Acoustic IR's

[themetallikid]

At the risk of sounding like a lot of the 'this preset doesnt sound like the video online' sorta thing.....   

 

 

...I bought some acoustic IR's from 3Sigma.  A Guild and Martin that sounded the best for what I'd be using.  There are 2 folders Electric and Acoustic, and within the electric there are options and in the Acoustic there are Pieze/Soundhole and a 3rd option.  

 

I know these go in an IR Block (duh!) but where in the chain would they go.  This is to project and acoustic like sound during full band shows for those few songs/parts that I need something close, so I'm playing an electric into the helix.  

 

Just playing around I threw on the Acoustic Sim block (stock settings) and then imported some of the IR's to dip my toes in on my lunch hour.  I had 2 IR's at the end of my chain just like my electric presets and was going towards a bassier/thicker sound in one IR and a brighter/more attack type in the other.  Is it more popular to run the IR's first?  I'd think you'd let the Acoustic Sim do its thing, and then 'EQ' (IR) the sound from there post effects.  

[waymda]

Using a Variax I tend to have Accoustic IRs first, helping 'tune' the modelled accoustic, then using effects on it so they're affectng the whole accoustic model.

 

Using your use case,  the dfference would be accoustic sim then IRs.

 

For what its worth I tend to use a mix of the IRs so theres a blend of original modelled tone, plus the IR affected.

[codamedia]

16 hours ago, themetallikid said:

I had 2 IR's at the end of my chain just like my electric presets and was going towards a bassier/thicker sound in one IR and a brighter/more attack type in the other. 

 

IMO.... I'd scale that back to one IR until you get a really solid feel of how it will help/hurt your setup. 

 

16 hours ago, themetallikid said:

Is it more popular to run the IR's first?  I'd think you'd let the Acoustic Sim do its thing, and then 'EQ' (IR) the sound from there post effects.  

 

In your setup I agree with you...  "Acoustic Sim > IR" 

From there I would apply "EQ > Post Effects" 

 

Unlike CAB IR's, I keep my Acoustic IR's really low on the blend setting... I find a little goes a long way. If I had to guess, I might add 10% - 15% of an IR signal to my tones. This is true regardless of the instrument I am applying the IR to... be it a Variax, real acoustic, banjo, etc... etc... 

I am just looking to add a little more character to the tone with an IR - not create the tone itself. I'd approach it the same way with the acoustic sim, but YMMV....

 

[brue58ski]

I have a Variax. One thing I've done is put the Acoustic Simulator on a parallel path and use that and the split point mix to help shape the sound. I found it helps the Variax's acoustics. In your case I would put the IR right after your input. put the split off point for the Acoustic Simulator right after the IR. Then put the split return point right after the IR again. But nothing is written in stone. You could put the split off point for the IR before the IR and see what mixing those two will do. The very cool thing about the Helix is you can route many things many different ways. Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Hope it helps.

[emagli]

On 3/4/2021 at 2:22 PM, codamedia said:

In your setup I agree with you...  "Acoustic Sim > IR" 

 

I'd generally agree with this. If the acoustic sim is linear (i.e., an EQ), the order won't make any difference in the outcome.