I picked up a Boss IR-2 pedal awhile back to try out, and I remember not being unable to find any information about how IRs work on the device, or if you’re able to load 3rd-party IRs, so after figuring out how everything works I decided to put together a quick guide.
First off, I thought the Boss IR-2 sounded better than the Boss ME-90 that I reviewed awhile back, even though they seem to use similar amp modeling, and it turns out it’s because the IR-2 uses different IRs than the ME-90.
The Boss IR-2 comes pre-loaded with Celestion IRs instead of what whatever weird crap Boss is using on the ME-90. The Celestion IRs sound clearer and brighter, which I like.
The way it works on the Boss IR-2 is each amp type has a specific Celestion IR tied to it, and there are 11 slots for amps and IRs total. The weird thing is you can’t move the Celestion IRs to different slots; they are locked into each slot.
However, it’s easy to load 3rd-party IRs into each slot, so you can have up to eleven 3rd-party IRs installed if you want. You can also create backups that include IR data so there are some different ways to work with that. You can also reset each slot to go back to the default IR.
In order to install 3rd-party IRs onto the Boss IR-2, you first need to install a driver and the IR Loader software from the Boss website:
- Install Boss IR-2 USB driver.
- Install Boss IR-2 IR Loader software.
- Connect IR-2 to computer and launch software.
- Loading 3rd-party IRs:
- Format: WAV
- Supported frequency: 44.1, 48, 96 kHz
- Bit rate: 16/24-bit linear, 32-bit floating point
- Length: 200 ms, 500 ms
- Reset to factory IRs. If you want to reset the IR slot back to the default Celestion IR, use the IR Loader software and go to Menu > Slot Reset.
You can also use the software or the pedal (shown in the video below) to turn amp modeling on and off if you just want to use the pedal as an IR player. You can also turn off IRs if you want to use a different IR loader with Boss’s amp models.
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