The IR's pretty much everything isn't it.....

Lewy

...bit of an exaggeration obviously but I've been doing a bit of experimenting seeing how close I can get my HX Stomp to sound to my IR-D and after a lot of (fun in a nerdy way) faffing about as soon as I put them through the same IR I could get very close results with a number of different HX models. 

This is probably not news to anyone.

mrkb

Yep it’s the final EQ filter in your sound. Just like changing cabs makes a huge difference in the real world , changing IRs is the same in the virtual world.

digitalscream

It's hugely important, yes.

However, try running the best IR you've got through an FRFR cab, and then try running that same patch without an IR direct into a solid state power amp and then a real guitar cab. The difference between IRs and a real cab at gig volume is night and day.

Nerine

Yep. I made a similar post a while back stating the cabinet is the most important part of the chain or at least the one that influences the overall sound the most. Some people ridiculed/disagreed, but I stand by it. 

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/255364/the-cab-is-more-important-than-the-amp/p1

normula1

I think I've come to the conclusion that IRs work wonderfully with headphones / in ears, but my ears certainly are very sensitive to where I am in position to speakers especially when the cab is FRFR. I presume it's the diectional nature of the treble that's making the difference which a traditional speaker has less of.

pintspiller

@normula1 are you saying the sound of an FRFR doesn't change as you move about the cabinet the way a traditional cab would? Never thought of it like that. It always freaked out the way a guitar sound changes (moreso with open-back obvs), but when I perform it's whether I can hear myself over the others as well as playing the right notes.

Lewy

digitalscream said:

It's hugely important, yes.

However, try running the best IR you've got through an FRFR cab, and then try running that same patch without an IR direct into a solid state power amp and then a real guitar cab. The difference between IRs and a real cab at gig volume is night and day.

Definitely - but isn’t that the difference between a mic’d sound and an in-the-room sound? Or are you saying that it’s night and day between a mic’d real cab and an IR? 

Lewy

Nerine said:

Yep. I made a similar post a while back stating the cabinet is the most important part of the chain or at least the one that influences the overall sound the most. Some people ridiculed/disagreed, but I stand by it. 

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/255364/the-cab-is-more-important-than-the-amp/p1

I agree with you. I think if I ever return to live playing on electric then I can see myself amassing a collection of cabs rather than amps…

digitalscream

Lewy said:

digitalscream said:

It's hugely important, yes.

However, try running the best IR you've got through an FRFR cab, and then try running that same patch without an IR direct into a solid state power amp and then a real guitar cab. The difference between IRs and a real cab at gig volume is night and day.

Definitely - but isn’t that the difference between a mic’d sound and an in-the-room sound? Or are you saying that it’s night and day between a mic’d real cab and an IR? 

No - even when both are coming out of the front-of-house, there's a big difference in my experience. The real cab with real mic just sounds more...lively? That obviously comes with the caveat that it's only valid for the sounds I use, which are mid-to-high gain.

Controlled feedback is a lot more pleasing in my experience, too.

normula1

pintspiller said:

@normula1 are you saying the sound of an FRFR doesn't change as you move about the cabinet the way a traditional cab would? Never thought of it like that. It always freaked out the way a guitar sound changes (moreso with open-back obvs), but when I perform it's whether I can hear myself over the others as well as playing the right notes.

The other way round. The FRFR sound changes massively more so than a traditional speaker, to my ears at least. I do notice it with a traditional cab but the change feels less radical.
I more and more using IEMs as I find them so much more consistent albeit less "rewarding".

willo

normula1 said:

The other way round. The FRFR sound changes massively more so than a traditional speaker, to my ears at least. I do notice it with a traditional cab but the change feels less radical.
I more and more using IEMs as I find them so much more consistent albeit less "rewarding".

This is something that, as I understand it, the Barefaced Audio Reality FRFR seeks to solve. I'd like to try one one day:

https://barefacedaudio.com/collections/frfr-guitar-bass-cabs/products/reality112fr

mrkb

normula1 said:

pintspiller said:

@normula1 are you saying the sound of an FRFR doesn't change as you move about the cabinet the way a traditional cab would? Never thought of it like that. It always freaked out the way a guitar sound changes (moreso with open-back obvs), but when I perform it's whether I can hear myself over the others as well as playing the right notes.

The other way round. The FRFR sound changes massively more so than a traditional speaker, to my ears at least. I do notice it with a traditional cab but the change feels less radical.
I more and more using IEMs as I find them so much more consistent albeit less "rewarding".

That’s wrong, the guitar speaker is highly directional- the FRFR (which is basically a PA speaker) isn’t as directional.

Lewy

The other thing I'm learning is there's not much point auditioning IRs outside of a mix, because on their own your ears just get used to them after a few minutes - you use one that sounds good, play another one for a while which at first feels jarring, then you get used to it, go back to the previous one and it sounds shit....

fretmeister

Lewy said:

The other thing I'm learning is there's not much point auditioning IRs outside of a mix, because on their own your ears just get used to them after a few minutes - you use one that sounds good, play another one for a while which at first feels jarring, then you get used to it, go back to the previous one and it sounds shit....

When I record I often just use what I feel like on the day and then swap the IR afterwards until it works.
I got fed up with swapping the amp or even just the amp settings. I like this way better.