How to Create Your OWN Impulse Response

[@SleepingLionsProductions]

You don't need a dedicated power amp to do this, in case it's not clear. If your amp has a fx send/return, you can hook up the white noise signal to the return.

[@JustinLesamiz]

True. Sadly, a LOT of classic amps don't have an FX loop. Fenders, for example.

[@Smurfman256]

@@JustinLesamiz Nothing stopping you from plugging the speakers of your fender amp into an amplifier that *does* have an FX loop, tho. Just make sure your amp with an FX loop has switchable impedance.

[@jows7595]

@@Smurfman256 What you're saying isn't wrong but it's capturing the speaker and the amplifier. So the same speaker with a different amp will sound different.

Cool to see you doing all of theese things for the community Joey. Remember the days in the andysneap?

[@luisaucedo]

Literally the most important part of the video lasts like 10 seconds

[@ETHVN231]

I’ve learned so much from this channel. I wouldn’t have half the confidence in recording my own music if it wasn’t for you guys on here. Thank you so much for making the videos you have been!!!

[@micwalt]

This may seem like a weird thing to do, but I just used this method to make an IR of a Palmer PDI-09 analog speaker sim/DI. It totally worked, and it sounds killer. Thanks for the tutorial!

[@chuckcostello5167]

That's badass, I have a PDI-09 and a PDI-03. How'd you do it??

[@micwalt]

@@chuckcostello5167 I just did exactly what was outlined in the vid, except instead of a power amp and cab, I just went from the interface out, into the Palmer, then back into the interface input. It worked, though I must admit the resulting IR doesn't sound exact--it's perhaps a little thin. I don't use it live, but it cuts through nicely in a recorded mix.

[@chuckcostello5167]

@@micwalt thanks for that. It might sound a little thin bc maybe the Palmer is expecting a powered signal? I have a clean power amp so it's something I'll experiment with. Thanks for giving me a great idea! Cheers.

[@micwalt]

@@chuckcostello5167 Maybe, but I used to use the Palmer with just a BOSS GT-8 straight to FOH (no amp) and it sounded amazing.

[@chuckcostello5167]

@@micwalt Interesting. I always only ever used it between the speaker output section of my amp and the actual speaker. Interested to try it with a drive pedal or something and see how it works.

[@XRaym]

This is for mic/speakers IR but reverb IR can be made too, though capture technique is a bit different. :) Other use of speaker IR can be on vocals like megaphone or telephone IR.

[@david_farmer]

Cheers! I have an old Line6 Vetta II combo I always loved the sound of mic'd up. I set up using this method and fed the white noise in thru the Vetta's FX return and it came out quite good on the first try. :) I have an e609 on one speaker and an SM57 on the other. Summing the IR to mono was a bust due to phasing issues (also when recording the amp for real), but taking each side as mono IR's worked well, normalizing the resulting IR to -1db True Peak. I'm not going to claim it was pristine and I'm sure I could do this better if I took more time, but it was pretty impressive nonetheless. I pulled those IR's into an Ampero 2 Stomp and they're working great. More good choices for cabs!

[@Producer_Jeff]

How loud should I have the power amp running into the cabinet?? I have everything set up fine but I’m just confused on what volume my power amp should be at. I assume it should at a similar volume to what the cabs and mics where originally being recorded at so it’s loud enough for the mics to decipher the EQ curve of the speaker and cabinet

[@rhythmjones]

How do you know what one sample is?

[@MindFullCheeseburger]

i never knew how they did this so cool ill probably never do this myself but thanks for explaining

[@fernandolopes3545]

Very good! But how to make acoustic guitars and bass guitars IRs?

[@geronimostade8279]

I love how you promote an Engl Tube amp as a Solid State Power Amp ^^ :*

[@lydfar2392]

I agree with the IR of a room. Make a IR through the drum microphones. Think of it as kind of capturing a profile of the drum room. If you get the fase right, you can blend it in with the recorded drums, and use it to enhance the drum room, in your mix. Work's great on the ambiance tracks, or on the drum bus. But the real treat is to use the IR of the drum room to ad a little shine and depth to the other tracks as well. Just a tiny little on the bass, guitar, keys and vokal. Can make your mix glue together and sound more unique. Especially if you use amp sim's. Or if you feel your general mix, is a little too dry and a reverb plugin, sounds to artificial. Sorry for the off topic! It is for another video. 😄

[@hallongview]

I like the way you think!

[@PaulHerrera-qg5vw]

Great Video. Helping learn a lot right now

[@RÅNÇIÐ]

*What's more accurate? A sample of white noise or a frequency sweep? Is there any difference at all?*

[@bzdirt]

If you look carefully, it's not actually white noise. It's just a blip. All you need is one sharp point in a sea of silence. More than that will ruin your IR.

[@johnallen8377]

Hi all. I've seen a number of these IR videos and explanations. They are all quite good including this one. There are however a few errors and omissions in the explanations I've seen that you might be interested in. They are as follows: (1.) You don't need a white noise burst cut down to a single sample. You just need a signal sample of sufficient amplitude. Think about it, what's the difference between a single sample of you favorite song and that white noise sample? I think this video suggested a sample amplitude of -6dBFS (1/2 full scale) which is probably good. The main thing is that the signal does not clip anywhere in the signal chain. (2.) You aren't just getting the impulse response of just your cab. You're getting the impulse response of the entire system. From the DAC in your DAW thru the amp thur the cab and the mic, and the ADC of the DAW. Also if there's any resampling happening on the digital side, that too will have an effect. This is why it's so important to use a good clean amp and interface. This video suggested a flat amp. I would add to that a fast, flat amp (a good solid state amp with a high slew rate and linear phase response up to at least the frequency response of the cab). The response of the DAC and ADC of any good interface should have a negligible contribution on your measurement so you can probably ignore these. It's important though to use the fastest sampling rate possible to avoid any aliasing effects. So with a good interface and reference amp you're mostly getting the response of the cab and mic and possibly some room effects. You can tell if there are significant room effects by examining the captured wav file. If you see a secondary impulse in the audio that's the first reflection of the room your cab is in and your getting room effects. Anyway I think these videos are great and it's cool that folks are learning and applying some real world digital signal processing techniques to get killer sounds. Keep up the great work and I hope I wasn't too preachy. If anyone is interested in the basic theory of why this works I can post that here too. Thanks Joey for the fantastic vid and letting me share this space.

[@pinkdispatcher]

Came here to say this. The only important thing of the sample you play is that it has as steep and loud a transient as possible (while staying within the limitations of the speaker diaphragm). Just two samples from a audio clip is exactly what is needed, an "impulse", which is where the name "IR" comes from. As loud and as short as possible makes sure that all frequencies of the system to be sampled are excited without introducing any parasitic signal, and the system response can be captured. There are ways to calculate an IR from the recording of a system response to a frequency-sweep, but if you really put an "impulse" through the system, the recording *is* the IR.

[@66Gollum]

I'm wondering if I could use IR to produce real effects - in the video up we get distortion from the amp - I guess it could also be an effect board or a sample? I guess I have to read some more basics....

[@thepaperkingdomband]

How would I go about creating an IR of a phone speaker?

[@lorenzoantenucci7216]

2:33 Original vs IR should be done with a clean amp imho. Sound close enought tho.

[@operationkickass1049]

I just wanna know what that intro track was. Sounds sick

[@TheSlash3R-420]

Do you need a mic preamp ?

[@TheDjfranco100]

I tried this method several times but there's no sound with my impulses, is there something I missing?

[@ausgangssperre-band]

Instead of using a SM57 microphone or such I use a measure microphone to have a linear recording of the whole frequency band from 10hz to 20khz. This enables to capture also the low end of a guitar cabinet. It sounds more natural than the high pass version with a SM57 and if the low end disturbs, I can put an EQ on it.

[@MichaelDespairs]

Interesting, I never liked the sound of a condenser for guitar cabinets and much prefer the SM57.

[@darkstar6799]

@@MichaelDespairs The idea was to make a exact replication of what I hear from the cabinets to what I hear on the recordings. The SM57 is damping the low end to a good part and does pronounce some of the high end. But this is not what I hear on the cabinets...means - > SM57 sound is artificial.

[@CorpseChords]

how do you cut and TRIM. a IR to work in a modeler I need 21MS

[@nelito_torrez]

Would the mic be at the center of the speaker?

[@calldwnthesky6495]

yes i want to get a variety of unique tones that all sound like a heavy metal guitar riff with heavy metal drums in the background. such a plethora of unique tones LOL

[@HedgehogDude18]

Would a Radial Re amp box accomplish the same thing as using a power amp or would there be an impedance issue there?

[@matoybotchok]

can you make a tutorial on how o make an amp sim?

[@djsusan00]

Do you need a Re-amp box? I have one. Would it help?

[@livio1396]

hey man! I have an issue thats been breaking my brain a little bit lol... the thing is that I got a mooer ge300 and a Two notes CAB M+... I would love to import some of the Two notes' IRs I made into the mooer, but it's only compatible with files that have a .mo extension and for the life of me I can't figure out how to make my own IR's with that format

[@AndreBigBoi]

When I tried to bring the wav to my POD go, but all it does is reduce volume. What did I do wrong?

[@voidburner8271]

using a pod go

[@hallongview]

Could you guys include a white noise sample for download in the description?

[@DanCeese]

Are there any specific and/or technical reasons to pass the signal through a power amp first? I'm new to this process and would appreciate it, if you elaborate further. Otherwise, great vid! Very informative.

[@FStoppers]

Without the power amp, wouldn’t the signal not be powerful enough to move the speaker? -P

[@DanCeese]

@@FStoppers quite right, but I'm still curious whether I can replicate this within a home studio setup where you don't pass signal through PA level speakers, but just the studio monitors.

[@init-crioxica]

Where i can download only IR Toneforge Jeff Loomis? Or buy?

[@georgepelekoudis]

Why would you use a clean solid state amp compared to the return of a tube head, for example?

[@junkawakami3193]

you want to get cleanest and flattest sound as possible to go through the speakers, unless if you wanna create an impulse response for preamp section.

[@georgepelekoudis]

@@junkawakami3193 Thanks man. Good explanation.

[@NatNathanael-g3m]

why i always fail to do one

[@almamusicproductionsstudio8040]

Can you use the power section of a tube head? Is it possible to connect the output of the interface into the fx return of the amp or a separate power amp is necessary?

[@ramonzeira]

I really have a big trouble understanding what IR is and how it works.

[@maxwellbrewer8637]

I know it’s not the same but how big of a deal is it for me to use the fx return of my tube guitar amp instead of a flat solid state power amp.

[@chuckcostello5167]

Probably not that big of a deal. It's just straight power amp at that point but it could be argued that the amp itself imparts a tone of its own. Just go for it and see how it sounds.

[@bradzillarocks]

I'm new to IRs, so you just use that 1-sample WAV file and that's it, it doesn't need to be converted to some other file format? Thanks for the easy breakdown!

[@franconathan9812]

Hey ! Somebody Know a plugin to make a white noise That is easy to use ? Thanks :)

[@okaight7248]

Sick vid! Loved the comparison between the two. I'm waiting for the day that someone releases a plugin that allows you to get the full range of the speaker. Impulses are a great way to get closer to a natural sound with one of the few negatives being that it's much more static across the frequencies.

[@chuckcostello5167]

That's likely a function of the fact that an IR is simply a snapshot of a particular cab running through a particular signal chain with a particular microphone. This still sounds great.

[@okaight7248]

@@chuckcostello5167 for sure. That’s what I’m hoping gets developed

[@daaatch]

Dumb question: can i make the IR of my own head with a reamp box and a dummy load (to match it with the cab ir in a second moment) or it is illegal?

[@sashabagdasarow497]

Thank you! I just created my own IR using this video

[@jmwicked]

I tried, but without a clean power amp (which I don't have). It works, well, kinda : when loading my IR (and it really it sounds as my speaker), it's very weak sounding (event after the normalisation of the recorded sound) Any tips or leads ?

[@letroy7227]

Same here for me! Have you found any solutions to this problem? I have to boost my guitars something like 9/11dB to achieve the same loudness than "professionally made" IR's you can buy and download even after normalizing at -1dB peak :-/

[@jmwicked]

@@letroy7227 sorry, I didn't find any, and stopped searching, as here are so many IRs to be found. More recently, I did captures (not IRs) with my Quad Cortex, which are giving me ample satisfaction

[@scottfleck2223]

Can someone explain to me the difference between making an IR using just one sample from a white noise track and creating a 60 second frequency sweep with a sine wave that I see people do with guitar cabinets all the time? Is there something fairly obvious that Im missing here? I feel like this would give you vastly different quality results in guitar cabinet IRs but please keep in mind this is simply an ignorant intuition and I am a complete noob when it comes to this sort of stuff so I would appreciate any insight. Thanks!

[@bobtron32]

He recorded the impulse response directly, so it's ready to use as is. A frequency sweep has to be processed into an IR before it can be used. In theory you end up with the same thing either way, but to get really good resolution with this technique the impulse has to be LOUD, and you can only play an impulse through a speaker so loud before it blows out. The frequency sweep method lets you get around that.

[@eusma75]

Thank you! Amazing info and to the point. More subs for this channel…

[@paulmedic6213]

“What you’ll need …. a solid state poweramp” … *inserts picture of an all tube Engl E840/50 poweramp* 🤔

[@whiletr]

Why do you need noise if you use 3 samples of it..

[@BennySuttonMusic]

Hey Joey, I've got tracks recorded in Cubase. I really like the guitar tone. Can I make an IR from that track INSIDE my DAW? (so I can load it into my headrush pedal and get the same tone live) thanks!

[@bboymac84]

Hmmm can this work with vocals too?

[@tibi1687]

Can this method be applied to cab sim apps? Sorry for the dubious question but i am working with cab miking simulators but i need to render the IR and put it in my IR loader pedal. The sofware that i am using does not have a IR render function.

[@matthijshebly]

Yes

[@lordbanhmi3389]

Can I use a 100w powered PA mixer?

[@super.kebab70]

This technique is as proved in this video efficient, but it doesn't fully give the exact tone of the desired signal chain (power amp + cab + mic), because you are feeding an actual impulse into it (i.e. a dirac for the nerdy guys like me). Because of physics you can't make the speaker to move as fast as the signal does, hence the response is inexact. Still ok of course, but inexact. A better way is to feed the signal chain with a sine-sweep, and then deconvolve the recorded response of the signal chain with the sine-sweep. This method allows to actually get the exact response of the signal chain (and allows to get rid of external noise that could occur during the recording). Not here to do the hater thing, just wanna share knowledge ! :)

[@Isaac_henrique_93]

Is it possible to create an overdriven IR?

[@MichaelDespairs]

I think using white noise is a mistake and should be using pink noise!

[@felixmueller8014]

I believe to use white noise is not the correct idea for something like this. By using such a short amount of time one is basically creating something kind of like a dirac impulse. This again is actually something that is used to create an impulse response of a system, but to create it whith white noise is not the way to go in this simple case. When not using a dirac impulse one can use white noise and have it run for an amount of time that has to be way longer than the lowest wavelength. The calculation of the crosscorelation of the exact imput and the recording would give the IR. This should also work for a sine sweep or basicly any input if it includes the frequency spectrum you are interested in. And this only works for linear systems. So all the distortion the cab or what ever (poweramp, room, mic...) can not be represented correctly. So in case of a cab its a good but not perfect representation. All that being said. What Joey did works, but its not correct.

[@chuckcostello5167]

Correct or not, it sounds pretty damn close to the original. That's all I'd care about if I were using it for his purpose (post production re-amping or cab-matching situations). In fact I just made 2 of my own IR's this evening using this exact method and it sounds great on my Fractal and Helix systems. Was it "correct"? I don't really care. It sounds good enough and better than what I had before which was zero IR's of my own cab and signal chain.

[@snapascrew]

@felix what’s your preferred method

[@felixmueller8014]

@@snapascrew Well using white noise is good, using sine sweeps is good, using dirac is good. A longer signal could have a better chance to get more detail, but also requirs complete silence during the recording. Also the non dirac method forces you to perform calculations after the take. So I personally would use a logarithmic sine sweep (log chirp). To the original post I made: All I'm saying is there is no sense in taking white noise and turning it into a dirac. You could use anything and take one sample of it.

[@ancient_city_mix9204]

super

[@amaansovannayak]

Please make an tutorial to make acoustic guitar IR. PLEASE!

[@claytonmurrayguitar]

Well that’s easy

[@Natalynn]

Not a good video, seems to skip some details :(.

[@FriendlyAudio]

Sage give discord