IR Frustrations... and a solution!

[k.guitars]

In the past I have owned both the Fishman Spectrum DI and Tone Dexter with a variety of pickups and was never happy. Currently playing a Martin 000-28 (2020) with a K&K Pure Mini. Decided to give the Voiceprint DI a whirl. After a couple of hours I had the same frustrations I had with the previous IR units. Weird phase between the image and pickup, feedback, bloated bottom and low mids, etc. Had the VPDI all boxed up to be returned but thought about it on a long drive yesterday and came up with a concept that I tried this morning, something I was unable to do with either the Fishman or Audio Sprockets unit.

Since the VPDI has two EQ's, one overall and one strictly for the Voiceprint, I went to the overall EQ, selected the 'High Cut' preset and exagerated it, down to -12 dB at 8k on the treble and -6 at 3.5k on the high mid, high pass filter set at 75 Hz. I also put the low pass filter back up to 20k. This gives me a very dark pickup sound. I then went to the Voiceprint EQ and reversed the EQ, +12 dB at 8k and +6 dB at 3.5k, effectively returning the Voiceprint to flat. With the blend set to 50/50, I set the high pass on the Voiceprint to 240 hZ. This allows the pickup to handle everything below 240 hZ on its own, then the pickup rolls off and lets the natural sounding top end of the Voiceprint take over.

I haven't had a chance to try it live yet, but I was able to turn the volume up in the house way louder than ever before without feedback, or any strange resonances, and it sounds great. Definitely promising enough that the VPDI won't be going anywhere yet. Anyone else tried this approach? Caleb?

[Caleb_Elling]

Thanks for sharing!

This approach has been talked about quite a bit, but really only in theory. We've been calling it "the Anthem approach" since the Anthem is built on a crossover in the same way. I'm glad to see that you not only discovered it on your own but that it seems to be working so well. That's really exciting!

If you get to try it out live anytime soon, let us know how it goes. I definitely want to mess around with this myself now.

[k.guitars]

Ha! That's exactly how I came up with the idea, the Anthem SL's crossover. I think about this stuff way too much!

However, since I made the post a couple of hours ago I have gone back and done an advanced Voiceprint. Open strummy chords with a medium pick, some fiddle tunes with a heavy pick, capo'd up on the fifth fret, the main riff from "If I Had A Boat" capo'd way up on the ninth fret with a thumbpick, some body tapping in various places, some dead string percussion. Now with the Voiceprint up at around 88% it sounds absolutely stunning! I guess it is a case of me not trusting the technology and leaning into the Voiceprint. Definitely a lot of exploring to do!

One update I would love to see is if the treble and bass bands could switch between bell and shelving EQ's.

[Caleb_Elling]

That's great! I've been having my best results with the Advanced process as well.

Being able to use bell and shelving EQ would be pretty amazing. I'll mention that to the team for further development.

[thirdie2002]

This is amazing! Thanks for sharing. Will definitely try it out.

[Chiefbigeasy]

Anybody want to take a stab at explaining and contextualizing what y’all have been talking about here. A walkthrough? Some detailed instructions about how to do this? Some context as to why you would find yourself in a position to need this level of tweaking the parameters?

My best use of this device is to get the most accurate Voiceprint of my instrument, to know that without second guessing, and then modifying it a little for different needs.

[Chiefbigeasy]

How do you access the Master EQ vs the Voiceprint EQ? Is the master EQ setting saved along with the VP EQ setting for each VP?

[Caleb_Elling]

[QUOTE=Chiefbigeasy;n10597]How do you access the Master EQ vs the Voiceprint EQ? Is the master EQ setting saved along with the VP EQ setting for each VP?[/QUOTE]

The VP EQ is accessible in the VP Module. The master EQ is its own module. Both of those EQ's can be modified and saved in your preset.

I go over it a little bit in this video: [url]https://youtu.be/kE8I1WmwE8Y[/url]