Thanks!! So in short...i should just go with 200ms. Btw other than mix 01 and mix 02...which is commonly what i reach for in each york audio pack! Are there any other mix you commonly go to especially with the mesa/marshall cab packs? Happy Holidays btw
Loading 500ms IRs into the Fractal automatically trims them down to around 180ms or so unless you’re using FullRes, which is mainly meant for longer Room IRs.
As far as Mixes go, just try them and experiment to see what YOU like. Load any Mix and dial in your amp to sound good with that IR. A lot of metal guys like Mix 04 in the MES 412 OS-V2 pack, so try dialing in your amp to that one and see how you feel.
The Mixes are different in each pack, so there isn’t a universal “Mix X uses mics Y + Z in positions A and B” in a copy/paste formula. I have mic combinations I like, but the mix recipes are different from pack to pack.
I think mix 1 and 2 are usually the same combination of microphones but not necessarily in the same position, but some of the later mixes vary vastly between packs. So if you list the specific packs you're looking at (there are multiple mesa and marshall packs) people might have preferred mixes in those packs.
But ultimately, use your ears. Set up a looper which loops a guitar riff and amp you like, then switch between cabs and see what sounds good. If you put the looper before the amp you can switch through cabs then tweak amp settings and see what works for you.
You’re absolutely correct with sage advice.
Mix 01 and 02 are typically 57+121 Mixes with different placements and different mic levels. After that, I just make Mixes that sound good with different guitars and amps so there’s a wide range of tonal character across all the Mixes.
Using a Looper at the front of your chain is such a great tool for dialing in a tone.
Just to be clear, that "sense of space" isn't long like reverb, it's more just the character of the room. Guitar IRs aren't long enough to support actual reverb, that's not the intent.
You’re correct that a close-mic IR doesn’t have a long decay tail, but it still captures the vibe of the room a cabinet is in; the same way a cabinet is heard and recorded in a studio’s iso room. A real cabinet mic’d up and recorded will have that room baked into the sound and can’t be removed. An IR can be trimmed to remove the room, but naturally recorded cabinets used in the music we listen to all contain this hint of natural ambience that gives a tone some depth. One of the “it sounds digital” artifacts I hear is when an IR is too short and removes that natural glue we hear and feel when using the real thing. The shorter IR can sound sterile in comparison.
However, Room mic IRs are basically like natural reverb that need to be longer in order to capture the time it takes for sound to reach a distant mic as well as including the full decay time of the room (FullRes is needed for this).
All that to say, the intent of an IR (IMHO) should be accurately capturing a cabinet and mic placement in its environment so there is no difference between hearing the real thing vs the IR. If people want to remove natural elements by using minimum phase and shortening IRs, that’s a matter of personal preference and taste. There’s no wrong way to get a good tone if it works for the player.
