The Tone Thread

[WhiskeyJack]

Man, those first 2 are almost identical...as they should be, I guess.

That third one is definitely why you need a cab or cab impulse. Fizz city.

Makes a great case for these impulses.

They murder your average amplitube/guitar rig sim package.

Thats exactly where where i was going to put mine. turn off the cab sim in Amplitube and try these impulses.

Why do i have ot have a day job. Why can't i just stay home and do fun stuff.

[rammer24]

Why do i have ot have a day job.

Well, someone's got to pay for the website.

[WhiskeyJack]

Why do i have ot have a day job.

Well, someone's got to pay for the website.

[Tadpui]

I'm anxious to hear these tonight when I get home. Two Notes is giving me a headache with activating their Wall of Sound plugin. I might just say fuck 'em and see if I can use these impulses instead.

[rammer24]

I replaced my Lepou clip with a new one that has a guitar that's in tune.

Just mentioning it in case someone wonders why it says "Not downloaded yet" even though a couple of people have commented on it.

[Greg_L]

I replaced my Lepou clip with a new one that has a guitar that's in tune.

Just mentioning it in case someone wonders why it says "Not downloaded yet" even though a couple of people have commented on it.

Yeah that's way better. Sounds good.

[rammer24]

Yeah that's way better. Sounds good.

Cool man. I really appreciate all the help. I feel like I've done the equivelant of buying a new amp today. My sound just progressed by a mile with those IR's and Pepe LePou.

[Greg_L]

[Minerman]

Here's a very short clip using the LePou Hybrit on the MCJ (JCM) setting, with MCJ Boost engaged, going into one of Greg's SM57 Mashall cab impulses.

What kind of tweaking does this need? Sounds pretty good to me, but I didn't spend a lot of time trying to get it perfect.

You really need to only listen to the intro. The rythm guitars left and right are my Fender amp.

Pepe LePou.mp3

Welcome to the wonderful world of direct/silent recording dude...Sounds pretty damn good to me...

[Greg_L]

I'm gonna do something silly tomorrow....

I'm gonna fire up the LePoop sim in Reaper, and run it out to the power amp return on my JVM and mic the cab. See what that sounds like.

[rammer24]

That's pretty much what I was getting at yesterday. I was about to do it, and then I got side-tracked with the cab impulses, and I haven't been the same man since.

[rammer24]

Welcome to the wonderful world of direct/silent recording dude...Sounds pretty damn good to me...

Thanx man. I'm pleasently surprised, too. I'm sure that the fact that Greg's impulses are pretty much as real as it gets helps. I don't think any old fake guitar amp/cab would have sounded anywhere near as good. I've heard Guitar Rig is good and I remember your Amplitube recordings were pretty damn good. But you knew how to work with the room mics and everything else.

[WhiskeyJack]

Those cab IR's make all the difference. Simulation has come a pretty long way.

Greg, I gave your tests a quick spin at work on my ear buds and i am impressed. The Cab Ir had a very very subtle dullness to it. but not enough that it would make or break it in a mix. It would be minimally noticed. If at all to an everyday listener. Pretty freaking remarkable. Chances are that difference i am hearing is probably just the difference in the rooms used to capture the sounds. Your room vs whoever made those IR's.

Cool Experiment.

[rammer24]

All in the name of sharing. I'm sure none of us needs much more than what Greg made available. But before Greg offered his IR's, I found these. Looks like quite the library. But I also think it all geared for Cookie Monster metal, judging by the over-the-top demos on the right side of the page.

Scroll to the bottom of the page for the downloads.

http://cabs.kalthallen.de/kalthallen_free.html

[rammer24]

What is a "Nebula" program? And what's this "Axe-Fx" folder all about?

[Greg_L]

Those cab IR's make all the difference. Simulation has come a pretty long way.

Greg, I gave your tests a quick spin at work on my ear buds and i am impressed. The Cab Ir had a very very subtle dullness to it. but not enough that it would make or break it in a mix. It would be minimally noticed. If at all to an everyday listener. Pretty freaking remarkable. Chances are that difference i am hearing is probably just the difference in the rooms used to capture the sounds. Your room vs whoever made those IR's.

Cool Experiment.

To me the IR has sort of a hollowness in the mids compared to the real mic'd clip, but like you say, it's nothing to worry about. I'd happily use those cab impulses all day long if I had to. They sound good.

And what fascinates me about impulse reverbs and speaker files is that it's not exactly just 1s and 0s. They somehow steal the essence of real air hitting a real mic and they make it so you can apply it to anything. It's really like voodoo witchcraft to me. And it definitely sounds better than a typical sim amp and cab.

[JD01]

Here's a real vs cab sim quickie test.

What I done did was I went through all of my cab impulses and chose the most basic never-fails file there is - Shure SM57, Greenback speaker, dustcap edge, on axis, 1" off grill, Marshall 4x12 cab. No problem. I mic my own speakers like that all the time, so that's what I did. I stuck my own 57 1" from the dustcap edge on one of my own Greenbacks in a Marshall 4x12.

Then I ran a cable from the Line Out on my attenuator to a Line input on my interface. This feeds straight out of the attenuator so it gets full amp power from the amp's power section. I armed a track for the mic, armed a track for the Line In, balanced them out, hit record. On the Line In track direct from the attenuator, I loaded up the cab sim.

Here are the results. Note - the attenuator was not attenuating. It was in bypass mode, only being used for the Direct Out feed.

Gibson Les Paul Custom - Bare Knuckles Riff Raff bridge pickup
Marshall JCM 800 2203
Presence - 4
Bass - 6
Mid - 4
Treb - 5
Gain - 7
Master vol - 5
Marshall 1960a 4x12 - Celestion Greenback
Shure SM57 on axis, 1" off grill, dustcap edge.
No EQ or FX in DAW...besides the cab emulation on the direct track.

First up...the actual mic and speaker recording real sound.
LPC800GB57.mp3


Next...the cab/speaker impulse file on the direct track from attenuator.
LPC800GB57CabSim.mp3


Lasty...the horrid direct from attenuator, no cab sim. This is why you need real speakers or at least a good cab/speaker sim.
LPC800AttDirect.mp3


So there ya go. See what you think. I think those cab impulse files are pretty legit.

Thanks for posting these up, mate. I was actually looking forward to them.
The CabSim is actually really good isn't it. Its not quite the real thing, but its not too far off either - it just lacks a bit of meat, it still sounds recognisably like you playing through a big Marshall cab.

Can you post up a link to your attenuator? As like Tad's two-notes thing this could be an ideal solution to me, short of actually getting a 2x12 and continuing to annoy neighbours and wifey.

[JD01]

Here's a very short clip using the LePou Hybrit on the MCJ (JCM) setting, with MCJ Boost engaged, going into one of Greg's SM57 Mashall cab impulses.

What kind of tweaking does this need? Sounds pretty good to me, but I didn't spend a lot of time trying to get it perfect.

You really need to only listen to the intro. The rythm guitars left and right are my Fender amp.

Pepe LePou.mp3

Bloody hell, Rami, this sounds good too. So is this all free?

[Greg_L]

Can you post up a link to your attenuator? As like Tad's two-notes thing this could be an ideal solution to me, short of actually getting a 2x12 and continuing to annoy neighbours and wifey.

https://www.tedweber.com/mass-200

This is the one I use. The general rule of thumb is to double your amp wattage and use an attenuator that matches that doubled wattage. So I have a 200w handling attenuator. You obviously wouldn't need one that robust.

You could use something like this:
https://www.tedweber.com/minimass

The cool thing about these Weber attenuators is they use an actual speaker motor inside to provide the load instead of a gigantic resistor and they'll work on any ohm setting. I use mine live pretty regularly. It works great. But there are lots of choices out there. Just look around.

[JD01]

Cheers, now I know what I'm looking for I can. The thing I like about this is that I can still dial in my tone in the room and actually play with a real guitar tone.

Its certainly one of the cheaper options on my list of ways to record loud but not loud.