Looking for IR's that make an amp blend well with acoustic guitars.

MisterE

MisterE

Fractal Fanatic
I have a few guitars with piëzo's and I would like to use them together with the regular magnetic pickups.
The amp sims I like to use are Cameron CCV, Friedman, Plexi's, JCM800... and in the high gain departement the 5150 Red.
So I'm looking for IR's for the mags that blend well with piëzo's.

So far I've been quite happy with the IR's I'm using but when combining it with piëzo's, suddenly my electric sound sounds somewhat duller and less full.
If someone could point out a cab collection, that would be very helpful.
I own almost all Ownhammers, and Cab Pack 3rom Fractal.
I generally prefer V30's with a R121.
 
Are you putting the piezo signal into the same amp at the same time as the mag pickups?
 
Mags => amp => cab => fx =>.....
Piëzo => Fxloop return => Amp => comp => fx....

I run both in parallell

And the idea is to have something that works well with a mid gain amp for the mags
 
What sound are you going for though when running both together? Acoustic plus Electric guitar doesn't automatically sound good played at the same time. Can you give an audio example of what you want to sound like?

For my piezo path, I don't use an amp. Just compression, EQ and a Filter block as a boost so it matches the electric path level.
 
Well, that's exactly what I noticed. It seems that it needs a bit of delay or something to separate the two.
It so happens I turned of the amp in the piëzo path as well. I used the tube preamp sim for that but it seems it doesn't add much. So just a compressor and some fx for the piëzo's.
What does work well however, is a dual delay on the piëzo with a delay set to 1/4th and 1/8 dot so when hitting a chord, you get the effect of the accoustic guitar being strum several times.
That blends well.
But, as you said Chris, playing the two together doesn't work that well.
I was just hoping that with the right IR, this would be possible.
 
Have you experimented with a tape doubler effect?

It's a complex question you're asking. Volume and EQ balance from both sources affect each other.
 
Have you experimented with a tape doubler effect?
Click to expand...
nope. i have no idea how to do this. Could you please explain?
It's a complex question you're asking. Volume and EQ balance from both sources affect each other.
Click to expand...
I thought so :nightmare:
For now, I use only the EQ of the amp on the mag side, none on the piëzo side.
I like to keep things as simple as possible.
But one thing I noticed is that, when using an IR that supposedly sounds good in a mix (I always try IR's with backing tracks) and you try using it with an acoustic guitar sound, it immediately is obvious how dull or lifeless the electric sound is compared to the acoustic. That's why I'm also looking for IR's that are better in that regard. I hope this makes any sense since itse quite hard to explain.
On the plus side, I just bought some more cab packs :)
 
I just tried with the piëzo's dry in the centre and a light chorus to the mags, and it's better. It seems that when both are occupying the same space ibn the mix, it doesn't work that well.
so panning is crucial to.
 
I play with the electric and piezo together a lot, but part of the issue is how you are strumming. We play an electric tone much differently than an acoustic tone. We tend to dig in harder on the electric sound, but if we played an acoustic for the same part, we might strum a bit lighter or clearer. So keep that in mind as well.
 
This is how I set up all of my electric/acoustic(ish) dual presets.

1....My electric signal drops a few db (using a scene controller or a null filter block) so that the two sounds are perceived as the same volume as the electric signal alone. That way when I go to a scene with the electric signal alone it doesn't seem so drastic.

2.... I use a compressor to keep the 'acoustic' level fairly constant so that I can still play dynamically, even use my volume knob a bit and not change the 'acoustic' level that much.

3....I set the level of the 'acoustic' signal so that when I strum as I normally do when playing an electric guitar with some gain, you mainly hear the high-end and the pick attack of the 'acoustic' signal. More of a 'percussion' sound at that point?

4....I set up my volume/expression pedal (when I am on a scene with both electric and acoustic sounds at the same time) so that when the pedal is in the heel position the electric signal goes to zero and the 'acoustic' signal is boosted enough to be perceived as the same volume as the electric/acoustic or the electric alone. I also back off some of the compression at the same time so that the 'acoustic' signal is more dynamic and sounds more natural.

I do these same 'level' adjustments when I'm using scenes to go from electric to electric/acoustic to acoustic so that all thee variations are perceived as equal volumes in a mix.

Also, (CPU permitting) on the 'acoustic' signal path, I like to use the 'pitch' block set to 'detune' about -8 cents on voice 1 panned hard left and +8 cents on voice 2 panned hard right, mix 50%. And its own reverb is a nice touch.
 
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