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Technique: Making a DI'd acoustic guitar sound like its mic'd using IR's.


msmcleod

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  • 1 year later...
On 1/22/2019 at 7:54 AM, TheSteven said:

Good post msmcleod!

That technique can help acoustify (is that a real word? can we copyright it if not?) a DI recorded guitar.

There are a number of acoustic guitar IRs out there, where instead of capturing sound of a room they capture sound of a guitar body.

Here's a free Taylor Guitar set that uses a variety of mics
https://drive.google.com/a/t-sciences.com/file/d/0B1XgNa5vH3j1ZkVoTFJLQ241WTg/view
I found this mentioned on a Line6 thread (where there are also links to other kinds of IRs)
https://line6.com/support/topic/26822-free-irs/

You might also try hunting / googling for IRs or checking KVR (they use to have links for posts & links for IRs but I haven't checked in quite a while).
 

 

Ah Steve, that Taylor Guitar set sounds great with my Tanglewood in TH3 with a spring verb chained after it. Great find.

Thanks for the link. 👍

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3 hours ago, lapasoa said:

Taylor guitar: DI with his Piezo  pick up

What electronics are in your Taylor? They seem to have tried several configurations, starting with Fishman and now promoting a Taylor branded  "Expression System".  

Edited by jackson white
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On 3/9/2020 at 6:26 AM, Bill Phillips said:

I wanted to look under the hood of the Acoustic Piezo FX Chain preset but couldn't extract the plugins. The extract plugins option (which works for other FX Chain presets) doesn't appear on the Acoustic Piezo FX Chain dropdown and the shift load option doesn't extract plugins. Any suggestions?

Sorry for the delayed response! That was back when Cakewalk used a locking function for the FX Chains. I'm not sure if there's a way to extract it now, but I'll check next time I'm in the studio.

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1 hour ago, Craig Anderton said:

Sorry for the delayed response! That was back when Cakewalk used a locking function for the FX Chains. I'm not sure if there's a way to extract it now, but I'll check next time I'm in the studio.

Thanks. I'd still like to know the answer.

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Can someone point me to a primer on IRs? From some vids I’ve seen, is it essentially capturing the sonic EQ signature of a given mic-captured instrument,  then matching that to another signal (in this case a DI-recorded acoustic) like Izotpope’s EQ Match? Would really like to understand the concept an how to apply it b/c capturing a really nice sounding acoustic has eluded me in my little setup. And you need to pair the IR with a cabinet? With an amp/cab emulation? Thanks. 

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2 hours ago, Billy86 said:

a primer on IRs

you may have seen these, 

https://www.3d-varius.com/impulse-response-acoustic-instrument/

some useful notes in this example.

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=529591 

2 hours ago, Billy86 said:

pair the IR with a cabinet

The link includes an example, not much on -why-, but let your ears do the thinking...

2 hours ago, Billy86 said:

capturing a really nice sounding acoustic

Going down this rathole atm. Recently moved from an absolutely gorgeous space for recordings AGs, trying to find an acceptable workaround in the new space. Had briefly looked at IRs in the distant past along with sampled AGs, never got past the initial efforts none which sounded good enough to use (could be the user...). 

Hoped the Nembrini might offer something more for cheap and cheerful takes, but @msmcleod reminder on IRs pretty much shot that down. IRs sound better but so far still a bit of a compromise unless buried in the mix.. 

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On 7/25/2021 at 1:35 PM, Billy86 said:

Can someone point me to a primer on IRs? From some vids I’ve seen, is it essentially capturing the sonic EQ signature of a given mic-captured instrument . . . .

Just a footnote in case you are ever interested in more than using IRs to simulate the acoustics of an amp/cabinet.  A few years ago simulated IRs were used live in a performance space to reproduce as much as possible the acoustic space of the legendary Cistern in the State of Washington.  Yes, I know its beyond the scope of a primer, but some people interested in using IRs might find it interesting.

There's a basic, non-technical description of how it was done in the press release for Pauline Oliveros' 80th Birthday Celebration.

Edited by User 905133
to fix a typo
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I think an essential trick to taming Piezo pick-ups is to use a transient designer to temper  the initial transient a bit. Sound transmission in most solid materials is exponentially faster and more efficient than in air  . The balance isn't natural sounding as it is acoustically. I've tried a few acoustic body IR''s - and essentially the ones I've tried capture a resonant honk of an acoustic body. Using the 2 together and tuning them carefully can give a pretty good mic'd sound.

Edited by RBH
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On 7/25/2021 at 1:05 PM, jackson white said:

you may have seen these, 

https://www.3d-varius.com/impulse-response-acoustic-instrument/

some useful notes in this example.

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=529591 

The link includes an example, not much on -why-, but let your ears do the thinking...

Going down this rathole atm. Recently moved from an absolutely gorgeous space for recordings AGs, trying to find an acceptable workaround in the new space. Had briefly looked at IRs in the distant past along with sampled AGs, never got past the initial efforts none which sounded good enough to use (could be the user...). 

Hoped the Nembrini might offer something more for cheap and cheerful takes, but @msmcleod reminder on IRs pretty much shot that down. IRs sound better but so far still a bit of a compromise unless buried in the mix.. 

I hadn't seen these. Great stuff, thanks! So... the procedure for using IRs... do you put it first in an FX chain and then, say, an amp emulation, like Amplitube for example? I have Amplitube 5 and there is the ability to load in IRs.  Strangely, I can't find a "how to use" on the 3 Sigma Audio website, which sells all sorts of them.

https://www.3sigmaaudio.com/ 

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19 hours ago, User 905133 said:

Just a footnote in case you are ever interested in more than using IRs to simulate the acoustics of an amp/cabinet.  A few years ago simulated IRs were used live in a performance space to reproduce as much as possible the acoustic space of the legendary Cistern in the State of Washington.  Yes, I know its beyond the scope of a primer, but some people interested in using IRs might find it interesting.

There's a basic, non-technical description of how it was done in the press release for Pauline Olivero's 80th Birthday Celebration.

Super cool, thanks. 

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8 hours ago, Billy86 said:

put it first in an FX chain

That's been my approach for piezo electronics on an acoustic. IRs function pretty much as an EQ with cabinets seeming to add little more "space" to the sound but they're generally the same thing. Tried a couple of IR loaders and the Audio Assault referenced by @msmcleod contains modules for additional inline processing. It was only $7 and the Gain/Volume was useful as IRs seem to knock the output down quite a bit. 

Still haven't found what I'm looking for.

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17 hours ago, jackson white said:

That's been my approach for piezo electronics on an acoustic. IRs function pretty much as an EQ with cabinets seeming to add little more "space" to the sound but they're generally the same thing. Tried a couple of IR loaders and the Audio Assault referenced by @msmcleod contains modules for additional inline processing. It was only $7 and the Gain/Volume was useful as IRs seem to knock the output down quite a bit. 

Still haven't found what I'm looking for.

This Impulse loader looks pretty nice from 3Sigma Audio. Includes 3 cabs. $20.

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@msmcleod - I hope this link works. It goes to a comment I added to the Favorite Freeware Thread, and it's my totally free method of souping up my bad-sounding acoustic guitar. It's light on step-by-step instructions, because I was just learning about using IRs. But smart people will figure it out, and it includes links to a huge free library of acoustic guitar IRs, as well as a useful (and free!) IR loader. By the way, I think I like your "before" guitar sound better than the "after."

https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/topic/5064-favorite-freeware-fx-thread/&do=findComment&comment=247156

 

Edited by Larry Jones
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On 7/28/2021 at 1:49 PM, Larry Jones said:

@msmcleod - I hope this link works. It goes to a comment I added to the Favorite Freeware Thread, and it's my totally free method of souping up my bad-sounding acoustic guitar. It's light on step-by-step instructions, because I was just learning about using IRs. But smart people will figure it out, and it includes links to a huge free library of acoustic guitar IRs, as well as a useful (and free!) IR loader. By the way, I think I like your "before" guitar sound better than the "after."

https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/topic/5064-favorite-freeware-fx-thread/&do=findComment&comment=247156

 

Thanks. I downloaded NadIR and think it's really handy and easier for me to use than the TH3 IR cabinet.

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