps and suggested cabs I discovered a few years ago.
 

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JoKeR III said:
When looking for new IRs to try, I take the same approach I did with physical speakers- research the factory speakers and what guys tend to replace them with. Cool thing about the Axe is the ability to swap speakers out with the click of a button.

Finally found the list for the amps and suggested cabs I discovered a few years ago.
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Thanks very much, I’ll check this out

also going to check out the York ....
 
andyp13 said:
it seems many prefer to use other makes of cabs rather than the ones that come with the Axe... what are you finding different?
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I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface with the stock IRs. I've looked around at 3rd party YA and OH, Celestion, etc, but haven't pulled the trigger. The Legacy cabs have definitely been a shortcut to some "better" sounds.

I'm new to this level of modeler, so I'm not well-schooled on the quality of IRs; why they're different/better/higher-quality. (I know they capture an image in milliseconds, and my understanding is the longer the capture, the better the quality? I haven't scrutinized which are which in that regard.)

My understanding is that all of the stock IRs are "UltraRes" (High-Quality). So not sure if, or which 3rd party IRs, up the quality game? If at all......
 
ModelGuitarist said:
I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface with the stock IRs. I've looked around at 3rd party YA and OH, Celestion, etc, but haven't pulled the trigger. The Legacy cabs have definitely been a shortcut to some "better" sounds.

I'm new to this level of modeler, so I'm not well-schooled on the quality of IRs; why they're different/better/higher-quality. (I know they capture an image in milliseconds, and my understanding is the longer the capture, the better the quality? I haven't scrutinized which are which in that regard.)

My understanding is that all of the stock IRs are "UltraRes" (High-Quality). So not sure if, or which 3rd party IRs, up the quality game? If at all......
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Many of the Legacy cabs are normal resolution rather than UltraRes. That said, 'quality' has many facets. UltraRes has high quality in the representation of the source material. Fractal chose the IRs that they thought would best compliment their amp models, and they are good-sounding cabs that cover quote a few bases. I use them fairly often. I also use others from 3rd parties, and even some I have captured myself. Speaking of which, I have a Weber 2x10 extension cab loaded with AlNiCo 10V speakers (basically, the higher powered Blue Dog AlNiCo motor assembly and voice coil driving a Blue Pup cone--very thicc and beefy for a 2x10) that I need to capture. That cab sounds amazing....
 
Joe Bfstplk said:
Many of the Legacy cabs are normal resolution rather than UltraRes. That said, 'quality' has many facets. UltraRes has high quality in the representation of the source material. Fractal chose the IRs that they thought would best compliment their amp models, and they are good-sounding cabs that cover quote a few bases. I use them fairly often. I also use others from 3rd parties, and even some I have captured myself. Speaking of which, I have a Weber 2x10 extension cab loaded with AlNiCo 10V speakers (basically, the higher powered Blue Dog AlNiCo motor assembly and voice coil driving a Blue Pup cone--very thicc and beefy for a 2x10) that I need to capture. That cab sounds amazing....
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I have a 10" Weber Blue Pup in a Vox AC4TV I modified several years back. It brought it to another level.
Swapped some components/tubes for better quality and more usable values; especially the taper of the Tone pot. Ported the back and added some batting. Sounds incredible for a $150 PCB tube amp. Weber makes great speakers.

Is UltraRes as high as it gets? Or are there even more detailed (higher quality) levels of IRs?
 
ModelGuitarist said:
I have a 10" Weber Blue Pup in a Vox AC4TV I modified several years back. It brought it to another level.
Swapped some components/tubes for better quality and more usable values; especially the taper of the Tone pot. Ported the back and added some batting. Sounds incredible for a $150 PCB tube amp. Weber makes great speakers.

Is UltraRes as high as it gets? Or are there even more detailed (higher quality) levels of IRs?
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It is as high as it currently gets - 48k, 24 bit, and the exclusive UltraRes proprietary 'magic'....

That said, I keep the higher bitrate IR files from the packs I buy so there is some room for future improvement should things move up to 96k in the future....
 
Joe Bfstplk said:
It is as high as it currently gets - 48k, 24 bit, and the exclusive UltraRes proprietary 'magic'....

That said, I keep the higher bitrate IR files from the packs I buy so there is some room for future improvement should things move up to 96k in the future....
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That's a good idea.

I was just checking out the York Audio site. I'm trying to decide.
Got Cab Lab Lite ready to go.
 
andyp13 said:
I have been trying out some new (to me) amp blocks and have discovered some amazing new tones..
however I tend to stick with one cab block the 4x12 Basketweave. lastnight I plodded through lots of cabs from 1x12, 2x12 and 4x12 and found virtually everyone of them sounded naisely.. I’m playing through 2x RCF TT08‘s at ‘house’ volume. but each cab seemed to be scooped in the mids with flabby bass and fizzy trebles - smiley face and one or two Opposite to that... ☹
im really struggling to find a cab that does not sound naisely other than the Basketweave and also the 1x12 Shiver R121.
I haven’t spent much time with the Cab blocks as I tended to find one I liked and stuck with it..
it has been suggested that I experiment with Cabs as this is where the sound really comes from, as basically all amps are virtually the same... but I can’t get rid of than naisely tone with cabs.... what (if anything) am I doing wrong and what’s the best way to tweak the cabs sound.

I did come across a PDF a while ago (need to find it again) that matched Cab blocks with Amp blocks but the majority of the suggested cabs I didn’t have..

this post is not a criticism (so please no abuse).
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The room may have something to do with it. Do you generally practice/play in the same room when tweaking?
 
Jason Scott said:
The room may have something to do with it. Do you generally practice/play in the same room when tweaking?
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I use the RCF 08TT’s in the same room....however when I gig I go straight to FOH through a HK Audio ‘Big Bass’ stereo rig...I never get the opportunity to experiment and tweak my sound via the HK Audio rig 😕. My clean sounds always sound fantastic..but never been knocked out with my overdrive sounds.....in the 08TT’s I get an awesome sound... I need to somehow make some time to try the rig with different cab blocks.
 
andyp13 said:
I use the RCF 08TT’s in the same room....however when I gig I go straight to FOH through a HK Audio ‘Big Bass’ stereo rig...I never get the opportunity to experiment and tweak my sound via the HK Audio rig 😕. My clean sounds always sound fantastic..but never been knocked out with my overdrive sounds.....in the 08TT’s I get an awesome sound... I need to somehow make some time to try the rig with different cab blocks.
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i mean this is probably part of the issue...hard to tweak for something you never get time with....especially something so different from what you spend most of your time playing on.
 
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andyp13 said:
I use the RCF 08TT’s in the same room....however when I gig I go straight to FOH through a HK Audio ‘Big Bass’ stereo rig...I never get the opportunity to experiment and tweak my sound via the HK Audio rig 😕. My clean sounds always sound fantastic..but never been knocked out with my overdrive sounds.....in the 08TT’s I get an awesome sound... I need to somehow make some time to try the rig with different cab blocks.
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Are you playing at performance level at home?

If so and if you're happy with the overdrive sounds at home then I don't think IRs are the problem. You might just need to adjust your Global EQ when you gig...
 
I find (most of the time), for a straight ahead one amp preset, a single IR sounds better than blending multiple IRs. This is not true 100% of the time. This doesn't really apply to amps with 2 cabs panned R & L or two amps with individual cabs panned... I still like blending IRs, but most of the time when I'm done a single cab sounds better to me.
 
skunc said:
I find (most of the time), for a straight ahead one amp preset, a single IR sounds better than blending multiple IRs. This is not true 100% of the time. This doesn't really apply to amps with 2 cabs panned R & L or two amps with individual cabs panned... I still like blending IRs, but most of the time when I'm done a single cab sounds better to me.
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Not trying to be a wise-a$$, just curious, does that mean you're happier with single mic IRs than ones where the maker combined multiple mics?
 
Dave Merrill said:
Not trying to be a wise-a$$, just curious, does that mean you're happier with single mic IRs than ones where the maker combined multiple mics?
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no, I get it, I see where this is going, I prefer single IRs whether they are Mix IRs or single mic...I search the IRs one at a time until I find a couple that might work and audition them in the cab block
 
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