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Cab Impulse Response Megathread

#461
Let me follow up on my earlier post - I bought the full collection of Bergantino cab IR's.
The kudos on a stunning set of IR's belong to Celestion, the makers of the speakers, equally a thank you to Jim Bergantino to give his consent.

As said before, recording DAW and "live" In-Ear monitoring/practicing are two very different applications for IR's.
The recording tweakers have plenty of mics and mic combinations to play around with.
For me, it is the "Playing Styles" which make all the difference. As I posted earlier in this thread, I have found nearly everything else I tried (and I have tried nearly everything else, both freebies and purchased packs) underwhelming or at least very tedious to wade through the zillion combination mic type and placement and mic combination, until I tried my first set of Celestion Playing Style IRs. They sound just right, for lack of better words.

As my Mooer Radar can hold 30 IRs, I put together sets of the same Playing styles for easier comparison.
I focused on Finger Warmth, Slap and Plec Aggressive.
8 Bergantino cabs folllowed by Celestion's BL10-100 in 2x10 vented and 4x10 sealed and last the Pulse 1x15.
All very usable sounds with clear destinctions between them, I quickly developed some favourites and "not my cup of tea" preferences.
I found Bergantino 322 offerings a bit too much, but maybe because they were considerably louder than others, so maybe I need to work on them before passing final judgement. Actually the levels of the 212's are a bit on the low side... some tweaking to do...

But - NXT210 Slap, NXV212 Plec Aggr, NXV 210 FW for fretless, NXT212 FW for fretted roundwound are just stunning IRs. However, if I had just 1 IR to use for everything it would be the Pulse 15, sounds equally great for all playing styles and is just another flovour of great to my Bergantino favourites. Honerable mention goes to the BL10-100 in the sealed 410 iteration for aggressive plec work on a P-Bass.

Great stuff :bassist:
 
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#464
Hey everyone - sorry to disturb a sleeping thread!!

Just wondering - for those of you who have purchased and are using the Berg IR files - can you explain how they differ from the other standard IR files available (i.e. Shiftline, Redwirez etc).
I grabbed the Celestion 10 inch IR player pack and think they sound really good, intrigued to know how the Berg pack may differ.
 
#465
I have got the full Berg pack and some Celestion Pulse packs.
The crucial difference to all other IR packs on the market is that they do not only contain a plethora of mic types positions mixes etc which are all aimed towards recording.

They also contain the playing style versions of the various cabs / speakers which sound excellent for use in an IR loader for headphone practice or in-ear monitoring.
My favourites are Berg NXT210, NXV210 and Pulse15.
 
#469
jcburn said:
Cheers man - I too own the Celestion Pulse 10 pack - just wondering if the Berg pack is worth shelling out for and how it differs from the pulse 10\15 packs sound wise?
Click to expand...

If its worth it to you, YMMV, for me it was. It's small money compared to testing and flipping real cabs.
And yes, there is a distinct difference between the various Berg iterations and also the Pulse 15.
Depending on requirement (solo headphone practice vs. playalong to drum machine / bassless tracks or playlong to cd's) I like this or that....
 
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#470
Oliver Stein said:
Can't find information about the format these IRs come in. Is that 1024 Samples 48kHz 24 bit? Asking because this is the only format my NUX NBP-5 can load...
Click to expand...
drnct said:
I've used the 48Hz Bergantino/Celestion IRs on my NUX MG-30 without a problem (which uses 48kHz 1024 IRs but also has a converter built in)
Click to expand...

Just for reference, in case somebody needs that info:
The Mooer Radar is spec'ed 41Khz/24bit, it accepts also 96/24 and converts those.
I did like 96/24 500ms better than 41/24 200ms.
Need to make a controlled series of the same IR in differing resolutions and sample times. Will report back (in a while)
 
#475
Changed headphones and interface/hp amp ... another rabbit hole to distract me from all the other rabbit holes...

current transducer to massage my eardrums is a Yamaha HPH-MT8 through a Solid State Logic SSL 2 audio interface
All great, much better than before, now all my IR's sound different and I am off again to search for new favourites in my library... :D
 
#477
This thread did go quiet for a while. I ended up liking different IRs for different situations;

For recording direct to a DAW I really like the flavours that the Shiftline IRs impart. Same can be said for the Redwirez IRs. The all colour the tone in a specific way depending on what cab and what mics are used and sound good recorded,

Seacow used to do a Darkglass 410 IR range - I find this range to be very coloured - mid scooped, big low end and crispy highs. I like these IRs for practicing heavy styles of music in headphones.

The best IRs I found for going straight from pedal board (my IR loader is a Shiftline Cabzone X with DI out) to mixing desk/FOH are the Celestion 10 inch and 15 inch cab IRs. They are the least coloured of any of the IRs, but I do feel like they sculpt the sound to accurately do what my Ashdown cabs do (i.e. fatten AND tighten the low end and tame highs above around 4khz). These IRs are also great for playing along in headphones.
 
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#478
Ok, so I've been playing around in my Hotone Omni IR from the FX send of my GK 1001RB II (with an attenuator in between due to signal clipping) for a few days now... I've loaded some of the Shiftline stuff, some freebies from around the net and Dr. Bonkers Mesa 8x10 pack... so far here's what I've found.

The factory Ampeg SVT 410 HLF preloaded on the Omni IR is excellent. Close in sound to my ported GK 410 RBX. A little EQ required, but useable.

The Shiftline stuff was all pretty useless apart from the Ampeg 810e mk III IR, that was quite good.

I'm struggling with the Dr. Bonkers stuff, all the mesa ones sound super mid-scooped, really wooly regardless of eq/low cut and super sizzly in the top end. Not sure where I'm going wrong here. The HypeReal set are too bassy, ditto the Choice set, the single mic/DI ones are much better in this regard, but still waaaay scooped and wooly. Does anyone have any suggestions for getting a decent useable live tone out of these?
 
#479
Dr. B does frequent this page. I did find a few of his packages good (I liked the Ampeg B15 and SWR 1x10 packs), but I did grab a few packs that I felt the same as you - I grabbed the Orange 810 and the Mesa 810 packs and for my use I found them too harsh sounding.
I think the pack that I liked the best is still the Redwirez Big Bass Box (specifically the Aguilar DB115 and Ampeg B15 offerings). You can mix and match dofferent mics with different mic placement to achieve the tone you're after. I find that in ears practice and direct to DAW recording requires almost the exact same IR, however when I go direct from pedal board to FOH PA I use a less "bassy" IR. You can achieve both with the Redwirez pack.
Another good option, but much less "coloured" is the Celestion Pulse 10 pack.
If I had to recommend packs that can get it all achieved these are my choice.
 
#480
Fazz1977 said:
I'm struggling with the Dr. Bonkers stuff, all the mesa ones sound super mid-scooped, really wooly regardless of eq/low cut and super sizzly in the top end. Not sure where I'm going wrong here. The HypeReal set are too bassy, ditto the Choice set, the single mic/DI ones are much better in this regard, but still waaaay scooped and wooly. Does anyone have any suggestions for getting a decent useable live tone out of these?
Click to expand...

jcburn said:
but I did grab a few packs that I felt the same as you - I grabbed the Orange 810 and the Mesa 810 packs and for my use I found them too harsh sounding.
Click to expand...

I hope you don't mind a bunch of questions so that I can help as best I can:
  • What are you using to monitor when playing the IR files? If you are using a conventional bass cab like the GK-410RBH, then that cab itself is super bassy and mid scooped. All of my files are recorded flat, so your cab monitoring is probably accentuating the bass hump and mid scoop of the cab as captured in the IR files. My files are really designed for FRFR or flat PA or studio monitoring.
  • Did you try dialing your sound using your amp's tone stack while monitoring the IR file? Think of the IR file just like hooking up your amp to a different cab. You would turn the tone stack knobs until the cab sounds good, so applying the same principle here with IR files really helps.
  • Are you using the mixes with tweeter or without tweeter? Depending upon the strings, bass, and amp settings, the files with a tweeter included may be way harsh for your current monitoring setup.
  • Are you making these judgements when listening with a full band playing or not? These files are designed to sit well in a band mix as the demos on my site illustrate.
 
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