IR use in a rig?

Bavarian19

New Member
I have been playing guitar for a long time, but only in the past year have I been using an Axe Fx, so pardon my newbie question. I just play in my basement, and in search of the best tones for my style.

Before I launch into my question, here is my rig: G50 Wireless->Tuner->Axe Fx II XL+->Matrix 1000->Mesa 4x12 recto cab. Guitars are two electric ESPs that I know are in good working order.

My question: I think I’m lacking something in punch/clarity. Should I be using the Cab Block even though I am only playing through the 4x12? I have been trying to read up on IRs, and wondering if I should use them as a way to get the definition I am looking for out of the speakers.

thanks in advance!
 
you shouldn’t need/use IRs through a traditional cab. With your setup, you would use IR/Cab block with one of the unused outputs and send it to FOH or to interface/board to play live/record. This way you would not need to Mic up your cab and you could use it for as your own monitor and set the volume as you need without influencing the FOH mix or preamp etc levels if you are recording.

Ofcourse you could (most cases what we do) just monitor the output with the IR and fully avoid the cab.

Non of these senarios are better or worse than other. Depends on situation, intention, your taste...hope this helps:)
 
I have been playing guitar for a long time, but only in the past year have I been using an Axe Fx, so pardon my newbie question. I just play in my basement, and in search of the best tones for my style.

Before I launch into my question, here is my rig: G50 Wireless->Tuner->Axe Fx II XL+->Matrix 1000->Mesa 4x12 recto cab. Guitars are two electric ESPs that I know are in good working order.

My question: I think I’m lacking something in punch/clarity. Should I be using the Cab Block even though I am only playing through the 4x12? I have been trying to read up on IRs, and wondering if I should use them as a way to get the definition I am looking for out of the speakers.

thanks in advance!
generally a cab block is not used with a real cab. that's like running a cab into a cab. it usually doesn't sound good, but some people do it with success.

just try some things and see what you prefer.
 
I have read about not using the cab block when running into a cab. However, some of the presets I have use a cab block, and when I turned off the cab block on the global settings, those presets sounded much worse.

Obviously, there is a little trial and error. Just didn’t know if I could use an IR to sculpt the cab sound some. Guess I’ll give it another round of tweaking.
 
I have read about not using the cab block when running into a cab. However, some of the presets I have use a cab block, and when I turned off the cab block on the global settings, those presets sounded much worse.

Obviously, there is a little trial and error. Just didn’t know if I could use an IR to sculpt the cab sound some. Guess I’ll give it another round of tweaking.
For your situation, you don’t need IR’s at all (or a cab block really). The amp block alone going into your actual cab is the same having the real amp going through your cab. Having a cab block with an IR going into your real cab is like putting a picture on top of a picture. They’re both clear and defined on their own, but blending them distorts the final image into something neither picture was meant to show.

If you feel like you just want to refine your tone a bit, you can either put an EQ after your amp block and dial it in that way (but you’d have to do this for all of your patches), or you can go to the global output graphic EQ and dial it in there and the EQ tweak will stay consistent with all of your patches.

For my live setup, I always ran the cab block with IR’s to output 1 with a flat global graphic EQ going to FOH, and used the FX loop for the live cab (before the cab block) and tweaked my global output 2 graphic EQ to dial in the live cab. It’s an easy way to sculpt your live cab without messing with individual EQ’s on every preset.
 
Since you are in your basement on your own,
Keep it simple

Maybe try these four steps...

1). First, with the matrix power amp you will find that the sweet spot is with the level around 2 o’clock. Your tone/feel really comes to life around that point.

2). Now use the fractal output knob for your volume level.

3). I would NOT use a cab block. Take it right out of your signal chain.

Your actual cab is now the cab block. The matrix amp is pretty transparent from my experience so you want to keep the power amp simulation on.

I was about to say that most of my experience is with the Ultra, the II and AX8 but just noticed you posted about a IIXL so I feel a little more comfortable with my statement.

I feel like if you use the equipment as it was designed, it will help more in the long run for building proper patches. Putting a cab block in when you have a real cab feels unnatural to me. As Chris said, some have had success, and maybe (just maybe) you will accidentally come across something amazing. But being new to FAS, more than likely you will just frustrate yourself (as I did many, many times).

4). As an experiment, start from scratch and try to recreate the patches you are working with.

I did this early on and it really helped. Start a new patch. Get the basic (dry) tone you are looking for. You should only need an amp and maybe overdrive. Color from there. Don’t forget the matrix amp sweet spot I mentioned.

Sprinkle a little reverb/chorus/delay and I bet you’ll be ok. Totally worth the exercise.
Please keep us posted!
Tim
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom