Impulse Responses

[Music Wolf]

I make extensive use of IRs in my live setup (Helix direct to PA) in order to mimic an acoustic guitar sound from a solid, semi-hollow or hollow body electric guitar with magnetic pickups. It wouldn’t fool anyone in isolation, and I certainly wouldn’t record with it, but it’s fine in the context of a live mix and much better than constantly swapping between guitars on stage. It also gives me the option to switch sounds within a song.

[shufflebeat]

I usually use a Tonedexter for my own gigs for guitar (Tak/palatheic or Crafter/Ultra Tonic) and mandola (K&K twin spot). When I'm 'teching for the band I have a Mooer Radar on bass and sometimes the same on fiddle (Baggs bridge piezo). The guitarist (Tak/Lowden) uses ye olde Fishman Aura blender and when I do gig recordings I put the guitar signal through my own Tak IR, created by Jonfields45 using Reaverb.

I've also used a JF45 IR on my Framus archtop (K&K) for recording which is possibly the most convincing acoustic sound I've achieved.

[shufflebeat]

Reading through the article it appears the approach adopted to tweak IR creation reflects the same issues acoustic IR users are familiar with; the "hit and miss" aspect of the process (which I think leads to a lot of magical thinking by users), the moving of the mic by mm (or in my case the moving of the guitar) and mic choice, a topic of much discussion and spending.

I sometimes find myself in a minority of one when it comes to room issues. Mic distance itself would obviously make a difference, particularly to the localisation of the sound source, i.e., a very close mic will pick up a specific area of a guitar while a more distant mic will get a more rounded perspective - but I also find (imagine?) I can hear a room aspect to the IR sound even with the very short duration of the IR file used by the Radar pedal.

[Sam Spoons]

The mist convincing piezo acoustic sound I have achieved is with my Rob Aylwatr Selmer & Bigtone pickup/bridge through my Tone Dexter, it is truly remarkable and I'm happy to record the guitar that way. I hav not got as authentic a sound with any other instrument yet but I was in my serious Gypsy Jazz phase when I created the wavemap and have not spent much time with my other acoustic guitars (and Mandolin). I hope to get something useful for my other guitars this winter. The ultimate aim is to create IR's which I can load into my Headrush Gigboard.

[merlyn]

The guitarist (Tak/Lowden) uses ye olde Fishman Aura blender and when I do gig recordings I put the guitar signal through my own Tak IR, created by Jonfields45 using Reaverb.

Did you send Jon Fields two wave files? One of the piezo (what you don't want it to sound like) and one of the miked up sound (what you do want it to sound like)?

My understanding is that Jon Fields has his own algorithm to calculate the impulse response (= filter).

In playback mode the Tonedexter is an EQ, and the clever bit is calculating the filter, which Jon Fields may do better than the software in the Tonedexter.

[stormymondays]

Bumping this to express my interest in acoustic guitar impulse responses

Especially I would like to learn how to record my own, using my preferred mic setup plus the output of the guitar’s pickup. The goal would be to get the mic’ed sound from the pickup.

Also open to general purpose IR recommendations for acoustic guitar.

[Sam Spoons]

What sort of budget do you have?

[stormymondays]

What sort of budget do you have?

I'm not currently thinking of buying the Tonedexter or Voiceprint DI, but generally budget is not a main concern.

[Sam Spoons]

Cool, have you come across John Fields' page then? That's probably the best place to find answers.

http://acousticir.free.fr/spip.php?article136

[shufflebeat]

Did you send Jon Fields two wave files? One of the piezo (what you don't want it to sound like) and one of the miked up sound (what you do want it to sound like)?

Apologies, lost track of discussion.

The file sent was stereo WAV, pickup to one side and mic to the other, of the same performance. The files sent back were a collection of small WAVs (IRs) of various pickup/mic blends to choose from depending on situation. I loaded them all into the Mooer Radar and just swapped around for best results.

Sometimes this is the best option, other situation the TD is king. To confuse matters further I've recently un-retired my Yamaha AG Stomp for some gigs as "realistic" is not as desirable as "effective" for those.

Instructions at Sam's link.

Record pickup/mic on two tracks (30 secs, I think), pan recorded tracks 100% left/right (check with instructions to see which goes where), export/render stereo WAV at recommended settings - Bob's your Auntie Ann.

[zenguitar]

The AG Stomp is a wonderful piece of kit. I always regret not buying one 2 decades ago.

Andy

[shufflebeat]

The AG Stomp is a wonderful piece of kit. I always regret not buying one 2 decades ago.

Andy

I've considered buying a second. Please let me know if you find yourself in a bidding war with an idiot.

[zenguitar]

The AG Stomp is a wonderful piece of kit. I always regret not buying one 2 decades ago.

Andy

I've considered buying a second. Please let me know if you find yourself in a bidding war with an idiot.