Impulse Responses

IMPULSE RESPONSES

Free - Paid

Can you reproduce the sound of an Orange PPC412, a Fender Deluxe Reverb, a Marshall 1960A, a Mesa Rectifier, a Vox AC30, a Roland Micro Cube, an Orange Micro Crush...? Yes you can!

YES YOU CAN!

Orange PPC412

Fender Deluxe Reverb

Marshall 1960A

Mesa Rectifier

Vox AC30

Roland Micro Cube

Orange Micro Crush

For each sample:

* 1 rhythm guitar to the left
Amplifier simulator Aradaz Crunch
Cabinet simulator LeCab, with the following IRs:
1 cab 80% left (microphone Royer R-121), 1 cab 60% left (Shure SM57)

* 1 rhythm guitar on the right
Amplifier simulator Aradaz Crunch
Cabinet simulator LeCab, with the following IRs:
1 cab 80% right (Royer R-121), 1 cab 60% right (Shure SM57)

* 1 solo guitar in the middle
Amplifier simulator LePou LE456
Cabinet simulator LeCab, with the following IRs:
1 cab 10% left (Royer R-121), 1 cab 10% right (Shure SM57)

This configuration is always the same, only the cabinet changes
(Orange, Fender, Marshall, Mesa, Vox, Roland)
For Roland Micro Cube and Orange Micro Crush, I used IRs that I created, (downloadable here), with a combination of a Shure SM57 dynamic microphone and a Rode NT5 static microphone.

For all other samples, I used IRs from the Redwirez retail collection.

As you can hear, even when always using the same amp head, the final sound will change a lot depending on the cabinet and the mike used, which is completely logical. You must find the right combination between the head and the cabinet. You can even use the head only if you wish. All of this is virtual, you may do things the way you like them!

FREE IMPULSE RESPONSES

On the Internet, you can find IRs made by people and freely distributed. Unfortunately, their quality goes from excellent to very poor. The only way to know is to try them. I gathered some IRs from various cabinet brands: Mesa, Fender, Marshall, Vox, Orange, Soldano, London City... That's already a very good start. The microphones used to make these IRs are classics from Sennheiser, Shure, Rode, AKG, Neumann...
For free, you will have something to make some good mixing.

Download: Cabinet simulator IRs
(267 IRs - impulses_guitar_speaker_cabinets.zip, 6.84 MB)

I add two zip files containing a total of about 950 more IRs. It's a wide collection, but the file naming is somewhat messy. Some names are crystal clear, some others... you'll have to guess...

Download: Cabinet simulator IRs
(about 350 IRs - impulse_pack_01.zip, 18.1 MB)

Download: Cabinet simulator IRs
(about 600 impulsions - impulse_pack_02.zip, 17.2 MB)

On this page, you can download IRs that I created with my own amps. Audio samples will give you an idea of the type of sounds you can expect.

These IRs are audio files to use in IR loaders such as LeCab 2 or MixIR 2, in order to assemble a virtual cabinet simulator.

You can download free IR loaders from this page.

PAID IMPULSE RESPONSES

You can also buy professional, high-quality IR packages. They sound really good, because the designers of these IRs have access to a lot of hardware and can provide us with a wide range of IRs. With each cabinet, several microphones are used, and each microphone is placed at different places before (or even behind) the cabinets, so you get nuances that will enrich the sound. Users can then combine several IRs for each guitar or bass take in order to get THE sound they're looking for.

REDWIREZ (web site)

This company offers the best cabinet IRs I ever tried. In the "Big Box Series" collection, Redwire offers 31 cabinets (some in several versions):

    - "Modern Classics" series: Bogner 2x12, Bogner Uberkab, ENGL Pro 4x12, Halfback (Bottom, Top Closed, Top Open), Krank Krankenstein, Krank Revolution, Marshall 1960, Matchless ES212, Mesa Rectifier 4x12, Orange PPC412, Peavey 5150 4x12, Roland JC-120, Soldano 412B

    - "Vintage Classics" series: '68 Marshall Basketweave, '75 Hiwatt SE4123, Fender Deluxe Reverb, Fender Dual Showman, Fender Twin, Marshall 1960 4x12, Mesa Mark II, Supro Thunderbolt S6420, Tweed Bassman, Tweed Deluxe, Vox AC30

    - For bass guitars: Ampeg B15, Ampeg SVT 810, Aquilar DB115, Hartke 4.5XL

They also offer IRs coming not from cabinets but from specific speakers placed in generic boxes:

    - Celestion Blue 12, Celestion G12H30 12, EVM12L 200w 12, Weber Blue 12

Microphones for guitar amplifiers: AKG C414B-ULS, Audix i5, Beyerdynamic M160, Coles 4038, Neumann U47, Neumann KM84, Neumann M8/CMV563, Neumann M7/CMV563, Neumann U87, Royer R121, Sennheiser MD421N, Sennheiser MD441, Sennheiser MD409, Shure SM7, Shure SM57, TAB-Funkenwerk SM57, Electrovoice RE20, Earthworks TC30/M50, Lawson L47, Blue Bottle/B4 (Room only), Blue Bottle/M7

Microphones for bass amplifiers: AKG D12, AKG D112, Audix D6, Beyerdynamic M380N, Coles 4038, Earthworks TC30, Electrovoice RE20, Heil PR40, Neumann U47FET, Royer R121, Sennheiser e602, Sennheiser MD421, Shure Beta52, Shure SM7, Shure SM57

Each cabinet offers a minimum of 550 IRs. The whole collection costs 121 dollars (about 90 euros), which is OK considering the number of IRs and the amount of work put into it. And good idea: you can buy each cabinet IR collection separately. You get the first cabinet collection for 10 dollars (about 7 euros) and the next cabinets will grant you volume discounts.