The Impulse FAQ/Tutorial Thread

[FourFour]

Ok since impulses are getting quite popular around here, and lots of people are asking questions here and there. I figured I might as well make a thread about them.

What are impulses?

They simulate everything past the pre-amp stage. I don't know the technical stuff but who cares? All you need to know is that they are cab sims and a lot of people seem to think that they sound way more realistic than for example: the pod cab sims.

How to use impulses?

1)First you need to download impulses. Just google them up and you should find plenty of them.

Here's a nice collection by Teddyboy from the AndySneap forum. Lots of good stuff.
http://rapidshare.com/files/151587481/Teddyboy_s_Impulse_Collection.rar

2)Download a program to use the impulses.
Two popular ones are(they're free):

Voxengo - Boogex

and

SIR: SIR1

Edit: Another popular one, http://habib.webhost.pl/vst_eq31.php (thanks Plankis)

3)Open up your DAW and load the plugin, voxengo or SIR1 doesn't matter but I like SIR1 more haha.

It should look like this

and for voxengo

keFIR

4)Ok now it's time to load up the impulses

I've circled the buttom you need to click. Click it and find your impulses. They should be wav. files.

When you're done you should have this:

or

5a)Open your gearbox, pod, revalver, amplitude, etc.
Turn off the cab sim in your modeller. You should end with a shitty, fuzzy and totally epic phailz tone. It's supposed to be like that, don't worry.

Record your riff now. Make sure you record on the track where you have the impulses running. After you've recorded, play the damn track. OMGWTF, it sounds like a real mic'd cab. Congratulations you are using impulses!

5b) Now if you want to run a real amp head through your impulses, you can. Make sure your cab is connected so your amp has a load and won't explode in your face. Use the fx-send or pre-amp out. Now just follow the 2nd half of 5a and you should end up with an awesome tone.

Ok that's it peeps, if there's anything I missed, just ask away and I'll try to answer them. Note: you will not magically get good tone. It sounds like a real mic'd amp but you still have to tweak.


UPDATE 101209
I think most of you guys should have heard of these ampsims by now, no harm in posting them here I guess. Thanks for the sticky, mods!

http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/

http://sites.google.com/site/nickcrowlab/

Lots of good stuff, only thing is you need a DI box(I'm pretty sure you can use a pod for it although I've been getting crap results haha), because you're recording guitar DIs.


Disclaimer: In the event that you lose your head and perhaps cause your computer to implode while following this tutorial, I will not be held responsible.

 

[sakeido]

When I get home tonight I'll post the settings I use for my clips

 

[cgrady]

nice, simple, and condensed. this is very helpful thanks!

 

[Mattayus]

Oooh nice idea man! I'll definitely add some shit in later on!

 

[Marv Attaxx]

Thankyou!!
Now I know what everybody is talking about

 

[Plankis]

Add KeFir to popular programs. habib.webhost.pl
SIR has latency so I wouldn't recommend that one, Kefir or Boogex are latency free.

Nice job. Now Sticky this one.

 

[Dylan S]

Even though I just figured out how to use them, I think this is very useful and it will be used quite a lot.

I think it's cool and important to note, from what I've been reading and researching over the last few nights, impulses can be used not only to give you a miced cab tube amp sound on your recorded pre-amp fizzy track, but there are other ones to give room noise to acoustic guitar sounds, and I even saw some (didn't download them) that are intended to give the track the impression it's in a big concert hall.

 

[FourFour]

Thanks guys, definitely post your settings and tips if you want haha.

Plankis- Added, thanks for the info.

Edit: Yea, they pretty much simulate everything past the pre-amp. Power-amp, cab, room, mic etc. (I think)
I heard that there's this guy that made an impulse of a shoebox.

 

[Plankis]

I've read somewhere that a dude did a impulse from his vintage mixer or something like that. Pretty cool stuff.

 

[MF_Kitten]

impulse responses are made by playing a 20 Hz - 20 Khz sweep though a power amp and cab, recording it with a mic.

since you then know what went in, you can "remove" that from the recorded sound, and what you are left with is a detailed image of what the frequency response of the cab is.

you can do the same thing to capture the reverberation of a room, and thus make a nice reverb. many use starter guns for this as well, since the noise itself is so short, making it easier to extract from the reverberation.

you can also do the same to compressors (not sure how they capture those), delays, and basically any damn type of equipment that doesn´t modulate (like flangers and stuff. you´d end up with a weird sounding filter instead. or maybe you could play a long sample of white noise through that kind of an effect, and let it do a full sweep both ways. you could then cut and merge it so that it would loop flawlessly, and use that. no idea if it´d work though!)

also notice that impulse responses don´t capture distortion, only voicing.

 

[Dylan S]

Thanks for the cool info Kitten.

 

[MF_Kitten]

np

i actually downloaded an impulse that was recorded on the bottom of a huge cooling tower from a nuclear power plant. it´s a HUGE sounding delay, and you really hear how the massive size and the shape of the thing affects the pitch and timbre of the delays too. it´s just really really huge!

 

[Stealthdjentstic]

Thanks for that, i was still kind of unsure as to what impulses where exactly

 

[sevenstringj]

No Mac progams?

No way in hell I'm dropping $500+ on Altiverb.

 

[newamerikangospel]

Also,

I only have experiences with Adobe Audition, and FL7,

Adobe audition has a "live monitoring" that will actually allow you to track with the impulse you are running (it will run all effects in the tracks chain). A big tip with this is that alot of effects are (what I call) "look ahead" effects (the standard eqs will add latency, as will compression, reverb, ect). Your DAW may have something like that. Look at the routing/monitoring sections of the little .pdf manual its comes with.

FL7 (I really do love this program to death) has "active" effects, so unless you have a multitude of effects running, you can track using your impules, a high/low pass, and a limiter (to keep from clippsingz). And it will ALWAYS record through the signal path, on the "mixer channel" you have selected. I will post a picture of how I run mine. After spending some time with FL7, I think its the perfect tool for intermediate to intricate stuff.

np

i actually downloaded an impulse that was recorded on the bottom of a huge cooling tower from a nuclear power plant. it´s a HUGE sounding delay, and you really hear how the massive size and the shape of the thing affects the pitch and timbre of the delays too. it´s just really really huge!

Post link/email it

 

[Dylan S]

I second the posting of this huge delay.

 

[newamerikangospel]

Okay, just to explain

The fully left mixer track is the Mater. Thats stays "clean" (no fx) at this point. Moving right, mixer track 1 is my input, running purely raw no effects anything. This track has no sound going to the master out. It is running into mixer track 2, which is my impulse (greenback) and my eq (pretty much a high/low pass with a few tweaks).

So I can record ONLY mixer track 1 (raw input, just preamp to save for a later point if I want to change cabs/run through two impulses like a multi-mic impulse or like two miced cabs), but still hear the impulse I have loaded as I track (as it is routing through track 2 before it goes to master which is what is sent through my 1+2 outs on my card). I can also push the raw track through track 2 after its record (so im not listening to the crazyness of an un-eq'ed preamp). Track 3 is my bass impulse/eq and track 4 is for my synth/orchestral peices, and track 5 is for my drums (just rough tracks to keep my place. This is only for tracking purposes, I use another "project" for mixing in which everything is split out to its individual track.

 

[cgrady]

No Mac progams?

are there no mac plugins that can load impulses? if so im out

 

[FourFour]

Yes there are plugins for Mac users.
Give this a shot, never tried before tho.

Lernvall Audio This one is free.


You can try Space designer in Logic Studio 8
TL Space for Protools.
SIR2

Most of the mac ones aren't free tho, unfortunately.

Nice one kitten! Detailed explanation.

 

[cgrady]

^ ah, thanks!

i just upgraded to logic 8 today and am glad to see that space designer is included already. downlaoding some impulses now, can't wait to try em out!

* dont have time to mess with them right now, but I quickly applied a mesa one to the guitars in a song i was recording and could instantly tell the difference.

thanks again for this thread