Torsten is spot-on on the EFX rack, I do the same thing and it’s much better. BTW another hybrid approach is to use your amp sim in the box, but with no IR, then run it into a line in/EFX return on your amp, if it has one. Some people love it, some hate it. But you get your amp’s actual cab tone. I tried it with my Peavey Classic 30 when I first got into sims, and it was decent but more limiting too… and I was able to get better tones and far more versatility using IRs and going into FRFR or the PA. But it did make it really obvious how you must reduce the high end significantly in the sim or host to get closer to a true amp tone… so much so that I recorded a bunch of tones with the C30 and then tried to emulate the high end response with some judicious EQ. Every now and then I’ll check those reference files when building new tones.
Enjoy!
Tom
Interesting approach. Everything I’m working on is in the Plexi and AC30 veins so that limits the versatility needed for the time being.
I have a homebrew 2x12 enclosed cab based on a Marshall 1936 (mine’s 1 1/4" deeper) and loaded with G12T75 that sounds fantastic. At some point I’m going to mic it up at shoot some IRs and see if I can get anything good, but there is a lot that goes into making a quality IR so not holding my breath… I think OwnHammer has an oversize 2x12 with V30s so I might buy it if mine don’t pan out, it’ll probably sound close enough and coming from them will sound great regardless.