Noob questions about IRs

[ronballllllls]

Hi everyone,

 

Just ordered a Helix Rack from Sweetwater that will be here in a few days, and I can't wait to fire that thing up! I've read that the stock IRs are not so great and people have suggested added their own custom IRs they've bought from third-parties. I've heard a demo of some ML Sound Labs IRs that Fractal Audio sells through their store. 

 

If I wanted to buy an IR pack from ML Sound Labs (through Fractal Audio), would I be able to use them with my Helix? I have 0 experience with IRs, but I've read that they're mostly like .wav files but couldn't confirm from their site.

 

Thanks 

[jbuhajla]

The stock cab/IR models on Helix are very good, but like everything else, some players prefer 3rd party IRs. Yes, IRs are wav files.  24 bit, 48 kHz, 1024/2048 sample IRs are compatible with Helix. 

[Doug6String]

I'd suggest you start with the Helix cabs and explore them fully before buying IRs.  A lot of forum users love the cabs and I can say that I learned a ton about mics and their placement and the effect on sound using the Helix cabs before switching to IRs.  You obviously know very little, if anything (and this should sound condescending) about the Helix or IRs, so why complicate things further by buying IRs you don't actually have a reason to buy yet.  Get the Helix and get some understanding of it first and use the cabs.  Helix is the greatest musical device I've ever bought (I've been a guitar player for 50 years so I've bought a lot!) and I love it and it's easy to use.  BUT - there are so many "knobs" you can turn that it's easy to spend too much time doing that instead of making music.  Adding a pack of IRs into that mix raises the number of parameters to an even higher level for a newbie.  Of course this is just one more opinion!  Congrats on having a Helix on the way!

[ronballllllls]

I'd suggest you start with the Helix cabs and explore them fully before buying IRs.  A lot of forum users love the cabs and I can say that I learned a ton about mics and their placement and the effect on sound using the Helix cabs before switching to IRs.  You obviously know very little, if anything (and this should sound condescending) about the Helix or IRs, so why complicate things further by buying IRs you don't actually have a reason to buy yet.  Get the Helix and get some understanding of it first and use the cabs.  Helix is the greatest musical device I've ever bought (I've been a guitar player for 50 years so I've bought a lot!) and I love it and it's easy to use.  BUT - there are so many "knobs" you can turn that it's easy to spend too much time doing that instead of making music.  Adding a pack of IRs into that mix raises the number of parameters to an even higher level for a newbie.  Of course this is just one more opinion!  Congrats on having a Helix on the way!

I've had some experience with mic placement on cabs via BiasFX but I didn't want to buy their Professional Tier to have the ability to load custom IRs.

[ronballllllls]

The stock cab/IR models on Helix are very good, but like everything else, some players prefer 3rd party IRs. Yes, IRs are wav files.  24 bit, 48 kHz, 1024/2048 sample IRs are compatible with Helix. 

Thanks!

[sleezye1]

I've been using IR's in my DAW for a few years now and I figured I'd be using them with my helix too..

 

But in the short time that I've had it now I've mostly been using the cabs and tweaking to my liking.. I find that you get waaay more control than just flipping through an ir library