Any cab simulator circuit worth building?

[Rob Strand]

Believe it or not, I don't think I have ever tried this one..

I do find that hard to believe.  You have build so many you might have forgot  .

[J0K3RX]

There is this one here on hexeguitar based on the Marshall SE100. Sounds like it might be worth tinkering around with and maybe adding some of the other options that have been left off...



The transfer pdf is at the bottom of the page.

http://www.hexeguitar.com/diy/utility/se33

[MetalGuy]

I've built many analog cabsisms over the years and the truth is they all sound flat and lifeless. The one that wasn't that bad was the Mesa cabsim with the 1H inductor however it also had several variations and not all of them sounded as good.
After IR modules became available for DIY-ers I moved to impulses. No analog cabsim can beat that.

[Rob Strand]

After IR modules became available for DIY-ers I moved to impulses. No analog cabsim can beat that.

I put together some speaker sim VST's emulating analogue filters which also modelled amp-speaker interractions.  Most parameters/effects were tweakable.  While they sounded OK they don't blow you away.   If you want a specific sound then those notches etc you see on some of the analog filters do put you in the right zone.

[caspercody]

Do you have any IR's that you feel are great that you would love to share???

Thanks
Rob

[J0K3RX]

I have to agree about IR's.. To be honest I don't use analog cabins and haven't for some time.. Most of them do sound like sh!t but there are a few that sound fairly good but still not quite as good as IR's. To me the analog sims are a nice addition in a preamp just like some may like a headphone amp... They can be used in a live situation where you have a mic on your cab and running direct from the cabsim at the same time, mix them both to get a fatass sound. Believe it or not, there are allot of guitar players that have really sh!tty cabs and use who knows what to mic them so, an analog sim may be an improvement. You can always use eq and try to improve the sound.. or just use something like ReaEQ and copy the curves of a mic'd up speaker, cab..

[anotherjim]

The big, huge, enormous, gargantuan (keep going with the significance)...thing about a guitar speaker is NOT represented in cab sims is the effect of that ribbed paper speaker cone. Those ribs produce resonant overtones when working from an effect called "cone breakup". Note that some mistake the term for cone limit (where its pushed or pulled by the voice coil as far as it will go), but breakup actually happens at milli-watt powers.
Hi-fi, PA, monitors, headphones etc do NOT have those ribs. Last century there were ribbed, or part ribbed, PA speakers - some are still around and the 15" make fantastic bass guitar speakers IMHO... but I digress...

I am not sure if it is possible to simulate the sound of cone breakup. I wonder how many digital achieve it. IR processing might.
You at best get cab "eq", with analog. That eq is very useful if that's all you have, but not an accurate solution for guitar.

[MetalGuy]

I am not sure if it is possible to simulate the sound of cone breakup.

These days almost anything can be simulated in software but there must be some balance between affordable module/hardware and software. The more complicated it gets the more things are shifting to other solutions.
I don't expect an IR to sound like a live kranked up amp but it's much better than all those analog cabsims.

[Rob Strand]

These days almost anything can be simulated in software but there must be some balance between affordable module/hardware and software.

It's loosely modeled by peaks which appear just before the speaker response rolls off.  Most of the sims have some form of HF peaking.   A real speaker tends to have a number of high Q-resonances.   Higher Q's ring longer. By the time you put enough in to make a difference you are probably better off going for an IR.  An analog circuit is going to get too complicated beyond the general peaking we already have in the filters.

[deadastronaut]

IR's are excellent....but..

if you just want to plug in and play through 'your pedals', without endlessly fannying about with a pc

or a guitar amp at night then analog it has to be...(unless you spend hundreds on a torpedo etc)

most times i just need to plug in for ten minutes, and get a riff down on a looper while i think of it,

by the time i turn on a pc, setup and tweak,  i lose the initial vibe/feel of what i was going to do ...


anyway, been tinkering a bit more.....its getting there, probably good enough for lil old me anyway.. 
probably be another 38 pages though as usual....

[MetalGuy]

You don't have to spend much time in front of the PC. You shouldn't dive too deep into IRs either because there are thousands of them and if you get hooked it's an endless game. Just get a well known recommended package of several dozen free impulses and chose several.
Now you already have several hardware/pedal players on the market (some of them as cheap as $150) so once you have settled on what you're going to use and loaded it IRs into the pedal you're done.
If you're after studio quality IRs setup that's already an entirely different game.

[caspercody]

I did buy the Mooer Radar, and knowing nothing about IR's, I have been able to download some free ones, and easily add them into the Radar.

I am using this in the effects loop of my Marshall DSL40C, and it works great. Does anyone have some they would share, or recommend for a great (lets start with) Brown sound type of 4x12?

I love building, and also curious of difference in sound with analog. So I am trying different analog cabsims to get my DIY bug satisfied.   

[J0K3RX]

I did buy the Mooer Radar, and knowing nothing about IR's, I have been able to download some free ones, and easily add them into the Radar.

I am using this in the effects loop of my Marshall DSL40C, and it works great. Does anyone have some they would share, or recommend for a great (lets start with) Brown sound type of 4x12?

I love building, and also curious of difference in sound with analog. So I am trying different analog cabsims to get my DIY bug satisfied.

I have the Radar and it's one of the best things I have purchased in a long time!! Not sure why you're running it in the FX loop? I have the Blacknight micro preamp also and it's unbelievable! You get Axe-FX / Kemper quality in a $100 pedal! Hard  to beat these things!

If you want to add IR options to your builds then you could get Pangaea module board and fool around with it...
https://amt-sales.com/cabsim/
http://amtelectronics.com/new/manuals/AMT-Pangaea-CP-16M-ENG.pdf
http://amtelectronics.com/new/manuals/AMT-CP-16M-EB-ENG.pdf

[caspercody]

I am using the speaker on the amp. To me it is the best way to get the amp to sound is through the FX loop.

[deadastronaut]

^ doesnt that kind of defeat a cab sims purpose....but hey if it sounds good..

anyway, im tinkering with this so i can go direct out of my pedals into my mixer..with no amp at all...

signal : guitar/pedals/ (cab sim on breadboard) mixer/monitors



jim; those pangea things look cool...

[MetalGuy]

I am using the speaker on the amp.

So why are you using a cab/speaker sim then?

I have the AMT module. It's doing a pretty good job. The software has a lot of options as well.

[temol]

I have the AMT module. It's doing a pretty good job. The software has a lot of options as well.

Could you post pictures of your implementation of the AMT module? Did you build standalone unit or use it as a part of the pedal?

T.

[caspercody]

With using it in the f/x loop, I can change the sound easily by clicking on a pedal or rotating the switch on the Radar without always changing a eq. And it sounds so much better!!!!!!

I do not have a computer set up to play through, plus like DA said earlier, just easier to sit down turn on amp and play.

Plus, I have a addiction to creating pedals, and right now there is not much more I can think of that I want to build. Thinking a EP3 preamp, and maybe a Timmy, but these damn cabsims can easily change the sound, it is hard not to make more. I am going to build the DSM multicab, since it is tweak-able.

[MetalGuy]

Could you post pictures of your implementation of the AMT module? Did you build standalone unit or use it as a part of the pedal?

It was a standalone unit but I don't have it right now because I friend of mine is using it for live gigs. It was based on AMT's dev board (schematic is officially available, SMDs, PCB was 115x98mm) but I had to draw and order a custom enclosure for it to include all inputs and outputs properly. If you make it simple it will fit in a regular 1590 box. However if you want simple standalone unit currently you can't beat Radar's. If you want IR's built in into an existing or new device ten it's worth getting the AMT module. By the way rumors are a new more simple but much more powerful (longer IRs) module is coming out soon and at lower price as well.

[deadastronaut]

ive been playing with all sorts of sim circuits lately...

while i was at it i went back to very, very crude basics...

a simple passive LP filter...works pretty good for something so basic.


in----5kb pot-------------out
                             /
                             /
                            ---
                            ---  22n-100nf
                             /
                             gnd

anyway...back to the breadboard...