Is the IR Rabbit Hole worth it??

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Axe-Master
Should I drop some LSD beforehand? Or should I just reread Alice in Wonderland? šŸ°

Will I just discover I am in never-ending pit of carrots---most of which will rot and
never be used and become IR compost? Or will it be carrot heaven?

Talk me into spending money, or saving some? Or just tell me your favourite line
from the first rabbit hole ever---the one Alice fell in. :)

Thanks!
 
Come on, Greg. Don't kill the thread with the first reply. ;)

Just trying to have some fun here. Music is still fun, right?? :)

I have spent a grand total of $0 on IRs. I feel kind of dirty confessing that.
But like you mention---the stock IRs sound killer to me when paired with
the right amp/amps.

I enjoy a good convo, and have learned a bunch on this forum in a brief
amount of time. So my non-question questions are really about my personal
evolution. Hoping some kind folks will hep a brother out. :)
 
I think the best on the market have their own way to capture IRs. And you have good samples already within the factory cabs.

Start there and then go on their website to see if they offer some more for free.
I ended with Valhallir.

Plus, wait for Black Friday or subscribe to their newsletter, I got great discount in that way.
 
It's all personal preference, and cab packs generally don't cost a lot, so if you see a pack that interests you then grab it and have a play. The learning experience will be that you either like it, or you don't (in which case you know to probably not go for that particular cab again so you have still learned something useful).
 
It depends on type of cabinet and ir.. There are some great and almost new and others less.. Personally i love the soldano slo 100 which is born with the eminence 12v..the 2 available were from redwirez with no choice of mics for example.. In that case i needed to buy ir.
 
I dont think your life will be better from having an infinite amount of IRs to choose from. The factory cabs are plentyful, and I haven't tried em all. Still I have other IR packs. You might find 3rd party flavours you like and can't live without...or not. Its without a doubt an important part of the sound, but if one spend more time auditioning IRs than being productive in other ways, I'd say that its time to get out of the rabbit hole ;-)
 
I treaded lightly down the IR path. I've bought a few ML Sound Lab packs (Mega traditional & oversized) and the OwnHammer r(E)volution introductory pack.

There is a lot of chaff, but there are some good ones that I use all the time. I don't regret the money I've spent, but in all honesty, I didn't buy them because I went through all 2000+ stock IRs and decided they were crap; I just didn't go through them. That's one of my goals eventually, is to play with some more stock IRs and really get to know them, but I haven't been in the tweaking mood in a while.

But yeah; you can go crazy and spend as much or as little as you like, but it feels kinda silly sometimes to realize I've spent over $100 on IRs and use MAYBE 3 or 4 out of the nearly 80,000 that $100 got me.
 
I have not had my FM3 for very long but for what I use it for, I can honestly not see myself needing to spend additional money on specialty IRs. Fractal did an amazing job on the stock ones. YMMV, but with all the due diligence Fractal did and with the Cygnus update dropping within the next several months, I'm sure it will get even better.
 
Should I drop some LSD beforehand? Or should I just reread Alice in Wonderland? šŸ°

Will I just discover I am in never-ending pit of carrots---most of which will rot and
never be used and become IR compost? Or will it be carrot heaven?

Talk me into spending money, or saving some? Or just tell me your favourite line
from the first rabbit hole ever---the one Alice fell in. :)

Thanks!
What are the 4 main amps you use and i can save you hours
 
Yes, absolutely 100% worth it.

I rely on the IR to get 85%-95% of the way there. If itā€™s not sounding good with everything on the Authentic tab at noon, youā€™re most likely not going to tweak youā€™re way out of it and youā€™re better off moving to another IR.

I have a stupidly large collection of IRā€™s, I might have cracked 40,000 last night after last nightā€™s spending and while itā€™s a bit over the top, I donā€™t need to do much tweaking to get the tones Iā€™m after thanks to being able to choose from so many.

I often forget that it was IRā€™s that made me realize that modeling was a legit contender in the guitar amplification world. My first modeling experience was with the Line 6 Guitar Port, which I actually used for quite some time, like 13 years. Then I got Peaveyā€™s Revalver and thatā€™s when I tried my first IR. I almost shit myself.

We often get hung up on modeling algorithms and features that help us shape the tone, but Iā€™ll always believe that IRā€™s are the most important piece of the puzzle. Itā€™s tedious to search through a bunch, but thatā€™s where the looper comes into play. I just load it up before the amp, play a riff that covers as much as ground as I need from that preset/scene and loop it while I scroll through the IRā€™s.

Since I never make a choice right away, I just change the color of the IRā€™s I dig along the way and when when Iā€™ve found about 5-10 I dig, I go through those and find the best one.

When you stumble on the right one out of a small group, you know it REALLY quick. Thereā€™s no ā€œHmm, I could tweak the low end in thisā€ or ā€œClose enoughā€, itā€™s there and ready to go with everything on the amp at noon. From there you can fine tune it and get that much closer to the perfection that exists in our heads.
 
I have several cab packs and I am very satisfied with all of them, but I admit that the turning point came when I bought the Austin Buddy's Live Gold Pack and, studying his presets, I figured out how to set the sounds. For this I think that on the one hand you need to find the right match between amp and cab but maybe also more important, on the other hand, you must look for the right settings to make this combination to sound the best (volumes, frequency cuts, volume at which sounds are made, etc.).
 
Prior to the Axe-III and FM3, the answer was a definite yes. I bought the RedWirez Big Box, Amp Factory Legacy and Studio Delta, several of the Fractal offerings, and got a bunch of Ownhammers by helping fund his startup (may still even have some credit--that was a great deal at the time!).

However, with the choices now in the factory banks which include a good number of IR's I had already purchased, I feel it is almost unnecessary. Except for the Yorks which are special. Bought several of his packs. Of the others, the only IR's I go to regularly not included in the factory banks are the ones from the Amp Factory.
 
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