We often describe our range of Celestion Impulse Responses as being Professional Quality – and this has been borne out by the many professional musicians, performers and producers making use of our IRs in their commercial work. In fact, in our recent survey 22% of our respondents said they were regularly using Celestion IRs for professional recording work.
So what exactly is it that makes our IRs the preferred choice of discerning professionals at every stage of the creative process – from composition and recording, to mixing and production, as well as live performances?
Of course, our IRs sound great – virtually indistinguishable from the real thing in fact (How Accurate are our Speaker IRs? Here’s the Proof). But although that’s essential, deciding to use them as a tool for professional music making requires a lot more than that…
We explore 5 key features of our impulse responses which we think explain their increasing popularity with professionals:
Accuracy
Our IRs have been designed to be faithful to the speakers they are based on, right across the frequency range.
Among other things, this makes transitioning from a naturally mic’d up cabinet to its IR equivalent super easy to do. So professional guitarists who are already used to the way a particular Celestion speaker responds to their playing style, aren’t going to have any nasty surprises when switching to the IR version of their usual speaker.
Balance
We’ve lost count of the number of customers and reviewers who have remarked that a Celestion IR delivers great tone “out of the box”, with no additional EQ necessary. Any EQ that you might decide to add yourself is only in order to get the nuances of tone that you want, rather than needing to “fix” any tone glitches.
How have we achieved this? By using world class sound engineers who don’t just go through the motions and create “recordings by numbers”, but who listen and tweak relentlessly until it’s all perfect. So when you buy a Celestion IR you’re not just getting the sound of a particular Celestion speaker – you’re getting the sound of a speaker that’s been carefully set up and checked for you by a world class sound guy.
Consistency
Consistency of tone is a vital element for any professional musician or producer, whether in the recording studio or live on stage – they need to know their gear is going to give them the same sound today as they got yesterday.
Of course using a digital IR version of a Celestion speaker guarantees you consistent tone for that speaker – but our range offers consistency between speakers too.
All of our IRs are recorded in the same way, with the same microphones in the same positions, and these are reflected in the same file structure on every IR. This makes it easy to go from one speaker IR to the other and pick equivalent files. For instance, the “Dark” option on the Greenback 2×12 means the same as the “Dark” option on the Gold 2×12 or the Vintage 30 4×12.
Having a library of Celestion speaker impulse responses which are consistent in this way gives the professional user a “palette” of tones which they can pick from and trust what type of tone it’s going to give them. This cuts down on guesswork and makes it quicker to find the tone that’s needed for a particular project. This in turn makes the overall workflow faster and more efficient – an important advantage for any professional.
Compatibility
Produced in .WAV format, Celestion impulse responses can be used on virtually any modelling amp, DAW or plugin. This allows professionals and non-professionals alike to use the gear they are already familiar with, rather than having to invest in new gear or learn a new interface. Professionals can add Celestion IRs to their existing setup with minimal effort – and if they do decide to switch to a new setup for any reason, their Celestion IRs can be easily ported over to their new kit.
Configurability
Each Celestion cabinet IR includes a fixed number of options – 3 microphones in 6 positions, plus a seventh position for open back cabinets, a room mic in Left, Right and Stereo positions, as well as a number of microphone mixes.
But this fixed number of built-in options does not mean your tonal choices are limited in any way. As well as mixing any IR with any other IR, you can tweak the EQ or add in extra effects such as reverb, limited only by the configuration options on your chosen modeller or DAW, without needing to have physical versions of every cabinet, speaker and microphone.
This level of configurability means an explosion of creative possibilities open to the professional, way beyond what could be achieved with a physical cabinet set up.
Celestion IRs – The Choice of Professionals
Just as Celestion speakers have been the choice of professional guitarists worldwide for decades (just check out our Partners in Tone pages for evidence), so Celestion IRs are now establishing themselves the preferred choice of IR for professionals too.
Explore and buy the full range of Celestion impulse responses here.