IR files

Exactly,

I’m hesitant to say it because I don’t really know for sure, but I don’t think the cab sims are really not doing all that much. So I don’t totally put my foot in my mouth I’ll download an IR convolver for the DAW and just see for myself. It’s easy enough to feed a cab sim with some pink noise and see what the spectrum analyzer graph looks like on the other end.

Cab sims exist because the signal out of a DI sounds just too perfect compared to what people hear on stage through their rig. For the most part the high frequencies will get rolled off and whatever characteristic bump or dip that cabinet has is what will be most heard.

Just to complicate things further, it’s possible the tone control section of the amp is part of what’s correcting for problems in the cab if it’s an integrated amp/cab.

In this video Brian Wampler shows how the tone controls on this particular amp are nowhere near flat when measuring their IR. This is most likely done to make the whole system of tone control and loudspeaker driver work together as a system to sound correct. It can also be done to produce how most people like their tone controls set so that the noon setting provides the most desirable tone coloration rather than flat.

I only say all this for people who want to think about what goes on under the hood. Otherwise, whatever combination of things gets you where you are going is good. Sylvia Massey does stuff like pointing a cab into a grand piano with nails bouncing on the strings or something like that to get sounds.

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Wow, that’s a pretty cool pedal! I’d buy it just for the user settable parametric EQ I’ve been looking for. It has 4 bands of fully parametric EQ and recallable presets. Incredible. Their demo is nice too. I’m impressed!!

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I’ll be interested to know what you think of it when you get it. Can you load additional IRs into it?

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@itsratso I was reading the description of the Mooer radar and it seems to suggest that this is mainly for use with headphones and not to be plugged into an existing amp. Is that how you plan to use it?

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I’m just going to use it like every other pedal, it will go at the end of my pedal chain. I kinda hate wearing headphones.

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Yep, you can download IR files into it. I think that the reason they say headphones is because of what me and Dave talked about above. Or it could be that they mean not to connect it between an amp and a speaker. You can do that with some (expensive) IR pedals but it would be disasterous and potentially dangerous with this one.

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What about connecting it to a combo amp??? Like my Rumble 100?

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Yep, just like any other pedal would be fine. Bass into pedals into amp. The point Dave was making is if you do this your rumbles amp and cabinet will color the sound some which would affect how it sounds. Which does not mean it would sound bad, necessarily.

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Just bear in mind that if you’re going in to an actual cab already, you won’t get as much out of the cab sim as you do in a DAW or on 'phones.

What @DaveT said is exactly right - the cab sims shouldn’t “do” much to your tone, and used ideally, they will just make it sound better, less flat and more natural when recording or in headphones than a raw bass in through the DAI would sound. You shouldn’t overly notice it as an effect at all ideally, it should just sound “better” then.

Like @terb said, this is not a factor when going through real bass cab. You can use cab sims then to make it sound more like a different cab, but in general, if the cab sim is overly noticeable in that situation, it is probably way too strong of a sim.

But in the end - the golden rule of effects applies, whatever sounds good to you rules :slight_smile:

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Yes and I agree with all that. But… I have heard many cab sims that do as you say but I have a hard time telling any difference with them on or off. And for recording that might be ideal. But I guess I DO want a bit of color, maybe a little vintage-y breakup, or 70s thunder or 80s punchiness, whatever. Which is why I’m not too concerned with getting a pristine studio quality sound.

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Yeah, absolutely, and it’s fun to try a bunch. I loved the Zoom for that, and IR convolvers in DAWs are even better for it because you can download tons of IR files like @T_dub did and trivially try them. It’s the only way to find what you want, really.

Having played with a lot of cab sims - in general, I still think good cab sims are subtle and add a bit of depth and color to the sound. What I have found with “bad” or overly strongly applied cab sims is they will make the tone sound muddy and indistinct. Obviously there’s a wide range there. And for some styles it might be what you want anyway :slight_smile:

One note:

you might need an amp sim more than a cab sim for this. But that’s cool, lots of good amp sims out there too. Plus you already have a VMT which can help with that :slight_smile:

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Yep and the mooer has amp, cab, and mic sims. I’m pretty sure I will find some things I like based on what I’ve heard. Not that I’m afraid to flip a pedal :joy:

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That pedal looks super cute. People seem to love the brand too, I see them all the time here. Definitely worth checking out.

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If you don’t like it, I’ll try it next.

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Oh great, like I need another project. Well, this would be a really good time with everything shut down to measure some performance spaces …

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I’m thinking seriously about getting one myself, using my Amazon 30 day library card. :rofl:

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guitar amps does not have a flat frequency response at all, that’s a big part of what makes them sound so different. a bass amp has generally a much flatter response. modern bass amps often have a very flat response.

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Class D power amps especially. Any color there likely comes from the preamp.

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This one looks interesting.
It has IR’s for Amp, Cab and Mic’s loaded, or you can load your own.
OR
you can record your own IR files with this one.

IDK if that is a feature on the rest, as I have not read them in depth, not even the JOYO Cab Box, I didn’t read that far into it’s capabilities.

So, this being the first one I read about fully, I saw you can record your own IR files, and that stood out to me. But if the others do that, then it is just another option out there.

NU>X Solid Studio

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Interesting, love that it has specific tube choices by name for modeling. That’s just geek-cool.

Though I think el34 and el84 are specific to guitar amps and bass amps use a different tube? (12ax7 or something like that?)

Still, very cute :slight_smile:

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