BiAS 2: Celestion Modern IRs and some other quick feedback
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@elric
Hey man, I figured it out: The stock cabs sound dead and the high-end is rolled off because the mic placement is off! It's weird but say if you dial up a JCM800 in BA 2. You'll have to move the mic closer(if not dead center) to the cap(!) Some models require a slight adjustment in mic distance - but that's it! No EQ or gain changes. I cross-referenced every stock amp & cab in Ba1 w/BA 2and was able to make every amp in 2 sound like the stock amp 1 simply by mic adjustment. One can obviously see the disadvantage in the brightest part of the speaker in BA2 being only as bright as the cone-edge in BA1. PG has been made aware of this very hypothesis and is investigating now. :)I started a whole other thread on this very topic "NEW INSIGHT INTO POOR TONE RESPONSE IN BA 2"
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This really is something they should have told us. Especially after I posted those sweep results. Thank you for your awesome detective work!
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@mark-meyers No, it is not just that. I always mess with the mics and positions already. It's great you are happy but I have issues with the way BA2 defaults its cabs and the EQs that are applied to them.
The PG IRs (pg uses IRs and interpolates between them, you can figure this out if you search the app's data) are uniformly poor and tend to roll off much harder than the Celestions, etc, even when you position the mic. They sound like they have already applied an HPF and LPF to them for you. A lot of times this cool because I will almost always LPF/HPF my cabs anyway. But I want the control to do it myself... You can get decent sounds with the stock cabs by positioning the mics but once I dial an amp with the PG cabs I can never switch cabs on that amp the way I can when I dial an amp with an IR that doesn't s*ck. :wink:
It almost certainly sounds better to noobs because they did an LPF/HPF to the cabs. So they tend to sound 'produced' immediately and there is no chance someone will accidentally mistake high end response for 'sounding digital' which most people do not even understand.
All of this would not be a ginormous problem for me, I can just use IRs for custom amps but as I stated before above this is a major problem for amp matching:
BA2 forces their settings on an amp match. Including these already dark cab IRs and even darker mic settings, along with power tube type and tone stack and a bunch of other stuff I want to control in the match.
Do an amp match and you will see it for yourself. The new amp match flow is a mess it is certainly easier for someone who is new; but it requires much more work for an experienced user and is less accurate to the source and as I stated there are now some things you cannot even do with it that you could before.
IMHO.
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Anyone else lost access to the Modern Celestion IR's since the new update?
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@liam said in BiAS 2: Celestion Modern IRs and some other quick feedback:
Anyone else lost access to the Modern Celestion IR's since the new update?
Yep!
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So I was checking out Celestion's IR website a few minutes ago and Bias Amp 2 is heavily advertised there and you can even buy PG's BA2 software in the celestion IR Store. I wonder what Celestion thinks of the sound that's coming out of their IRs in BA2? I'm curious to know if they hear them as dark or rolled off..?
I suppose Celestion is satisfied and thinks BA2 does them justice because they're surely promoting the heck out of BA2 on their site...well I know they're partnered but still...
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@liam said in BiAS 2: Celestion Modern IRs and some other quick feedback:
Anyone else lost access to the Modern Celestion IR's since the new update?
Yes, and they probably should have removed this from the start...as seeing them but not being able to use or buy them was getting on my nerves ;)
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@anthony-newcomb No one is questioning the sound of the Celestion IRs. They are clearly not EQd. They sound the same as if you bought them directly from Celestion. I had several of their packs separately purchased.
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@elric That's good to know that you've got some original packs to compare...as I like "informed" opinions and experiences because they're more reassuring. I'll be pleased when we can get our hands on the Modern/vintage pack ;)
Yeah I said it...lol -
@anthony-newcomb Yes, the Celestion IRs are good stuff. And PG did a good job making them really easy to use with the new interface. Looking forward to the next set of them. Really nice feature and a big coup for Positive Grid! IMHO.
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@anthony-newcomb said in BiAS 2: Celestion Modern IRs and some other quick feedback:
@liam said in BiAS 2: Celestion Modern IRs and some other quick feedback:
Anyone else lost access to the Modern Celestion IR's since the new update?
Yes, and they probably should have removed this from the start...as seeing them but not being able to use or buy them was getting on my nerves ;)
I have to admit I never tried to use one yet, but they weren't greyed out or anything so I presume I had access to them?
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@liam Well they weren't necessary greyed out like "solid" grey, they were more or less foggy/frosted looking but you could still see the cab graphics and when you clicked on them, it said you needed to purchase the pack...
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@anthony-newcomb guess that must be it but they looked no different on mine than any other speaker. Guess I should have given them a try, see if it was available or not!