above: many manufacturers offer easy ways of implementing your own impulse responses, including Headrush) Can you use an impulse response in a DAW? All-in-One Rig– The IR-X turns your whole pedal board into an entire rig without having to lug about a head amp and cabinet. You can run your favourite pedals that filter directly into this incredible preamp. Cramming not only the sounds of those units, but also a full-colour screen into a unit the size of the HX Stomp is certainly impressive and no mean feat. With MIDI in and out, there’s clearly been some consideration for those that want to incorporate the HX Stomp into a rig controlled by a pedal switcher. In that context, it’s easy to see the attraction. However with a multi-effects unit, you’ve got less chance of failure due to bad patch cables or faulty pedalboard power supplies, less to carry around, and they’re usually cheaper when you take into account the cost of some individual pedals.

Authentic Tube Preamp –Utilising two 12AX7 preamp tubes the IR-X delivers real Friedman valve tones that you can plug into any interface giving you scope to experiment with an array of tonal possibilities. user IR slots with support for mono and stereo WAV files, up to 32-bit floating point/96 kHz resolution, and 200 or 500 ms length First and foremost, we are guitarists, and we want other players to find the right product for them. So we take into careful consideration everything from budget to feature set, ease of use and durability to come up with a list of what we can safely say are the best pedal amps on the market right now. First and foremost, we are guitarists, and we want other players to find the right product for them. So we take into careful consideration everything from budget to feature set, ease of use and durability to come up with a list of what we can safely say are the best pedal amp on the market right now. Of course, a pedal amp has to sound good, and the Iridium does a great job of modelling some classic amps and cabs. With amp settings Round, Chime and Punch you can convincingly replicate Fender Deluxe, Vox AC30 and Marshall Super Lead amplifiers. The nine speaker cabinet pairings, meanwhile, are not only realistic but highly-responsive – something many of its simulator/emulator peers have struggled with. Furthermore, you can upload your own impulse responses (IR) with the Strymon software.

This dual-channel preamp offers versatility with its two fully independent foot-switchable channels. Channel one covers the spectrum from bluesy, British-voiced cleans to a robust Plexi-style roar. Switch to channel two, and you'll instantly recognise the higher-gain Friedman signature voice, characterised by its percussive punch, note clarity, and enduring sustain. Both channels come equipped with their own independent and highly customisable boost circuits, effectively giving you access to four distinct channels with a simple tap of your foot. As in all TC Electronic products, they aim to make IR Loader the simplest and easiest to use with the essential features so you can just focus on your playing! Footswitch Modes The idea of an impulse response is to capture all of that information in one go, so you can instantly recall that setting. This means that wherever you are, you can retain your preferred tone, right down to the detail of your favourite mic placement and room sound. On stage, in the studio, jamming with friends – sorted. Impulse responses – the scientific bit The volume of an amp is determined by the power amp, which is required to bring the preamp to life, and vice versa. The benefit of a power amp in a pedal, is that you (often) reduce the size of your rig immensely, making it super easy and lightweight to transport.

An impulse response (or IR) is a sonic measurement of the sound of a speaker, room or microphone in relation to a sound source. In guitar terms, this is usually your amp. We've all seen examples of someone firing up a multi-effects unit, blasting through the presets like a kid in a sweetshop, but it’s crucially important to consider the types of effects you'll actually use. Apparently, it is designed to make you use ENGL’s own speaker cabinets with a variety of microphone and power amp simulations. It already gives you an infinite number of possibilities. But you can only load 4 external IRs and you should be careful as some of the controls such as distance and centre controls still affect the external IRs. I think this is a design flaw.This article is about pedals that simulate the tone of guitar amps and cabs but are not able to power a speaker cabinet. If you are looking for a pedal that can do that, see our article about the best power amp pedals. Once you’ve got your chosen IR file, you can load it into compatible hardware or software to reproduce your desired tone. Because impulse responses are becoming more and more commonly used, many manufacturers offer easy built-in ways to utilise them. So whilst you might never get to record an album at Abbey Road, you can try out an Impulse Response made within one of the studios and instantly hear how your guitar would sound in that space, through the same rig and with the same mics that were used to capture the Impulse Response. Fender’s modeling offering is a versatile one, the company’s signature glassy clean is present and accounted for as you’d expect, but there’s plenty else on offer. From British-style amp voicings to the higher gain tones of the EVH series you won’t be shy of sounds to choose from. One of the standout features of the IR-X is its impulse response (IR) cabinet and power amp simulation. With a choice of Dave Friedman's favourite IRs, this pedal ensures that your tone sounds as if it's emanating from a top-notch speaker cabinet. Whether you're sending your signal directly to the board or using the headphone output, you have the flexibility to select the IR per channel using convenient mini-toggle switches. If you prefer to use your custom IRs, the IR-X's editing software makes it a breeze. Plus, you can even bypass the onboard IRs entirely if you have another IR loader you prefer.

One of the absolutely standout features of the ACS1 is the stereo output, which enables you to have different amps and cabinets on each channel using the L + R switch. Having a ‘dual-amp setup’ would be the dream scenario for many players, but the reality of hauling around two amps - temperamental tube amps at that - just isn’t possible for most, so having that available to you in something that will slot seamlessly onto your pedalboard feels like a result! With MIDI integration, you can easily switch your stereo rig on the fly too. MIDI cable with right-angle 3.5mm TRS connectors, 1 ft./30 cm length. Also available in 2 ft./60 cm (BCC-2-3535) length. View Product

Soundwise, it would not make sense to comment as it is supposed to sound like the IR that you load into. But is this really the case? Here at Guitar World, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything guitar and bass related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our guides. In terms of functionality, this pedal amp can be plugged straight into a passive cab as an amp head, as a tube preamp, as a practice amp through your headphones or as a DI amp for your DAW. In fact, this might be one of the best uses for The Amp, as it offers a lot more natural, nuanced tones than most plugin amp emulations. You may ask “ Why would having lots of impulse response options give you that flexibility?“. If you just do some research and watch some comparison videos, you will understand the reason. While all of the amps/cabs sound classily authentic anyway, you can open the whole sound up to whatever degree you need with the sense of realistic space provided by the room reverb. Verdict

By default, the footswitch acts as a classic on/off switch. But if you press and hold the footswitch, it changes to A/B mode in which you can assign two presets. Simply long press the footswitch, then find the preset you want to assign to preset A, press the right button and then choose the preset for B then simply press the footswitch again to finalise the setup. This is also useful if you’re playing a smaller venue which can’t handle the necessary volume of certain amps. Whilst usually this might mean you miss out on the natural saturation or ‘break-up’ of your tone, by recalling an Impulse Response you can still achieve the same sounds but at any volume. This could be an electronic current, an economic calculation, or a sound – that’s what we’re working with. How do you use an impulse response?Both low and high EQ allows you to boost or cut -/+ 12dB at 100Hz for low and 10kHz for high frequencies. For pedal platform IRs, I find them almost useless as they sound pretty weird when you just add a drive or a distortion pedal in front of the Impulse. Of course, you should test this yourself and come up with your own conclusion. No Fast Scrolling On top of that, it features 2 footswitches so you can save and assign settings, but after a while, you tend to forget about the exact positions of each control as there’s no way you can get this information on the interface. Number of External IR Slots Once I accidentally left these settings in the previous positions and couldn’t believe my ears as I was hearing huge rumbling sounds that led me to investigate the external IRs first.