Today’s edition of Free Sample Shootout features a list of the best free guitar cab IRs (guitar cabinet impulse responses).
An impulse response, or an IR, is just a simple audio file containing a recording of a 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 doesn’t sound like much. BUT, load it up in an IR loader and you will get a faithful sonic recreation of the very piece of equipment or the space in which the IR was recorded. The process which makes this possible is called convolution, and it basically allows you to take a snapshot of a particular frequency response and then apply it to other sounds.
Anyway, I’m not sure if me and my awesome Engrish skills have successfuly explained all of that well enough, so if it’s still not properly clear, take a read to this well-written thread on the Guitar Amp Modelling forum. And here’s another 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.
And if it’s all clear now, here’s the best-of list of free guitar cab IRs:
- GuitarHack Impulses part I by GuitarHack
GuitarHack Impulses part II by GuitarHack- Recabinet Demo by Recabinet
- Free Redwirez IR Library by Red Wire
- Kalthallen Cabs by Kalthallen
- IR Library by Noisevault
- God’s Cab by SignalsAudio
- Fredman Impulses by Catharsis Studio
- Beamsonic Impulses by Nick Beamso
- Orange Cab Impulse by fearcomplexmusic
- IRs by le Châtelet
That’s it, and I think it’s more than enough! Free convolution software will be covered in an upcoming edition of bpb Freeware Studio, but for now I suggest you try Voxengo Boogex or LePou LeCab. Put these IRs to good use, subscribe to BPB and share this on Twitter, Facebook, Stumbleupon, or your favorite forums.
If you enjoyed this, read the previous Shootouts by clicking here. Also, don’t miss the best free guitar amp VST/AU plugins round-up.
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# Free Sample Shootout #2: Acoustic Drum Kit Multisamples
# Free Sample Shootout #3: Acoustic, Electric And Toy Pianos
# Free Sample Shootout #4: Mellotrons And Harpsichords
That’s a nice and useful list.
I’ll keep an eye on it ;)
Hi Mihai! Thanks for your MU.LAB packs!! :)
Thanks a ton !!
Would you happen to come across good acoustic guitar impulse responses?
Thanks
Killer shootout. Thanks so much for the info and all of the great links.
GREAT WORK! Please keep it up.
Hi, do you know where I can locate the Recabinet library on a Mac?
can I request some non guitar related IRs too? like the ones you can use on synths. always looking forward to your lists sir
certainly, i’m planning to do a free reverb/delay IRs round up, but i’m not sure if that’s what you had in mind though.
hmm, if you’re looking for just some IRs you could use to warm up the sound, then check out Nebula Free and Colortone Free, those two plugins are very nice for subtle coloring.
Thanks for the list, that is great. But how is this a shootout if there are now results posted, or comparisons, or opinions or rankings? Should be called Impulse list rather than shootout.
Hi everybody,
just wanted to let you know that i made new High Quality Impulse Responses from 2 legendary guitar amps.
They sound ways better than the Internal cabinets. I offer them for free as donationware:
http://www.thesessionguitarist.com/impulse-responses-guitar-amps.html
Have fun and stay tuned,
Lars