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. 🎸🔊🤠👍
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
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 ?
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
@@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...
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.
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.
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.
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 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 😢😢😢
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.
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?
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
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.
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?
Im running the record out of an Egnater rebel 30 directly into my mixer. The record out has a cab sim supposedly, but it still sound flat to me. What gear could I possibly incorporate to get the best tone I can with this setup? Thanks!
Egnater into two notes captor, then into IR device then into mixer for better results of direct recording. I did a video on this a few weeks ago actually
Awesome! So direct out of the speaker out into the captor into a bluguitar blubox into the mixer? Hoping for a cheaper solution, but you get what you pay for. Thanks for the reply!
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.
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
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!
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.
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.
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)
@@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?
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.
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 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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
NeZversTutorials I'm referring to using them in real time through a full range system ! Is there latency compared to using an analogue speaker sim ? Is there latency compared to a miked up cabinet ?
Greg Boland Depending on implementation, the latency might have a direct relationship to the number of 'taps' used by the discrete convolution integral. A 128 tap IR will have a delay of 128*Ts, where Ts is the sampling period (e.g: 1/48khz).
I've been out of the recording game for a while, not keeping up with developments for at least a decade, and I've been wondering about the principle of IR. If the test signal is a sine sweep, where is the test of transient response? The name "Impulse Response" itself suggests that transients might be simulated. Are transients somehow extrapolated from the sweep data?
Thanks. I understand the basic principle of recording the colouration of a signal then applying the difference profile to other signals. They were doing that with reverb profiles ages ago when I was still active in studio recording. What I mean is , where is the transient? As in an abrupt change in level if the injected signal is a sine wave, or a sweep of sine waves? What I'm wondering is; if the mathematical convolution routines in the IR software are somehow deriving what it estimates as the response to transients by extrapolation from the test sweep results or whether the word "Transient" is somehow misused here. I guess I'll have to go and dig amongst the techie articles...
KozmykJ I don't know but if consider the transient as "the component of high frequency within the a attack of a sound" you'll still be measuring frequency amplitude within the time variable. I'm probably not understanding your doubt; my lack of knowledge. I guess one could use the shotgun noise to convolute it trough.
Re-reading your reply I think I understand now. The abrupt change is done by the "instrument" (source) that you use; the amp or room only responds to that impulse. I guess
I've yet to hear an IR that faithful reproduces the sound of an amp turned up very loud. They all sound like an amp at low volume. If you want to sound like Gary Moore or Eddie Van Halen or Michael Schenker did in the early days, you need a very loud speaker in a large room, mic'd up with several mics.
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
Impulse responses seem to be all the rage, but no one ever mentions that they cannot capture the non-linearity of speakers. Can you comment on this and how it affects the sound if you don't want the sound of an amp at low volume? If I'm to understand correctly, a lot of the classic Marshall plexi amps of the early 70s were defined by the early breakup sound of speakers being pushed past their limit to make a tone that was actually less distorted than it sounded like. You can never actually achieve this sound with IR cab simulation.
Then you have been missing a lot lately because couple developers have made their impulse loaders to do what you described - TSE audio (made also loader for 3 Sigma audio) and Kazrog done that first.
Well, you could take IRs with different poweramp volumes. As he said, it's just a snapshot of the current setup, amp, cab, speaker, mic, mic placement, even mic preamp and soundcard. With the right knowledge and tools you could probaply tweak the IRs to emulate that breakup or just make one from scratch (all digital signal processing is basically IRs) and you can most definitely add dynamic reaction there. Imo, while I absolutely agree that it's not perfect, it's just so damn convenient. Especially if you don't have a fancy cab/recording setup or just don't want to annoy your neighbours with a cranked amp when you get that idea for a song at midnight. Even EytschPi42, who has an isolated room with miced cabs uses a torpedo studio for most of his demos, because of convenience
@NeZversTutorials I can't find any information on there existing plugins to simulate non-linear aspects of speakers from those developers. Mathematically, only linear time-invarient systems can be modeled using impulse responses. It's impossible to capture non-linear information from an impulse.
@Uzmeyer They're definitely convenient! I personally like that I don't have to worry about things like mic placement when using them. Provided the impulses were captured by someone who took into account things like phase and placement of microphones, all that hard work is done for you already. Creative engineers will utilize the added flexibility of IRs to enhance their work and create much better recordings. But I just think it's important for people to realize what they can do and what they can't do with IR - understand the limitations and don't get caught up by hype. And the fact is, a lot of what we like about certain amps in certain situations is mathematically impossible to capture via an impulse response. What you said about taking IRs with different poweramp volumes wouldn't be enough to simulate breakup. Breakup and compression are impossible to simulate with impulse responses, because breakup and compression are not linear processes, and impulse responses can only capture linearities. I'd like to see a someone discuss these limitations, and maybe make a video showing the concrete audible differences of what can and cannot be captured by IR. Maybe Wampler could do it.
@Justin Satriano You are right, it's only LTI with IRs, i got something mixed up. Probaply thought about something like Volterra series, wich can do non linearity. Not sure if you could capture that though. Kempers for example im pretty sure also only capture IRs but you can change gain and so later, at least that's what im getting from the demos, but no idea what is actually happening there. My signal processing professor once even talked about simulating tube amps, gotta look if i can still find the notes, it's been a while. And yeah, a video about the possibilities and limitations would be great, people tend to get carried away with new&awesome tech to the point of using it for everything, even if the older tech is still better in some situations (like when recursive programming became a thing and suddenly everything had to be done that way). Also I believe you *can* theoretically capture everything mathematically, but for the time and effort you could probaply just buy a couple dozen great amp setups.
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.
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.
I also didn't talk about the physical mechanical component either. The original "physical Impulse response generator" had a baseplate of prefamulated amulite, surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the two spurving bearings were in a direct line with a panna-metric fam. The lineup consisted simply of six hydro-Coptic marzo veins so fitted to the ambition lunarwain shaft that side fumbling was effectively prevented. The main winding was of the normal Lotus-o-deltoid type placed in panindermic semi-boloyd slots of the stator. Every 7th conductor being connected by a non-reversible tremie pipe to the differential girdle spring on the up end of the Graham meters.
Let's talk running from the FX loop. If you are just wanting to run from the FX loop like you are saying, but you still need to have a cab connected. How do you deal with the cabinet and that sound source? Is it in another room, are you using a load box. How is that working? Sounds like a can of worms, but not if better explained.
frankpaws Use a load box or a cab clone or something. My bassist just made his own 4ohm load with a high watt rated resistor soldered to a 1/4" jack. Cost him $6.
Cool video, Brian! Here's an idea I'd like to throw by you. Do you think it would be possible to capture the signal of an amp (no cab) and create an impulse response out of that, and then sort of have the EQ curve of that amp and be able to load it up as an impulse? I know that this would basically be a snapshot of the amp at those settings and that there'd be no way to change this, but I've been wondering about this for a while and whether it would work in like a live setting - for example, plugging straight into a clean poweramp, turning on the impulse and just having the EQ characteristics of that amp, without having to carry the actual amp.
Cool Marshall washing machine!
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.
🎸🔊🤠👍
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
That sound without the cab was actually pretty good, much better than I expected.
2:02 BODY once told me,
The world is gonna roll me!
I have a feeling I've been using the "suck" settings for awhile now.
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
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 ?
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.
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?
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.
I just got some york packs and there are minimum phase singles, mixes and natural phase singles. Whats that all about?
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
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 love how you make shitloads of boutique pedals but you still make these explanation videos too, thanks!
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.
Thanks for the clear and simple explanation Brian! I've just started to delve into IR stuff myself so this was well timed.
Could you do a video on cabinet simulation without impulse responses?
I do have an older one about that.
Amazing sounds! I actually liked the guitar direct to the interface.
Great video!
Great idea Brian. Make us an IR-attenuator. I'll buy one
I usually like blending whatever cab IR I'm using with an ambient room mic from another cab...IRs are fun to play with
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.
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!
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!
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...
SO how does that work, when you use a different amp vst?
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.
Microphone responses that turn your RadioShack mic into a ribbon mic??
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 😢😢😢
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.
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
Thank you for taking the time to make an easy to understand explanation of IR.
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
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.
My microphone is microphoning. Is that correct?
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?
Question, please remind, are impulse responses based off mathematical Wavelets?
Im running the record out of an Egnater rebel 30 directly into my mixer.
The record out has a cab sim supposedly, but it still sound flat to me.
What gear could I possibly incorporate to get the best tone I can with this setup?
Thanks!
Egnater into two notes captor, then into IR device then into mixer for better results of direct recording. I did a video on this a few weeks ago actually
Awesome!
So direct out of the speaker out into the captor into a bluguitar blubox into the mixer?
Hoping for a cheaper solution, but you get what you pay for.
Thanks for the reply!
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.
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
Man the Marshall sounds fantastic. Thanks great tutorial
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!
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.
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 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.
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
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.
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.
What DAW is grunge band?
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.
Thanks for explaining all of this.
It’s official: your channel is my favorite channel on TH-cam. Thanks for putting out such great videos!!
Thanks!!
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...
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.
GREAT EXPLAINED AS ALWAYS! Thank you Brian 😀
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?
Hi, i think your sound before loading the impulse sounds great too. I would love that for my daily practising tone👍
Holy shit that frequency sweep 🤯
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.
This was awesome! Thanks for the explanation and keeping it as simple as possible.
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.
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.
Love those impulse responses
You guys are located in Vegas?
Hey Brian-nice. I needed this
I don’t know when Marshall started making front load washing machines but I want one
Is there latency involved with using IRs ?
It depends on how you are using them, but impulses themselves don't create latency.
NeZversTutorials I'm referring to using them in real time through a full range system !
Is there latency compared to using an analogue speaker sim ?
Is there latency compared to a miked up cabinet ?
Impulse responses are partly used to replicate the natural latency of ones rig, the other part being timbre.
Greg Boland Depending on implementation, the latency might have a direct relationship to the number of 'taps' used by the discrete convolution integral. A 128 tap IR will have a delay of 128*Ts, where Ts is the sampling period (e.g: 1/48khz).
Brad Atherton i was about to say that...(no i wasn't...not enough smart...)
I've been out of the recording game for a while, not keeping up with developments for at least a decade, and I've been wondering about the principle of IR.
If the test signal is a sine sweep, where is the test of transient response?
The name "Impulse Response" itself suggests that transients might be simulated.
Are transients somehow extrapolated from the sweep data?
yes! as if you mic the amp far away you'll get direct and reflected sound(reverb) as well.
basically the program that injects the sine sweep is the same that receives the captured sound.
Thanks. I understand the basic principle of recording the colouration of a signal then applying the difference profile to other signals. They were doing that with reverb profiles ages ago when I was still active in studio recording.
What I mean is , where is the transient? As in an abrupt change in level if the injected signal is a sine wave, or a sweep of sine waves?
What I'm wondering is; if the mathematical convolution routines in the IR software are somehow deriving what it estimates as the response to transients by extrapolation from the test sweep results or whether the word "Transient" is somehow misused here.
I guess I'll have to go and dig amongst the techie articles...
KozmykJ I don't know but if consider the transient as "the component of high frequency within the a attack of a sound" you'll still be measuring frequency amplitude within the time variable. I'm probably not understanding your doubt; my lack of knowledge.
I guess one could use the shotgun noise to convolute it trough.
Re-reading your reply I think I understand now. The abrupt change is done by the "instrument" (source) that you use; the amp or room only responds to that impulse. I guess
Ya gotta learn to hybrid pick instead of tucking the pick! Love the vids, just ordered Paisley drive deluxe. You’re a genius
+Sam Schmidthuber no, I prefer not to much of the time. (Sorry so curt, this was a pre-coffee Brian response 😂 )
I do occasionally use a thumbpick though. I just like the "feel" of the fingers. It's just how's I do's it! 😂
Wampler Pedals totally understandable! Like Brent!
Awesome man! Love your videos and your pedals! Thanks for all this cool 😎 content! 🎸🤘🏻😂
No...no I am lost af still lol. Interesting stuff man!!
Still working on it! Fun stuff
Pennicle or plexi drive you can load IRs in?! Pleeeeeease
+UmpO Rama no, it doesn’t work that way
Wampler Pedals I know, I know. A boy can dream though. Right? Is it an anaolg circuit and digital circuit thing? Just curious.
Great video and lessons brother! Thank you very much. Best.
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.
I've yet to hear an IR that faithful reproduces the sound of an amp turned up very loud. They all sound like an amp at low volume. If you want to sound like Gary Moore or Eddie Van Halen or Michael Schenker did in the early days, you need a very loud speaker in a large room, mic'd up with several mics.
No miced cab -
Is there still an impulse if there are no mice to respond??
@7:40 Glorious AC15C1
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
Impulse responses seem to be all the rage, but no one ever mentions that they cannot capture the non-linearity of speakers. Can you comment on this and how it affects the sound if you don't want the sound of an amp at low volume? If I'm to understand correctly, a lot of the classic Marshall plexi amps of the early 70s were defined by the early breakup sound of speakers being pushed past their limit to make a tone that was actually less distorted than it sounded like. You can never actually achieve this sound with IR cab simulation.
Then you have been missing a lot lately because couple developers have made their impulse loaders to do what you described - TSE audio (made also loader for 3 Sigma audio) and Kazrog done that first.
Well, you could take IRs with different poweramp volumes. As he said, it's just a snapshot of the current setup, amp, cab, speaker, mic, mic placement, even mic preamp and soundcard. With the right knowledge and tools you could probaply tweak the IRs to emulate that breakup or just make one from scratch (all digital signal processing is basically IRs) and you can most definitely add dynamic reaction there. Imo, while I absolutely agree that it's not perfect, it's just so damn convenient. Especially if you don't have a fancy cab/recording setup or just don't want to annoy your neighbours with a cranked amp when you get that idea for a song at midnight. Even EytschPi42, who has an isolated room with miced cabs uses a torpedo studio for most of his demos, because of convenience
@NeZversTutorials I can't find any information on there existing plugins to simulate non-linear aspects of speakers from those developers. Mathematically, only linear time-invarient systems can be modeled using impulse responses. It's impossible to capture non-linear information from an impulse.
@Uzmeyer They're definitely convenient! I personally like that I don't have to worry about things like mic placement when using them. Provided the impulses were captured by someone who took into account things like phase and placement of microphones, all that hard work is done for you already. Creative engineers will utilize the added flexibility of IRs to enhance their work and create much better recordings.
But I just think it's important for people to realize what they can do and what they can't do with IR - understand the limitations and don't get caught up by hype. And the fact is, a lot of what we like about certain amps in certain situations is mathematically impossible to capture via an impulse response. What you said about taking IRs with different poweramp volumes wouldn't be enough to simulate breakup. Breakup and compression are impossible to simulate with impulse responses, because breakup and compression are not linear processes, and impulse responses can only capture linearities.
I'd like to see a someone discuss these limitations, and maybe make a video showing the concrete audible differences of what can and cannot be captured by IR. Maybe Wampler could do it.
@Justin Satriano You are right, it's only LTI with IRs, i got something mixed up. Probaply thought about something like Volterra series, wich can do non linearity. Not sure if you could capture that though. Kempers for example im pretty sure also only capture IRs but you can change gain and so later, at least that's what im getting from the demos, but no idea what is actually happening there. My signal processing professor once even talked about simulating tube amps, gotta look if i can still find the notes, it's been a while.
And yeah, a video about the possibilities and limitations would be great, people tend to get carried away with new&awesome tech to the point of using it for everything, even if the older tech is still better in some situations (like when recursive programming became a thing and suddenly everything had to be done that way). Also I believe you *can* theoretically capture everything mathematically, but for the time and effort you could probaply just buy a couple dozen great amp setups.
It doesn't sound "fairly crappy" (4:40) to me. It sounds fine...🤔🙄🤷♂️🙂
Compared to high quality impulse responses, no where near as good
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.
Thoughts on mooer micro preamps and the radar IR pedal?
Brian do you live in Vegas and where’s kitty?
nope, Indiana. Kitty was off gallyvanting or something.
Good video, thanks!
is that LITERALLY the only way to get a PROPER guitar tone for doing youtube videos, like guitar covers etc?
Too much talking between samples....by the time you demo the 'after' sound we only remember your talking and not the original to compare
9:55 the Best!
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.
Thanks for this!
so, Wampler is going to produce IRs ??
Dude, you didn’t talk about the Dirac delta function or the convolution integral?
I also didn't talk about the physical mechanical component either. The original "physical Impulse response generator" had a baseplate of prefamulated amulite, surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the two spurving bearings were in a direct line with a panna-metric fam. The lineup consisted simply of six hydro-Coptic marzo veins so fitted to the ambition lunarwain shaft that side fumbling was effectively prevented.
The main winding was of the normal Lotus-o-deltoid type placed in panindermic semi-boloyd slots of the stator. Every 7th conductor being connected by a non-reversible tremie pipe to the differential girdle spring on the up end of the Graham meters.
Wampler Pedals I guess you can generate an impulse from the turbo encabulator? Nice.
Sorry, the engineer in me came out.
1:07 my dog just went insane
Let's talk running from the FX loop. If you are just wanting to run from the FX loop like you are saying, but you still need to have a cab connected. How do you deal with the cabinet and that sound source?
Is it in another room, are you using a load box.
How is that working?
Sounds like a can of worms, but not if better explained.
frankpaws
Use a load box or a cab clone or something.
My bassist just made his own 4ohm load with a high watt rated resistor soldered to a 1/4" jack.
Cost him $6.
I have a Two Notes Reload. Still learning. Maybe some heads need to be connect?
I'm sure that sounds wonderful. :/
Cool video, Brian! Here's an idea I'd like to throw by you. Do you think it would be possible to capture the signal of an amp (no cab) and create an impulse response out of that, and then sort of have the EQ curve of that amp and be able to load it up as an impulse? I know that this would basically be a snapshot of the amp at those settings and that there'd be no way to change this, but I've been wondering about this for a while and whether it would work in like a live setting - for example, plugging straight into a clean poweramp, turning on the impulse and just having the EQ characteristics of that amp, without having to carry the actual amp.
Like a profiler? kemper does that I believe