OwnHammer Room and Far Field IR's

ownhammer

Power User
Vendor
Hi all,

Just wanted to give everyone a sneak preview of the upcoming Room and Far Field IR's I'll be adding to the WAV and NEB libraries for free throughout the course of my updates. In the same fashion as the rest of the mics, there will be (generally) 5 positions each. The Far Fields will see two different versions of each position, 'C' and 'D'. This stands for Clean and Distorted respectfully, and is an indication of what type of guitar tone would be best suited for that version of the IR. The Clean version is a natural capture with a completely open top end, where the Distorted version has the fizz frequencies acutely dialed out. All of this will be put in the ReadMe as well. The below quick and dirty demo tracks are all done using the 412-GTR Bogner V31 cab/speaker combo, and done with the wave audio (WAV) version as that is the quickest for me during the testing process.

In the following example, I'm using the "Clean" website demo track with the MA200-3, Room-2, and FarField-2C IR's. As indicated in the comments, the order of the audio tracks are:

MA200 only | Room only | Far Field only | MA200 + Room | MA200 + Far Field | All 3 together



In the following example, I'm using the "Classic Rock" website demo track with the SM57-3, Room-2, and FarField-2D IR's. As indicated in the comments, the order of the audio tracks are:

SM57 only | Room only | Far Field only | SM57 + Room | SM57 + Far Field | All 3 together



In the following example, I'm demonstrating how the tail length truncation affects the overall sound. As indicated in the comments, in the first half the tail is full at 500 ms; in the second half it is truncated to 42 ms. This will show the difference between using the full wave audio file or Nebula program in the DAW vs what can be expected coming out of the cab block in the Axe-Fx II. The tone is retained, however you lose most of the room reflections, as to be expected.



I have no estimations at this point of when this will be implemented, or what order I'll do them in, just that they will be released with each library update. No amount of begging, pleading, or demanding will influence this, however I am most certainly open to sizable bribes. :lol The 412-GTR Mesa V32 will probably be first as it is 100 percent current in terms of library features and capture methods.

Stay tuned to my Newsletter and/or Forum for more info as it breaks, hopefully this will be a welcome addition to your tonal palette, especially for you non-metal heads. :)
 
These sound and work REALLY well. Totally kick ass flavor to the entire IR concept with the Axe-FX and in your DAW.

VERY much worth checking out.
 
Thanks guys! I'm looking very forward to getting these out to you all. :)

What's your mix ratio on the 2-at-once and 3-at-once takes in those tracks?

The quick, generic answer is as in the comments: the room and far fields are about -3 dB from the primary mic. That is up for wide interpretation though, and is just a very quick generalization.

More specifically *takes deep breath*, the first thing I did was create three stereo buses to place each one of the IR's on. Those got passed to a naked master bus and out - I did not want any volume maximization to alter the perception of the room for this. To that end this is DI guitar to VST tube screamer (for the classic rock demo, not the clean) to VST amp to convolution reverb plug and done. Mucho basic. On the guitar track were the three sends, one to each bus. I then found out where roughly (this was a relatively quick thing) all three sends resulted in the same relative perceived loudness while the loudest was a couple of dB shy of clipping. That varied between the two tracks as the way the amped track interacted with the IR's changed. So alone that was (looking at my scribbles on a notepad):

Clean:
MA200: -8.5 dB
Room: -12.5 dB
Far Field: -5.0 dB

Classic Rock:
SM57: -11.5 dB
Room: -15.5 dB
Far Field: -13.0 dB

For the 2 mic matches, I lowered the primary mic by 3.5 dB and the secondary mic by 6.5 dB, this seemed best to my ear in the 5-10 seconds or so I rolled the volume around. This was again to roughly appropriate the same perceived loudness. They're not spot on, but my aim here wasn't exact science. That made the levels:

Clean:
MA200: -12.0 dB
Room: -19.0 dB
Far Field: -11.5 dB

Classic Rock:
SM57: -15.0 dB
Room: -22.0 dB
Far Field: -19.5 dB

Then, again with rough relative perceived volume in mind, the combination of the 3 saw each of the 2 IR combinations dropped by 2.5 dB, making the levels:

Clean:
MA200: -14.5 dB
Room: -21.5 dB
Far Field: -14.0 dB

Classic Rock:
SM57: -17.5 dB
Room: -24.5 dB
Far Field: -22.0 dB

Just goes to show you how much things can change, and why its always best to do what best serves your guitar/patch/tracks, etc - there is never a gold standard for anything, which is why making IR's as universally usable as possible can be quite a daunting task!

Anyways, hope this made sense and satisfied your curiosity. :)
 
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Welcome! Glad I actually wrote down what I did so I had something detailed to respond with... :lol
 
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Awesome! Will it you ever release a 'FF only' bundle? :)

Originally all of this was going to wait for a completely separate series altogether called (tentatively) GTR-ROOM, ala NEB, WAV, etc. However with everything I have on my plate right now it was pretty low on the priority list and looked like something I wouldn't get to til 2013. Add to that the lengths I'd have to go to in order to justify it as a separate sales item, the majority of it in my opinion being unnecessary excess, would from a technical perspective require me to make it a Nebula only product line.

Seeing as how I didn't want to leave out or otherwise alienate the Axe-Fx users specifically if at all humanly possible, recently I've come up with this more minimalized and efficient offering that I can distribute in wave audio format as well. The lightweight but (in my opinion) super useful inclusions as shown here give added value to the WAV and NEB libraries at no additional cost to existing customers, and are added incentive for others who may not have them yet to join in the fun.

I'm happy enough with how these have turned out to put the GTR-ROOM stuff on a (at this point in time) permanent hiatus.

In summation, right now I only plan on having these be a part of the standard features of the WAV and NEB libraries.
 
Awesome! Was hoping for this initiative, esp. since Jay might probably be taking quite some time yet and the diversification is welcomed.

My bribe contribution is that I just might be purchasing the full collection in the near future... ;)
 
I absolutely love the sound of the farfields, alone or mixed with the nf mic. I wonder how they would "feel" in a live frfr band situation.
 
It would be great to hear the FF through your on stage FRFR monitors and the FOH to receive the NF like in real life.
 
Thanks again for the kind words guys! :)

I am nearing the end of my strategy and testing phase for this and have more info to pass along that may be of interest to some of you that are looking forward to these and other upcoming OH library updates.

The primary mics/positions will be left where they are now and the Room and Far Fields are going to go in a sub-folder called 'Auxiliary'. This will help to directly separate and subconsciously disassociate the primary near field mics from the "mix-in" type mics, just as one would typically mentally attribute and functionally utilize them in a recording environment. The libraries that have Fat1 and Fat2 folders, those will be gone. Reason being? In addition to the Room and Far Fields, to be found in the new Auxiliary folder will be:

1) The Fat1 and Fat2 mix in recipes in IR format. Rather than impose a mix level that sounds good to me on my test tracks in my listening environment to my ears, the choice will now be up to you what you want to do with them and how much of it you want to add, if you don't just want to play through them by themselves. Offering them independently will also help to de-clutter the file/folder structure, provide less to wade through for those who may not be OwnHammer IR aficionados or want to audition everything, and get back on track with my "less is more" presentation that I seemed to be diverging from as of late.

2) Mid field, if you will, Floor IR's in two flavors - live room and dead room. Essentially taking the Aux mic technique/placement from my PRO series, expanding it, and doing it in two different rooms. Positions 1-5 with a 'D' or 'L' on the end for Dead or Live room.

3) Not 100% on this one just yet (still need to test manual time/phase alignment feasibility), but may also add a couple back-of-the-cab-ish mics.

In the spirit of offering greater flexibility to the user over a more turn key pre-packaging, I'm also going to be ditching the Secret Stash and providing the underlying mics as separate - the AEA R92 and Audio Technica AE2500. The condenser and dynamic elements of the AE2500 will be summed, however.

Super stoked about getting the first couple libraries out to you all even more now than I was last week!
 
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Nice. I just bought the entire wav set today and I am going nuts waiting to get home and try them. It was cool to see this afterwards :D
 
Quick question for the mighty Mr. Ownhammer...can these FF IR's (and NF's) be offered with no mic....i like Scott P's idea of not using a mic and do not see how that can be done with the OH's I have or might purchase.
thanks
 
...the mighty Mr. Ownhammer...

Don't know about all that, but, the ego stroke is certainly appreciated, haha. 8)

...can these FF IR's (and NF's) be offered with no mic....i like Scott P's idea of not using a mic and do not see how that can be done with the OH's I have or might purchase.
thanks

I assume this is in reference to using a reference mic, and in that case yes. There are Earthworks TC30 near field IR's already in every current library, and the upcoming far fields use the TC30 as well. So does Fat_1, a new IR offered separately in the upcoming 'Auxiliary' folder as mentioned in post #17 above. A lot of flexibility and tone shaping is possible using these three different capture types as even though they utilize the same mic, they all are placed differently and have varying levels of additional, yet subtle, EQ applied.

If i was off the mark on the "not using a mic" part, hit me with a link to Scott's specific post and I'll take a look at what he said/meant and have another swing at it.
 
Thanks for the response...i dont know how to tag the thread but in the axe2 discussion named Taming the Monster video/thread that Scott P. graciously posted he mentions using OH NF cabs mixed with the Jay Mitchell FF cabs and no mic sim within the axe 2. I think you are saying the TC30 is a neutral mic that could be used when no mic coloration is wanted...which is what Scott has suggested as a starting point when dialing an amp and cab in the axe 2....right?
 
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