I have been undergoing some home renovations, which has led to some unexpected fruit.
These renovations have made it way too complicated [and dusty] to stay in the unit during the work, most of my stuff had to be moved out for the majority of the reno. I ended up staying with a friend [Anthony] who also happens to have a music studio equipped with a variety of high-end gear, including amplifiers and cabinets from rad companies like Soldano, Engl, and Wizard.
Rather than putting my amps in storage, I took advantage of this opportunity to bring them to Anthony's studio and play them. This also allowed me to capture impulse responses (IRs) for all of the cabinets, something I've been wanting to do for a while but couldn't make happen due to noise restrictions in my own studio (the cabs have to get pretty loud for a good capture).
Staying with Anthony has been a rad opportunity to experiment with all the amps and capture IRs for all the cabinets.
Capturing the IRs
I used the white noise burst method to capture the IRs for all the cabinets. For those unfamiliar with this process, it involves sending a single sample, 180-degree burst of white noise to the cabinet through an ultra-clean power amp. The burst is then recorded, phase-rotated, normalized, and rendered to the desired sample rate. This is a highly efficient and accurate method, and I'm stoked on the initial results. There are still some edits to be made, but the early captures are very promising.
Guitar Cabinets Captured
• 2 Mesa Recto oversized 2x12"
• 1 Sunn straight oversized 4x12" (top & bottom)
• 1 Peavey Delta slant 4x12" (top & bottom)
• 1 Engl straight oversized 4x12" (top & bottom)
• 1 Soldano custom slant 4x12" (top & bottom)
• 1 Wizard custom straight 4x12" (top & bottom)
Bass Cabinets Captured
• 1 TC Electronic RS 2x12"
• 1 Traynor TC 2x10"
• 1 Traynor TC 4x10"
The Sunn Cabinet
The Sunn cabinet was the most intriguing and distinctive of the bunch. It's a completely original 1971 412L model. While its brand name and specifications don't necessarily make it "better" than the others, its sound is undeniably unique.
You can download an early test edit of the Sunn IR here.
*this is a 48K 24bit IR that should work with most [if not, all] IR loaders and players
Since I started capturing my own cab IRs a handful of years ago, I haven't been able to return to stock cabinets or IRs from other boutique companies. I think this is partly due to the ubiquity of the popular, commercially available IRs. My IRs are not used by “everyone”, and they have a slightly different "gnar-factor", which helps to set my work apart from the mainstream trends of overly plastic, hyper-polished, overly produced heavy music.
If you're interested in capturing your own IRs and learning more about the burst method, please let me know, and I'll consider throwing a tutorial together.
NOTE: None of these IRs are available to the public yet. The Bunnsonics IR pack was captured a few years ago with different mics, in a different room and different interface.