How do you create IRs for acoustics?

Mark Scrivener

Inspired
The manual shows how to capture an IR for a cabinet, but I want to create IR's for acoustic guitars so the piezo sounds more like the mic'd guitar. And while we are at it, I'd like to make my electric sound like an acoustic, or my LP sound like a strat, or my Tele like a LP, etc (so I don't have to drag 4 guitars to a gig). Can anyone give me an overview or point me to a tutorial? Only thing I've found so far is people selling IR's.....I want to create my own..... Is it just an EQ tonematch (using something like Isotope RX) that you somehow convert to an impulse response, or is there more to it?

Thanks!
Mark
 
I have no idea how to capture them from an actual acoustic. I just capture from devices like the Fishman Aura DI.

E: As usual Yek has the actual answer.
 
There's that product SIM1 XT-1...that I own. Does a stunning good job -sound and feel- for that problem.
It's a bit pricey and it's outboard gear...but just in case you have some coins left ;-)
 
There's that product SIM1 XT-1...that I own. Does a stunning good job -sound and feel- for that problem.
It's a bit pricey and it's outboard gear...but just in case you have some coins left ;-)

LoL....I think I have a few guitar picks I can rub together to keep warm but all the coins where spent on gear already. But it always makes me feel better to know there is more gear out there should I be burdened with cash in the future. :)

But on a more serious note.....do you think the SIM1 XT-1 does a better job than an IR with the III? It appears to be just an IR box (with a built in learn procedure) from what I can tell. Seems like the III could do just as good a job....but maybe I'm missing something.
 
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I was using the patch I already had set up. Maybe I will redo it.

LoL....I think I have a few guitar picks I can rub together to keep warm but all the coins where spent on gear already. But it always makes me feel better to know there is more gear out there should I be burdened with cash in the future. :)

But on a more serious note.....do you think the SIM1 XT-1 does a better job than an IR with the III? It appears to be just an IR box (with a built in learn procedure) from what I can tell. Seems like the III could do just as good a job....but maybe I'm missing something.

I don't remember how long ago I made my tries to capture an TMA to emulate different guitars. But I remember my results weren't much better than o.k., nothing great. It worked good on some places on the fretboard and with some styles, but not everywhere. It started to sound artificial and extreme when off the main area.

Some problems seem obvious. The outer ends of the TMA curves showed extreme values, I would have needed a function to cut out certain ranges from the TMA processing and maybe some way to iron out extremes. I don't know how I could do further editings to it, maybe I could shoot an IR of it with outboard gear and mix it that in cab lab and alike. Lots of work though.

My acoustic preset contains no IR now, did it all by ear with eqs.

All these problems are already solved in the XT-1, so for now it's the easiest solution. OMG, all that money :-(
 
Thanks 666was999. Once UPS finally delivers my III (this weekend if all goes well), I can start playing with the TMA block and see how it goes. If that doesn't satisfy I'll start trying to create IR's with my DAW. I know Izotope Advanced (which I own) has a tone match function, and turning eq curves into an impulse is pretty simple. Hopefully one of these methods will yield pleasing results.
 
Update:

My III arrived on Friday and today I finally stopped playing long enough to fiddle with the TMA. Matched my R6 LP to my tele - sounds pretty good! But I've noticed two possible bugs or user error issues.....

1. When you export the TMA to a user IR, there is a field where you can name the IR, but regardless of what I type in, the IR retains the name "<EMPTY>".

Note: If try to rename the IR via "manage Cabs" it tells me the cab is empty and won't let me rename....but I can load it into an IR player and it works, where as an empty cab outputs no sound.

2. If I load the IR into an IR player, the output is about 10 dB down from what it is in the TMA. Obviously cranking the Level up on the IR player solves this, but not sure why this is happening in the first place.

Any idea what's going on?

Thanks!
 
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You'd better move the last post into a new thread with it's own title, so people that know something about the TMA come to look into it. In this tread people come to see something about acoustic sound, only by luck there might be some TMA experts among them.
 
Update:

My III arrived on Friday and today I finally stopped playing long enough to fiddle with the TMA. Matched my R6 LP to my tele - sounds pretty good! But I've noticed two possible bugs or user error issues.....

1. When you export the TMA to a user IR, there is a field where you can name the IR, but regardless of what I type in, the IR retains the name "<EMPTY>".

Note: If try to rename the IR via "manage Cabs" it tells me the cab is empty and won't let me rename....but I can load it into an IR player and it works, where as an empty cab outputs no sound.

2. If I load the IR into an IR player, the output is about 10 dB down from what it is in the TMA. Obviously cranking the Level up on the IR player solves this, but not sure why this is happening in the first place.

Any idea what's going on?

Thanks!

”manage cabs” in axeEdit doesn’t check for new cabs every time you use it, you have to refresh it after you save an IR (little refresh icon to the right of the search field)
 
Check out this video, it will help. Use the best microphone and preamp you have to capture the sound of your acoustic guitar. The better Mic/Pre setup you use the better the results. I've done this for my Axe FX II XL+ .for my Taylor guitar and it sounds great.

Use either the TMA block or the exported CAB block as your very first block to shape the sound from your piezo. Then add what ever effects you want to the patch. Using the Tube pre AMP block further helps to boost and enhance the sound.

 
My technique is to tonematch the direct piezo output of my Fishman Powerbridge Tele to various bits of the album Jackson Browne Solo Acoustic. I export the TM as a Cab and then use a little room in the Cab block. Alex Lifeson's famous acoustic tonematch on the Axe-Fx II was created using this method.
 
My technique is to tonematch the direct piezo output of my Fishman Powerbridge Tele to various bits of the album Jackson Browne Solo Acoustic. I export the TM as a Cab and then use a little room in the Cab block. Alex Lifeson's famous acoustic tonematch on the Axe-Fx II was created using this method.
Where can this be found ?
 
My technique is to tonematch the direct piezo output of my Fishman Powerbridge Tele to various bits of the album Jackson Browne Solo Acoustic. I export the TM as a Cab and then use a little room in the Cab block. Alex Lifeson's famous acoustic tonematch on the Axe-Fx II was created using this method.

So you performed the TM using a live recording? That's unusual. :)
 
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