Impulse responses (IRs) to improve plugged in tone

Any of the pedal nerds out there playing with this?

I've been using my Line 6 HX Stomp to great success for the past few months, but haven't had the headspace to dive into making IRs for my uke. Last night I figured out what I needed and this morning I cracked open my DAW.

Impressive results on the first try. Definitely makes the pickup pop in the highs like it's being recorded with a mic. Can be a little bright, but mixing it with the original signal seems to do the trick.

Some sound samples and info: https://liveukulele.com/gear/impulse-response-tutorial/.

If anybody is interested, I'm happy to share the IR file from my Moore Bettah into a Neumann KM184. Not convinced they're "there" yet, but good enough to be a deal better than what I had.

hey man, just discovered this tech omg this great, may you share the IR file you used? cause its just magic

jayson said:

hey man, just discovered this tech omg this great, may you share the IR file you used? cause its just magic

Click to expand...

The link that Brad offered should provide you with all the information you need. Take some time to read through.

Thanks so much for sharing this information, @Brad Bordessa. I was very excited by the sound samples you provided on your website. For a first try, you achieved eye- no, EAR-opening results. Very impressive!

Thank you also for the detailed explanation of the process of EQ matching and the other fiddly bits that went into the process.

In the past, improvements to my amplified sound through a PA have been frustratingly slow in coming. My present sound is OK, but there is so much room for improvement. Most times, when playing a new venue, it takes a bit of time working with the sound technician to make the sound of the ukulele more pleasing and less harsh. Like I said, there is a lot of room for improvement!

At the present moment, it is not the right time to get into this (I'm in the process of moving) but when I am ready and able to try to up my game for amplified sound, I will be looking into impulse response as a possible path.

ps...your whole website is really nice! I will be checking it out in detail!

You created a really nice write-up for this topic. Thank you very much Brad, and thank you for starting this discussion.

A couple of years ago I discovered this video by Alex Price:

He's playing a violin instead of an 'ukulele, but I was blown away by the possibilities. With inexpensive (sometimes free) downloaded files he makes his digital violin sound completely different and much more acoustic. Around the 10 1/2 to 12 1/2 minutes range he makes his violin sound like a viola.

This is possibly a foolish question, but it made me wonder why the makers of modeling amps weren't including IR in their amps instead of all the different heavily distorted amplifier models I'll never use. Instead of settings for "crunch" and "metal" and "insane" there could be settings for different kinds of microphones, or settings for different instruments.

I also wonder why so many amp makes force us to choose between a reverb or a delay. Wouldn't it be useful to combine levels of both? But that's a different topic entirely.