Last night I was fiddling about with the different IRs I purchased from OwnHammer yesterday running different amp models in GarageBand through various IRs. What I came to realize is that while the amp models are okay and actually very nice for clean tones, their overdrive tones actually suck pretty bad with the IRs, and I wanted to do some recording this evening.
So this morning, I got a wild hair and hooked up one of my amps – an Aracom VRX18 which is based on the classic Plexi 18 circuit – and ran it through my Aracom DRX attenuator which can act as a load box, then ran a line out into my audio interface.
Then I opened up GarageBand, added a generic audio track, chose an IR and even though there was a lot of line noise (I was able to filter out a lot of it eventually), what I heard in my headphones was my amp – the way it should sound!
So like I said in the title, IRs are game changers for recording! Check out a comparison:
The first track uses a GarageBand British amp model going into a GarageBand British 1 X 12. The clean tone really isn’t all that bad if a little bright (which could be EQ’d), but I wanted to capture the raw, dry tone. The second track is my Aracom VRX18 amp into an OwnHammer IR. Damn! The difference is literally night and day; especially with the overdrive tones!
That’s it! I’m going to be using this technique for recording from now on!
Guitar Gear 