Oh what a laugh!
Well compared with putting shit in your eyes, or pins in your nipples.
Is it just me but everything about the experience is dispiriting. The websites of the main players are straight out of the 1990’s, the individual file uploads to convolution software is just one step away from loading Horace Goes Skiing on the Sinclair Spectrum. The auditioning is thankless. And then it all sounds very shit at the end of it. With a half decent reactive load box, they all turned 4 grands worth of amp and pedalboard into a Pignose.
I may well need to experiment more, but I’m already several hours down and considering what open windows are nearby.
In summary, life is way too short for IR’s.
Thanks for watching.
Comments
View my feedback at www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1201922
View my feedback at www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1201922
Yep the Celestion IR's were the best I encountered down the rabbit hole.
I agree it can be highly dispiriting wading your way through multiple IR’s... but once you’ve found a few you like, stick with those and don’t look back.
My head said brake, but my heart cried never.
My head said brake, but my heart cried never.
With IRs I can audition a sound in 5-10 seconds, and then immediately try something else. Can't do that with a real setup, though it does mean you have to be well organised to browse quickly.
This is why I like both Ownhammer and Celestion - their stuff is well arranged and easy to browse through, and I think it sounds good too.
http://www.grgr.de/IR/
I use the free NadIR plug in by Ignite which madness it easy to blend two IRs and browse. I've decided to just make the best of a small selection rather than hunt forever. It does look like you could get lost searching for the perfect " tone IR" forevermore.
Have tried two things - using the iOS app ToneStack - the only halfway usable amp simulator for iOS IMO - and comparing the stock cabs with the Celestion. In all cases I prefer the ToneStack ones.
Using my valve amp and pedal boards with a Two Note Captor reactive load box, which also has a built in anolog cab sim.
The cab sim on the Captor is pretty flubby on the low notes and sounds a bit raw, once recorded and played back the Celestion def has more realism and a more sophisticated sound. I still find it an arse to get there though - by the time I’ve got all the levels between the various apps and devices I’m still finding the whole thing very noisy so then need to apply a noise gate etc, by which time I’ve used up more time than I would want just fiddling. For headphones practice, which is the bigger part of what I want to do, just using the Captors in build anolog one is so much more straightforward, no latency etc, I ended up on that for most of the time.
Work flow and ease of use are absolutely paramount for me as I get so little time to play / record.
Im starting to justify in my head the price of a Universal Audio OX - it just looks belting, one knob to control attenuation to the amp, one knob to control the built in headphone amp, and one knob to control the level to a recording device. And then as simple yet sophisticated as you need to be on setting up cabs and mic sims. This is tech working for you behind the scenes, allowing you to get on with making music.