Guitar Cabinet Simulation with Impulse Responses Explained
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- If you've been listening to our podcast, watching our youtube videos, joining into our facebook group, looking at our Instagram page, or perusing our twitter feed, you've no doubt noticed me discuss IR's, or Impulse Responses when discussing cabinet emulation. I love 'em. In this video I discuss what they are (in laymens terms), how they are created (in laymens terms), and give you sound examples of them.
So, if you've been looking at a good way to get a good amp sound without an amp, or a good sound on your recording without buying various cabinets, or even thinking about running direct in your band... I hope this helps clarify what they are, and how they can help 😊
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I used my favorite impulse response of a Hiwatt cabinet from Redwirez at rehearsal the other night. I loaded it into the Two Notes Torpedo Cab pedal and ran my favorite pedals into it. Very satisfying! I agree, Brian. I like it better than analog speaker simulations.
🎸🔊🤠👍
Cool Marshall washing machine!
That sound without the cab was actually pretty good, much better than I expected.
I love how you make shitloads of boutique pedals but you still make these explanation videos too, thanks!
2:02 BODY once told me,
The world is gonna roll me!
Amazing sounds! I actually liked the guitar direct to the interface.
Great video!
I have a feeling I've been using the "suck" settings for awhile now.
Love those impulse responses
Hi, i think your sound before loading the impulse sounds great too. I would love that for my daily practising tone👍
Really its stupid simple as I recently found out.
I plugged my guitar into the pod 2.0 bypassing the cab modelling.
I opened logic, and assigned my guitar track the space designer reverb plugin. Space designer just comes with logic if you don't know.
I tracked a chugga chugga riff and looped it.
I then opened the folder with the impulse responses I purchased. And all I had to do was drag the impulse response from the folder, onto the space designer plugin, and it loaded it automatically. And all I did is just play the loop while trying all the responses until I found the one I liked.
The impulse responses fixed almost everything about the pod 2.0 that sucks.
I used a frankenstrat with a steve special dimarzio pup, presonus firestudio interface, the pod, and the impulse response pack "conquer all vol2." From a dude named Joe Sturgess ( found his site on the google )
$35 bucks and gave me a nice wealth of options. Made my chuggaluggin' nice and thick and deep ( that's what she said )
Seriously if you dont have a mic and amp setup that youbdearly love and can't figure out how to make your stuff sound more natural, good impulse responses will help a ton.
I ended up building a box that allows me to switch between a dummy load or my cab. I use it with my OR15 so I can silently record into Reaper with cab impulse responses.
No...no I am lost af still lol. Interesting stuff man!!
Still working on it! Fun stuff
Great video as usual. If I had as much trouble with vox as you’ve had I would never mention them in a video nor would I own one! Lol I don’t own one as a matter of fact, just to show my support to you guys Brian...
Great video and lessons brother! Thank you very much. Best.
What's your favorite impulses? I'm looking to replace the standard impulses in the Morgan Amp from Neural DSP. Could you recommend some specific models or at least some manufacturers?
Ownhammer and York audio are my favorite at the moment
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Being 57 I'm learning all this and its intriguing. I have a Headrush pedalboard and also the DSL100H. Sorry for what you may think is a dumb question. When downloading IR's I see some varying kHz files. Can you define and help me understand how and why I would need those variations?
I want a pedal with that Marshall washing machine set to spin cycle tone!
Just kidding Brian. I enjoy these videos. Learning something new is always good. Especially when it’s about pedals and amplifiers.
9:55 the Best!
@7:40 Glorious AC15C1
To me the metaphor is white balance in photography
Soon as you clicked on the Thirty Something it sounded like Ticket to Ride. I think I'm gonna be mad, I think it's today yeah.
I actually never heard you talk at all let alone talking about impulse responses. 🤔
Marshall makes washing machines now? ;-)
After watching the video, I can confidently say that I have absolutely no fucking idea what IR is for.
It’s for those who run direct. It’s highly accurate modeling of miking guitar cabinets.
Careful I just had coffee. IMO Impulse responses are a great way to cookie cutter land. Only a handful sound great for metal/rock so everyone uses them. Mesa or VHT oversized cab, Vintage 30 and SM7. Mic’d close to Center. Sound familiar?
The last video I did I put a bass mic UNDER my cabinet to simulate the room woofing out. I also close mic’d and blended. Nailed the Ozzy No More Tears vibe.
Best thing I ever did was fill full stacks with different individual speakers and put that in an iso booth. Plus I have two cabs (one for rock/metal one for clean) in a room with high ceilings and wood floors with rugs to simulate real studios. I get it’s not practical for most but if you LOVE guitar/tone I think you owe it to yourself to mic real cabs (and not just an sm57). Pre production with sims/impulses etc is fine.
I think it adds insult to injury to recording digitally. Digital drums, preamps, cabs, rooms, reverbs, etc etc. on top of clinical digital recording? People spend $1000’s on plugins over the years. That easily could have been spent on used mics/hardware/sound proofing.
I haven't finished my coffee, so apologies if I'm abrupt. If sound is your *only* consideration, the real thing is always better. Period.
As you mentioned, practically speaking this is an impossibility for probably 99% of people. I can't go back a decade and reallocate my funds to mics, amps cabs and the space to house it. I'd prefer to not have the police come to the house on a regular basis for noise complaints. I'd also prefer that my wife *not* keep a divorce attorney on speed-dial because multiple rooms have been commandeered for the cause and our 'savings' consists of gear that, by-and-large, sits around gathering dust most of the time. Waiting for that one moment where it's perfect. At the end of the day, that's not who I am or how I want to spend my time and money.
Some would say that I'm not committed. Some would also say you're over-committed. I don't particularly care. To each his own.
This is music. Make yourself happy and forget everyone else. That's truly the hardest thing to do.
If I can get 90-95% of the way there on a laptop or modeler and rent the gear/time/space when only the best will do, that's a whole lot better for me.
I hope you understand that even 2 Mesa OS cabs sound different - meaning every IR that used "same combination" to create IR sound WAY DIFFERENT? There is shitload of popular IRs that are used again and again but NEVER sounded the same, I challenge you to find 2 ppl that used same IR by their guitar tone. IR is so small variable in everyone's guitar tone that it doesn't really matter unless they copy each other signal chain and post-processing.
Even though I watch and like Your YT Circle of Tone - i kindly disagree. It took me 0$ to recreate Morbid Angel tone.
Ampsim that sound's like Ampeg VH 140c for classic Dying Fetus sound is free (on my channel).
Shitload of producers use only 1 sound for record - sm 57 with V30's.
In latest session I have 5 different speaker IR's and 2 IR's mathching some specific albums. 7 blended tones to make new quality!
Who's more cookie cutter- me or Andy Sneap?
Brett, great opinion!
I only spent £400 on plugins, to be honest I think the musician and the writing makes the music, production is mostly just flavouring.
“Only a handful sound great for metal” - well you are clearly ignorant because I have found dozens between Ownhammer and Two Notes.
So you are wrong as shit.
"Settings set to suck", hahahaha.
Um that’s not an impulse, that’s a tone sweep, an impulse is exactly that, a very short duration pulse that contains the entire spectrum... a true impulse sounds like a click... from this fast click, the frequency domain can be characterized entirely, this is used when anechoic data is desired but an anechoic chamber isn’t available or practical...
The angry guitar amp tech nerd. Yes. (Applesauce) (music)
My cat did not like your squeely ir demo
i hate you for doing that pre amp only dirt. send me a free pedal please
ill take a thirty something
pay for shipping and you got a deal! Only $239.97 for shipping :D
which is 350 for me in australia lol. the only pedal i have is the duel fusion. tell the dealers here to stop marking stuff up 1000%
just so i know, how much do you sell them to the dealers in Aus for? like how much cash U.S. would it cost them? i wanna know how much they mark up by. ive been hearing from alot of people that aussies get ripped off big time, but when i actually go into a store i can get it cheaper usually, but lately ive been buying alot of stuff online. so much easier
dlees sorry to be a bummer he probably couldn't disclose that because of contractual clauses which bind him to certain agreements :-(....he could probably get sued
2:54 "and you have the settings set to SUCK" i love this.
Amps would be 1/3 cheaper if they didn't insist on using that option nobody uses.
Damn! I KNEW I was doing something wrong! Finally.
I didn't see that coming lol
Listening through my in-ear monitors on full volume... Then that full frequency sweep comes on!
how's that😢
Great explanation.
I'm liking the Mooer Radar in mini pedal version saw an Ola Englund demo of it.
impulse responses sounds like a psych condition
I'm prescribing you to 10 Valium per day for your Convolutions.
Take 2 in response to your impulses.
Hey Brian, any chance you could talk about things like reactive load boxes? I want to get something like a captor/suhr reactive load or power station/UA OX so I can play quietly but there are so many options and some are more expensive than others.
A couple of things here.
1) always run your sound generator through a solid state power amp. Not front of amp. If you do that, you run the risk of coloring the generated sound through preamp coloration and distortion.
2) the sine wave method is honestly really tedious and annoying. You can get the results by running a sample of white noise through the power amp.
3) do NOT clip the power amp when doing this. This will cause distortion and therefore the IR will not be accurate.
Do you have a tutorial explaining how you should place absorption panels around a room like you did with yours? It looks very specific how you did it so I was curious if you could make a video on your thought process for newcomers such as myself
Why is it this way with the recording? As an Engineer I always thought they record it as a Step Response. Isn't the true Impulse Response made by a Dirac Impulse? So why is it sweeped through all frequencys. This wouldn't be a true Impulse Response.
Something I don't understand, is the IR, is snapshot of the speaker cab, room ambience, mic position only. Or is it a snapshot of the afore mentioned plus the amp that was driving the cab and any sound processing that was applied to the amp. Or indeed how aggressively the guitar is played ?
I just got some york packs and there are minimum phase singles, mixes and natural phase singles. Whats that all about?
I didn't know Marshall made washing machines.
😁
There's absolutely no need to play the IR frequencies. Though I do admit that I can here pitches much higher than average... I still feel like it was un-necessary.
GREAT EXPLAINED AS ALWAYS! Thank you Brian 😀
Thanks for covering this Brian. I've been playing around and getting comfortable with IR in preparation for some recording. I hadn't considered using a pedal preamp or going EFX out directly to the DAW. Those are great tips. Thanks again! #microphoning
Too much talking between samples....by the time you demo the 'after' sound we only remember your talking and not the original to compare
Thanks Brian for the sound clip of the impulse response at the beginning of the video...my dogs will forever hate you! Great video otherwise!
Wait, wait, wait! You run THAT sine sweep NOT into input but into power amp to create impulse.
Thank you
Not only that but preamps themselves have all kinds of filters that affect all frequencies and in results when you want to use amp sim or analog gear, that you wouldn't pass through another preamp, will get colored by impulse more than it should. That's the reason many IR makers use solid-state power amps, although some use tube ones and get amazing results.
+NeZversTutorials yes, most good IRs are that way, however a quick google search will show people offering there IRs via a variety of ways, including the input. Like I said, some IRs are great, some suck horribly. Many factors involved. Keep in mind that I’m explaining this very basically, it’s not intended for someone who even knows what an IR is to begin with.
I just thought that would lead plenty people shooting in their own foot. BTW cheers from Latvia! ;)
see my comment below regarding this. It'll work, it'll just bring the suck.
I’m playing in my man cave just me, my guitar, amp and pedal board. Piss on all this shit. If I get good enough for recording for RUclips.(. I still wouldn’t do it. My goal in life is not to be a RUclips nerd). However if I record for a released (cd) I’d hire a recording engineer. Guess I’m just not as smart as you guys.
David Ball why are you even here? You should be flipping burgers saving up for that sound engineers fee.
You should have put annotations or text to the sine sweep to show the current frequency playing to check how high frequencies people can hear! Free hearing test as bonus!
Thanks for explaining all of this.
My microphone is microphoning. Is that correct?
Awesome man! Love your videos and your pedals! Thanks for all this cool 😎 content! 🎸🤘🏻😂
Thanks for the clear and simple explanation Brian! I've just started to delve into IR stuff myself so this was well timed.
i diidn't know marshall made washing machines
I sort of like the no ir sound it more clearer and the cab seems to take a lot of that clarity away, the distortion sucks but why not just adjust that in the circuit to sound better, then we can cut out the middleman cab/mic setup, or trying to emulte it with IR's. Why not jsut make an amp that sound good without IR's is what im trying to say.
Because the defining characteristic of any guitar sound is often the most overlooked one: the speaker.
A lot of amps do have a di out with cab simulation tho if you want a cabless solution with no IR. But imo, built in cab sims don't compare to an actual loaded IR.
It doesn't sound "fairly crappy" (4:40) to me. It sounds fine...🤔🙄🤷♂️🙂
Compared to high quality impulse responses, no where near as good
Really love the last IR you played through (Marshall 1960 4x12) - can you link to that, even if it's not free? Thanks!
unfortunately, I don't have a link... I have a folder full of all kinds of IR's mixed in. I think it is a rosen audio IR though.
Great idea Brian. Make us an IR-attenuator. I'll buy one
Why do you need IR if your using amp simulator software. Doesn’t the sim software have the sound and tones of different amps?
The majority of the tone comes from the speaker. If your amp sim has a removable IR, run it without the cab and see how it sounds. It's pretty terrible.
IRs capture a digital snapshot of the speaker and uses it to filter the amp sound. It's VERY accurate.
do impulse responses not vary based on the input noise? wouldn't a generic sine wave move through the amp differently than the signal from a guitar?
Late response.
The entire point of making an IR is to capture the frequency curve of a speaker cab. The video gets a couple of things wrong.
The sine wave method sends a neutral sine wave across the frequency spectrum, which is useful cuz a sine wave is a single harmonic at a fixed level moving through the frequency spectrum which makes it easy to capture the IR. Putting it through the front of amp is NOT a good idea cuz you would run into preamp coloration and preamp distortion, which WILL change the tone.
For best results, you want to generate the noise through a solid state power amp. This way you get pure output WITHOUT preamp coloration. Assuming the SS poweramp is NOT CLIPPING, you would be able to capture the sound of the cab perfectly.
With so many variables involved I'm surprised anybody bothers. And what about loudness, are these supposed to be recorded/played back pushing some serious air? Does that make them sound more as intended or less? I can't be bothered to think about it.
Alan Angel I was thinking the same thing. The only mic that makes sense (and should be the standard) it's that ear doll used to record orchestral presentations.
What DAW is grunge band?
Do I have bad taste if I think it sounds fine at 4:20? I got used to playing the SansAmp PSA-1 without cab sim.
Yes, and even worse... we BOTH do!! LoL - I still use SansAmp even while using my Eleven rack on other tracks.
@@IFY0USEEKAY Great to hear that, lol. Though I have to say, the more I play with impulse responses with the PSA-1, the more I like it! I think the idea is to compensate for different "cabinets" with the "high" control...
is that LITERALLY the only way to get a PROPER guitar tone for doing youtube videos, like guitar covers etc?
Is there a video of you explaining this stuff with a little more math / depth? Would also be interesting in context of amp modeling / simulation! :-) Cant really find anything on this on youtube, youre video is the closest what I found to technical explanation although its rather a practical explanation, too.
The end bit just goes to show how much the poweramp valves & the speaker/s contribute to the guitar's sound. I guess they "round off" the buzz from the preamp valves distorting.
Settings set to suck ha ha Nice
Why is the Impulse input only modulating the frequency and not also the amplitude ?
I would think that a cabinet doesn't react the same for different input levels.
Thats a Marshall dishwasher
If you came out of a stereo digitech gnx3....right and left.....how would you go into this/an ir unit and into recorder and remain stereo?....how do you maintain stereo......is this unit stereo?.....do you need 2 units....one for each side?....i dont understand how you use it with stereo output pedal and effect both left and right if the ir unit doesnt have left and right input ......how would you come out of a stereo delay pedal with 2 outputs and into an ir box with one input and one output?
Anyone?......anyone?......ferris?......anyone?.....got an answer?
IRs are not meant to capture the "sound" (i.e., EQ) of an amp, but of a speaker cabinet + microphone *ONLY*.
Why?
Because, once you have the sound of your speaker cabinet + microphone, captured in that Impulse Response, you run the sound of an amp simulator (or even of a real amp line-out) through it.
So, those are two separate stages.
There's the amp => amp simulator.
And then there's the cab => cab simulator + microphone.
The amp / amp simulator is highly non-linear, compressing, etc.
The cab simulator doesn't compress at all (it's completely linear), but it does recreate the "EQ" that is your speaker + microphone.
So, do yourself a favour, and capture your cabinet using a *linear* amplifier, e.g. a solid state amp, with no EQ.
I understand you, but not everyone prefers it that way. Some popular IR’s are intentionally ran through guitar tube amps as a USP. The really interesting stuff is Kemper-esque profiling IMO.
Is there a way to get a less "static" IR?, like eh, dinamicaly morph between 2 or 3 different IR?, I mean, I'm pretty sure that if I am thinking this, someone already thought about it.
i have a question, how if i have ADA GCS3 , then the routing like this ( speaker out from head - input ADA GCS , thru from ada gcs 3 link to cabinet and xlr out from Ada gcs 3 - mixer ) can i do this?? it is work or not??? please somebody help me 😢😢😢
Couldn't get the point, but I'm not a native english speaker, so I'd need more illustrations, perhaps.
do you need a audio interface to use this product ?
You can use IR’s several Different ways. If using your computer/DAW then yes you will get MUCH better results with some sort of interface, even if it’s an inexpensive one. They do make pedals which you can put IR’s on as well though.
I'm gonna guess that it was suggested that Ace Thirty was *a little too* phonetically/visually similar to ... well, something else ... ?! ;)
If you run out of your effects loop into the IR, do you have to run back into the effects in? Or can you leave it with nothing plugged into the effects in? I know you said a speaker must be connected to the head but is it good enough to just have a cab connected to the speaker out?
I usually like blending whatever cab IR I'm using with an ambient room mic from another cab...IRs are fun to play with
Since your last video where you demonstrated the need for a cab sim when going direct in I've been trying tech21 pedals and IRs (digitech cab dryVr is decent). It clearly makes a huge difference but I think you need just a touch of reverb to simulate the natural sound of an amp in a room, otherwise they still sound a little flat. Thanks for the gear knowledge!
I wanna go outa my genx3 and into the ir box and into a stand alone boss recorder......but the genx has l and r output......the ir has one input and output.....how do i remain stereo to recorder?......do i need ir box for each channel?
Been using IR's for a while now...with tube amp output into reactive load box. Once you have some IR's that you like, it really is easier than using a real mic (or a few) on a cab. I don't think anyone listening would ever know it's not a miced up cab. If you also record a line signal you have many reamping options also.
Surely you would use white noise to get responses across a wide frequency range rather than that high frequency sine wave?
You'd use pink noise.
Right, white noise and pink noise will show frequency response and is how many of the RTAs (real-time analyzer) work for EQing a room. But...mathematically it is easier (and arguably more precise) to run a chirp waveform like you hear in this video because the IR algorithm will know the mathematical function cos(wt^2) and thus be able to apply the inverse of it to extract the impulse response. You can read about the deconvolution operator if you want to know more.
Thanks for the explanation, that is logical, Captain, but what would be more scientific would be to use a spectrum of individual frequencies. I think I'm right in saying different frequencies will give a different result, so to us one very high pitched chirp is not going to be representative. If you use one frequency, it should be in the mid ranges.
Agreed, I stand corrected.
Using an amp head with IRs is my favorite way to use them. If you record at home it's completely amazing.
FX Loop send is the simplest way to do it; you're bypassing the power amp section but if you don't generally push it hard enough for power amp distortion it probably won't matter.
MyThezoo I have an old Marshall SE100 (speaker emulator/load box) that i can plug the speaker output from my Marshall head (for example) into and then get a line signal to plug into my interface/DAW. The SE100 have separate outputs for the built in analog speaker emulated signal and a non emulated signal that can be used with IR´s etc inside the DAW and with the SE100 you dont need to have a speaker connected to your tube amp since its also a load box. This way you are also certain to get the sound of the whole amp and also completely silent recording as with a POD device or similar.
I've heard of and known about and used impulse responses for different things for years (impulse responses and convolution reverbs? a recreation of the reverb in the grand canyon that my guitar can run through? absolutely yes) but I'd never had any clue how the actual process worked creating them. I've been curious for ages, it always seemed like wizardry to me. Thanks for this, Brian!
Nice video. I play with ir's on my computer, and get generally pretty good results. But for me, it feels nicer to play through my real tube amp, mesa dual rec with mesa 4x12 cab. I love the sound of certain music bands and I'm trying to achieve that great tone through just my real amp. Is there a way to use my real amp setup, and also use impulse responses? Trick is, I don't want to use my computer at all.
Microphone responses that turn your RadioShack mic into a ribbon mic??
I think the zombie cabs are the best impulse responses out to date. They fit in a mix really well and have different tube amp options. People are getting a lot better than years ago at making ir's
So impulse response is just a recording of the natural equalization of the sum of the amplifier's parts? So a clean amp sim really can be made with just filters then. Sounds like a win for me.
It isn’t the amp itself generally, it’s the speaker cabinet, mic, room, and mic positioning. Some companies make “profiles “ which are sort of similar to what you are referring to however
@@wampler_pedals Hmm. Well I guess the big question is if I look at a graph of the impulse response of a certain amp and cab in a certain environment, would that not be replicable using only filters to basically EQ in the same frequency response?
Not exactly because there’s a “time” axis with IR’s, it’s sort of like a eq over a set amount of time. That eq changes during that time just like the mechanical device (the speaker cabinet). Also, the eq is quite extravagant, I’m not sure it could be done accurately with just some analog eq’s.
@@wampler_pedals Oh, well thanks for replying and answering my questions.
Question, please remind, are impulse responses based off mathematical Wavelets?
I don’t know when Marshall started making front load washing machines but I want one
SO how does that work, when you use a different amp vst?
Talking about IR loaders, the market is pretty crowded nowadays.... is the Torpedo CAB, which is hard to find used for 350$, that better than the Mooer Radar, which can be bought new for 150$. I am not talking about FEATURES (most people don't know what to do about 500 cab models, most would find one they are comfortable with, will set and forget), I am talking about SOUND, for silent practice and home recording. I'd really like to hear your opinion since I need to buy one but can't try them at local stores...
Look for one that uses the highest convolution possible. Many of the cheaper ones have very small sample rates and are therefore lower quality sounding
I had on a single dollar store earpiece. I got to 1:21 on the sweep. What Hz was it at that point? Just for fun.
Great, informative video! Been trying to wrap my head around the concept of IR for a while now. This definitely cleared up a few things for me.
If all guitar simulation softwares come with their cabinet/mic/ etc simulation, I don’t understand what is the difference with IR. Is it just like changing the stock software cabinet and mics to the IR ones?
Yes
I looked perfectly on all those links and they dont really have anything to download no matter how good you look, they ONLY say FREE but there is nothing to be downloaded, only re link to other sites who sale stuff
Hi Ricardo. That's because this video is 3 years old and in the meantime these links expired:)
Rosen digital changed their name and website to Lancaster Audio. The link for free IR loader is lancasteraudio.com/pulse/ (they don't offer any cabs for free anymore)
But RedWirez are offering free high quality IRs for a Marshall 1960. I'm using these and they sound amazing. redwirez.com/pages/the-marshall-1960a-ir-pack
If you'll dig more on the internet you'll find a lot of free high quality stuff that is offered. Companies that are offering one product for free hoping they'll sale you more.
Hope this helps
Man the Marshall sounds fantastic. Thanks great tutorial
Thank you for taking the time to make an easy to understand explanation of IR.
This was awesome! Thanks for the explanation and keeping it as simple as possible.
Can someone explain me please, is there any difference in sound between Software Cab IR Loader and Analog Pedal Cab IR Loader? Or they vary only in terms of mobility? (ex. to take pedal to the concert rather than laptop)
If it's an IR loader it's not analog by definition
@@GiacomoVaccari You're right. It's my bad. Didn't check what I wrote. I mean not analog but separate device with IR load capability. What I'm trying to say is this - you have something like Mooer Radar with bunch of IRs and a laptop with a DAW, IR loader and same IRs (same sample rate, etc). Is there any difference in sound?
@@Recovery_Station I don't know myself since I have little experience with IRs but one would assume the difference would be miniscule