what are the best cab packs to buy for AX8?

Another very happy @ML SOUND LAB customer here!
My first ever pack was Bulb Zilla. Excellent for the boutique amps. Still in love with the G12H Creambacks in this pack.
Then USA Combos. Completely nails the Fender sounds. Brown combo + SuperReverb = Heaven.

Just bought the ML Brit Family Collection. Only getting started with it, but I know this pack is going to be a keeper!!
Much more depth than any other Marshall IRs I have played. Really feels like a mic'd up 4x12.
The Pre Rolla 55/75s are outstanding. Worth the whole pack just for these honestly.

I almost cheaped out and bought the sample pack, but I am really happy I went for the whole collection.
IMO the best/most useable IRs are the ace folder 2 microphone combos. The SM57 + R121 mixes are a perfect starting points every time!
 
Thank you guys for the nice words! Obviously all IR producers have a different approach and I believe I do things "correctly" (as I'm sure every IR producers does :) ) I think the biggest compliment for me is how my Cab Packs stand the test of time. It's not so common that people are still talking about Cab Packs that have been released more than a few months ago and some of these packs that people go still crazy for are over 2 years old now. :) It's my life's work and getting this feedback from you guys gives my life meaning. THANK YOU!
 
ELC said:
Another very happy @ML SOUND LAB customer here!
My first ever pack was Bulb Zilla. Excellent for the boutique amps. Still in love with the G12H Creambacks in this pack.
Then USA Combos. Completely nails the Fender sounds. Brown combo + SuperReverb = Heaven.

Just bought the ML Brit Family Collection. Only getting started with it, but I know this pack is going to be a keeper!!
Much more depth than any other Marshall IRs I have played. Really feels like a mic'd up 4x12.
The Pre Rolla 55/75s are outstanding. Worth the whole pack just for these honestly.

I almost cheaped out and bought the sample pack, but I am really happy I went for the whole collection.
IMO the best/most useable IRs are the ace folder 2 microphone combos. The SM57 + R121 mixes are a perfect starting points every time!
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Good to hear! I think I'll spring for the USA Combo pack as well at some point. Not out of necessity but it seems like a really strong complement to a variety of 12" closed back speakers. That Brit Sampler also seems really interesting too.
 
ML SOUND LAB said:
Thank you guys for the nice words! Obviously all IR producers have a different approach and I believe I do things "correctly" (as I'm sure every IR producers does :) ) I think the biggest compliment for me is how my Cab Packs stand the test of time. It's not so common that people are still talking about Cab Packs that have been released more than a few months ago and some of these packs that people go still crazy for are over 2 years old now. :) It's my life's work and getting this feedback from you guys gives my life meaning. THANK YOU!
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Thank YOU Mikko, for your contributions to this already amazing machine. You obviously have a technique that creates fantastic IRs that most people seems to love. I'm planning to buy several cab packs created by you in the near future. Cab pack 15, 18 and the Brit Family pack really interests me at the moment:)

The Alloy Aces folder in your packs are truly fantastic. Give me an ML pack with a SM57-R121 alloy, and I'm good to go;)
 
I don't whole heartedly agree with advice to stick with the factory cabs. It's like a sampler pack of a bunch of stuff thrown together and imo it's really hard to get a good fitting IR. What you need is a bunch of very similar IRs, once you know what speaker you want to use. Then you can find the right amount of brightness you are looking for easier. Also they are not expensive and a purchase helps support our IR makers. Win, win, win.
 
My strategy was to stick with stock cabs for a long time until I understood which types of speakers and cabs I consistently go to. Then I bought cab packs that have more mics and positions of those.

I just did that last week, and I have been so busy I haven't been able to try them yet! Tomorrow :)
 
I've probably got $300-$500 worth of cab packs since I bought the Axe back in 2013. I use factory cab 161 and 162 for my gigging presets. Go figure. LOL!
 
I did spring for the ML USA Combo pack last night as I sold a few things yesterday and got some extra cash. It is a very good complement to the Bulb Zilla pack. The speakers are, as expected, a very different flavor. The Zilla speakers tend to have a little less low-mids with a little more of the very low end and high end and the Combo speakers tend to be fuller in the mids without as much of the sub lows and complex highs.

I also did some A/B's with factory cabs and again, you have some really great options in the factory list, but the cab packs have a lot more nuance.

Maybe here's another way to put it. Let's say you want some liquor. The factory cabs are going to be the equivalent of a small liquor section that has maybe a few kinds of good beer, a few different types of wine, a few kinds of bourbon, etc. The cab packs and IR makers are like a massive selection of liquor where you can choose from hundreds of bottles of wine with subtle variations in flavor and aging, etc. For the vast majority of people, wine is wine and they just want a bottle of red and a bottle of white. For a small handful, they want a very specific wine pairing for different foods.

It's not a perfect analogy, but it's close I think.

I have been trying the last week or two to get a Jerry Cantrell "Facelift" tone and that's really what kicked off going down the rabbit hole again. I couldn't quite get the right warmth and attack without a mess of harsh upper mids. The ML stuff definitely got me closer, to the point I was able to just start playing along with the music. The folders make a lot of sense...pick a speaker mix to get in the ballpark, then if you want to fine tune play around with the ace mics or alloy mixes, and if you really want to dive in deep you can go down to the single mics and blend to taste.

Again, at the end of the day, it's different flavors. Sometimes with the AC-20 I preferred the stock IR, sometimes I preferred the Ownhammer Deluxe Fane, and sometimes I preferred the ML Blue.
 
I haven't bonded with any factory cabs. Whenever I get somebody else's preset that uses factory cabs and I switch to my own IRs, it always sounds much better.

I have only purchased OwnHammer and ML Sound Lab cab packs, so I can't comment on anything else, but both vendors make good stuff. That said, the best recommendation I can give without knowing what kind of sound you're trying to achieve is OwnHammer's Core Tone bundle. You get Fender, Vox, Marshall, and Mesa sounds in one diverse package. That should cover plenty of ground.

I also really like ML's Bulb Zilla and USA Bulb packs as well as OwnHammer's Heavy Hitter's Collection. However, what I'm primarily using right now are both the OwnHammer 412 Recto and OwnHammer 412 MAR "Green Vintage" Player's Packs because I love the combination of a Vintage 30 and a Greenback (although I love Creambacks too). I also really love that the Player's Packs don't have thousands of IRs. I just stick to the mixes so dealing with 38 (IIRC) IRs per pack is far more manageable. (Although all ML and OH packs that I've seen thankfully include some sort of Quick Start folder to limit option anxiety.)

Looping back around to factory cabs, it wouldn't hurt to sample them to find out what kind of cabs and speakers you bond with. As somebody else mentioned, there are even some ML and OH IRs mixed in there. At the end of the day, I think you'll appreciate taking the time to learn what you like since your cabinet/IR are an enormous part of your sound.
 
That is a cool thing that Ownhammer does: with a lot of their multi-speaker packs, they give you speaker combinations. Like the California Duo, there's four speakers for each cab (2x12 and 4x12), then they have combinations of every speaker pairing. Like V30 + Alnico Blue, V30 + C90, V30 + Lynchback, etc.

Another pro for the Ownhammer player pack as opposed to their IR set is there are more pre-mixed options (like warm, full, fat, smooth, etc). That's going to be easier to understand for someone newer to additional cabs.
 
Yesterday I had my first session trying out CabLab. I went with Cab Pack 2, and have a mix of 1x12 Jr Blues, 2x12 ProVerb, and 3x10 VibroKing. Tiny adjustments in delay (.01ms) make a tangible difference, sort of makes the sound "pop out" more when you find the sweet spot. Adjusting the high and low cuts is nice too. I set a VibroVerb AB amp to 3 drive, 2 bass, 6 mid, 6 treb, got rid of high and low cuts in the cab block, then iterated in Cab Lab with mixes until I locked in what I wanted. It would be nice to have CabLab and Ax8Edit running at same time to and fast adjustments easier, but I couldn't make that work.

Got good feedback yesterday from band and had a great rehearsal- first time in a while that I've come out of a session feeling the high energy.
 
Dave76 said:
I love the ML packs (I have Cab Packs 7 and 13, I think). They just sound fuller, clearer, and more "3D" than either the factory cabs or the random free IRs I've played around with. One catch is that I'm coming from using the real world cab and mic combos that these model so I may just be used to how they sound but, to my ears, those cabs just make any preset sound better.
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I love the ML packs too,great cabs
 
I've got packs from Celestion, many Ownhammers, 3 Sigma, the ML Bulb Zilla and always go back to my two favorite packs: 1971 Greenback cab and the Mode 4 V30 cab both from Cabir.eu. These just work for me better than any other.

People rave about Ownhammer so much that I thought for the longest time there must be something wrong with me as I've never bonded with any of their IR's.

Celestion was even more surprising as I hated them more than all the others with the exception of the 3 Sigma's which were totally useless.

These IR makers are working with the same cabs, speakers and mics yet get VASTLY different results. My only advice is to try a pack or two from each to see which maker's "voice" you prefer. If you don't like what everyone else likes (Ownhammer in my case), so what. It's your tone. What sounds good is never wrong.
 
Smittefar said:
Stay with the factory cabs. They are very good. I only buy cab packs, when I have zoned in on a cab type I like and want more variety/choice
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I totally agree with Smittefar, I've been down that rabbit hole and all it accomplished is wasted hours and hours I could I have spent practicing. IR's are at least as important as amp sims, but the unit comes with plenty of outstanding ones.

Helix, OTOH, needs third party IR's to sound worth a damn.

Just my personal opinion, of course.
 
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