Altiverb Impulse Responses

[Kazrog]

Anyone have any experience making Impulse Responses for Altiverb here? I'm about to make a few for various purposes, just curious if any of you have done it. Specifically, have any of you made IRs of guitar amp cabinets, with vintage 30s, etc?

I'm experimenting with going direct from my 6505+ into a THD HotPlate as the dummy load + DI, then using speaker simulation from Altiverb. I did an early test with some cheesy IR of PC speakers and it actually sounded pretty cool, so I'm optimistic that this could be an interesting alternative approach to recording re-amped guitars, especially for those of us with small home studios in an apartment/condo complex like me.

I'll be making an IR of my Mesa Standard 4x12 with v30s in it soon, which I'll post here if any of you are interested.

PS - Guitar Rig's speaker simulation sounded AWFUL for this...

 

[Disconnekt]

I've never made an IR, as I don't have a flat poweramp I can send the test signal through to my speakers, but I'd love to try yours once you get it done. I too have tried GR's speakers, and while I wouldn't call them awful, they're definitely not too great.

 

[A Gruesome Discovery]

Have you tried the cab sims at Noisevault? These in particular. There's two Vintage 30 ones in that rar file; one with 2 57's on and off axis, and one with a 57 and a condenser mic getting some room sound. They work well with a PodXT, and I'd love to hear how they sound with a real amp. Sadly, there's none of just one 57 on-axis. Native Instruments' Kontakt 2 also comes with a bunch of cab impulses, which I just found recently despite having purchased the upgrade version when it first came out almost a whole year ago. If you have that, they're worth checking out. I'd post them if it weren't most likely illegal (paranoid).
As for making convo impulses: I'd suggest using the effects return on your 6505 as the input for whatever sort of noise you end up using to get the impulse, so as to bypass the preamp and get a fairly flat response. I'm not entirely sure about the process, but I think the most accurate results require a number of different "sweep" files, and also something to deconvolve the results into a usable impulse wav (look into Voxengo's Deconvolver and check out the Voxengo forums).
And finally: I didn't realized you also dwell in an apartment/condo/duplex; I've noticed you built a sort of "noise tent" for your 6505+; does it help with the noise any? I share walls on either side of my house with my neighbors; they're thick as hell thanks to 19th century construction, but I'm sure a cranked 5150 will transmit enough brutal metal to warrant a call the local constabulary. Any tips from one close-quarters living metalhead to another?

 

[Kazrog]

Thanks for the tips and links, man! I actually do own Kontakt 2 and I had no idea until now that it comes with cab impulses. Crazy!! I'll have to try those.

I built the "noise tent" isolation setup mainly to focus the quality of the recorded tone, not to reduce the amount of disturbance to my neighbors. During the day, most of them are at work (of course, usually, so am I) but on weekends and lunch breaks I am able to re-amp at full volume. However, I got a THD PowerPlate for Christmas, and I am interested in trying this approach as either a) an alternative or b) a cool way to thicken up the tone for half of my quad-tracks.

Technically your neighbors can't do anything legally about your noise level until 10pm, but the laws might be different in MA than they are here in CA, I have no idea. Miked up, I don't really need to turn my 6505+ post gain knob past about 3.5 to get a loud, in your face recorded tone, but it's loud enough that I wear earplugs while recording.

 

[A Gruesome Discovery]

Technically your neighbors can't do anything legally about your noise level until 10pm, but the laws might be different in MA than they are here in CA, I have no idea. Miked up, I don't really need to turn my 6505+ post gain knob past about 3.5 to get a loud, in your face recorded tone, but it's loud enough that I wear earplugs while recording.

Nice; thanks. I'm a considerate, neighborly fellow, so it's good to know that you get your tones at that setting; I've only turned on my 5150 once (just brought it home today!) and while re-amping an ad-hoc track with the post-gain at about 2.5, it was pretty damn loud, but barely audible when I went to the floor below; just a slight rumble, comparable to the traffic outside. At 3 or 3.5 all should be well between my neighbors and me. Awesome!
Interested to hear how the THD/convo tests come out; keep us posted!

 

[JeffTD]

Shit, I compete against another guitarist, bassist fullstack, and a drumkit with a miced kick and snare with the postgain on 3.5... 5150's are loud as all hell, but then again, they don't get much louder after 5, just more compressed and buzzy.

I got a THD PowerPlate for Christmas...

BTW, how does that workout with the 5150? Does it retain the tone of it cranked up at lower levels? I know it'll never sound great at low low levels, but when you get the speakers moving some, does it sound good enough to warrant using it?

 

[Kazrog]

Shit, I compete against another guitarist, bassist fullstack, and a drumkit with a miced kick and snare with the postgain on 3.5... 5150's are loud as all hell, but then again, they don't get much louder after 5, just more compressed and buzzy.

BTW, how does that workout with the 5150? Does it retain the tone of it cranked up at lower levels? I know it'll never sound great at low low levels, but when you get the speakers moving some, does it sound good enough to warrant using it?

Yeah it sounds great, I wouldn't record with it as an attenuator though. I'd rather just crank my amp and mic it, or go direct in dummy load mode and use speaker simulation.

I've been jamming with a new drummer so I haven't had a chance to make headway with the impulse response experiment yet, but stay tuned!

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

I've been jamming with a new drummer so I haven't had a chance to make headway with the impulse response experiment yet, but stay tuned!

We do, we do

 

[SPLASTiK]

Some friends and I have made done a little convolution work. We record sine sweeps in various rooms and cavernous hallways to make our own reverbs.