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Free Guitar Cabinet Impulse Responses

By 10 Comments2 Mins Read
Free Guitar Cabinet Impulse Responses

Here is a list of the best free guitar cab IRs or guitar cabinet impulse responses.

Just in case some of you are unsure of what these are, here’s a short explanation.

An impulse response, or an IR, is an audio file containing a recording of a short audio signal being played through a certain piece of equipment or in a certain space. Take a listen to an impulse response file and you’ll discover that it sounds like a short burst or a pop. But, load that same file in an impulse response loader and you will hear a faithful sonic recreation of the space in which the IR was recorded. Or, in the case of a guitar cabinet impulse response, you will hear the frequency response of the sampled amplifier. The process which makes this possible is called convolution. It allows us to save a certain frequency response as an audio file and then apply it to other sounds.

For more information, check out this great article about convolution by EarLevel Engineering.

If you’re looking for free guitar amp sims, check out BPB’s free guitar amp simulator VST plugins list. Also, check out our free VST plugins page for more freeware effects.

And if it’s all clear now, here’s the list of the best guitar cabinet impulse responses:

To load guitar impulse responses, use freeware plugins like NadIR by Ignite Amps.

Tomislav is a music producer and sound designer from Belgrade, Serbia. He is also the founder and editor-in-chief at Bedroom Producers Blog.

10 Comments

  2. gLOW-x

     on

    I may sound like an a**hole, but from all my experimentation, you only need few cab impulses.

    I only use Catharsis Studio, because they are very well done and few to choose from (less time loss).

    When you stack impulses, different mics and such, you are just simply loosing your time. It is a good thing to learn in the studio, but not on DI track or reamp.
    Take only few GOOD impulses already stacked for you (no phase troubles, no freq gaps, dry ambiance…) and the only thing you need after them is just EQ.
    IR are linear, so everything is just frequency mask over time with ambiance. Nebula “impulses” and real mics are a different animal, because there is dynamic interaction, not just freq “masking”.
    My conclusion : you just need Catharsis and EQ (may be some additional reverb for ambiance). Or Nebula cabs, for me ;)
    I already erased all my other impulses until i find another single pack to replace Catharsis…but not happened for years.

    Reply

  6. Darren West

     on

    Can you get an impulse response of not the speaker, but an amp? I have seen new ideas of impulse responses of different guitars, so I’d like to know if anyone is doing just amps?

    Reply

    • Harald

       on

      Sorry, you did not understand the concept of impulse response.
      You have a virtual amp as a VST instrument. This sounds terrific in the DAW because there is nothing like the emulated speaker (cabinet) behind it.
      Impulse responses are emulated speakers or speaker cabinets. You can combine amp VSTs and speaker impulse responses. It makes no sense to have a whole amp including speakers emulated. If so, you don’t have the possibility to adjust volume, tone, reverb on the impulse response amp. An impulse response is a simple file without any optical means like knobs.

      Reply

  7. Antonio

     on

    Ho caricato le IR su nadIR ignite amps ma il probrema é che non succede nulla….cioè il suono non cambia. Utilizzo Audacity. Qualcuno potrebbe aiutarmi per favore

    Reply
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