I am wanting to start experimenting with guitar cabinet impulse responses instead of micing. While I am happy with my results micing-up my amps, most of my creative moments come late at night, so micing my amps is not always an option.
 
I am pretty sure I can load them into TH2 and REmatrix. It seems like REmatrix would be the easy choice... just drop it into the Pro Channel for the guitar track and go.
 
Are there other options I might be missing that would make this easy? And free? I don't really want to spend any money if I don't have to - but I do know I would have to buy something like a Suhr Reactive Load/Radial Headload Prodigy/etc for best results.
 

First hit when searching google for "ir vst cabinet"
NadIR - A Free Impluse Response Loader Released by Ignite Amps. I recall trying some of their plug-ins a while back. They were OK. Don't remember this one though.

NadIR is probably the best free solution. There was LeCab 2, but it's dated, buggy and old. However, the ability to mix up to six IRs is a trade-off.

Recabinet 5 was just released last week and is good, but Kazrog's plugins have issues with Sonar.

PerfectSpace (32bit) from Sonar X3 Studio and Producer is what I use.
 
It allows you to load your own impulse response .WAV files.
 
Is that an option for you?

Thanks guys. I will check into NadIR. There was no documentation on the website that I could see but I didn't download it yet and maybe it's in the zip file.
 
It looks like Perfect Space is no longer bundled with SONAR.
 
I did import some of the Ownhammer and RedWirez demo IR's into both REMatrix and TH2 and WOW it is ever a pain to navigate the IR's file structure. There is no easy way to import the folders as far as I can tell and so you have to navigate to each folder, import, and then wade through all of the IR's in the plug-in's interface instead of just the simplicity of browsing the file system directly... unless I am missing something which could very well be true - I'm new to the software DAW world after being used to 15+ years on my VS2480 and I'm still learning at least a couple of new things ever day about everything SONAR has to offer.
 
Also, the IR's in REMatrix didn't sound right. I haven't tweaked any of the settings yet, but they just sounded like reverb effects and not at all like a miced cabinet when set to 100% wet - which is where I assume it needs to be since any setting below that obviously has the ugly raw unprocessed guitar sound in the mix. I probably have to set all of the time parameters to zero. I didn't have a ton of time to mess with it when I tried it for the first time. The REMatrix Solo that comes with SONAR also only lets me apply one IR so no mixing different mic types, which is something I do when I mic a cabinet (I go with a ribbon and an SM57 or condenser and mix the two together.) To get around that I'd have to duplicate the track, do another Pro Channel REMatrix and mix the two tracks - doable but a pain.
 
Now TH2 I had much better results with. I can apply two IR's and adjust the balance between the two and the processed track doesn't sound like a reverb effect. It's just the navigation of the IR files that is a pain. For the simple fact that I can mix two mics (or even two speaker cabinets for that matter) directly in TH2 is the better option between the two. But navigating the IR files... PITA.
 
Deciding on a reactive load/dummy load box is my next hurdle. I think I've narrowed it down to the Suhr Reactive Load and the new Radial Headload Prodigy.

I think there are some videos on youtube about importing IR's into Rematrix either produced by Cakewalk or Overloud (the comapany that created Rematrix).
 
Do a search for those because I think it's easier than what you described (but have not done it myself).
 
Really no need to go clogging up Sonar with third party programs that may not play nice with Sonar when you have onboard options already.
 
BTW... If you own any older versions of Sonar you can do a custom install and just install Perfect Space (might be bundled in a "Producer" FX installer... scook would probably know) if you prefer using that Convo Verb instead.
 
I think it was still included in X3. Otherwise it was definitely included in X2. IIRC though it was a boutique "Producer" only plugin.
 
Cheers.

Kazrog Recabinet isn't free but it's pretty reasonable and intuitive. http://kazrog.com/products/recabinet/
 
Rocky

Beepster
I think there are some videos on youtube about importing IR's into Rematrix either produced by Cakewalk or Overloud (the comapany that created Rematrix).
 
Do a search for those because I think it's easier than what you described (but have not done it myself).
 
Really no need to go clogging up Sonar with third party programs that may not play nice with Sonar when you have onboard options already.
 
BTW... If you own any older versions of Sonar you can do a custom install and just install Perfect Space (might be bundled in a "Producer" FX installer... scook would probably know) if you prefer using that Convo Verb instead.
 
I think it was still included in X3. Otherwise it was definitely included in X2. IIRC though it was a boutique "Producer" only plugin.
 
Cheers.

Thanks Beepster.
 
The actual process of importing the IR's was easy, they just aren't organized once you do it. I would rather not have to import them at all... would be much much simpler if I could just navigate the file system directly and load the one I want.
 
I am a new user to SONAR so no Perfect Space option for me unfortunately.

bluzdog
Kazrog Recabinet isn't free but it's pretty reasonable and intuitive. http://kazrog.com/products/recabinet/
 
Rocky

Hmmm... two cabinets with blend and panning, 4-band eq, $15 is almost free. Free 14-day demo too! Thanks for the tip.

IIRC, TH2 allows creating folders in its IR module. ReMatrix Solo does not. Either way, importing IRs is a pain. That is why I would use a 3rd party tool.  While not free MeldaProduction makes a coupe of plug-ins which use IRs,
MMultiBandConvolution and MPhatik. No import needed, the plug-ins load IRs directly from disk.  MPhatik is new
and currently on sale. Throughout the year Melda has 50% off sales on different selections of their plug-ins.