I just bought an IR pack from Ownhammer.com and thought it would be cool to find a small pedal that could load impulse responses for live use. Turns out that in the world today there is only one pedal that does such a thing. Torpedo cab. It's a very high-end pedal with a bunch of features, including different mic models and even power amp simulations. Awesome pedal, however, at $550 it's totally out of my price-range. Anyway, it got me thinking, why is there only one pedal in the world that does this? IRs are becomeing more and more common in the studio and even in some rack units. Why is there only one pedal that can make use of them? IRs have a profoundly massive effect on guitar tone. Line 6 is at the forefront of good "direct to PA" tone, and yet they haven't fully taken advantage for one the biggest pieces of the puzzle in that realm. A great IR can make even average pre and power amp modeling sound darn good. The "cab models" that come with the PODs and others are simply not enough.
The issue is that there is no one-size-fits-all IR. A quality studio IR will, in a single impulse, hold the sonic signature of the studio environment in which it was recorded, the resonance of the cab, the signature tone of the speaker being recorded, as interpreted by the microphone that picks it up, and the preamp by which it is powered. For each IR all of these varables, plus microphone placements and final mixing are carefully controlled and mixed under the watchfull eye and detailed ears of the engineer who is making them.
IRs offer a multude of tonal possiblites. They are the core of any modeled sound. I don't know exatly what kind of processing power it takes to implement a good high-resolution IR, but I do believe that it's time for Line 6 to provide their users with the freedom, versatility and customisablitiy that user IRs provide. IRs need no longer only a boutique offering. 2014, maybe?
:)
