Recabinet 2.0 Manual

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Recabinet 2.0 Modern and Vintage

User Manual

©2009 Kazrog LLC

Recabinet, Recabinet Modern, and Recabinet Vintage are registered trademarks o Kazrog LLC.

All other products mentioned in this manual are registered to their associated manuacturers.



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Contents

Introduction 3

Requirements 3

Supported Sotware 4

Installation 4

Hooking Things Up 5

Using Recabinet 8

Recabinet Modern Cabinets 10

Recabinet Vintage Cabinets 11

The Microphones 14



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Introduction

Thank you or purchasing or trying out Recabinet. Our goal with this product is to empower musicians and

producers with the ability to get ull, album-quality guitar and bass tone direct. Recabinet doesn’t try to be

all things to all people - it coexists in an ecosystem o great music equipment and sotware.

Important Safety Warning

One suggested use o Recabinet is with the line level output (also called FX Send) o

tube ampliers. You must connect the tube amp’s speaker output to a speaker cabinet

or load box, or you will damage your amp and risk electric shock!

DO NOT connect a speaker output to your audio interace!

DO NOT power up your tube amp without a speaker or load box connected.

What is Recabinet?

Recabinet is a library o convolution impulse responses, and is compatible with a wide variety o convolution

impulse response sotware plugins. These plugins are designed to run in a variety o recording sotware or

PC and Mac. Some o this sotware is ree, and in our testing, is just as good as the paid sotware or use with

Recabinet.

I you do not currently have recording sotware, we recommend Reaper or the PC, and GarageBand or the

Mac. Reaper is ree to try out, and inexpensive or non-commercial use. GarageBand is included with any

Mac made in the last ew years. I you do not currently have a convolution impulse response plugin, we rec-

ommend keFIR or the PC, and LAConvolver or the Mac, both o which are ree.

Requirements

PC or Mac running at least Windows XP or Mac OS 10.4 (respectively)•

Computer Audio Interace•

Guitar and/or Bass•

Supported Recording Sotware (see next section)•

Supported Convolution Impulse Response Plugin (see next section)•



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Supported Software

Recording Software

Apple Logic•

MOTU Digital Perormer•

Steinberg Cubase/Nuendo•

Digidesign Pro Tools•

Reaper•

…and anything else that can run VST, AU, or RTAS plugins! •

Convolution Impulse Response Compatible Plugins

Altiverb•

keFIR (ree)•

LAConvolver (ree)•

Overloud TH1•

ProVerb (included with Digital Perormer 6)•

Revalver Mk III•

SIR II•

Space Designer (included with Logic Studio)•

Voxengo Boogex (ree)•

Voxengo Pristine Space•

…and any other plugin that supports standard convolution Impulse Responses (IRs)•

InstallationAltiverb

To install in Altiverb (the current version is 6.2 as o this writing) just drag the “Recabinet Modern/Vintage 2.x Mac and PC” older into

your Altiverb impulse responses older. Then, rescan your Altiverb impulses older in the Altiverb plugin by clicking the + gadget a

the lower right corner o the IR Browser pane, and selecting “Rescan IR Folder” rom the popup menu.

I you cannot see or use the Recabinet impulses once the rescan is complete, make sure you have at least Altiverb version 6.2.0

installed, and that you are using Altiverb as a mono instance on a mono track. Recabinet’s impulses are mono, and Altiverb will hide

them rom you on a stereo track insert.

Although Recabinet impulses were sampled at loud volumes, Altiverb will load the impulses about -10db quieter than they should

be. You can make up or this by turning up the Output Gain - there is no sonic drawback to this.

AxeFXDownload the AxeFX specic version o your Recabinet product(s). Follow the IR installation procedure in the AxeFX manual.

keFIRSimply load the impulse you want rom within the “Recabinet Modern/Vintage 2.x Mac and PC” older. Rock out!

LAConvolverSimply load the impulse you want rom within the “Recabinet Modern/Vintage 2.x Mac and PC” older. Rock out!



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Overloud TH1Download the TH1 Edition o your Recabinet product(s). Use the appropriate installer or your operating system to install the

Recabinet IRs into TH1’s library. Follow the instructions in the Overloud TH1 manual or the Cabinet IR module.

ProVerb (included with Digital Performer 6)

Simply load the impulse you want rom within the “Recabinet Modern/Vintage 2.x Mac and PC” older. Rock out!

Revalver Mk IIIAdd an instance o the RIR impulse loader inside Revalver. Then, Simply load the impulse you want rom within the “Recabine

Modern/Vintage 2.x Mac and PC” older. To get the sound o the speakers as we captured them, engage the high resolution switch

and turn down the crunch and distortion all the way on RIR. That being said, there are no rules, have un!

SIR2Simply load the impulse you want rom within the “Recabinet Modern/Vintage 2.x Mac and PC” older. Rock out!

Space Designer (included with Logic Studio)Simply load the impulse you want rom within the “Recabinet Modern/Vintage 2.x Mac and PC” older. Rock out!

Voxengo BoogexSimply load the impulse you want rom within the “Recabinet Modern/Vintage 2.x Mac and PC” older. Turn the “Tone” and “Drive

knobs all the way down to bypass Boogex’s preamp simulation (that is, unless you want to use Boogex as the preamp as well!) Adjus

EQ and ltering to taste.

Voxengo Pristine SpaceSimply load the impulse you want rom within the “Recabinet Modern/Vintage 2.x Mac and PC” older. Pristine Space is a complex

serious plugin and we won’t attempt to document it here, since Voxengo’s manual does a ne job o that. :)

Hooking Things Up There are a variety o ways to use Recabinet, and which way is best depends largely on what you have available and what your

desired result is. Generally speaking, it is best to think o Recabinet as a speaker simulator - so everything else about your guita

sound - such as distortion or eects - must happen somewhere in the signal chain beore or ater Recabinet.

Generally, the best signal path is:

Guitar or Bass --> Wah (i any) --> Distortion and/or Preamp --> Recabinet --> Eects (i any)

The next two pages contain example setup diagrams for your convenience.


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G ui t ar I n

L i n

e O u t / F X S en d

G ui t ar

T u b eA m pwi t h S p e ak er or L o a d B ox c onn e c t e d

C om p u t er A u d i oI n t er f a c e

P C or M a c wi t h :

• R e c or d i n g S of t w a r e

• S u p p or t e d P l u gi n

L i n eI n

T u b eA m p S e t u p

G ui t ar I n

L i n e O u t

G ui t ar

T u b e , S ol i d S t a t e , or Di gi t al P r

e am p




• S u p p or t e d P l u gi n

L i n eI n

P r e am p S e t u p

Y o u m u s t c o n n e c t t h e t u b e a m p t o a s p e a k e r c

a b i n e t o r l o a d

b o x , o r y o u wi l l d a m a g e y o u r a m p a n d r i s k e l e

c t r i c s h o c k !

D O N O T c o n n e c t a s p e a k e r o u t p u t t o y o u r a u d

i o i n t e r f a c e !

E x am pl e S e t u p s


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I n s t r um en t I n

G ui t ar or B a s s


W

i t h i n t e gr a t e d or ex t er n a l D .I .



• P r e a m p S i m ul a t i on S of t w a r e

•

S u p p or t e d C onv ol u t i onP l u gi n

Di r e c t S e t u p

E x am pl e S e t u p s



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Using RecabinetFile Naming Conventions

Recabinet Impulse Responses (IRs) are organized in a older hierarchy with descriptive naming conventions.

The le naming conventions are outlined below:

[Cabinet Folder]/[Mic Folder]/[Power Tubes] [Mic] [Position] [Distance].[extension]

For example, the lename “6L6 57 cap grill.wav” means 6L6 power tubes, 57 mic, cap position, on the grill.

File Naming Terms

6L6, EL34• = Two dierent kinds o power tubes, used or all 4x12 cabinets in Recabinet.

Cap, Edge, Edge45, Cone• = Microphone positions shown in the mic position diagram on page 16.

Grill, 0_5, 1, 4, 6, 12, FF• = Microphone distances, in order o closest to the cabinet to arthest. Numbers

are in inches, 0_5 is 0.5 with the decimal point changed to an underscore or lename compatibility

across dierent host plugins. “Grill” means the microphone is as close as possible to the speaker grille

without actually touching it. “FF” stands or ar-eld, where the mic is positioned a ew eet away rom the

cabinet.

Achieving Tone Goals

Achieving the desired guitar or bass sound using Recabinet is largely a matter o understanding the sounds

o the real-world equipment that was sampled in the Recabinet libraries. We recognize that not everyone

who uses Recabinet is as gear-obsessed as we are, so we’ve made an eort in this manual to provide an

overview o the cabinets and mics rom a music-context perspective.

Your tone is partially dened by what type o preamp you use beore your signal hits the Recabinet IRs.

Preamps come in many orms these days: rack units, pedals, and o course sotware preamp simulators. We

provide a list o recommended preamps on the Recabinet website.

Basic Microphone Positioning Principles

Generally speaking, the best place to mic up a guitar speaker cabinet is at the “edge” position o a speaker -

where the dustcap meets the cone. This position oers the most accurate reproduction o the sound being

produced by the speaker. Moving the microphone toward the dustcap results in more treble requency pres-

ence, and conversely moving it toward the cone results in more bass. Angling the microphone 45 degreesrelative to the axis o the speaker results in “o-axis rejection,” an elusive and oten desired eect in guitar

recordings. All o these mic positions were used to create Recabinet IRs, painstakingly with each mic (with

the exceptions where noted in The Cabinets section.)

In addition to position, the distance o the mic relative to the cabinet is also an important actor. Close in to

the grill, the mic is subject to “proximity eect,” which exaggerates low end response. As the microphone is

moved arther away rom the cabinet, the sound becomes more spectrally balanced and accurate. At dis-

tances o a ew inches to a ew eet, the room environment begins to play a larger role.

http://recabi.net/

http://recabi.net/



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Multiple IRs

Just as in the physical analog world, it’s perectly possible with Recabinet to get a great sound using a single

mic on a single guitar cabinet. Recabinet IRs sound great on their own, and a good starting point is o course

the venerable SM57 mic. With a 57-based IR and perhaps some good EQ and multi-tracking o guitar parts,

you can get sounds that are very satisying or just about any style o music.

You may nd, however, that it is easier to get the desired guitar sound more rapidly by combining multiple

IRs. The best way to do this is to create multiple tracks in your recording sotware, all o which either (a) are

set to monitor your guitar/preamp input signal as you play your guitar in real-time or (b) contain duplicate

audio o a guitar/preamp recording you’ve already made. Run an instance o your IR loader plugin with a

dierent Recabinet IR on each o these tracks. Start with just 2 tracks to practice this technique. Mixing and

matching mics, cabinets, positions, etc. will yield a wide variety o results.

I you want the sound o a particular cabinet, mixing two mics is oten the best approach to getting a “ull”

sound that is still true to the eel o one cabinet. Here’s some mic combinations we’ve ound particularly use-ul:

57 + 421•

57 + 121•

409 + 545•

121 + 121 (at varying distances)•

i5 + D6•

Feel ree to experiment, and use even more simultaneous IRs. We’ve gotten cool results in our lab with as

many as 8 simultaneous IRs!

Share Your Recordings and Get Free Tone Advice!

Visit the Recabinet Forums at http://recabi.net/recabinet_orums/



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Recabinet Modern CabinetsPrefaceAll our cabinets in Recabinet Modern 2.0 use Celestion Vintage 30 speakers, powered at 8 ohms using the Randall RT2/50 tube

power amp. Each cabinet/mic older contains impulses captured with 6L6 and EL34 power tubes, or greater tonal variety.

Celestion Vintage 30 Speaker Frequency Response Graph

1960 4x12Sampled rom a Marshall 1960AV 4×12

The 1960AV is known or a tight, aggressive, punchy, and ull-bodied tone. This is a modern

cabinet that traces its roots back to the classic Marshall cabinets o the 70s, and has become

the modern industry standard or hard rock and heavy metal guitar sounds.

You will nd a Marshall 1960AV in regular use at almost every major recording studio.

Excel 4x12Sampled rom a Randall RS412XLT100 4×12

The Randall “XL” 4x12 is constructed with 3 4” 5-ply birch and is rear-loaded with Celestion

Vintage 30s. This is a modern cabinet designed or some serious low end bee and highend sustain. Currently in use by many o the biggest bands in the modern metal scene,

this cabinet has a voicing that is especially great or downtuned, tight, aggressive rhythm

guitar.



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Ghandi 4x12Sampled rom a Mesa Engineering Standard 4×12

The Mesa Engineering Standard 4x12 is an oversized, incredibly heavy (106 lbs.) Marine

Grade Baltic Birch Cabinet loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s.

This cabinet is a popular choice or extreme low-tuned metal, especially with 7 and 8 stringguitars. It also sounds great or other styles o music and more conventional tunings - and

has a very smooth, articulate response across the entire requency spectrum.

Tangerine 4x12Sampled rom an Orange PPC412-C

The Orange PPC4x12C is built to last using extremely rugged construction and manuacturing

techniques. The Power Projection Cabinet (PPC) is manuactured utilizing 13 ply high density

18mm birch plywood throughout.

This is a modern cabinet with a warm enough voicing or a classic “British” sound, yet a tight

enough response or the most demanding high gain applications. The Orange PPC4x12C is

currently enjoying a massive popular success with guitarists in every style o music.

Recabinet Vintage CabinetsPrefaceAll o the “cabinets” in Recabinet Vintage 2.0 (with the exception o the Green 4x12) are actually amplier combos, consisting o tube

based preamps, poweramps, and speakers in a single enclosure. A popular approach to capturing convolution impulse responses

o combos is to disconnect the preamp rom the poweramp, and run the convolution test tones straight into the poweramp during

impulse capture.

Kazrog has discovered, however, that the unique, timeless character o these amps is partially lost using this technique, so we

instead ran the test tones straight into the preamp section via the regular guitar input jack, using a Cuniberti Reamp box to match

impedance, and we ran any ront controls on the combos to have fat EQ and no preamp distortion. For some combos, such as the

Zodiac 2x12 and Blackace 4x10, we have included variations o the preamp voicing switches accessible rom the ront controls to

provide more tonal variety.

All Recabinet Vintage IRs were sampled rom the amp collection o Grammy Award-winning producer JJ Blair (with the exception o

the Top Boost 2x12.) Thanks, JJ!



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Blackface 4x10Sampled rom an original Fender 1965 Super Reverb 4x10 with Jensen Speakers

Already a staple o blues and rock guitarists, particularly those armed with Fender

Stratocaster guitars, the Fender 1965 Super Reverb became even more legendary than

ever in the hands o the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan.

In Recabinet Vintage, we’ve captured the voicing o both the Bright and Normal settings,

and we’ve spent more than a ew hours jamming out with the IRs with a Strat. For a very

convincing SRV tone, try using a TS808 tube screamer pedal (or emulation) with these IRs.

Green 4x12Sampled rom an original 1970s Marshall 4x12 with Celestion Greenback Speakers

This particular Marshall 4x12 cabinet isn’t just any Marshall cabinet rom the 70s. Once

owned by Warren DeMartini o legendary metal icons RATT, this cabinet is now part

o Grammy-award winning producer JJ Blair’s collection o vintage amps.

The Green 4x12 is was powered at 8 ohms using the Randall RT2/50 tube power amp.

Its mic subolders contains impulses captured with 6L6 and EL34 power tubes, or

greater tonal variety.

This cabinet is (somewhat surprisingly considering its considerable road-wear)

incredibly smoothly voiced, perect or nailing classic Page and Hendrix tones, as well

as covering Van Halen territory and 80s metal exceedingly well.

Motown 1x15Sampled rom an original 1960s Ampeg Portafex B15N

The Ampeg Portafex B15N is a legendary bass amp rom the 60s, used by James

Jamerson among other notable players. It is considered by many collectors to be

the best bass amplier o all time.

The Motown 1x15 older contains an additional mic not used or any other cabinet

in the entire Recabinet library - the legendary AKG D12 vintage kick drum mic,

which gets a stunningly authentic, warm, vintage-style bass tone.

Note: Mic positioning is not as critical with a bass amp, hence there are ewer IRs o the

Motown 1x15.

Mojo!



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Top Boost 2x12Sampled rom a Vox AC30 reissue with Celestion Alnico Blue Speakers

The Vox AC30 is known or its bright, warm sound, and has been used on countless

legendary recordings or decades.

With its straightorward “what you see is what you get” control ormat, the AC30 wasa hit with artists rom the very beginning. Popular during the ‘60s “British invasion,” to

this day the AC30 is widely used by all kinds o guitarists perorming in a huge range

o musical styles.

In Recabinet Vintage, we sampled the AC30 in “Top Boost” mode.

Tweed 1x12Sampled rom an original 1953 Fender Deluxe 1x12 with Jensen Speaker

The Fender Deluxe Tweed amps are legendary or their simplicity and warm tone. Thisamp is perect or that “big small” sound made legendary by players such as Jimmy

Page, Eric Johnson, Mike Campbell, and more.

This amp sounds best when miked up in the “edge” position, so in Recabinet Vintage, all

o the Tweed 1x12 IRs were sampled this way.

Zodiac 2x12Sampled rom a Selmer Zodiac Twin 30 with Celestion G12 T75 Speakers

The Selmer Zodiac Twin 30 in “croc skin” tolex, sold between 1963 and 1965, is

the most unique amp we sampled or Recabinet Vintage, and it is our avorite.

This amazing amp is the underrated reptilian mutant cousin o the Vox AC30,

and oers a much wider tonal range and eature set.

Among many other unique eatures, the Zodiac has preset EQ settings

operated by toggle switches on the control panel. In Recabinet Vintage, we

captured every voicing mode, using the “edge” microphone position or each

mic. We’re especially ond o “CONTRA BASS” mode or the most ull-bodied

clean sound in the universe!

Selmer Image Copyright GrouseGuitars.com.au



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The MicrophonesPreface

All microphones were recorded with an API 3124 mic preamp into Apogee Rosetta converters, into a Digidesign Pro Tools HD rig.

D6Sampled with an Audix D6 Kick Drum Microphone

The Audix D6 is a modern kick drum microphone, great or getting the low-end “rumble” rom a guitar speaker

cabinet.

i5Sampled with an Audix i5 Dynamic Microphone

The Audix i5 is a modern cardioid dynamic microphone, intended primarily or snare drum and guitar speaker

cabinet applications. It has a sound similar to the industry standard Shure SM57, with a more scooped mid-range

and aggressive top end response, as well as beeer low end.

U87Sampled with a Neumann U87 Condenser Microphone

Arguably the best known and most widely used studio microphone in the world (or good reason), the easy-to-

recognize U87 is a classic! A distinctive design and legendary Neumann sound make this mic a must-have or pro

studios. The U87 is known or its unique requency and transient response characteristics which deliver a smooth

natural sound with a variety o source material.

121Sampled with a Royer R-121 Ribbon Microphone

The Royer R-121 is a radically redesigned ribbon microphone and Royer’s fagship product. Like most ribbons, the Royer

R-121’s pattern is gure 8, its sensitivity is roughly equal to a good dynamic mic, and it exhibits a warm, realistic tone.

On guitar cabinets, it’s surprisingly dark at close range, and exhibits a fatter response at a distance o 4 inches or more.

In Recabinet, we’ve sampled the Royer 121 at distances o 0, 0.5, 1, 4, 6, and 12 inches.

RTASampled with a DBX RTA-M Condenser Reerence Microphone

The DBX RTA-M is an omnidirectional condenser reerence microphone with a completely fat response. In

Recabinet, its IRs are provided as an objective reerence point, and are primarily aimed at AxeFX users who want

to use the mic modeling eatures o the AxeFX. The RTA IRs include special “Far Field” (FF) position les, which

provide an accurate eeling o being “in the room” with the speaker cabinet.



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409Sampled with a Sennheiser MD409 Dynamic Microphone

The Sennheiser MD409 is a vintage dynamic microphone, known or its warm response. Popular or blues

and rock guitar tone, it is no longer in production and is sought ater in the vintage market.

421Sampled with a Sennheiser MD421 Dynamic Microphone

The Sennheiser MD421 is one o the best-known mics in the world. Walk into any drum booth in any major

studio and you’ll most likely see MD 421s on the toms. It’s also great on guitar cabinets, oten paired up

with a brighter mic such as a Shure SM57 on guitar recordings.

545

Sampled with a Shure Unidyne III 545SD Dynamic Microphone

The predecessor o the modern SM57, the 545 shares the same enclosure design with slightly dierent internals. The

545 is known or its pronounced, yet smooth top end, and tempered low end response.

57Sampled with a Shure SM57 Dynamic Microphone

Shure’s SM57 has become the most popular guitar cabinet mic o all time. The SM57’s outstanding perormance,

legendary reliability, and diversity o application make this “workhorse” the choice o perormers, producers, and

sound engineers worldwide.

D12 (Recabinet Vintage - Motown Cabinet Only)Sampled with an AKG D12 Dynamic Microphone

Introduced in 1953, the AKG D12 was the world’s rst dynamic cardioid mic with a “unidirectional” design

intended to reduce the pick up o extraneous sound and the production o eedback. Its transducer has a

special “bass chamber” that boosts the lower requencies in the 60-120 Hz range. Popular on classic bass

cabinet recordings, we included an IR sampled with the D12 or the Motown cabinet o Recabinet Vintage.

The next page contains microphone position diagrams for your convenience.



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Recabinet 2.0 Manual