Acoustic IR's w/ Variax

[specracer986]

I know some acoustic IR's are intended for an actual acoustic and some are intended for an electric to sound like an acoustic. Is there a special type of IR I should be looking for to use with my Variax into my Helix?

[phil_m]

The short answer is it won't work. Any acoustic IR you try with the Variax will sound worse than the Variax' acoustic models.

[specracer986]

Interesting. Well, this is why I asked. Thanks.

[zooey]

I thought Richie Castellano's video sounded quite good. Don't have a Variaxe so I didn't try his presets, but you might as well.

 

http://line6.com/support/topic/26009-richie-castellano-variaxe-acoustic-presets/

[shanecgriffo]

i found my variax sounded better as is.. i tried the 3sigma martin ones and a few freebies.. they sounded ok on my piezo equipped acoustic tho

[specracer986]

I thought Richie Castellano's video sounded quite good. Don't have a Variaxe so I didn't try his presets, but you might as well.

 

http://line6.com/support/topic/26009-richie-castellano-variaxe-acoustic-presets/

On that video he had a pre amp block, but no amp or cab or IR. So if I want to play acoustic on a verse then change to electric for chorus, I should have a snapshot for the verse / acoustic, with just a pre amp and no amp or cab of IR?

[CBTL]

On that video he had a pre amp block, but no amp or cab or IR. So if I want to play acoustic on a verse then change to electric for chorus, I should have a snapshot for the verse / acoustic, with just a pre amp and no amp or cab of IR?

Correct, it's easy to set up an acoustic on any preset this way!

[PeterHamm]

Some guys have found an acoustic IR mixed in just a teeny bit can make the Variax sound sweet, but I agree, because of the design and what it's doing, it's unnecessary.

[specracer986]

Well I'm glad I asked. I would have tried putting the acoustic model through an amp and cab and then complain about how bad it sounds.

[phil_m]

The Variax model itself is kind of like an IR in a way... It's taking the raw input from the piezo's and doing some sort of processing (probably a mixture of convolution and filters and other proprietary stuff) to make it sound like a miced acoustic. It's kind of like when people try to run a cab model or IR though a real cab.

[amsdenj]

These acoustic IRs are created by essentially taking the difference between the impulse response of the piezo pickup and the body of the guitar. When the piezo pickup is played through the acoustic IR, the contribution of the tone from the pickup is subtracted out, leaving only the contribution from the body of the instrument. This works reasonably well because a lot of piezo pickups sound pretty similar on a lot of different guitars.

 

If you put a different input into the same acoustic IR, it won't work because the signal from the Variax or an electric guitar pickup is not the same as a piezo pickup. So the result will be incorrect. You'll essentially get Input source - piezo + acoustic body. This is probably not going to sound good because Input source - piezo is not zero.