Impulse Response Loader - Why two slots?

deano

I am trying out the Overloud TH-U amp sim and it's very good. I think I will probably buy it.

But it comes with a cabinte that is an impulse response loader rather than one of the standard cabs, which is nice, but I don't know much about IRs, other than they represent a speaker in a cabinet, microphone, room, mic preamps etc.

I get them and I want to start playing with them. But I am confused why there is space (in the TH-U IR loader) for two IRs. I don't get why you need two (or more in some third-party loaders I have read about) spaces. Can anyone explain what benefit it is to have more than one IR loaded at a time please? Is it some sort of A/B testing thing?

Thanks,

Dean.

WiresDreamDisasters

Because it's common in studio recording situations to use more than 1 microphone to get a tone. A common approach for high-gain metal guitars is an SM57 combined with a Sennheiser 421. They get bussed together and become the "guitar tone".

SM57 gets a lot of detail, and 421 gets a lot of the boomy bottom end. Something you sometimes need.

thecolourbox

Yeah as Drew says It's a bit like having a close up mic and a room mic I think. Although on my modelling unit I have two IRs at the same time, a Deluxe reverb one and a Supro one as the DR is fuller and the Supro is trebly so combined they work together well.

PolarityMan

2 57's on and off axis are pretty common too, you can get a clip especially for doing that with a single mic stand.

deano

Okay, that all makes sense!

So, if thecolourbox will forgive me, you would typically load two IRs that were identical except for the mic and placement used, is that right? This is to mimic having two mics placed at different points around one speaker cab.

Thecolourbox's use is an alternative use where different IRs get a specific kind of effect. Kind of like plugging an amp head into two different sorts of cabinet to get a tonal change.

Everyday is a school day.

thecolourbox

Yes exactly on both accounts there. Best in mind the two IRs need to be in parallel, not one into the other if that makes sense.

Using two mic positions is kind of looking for the "amp in the room" experience as well - if you're playing an amp your ears are not going to be 1" away from the speaker so wherever you are stood out at playing you'll hear a mixture of the amp sound and the room's reverb, do you can mix IRs to get that feeling to a greater or lesser degree

deano

Thanks everyone, your replies have been really helpful.