laxu
Rock Star
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Boss IR-2 - Very compact amp/cab sim pedal
- Thread starter laxu
- Start date
JiveTurkey
Goatlord
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They should have just added "poweramp and cabinet emulation" to the MetalZone and called it good 
Moe45673
Roadie
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- 175
If you're using Logic, I am guessing you're on a Mac. Did you download the Mac drivers? The manual recommends it
Sascha Franck
Rock Star
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Did you, by any chance, check the Audio-MIDI-Setup? Have a look at what the audio mixer says.
Enchilada Jones
Roadie
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- 650
I did install drivers for Mac Im on Ventura 13.3.1
I don't think I looked there to see if anything was off. I just received the RA and already boxed it up so that mystery will have to linger and haunt me. Anyone finding my opinion on this should make note that it could be my fault regarding the USB in LogicX
deadpool_25
Roadie
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- 634
I hadn't seen anything that demonstrated it would be decent for high gain stuff until this just popped up in my feed.
Moe45673
Roadie
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- 175
Boss DD20! <3<3<3<3<3<3<3
Jarick
Rock Star
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Grabbed an IR-2 last night. I've been wanting to put together a Boss board for a while, especially after I got a few from Achilles a while back (DM-2W, CE-2W, DD-3T). Been really curious about the IR-2 with the low latency and high sample rate, and really liked that it doesn't require high power. So I could essentially run it with a few other pedals on a OneSpot daisy chain. It can run off a 9V battery too!
First impressions are positive! It's a standard Boss pedal with full blown amp modeling inside it. Instead of the Boss cabs, it has a collection of Celestion IR's (the same ones you can buy from their site as far as I can tell). Different cabs for each amp model as well.
Sounds are pretty good! It doesn't seem like it's going for full on accuracy of a specific amp as much as a general vibe. That's nothing new, but compared to the GT-1000 I had a few times, it seems a lot more acceptable. Maybe honeymoon, maybe the IR's, maybe they tweaked something? I dunno. But generally you should get something that sounds pretty good out of the IR-2, although less likely something that sounds unbelievably awesome.
Honestly I think a big part of why it seems to sound good is because of the knobs and no screens. If it's too dark you turn up the treble. Maybe that sounds like what you want and if not try a different amp model. Anyways, each amp seems to have a good range of gain and EQ. The EQ knobs seem to have a big effect on the tone so maybe more like the Kemper post-EQ, as opposed to original amp tone stacks?
I really like the amp switching. There's different modes, but by default you have a green channel and a red channel and they switch when you stomp the pedal. Both are completely independent so you dial in whatever you want on one, it saves your settings automatically, and then you stomp the pedal and you're on the other channel to dial in whatever you want there. Switching is practically gapless too.
I don't believe the USB-C works to power the device unfortunately. And there's a weird thing that I had to install a USB driver for the pedal on my Mac and restart before it would see the Boss to connect to the app. That's odd.
Anyways with the app you can replace IR's or change a few basic settings. The stock IR's are okay but I wanted to judge the amps consistently so added a York 2x12 M65 cab for all models. Takes about 5 seconds per amp and a little clunky but that works.
Changing the "ambience" type though was really nice. I don't have a reverb pedal and the default room reverb is so subtle I couldn't hear it. But changing to the hall reverb is great! It's a good standard digital hall that most likely will eliminate the need for a reverb pedal. Really nice option.
One thing I wish it had was a noise gate...on the higher gain amps this would be really useful, especially as you can toggle between clean and high gain.
Bottom line it's a pretty fun pedal for $200! It would be a killer backup pedal. But I think it will be fun with a few other pedals as a compact, keep it simple, no screens, no menus thing. Thinking something like this:
First impressions are positive! It's a standard Boss pedal with full blown amp modeling inside it. Instead of the Boss cabs, it has a collection of Celestion IR's (the same ones you can buy from their site as far as I can tell). Different cabs for each amp model as well.
Sounds are pretty good! It doesn't seem like it's going for full on accuracy of a specific amp as much as a general vibe. That's nothing new, but compared to the GT-1000 I had a few times, it seems a lot more acceptable. Maybe honeymoon, maybe the IR's, maybe they tweaked something? I dunno. But generally you should get something that sounds pretty good out of the IR-2, although less likely something that sounds unbelievably awesome.
Honestly I think a big part of why it seems to sound good is because of the knobs and no screens. If it's too dark you turn up the treble. Maybe that sounds like what you want and if not try a different amp model. Anyways, each amp seems to have a good range of gain and EQ. The EQ knobs seem to have a big effect on the tone so maybe more like the Kemper post-EQ, as opposed to original amp tone stacks?
I really like the amp switching. There's different modes, but by default you have a green channel and a red channel and they switch when you stomp the pedal. Both are completely independent so you dial in whatever you want on one, it saves your settings automatically, and then you stomp the pedal and you're on the other channel to dial in whatever you want there. Switching is practically gapless too.
I don't believe the USB-C works to power the device unfortunately. And there's a weird thing that I had to install a USB driver for the pedal on my Mac and restart before it would see the Boss to connect to the app. That's odd.
Anyways with the app you can replace IR's or change a few basic settings. The stock IR's are okay but I wanted to judge the amps consistently so added a York 2x12 M65 cab for all models. Takes about 5 seconds per amp and a little clunky but that works.
Changing the "ambience" type though was really nice. I don't have a reverb pedal and the default room reverb is so subtle I couldn't hear it. But changing to the hall reverb is great! It's a good standard digital hall that most likely will eliminate the need for a reverb pedal. Really nice option.
One thing I wish it had was a noise gate...on the higher gain amps this would be really useful, especially as you can toggle between clean and high gain.
Bottom line it's a pretty fun pedal for $200! It would be a killer backup pedal. But I think it will be fun with a few other pedals as a compact, keep it simple, no screens, no menus thing. Thinking something like this:
JiveTurkey
Goatlord
- Messages
- 16,752
"The EQ knobs seem to have a big effect on the tone so maybe more like the Kemper post-EQ, as opposed to original amp tone stacks?"
The GT1000 amps are this way as well.
The GT1000 amps are this way as well.
Jarick
Rock Star
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- 3,517
Yep exactly. Going from 50 to 55 on the bass knob can sometimes sound like going from 4 to 8 on other modelers. It's sonically very similar to the GT-1000. This is one of those things, like what I experienced with the Headrush MX5 where it seemed better than the expensive version. It's not, it's just way cheaper and we have lower expectations.
Anyways, I was going back and forth between the IR-2, GX-10, and GX-100. Decided to try this one because I liked the idea of a standalone modeler and the Friedman IR-X wasn't really doing it for me anymore (maybe because of the updates...).
I could definitely see the IR-2 being like the HX Stomp, so irresistibly practical that you almost have to own one. Hell I plan to throw the Stomp and IR-2 together as that could be a fun combo as well.
Jarick
Rock Star
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I'll mess around with that too. The nice thing with the low power pedals and the OneSpot adapter is that it's REALLY easy to swap through pedals on the floor or a small board.
Just for fun I hooked up the Stomp into the IR-2, using the IR-2 as a "clean pedal platform". It seems like it would work really well here. On the clean amp which is really transparent, all the drive models sound like they should. And switching over to the Twin amp which is more BF Fender, the pedals react differently with the amp as you would expect.
Again not sure if it's all 100% accurate like the real deal, but directionally the IR-2 would make a fine pedal platform. Just keep in mind I believe it's mono input only, so you can't run the P&W spaceship into it and have stereo outs
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metropolis_4
Rock Star
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- 3,000
I kind of want to build a pedalboard around something like this. Nice to hear some positive experiences with it!
Jarick
Rock Star
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- 3,517
Go for it! Compared to things like the Iridium, UAD pedals, etc. this is fun and cheap thrills!
Shredder777
Roadie
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- 662
The GT100 had some MDP models. So they could all be Katana based.
Shredder777
Roadie
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- 662
I'm sorry to hear you have given up on it. (I may too.) I plan to replace the missing high frequency with an EQ to see if it restores the harmonics. If that works, then I will attempt a tone match with a ToneX version of the BE100 and import it to the IR slots so it is baked into the pedal.
I am not completely hopeful and anticipate that restoring the HF content will also raise the noise floor considerably. However there is something undeniable about the response and feel of it.
The boss IR pedals are cool but probably around the quality of the zoom models I already have. I am interested in any of these small pedals that can improve my results/inspiration.
Jarick
Rock Star
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I honestly haven't used the IR-X much so it's on my list of things to sell. The IR-2 to me will be a really useful practice tool to run with a couple pedals into my Fender FR-12.
One thing, I'm not super comfortable leaving the IR-X on for long periods of time as there is a tube and higher voltage. But leaving a Boss pedal that takes 1/5 the power (or less) doesn't bug me at all.
KingsXJJ
Shredder
- Messages
- 1,054
WTF. I can’t begin to understand this reasoning. BTW, both are SB in tone.
