Rocket Brother
Power User
Hi guys
Sorry for the long post
I’ve actually never gotten around to using the user cabs/importing speaker IR’s in neither my Ultra or Axe II before now.
I’ve allways had great results with the cab IR’s included in the Axe.
But still for some time I’ve had the feeling that the last however small difference to my benchmark amps was mainly down to the cab sims/IR’s, and that great IR’s might be able to close that gap down to 1% or perhaps all the way.
So the other day I purchased the OwnHammer Tier 3 Wav package of the jump starter deal for the new OwnHammer IR library, and got the both the public beta V30 IR’s and the bonus beta IR’s related to the Tier 3 package.
Yesterday I was asked if I could stand in for a friend in his band for a gig with a 6 hours notice.
As they were loading the gear onto the truck, the keyboard player dropped his rack on my friends hand and forearm, giving him an uncomplicated fracture and severe contusion - Ouch !
He’s a good friend and his bandmates are great guys, so naturally I agreed to help them out.
The gig was a corporate B-day gig that payed very well so it meant a lot to them, the material was fairly standard cover stuff and I’ve played most of the tunes at some point but there were 3 tunes that I needed to check some parts for – so I was in a hurry.
First hour:
was used cooking for and feeding my son and arranging to drop him off at my parents since my girlfriend was out.
Second hour:
was used checking the parts for the tunes I didn´t know.
While I was in a hurry and could have done the the gig with some of my own patches, I thought about my buddy's dual amp rig; small pedalboard, Fender Twin and Marshall Plexi, and for some reason I suddenly felt brave and decided to ”copy” his rig.
I made a simple template (comp-wah-boost 1 (PEQ1)-drive-boost 2 (filter)-amp-cab-PEQ2-delay-reverb) and made 2 presets from that.
In the first preset I used a Twin and used the X-amp as a clean funky version, the Y-amp as a fatter clean.
In the second preset I used a JTM-45 as the X-amp set up so it was on the verge of break-up, and I could control it with my volume pot and a boost to be anything from clean to AC/DC. I then used the Plexi Treble for the Y-amp and set that for Hendrix-Led Zep, with the boost and drive I could easily get modern top-40 type lead tones.
I made the presets at gig volume in only 10 minutes as I know how to get this type of sound from the Axe II.
Here is the kicker – having downloaded the OwnHammer public beta V30 IR’s and the bonus beta IR’s related to the Tier 3 package the other day, I checked the Axe Edit manual and in 5 minutes I made 2 versions of each preset – one version with standard Axe II sims and one set with the new OwnHammer IR’s. For the Twin I used a G12-65 IR and for the Marshalls I used a Scumback IR, can’t remember exactly which position I used but it was 5-6 and F or W.
Making the presets ate 15 min into hour 3.
Third hour:
Making the presets ate into the third hour, the rest was spend getting the gear and my son loaded into the car and driving to my parents
Gear: 4 unit rack with Line 6 G90, Axe II, Metric Halo ULN2 + Fender CS Strat + Underwood tele + LF+12+ midi board with a Mission exp pedal for controlling the wah. The band/tech had a wedge (Mayer Sound) that I could use as a personal monitor.
Forth hour:
Getting from my parents to the gig, 30 min drive, unloading and talking to the monitor and FOH tech about running direct – they were shaking their heads and proposed that I used my friend amps and pedal board that they had already set up and and soundchecked for levels. Needless to say I declined.
Fifth hour:
Had 15 minutes to soundcheck me.
The band had soundchecked earlier, and the monitor tech who was really cool had made a recording of ¼ a song then, that he played back so they could set the faders on my channel for the FOH and I could get the monitor mix I wanted. I made the soundcheck mainly on the patches with the standard cab sims, but checked quickly that the level was right also on the patches with the OwnHammer IR’s.
The techs who are both very experienced and have toured with many pro acts both gave big thumps up and said that it was the first time they had heard a direct device sound like a tube amp.
The rest of hour 5 was used talking to the band about clues and so on and getting a sandwich.
Showtime – slightly nervous as we have never played together the band and I took to the stage - and had a blast. These guys can play and everything went really well.
With regards to the OwnHammer IR’s, I played the first 5 songs on the presets using the standard Axe II cab sims, then switched to the presets with the OwnHammer IR’s, and the improvement in my tones was HUGE, HUGE, HUGE - they sounded more real, more clear and at the same time they blended better in the mix.
The techs had heard the OwnHammer presets shortly during soundcheck and I had told them, that I would try to switch after the fifth song and asked if they would signal me after the first song and when I switched if the sound was ok, so they were expecting some sort of change and were ready to adjust eq if needed.
After the first song I got a smile and a thumps up from both of them, but a few seconds into the 6th song I could see the monitor techs tonsils as he lost his jaw, the FOH tech threw both his arms in the air as if he had scored a soccer goal.
Even more telling was the instant look I got from the singer (& 2nd guitarist) and bass player, they didn’t know what I did but they just reacted to the sound.
These reactions and the sound I heard from the stage monitor made me feel really good and completely confident – the rest of the night I just focused on playing my ass off to the best of my abilities.
After the show we were all extremely happy with how it went and everybody asked about the Axe II, and I gladly explained about it and the new IR’s that I had loaded just prior to the gig.
They offered me to fill in for the rest of the shows they have booked until my buddy is ready to play again and even offered me more than a normal cut since I came in with such a short notice. I said I´d take a little, just to cover gas money and a small thing from the gas station ☺ for my son, since our father-son evening that he’d looked forward to was cancelled, but that the rest of my cut were to go to my buddy as this is his sole source of income.
The rest of the band actually said that they were each going to give him 20% of their cut from this and future gigs until he’s fit again, and the keyboard player who felt a lot of remorse donated his entire cut from this gig to my buddy.
Class act bandmates if you ask me.
I’m checking their dates to see if I can do a stand in gig or two more with them, but most of the dates are conflicting with my own gig dates.
Long winded post I know – sorry – but this experience meant a lot to me, both with regards to my buddy and with regards to these new IR’s from OwnHammer.
I’m extremely impressed with these beta bonus IR’s even though I’ve only just tried a few of them and used them at one gig.
I want to congratulate Kevin @ OwnHammer for creating these monster speaker IR’s that I truely believe represents the next paradigm shift for Axe II users – tall statement I know, but I stand by my words, and I’m eagerly waiting for the finished commercial version.
I for one will be using them in all my presets from now on – there is no going back for me.
RB
Sorry for the long post
I’ve actually never gotten around to using the user cabs/importing speaker IR’s in neither my Ultra or Axe II before now.
I’ve allways had great results with the cab IR’s included in the Axe.
But still for some time I’ve had the feeling that the last however small difference to my benchmark amps was mainly down to the cab sims/IR’s, and that great IR’s might be able to close that gap down to 1% or perhaps all the way.
So the other day I purchased the OwnHammer Tier 3 Wav package of the jump starter deal for the new OwnHammer IR library, and got the both the public beta V30 IR’s and the bonus beta IR’s related to the Tier 3 package.
Yesterday I was asked if I could stand in for a friend in his band for a gig with a 6 hours notice.
As they were loading the gear onto the truck, the keyboard player dropped his rack on my friends hand and forearm, giving him an uncomplicated fracture and severe contusion - Ouch !
He’s a good friend and his bandmates are great guys, so naturally I agreed to help them out.
The gig was a corporate B-day gig that payed very well so it meant a lot to them, the material was fairly standard cover stuff and I’ve played most of the tunes at some point but there were 3 tunes that I needed to check some parts for – so I was in a hurry.
First hour:
was used cooking for and feeding my son and arranging to drop him off at my parents since my girlfriend was out.
Second hour:
was used checking the parts for the tunes I didn´t know.
While I was in a hurry and could have done the the gig with some of my own patches, I thought about my buddy's dual amp rig; small pedalboard, Fender Twin and Marshall Plexi, and for some reason I suddenly felt brave and decided to ”copy” his rig.
I made a simple template (comp-wah-boost 1 (PEQ1)-drive-boost 2 (filter)-amp-cab-PEQ2-delay-reverb) and made 2 presets from that.
In the first preset I used a Twin and used the X-amp as a clean funky version, the Y-amp as a fatter clean.
In the second preset I used a JTM-45 as the X-amp set up so it was on the verge of break-up, and I could control it with my volume pot and a boost to be anything from clean to AC/DC. I then used the Plexi Treble for the Y-amp and set that for Hendrix-Led Zep, with the boost and drive I could easily get modern top-40 type lead tones.
I made the presets at gig volume in only 10 minutes as I know how to get this type of sound from the Axe II.
Here is the kicker – having downloaded the OwnHammer public beta V30 IR’s and the bonus beta IR’s related to the Tier 3 package the other day, I checked the Axe Edit manual and in 5 minutes I made 2 versions of each preset – one version with standard Axe II sims and one set with the new OwnHammer IR’s. For the Twin I used a G12-65 IR and for the Marshalls I used a Scumback IR, can’t remember exactly which position I used but it was 5-6 and F or W.
Making the presets ate 15 min into hour 3.
Third hour:
Making the presets ate into the third hour, the rest was spend getting the gear and my son loaded into the car and driving to my parents
Gear: 4 unit rack with Line 6 G90, Axe II, Metric Halo ULN2 + Fender CS Strat + Underwood tele + LF+12+ midi board with a Mission exp pedal for controlling the wah. The band/tech had a wedge (Mayer Sound) that I could use as a personal monitor.
Forth hour:
Getting from my parents to the gig, 30 min drive, unloading and talking to the monitor and FOH tech about running direct – they were shaking their heads and proposed that I used my friend amps and pedal board that they had already set up and and soundchecked for levels. Needless to say I declined.
Fifth hour:
Had 15 minutes to soundcheck me.
The band had soundchecked earlier, and the monitor tech who was really cool had made a recording of ¼ a song then, that he played back so they could set the faders on my channel for the FOH and I could get the monitor mix I wanted. I made the soundcheck mainly on the patches with the standard cab sims, but checked quickly that the level was right also on the patches with the OwnHammer IR’s.
The techs who are both very experienced and have toured with many pro acts both gave big thumps up and said that it was the first time they had heard a direct device sound like a tube amp.
The rest of hour 5 was used talking to the band about clues and so on and getting a sandwich.
Showtime – slightly nervous as we have never played together the band and I took to the stage - and had a blast. These guys can play and everything went really well.
With regards to the OwnHammer IR’s, I played the first 5 songs on the presets using the standard Axe II cab sims, then switched to the presets with the OwnHammer IR’s, and the improvement in my tones was HUGE, HUGE, HUGE - they sounded more real, more clear and at the same time they blended better in the mix.
The techs had heard the OwnHammer presets shortly during soundcheck and I had told them, that I would try to switch after the fifth song and asked if they would signal me after the first song and when I switched if the sound was ok, so they were expecting some sort of change and were ready to adjust eq if needed.
After the first song I got a smile and a thumps up from both of them, but a few seconds into the 6th song I could see the monitor techs tonsils as he lost his jaw, the FOH tech threw both his arms in the air as if he had scored a soccer goal.
Even more telling was the instant look I got from the singer (& 2nd guitarist) and bass player, they didn’t know what I did but they just reacted to the sound.
These reactions and the sound I heard from the stage monitor made me feel really good and completely confident – the rest of the night I just focused on playing my ass off to the best of my abilities.
After the show we were all extremely happy with how it went and everybody asked about the Axe II, and I gladly explained about it and the new IR’s that I had loaded just prior to the gig.
They offered me to fill in for the rest of the shows they have booked until my buddy is ready to play again and even offered me more than a normal cut since I came in with such a short notice. I said I´d take a little, just to cover gas money and a small thing from the gas station ☺ for my son, since our father-son evening that he’d looked forward to was cancelled, but that the rest of my cut were to go to my buddy as this is his sole source of income.
The rest of the band actually said that they were each going to give him 20% of their cut from this and future gigs until he’s fit again, and the keyboard player who felt a lot of remorse donated his entire cut from this gig to my buddy.
Class act bandmates if you ask me.
I’m checking their dates to see if I can do a stand in gig or two more with them, but most of the dates are conflicting with my own gig dates.
Long winded post I know – sorry – but this experience meant a lot to me, both with regards to my buddy and with regards to these new IR’s from OwnHammer.
I’m extremely impressed with these beta bonus IR’s even though I’ve only just tried a few of them and used them at one gig.
I want to congratulate Kevin @ OwnHammer for creating these monster speaker IR’s that I truely believe represents the next paradigm shift for Axe II users – tall statement I know, but I stand by my words, and I’m eagerly waiting for the finished commercial version.
I for one will be using them in all my presets from now on – there is no going back for me.
RB
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