Is it necessary/recommended to turn off cab sim while playing live through my cabinet?

[magnanimous66]

Wondering if turning off cab sim would change tone while playing live through my cab? Is it necessary to turn off the cab sim, if leaving the cab sim on is there any negative effects? My rig consists of a Matrix power amp, AX8 and a Marshall 1960 lead cab 600 watt.

 

[unix-guy]

The Cabinet Modeling is recommended to be turned off when using a guitar cabinet.

Otherwise it's like sending a mic'd speaker into a guitar speaker...

 

[Greg Ferguson]

Wondering if turning off cab sim would change tone while playing live through my cab? Is it necessary to turn off the cab sim, if leaving the cab sim on is there any negative effects? My rig consists of a Matrix power amp, AX8 and a Marshall 1960 lead cab 600 watt.

It's not necessary, but it's definitely recommended. As @unix-guy said, it's rendering the effect of the cab then you're sending it through another cab.

Remember, analog speakers and cabinets act as filters in addition to creating the volume we want. The Cab block is filtering the sound, basically EQing it, so that's being done twice; it'd be like wearing two pairs of regular eyeglasses, one over the other, because it's negatively altering your vision, only in this case it's the sound.

Section 4 in the manual has two pages talking about using power-amps and cabs, and in one the cab modeling is disabled, and in the other the signal chain is tapped prior to the Cab block to remove its influence. The manual also says:

USING THE AMP BLOCK WITH TRADITIONAL GUITAR SPEAKERS

• When using the Axe-Fx III amp block into traditional (not FRFR) guitar speakers, certain advanced parameters warrant special consideration. On the “Speaker” page of the Amp block, set Speaker Drive to zero. You may also wish to zero Speaker Compression. Also consider matching LF Resonance Frequency to match the resonance of your connected cab — if you know it.

All that said, the rule of thumb is to use your ears. Some people like the sound of cab modeling and using a speaker cabinet, and it doesn't physically damage the speakers, so do what sounds right to you.

 

[Brewce]

Leaving cab sims on is successfully done by some, but ideally requires an accomodating somewhat neutral speaker, like EV12L, IIRC.
smilefan was such user here, and maybe yek still?

it'd be like wearing two pairs of regular eyeglasses, one over the other, because it's negatively altering your vision.

Some people use this to their advantage I've seen at least two.
It's not that weird. Crack open a photography lens someday...

 

[skolacki]

The end result is all that matters

 

[Habuman]

Try it with and without. Let your ears decide what sounds good.

 

[Budda]

I ran cab sim on the first time i ran hx/powerstage/412 and didnt have any issues. I run my axe3 into gt800 and 412 without cab block, sounds good to me.

 

[Greg Ferguson]

It's not that weird. Crack open a photography lens someday...

It's not the same. The lens is designed to use stacked glass and some of the lenses compensate for previous ones to keep the image sharp.

 

[Jkist7]

I find running a cab sim into a cab to nearly always be way too dark. However, I often find running no cab sim to by unnaturally bright. The solution (for me personally) is to run with no cab sim, as well as run a lowpass filter around 7-10khz. That part is up to taste. But I find taking a bit of the extreme high end off really helps the sims feel more natural to me.