How to best use IR’s?

[OlegIvy]

I recently added a stomp XL to my board and I’m learning about IRs. I’m a bit behind. is an IR something that replaces both the amp and the cab emulator, just the cab or neither?

[silverhead]

An IR is effectively a Cab. It is not an amp replacement. It is based on a capture of an ‘Impulse Response’ generated by a specific cab and microphone combination including a specific mic placement.

[SaschaFranck]

What silverhead said.

I'd possibly not bother too much as the latest internal cabs of the HX series are pretty damn good, so you'd likely be wasting a lot of time hunting IRs without much of a substantial win (if any). Add to this that you'd have to "waste" an extra block for them whereas you could just use a single amp&cab block in case you're doing fine with the internal cabs.

[datacommando]

On 4/14/2026 at 7:46 AM, OlegIvy said:

I recently added a stomp XL to my board and I’m learning about IRs. I’m a bit behind. is an IR something that replaces both the amp and the cab emulator, just the cab or neither?

Hi,

 

You might want to have a look at this video for some info on using IRs with your Stomp XL.

 

 

Hope the helps/makes sense.

[theElevators]

I tried a few IRs early on, and never used them again.  One time I played around with an acoustic guitar IR... Ultimately never used this, and continued to use cabs that are in the Helix.  Didn't stop me from recording guitar on "hit" records... by hit records, I mean 8 million views on YouTube. 

 

IRs are overrated... They might have been relevant 10 years ago, when the stock cabs were limited.  But even stock cabs are a collection of various IRs... just with a virtual representation of how you place your microphone on a specific cab.  Each time you move your virtual microphone, you get a different IR... so it's just 100's of different IRs under the hood behind these stock cabs. 

 

And an IR typically is used in the context of how a guitar cab sounds when mic'ed.  But there can be IRs for other things, like how specific rooms, how an archtop guitar sound, etc.  All that is unnecessary IMHO.  And especially, don't waste your money purchasing snake oil IRs... 

 

good luck!

[SaschaFranck]

On 4/15/2026 at 3:36 PM, theElevators said:

One time I played around with an acoustic guitar IR...

 

This is one of the things I constantly use. But I'm not trying to make an electric sound like and acoustic but rather enhance the piezo signal of my acoustics.

Recorded the same stuff twice through the piezo and a decent mic (Rode NT2-A), then used Spectrum Thief (freeware Match-EQ plus IR generator from Ghost Note audio, one of *the* most excellent tools!) to obtain an IR from the mic'ed signal. Now I can just slap that onto the piezo signal. Getting incredibly great results IMO.

[Coryd]

I 100% of the time use IRs for all my guitar presets...bass that's a different story. Most of the time I don't even use a cab with my bass presets.

 

I think if you find the tones or artists you like, find out what cabs they use, get some good IRs of the same cabs and roll with it. To my ears IRs always sound better.

Just my 2 cents. 

Just don't go crazy buying them because you can end up spending a lot of money and not using 90% of them. 

 

I can recommend York Audio's Mesa OS cabs, Ownhammer Heavy Hitters, and GGD makes some plugins that you can export your own creations.

 

Also, there are a lot of good ones for free too online if you look around. Maybe try here first: 

 

[silverhead]

On 4/23/2026 at 12:50 PM, Coryd said:

I 100% of the time use IRs for all my guitar presets.….

So do I. But I use the ones in the upgraded cab engine in Helix. Each different setting is actually a separate IR and the user interface is simply a convenient way to organize, access and audition them all. To me it’s a huge improvement in sound and usability from the old engine. Since that time I haven’t bothered with other 3rd party IRs. Accessing and auditioning them is a huge waste of time imho.

[rwinking]

On 4/15/2026 at 7:36 AM, theElevators said:

One time I played around with an acoustic guitar IR..

I use the acoustic IRs all of the time now. However, I have been using them on my Powercabs. i Use a Grace stereo preamp and get a really nice sound. Then I drop a Martin or Taylor IR in on the PC and it is night and day difference. I use a Stomp XL for my mando preamp and I guess I could use my mando IR there, but again, I use them in the PC. Like other's have said, using them instead of a good cab sim does not do that much for my ears. But on an acoustic guitar is a different matter.