Impulse responses for live use at loud volumes (FOH only)

U

unperfectcircle

Member
Hi guys,
d’you know if there are IR packs on the market that are specifically tailored to be a bit more “gig-ready” rather than studio?

I basically mean impulses that are shot for FOH use (straight to the PA without a cab on stage) taking in consideration what usually happens at gig volumes (eg. hi and low boost, the Fletcher-Munson “effect” and all that stuff) without sounding fake and retaining a good feel under the fingertips.

I know that this is a complex issue full of variables and that can’t be a magic solution that works in every scenario, but I wonder if there’s something out there that tries to target those needs, something like the Michael Britt’s impulses (his stuff is more for live use than studio, hence it always sounds a bit dark at low volumes), but with a better feeling under the fingertips (I bought his pack but there’s something that doesn’t sound/feel right for my tastes).

Thanks for your attention, truly appreciated :)
 
The ML stuff with a ribbon and a dynamic mixed in sounds good live. Turn down the treble, presence and bump the mids more than you would and use a low and high cut at 120hz and 7.5khz (12db per octave) respectively. The PR75 cab from the Greatest Hits Collection works great for me. OH, Rosen, 3 Sigma for me sound very hyped and a little too scooped for live use. Had good results with the ML cabs.
 
Thanks a lot for your suggestion, that sounds interesting.
I was wondering more about some specifically gig-tailored irs, but if these ML work better at loud volumes, I’ll check ‘em out anyway.
 
funknoodles said:
But you'll definitely want to emphasize the mids and turn down the presence and treble on the amp block even with ML IRs.
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sure, that's pretty much mandatory with every IR I tried so far.
I can see a market for gig-tailored IRs, mixed (and even pre-eq'ed if necessary) in order to require less adjustments at loud volumes by taming the glassy frequencies, the extreme lows and focusing on mids without sounding too boxy of fake...anyway, if no one came up with something like this, maybe that's just me lol :D

funknoodles said:
It's easier to make them sound good when cranked than, say, OH stuff.
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interesting...which pack would you suggest for mid-focused rock and hard rock/metal tones?

funknoodles said:
Darker IRs sound better live (with a low cut) to me.
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absolutely, even if there's always some kind of
 
How can someone design a “gig ready” IR, or even a preset, without knowing the venue, the characteristics of the PA system, how the band is mixed, what effects busses are running on the board or mains etc?

You can take a “perfect” sounding patch and hand that over to the FOH engineer and hear something quite sonically different when listening to the live mix from the audience perspective.

As I’ve said repeatedly, and coming from someone who has ran live sound, don’t try to do the job of the FOH engineer, and especially not for random venues or systems you don’t know, it makes more work for everyone.

Dial in good sounding tones, worry about playing your guitar, and let the engineer worry about making everyone in the band sound good, it’s their job.
 
Try my ir on the axe change under tpj33 turn the low cut to 75hz and the high cut to 1200 set up to taste but not past 5000
What ever amp block your using dial it how you would the real amp and take into consideration that 1:00 one the axe fx is 2 on the real amp
The most important part of the feel your after is the high and low cut on the cab block dialing in the amp properly and then once it’s close go to the cab block and set the preamp to high quality and pick a preamp and learn how to dial it in
 
The Preamp in the cab block is meant to emulate the additional coloration certain channel strips on famous consoles imparted to the recordings made with them. I suppose one could use it as a more traditional tone shaping tool, there are no rules after all, but I don’t think it’s much of a key to great live tones that will translate to various playback systems.
 
lqdsnddist said:
The Preamp in the cab block is meant to emulate the additional coloration certain channel strips on famous consoles imparted to the recordings made with them. I suppose one could use it as a more traditional tone shaping tool, there are no rules after all, but I don’t think it’s much of a key to great live tones that will translate to various playback systems.
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I feel like it adds a whole extra dynamic to the tones I make and I play threw qsc k 12s
 
First of all I'd like to thank everyone for the feedback and liking our IR's. I definitely have a good understanding of the problem areas for guitars when playing live with loud volumes and in essentially an echo chamber that is a club room. This is where my #1 principle shines = balance. If you have a dark guitar sound it will not cut through live especially when you have a thick bass sound in your band. If you have a bright sound it'll pierce people's ears at a loud gig.

What you want is a really good balance for the IR and honestly these types of IR's are incredible in the studio as well which is why I always aim for that neutral sound. Even if you dial in a brighter sound you should get away with it because we pay close attention to the high end so that there are no resonant peaks anywhere that can turn into a bee-in-your-ear at loud venues. Obviously some pretty amazing people trust our IR's and they are constantly being used at stadium gigs at high volumes... that's everyone from session guitarists that play for some of the biggest artists in the industry to most modern metal artists. Here's a page where I go on a rainy day to read nice words about my work from some of the most amazing people in the industry: https://ml-sound-lab.com/pages/artist-testimonials

funknoodles said:
The Greatest Hits cab pack seems to have a bunch of the essentials. @ML SOUND LAB can definitely hit you up with recommendations.
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Thank you for the shoutout @funknoodles The Greatest Hits Cab Pack is definitely a great collection of multiple gig-ready IR's that cover a lot of ground.
 
Gig ready means it’s ready for the sound guy to eq it. I would just have something setup that sounds good to you, then use the global eq to fine tune a bit for the room, but don’t sweat it too much. Let the sound guy take it from there. Some sound guys ask to minimize bass freqs that contribute to bass build up on stage so cut as much bass as you can live with, or don’t.
 
Same rules apply as in the studio. The less you have to EQ the guitar sound, the better and more natural it will sound in the end. What IR producers do with mic placement (and de-colorization in the IR shoot method) is to essentially EQ a sound with organic tools like microphones, speakers and cabs etc.

Think of an IR as a photograph and EQ as a brush. A good photo is perfectly taken and no brushing or Instagram filters make it better but just make it unnatural. If you're starting with a bad photo and you use brushes and filters (these would be EQ in the audio domain) to make it look like a better photo, you are most likely never going to reach the level that the good photo was to begin with. Polishing a turd has been mythbusted though:

 
I can vouch for ML's IRs being balanced and probably some of the "easiet" to use in a loud, live gig environment. I will also say that while there is no universal rule, high cuts and low cuts in the cab block work very well as do the cab block preamp tone controls for a more subtle adjustment.
 
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