Anyone try the IR-2 yet?
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larryguitar
Active member
A YouTuber who specializes in budget gear, GuitarMax, uses it quite a bit. Most of his stuff is pretty high-gain, but he also does some clean and bluesy stuff. He uses that pedal a lot, and (while i'm sure there's post-production involved?) it usually sounds terrrific.
Larry
Larry
RanchManSandy
Active member
I played one at GC through a powerstage into a 1x12 cab of some ilk and, dude, it is so good. But I don't need it. But I'm a boss addict so I gotta have it. Eventually. It's not axe fx or whatever but for the price, what more could you want
Rex_Rocker
Well-known member
On Ola's review, I thought the tones were very POD 2.0-like, just with IR's. Honestly, I feel the same about most Boss amp modeling clips.
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RanchManSandy
Active member
Boss must not have offered to pay him enough
Rex_Rocker
Well-known member
They probably did because all I was hearing was underwhelming tones compared to the stuff he usually demos and he was like OMG THIS IS AMAZEBALLS!!
JMO, of course. I just don't think amp modeling is what Boss do best.
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Hard to trust any influencer's opinion these days.
RanchManSandy
Active member
Ah I misunderstood what you meant, I thought he was bashing it. I mean, is anybody gonna throw away their Kemper or axe fx for this? Probably not, but for what it is, at its size and price point, it's legit good enough for most applications where it would be impractical or risky to use the aforementioned expensive gears
Spending a bit of time with a gx-100 or its younger brother gx-10 might make you change your mind, they are really, really good and will give the likes of line6 or Kemper a good run for money.
This is really the only way to test this stuff. Videos can get you so far, but you have to figure out how you'd use it. Preset chains? Or access to individual effects? These days, things rarely make it to the market from big companies like Boss if they don't sound great.
donaldr
Well-known member
There's a good chance that any amp sim pedal will sound terrible, I tried it before with a Zoom G1Four, but YMMV.
And also a good chance you will blow your speakers if you play louder than at whisper level. An home sound system is not designed to receive this kind of signal, even with a compressor.
I suggest that you look at a Yamaha THR10 for this purpose. There's a good chance you will have a way better result.
donaldr
Well-known member
I think Boss did a very good product with the IR-2. A nice pedal that can be used as a backup in case your amp dies at a gig, or if you want to use an amp and at the same time to send a signal to FOH instead of using a microphone. It's small, lightweight, affordable and easy to use.
I think IR-2 external channel switching (in addition to the pedal switch) is a feature lacking from all competitor products. A very nice addition if you want seamless integration on your current setup. I also prefer separate amp sim and effects, as I don't like all-in-one workflow and zillion of patches. An IR-2 with an MS-3 (or HX Effects) and some analog dirt pedals make a very good compact pedalboard IMHO.
From what I heard on YT, I will probably not ditch a good tube amp in favour of the IR-2. But it's hard to judge from YT as I also heard bad sounding demos out of very good sounding equipment.
I think IR-2 external channel switching (in addition to the pedal switch) is a feature lacking from all competitor products. A very nice addition if you want seamless integration on your current setup. I also prefer separate amp sim and effects, as I don't like all-in-one workflow and zillion of patches. An IR-2 with an MS-3 (or HX Effects) and some analog dirt pedals make a very good compact pedalboard IMHO.
From what I heard on YT, I will probably not ditch a good tube amp in favour of the IR-2. But it's hard to judge from YT as I also heard bad sounding demos out of very good sounding equipment.
Typically the home sound systems emphasize certain frequency ranges and it'll sound pretty bad, unless you cut both lows & highs before it hits the stereo. I practice at home through a GX-100 or a NUX MG-400 (very good sounding little beast!) with headphones or into the amp's return and on both I cut below 80Hz and above 6Khz. Both sound great into the amp return with the amp sim enabled, IR (or the speaker on the GX-100) disabled and the output set to direct / line out (something like that)
L.E. I wish BOSS would launch IR-3 with the 3 new X amps from the GT/GX series, X-Optima is by far my favourite of them all
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Artie
Peaveyologist
There's a couple things I like about this: Headphone out, so you can carry a practice amp in a guitar case. And the aforementioned external footswitch jack, so you can operate it on a table so that you don't have to bend over to play with the knobs.
Here's why it may not be a good value for me. I already a half dozen, or so, modelers, including a pair of Yammy THR10's. They also offer the headphone out and a stereo AUX in, so I can play along with a backing track. I think the only thing my stuff is missing, is the ability to load external IR's, which is something I'd like to play with.
Here's why it may not be a good value for me. I already a half dozen, or so, modelers, including a pair of Yammy THR10's. They also offer the headphone out and a stereo AUX in, so I can play along with a backing track. I think the only thing my stuff is missing, is the ability to load external IR's, which is something I'd like to play with.
