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Impulse Response Libraries: Information Manual
Impulse Response Libraries: Information Manual
Information Manual
Any and all third party companies and products listed or otherwise mentioned in this document may be trademarks of their
respective owners and are in no way affiliated or associated with OwnHammer, LLC. Product names are referenced solely for
the purpose of identifying certain elements used in the equipment chain for impulse response capture, as well as related third
party tools and applicable file loading platforms. Use of these names does not imply any cooperation or endorsement.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Cabinet.............................................................................................................................................................3
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INTRODUCTION TO STUDIO MIX LIBRARIES
The OwnHammer Studio Mix Libraries have a specific goal in mind – to implement mic choice, mic placement, and
mic amplification in a way that is most suitable to a specific cabinet and the types of speakers, amps, and tones
most commonly associated with it. Once the configuration is set, it is static for all speakers loaded in that specific
cabinet. Both traditional and non-traditional speakers to this configuration then provide the variable shades of
sound beyond mic choice and mixed blending. With different cabinets comes the possibility for changes to the
configuration, and such are the OwnHammer Studio Mix Libraries.
212-GTR BOG-SH
THE CABINET
The 212-GTR BOG-SH is based on a Bogner Shiva open back 2x12 guitar cabinet.
THE MICS
CND 70
Based on a close mic’d Microtech Gefell UMT70S large diaphragm condenser microphone.
DYN 57U3
Based on a close mic’d vintage Shure Brothers Unidyne III SM57 dynamic microphone.
DYN 88
RBN 92
RBN 121
RBN 160
REAR
Based on a Microtech Gefell UMT70S large diaphragm condenser microphone placed behind the rear opening of
the cabinet.
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ROOM
THE MIXES
Please Note – none of the mixes in this library contain the “Room” capture, which can add dimension and bark to
low and mid gain tones respectively. Adding this ambient character can pull a guitar track back from the forefront
of the sonic array and is why it is left to the user to blend in to taste.
LIVE MODERN
Custom mix of the DYN 88, RBN 92, RBN 121, and Room mic options.
Primarily intended for, but certainly not limited to, use with FRFR playback systems for live settings.
LIVE VINTAGE
Custom mix of the RBN 92, RBN 121, RBN 160, and Room mic options.
Primarily intended for, but certainly not limited to, use with FRFR playback systems for live settings.
MEDIAN
Custom mix of the CND 70, RBN 92, RBN 160, and Room mic options.
Intended to bridge the gap in sound between the Live and Studio files’ general voicing.
SP
Mix of the CND 70, DYN 57U3, and RBN 121 mic options by Scott Peterson (http://www.spetersonmusic.com).
This mix file is available exclusively for the Axe-Fx II platform, as its creation is based on an OwnHammer MIX Series
mix-recipe methodology Scott uses personally for studio and stage, and with a large number of artists he works
with for in his professional rig programming services, all using and ideally voiced for the Fractal Audio platforms.
STUDIO MODERN
Custom mix of the CND 70, DYN 57U3, RBN 121, and Room mic options.
Primarily intended for, but certainly not limited to, use in full mix recordings.
STUDIO VINTAGE
Custom mix of the CND70, RBN 92, RBN 121, and Room mic options.
Primarily intended for, but certainly not limited to, use in full mix recordings.
THE SPEAKERS
The Vintage Speaker Collection provides the following twelve inch guitar loudspeakers, all manufactured before
the mid 1990’s:
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417-H
ALN-SLV
CL-OR
D-120
ER-24
EV-S
EV-SRO
FN-42
G65-OR
H-BB-55
H-PR-55
J12-CN
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J12-PQ
J12-PR
L-BB
M-BB-55
M-PR-55
T75-SS
SS
T1
T2
Nebula format files are created with and intended for version 1.3.504 of Nebula 2 or 3 (commercial version only)
and higher. These programs will not work with the Free or LE (such as Nebula CM, etc) derivatives. If using Nebula
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2, it is a design of that platform to not display the text or slider value above the faders – this is a Nebula 3 value
added feature and not related to the OwnHammer implementation.
After extracting the archive contents, to install the Programs, copy all of the .N2P files from:
..\OwnHammer_Impulse_Responses\%LIBRARY NAME%\Nebula\Programs
..\OwnHammer_Impulse_Responses\%LIBRARY NAME%\Nebula\Vectors
After extracting the archive content, look for the following file:
..\OwnHammer_Impulse_Responses\%LIBRARY NAME%\Nebula\Dictionary_Tags.txt
Contained within this file are tags that can be added to the Rom.xml file in your
..\nebulatemprepository\Dictionaries directory. XML files typically use character encoding that basic text editors
are not capable of compiling. Editing and saving xml files in ASCII text encoding can break them, and is not
recommended in most cases. For that reason, when editing xml files we use and recommend the Firstobject XML
Editor found at http://www.firstobject.com/dn_editor.htm. This is a free, lightweight xml editor that refrains from
implementing overcomplicated organizational schemes, therefore resembling a basic text editor and will auto
detect the encoding of the Rom.xml and save it properly.
Altering the tag definitions will allow for functional menu browsing within the Nebula GUI, as it will allow the
category descriptor to be presented in recognizable terms.
If using these programs in sessions with sample rates other than 96 kHz, the RATECONVERSION tag will need to be
edited in your plugin’s xml parameter control file. Editing the RATE CNV parameter on the MAST page of the
plugin GUI is only a temporary fix, the following will ensure you will not need to repeat editing that value every
time you use Nebula.
First, browse to wherever your Nebula2, Nebula2 Reverb, Nebula3, and/or Nebula3 Reverb plugins have been
installed. Along with each of the above .dll files are .xml files. Using an XML EDITOR ONLY (such as the one
mentioned in the previous section), open and edit each of the .xml files. In each will be a value most of the way
down the file with the following tags:
For the OwnHammer Nebula files to function properly in DAW sessions other than 96 kHz, the number here needs
to have a value of 1000000 (one million). This number could fluctuate depending on your computer hardware and
subsequent processing power. If the conversion is working properly, when you load a program you will see the
following on the main progam window:
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FRT: 96000 -> 44100 Hz
If the value of the RATECONVERSION parameter is not high enough, in addition to bad sound this will read:
In this case, the <- at the end will be blinking. After adjusting this parameter you may also need to delete and re-
add or reload Nebula instances in existing DAW sessions.
Once the files have been installed and the dictionary tags are populated properly, look for the OwnHammer
Speaker Cabinets to appear in the “OH Cabs MIX (OHCM)” section of the pull down menu, which is populated by
clicking on the large “Init” text near the top left corner of a freshly loaded Nebula instance.
Upon loading a program from this library, there are three controls for the user to adjust to taste:
POWER
This slider allows you to choose between the 3 different kinds of power amps that drive the speakers in this library.
The value is labeled as “Tube” as the values translate accordingly:
2 = Tube 2 (5881)
1 = Tube 1 (6V6)
0 = Solid State
G-LVL
The “Gain Level” slider boosts the input signal flowing into the Nebula plugin while simultaneously lowering the
output. This is typically most useful in programs that are sampled dynamically, which this library is not. However,
the slider still has an effect on harmonic levels, and is included thusly.
Care must be taken with this control. Nebula is great at many things, but clipping distortion is not one of them.
When setting this slider, listen for overload characteristics such as unnatural bass spikes, garbled audio, and
transient spike “chirps”. Whenever you hear one of these negative artifacts, lower the slider 3-6 dB below where
you first hear the sound at a point when the audio passing through it is the loudest in the given track.
Since it is impossible to predict what kind of audio will be used with these programs and the volume passed
through them, the slider is set at 0.00 by default and it is up to the user to gauge the appropriate value for their
material.
For those familiar with Nebula, this slider is the same as “GDRIVE”.
H-DST
The “Harmonic Distortion” slider raises or lowers the volume level of the harmonic distortion kernels (kernels 2
through 8) relative to the fundamental (kernel 1). This allows one to go beyond the natural state of the hardware
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and create unique sounds to taste. It is possible to overload this function as well, so listen for unnatural fizzy
distorting sounds to know that you’ve pushed the level too far.
For those familiar with Nebula, this slider is the same as “DRIVE”.
WAV FILES
Files in the Wav folder contain files in .wav format for use in any convolution reverb loader, be it DAW hosts or
external hardware devices. These files are formatted in 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, and 96 kHz sample rates in
mono and stereo (dual mono) channel options for greater compatibility potential.
For information concerning loading of these files into the host of your choice, please refer to their website or
documentation. Convolution reverb is at this point in time a dated common technology, and file compatibility
should not be an area of concern for any functional host.
Files in the Axe-Fx folder contain files in .syx format for use with the Fractal Audio Axe-Fx Standard and Axe-Fx
Ultra. Files in the Axe-Fx-II folder contain files in .syx format for use with the Fractal Audio Axe-Fx II. These files
are derived from the 48 kHz Mono .wav files, which are minimum phase aligned so as to be time and phase
coherent if mixing them with stock FAS cab IR’s. All files for the Axe-Fx Standard/Ultra were converted using the
final version of aomDSP. All files for the Axe-Fx II were converted using Fractal Audio’s Cab Lab.
For information concerning loading of these files into FAS devices, please refer to the documentation and forum at
http://fractalaudio.com.
Files in the Kemper folder contain files in .kipr format for use with the Kemper Profiling Amp. These files were
created using Kemper’s Cab Maker application to convert the minimum phase aligned 44.1 kHz Mono .wav files.
For information concerning loading of these files into KPA devices, please refer to the documentation and forum at
http://kemper-amps.com.
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