Choosing an IR - help me!

NelsonP

I bought the Ownhammer Basketweave IR pack to use in my modeller (Atomic Amplifire). I'm monitoring by either an FRFR speaker (Laney IRT-X) or Headphones (Audio Technica M50x)

The download contains 6893 unique IRs, so what I want to know is how on earth do you choose one of them?

kennedydream1980

Welcome to the Rabbit Hole that is IR's. The Ownhammer stuff is very comprehensive and therefore can be quite overwhelming. It might be worth you looking at the Celestion IR's. They have less options to pick from so you might find them more user friendly.

Alternatively you could just wade through the options in the pack you have already purchased from Ownhammer to find the ones you prefer. It's a time consuming process but once you find the ones you like you will probably find you will stick with them for most of the tones you dial in, mainly because your ear will become used to that IR. 

Once I found an IR I liked I stuck with it for all of my live tones inc Clean and Overdriven tones. The one I use is from this pack:

https://www.ownhammer.com/store/ind...mV8GlNk1sKq3-o7Bcun51x3UBWXrBOC18NRfWbRTt19NE

This is the specific IR I use:

OH 412 RECTO CB-NEO 7B-10

NelsonP

Thanks v much.

A bit more researching reveals that Ownhammer have created what they call "Player packs". There is a folder in the download called 'player' that contains these. Hopefully this will reduce the depth of the rabbit hole a bit.
https://www.ownhammer.com/playerpacks/

I also have the Celestion creamback 4 x 12 IR, which I like, but it is a bit 'clinical' in feel. I MUCH prefer the simplicity of the Celestion approach thouugh.

Roland

If it’s the pack I’m thinking of then there will be ranges of raw and processed IRs with different mics types and differences. Then there will be Classic and Modern ranges which are combinations of the individual IRs.

What I would do is decide whether you want a Classic or Modern (more aggressive) sound. Then pick an IR from the middle of that range. If you decide you don’t like it then use an IR which is a few steps brighter or darker or has more mids (bold), and see whether that’s better.

To my ears the big advantage of Ownhammer IRs is their underlying clarity. Once you start looking at all the permutations it rapidly turns into a rabbit hole.

[Declaration of interest: I helped fund Kevin’s original Kickstarter, and have an emotional interest in his success]

Roland

Edit. Just checked. That’s the collection with GNR, Med, and Raw mix ranges, where Med is in the middle between the other two.

NelsonP

Thanks Roland. Agree with your point on underlying clarity of the Ownhammer IRs.

Wish me luck!

fretmeister

I use the Quick start files and never look at anything else.

I've got the Recto pack and the new custom Zilla pack.

Can't remember which actual ones I like from memory - but I purposely strip out the rest from my Helix so I'm not in that rabbit hole

NelsonP

After a brief bit of experimenting with the gnr, med and raw mixes in the player and summary files folders, I tried the OH1 and SP2 mixes.

OH1 wins. Currently using OH1-5 GNR and it's very nice.

This is definitely the most complicated part of using a modeller. Unfortunately its also pretty critical.