GUITAR AMP IRS (2021)
impulse responses of three guitar combo amps
for cabinet and reverb simulation
This is a collection of impulse responses I recorded for three guitar combo amps (tube combo amps Fender Vibro Champ Silverface 1970s, Fender Twin Reverb Silverface 1970s and transistor combo amp Evans EG-601E). They were recorded two close microphones and an ORTF pair, spaced a bit further from the amps.
The impulse responses were created using the full signal chain (pre-amp with filter settings and reverb, power amp and cabinet) in a mostly clean amp setting. Please note that IRs, characterizing a linear and time-invariant system, can not model the non-linear effects such as compression and (tube) saturation, and therefore do not provide a proper guitar amp representation like guitar amp modeling plug-ins do, when used with a convolution reverb. Characteristic qualities of pre-amp and power amp, particularly in case of the Vibro Champ that saturates and compresses the most, will be missing. The IRs can be quite useful, however, for mixing or experimentation, when you don’t need to benefit from the non-linearities. Also, the (spring) reverb can come in handy.
The IRs can be downloaded here.