Demo of $60 Sonicake Sonic IR Pedal Using jf45irv4 Free IR, D28/K&K/NT3 Demo Added

[jonfields45]

It is physically a very small pedal. Connected to your computer it looks like a USB-C solid state drive. Its firmware requires you to delete the factory IRs and replace them with your IRs. They must be 24b .wav files with the first two letters of the name specifying which of slots 1-11 (01-11) the IR is to appear. The files must be at 44.1 kHz, 24b mono, and 1024 long. Sonicake provides an online translator that will take any IR and fix it for sample rate, bit per sample, and total length. The pedal has a small volume knob and a large IR selector labeled 1 through 11, but no IR/bypass mix knob which is essential for calculated acoustic guitar IRs (guitar cabinet IRs are measured and 100% is all good).




I checked and that ancient IR I made of a friend's plywood BC Rich acoustic with a Fishman Sonitone pickup was recorded at 44.1k. I wanted 11 IRs starting with 100% bypass, and stepping 10% at a time through 10% to 100% IR (90% to 0% bypass). Unfortunately, Octave has a bug writing out 24b .wav files. I had recently ported and debugged my script in the Python IDLE environment. I modified the Python script to produce these IRs in one pass, in the right format. Here are my latest Python scripts (standard and Sonic IR modified):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f4L...usp=drive_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11UH...usp=drive_link

For completeness here's the latest jf45irv4 Octave (MATLAB) version:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z8f...usp=drive_link

Here is a very quick demo using the Sonic IR to go from 100% Bypass to 100% IR in 10% steps. When I play back the recording that makes this IR it is not how I would do it today and maybe that contributes to the inferior 100% IR. But I think 80% IR is a huge improvement over 100% bypass when I listen through headphones. If I play back through my QSC CP-8 on the floor set to monitor EQ, I find the Sonitone not that awful and the improvement more subtle.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14gd...usp=drive_link

Stay tuned. I'm starting over from scratch with another friend's 1999 Martin HD-28V, with a K&K Pure Mini that I installed almost 10 years ago.

[martingitdave]

I'm impressed. Think back to 10 years ago. We had one option (Fishman) and it cost 1,000s of $ to send your guitar to them to record in the studio and generate an IR for their pedal. No you do it for free and they can record in their basement. The gear to use it on stage costs less than $100.

[Cuki79]

The sonicake latency is reported to be 8-9ms… not for everyone … especially if you are sensitive to the cumulated latency in your signal chain.

[jonfields45]

Originally Posted by Cuki79

The sonicake latency is reported to be 8-9ms… not for everyone … especially if you are sensitive to the cumulated latency in your signal chain.

I only tried it guitar to Sonic IR to QSC CP-8. I found it completely natural sounding and I was listening for latency. Its targeted customer is an electric guitarist with the kind of packed pedal board that would appreciate the tiny footprint, which as you point out could accumulate latency from many pedals. I did not find any reviews complaining of latency. It seems to be generally well received.

[jricc]

Impressive Jon. Definitely sounded better towards the end of the clip. Thanks for the demo.

[shufflebeat]

Nice work, following with interest.

Aside - should it be possible to export IR waves from (for instance) Reaper using a 100% IR and a dry recording blended to taste at the desired bitrate, etc.?

I have a vague memory of editing IRs in Reaper but haven’t needed to explore further thanks to your own and Cuki’s contributions, for which I’m continuingly grateful.

[jonfields45]

Originally Posted by shufflebeat

Nice work, following with interest.

Aside - should it be possible to export IR waves from (for instance) Reaper using a 100% IR and a dry recording blended to taste at the desired bitrate, etc.?

I have a vague memory of editing IRs in Reaper but haven’t needed to explore further thanks to your own and Cuki’s contributions, for which I’m continuingly grateful.

Adding bypass to an IR is simply reducing the overall volume of the entire IR and increasing the very first sample. Using a programming environment allows me to keep the modified IR’s total gain unchanged with a precise bypass/IR mix. But you could do this in a DAW.

[jonfields45]

Originally Posted by Cuki79

The sonicake latency is reported to be 8-9ms… not for everyone … especially if you are sensitive to the cumulated latency in your signal chain.

I did a little more research and couldn’t find a Sonicake spec for latency or even a reviewer who mentioned it. Do you have a link to your source?

[Cuki79]

Originally Posted by jonfields45

I did a little more research and couldn’t find a Sonicake spec for latency or even a reviewer who mentioned it. Do you have a link to your source?

Hi Jon,

I wrote to them

It's on my website acousticir.free.fr

http://acousticir.free.fr/spip.php?article205

[jonfields45]

Originally Posted by Cuki79

Hi Jon,

I wrote to them

It's on my website acousticir.free.fr

http://acousticir.free.fr/spip.php?article205

I'm not sure how seriously to take their specs as they quote the power draw at 200 mA and I've measured mine at roughly 75 mA. Which seems unchanged if you drive it with a signal or not. However, most pedal manufacturers are sloppy about power specs...

[jonfields45]

One last demo of this 1024 IR convolution (loader) pedal. A similar very short sample; mic, followed by bypass, followed by a 7525 IR (the IR is 75% original IR and 25% bypass). You definitely need to use headphones. It was recorded D-28 to Sonic IR to Focusrite to MacBook.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MAz...usp=drive_link

I think this pedal makes a nice buffer/DI for a guitar with a K&K or other passive pickup. You get 1/4" and XLR outputs, a volume control, bypass in all slots where no IR is present in the pedal's USB visible directory, and a place to put a few useful IRs (75/25 is my go to and 50/50 is a nice fall back for high volume stages). It would easily fit in a case or gig bag along with a battery to run it (mine draws 75 mA and would run roughly 7 hours on a 9v alkaline battery).

You can see in the picture I am powering the Sonic IR with a cell phone usb power station and a USB-C to 9v adapter (sometimes referred to as a USB power distribution trigger). USB-C PD is convenient and there is no common noise referenced to crummy isolation from wall power to fight with the Focusrite/Mac combo. I use these at gigs because it is faster to set up and tear down. These batteries are typically 10,000 mA-hour (roughly 40 watt-hours) and will drive your pedals seemingly forever between charges.

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by jonfields45

One last demo of this 1024 IR convolution (loader) pedal. A similar very short sample; mic, followed by bypass, followed by a 7525 IR (the IR is 75% original IR and 25% bypass). You definitely need to use headphones. It was recorded D-28 to Sonic IR to Focusrite to MacBook.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MAz...usp=drive_link

I think this pedal makes a nice buffer for a guitar with a K&K or other passive pickup. You get a volume control, bypass in all slots where no IR is present in the pedal's USB visible directory, and a place to put a few useful IRs (75/25 is my go to and 50/50 is a nice fall back for high volume stages).

You can see in the picture I am powering the Sonic IR with a cell phone usb power station and a USB-C to 9v adapter (sometimes referred to as a USB power distribution trigger). USB-C PD is convenient and there is no common noise referenced to crummy isolation from wall power to fight with the Focusrite/Mac combo. I use these at gigs because it is faster to set up and tear down.

Sounds Good, Jon! It makes me want to get my ToneDexter out of mothballs and try it with my LR Baggs HiFi and Trance Amulet M-VT (Henkel Loctite 6-Minute Epoxy) installations.

[jonfields45]

One last short demo. I've added a full 2048 IR via the Boogex plug-in at the end to compare with the Sonic IR's truncated to 1024 version. I don't hear any difference between 1024 and 2048.

Rode NT3, K&K PM, Sonic IR jf45ir7525 1024 samples, Boogex jf45ir7525 2048 samples:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NTH...usp=drive_link

[shufflebeat]

Originally Posted by jonfields45

Rode NT3…

Mmmm…, I have an old NT3 in a box somewhere and don’t remember trying it for IRs, how did it perform for you?

[jonfields45]

Originally Posted by shufflebeat

Mmmm…, I have an old NT3 in a box somewhere and don’t remember trying it for IRs, how did it perform for you?

Better than my SM57. I a-b tested the two and preferred the recorded tone of the NT3.

I advise people to listen to the mic recording before generating an IR. This is primarily for unpleasant resonance, not for the difference I heard with the NT3.

If anyone is interested I can put up a sample, SM57, NT3, SM57 75/25 IR, NT3 75/25 IR.

But honestly, an IR is great for de-piezo-ing, not substituting for an external mic when that is practical. I do think IRs make the standard K&K competitive with the fanciest SBTs and dual source options. For a UST an IR is magic. At $60 for a Sonic IR and free IRs from me (or run my script yourself) it seems a great option.

Even if the latency of the Sonic IR is 8 ms., the threshold of perception for a trained listener is ~12 ms. The speed of sound is roughly a foot per millisecond. I’ve certainly jammed acoustically much more than 8 feet from others and never sensed an issue with latency.