How Do You Guys Judge Cab IR's?

Deadpan

Deadpan

Inspired
Vendor
Curious how you guys judge IR's?

Do you prefer to have them full sounding from the start or clear and add cab resonance and tweak?

I have been looking for the right balance and find that both types have their benefits.

I would love to hear any other preferences as well.
 
For me it's about balance. I start with amp sims on noon settings. I might raise the gain a bit to emphasize the IR sound. Trust your ears and feel. Go through many IR's and when it feels right mark it down. Then compare the ones you marked down and find your favorite.

Never judge an IR by replacing an IR in a patch that you have already tweaked. It's very counter productive. Once you start using balanced amps and balanced IR's that's when creating patches only takes a few minutes.
 
Also make sure you're playing along with music and at the same volume you plan to use your Axe-Fx II, so you hear the way different IR's sound in a mix. This will help avoid masking issues and the Fletcher Munson effects.

Sometimes a guitar tone will sound great alone but then gets lost in the mix because of masking.

Sometimes a guitar tone will sound great at lower volume but then has way too much treble and bass when played at high volume because of the Fletcher Munson effect.
 
ML SOUND LAB said:
For me it's about balance. I start with amp sims on noon settings. I might raise the gain a bit to emphasize the IR sound. Trust your ears and feel. Go through many IR's and when it feels right mark it down. Then compare the ones you marked down and find your favorite.

Never judge an IR by replacing an IR in a patch that you have already tweaked. It's very counter productive. Once you start using balanced amps and balanced IR's that's when creating patches only takes a few minutes.
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I like that advice. Thanks
 
CodeStation said:
First, does it shred?
Then, does it djent?
Then can it groove?
Then can it ambient?
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Aaaaahh what is djent ... I need to go googling as I have completely missed this genre. (well I probably haven't but I just haven't put the name to it when hearing it on the radio :confused:)
 
Okay ... scrap that ... i'm sorted now ;-)

Djent /ˈdʒɛnt/ is a style of heavy metal music that developed as a spinoff of traditional progressive metal. The word "djent" is an onomatopoeia for the distinctive high-gain, distorted palm-muted, low pitch guitar sound most notably employed by bands like Meshuggah and Sikth.

 
mmpete said:
Okay ... scrap that ... i'm sorted now ;-)

Djent /ˈdʒɛnt/ is a style of heavy metal music that developed as a spinoff of traditional progressive metal. The word "djent" is an onomatopoeia for the distinctive high-gain, distorted palm-muted, low pitch guitar sound most notably employed by bands like Meshuggah and Sikth.

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LMAO
 
ML SOUND LAB said:
For me it's about balance. I start with amp sims on noon settings. I might raise the gain a bit to emphasize the IR sound. Trust your ears and feel. Go through many IR's and when it feels right mark it down. Then compare the ones you marked down and find your favorite.

Never judge an IR by replacing an IR in a patch that you have already tweaked. It's very counter productive. Once you start using balanced amps and balanced IR's that's when creating patches only takes a few minutes.
Click to expand...
+1 !
I do it the same way and here is why: When choosing an IR, we`re talking about choosing a frequency curve. The most thinkable simple setup, we have three of them:

A) frequency curve from the guitar and it`s (selected) pickup(s)
B) frequency curve from the chosen Amp (and Amp settings). (and you know, there are dark ones, bright ones, scooped ones,...)
C) frequency curve from the chosen IR)

Those three frequency curves complement each other, they act cumulative (A+B+C) Let`s say the decision for the chosen guitar (A) and Amp (B) is made, so the frequency curve of the IR should complement the final frequency curve of the whole signal chain.

That`s reason No.1, why there may be good and bad IRs from an objective (producer) perspective, but from an subjective perspective there can`t be the one perfect "golden" IR, beside tonal preferences.

If you`re fixed to A+C, you`ll have to tweak your Amp (B) to complement (also) the chosen IR. But tweaking Amps B/M/T, Presence and bright (to count the commonamp knobs with mostly impact on frequency) you tweak with relative rough paramters to complement (perhaps mostly) the (subjective wrong) IR. Wrong way (IMO), so let`s do it vice versa! Because: In a studio environment you`ll do it the same: you don`t tweak your Amp to fit the Mics and their positions. You position and choose the mics to complement the selected Amp (setting) / sound. Right?!

So, instead tweak the Amp to fit the IR, i search for the "right" IR to fit the Amp model. That`s why i do it like Mikko: sound in mind, i choose the guitar, an Amp model and mostly have an certain guitar cabinet in mind. And from that cab(-pack) i`ll pick up an IR, that brings me best into the wanted ballpark. Most of the time only minest tweaks at the amp block has to be done after the IR decision is made to find my sound, i searched for.
 
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Morphosis said:
+1 !
I do it the same way and here is why: When choosing an IR, we`re talking about choosing a frequency curve. The most thinkable simple setup, we have three of them:

A) frequency curve from the guitar and it`s (selected) pickup(s)
B) frequency curve from the chosen Amp (and Amp settings). (and you know, there are dark ones, bright ones, scooped ones,...)
C) frequency curve from the chosen IR)

Those three frequency curves complement each other, they act cumulative (A+B+C) Let`s say the decision for the chosen guitar (A) and Amp (B) is made, so the frequency curve of the IR should complement the final frequency curve of the whole signal chain.

That`s reason No.1, why there may be good and bad IRs from an objective (producer) perspective, but from an subjective perspective there can`t be the one perfect "golden" IR, beside tonal preferences.

If you`re fixed to A+C, you`ll have to tweak your Amp (B) to complement (also) the chosen IR. But tweaking Amps B/M/T, Presence and bright (to count the commonamp knobs with mostly impact on frequency) you tweak with relative rough paramters to complement (perhaps mostly) the (subjective wrong) IR. Wrong way (IMO), so let`s do it vice versa! Because: In a studio environment you`ll do it the same: you don`t tweak your Amp to fit the Mics and their positions. You position and choose the mics to complement the selected Amp (setting) / sound. Right?!

So, instead tweak the Amp to fit the IR, i search for the "right" IR to fit the Amp model. That`s why i do it like Mikko: sound in mind, i choose the guitar, an Amp model and mostly have an certain guitar cabinet in mind. And from that cab(-pack) i`ll pick up an IR, that brings me best into the wanted ballpark. Most of the time only minest tweaks at the amp block has to be done after the IR decision is made to find my sound, i searched for.
Click to expand...
Exactly. The IR will have the most power over your sound so start with the IR. :)
 
Morphosis said:
+1 !
I do it the same way and here is why: When choosing an IR, we`re talking about choosing a frequency curve. The most thinkable simple setup, we have three of them:

A) frequency curve from the guitar and it`s (selected) pickup(s)
B) frequency curve from the chosen Amp (and Amp settings). (and you know, there are dark ones, bright ones, scooped ones,...)
C) frequency curve from the chosen IR)

Those three frequency curves complement each other, they act cumulative (A+B+C) Let`s say the decision for the chosen guitar (A) and Amp (B) is made, so the frequency curve of the IR should complement the final frequency curve of the whole signal chain.

That`s reason No.1, why there may be good and bad IRs from an objective (producer) perspective, but from an subjective perspective there can`t be the one perfect "golden" IR, beside tonal preferences.

If you`re fixed to A+C, you`ll have to tweak your Amp (B) to complement (also) the chosen IR. But tweaking Amps B/M/T, Presence and bright (to count the commonamp knobs with mostly impact on frequency) you tweak with relative rough paramters to complement (perhaps mostly) the (subjective wrong) IR. Wrong way (IMO), so let`s do it vice versa! Because: In a studio environment you`ll do it the same: you don`t tweak your Amp to fit the Mics and their positions. You position and choose the mics to complement the selected Amp (setting) / sound. Right?!

So, instead tweak the Amp to fit the IR, i search for the "right" IR to fit the Amp model. That`s why i do it like Mikko: sound in mind, i choose the guitar, an Amp model and mostly have an certain guitar cabinet in mind. And from that cab(-pack) i`ll pick up an IR, that brings me best into the wanted ballpark. Most of the time only minest tweaks at the amp block has to be done after the IR decision is made to find my sound, i searched for.
Click to expand...



Ok,…that starts to make a lot of sense to me! I'm always overwhelmed by the amount of the cabs available and stay away from trying new combinations (amp+cab) and stick to the reccomended option. Your approach seems more suitable for me and will try it. Thanks for that.
 
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