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3 Sigma Audio IR and Preset Helix Collections


soundog
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FYI, 3 Sigma Audio just announced some Helix IR/Preset bundles; 1 for bass, 1 for high gain, and 1 for "vintage classics". I've bought some of their earlier IRs and really liked 'em, so may pick up a couple of these. $15 per bundle, with 20 presets and 20 IRs per bundle.

 

http://www.3sigmaaudio.com/helix-collection/

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I gave their Hi-Gain bundle a shot and I liked them very much. Nothing new or revolutionary. Just the very solid 3SA quality that I have become used to. They never let you down. 

 

I've created most of the presets I use on a daily basis but I do like to get inspiration from the pros. Glenn Delaune's stuff is very advanced, Fremen has taken another route, a more simplistic approach but nevertheless very good stuff. 3SA's presets are very simple and very good sounding. Their Cali Lead is my new favorite.

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Agreed. I use Helix mainly for recording,  and purchased the 3SA Vintage and Bass bundles. These, along with some of some Delaune and Freman amp/cabinet patches, and I have a great pallet to choose from.

 

I found the 3SA Vintage patches needed some EQ twiddling to get them where I wanted them. The IRs are excellent. And I was especially happy with the Bass bundle.

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I picked up the 3SA Vintage and like them a lot.  I was thinking of trying to combine the different presets for a given amp into one preset using snapshots.  Just seems like it would be easier switch between them without any lag or audio artifacts.  But the layouts are a tiny bit different.  Does anyone know of an easy way to achieve this?  I did see someone who was directly editing the preset text files with some copy-paste action but that freaks me out a little bit.  Seems potentially hazardous.

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Agreed. I use Helix mainly for recording,  and purchased the 3SA Vintage and Bass bundles. These, along with some of some Delaune and Freman amp/cabinet patches, and I have a great pallet to choose from.

 

I found the 3SA Vintage patches needed some EQ twiddling to get them where I wanted them. The IRs are excellent. And I was especially happy with the Bass bundle.

 

How is the Bass bundle? Thinking about picking that one up too.

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I have the Bass bundle, and like it a LOT — plenty there to choose from.

 

I wish 3 Sigma would provide info on what cabinet(s) and mic(s) are used for each of the 20 IRs. For the bass bundle, for example, they just say its an "Exclusive 8-10 Cab Pack". They do provide tube and solid-state based IRs, and 5 mic positions for each (moving from cap to cone), so there's plenty of room for experimentation.

 

Not sure why they bothered to provide IRs in 44.1, 48, 88.2, and 96 rates, though; Helix/Helix Native converts everything to 48 anyway. Use the 48 samples. You can use the other rates for other stuff I guess.

 

Actually, you should be able to get similar results by using the standard Helix bass amps presets and adding your own bass IRs. I really like 3 Sigma's IRs, and they offer a bunch of bass IR sets. The nice thing about these Helix bundles are that they are sort of a hand-selected "best of the best" fit for Helix, and for a good price.

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I picked up the 3SA Vintage and like them a lot.  I was thinking of trying to combine the different presets for a given amp into one preset using snapshots.  Just seems like it would be easier switch between them without any lag or audio artifacts.  But the layouts are a tiny bit different.  Does anyone know of an easy way to achieve this?  I did see someone who was directly editing the preset text files with some copy-paste action but that freaks me out a little bit.  Seems potentially hazardous.

 

Making single-amp presets with snapshots is a great idea. Editing preset text files can be tedious and laborious and requires some study. Better to get out a pencil and paper and draw simple block diagrams of the presets for a given amp, along with key parameter changes (especially the amp settings). You can likely simplify them and combine them to get what you want in a single preset with snapshots.

 

The 3 Sigma CALI amps, as an example, usually use compressor -> EQ ->Amp->IR, sometimes splitting the path, and sometimes adding compression and EQ after the IR. See if you can get all of the common elements into one preset, and use snapshots to toggle stuff on and off as needed, especially the delay and reverb, distortion level. You can get by using the same IR (usually either the ACE or the 212 IRs marked with a 1b), and usually the same EQ settings that sound good for your guitar and speakers. Copy a 3 Sigma preset into a blank slot, and hack away at it ... its a great way to learn how to create your own snapshot/preset combos.

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I have the Bass bundle, and like it a LOT — plenty there to choose from.

 

I wish 3 Sigma would provide info on what cabinet(s) and mic(s) are used for each of the 20 IRs. For the bass bundle, for example, they just say its an "Exclusive 8-10 Cab Pack". They do provide tube and solid-state based IRs, and 5 mic positions for each (moving from cap to cone), so there's plenty of room for experimentation.

 

Not sure why they bothered to provide IRs in 44.1, 48, 88.2, and 96 rates, though; Helix/Helix Native converts everything to 48 anyway. Use the 48 samples. You can use the other rates for other stuff I guess.

 

Actually, you should be able to get similar results by using the standard Helix bass amps presets and adding your own bass IRs. I really like 3 Sigma's IRs, and they offer a bunch of bass IR sets. The nice thing about these Helix bundles are that they are sort of a hand-selected "best of the best" fit for Helix, and for a good price.

Well i think it is the same IR's as they sell on the website but renamed

I could be wrong but i highly doubt that they would captured some new cabs just for this packs.

They just use Helix and their own existing IR and dial in some preset that sounds good and sell it and say you also get some "special" IR

So if you have lots of their IR's it is a good change you buy them again :) but hey you get the presets for 1 $

20 IR per pack that means in 3Sigma world 2 cabs.

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Well i think it is the same IR's as they sell on the website but renamed

I could be wrong but i highly doubt that they would captured some new cabs just for this packs.

They just use Helix and their own existing IR and dial in some preset that sounds good and sell it and say you also get some "special" IR

So if you have lots of their IR's it is a good change you buy them again :) but hey you get the presets for 1 $

20 IR per pack that means in 3Sigma world 2 cabs.

You may be right. the bundles could be more marketing than new invention. Just guessing, though. Interestingly, if you read their manual you find they chose to apply 1 of only 2 of the bundle's 20 IRs to any of the presets. Both are the solid state (not tube) version, with mic at the cap.

 

That said, with any vendors IRs, experimentation is in order. Sometimes you get 30 or more IR choices in a vendor's assortment. It can a lot of effort and ear power to sort through them to pick a fave. I think, though, that 3 Sigma's IRs are among the best I've tried.

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Hey Guys,

 

Joe from 3 Sigma here. Just wanted to chime in to clear up any confusion about the IR's. The IR's are new and exclusive to each pack and are not renamed versions of other cabs from the library. It takes me about 10 minutes to make new cabinets these days so not a huge time investment :) All upcoming packs will have their own IR's also. The only overlap there will be is we are releasing these and all future preset packs for basically every software and hardware amp sim and the IR's will be the same in those. Ie Hi Gain Essentials for Helix and Hi Gain Essentials for Guitar Rig will both ship with the same HG412 cab. Hope this helps!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey Joe,

 

Just gotta say, I bought both preset packs and they are awesome. Simple and stripped down to only what you need. I will of course need to edit them to suit my personal live situation. These patches are truly the 1st ones I found that don't sound like crap. You have managed to remove the boomy bottom and fizz in the distortion that everyone else's patches have. I run direct to the FOH live and the same when I practice and  with all the other guy's presets I had to eq the hell out of them to make them usable. Yours I was able to flatten the eq and just put a low cut on the channel and they sound realistic. Excellent job.

 

Pete

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I got the vintage and bass sets, configured the IRs, and I was less than impressed... I much prefer the guitar tones in the Fremen packs, and the bass tone I dialed in myself...

Could be that I need to play around with it more, or change the tone on my guitar a little for better results. I only tried it in some prerecorded parts with Native, and it didn’t work with what I had, but I’ll dig in a little more.

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Yeah, I had to spend some time tweaking the multiple EQ setting, and the amp preamp/gain levels, but after I got everything dialed info my guitar I'm now using these as much as my Freman and Delaune patches. The block configuration is different than most other patches I have, so I had to figure out how stuff was being routed. Hope they work out for you...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey Guys,

 

Joe from 3 Sigma here. Just wanted to chime in to clear up any confusion about the IR's. The IR's are new and exclusive to each pack and are not renamed versions of other cabs from the library. It takes me about 10 minutes to make new cabinets these days so not a huge time investment :) All upcoming packs will have their own IR's also. The only overlap there will be is we are releasing these and all future preset packs for basically every software and hardware amp sim and the IR's will be the same in those. Ie Hi Gain Essentials for Helix and Hi Gain Essentials for Guitar Rig will both ship with the same HG412 cab. Hope this helps!

 

Could you tell us what cabs were modeled in the Vintage and Hi-Gain preset-IR collections?  Also curious why you used both ACE and non-ACE versions of the cabs? Thanks.

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Hey Guys,

 

Thanks for all the kind words! Sorry for the late reply, it wasn't alerting me to replies until HonestOpinion quoted the post. In answer to your question, the cabs aren't modeled after any physical equivalent but they are both a V30/Creamback hybrid. We give you both ACE and non ACE because sometimes the extra high end from the non ACE versions can be a good thing, especially with cleans. Or with something like a vintage blues tone where the tones almost sound like there isn't a cab on, the more presence region the cab has the easier it is to get that sound. Hope this helps and glad you guys are enjoying them. We're looking forward to releasing some more very soon!

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  • 4 weeks later...

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