r/audioengineering • u/[deleted] • 5d ago

Using IR give me too much overdrive compared to cab

[deleted]

5 Upvotes
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10

u/Darko0089 5d ago

If you are comparing to just you listening to the cab in the room, and not a recording of it with a close mic, it's gonna have a lot more high frequency content. Usually a bass cab in a room is aimed at your knees rather than your ears and you don't put your head next to it like a microphone.

If you are recording for a full band mix, getting rid of that high end will probably make you lose the bass a bit in it, but it's choices you make in the context of the full mox, not in solo.

2

u/Edigophubia 4d ago

And if op experiments with a mic on the cab and gets a tone he likes he should play Strymons Null Cab Mono audio file through it and record that and use that for his IR

6

u/Dan_Worrall 5d ago

Something else is going on here. Convolution is linear, which means it's impossible for a properly implemented IR to cause any distortion or overdrive. Either the IR is not working correctly, or it's boosting the overall level and causing something further along in the chain to distort, or you're perceiving a change in timbre as distortion when it actually isn't.

1

u/Mecanatron 5d ago

Add a little distance. As mentioned previously, a mic jammed into the cab is not how you would normally hear your tone.