IR Rabbit hole sucks lol

[NinjaRaf]

It's crazy how one day you like something and another day you like something else. I've been playing around with the IRs again and the Mesa. I ended up swapping out all of the IRs I previously loaded for a new set. All York Audio, one Bogner, and the rest Mesa. So here are clips of each of the 8 I have loaded currently. It's awesome to be able to just load these in there. I have been testing using the line out and loading the IRs in Reaper to figure out which ones I like the best. So far these are the winners, but I thought the same thing 2 weeks ago when I loaded the first ones. So fuck me, who knows. Kind of annoying going through all these things haha. Anyway, best? worst? Any I should swap out? This shit gets tiring on the ears after a while lol. Good luck listening to the same fucking thing 900 times LOLOL

In order of the positions.
1 - Bogner Mix 7: https://app.box.com/s/hci4oczi2wnhn6ct5bnu875y5dw6kcfz
2 - Mesa Mix 4: https://app.box.com/s/vine42j6k5km1iwk92cvslcixbvaksak
3 - Mesa Mix 6: https://app.box.com/s/drefqsgd6vkcs9wwpx8iswnin8ruogmz
4 - Mesa Mix 8: https://app.box.com/s/l9csoyr9p86qqrt1bal373bq0e347gjw
5 - Mesa Mix 12: https://app.box.com/s/q62c6i959s80dx4ocdynmjph3e5urhkz
6 - Mesa Mix 13: https://app.box.com/s/2qs9xnxmnposeqoyjmm0i3fojaogxrum
7 - Mesa Mix 14: https://app.box.com/s/lqvh3vrvui72ly372cytb4y6zw178a3c
8 - Mesa Mix 16: https://app.box.com/s/8ez6y9ipgt3n53qbposocpr06knokoxw

[GuitarBilly]

I think you got it right from the beginning. Bogner and Mix 4 are my favorites.

Unfortunately, IRs do need a bit more treatment than a mic. IRs always have weird low and high end artifacts to them that you can't really hear but it affects the mix somehow. . I'd suggest you set up an EQ with a LPF, then set it at the highest possible point and start sweeping down until the high end loss is really noticeable, then move up to the last point you could go without the high end loss. That will filter out the ultra high IR stuff without changing the core tone. It's usually around 15- 18k but it depends on the IR. Do the same on the low end with a HPF filter.

But these tones are great!! I think most of these IRs are definitely something you could use. The ones I did not like were 13 and up. Those sound a little fizzy. Maybe they're meant for cleaner tones (I am not sure). But the Bogner and Mix 4-12 are good.

[EndTime]

Bogner one by a lot.. All the Mesa ones have a cardboard midrange which is actually fairly true to most mesa cabs and V30s. The bogner has a bit more of a scoop thru the mids that makes em feel more open and "wide"..

But I guess the last mesa one, mix 16 was pretty. good.

I disagree about having to lo and hi-pass these.. Especially the York IRs, and even more so the "Mix" ones cause those are already using the phasing of the mics to remove a lot of the fizz. Plus I simply don't hear any real fizz in these clips, or the York IRs in general, from my experience. Maybe the lows can always be dialed in because there is still plenty of lows in these IRs and plus you dial in a bit more lows from the amp it seems.. But with that said, the Bogner one sounds pretty much mix ready as is.. For the Mesa ones, Id personally try and find where some of that "stiff" midrange is and see if I can smooth it out a bit.. Otherwise they sound true to a Mesa 8 ohm V30, which is a good sound, but I rarely just leave them without some midrange cuts..

[NinjaRaf]

Appreciate the input guys!

I played around a bit with EQ and stuff, and I might agree that it doesn't really need too much of anything. A little dynamic EQ on the low end because it does seem to build up a bit, but otherwise, good to go.

I am also liking the first 2. The Mesa Mix 4 gets me in the ballpark of what the last couple of mic'd clips I recorded sound like. Not really the same, but similar in some ways.

Anyway...more fucking around to come! I do like these IRs better than the last set I loaded. Probably have more exploring to do on these, and will probably end up swapping them around again at some point.

[RaceU4her]

id pick the bogner and number 13, really all of them with some eq'ing though i think could work. i want to hear some T75's and G12-65's, i like those most with my mark

[Steinmetzify]

Agreed with EndTime, Bogner by quite a bit. Just sounds clearer and better. The Mesa ones are good and without the Bogner one in the mix I’d think they were fine.

I’m a bit biased as I really like the Mesa IRs for practice/general fucking around. They have a certain snap/sound on the upstroke for drop C I really dig.

[NinjaRaf]

Thanks dudes.

Maybe I’ll look into some of the other cabs to see what’s up.

[Heath]

I preferred the Bogner one as well. I have been using the york audio IR's for around a year now, both live and recording. My favorite (currently) is the EVH cab set with the S7b Royer mic blend with a low cut at 73hz and a high cut between 9k and 12k depending on what I am doing at the time. It sounds more like my actual cab does in the room and then I made adjustments to fix issues for the mix and room.

[trey85stang2]

my monitors are not currently hooked up, through computer speakers they all sound very good. I have no favorite.

[GuitarBilly]

I preferred the Bogner one as well. I have been using the york audio IR's for around a year now, both live and recording. My favorite (currently) is the EVH cab set with the S7b Royer mic blend with a low cut at 73hz and a high cut between 9k and 12k depending on what I am doing at the time. It sounds more like my actual cab does in the room and then I made adjustments to fix issues for the mix and room.

yes that's in line with what I do with IRs. Not so much because of their sound - they sound fine - but with digital modeling/IRs I found that the low/hi cuts remove some of digital artifacts that are present in them. Hard to explain in words what they are. The sound is still the same, but they sit in a the mix differently.

[Heath]

yes that's in line with what I do with IRs. Not so much because of their sound - they sound fine - but with digital modeling/IRs I found that the low/hi cuts remove some of digital artifacts that are present in them. Hard to explain in words what they are. The sound is still the same, but they sit in a the mix differently.

Exactly! They blend into a mix differently than speakers with a microphone or even speaker simulations like palmers and other frequency-compensated outputs. I find that for recording IR's sit a little more comfortably for me in a mix with those slight EQ adjustments, but live I think things like the Palmer and SansAmps sit better. I think it comes down to what is cut out of the spectrum. If you look at the waveforms, IR's have more peaks and valleys whereas things like a SansAmp are flatter across the frequencies they cover and have a steeper LPF and HPF, but not nearly the amount of valleys in the middle.

[EndTime]

Actually most IRs lack information in the high end. York being a bit of an anomaly in the IR field but even his are processed. I can only assume you are speaking of bigger peaks and valleys because almost all IRs I analyze have most of the frequencies smoothed out. Meaning I rarely see pokey frequencies that most live mics capture. When using something like FabFilter Pro EQ it can easily identify these spikey frequencies and help to easily “surgically” dial em out. I prolly find 2-3 frequencies in every mic’d recording I do and remove these. And when I run IRs Thru the fab filter I rarely see these frequencies being identified. And really every cab will have some of these frequencies happening. It’s just the nature of the beast.

So in the case of York he has more high end available but it’s definitely been smoothed and tweaked cause it’s just pretty clear it’s been done. Which when done correctly, good. Might as well get it fixed up at the source!

Another example is Bogren. He did a tutorial on how to match his live mic’d stuff while using IRs. And one of the things he does to match the REAL mics was to use the Maag EQ4 and it’s special “Air Boost” at 20khz and add about 6db or so. So he’s ADDING presence up top to mimic the air of live micing and the actual air hitting microphones from the sound waves.. so it’s fairly counter to what is Beingsaid here and I found it to help IRs adding presence.

And then even Further along , most of the stuff Bogren/Kohle have released are already hi/lo passed, they have already tweaked and tried to give mix ready IRs. some of the ones Bill said he liked were all EQ’d and tweaked. So anyone can do whatver they want to get their tones but some of the IRs are already EQ’d. So adding a lo pass at 10khz on an air already lo pass.. ain’t doing much. But most IRs don’t have fizz happening because most people would find that to sound bad, despite a simple Hi and lo pass fixing it, so they already do it. Maybe stuff like the Celestion IRs are a little more true and not tweaked. But the “producer” packs out there, are all pretty much EQ’d to some degree. And after watching him BOOST presence to match the live mics, I also tried it and sure enough it adds more life and “realness” to the tone to match my live mic’d stuff

[GuitarBilly]

Actually most IRs lack information in the high end. York being a bit of an anomaly in the IR field but even his are processed. I can only assume you are speaking of bigger peaks and valleys because almost all IRs I analyze have most of the frequencies smoothed out. Meaning I rarely see pokey frequencies that most live mics capture. When using something like FabFilter Pro EQ it can easily identify these spikey frequencies and help to easily “surgically” dial em out. I prolly find 2-3 frequencies in every mic’d recording I do and remove these. And when I run IRs Thru the fab filter I rarely see these frequencies being identified. And really every cab will have some of these frequencies happening. It’s just the nature of the beast.

So in the case of York he has more high end available but it’s definitely been smoothed and tweaked cause it’s just pretty clear it’s been done. Which when done correctly, good. Might as well get it fixed up at the source!

Another example is Bogren. He did a tutorial on how to match his live mic’d stuff while using IRs. And one of the things he does to match the REAL mics was to use the Maag EQ4 and it’s special “Air Boost” at 20khz and add about 6db or so. So he’s ADDING presence up top to mimic the air of live micing and the actual air hitting microphones from the sound waves.. so it’s fairly counter to what is Beingsaid here and I found it to help IRs adding presence.

And then even Further along , most of the stuff Bogren/Kohle have released are already hi/lo passed, they have already tweaked and tried to give mix ready IRs. some of the ones Bill said he liked were all EQ’d and tweaked. So anyone can do whatver they want to get their tones but some of the IRs are already EQ’d. So adding a lo pass at 10khz on an air already lo pass.. ain’t doing much. But most IRs don’t have fizz happening because most people would find that to sound bad, despite a simple Hi and lo pass fixing it, so they already do it. Maybe stuff like the Celestion IRs are a little more true and not tweaked. But the “producer” packs out there, are all pretty much EQ’d to some degree. And after watching him BOOST presence to match the live mics, I also tried it and sure enough it adds more life and “realness” to the tone to match my live mic’d stuff

Ok but I just toggled the eq on/off in on of my tracks here and I 100% hear the difference in the way the track sits in the mix. It could be because I use a lot less gain and low end, idk. Different strokes I guess.