I've owned an AxeFx for a while, but merely for a pre/power amp sim and have gone through a SS power amp into a real 4x12 (EVM12L/C90). I've had great results with that approach getting nice tones, but I'm starting to get into using the AxeFx direct and having issues dialing in tones from scratch when using the cab IR into my studio monitors. My end goal is to have presets capable of going to FOH direct & record with, but still use the same presets for splitting to a real cab for live on-stage performance. I know that several people use this approach.
I acknowledge that the tone with IR is a 'recorded cab' tone instead of an 'amp-in-the-room' tone, but I'm struggling to dial in tones when there is a cab IR engaged.
I'm going into fairly nice near-field monitors (Yamaha HS80Ms) for this, and have some IRs such as the CK cab pack so I think the IRs that I'm using and ones that are generally regarded and sounding good.
I feel like I have a lot to learn with dialing in tones using cab IRs. What is everyone's workflow? Would it make sense to dial in tones that sound good on a real cab, and then don't touch the amp block anymore and hunt for IRs that sound good. Or is the interaction between the amp and IR significant enough that I need to find a best suited IR and then circle back to the amp and either find common ground between the real cab and IR-cab sounds or make a sacrifice on one of the two output sounds?
I've got almost the exact same goals as you and have also been having the exact same issues with playing FRFR as opposed to power amp + cabs.
The main differences are that I'm using 1 X 12 open back cabs and I'm only using 12Ls and no C90s.
The issue for me is that while there are indeed some very good IRs of 12Ls and C90s floating around out there, none of them is as satisfying to play with through my CLR Active Neo wedges and/or HS80Ms compared to my real cabs.
Every time I think I'm getting close, with this or that IR (including those I've taken of my own cabs) or this or that IR mix, when I listen to it the next day I realize that it's just not a sound I'd ever want to play live with, not when my real 12Ls sound and feel so much better.
Funnily though I don't mind it nearly as much if I'm recording.
The Axe direct via IRs is a bit more satisfying to me on stereo near-field monitors when heard in the context of a mix than it is through one or 2 designed-for-far-field-listening CLRs at a rehearsal or a gig.
The biggest part of that is probably wholly psychological, I admit.
I've always thought of the recording process as being a compromise with the engineer's goal being to try to squeeze my real sound down to some sort of a facsimile that works in the mix w/o sounding too dissimilar to what I really sound like.
I.e. I'm used to tracking feeling and sounding like a compromise, but I can't yet get used to feeling that way when I'm playing live.
The rest of it has to do with the impossibility, supposedly, of reproducing the "amp-in-the-room" feel from an FRFR monitor.
But I still feel like I'll need to get a lot closer before *I'll* ever gig (unless I'm playing music I don't particularly care much about) with an FRFR system.
For me it's mostly in the way my 12Ls reproduce the attack, especially in the top end, in my Presets especially ones designed for my Strats.
The 12Ls are really bright but also very musical and satisfying.
Whenever I try to get that same type of sibilance via an IR it always comes out seriously wanting, especially the way the attack transients feel at my eardrums.
But there are issues with my dark hyper-clean jazz tones not sounding full enough with IRs as well.
Because I'm so locked into the tones I use through my power amp + cabs rig I need a single Cab Block setup that sounds strong across all those same Presets.
I.e. I don't want to deal with a different Cab Block setup for each Preset.
My feeling is that if my real 12Ls do such a good job across all these Presets (there's really only 10 of them at this point - 5 for my Strats and 5 for my humbucker-equipped guitars) then so should a single Global Cab Block.
Eventually I'll veer away from this way of doing things, but for now this is my goal.
So to the OP...
My current best bet that I only arrived at yesterday - but it still sounds OK to me today (lol) - involves one of the Ownhammer V1 Thiele Cab 12L IRs.
A single 12L in a Thiele Cab sounds a lot different than your 4 X 12 cab with a mix of 12Ls and C90s but it's probably closer than an IR of an open back cab.
Of course you'll have to buy the collection from OH to find out.
The IR I'm using is the TC30 #1 IR (taken with a high-end test mic).
In theory, that alone should sound just like a real 12L, frequency-response-wise, but it's a little bit flat and uninteresting sounding and can use a bit more top end and low end girth.
[TC30 IRs never sound as good as I expect or hope for them to.]
So I actually use the SM57 mic sim in the Axe's Cab Block.
I change the Proximity Frequency to 200hz to add some fullness in the upper-lows and boost the Proximity to about 6.5 from its default of 5.0.
I don't use the Low or High Cut features at all with this IR.
In fact I'm adding highs with the mic sim and lows with the Proximity effect.
[This way of doing it actually sounds better to me than the OH IRs that were actually taken of the same cab with a SM57.
Go figure.
I'm finding that more often that I'd like to, with the Axe I have to try things that wouldn't make sense with the actual gear vs the virtual gear.
Think outside of the box, and all that crap....]
Rather than use the Axe-FXII .syx IRs that OH includes with the purchase, I used Cab Lab to create both UR and SR IRs from the .wav file of this IR which is also included in the purchase.
The .wav files are actually about 120ms long so they *can* benefit from using the Ultra Res technology to some degree.
But I'm using a Standard Res Stereo Cab Block type because the new Stereo Ultra Res Cab Block type takes me into too much CPU usage with the Layouts I need to use.
I think I actually like the SR Stereo Cab for this application more than the UR Stereo Cab though.
It seems a bit less present on the top end and a bit warmer on the bottom.
You might also look into the 12L IRs of a 4 X 12 cab inside one of the Fractal Cab Packs, I forget which one though.
I think OH has some 4 X 12 12L IRs too.
Red Wirez also has some good C90 IRs in the Speakerbox series.
No 4 X 12s, I don't think, but there are some in closed back Mesa 2 X 12 cabs.
Good luck.