I admit it. I am addicted to one IR

[Habuman]

I'm currently hooked on the combination of the stock cabs below, because the resulting sound resembles my Port City 2x12 cabinet closely:

• (factory 2 #165) 2x12 Zilla Cream H 57 1 ML
• (legacy #166) 4x12 Rumble L 121 A

Hell Yeah to the Zilla cabs. My AXE III arrived yesterday and those cabs really grabbed my attention. Working on a gig preset using the 2x12 Zilla cabs.

 

[ML SOUND LAB]

I have loads of IRs too. But I have been addicted to one in particular for a while
now - ML USA TRAD from ml sound labs Greatest Hits collection. I use it exclusively for any Mesa presets. I will sometimes go through loads of cabs mix up a new combination but find myself back at the beginning with the USA TRAD in the end lol. So much time can be sunk climbing up and down the IR rabbit hole.

All the cabs from the Greatest Hits pack sound amazing - I find I don’t need to search for long nor be overwhelmed with choice there.

That said, the III has so many cabs now that I don’t think one would really “need” to buy any more IR packs to get whatever tone they are after.

Cheers buddy - the IR rabbit hole can be big but luckily not as big as the advanced parameter tweak rabbit hole. There's definitely something about IR's that you use for a long time and you build a trust with how many times they've "worked great". For me it's been the Almighty mix from the Mega Oversize Cab Pack this year - it just never fails.. but I'll admit that in the Fractal days it was that same USA TRAD IR that you mentioned and also the Cab Pack 13 Periphery III IR's. Oh yes.

PS. We actually just released a new pack of that exact same USA TRAD cab today.

 

[VidarAus]

Cheers buddy - the IR rabbit hole can be big but luckily not as big as the advanced parameter tweak rabbit hole. There's definitely something about IR's that you use for a long time and you build a trust with how many times they've "worked great". For me it's been the Almighty mix from the Mega Oversize Cab Pack this year - it just never fails.. but I'll admit that in the Fractal days it was that same USA TRAD IR that you mentioned and also the Cab Pack 13 Periphery III IR's. Oh yes.

PS. We actually just released a new pack of that exact same USA TRAD cab today.

Awesome. Will have to check it out. How does it compare to Cab Pack 7?

 

[ML SOUND LAB]

Awesome. Will have to check it out. How does it compare to Cab Pack 7?

It follows "the new" ML pack format so it's smaller but more to the point. With so many years of experience with this cab I know exactly where the sweetspots are.

 

[VidarAus]

It follows "the new" ML pack format so it's smaller but more to the point. With so many years of experience with this cab I know exactly where the sweetspots are.

Introductory pricing deals?

 

[ML SOUND LAB]

Introductory pricing deals?

Yes for 5-6 more days. Link: https://ml-sound-lab.com/products/mega-traditional-cab-pack

I also just shot a comparison video with real Mesa tube heads:

 

[VidarAus]

Yes for 5-6 more days. Link: https://ml-sound-lab.com/products/mega-traditional-cab-pack

I also just shot a comparison video with real Mesa tube heads:

Just purchased and have spent an hour playing around with it. Nice pack Mikko. Sounds great. My favourite cab is the Mesa Traditional and can be hard to find a lot of packs based on it so good you have come back for a second go at this one.

The DREAM mix is great, and very similar to your ML USA TRAD IR, which I understand is one of the 57/421 mixes from Cab Pack 7. But the Dream mix is still different enough - more open and raw sounding, definitely with more high end information. Would probably cut in a mix a bit better.

Love the layout of the pack, with each mic having a handful of shots with different brightness levels. Very easy to navigate and use.

Dropping in the 57-A, the 121-A and the 431-A together sounds great especially if dialing down the 121 and 421 mix in the cab block by 4-9db depending on taste. Using any of the 57’s with any of the 121’s also sounds fantastic with no other tweaking needed. Great out of the box. Another thing to try is adding the DREAM mix with the Petrucci IR and dialling down the DREAM by about 8db. Adds some brightness back to this cab while not taking away from the core Petrucci sound (although I will still likely use the Petrucci cab as is and bump up the 6600hz slider a bit which is what I do now).

Glad I have another piece of this cab.

Can I ask, is the DREAM mix a blending of some of the other IRs or was it a real world capture with multiple mics? What was the setup?

Also, I am findIng using an IR length of 512 sounds better to me. Do you have any curves on where early reflections are with the different IRs in this pack? Would be interested in knowing where this occurs to better dial it in (as per a recent discussion on the forum led by Cliff).

Tried this with Firmware 10.2. Have not tried it with the new impedance curves in FW 11 yet. I imagine the Mesa Small would be the curve to use? Have you tried it and have any suggestions?

Cheers