The Axe-Fx III (and II) actually capture the Volterra kernels when doing an IR capture (it's hidden in the firmware for possible future use). I've studied dozens upon dozens of them and the kernels above first order (the first order kernel is the linear IR) are so small as to be inaudible. The distortion from an amp is orders of magnitude greater even when using a clean amp.
I certainly appreciate your response and overall I do understand where you are going with your reply. I do not doubt the amount of time you've put into this, along with the rest of your research for this machine we all love. But I'm not afraid to admit that I'm certainly no electrical engineer and have no idea exactly what most of that means and that the only kernels I'm aware of are the ones that turn into popcorn. I'm always open to learning more though so I'll take away what I can.
It sounds like they're synthesizing an octave-divided note and calling that "cone cry" (we can do that with the Pitch block).
I definitely agree with this and thats the first thing I thought of when I actual heard it in the video, it sounds like a synthesized note just added in there, unnaturally.
I have never heard of the term cone cry and only assumed they made it up when I first heard the term.
Extremely close is quite an understatement. You can shoot an IR many different ways but if you do it accurately there's no one betting money in A/B comparisons. I work with real cabs and IR's multiple times a week and sure don't "feel like its not as good as it could be sometimes". Have you been in a studio control room and compared the same microphone position to an IR shot of it? I highly recommend people doubting IR technology to experience this.
To be clear, the whole point of this thread was not to just bash IRs and doubt them overall, because I recognize their purpose and abilities and all that they add to what we do. I have no spent time in a studio comparing them, no. Certainly not as much as someone like yourself. I am only going off of my own personal experiences and what I have heard. This wasn't just to tout the UA Ox and to try and bash the Axe for not having these abilities but merely to bring it up as a topic of discussion because UA is not known for just putting out crap for the sake of sales and maybe they are onto something here. As I said, I don't know as much about IRs as I'd like so I'm making no hard claims here. I know this is the business of what you do along with many others and have a lot invested into it so it is not to put that down in any way. Its all in the sake of improvement.
But if you do have any references of good quality IR vs real speaker A/B comparisons, I'm all for listening. Some of the results online certainly vary.
Also in regards to "no one betting money in A/B comparisons", I don't doubt that either but people have been saying that about the Axe in general for years now and improvements continue to be made. Again, not doubting you or your experience but if every argument ended in "well no one can tell in A/B comparisons" then what else is there to be done? Heck just with the power of the new unit, Cliff has said there is an improvement in the modeling just because the same corners didn't have to be cut in the algorithms, so I am curious if that will benefit the speaker cab side of things as well.
In my measurements I achieved the same results as Cliff. As long as the speaker is driven within its specifications, the result remains virtually identical visually, differences from IRs that are not audible except for the loudness with which they have been captured.
I believe I understand the purpose of these graphs and understand how they are different, especially with Cliff explaining the first one and then one with the amp driven harder. But how to do these correlate to someone playing, as in if I am playing very softly on a clean patch versus chugging through a 5150? Does the speaker not react differently to these
playing dynamics in the way that a static IR won't produce on the other end? Thats a genuine question, not just to argue with you.
Again, the point of this thread was out of curiosity and not to show the Ox and insult Fractal for not having all the technologies in their system. Heck, there is a 3 page thread on how dim the third bar on the new logo is
..so I figured this has to spark up some more useful conversation haha.