New Ownhammer IRs - Questions

jan

New Member
I just saw that the Ownhammer store now has a lot fewer IR packs available.

I bought quite a few of Kevin's packs over the years and found that the new ones were typically "better" (=more to my liking) compared to older packs but the selection did indeed get a little complex (many packs, many speaker options per cab, different methods, vector stuff, etc.). So I like this apparent simplification a lot.

What I'm wondering is: are the ones being offered now completely new IRs?

And also a (related) question - it says these are shot with a "neutral" tube power amp. Does that mean it's a tube power amp that has LITTLE coloration (e.g. Atomic rather than a Marshall), or is it like the Mic+DI method where it is completely neutral?

(I'm asking the latter because it always kinda bothered me that for some reason I never liked "solid state IRs" but then when you took "tube IRs" with a "full amp" in the Axe FX or any other modeling thing you had basically two tube power sections in your tone.)

Cheers
 
The AMPG BASS, Justin York Collection, 212 MAR-66 Multi-Speaker Collection, and Marsh-UK Multi-Cabinet Collection are unchanged from their original releases. Everything else in the store now is completely reshot and fully matured in terms of sampling technique and feature set. I have been informed by high profile artists that these are already dropping jaws in major label recording sessions and arena tours, just as well all the positive feedback on this forum and in social media channels can be a choir for the satisfaction rate of everyone who's picked them up so far. :)

Think of the amp like in the hi-fi audiophile context - there are tube amps that are neutral just like solid state amps, but have a little extra something going on that makes the sound more pleasant, appealing, and/or 'real'. I've tried about everything under the sun in terms of capturing, and not only do I not prefer anything other than what I am doing, but in blind beta testing shootouts with a group of very capable people this method also was unanimously chosen. This isn't a tube amp like in other IR libraries on the market that are using a 5150 or Dual Rectifier power amp section with the Presence and/or Depth enabled, not by a long shot. These work perfectly for something like the Axe-Fx, or any number of full amp modeling or amp + dummy load to line out chains available.
 
The AMPG BASS, Justin York Collection, 212 MAR-66 Multi-Speaker Collection, and Marsh-UK Multi-Cabinet Collection are unchanged from their original releases. Everything else in the store now is completely reshot and fully matured in terms of sampling technique and feature set. I have been informed by high profile artists that these are already dropping jaws in major label recording sessions and arena tours, just as well all the positive feedback on this forum and in social media channels can be a choir for the satisfaction rate of everyone who's picked them up so far. :)
Mesa multi Mic collection has been removed too? Was it not good enough for current sampling quality?
 
Are you planning any new High Gain collections? Some of my favorites which are no longer available were pretty much all the HGE IRs using 5881. The Diezel v30 16ohm is wonderful and the Sunn stock speaker is amazing. Would love to see some new releases in this category.
 
Mesa multi Mic collection has been removed too? Was it not good enough for current sampling quality?

The MMC's are still enabled, just not on the homepage as to try to simplify the global presentation. There are a lot of new platforms entering the market, and if there's one thing I learned from V3 its that only a small portion of people want a crud ton of options. I don't want to promote the brand to the new wave of customers the way I have in the past, trial and error, when you're trailblazing the need to refine the path can definitely come into play. Apple, Microsoft, Fractal, everyone company grows their product based on these elements. Back on topic, if you go to the search bar and type in anything that would return that library, it will show up, same with the Marshall MMC. In this way, if somebody emails me and asks for some random mic that I have that isn't in the main libraries on the site, I have a couple of places to point them to. That said, the MMC and the new MES-ST put out today sound different. One not better than the other, just different. If you check out the EWH mixes in them, you'll get a good scope of the MMC style and the V4 style. :) I'm also going to be putting the Studio Mix content back on the site once I have gone through and cleaned up some file formats I don't want in the packages anymore for new sales.

Are you planning any new High Gain collections? Some of my favorites which are no longer available were pretty much all the HGE IRs using 5881. The Diezel v30 16ohm is wonderful and the Sunn stock speaker is amazing. Would love to see some new releases in this category.

With the exception to the Vibro Champ I did in V1 and the cabs I've borrowed from Justin, everything I've ever shot I've bought, own, and have in my basement. The Diezel and Sunn are both high priority items for me personally, and will definitely be making their way back as soon as I can get to them. All in all there will be probably close to 40 cabs on the site when I'm done with this, gonna be a lot of fun!
 
ownhammer,

Was the 410 SPRVRB also reshot?

I just picked this up a couple of weeks ago - if I re-download will I be getting the re-shot version (assuming this was reshot, since it isn't listed in Thread #2?) or will I need to purchase again to pick up the re-shot version?

When I visit my account info on the website, it says V4 - is there a way to tell from the name if these are the latest re-shot files? Many of my IRs are V3, so that's a no-brainer; the MCC, MSC, JY, and Ampegs are listed above; how to tell on the others?
 
The AMPG BASS, Justin York Collection, 212 MAR-66 Multi-Speaker Collection, and Marsh-UK Multi-Cabinet Collection are unchanged from their original releases. Everything else in the store now is completely reshot and fully matured in terms of sampling technique and feature set. I have been informed by high profile artists that these are already dropping jaws in major label recording sessions and arena tours, just as well all the positive feedback on this forum and in social media channels can be a choir for the satisfaction rate of everyone who's picked them up so far. :)

Think of the amp like in the hi-fi audiophile context - there are tube amps that are neutral just like solid state amps, but have a little extra something going on that makes the sound more pleasant, appealing, and/or 'real'. I've tried about everything under the sun in terms of capturing, and not only do I not prefer anything other than what I am doing, but in blind beta testing shootouts with a group of very capable people this method also was unanimously chosen. This isn't a tube amp like in other IR libraries on the market that are using a 5150 or Dual Rectifier power amp section with the Presence and/or Depth enabled, not by a long shot. These work perfectly for something like the Axe-Fx, or any number of full amp modeling or amp + dummy load to line out chains available.

Something I am curious about... Just in York said that the JY pack of IR'S are the most organic sounding and feeling IR'S that he's ever played. What do you think it was about the process of creating those that made that pack of IR'S that way? Is it same process that you use on your other new packs?

The biggest problem I have with IR's when trying to select them is in the top end, still have yet to find that IR that has the airy, open top end bite (not fizz) that I love. The other problems I find in IR's these days is that a lot seem to either have a honk in the mids or sound kind of like the low end is coming through a paper tube, or both. Thanks for your work!
 
Something I am curious about... Just in York said that the JY pack of IR'S are the most organic sounding and feeling IR'S that he's ever played. What do you think it was about the process of creating those that made that pack of IR'S that way? Is it same process that you use on your other new packs?

The biggest problem I have with IR's when trying to select them is in the top end, still have yet to find that IR that has the airy, open top end bite (not fizz) that I love. The other problems I find in IR's these days is that a lot seem to either have a honk in the mids or sound kind of like the low end is coming through a paper tube, or both. Thanks for your work!
Try cutting off around 300Hz somewhere like -2 or -3db, maybe it'll solve your low end issue
 
Something I am curious about... Just in York said that the JY pack of IR'S are the most organic sounding and feeling IR'S that he's ever played. What do you think it was about the process of creating those that made that pack of IR'S that way? Is it same process that you use on your other new packs?

The biggest problem I have with IR's when trying to select them is in the top end, still have yet to find that IR that has the airy, open top end bite (not fizz) that I love. The other problems I find in IR's these days is that a lot seem to either have a honk in the mids or sound kind of like the low end is coming through a paper tube, or both. Thanks for your work!


I fully understand what you're talking about 100%, and those were a lot of my concerns as well while Kevin and I worked on these IRs. It's true that the JYC (and now the entire "V4" series) by OwnHammer are the most organic IRs I've had the pleasure of experiencing. The neutral tube power amp brings an incredible amount of life and swirl to the sound. We A/B'ed it with an extremely high quality flat solid state power amp… One sounded like my real amp, and the other sounded like a modeled version of my amp. Going tube was a no-brainer, and trust me, it's amazing hearing your sound go from 2D to 3D. And the bottom line is that I KNOW what my cabs sound like, so hearing the results literally made me smile. I always struggled with finding IRs that sounded like my real world gear, and Kevin put an end to that search.

Kevin is utilizing the technique used for the JYC and putting his own spin on the feature set to create the "V4" stuff. And his extensive speaker collection allows him to do what no one else can, and that's give you two different speaker types per cabinet and offer individual or blended mixtures of both of them. For instance, if you love the Mesa Traditional cab, you'll find that he offers the 70 watt and 60 watt Vintage 30's, which allows you to have the sounds of both the old and new versions of that cabinet, and blending the two is actually really awesome. He's doing this with all of the new cabs he's shooting, so each one will have two speakers that compliment each other.

Regarding the "airy top end" you want and the "honk and paper tube low end" you don't, I'd be really curious to see what you think of these libraries. I've been an Axe user and IR addict for a year and a half now and have always found my IR hunt to be like Goldie Locks and the Three Bears…Some too dark, some too bright, some dull, some harsh... but these feel just right to me. Great frequency response, incredible string to string definition, and above all else…it sounds like the cabinet it's supposed to.
 
Thanks a lot for the info Kevin and Justin (and everyone else too :))

I bought one of the new packs (Mesa ST) and like it! I still need to compare to my other IRs but so far it seems great!
 
Does anyone know the difference in a mix of the 2x12 IR's vs. the 4x12's? The 2x12 Mesa with the V30 and a Creamback is interesting to me. Just not sure if I'd like the sound of a 2x12 vs a 4x14 in a mix. Trying to find maybe 2 packs to get don't wanna go down the rabbit hole too much. Wish there were some tonal descriptions about the cabs/speakers or more demos put there.
 
I should get my hands on the new OH Mesa Standard 4x12 pack asap. As much as I love CP7 from ML, I am really curious to try this one as well. Mesa 4x12s (Standard and Oversized) are my favorite cabs.
 
I should get my hands on the new OH Mesa Standard 4x12 pack asap. As much as I love CP7 from ML, I am really curious to try this one as well. Mesa 4x12s (Standard and Oversized) are my favorite cabs.


the Mesa 212 with the v30 /Cream back 75 is the bomb too .

Excited to see the new round of Jon clips that cost me money lol
 
I have a question! Is it required to insert the EQ after the IR?

From the Ownhammer PDF with every release:

"SOUNDING LIKE A GUITAR TUBE AMP

With the files contained in this library there is a very quick, simple step that can be taken to duplicate the sound of a guitar tube power amp with the Presence and Depth set to 0, similar what is offered in other OwnHammer speaker cabinet impulse response libraries.

To replicate this sound, following the cabinet IR loader add an EQ with a parametric bell curve set to -3 dB at 400 Hz. Adjust the Q/bandwidth to roughly where the edges of the curve start to make the initial cut around 100 Hz on the low side and 2 kHz on the high side. If necessary, adjust the Q/bandwidth to taste from here to best suit your sound source and tonal preference. "

I often use real amps (torpedo into DAW) and the AxeFx, when should one be adding the cut around 400Hz?
 
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I have a question! When is it "appropriate" to insert the EQ after the IR (in the Axe or in the DAW)?

From the Ownhammer PDF with every release:

"SOUNDING LIKE A GUITAR TUBE AMP

With the files contained in this library there is a very quick, simple step that can be taken to duplicate the sound of a guitar tube power amp with the Presence and Depth set to 0, similar what is offered in other OwnHammer speaker cabinet impulse response libraries.

To replicate this sound, following the cabinet IR loader add an EQ with a parametric bell curve set to -3 dB at 400 Hz. Adjust the Q/bandwidth to roughly where the edges of the curve start to make the initial cut around 100 Hz on the low side and 2 kHz on the high side. If necessary, adjust the Q/bandwidth to taste from here to best suit your sound source and tonal preference. "

I often use real amps (torpedo into DAW) and the AxeFx, when should one be adding the cut around 400Hz?
I prefer to do it in the DAW, cause if I change my mind I can redo it.
 
the Mesa 212 with the v30 /Cream back 75 is the bomb too .

Excited to see the new round of Jon clips that cost me money lol

How does the 2x12 sound compared to the 4x12 IR's in your opinion? I'd assume it may sound smaller, less warm. What do you think?

Thanks
 
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