ML Sound Lab MIKKO 2 cab sim

[laxu]

So ML Sound Lab has made an upgraded version of their MIKKO cab sim.

• 38 different cabs to choose from. That's a lot of cabs. IMO the selection of smaller cabs is a bit narrow but if you like 4x12s, you have tons of options.
• Mix multiple mics each with their own position, phase etc and cab. So e.g you could have multiple mics on a Marshall cab + multiple mics on a Mesa cab together in one IR.
• Export as mono or stereo IR to use with any modeler. This to me has always been a great differentiator feature from other similar systems.
• EQ balance section to further EQ the sound. Maybe not that necessary, but a neat feature nonetheless.

MIKKO2 - ML Sound Lab

MIKKO2 is the most sophisticated guitar cabinet simulator in the world featuring Mikko Logrén's entire cab collection. It is also a custom impulse response creation app that adds incredible tonal variety to all guitar modelers with IR support. Get MIKKO2 FREE to get a taste with one free cab.

ml-sound-lab.com

I have been using the original MIKKO and the UI on this new one looks more friendly and certainly looks better. Even though they offer a 25% discount for original MIKKO owners, I'm probably going to wait for further sales to pick this up as I have all the cabs I need on the original plugin and this seems mostly an UI overhaul + more cabs.

I think it's a great plugin, especially if you are using a modeler which doesn't have e.g low/high cut or other mixing features like say a Strymon Iridium or custom IRs on the Tonex pedal. Instead of hunting for your ideal IR mix from your favorite vendor, you can just use the MIKKO plugin with your modeler in a DAW, figure out a "perfect" cab mix for your preferences and export that as an IR to load into the hardware.

 

[James Freeman]

Mikko knows his stuff.
He's absolutely right about finding the sweet spot concentrically around the center, not only the distance in one or two directions.
I experimented with 8 directions with the same distance form center and all 8 sound different.

 

[jellodog]

Very cool product, but no 10-inch speakers!

 

[Whizzinby]

Looks pretty awesome. I like the idea of being able to pull your own IR from it.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Looks pretty awesome. I like the idea of being able to pull your own IR from it.

Yeah, that’s awesome. Makes me wonder though; if I make the adjustments, eq, etc and then export, whose IR is that? Mine or Mikko’s?

 

[laxu]

Yeah, that’s awesome. Makes me wonder though; if I make the adjustments, eq, etc and then export, whose IR is that? Mine or Mikko’s?

It's your mix IR of Mikko's cabs, I suppose.

 

[FAKA!]

So I have the first Mikko and it was pretty cool. The one big problem I had with it was if Windows did a big update or service pack it would break my activation and the only way to reactivate was to email them and explain it to them and they would eventually reactivate my serial manually... there was no online remove or deactivate and reactivating Mikko like most other VSTs. I'm wondering if they came up with a system or is it still manual af?

 

[laxu]

So I have the first Mikko and it was pretty cool. The one big problem I had with it was if Windows did a big update or service pack it would break my activation and the only way to reactivate was to email them and explain it to them and they would eventually reactivate my serial manually... there was no online remove or deactivate and reactivating Mikko like most other VSTs. I'm wondering if they came up with a system or is it still manual af?

I've never seen that happen for me with the original plugin. I do agree the activation system they use is terrible and should at least be more automated.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Looks pretty awesome. I like the idea of being able to pull your own IR from it.

It's pretty easy to do that within any DAW, though.
In case anyone's interested, I could post a quick tutorial.

 

[laxu]

It's pretty easy to do that within any DAW, though.
In case anyone's interested, I could post a quick tutorial.

Not as easy as "press export button" for sure. Other tools like this such as the Celestion or Softube cab sims don't offer this sort of option at all so I consider it a definite advantage of MIKKO as it makes it more usable in other situations than just within the DAW.

Sure you can generate and run sweeps and deconvolve to an IR, it's not a lot of work to do, but still enough to be a bit of a chore. I understand Logic might have some built in tools for this tho so maybe it's easier there?

 

[Sascha Franck]

Sure you can generate and run sweeps and deconvolve to an IR, it's not a lot of work to do, but still enough to be a bit of a chore.

Nah, it's as easy as to slap a dirac impulse onto a track (running through whatever combination of IRs and EQs you might come up with) and bounce. You can use the bounced file directly. I still trim those I end up using.
Yeah, it is a *little* more work as in the ML Soundlab thing (or the Melda Freeform EQ, which is allowing for that, too), but really not much. And on the upside, you can use all tools you like, including, say, sample delays, pushing some IRs a bit behind, which, if you mix them in ever so slightly, can result in interesting sounds.

 

[laxu]

ML Sound Lab has a 50% sale on all their stuff for November, so I finally picked up MIKKO 2. Paired with the discount code for owning the MIKKO 1 plugin, it cost me 99 euros in total which is a pretty nice deal for 38 freakin' cabs. Just four Fractal Dyna-Cabs for Cab-Lab 4 cost more.

The variety could be way better (not a single 1x12 in sight...), but if you like 4x12s there's a lot to explore here. There's not many factory presets which is too bad as having good starting points would be nice.

The registration system ("request key" tied to a specific computer and a license key to match it) still sucks, even if they are fairly quick to respond if you want to e.g move to a different computer or need to reinstall for any reason. Took only a few hours the last time I had to do it.

After I hooked up my Strymon Iridium to my audio interface with cab sim off, an hour just went by without noticing as I had fun playing with the MIKKO 2 software. It's easy to use and the EQ and graph is surprisingly helpful for understanding what is happening. Compared to MIKKO 1 it's definitely more user-friendly even though I miss some aspects of the more abstract MIKKO 1.

The free version comes with a 4x12 Mesa cab and a good number of mics, so if you want to try your hand at making your own IR mixes, it's worth a spin.

 

[nicolasrivera]

The registration system ("request key" tied to a specific computer and a license key to match it) still sucks

Unfortunately this has prevent me from continuously buying more software from ML. They have to change this ASAP.