Some Background on Buddy's Boutique Cab Pack
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CAB PACK 17
Cab Pack 17: Buddy’s Boutique Cabs contains over 275 unique IRs of six highly coveted boutique guitar speaker-cabinet combinations. The pack includes 172 “Core” individual mic captures, plus an “Extras” folder with over 100 additional IRs, plus 39 ready-made mixes.
- 1x12 Shiver - Based on a Bogner™ Shiva closed-back dual port cab, loaded with a Celestion Classic Lead 80.
- Bludo 1x12 - Based on a Bludotone™ closed-back ported cab (similar to a Dumble™ cab used by the great Larry Carlton) with a WGS Blackhawk AlNiCo speaker.
- Bludo 2x12 H65 - Based on a Bludotone™ open “Oval Back” cab, loaded with Celestion G12-65H heritage speakers (similar to a Dumble™ cab used by the great Robben Ford).
- Bludotone 2x12 ASW - Based on a Bludotone™ open “Oval Back” cab, loaded with a pair of special Bludotone™-designed KTS-style Austin Speaker Works speakers.
- 2x12 Two Stone - Based on a Two Rock™ 2x12 open “Oval Back” cab with Eminence K&M 65-16 speakers.
- 4x12 Rumble - Based on Cliff Chase’s personal Dumble™ 4X12 closed back cab with EVL-12/EV-S speakers in an X-pattern.
Hi everyone. Some further detail about Buddy’s Boutique Cab Pack.
Wanted to fill a missing niche in the Cab IR world, to use with various “boutique” amplifiers already modeled in the AXE FX. I believe in the democratization of great tone!
Four of the captured speaker cabs are mine — the three Bludotone cabs (based on Dumble design) and the Bogner 1x12 Shiva cab. The Two Rock Cab was lent to me by Jonas Carnemark of KONSTMusic, and the 4x12 Cab is Cliff’ Chase’s real Dumble cab, which the Fractal team shot separately and Cliff graciously agreed to include with the other boutique cabs.
Everything (except Cliff's Dumble cabinet) was done at CUE Recording studios, in the Red Room, in Falls Church Virginia (shout out to Blaine Misner and Javon Grant who were fantastic to work with).
CORE SET AND EXTRAS
What's the difference is between the “Core” and the “Extras” sessions? Good question. There were two different IR capture sessions.
The first was December 2014 — these are the “Extra IRs.” This was before Cliff created out the DI-Mic technique. The session used a Neve 1073 mic preamp for all IR captures. In that session we also used a U47FET mic, and a vintage M160. Also shot a bonus IR of a beautiful vintage RCA770 mic.
Only my own four cabs were shot in December session. I did some sample mixes (included in Extras). Cliff liked one Bludo 1x12 mix so much he made it factory cab in a firmware upgrade. Also, in this first session, the 2x12 Bludos were mainly mic’d on the TOP speaker (unless indicated bottom). So you will notice those IRs are brighter by design than the ones in the Core Set.
After Cliff released his DI+MIC IR Capture technique, we went back in the studio to shoot even more IRs, using that new technique. These are the “Core Files” folder, from our second session in May.
This time we added the Two Rock Cab to the original four. We also shot the bottom of the Bludotone 2x12 speakers as default, for contrast to initial captures (you get top and bottom with both!). We didn’t use the 47FET this time, and the M160 was a modern one loaned by Fractal. Finally, for the second session, we used API mic preamps, except for a few mic/cab captures where we also used the 1073 Neve (those are indicated with an “-N” after the IR name).
For the “Core Set” folder, we did four shots per mic, using our ears, GENERALLY with A being on or close to the Cap, B being cap-edge area with a second B (angled mic) option, and D being on the cone. The off-axis IRs will sound thinner than the others generally, but useful in mixing IRs with Cab Lab to add an edge to IR sound.
Check out the IRs individually, starting with Core Set, but also the Extras folder — but do not neglect the power of Cab Lab 3 to mix together IRs (and rooms!) to really dial in all kinds of tone nuances — all the raw tools are here to get there.
TIPS AND TRICKS
Remember, Eddie Kramer in articles has said he got the Hendrix recorded guitar sound was a general starting formula: U87 room mic (10-15 feet away) at 0db, M160 mic at 0 db (probably at cap or cap edge), MD421 at -3db (probably at cone or cap edge, also try off-axis), and a Shure SM57 at -10db (at cap edge or cone, also try tilt). You can get some pretty great tones by experimenting by using your ears, not your eyes, to guide you.
We intentionally captured all these IRs flat, with no added EQ or boost - there is no "sweetener" recipe here.
There are two tricks I personally use that can help when using any IRs, including these, in certain instances.
1) You can raise the overall cab block volume by 1db, just gives it a little extra “umph” to my ears, if the IR seems less in volume than other IRs you use.
2) Ported cabs have more bass content than oval-back cabs. If you want more bass from an oval-back cab, just use the “Null” microphone in the Cab block and start it a 2.0 and dial in to taste, usually about 2.5 does the trick, depending on low versus high volume playing.
This was very fun project. I want to thank Cliff and Matt Picone (M@ttman!) for the help and allowing me to do this with Fractal Audio.
