IR's Posted: Mesa Recto 212 / SM57 / L6SV, MTR & SS with IKM T-Racks Mic Room 20+ mics

[roscoe5]

This may be fun and useful to other DIY IR guys without a big mic locker, or just those not aware of the IK plug in. This seems to work well for IR creation as well as "re-mic'ing" a recorded track.

As I only have SM57, e609, and D112 mics for guitar cabs, I was intrigued by the IK Multimedia T-Racks Mic Room. This add-in will take a signal captured with a preset source mic and transform it to the characteristic of another "target" mic. Maybe this is how Amplitube gives you so many mic choices on every possible cab and speaker combination. Hopefully Line 6 doesn't do this and captures every cab with every mic, but I would understand if they did...it would be a huge time saver and consistency is gained  ;)

I captured a few SM57 IR's of my current stage rig, Mesa Recto 212 and Line 6 Spider Valve HD100, with a few on and off axis positions. I also re-processed the SS amp ones I did earlier this week and the Mesa Triple Recto power amp ones I did a while back.

Then I took the SM57 2in distance, on axis, capture and re-processed it through all of the IK TR Mic Room mics. These include various condensers, ribbons, dynamics, etc. I tried a few others, but the 2in straight capture seemed to make the translation best.

I couldn't tell you how true these are to the original mics. But they do offer a good variety of different mic types from a single SM57 capture, and they mix well together. I created a 3-mic mix of a my original dynamic capture, a Ribbon 160 and a Condenser 12 that is a good representation of my rig in the room.

Below is a link to the Recto 212 IK TR Mic Room IR's. The mic type names are in the file names. These contain SS Amp, L6 SV Tube Amp, and Mesa Triple Recto Tube Amp, as well as some mixes.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6qheuliyysyypj6/AACqUjJoZ-uxHEduv9_I-RCHa?dl=0

 

Link to the v4 IR's...with a little Easter egg ;)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/suj0qejyvqj8m99/AABKyZ3e-P3XS852JdcHEe94a?dl=0

[zooey]

Interesting.

 

Are you saying you processed the IRs themselves directly through Mic Room? Didn't know you could do that. Or that you ran audio through the original IRs, processed that with Mic Room, and made new IRs from that?

 

(Fun aside about IK: I bought ARC System 2 almost two years ago, but never used it. Thinking about my FRFR rig, I finally registered a few days ago, and as it turned out, they're having a BOGO sale, which in the universe's infinite generosity, treated registering it now as buying it during that sale! Best option for what to get as my freebie was 200 gear credits -- nice deal -- so I might consider picking up Mic Room.)

[roscoe5]

I saw the BOGO Sale and was looking at ARC 2 again to flatten out my monitors...and to see how it handled the cheap Crate PA speakers and JBL Eons in a room. That is too cool about cashing in two years later with your ARC 2!

 

I reprocessed some of my previous IR's, as well as Studiocat Friedman 2x12's. Neither one of us had ribbon mics, and the Telephone mic makes a good LoFi effect. I think Glenn Delaune does something similar by "imprinting" IR's with an EQ match type plug-in to better align the IR with the original guitar tracks he is trying to emulate.

 

I was glad to have the Friedman 2x12's to experiment with too since he had more mics in the capture list. I hope he doesn't mind since he was giving them away for free anyway. I put a courtesy post up on his thread to let him know what I was up to.

http://line6.com/support/topic/21714-friedman-2x12-cab-irs-multiple-micspositions/page-2

 

I found that while you can take any capture mic in the list and "re-mic" it to any target mic in the list, some basic character of the capture mic signal remains. It seemed that while you do get a lot of target mic character no matter what source mic you pick, condenser>re-mic> condenser and dynamic>re-mic>dynamic sounded more correct.

 

Both condensers and dynamics yielded different, but usable ribbon sounds. With the Friedman 2x12 IR I re-mic'd, I actually thought the TR MR SM57>Ribbon 121 had similar character to the Helix 121 Ribbon mic. There is a bit more low end boominess to both that was not there with the TR MR C414>Ribbon 121.

 

I couldn't find anything in the IK docs or forums on what mics are ideal for this. I guess it's trial, comparing, and personal taste. They actually even have their own iRig mics listed as source mics too. From one IK thread I saw that you're not bound to just the source mics on the list either, and good results can be obtained with other mics.

 

Anyway, it was a fun learning experience and a good tool for DIY'er just wanting to make the most of their cab and SM57. I have a lot of respect and appreciation for the pro studios making hundreds/thousands of real IR's.

[roscoe5]

Ha, just for fun I just re-mic'd some 3sigma Recto 212 IR's that I didn't care for.  I got some really nice "faux" ribbon 121 & 160 IR's, as well as D421, D441, & D20 type sounds.  True to the original mics?  Probably not.  Good usable representations of those mics to expand your set of IR's and tones from a limited few?  Indeed!!!

 

I believe that each of the 3sigma IR's are a mix of dynamic and condenser mics, so this was total trial and testing. Luckily with Helix's routing and looping, I can audition the TR Mic Room mic transform before I rip the new IR.  Both dynamic and condenser source mics yielded usable target mics.

 

I can't post the 3sigma IR's since they are paid.  Maybe I can get some before/after clips up.

 

[zooey]

Sorry to be thick, but I didn't hear a definitive answer ot my question about whether you're directly processing IR .wav files with Mic Room, or starting with a recording of something playing back through an IR, an processing that.

 

It hadn't occurred to me to process IRs directly, and it doesn't seem like that'd work, like at all, just wondering if that was a bogus assumption.

[roscoe5]

Sorry to be thick, but I didn't hear a definitive answer ot my question about whether you're directly processing IR .wav files with Mic Room, or starting with a recording of something playing back through an IR, an processing that.

 

It hadn't occurred to me to process IRs directly, and it doesn't seem like that'd work, like at all, just wondering if that was a bogus assumption.

 

No worries.  To your question, I ran a sine sweep signal back through each existing IR (loaded into a convolution reverb plug-in), into the Mic Room plug in, captured that, then deconvolved the capture with the sine sweep.  You can use EQ plug in's to to post-process the IR's (EQ match, etc.), as well as any other plug-in your experimental heart desires.

 

This worked with my Recto 212, Studiocat Friedman 212, and some 3sigma Recto 212 IR's (not posted since they are paid).

 

I just finished a little writeup here.

http://line6.com/support/topic/22023-ik-t-racks-mic-room-to-re-mic-your-irs-and-tracks/

[roscoe5]

While fine tuning my Line 6 SV/Recto 212 FOH IR's this weekend, I got some nice, real AKG D112 off-axis captures.  It was just a happy accident while moving the mic around.  It's not a traditional position for a D112, but it takes a little harshness off...sort of like angling an SM57.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4phus5no73yhjos/AAAlclIXZYENU9OsHCL2DAVba?dl=0

 

MesRec212_L6SV_D112_1oa.wav

MesRec212_L6SV_D112_2oa.wav

MesRec212_L6SV_D112_3oa.wav

 

The MesRec212_L6SV_D112_2oa.wav is the closest to my cab in a room I have heard from a single mic.  That's the one that got my attention and I made it first.  Then made the other two just for a couple more options.

 

Soundcloud clip

https://soundcloud.com/michael-potts-995394155/helix-cali-recto-d112-2oa-ir

[zooey]

Man, you gotta chill, I can't keep up ;) I get your stuff imported into my Helix, then next thing I know I need to make room for more. Bummer!

 

Seriously though, thanks very much for all your IRs and investigations.

[roscoe5]

Ugh, sorry. They're not all winners though ;)

 

You guys have been very patient and tolerant of my forum brain dumping.

 

I don't know why, but it helps me to write stuff up and post here. I definitely get ideas and inspiration from this group.