The Importance of IRs

FractalAudio said:
The cab contributes significantly to the sound. Obviously if there's an amp in the cab you don't want to use the amp itself. Use a neutral solid-state amp to drive the speaker.
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Hmmm, my 2 x 12's are wired directly to the speakers (no jacks). In this case is the best option to use the FX return or power amp in? Or, is there some other SAFE alternative way to power the speakers in this situation?
 
Your amp's FX return and power amp in jacks will be way less colored than the amp's guitar input. They'd be your second choice. First choice would be connecting a neutral amp to the speakers. To do that, you could install a jack that feeds your speakers directly, but leaves them connected to the amp's output when nothing is plugged into it.
 
Rex said:
Your amp's FX return and power amp in jacks will be way less colored than the amp's guitar input. They'd be your second choice. First choice would be connecting a neutral amp to the speakers. To do that, you could install a jack that feeds your speakers directly, but leaves them connected to the amp's output when nothing is plugged into it.
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No fx loops on the amps in my collection I'd consider making IRs of--well, except one, I guess.

Sorry I'm so clueless about this whole process, but I'd need more guidance about what neutral amp to choose (Cliff suggested a solid state power amp). And the rest of the process you just described is also a bit of a mystery to me. I have a good amp tech I can talk to locally, so that's a plus.
 
Check out the WIKI for more info. There's also at least one video tutorial posted.
 
Now that I've made a IR how do I find the cab in AE to copy it and share it, I can find it in my cab block but not sure how to pass it along? Thanks..
 
Rex, I found it in Axe-Edit but if I right click the cab, copy it, it won't show the IR.. I've tried right click, left click import, export.. you name, I have to be doing something wrong.. Hmm... Thanks..
 
Export is what you want. It should pop up a dialog box asking you where you want to export the cab to.
 
If I find I am not getting the amp tone I thought out of the AXE II, I just browse the cab/speaker IRs, literally one at a time...eventually I get a "bingo." In future editions of AXE Edit I think they will make it so you can more easily load and unload "sets" of 50 user cabs of your choosing, which will also help people find they cab/mic sounds from third party IRs like RedWirez and Ownhammer after they exhaust the factory IRs, but those factory IRs really cover a LOT of ground...especially once you pair them up with mics to bring out sweet spots for your ears.

Don't just stick with 57's and R121s, the Sennheiser 421 is good for guitar tones to punch through a mix (mids) and the condensers add body. I'd love to see a Beyer Dynamic M 160 added to list as well one day, Eddie Kramer says that's his favorite guitar mic.

Just tonight I was having trouble using my "eyes" to match to a Bogner Ecstasy, wondering why the various V30s didn't do it for me. I found the SLM V30 nailed a Bogner tone I was after better than the German or other V30. You just have to experiment and trust your ears, but it is VERY rewarding once you do find the perfect cab for an amp.
 
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I'm farily sure I can answer my own quesiton, but hee goes....

I am runnning active FRFR studio monitors (Genelec 8040s) in my home set up. I thought the advantage of these was the wider freq response. Surely if I use cab IRs I am in fact recreating the freq response limitations of those cabs?

Is the reason to use the cab IRs that they provide great colour to the tone which you simply cannot get (and don't want) from the FRFR set up?

Please confirm that my understanding is not screwy! :)

Cheers
Giles
 
Gilesy said:
I am runnning active FRFR studio monitors (Genelec 8040s) in my home set up. I thought the advantage of these was the wider freq response. Surely if I use cab IRs I am in fact recreating the freq response limitations of those cabs?

Is the reason to use the cab IRs that they provide great colour to the tone which you simply cannot get (and don't want) from the FRFR set up?

Please confirm that my understanding is not screwy! :)

Cheers
Giles
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Most great guitar tones have been made with amps into cabs (or combo amps). The cab IR is aiming to give you the sound of those cabs. FRFR amplifies the sound of the whole patch as cleanly as possible. Yes, the advantage of FRFR is wider and hopefully more even frequency response, but you'll still want to use cab IRs. Good FRFR will allow the differences between those IRs and whatever else is in your chain to be clear and retain the character you're seeking.

The alternative is to run into a real guitar cab and not use FRFR. In that case you're limited to the sound of that cabinet, as in most cases you wouldn't want to run cab IRs into another guitar cab (though some do with guitar speakers like EV12L which is more full range than many).

A big part of why amps sound the way they do is the cabinet. Run most tube amps FRFR with no cab and they sound terrible (to me). The filtering effect of the cabinet is part of what we all love in guitar amps.
 
Mikey

thanks goodness....thought I was going bonkers...seems i have understood correctly. Really appreciate you confirming my undertsanding was correct.

I am away from home but am lookign forward to experimenting with native IRs in the AFII this weekend, plus trying out the Ownhammer beta IRs released last weekend.

Another strand to the journey I guess!
 
CONTEST: Win $25 Starbucks card by making IR files for the Axe Fx II

FractalAudio said:
Impulse Responses (IRs) are the single most important part of an amplifier plus cab's sound yet they are often overlooked. People concentrate on the amp when it's the cab that has far more influence on the sound.

Therefore we have created this section of the forum to encourage people to acquire and share IRs. Your Axe-Fx II has an IR acquisition system built right in. Learn to use it and share your IRs and you and the the community will greatly benefit.

I would love to see some multiple mic IRs, i.e. an open back cab with, say, three mics including one on the back and other common studio mic'ing techniques.
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Well, I'll attempt to motivate everyone by offering a $25 Starbucks gift card to the best or coolest sounding NEW IR posted to this thread during the month of October. I'll select four or five judges (Cliff has to be one of them) and we will hammer out the judging details but in the meantime start making those IR's and posting them to this thread.

I know tone is subjective but hopefully the cream of the crop will rise to the surface and they will have details to share with the community on how they produced these new IR files. You can submit as many times as you want but there will only be one winner of the Starbucks card (we are all winners once we have a shitload of IR files to play with!). Start your engines...

FINE PRINT: No commercial IR's or re-posting of your own or others' work please, we're looking for brand new submissions only in order to grow the content base. IR files must be posted in this thread to be considered (feel free to post anywhere else too but for the sake of the contest if your stuff ain't here you ain't got a chance at free Lattes).
 
As an apparent tone-deaf novice I would love to see some 'rules of thumb' for picking IRs. I keep reading about how much of a difference one cab or another will make but I find myself going with whatever was in the stock patch that I started tinkering with.

Suggestions on 'this kind of amp usually favors this cab + mic'?
 
Secret80'sMan said:
Well, I'll attempt to motivate everyone by offering a $25 Starbucks gift card to the best or coolest sounding NEW IR posted to this thread during the month of October. I'll select four or five judges (Cliff has to be one of them) and we will hammer out the judging details but in the meantime start making those IR's and posting them to this thread.

I know tone is subjective but hopefully the cream of the crop will rise to the surface and they will have details to share with the community on how they produced these new IR files. You can submit as many times as you want but there will only be one winner of the Starbucks card (we are all winners once we have a shitload of IR files to play with!). Start your engines...

FINE PRINT: No commercial IR's or re-posting of your own or others' work please, we're looking for brand new submissions only in order to grow the content base. IR files must be posted in this thread to be considered (feel free to post anywhere else too but for the sake of the contest if your stuff ain't here you ain't got a chance at free Lattes).
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Do the cabs have to be posted here or on Axe-Change or both? Of post on Axe-Change and put a message & description here? Can we upload zip files of IR collections to Axe-Change?
 
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MaxTwang said:
Do the cabs have to be posted here or on Axe-Change or both? Of post on Axe-Change and put a message & description here? Can we upload zip files of IR collections to Axe-Change?
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I suggest you upload them to AxeChange for the sake of the community but for the contest lets keep them here so we can keep track of any submissions, so yes post them here not just links to make it easier on me and our fine judges to track (Grovenut, Chef, Scott Peterson and maybe Java who I haven't heard back from yet). We're a third of the way through the month and still nary a submission so start posting your latest creations gang otherwise I'll be cashing in that Starbucks card myself! ;-)
 
Secret80'sMan said:
Well, I'll attempt to motivate everyone by offering a $25 Starbucks gift card to the best or coolest sounding NEW IR posted to this thread during the month of October.
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Secret80'sMan said:
We're a third of the way through the month and still nary a submission so start posting your latest creations gang otherwise I'll be cashing in that Starbucks card myself! ;-)
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You might want to extend the deadline until the new Axe Edit is released and the Axe has a reliable way of transferring IR's in bulk.
 
MaxTwang said:
You might want to extend the deadline until the new Axe Edit is released and the Axe has a reliable way of transferring IR's in bulk.
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Since I have little experience in this area can IRs be transferred one at a time with the current version without corrupting the file? If so then I would suggest doing them that way otherwise we may have to extend the deadline but I would rather get started even if its a slow start then keep deferring. We don't have a solid date for AE release so lets work with what we have now and press on.
 
Secret80'sMan said:
Since I have little experience in this area can IRs be transferred one at a time with the current version without corrupting the file? If so then I would suggest doing them that way otherwise we may have to extend the deadline but I would rather get started even if its a slow start then keep deferring. We don't have a solid date for AE release so lets work with what we have now and press on.
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I personally have had no issues with the current version of Axedit corrupting anything. IRs or Presets. It also still works fine for my system unless I am trying to move too many things around in too small a time frame. Then it may hang.
 
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