SONICAKE IR Pedal Speaker Cabinet Simulator Impulse Response Loader Guitar Bass Effects Pedal

The Sonicake IR is amazing! Say goodbye to lower back pain from hauling heavy cabs—it does the job perfectly. The built‑in cabinet sims sound great, and the best part is you can upload your own IR pack for even more flexibility. Compact, affordable, and a total game‑changer for practice and live gigs.

So I've read through the bad reviews of this and every one of them seems to have a fundamental misunderstanding of what this does. Deducting stars because it doesn't have an on off switch (clearly shown), only takes 1024 size IRs (noted in the documentation), lack of a screen (you can see the pedal before purchasing), or because it needs an amp pedal in front (I mean, that's the whole point) is unfair. It's literally there for everyone to read before purchasing. I could as soon complain it didn't drive me to the store. It's cheap, solidly built for the price, comes with usable sounds for the price, no distortion at any volume level, super simple, and made of aluminum. You rotate a knob to cycle through the IRs. It's cheap because it doesn't have a screen. I use it with a RevivalDrive Compact Hot Rod. I've compared it to IRs on my computer and there's no difference. It does what it advertises. It takes a line level amp-like signal and applies a cab curve to it. That's it. Then it gets out of your way so you can rock. It's a blast to play. If I were to take a star away it would be for the site where you have to convert IRs. They have not updated their security certificate. That could be a deal breaker for security minded people. Otherwise it works as advertised.

I purchased 3 of the cab simulator pedals to use with a bass and two guitar pedal boards that I use when I dont want to haul my amps to rehearsals or gigs. I have decent amps for my acoustic, electric, and bass so I cant say a sim pedal can beat those high end tones, but that being said, this really gives you a playable "plug and play" option at gigs where you can go right into the sound system with no amps in sight. Some recommendations for better sound are using a preamp or amp simulator before this cab sim, which gives a better dialed in EQ and tone. I found the cab tones are usable for live gigs, there are only two bass cabs preloaded so you may want to explore uploading more if you play bass as the guitar ones don't sound great with bass. The others sound great with my acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and mandolin going through respective preamps and into a mixing board/PA system. Bottom line is- with a decent preamp pedal, this cab sim, and a XLR cable to the sound system, you are ready to gig

So far it seems to be a great product, but with a few caveats. I bought 3 - 1 worked great, 1 had trouble, and 1 isn't working. But had I known a few things, I likely could have prevented this scenario... Hope these tips help! 1.) I couldn't seem to transfer the new IR's to the device on my Mac running Sonoma OS. But I was able to do it on a Windows machine... but the next point may be why. 2.) When I attached to a Windows PC, I quickly found the normal 44.1K 500ms IR .wav files were too large. I could only get three of those on the device. For some reason on my mac, I could only get 1, and after that a perpetual error code that the file couldn't be transferred (but not due to storage... weird). Windows at least showed there wasn't enough space on the drive. So, after searching Sonicake IR Loader and going to their website, I found where I could download the manual, then under that I could download the original IR's, then under that is a link called IR File Converter, and it says it requires Google Chrome to use. You can only convert one file at a time, but it worked flawlessly. Then I was able to load the files on to the device. So, maybe it would have worked on my mac if I had converted the files to a smaller file type? I went through enough frustration to give it a shot. It's working now, so I'm not going to mess with it anymore. :) 3.) I bought 3 of these to use at our church. On the attempt to get it working on my mac, I reformatted. It's originally in a FAT12 file format. The reformat didn't seem to help. However, on another unit, the reformat locked up as the built-in storage is crazy slow. It corrupted the built-in storage, so I'll send that one back for an exchange. 4.) Lastly, while the stock IR's are actually pretty sweet out of the box, I wanted to load some IR's that I've been using on my Line 6 HX Stomp XL. I dedicated one of these units to bass guitar, and two toward acoustic guitars. My favorite acoustic clone IR's have come from Worship Tutorials - the Taylor 414, and Holy Grail 2 guitars in particular. The bass guitar IR's came from Celestion and are bass cab/speaker profiles BN15-300x and Studio Nord Bremen Ampeg V4b Custom and Ampeg V4b Trace Elliot, and the Orange custom as well. I mention these since the bass and acoustic IR's are a bit harder to locate. But one caveat for acoustic IR's... acoustic IR's by default all come about -18db. I'm not sure why, but they do. So, the only way to use the acoustic IR's on this unit is to crank the volume all the way, and crank the gain on your PA around 20db +/-. But, it's totally worth it if you're plugging in direct to PA. And it bypasses the need for a DI box. I don't have any noise issues when I crank the volume and gain on these. Build quality is great. And the price can't be beat. Even though I had a lot of headache getting these setup, the end result and price point make it worth 4 stars. Now that I know how to work with them, I'd buy it again in a heartbeat. But definitely follow some of these guidelines. The built-in memory is very small, very slow, very temperamental, and easily corrupted. But once it works, it's great! Hope the tips help. It's a super affordable way to have great tone!

Cons first -I did not see any mention of using the IR file converter and had to do some digging cuz my actual IRs were too big and when I trimmed them, they were not registering. You can find the IR file converter on the sonicake website with this pedal. -i worry about the future of the IR file converter. It's an html page that's also available offline. What happens when it loses support? Will we no longer be able to load IRs? -remember you need the 9v plugged in if you want to load custom IRs. Pros: -the IRs that came with it sound pretty good. My faves are the Vox 212 and the Marshall 1960. -I loaded 3 custom IRs and AB'd them with a direct signal going into my DAW with the same IRs before they were put through the file converter. No discernable difference or loss in audio quality. Great pro. -the fact that you can remove a file for a bypass signal makes it perfect for studio use. I can record my pedals direct without having to swap out my sonicake IR pedal and use a DI box. This is prob one of the most useful pedals I've bought. Worth the money especially if you're planning on going amp less.

for this price i was surprised that this sounds as good as it does. here is my use case: i live in a townhome so i had the idea for my band to plug into a mixer (e-drums used) and everyone wears headphones. that way we can crank it up and not anger the neighbors. lots of headsets, wires, headphone amp... i put some time into planning it out. what i did not account for was the guitars sounding like hell - i am running a line out from the headphone out of the amps directly into the mixer. so i started researching cab simulators, IR loaders, etc. to try and replicate the sound of a mic'd amp. the sonicake does this really well - it sounds authentic. i wasn't expecting a lot for the price, but i was happily surprised. if you have similar needs to me, i would highly recommend that you use the XLR out on the sonicake. i noticed a large difference in sound quality between that and the 1/4 inch out.

Construction is great. Having an XLR out is very useful. The cabinet IRs that come with the device work. 3Sigma Audio violin IRs and the 3rd party violin IRs I tried do not. All of these IRs DO work in an HX Stomp. When I loaded sequence labeled 44.1MHz 3Sigma Audio IRs into the Sonic IR, they were not recognized. After I ran the 3Sigma IRs through Sonicake's IR converter, they were recognized but the volume was about 5% of the volume before the IRs were applied--rendering the IRs unusable. I also tried loading commonly used 3rd party violin IRs: Calcani.wav, Klotz.wav, and Langhof.wav. None of these appropriately sequence-numbered files were recognized by the Sonic IR. After I ran them through the Sonicake IR Converter, they were recognized but resulted a grating high treble sound. Rendering them unusable. As I mentioned above all of these IRs worked correctly in an HX Stomp. I just watched a YouTube review of the TC Electronic IR Loader demonstrating support for 3Sigma Audio violin IRs. So, I'm going to return the Sonic IR and purchase the TC Electronic IR loader.

I’ve been playing bass in bands for 50 years and while I have a modest analog pedalboard, I’ve never seriously looked into the various amp/cab simulator pedals on the market that I might use to give me a variety of bass tones, simply because I have a life and don’t want to fall down some large rabbit hole, sitting in front of my desktop with a digital pedal attached, spending hours choosing and selecting from various amp/cab simulations and effects in order to put together a “tone” I might use for one song a night. Thus, when I came across the Sonicake IR, it seemed to be the answer to my quest for a simple device that would alter my tone when I needed it. The directions to operate were straightforward and although it only had room for 11 cab simulations, you apparently had the ability to save those tones on your computer and download your own tones to it. The device even had its own website where you could download the original 11 tones to your PC if you wished to replace, but keep, all the original tones, and where you could find an IR file converter for use when you wanted to download your own bass IRs into the unit. The unit is simply-constructed. It has an aluminum shell, a volume control, a plastic dial that is used to switch among the 11 IRs preloaded onto it, an input an output and even a XLR output, something I’d never seen in a unit so small. It runs off my 1Spot power supply and has a USB port to enable you to connect to your PC to download your own IRs into it. The included IRs, even the ones for a guitar, are all useful to a bass player. I’m not going to critique each of the 11 tones, but I could’ve made them work, with some adjustments to the EQ section of my preamp pedal (an Electro-Harmonix Battalion, that I’m quite happy with). Sounds pretty good, right? Unfortunately, I have to give the unit a thumbs-down for the following reasons: First, it doesn’t have an on-off switch. Once you plug it into your pedalboard, it’s on all the time. That doesn’t work for me. I might want a deep tone for a particular tune, then turn off the pedal. You can’t do that with this unit, so that’s the major deal-killer for me. Second, the Sonicake website where you can find the original IRs in the unit and the IR file converter aren’t secure. I’d get messages popping up on my screen from my malware detector that the site couldn’t be trusted. I don’t know about you, but I’m not too eager to have some foreign website possibly insert some malicious code into my desktop. Again, that’s a big no-no for me. Third is the convenience factor. It’s just a $59 unit, so you get what you pay for, but my old, lazy butt doesn’t want to be bending over, changing a dial and simultaneously trying to remember what IR was in what slot. There are other IR units out there that have a small screen that will show you the IR in a particular slot. Those units cost more, but if you’re into the IR movement, I believe the extra cost is worth it. In conclusion, if you want this unit to piddle around with at home, or if you’re a beginner just getting into music and money is tight, you might want to consider this device for limited practice/learning purposes. However, if you’re a professional musician (and if you get paid for your services, you’re a pro, no matter how small the venue), this is not the unit for you. Also, if you want to keep your desktop/laptop virus-free, I’d be extremely hesitant to download anything from the Sonicake site. So, I can’t recommend it. As noted above, there’s other models on the market that do more. You’ll pay more, but it should be worth it.

Delivery was quick, product as per description.

Mejoró drásticamente mi sonido, conectando mi guitarra o bajo directo a la consola. Solía usar solo un pream, pero la verdad con varios IRs en el pedal o tus propios IR hacen cambios muy fuertes. Usando esto y una pedalera BOSS ME tengo un sonido más que suficiente y no impagable.

Si buscáis un sonido de CAB para el dispositivo que sea , preamp , pedalera antiguas o incluso modernas ( como es mi caso , yo lo utilizo junto a mi pedal tonex , utilizo las capturas DI de los cabezales y luego las CAB del SONIC IR y suena de lujo), no lo dudéis. El pedal es robusto y muy buena construcción, tenéis 9 CAB DE GUITARRA y 2 de BAJO , a un precio muy competitivo.

I usually use UA fx Dream, Ruby and Woodrow digital amp pedals with inbuild cab sims but I needed a small cab sim for an additional board with a Thorpy Scarlet tunic amp simulator that doesn't have one. This little pedal is great, has lots of IRs and you can put on your own. Has DI and mono out. For the price it is fab. Sound is good.

Fonctionne parfaitement, les IR sont de très bonne facture