Free Guitar Cabinet IRs
Real cabinets. Real speakers. Real microphones. Free downloads.
Looking for free guitar cabinet IRs that were captured from real guitar cabinets instead of created from generic EQ curves?
Here you can download my growing collection of guitar cabinet impulse responses completely free of charge.
These IRs were created in my studio using real guitar cabinets, real speakers and a Shure SM57 at carefully documented microphone positions.
The collection includes captures of cabinets such as the Marshall 1960A 4×12 with Celestion G12T-75 speakers, a 2×12 cabinet with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers, the Laney Ironheart 2×12, and more.
48 kHz · Mono WAV · ready for hardware and software IR loaders
4 real guitar cabinets · multiple power amps · 4 SM57 positions · 48 kHz WAV · 100% free
What's inside the free IR pack?
The free IR pack contains impulse responses captured from several real guitar cabinets and speakers using a Shure SM57.
Each cabinet was measured at four different microphone positions, giving you several tonal variations ranging from brighter and more direct to warmer and smoother sounds.
Marshall 1960A 4×12" – Celestion G12T-75
The Marshall 1960A was measured extensively.
In addition to the four standard microphone positions, all four Celestion G12T-75 speakers inside the cabinet were measured individually at the Cap position.
This turned out to be particularly interesting: although all four speakers are the same model and are installed in the same cabinet, their impulse responses sound noticeably different.
Several power amps were used for additional captures:
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Laney Ironheart
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Reußenzehn Guitar Slave 100
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Thomann PA power amp as a comparatively neutral reference
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Marshall EL84 20/20
Harley Benton 2×12" – Celestion Vintage 30
A 2×12 cabinet equipped with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers, captured at four SM57 microphone positions.
Several power-amp versions are included, allowing you to compare not only microphone positions but also the influence of the power amplifier interacting with the cabinet.
Laney Ironheart 2×12"
The Laney Ironheart 2×12 cabinet was also captured at four different SM57 positions.
The pack contains versions measured with different power amps, including the neutral PA reference and real guitar tube power amps.
Laney Lionheart 1×12" Combo
The original Laney Lionheart 1×12 speaker and cabinet were measured separately.
Two versions are included:
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the Lionheart driven by its own tube power amp
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the same speaker driven by the neutral Thomann PA power amp
This makes it possible to hear how much of the resulting sound comes from the speaker and cabinet — and how much the tube power amp changes the response.
Different power amps – same cabinet
One unusual part of this IR collection is that some cabinets were measured using different power amplifiers while keeping the speaker, microphone and microphone position unchanged.
Depending on the cabinet, the pack includes measurements made with:
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Laney Ironheart
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Marshall EL84 20/20
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Laney Lionheart tube power amp
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Reußenzehn Guitar Slave 100
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Thomann PA power amp
The Thomann PA amplifier serves as the comparatively neutral reference, while the guitar power amps capture their linear interaction with the loudspeaker.
This means the collection contains both relatively neutral cabinet IRs and IRs that also include the linear tonal influence of a real guitar power amp.
Easy folder structure
The ZIP archive is organised so you can quickly find the sound you want:
Cabinet / Speaker → Power Amp → Microphone Position
For example:
Marshall 1960A → PA → SM57 Cap
or
Harley Benton V30 2x12 → Reussenzehn → SM57 Cone
All IRs are supplied as 48 kHz mono WAV files and are ready to load into compatible hardware or software IR loaders.
How were the IRs created?
The cabinets were measured using a calibrated audio signal chain and logarithmic sweeps.
The basic measurement chain was:
Audio Interface → neutral power amp → guitar cabinet → Shure SM57 → audio interface
Additional measurements were also made using real guitar tube power amps to investigate how the interaction between the power amp and loudspeaker changes the resulting sound.
The resulting impulse responses were exported at 48 kHz, carefully trimmed and faded, and prepared as user-friendly WAV files.
No registration is required to download the pack.
What is a guitar cabinet IR?
A cabinet impulse response reproduces the linear sonic fingerprint of a guitar speaker, cabinet, microphone and microphone position.
Load the WAV file into a compatible IR loader and it can replace the cabinet/microphone part of a traditional recording setup.
A typical setup looks like this:
Guitar → Amp / Preamp → Audio Interface → IR Loader → Headphones / Studio Monitors / PA
This makes cabinet IRs especially useful when recording silently, practising with headphones or using the line output or FX send of a real guitar amplifier.
Want to use your real amp with these IRs?
This is also one of the ideas behind GIT-O-MATIK.
The upcoming Conv-O-Matic module is being developed as a real-time cabinet IR loader inside GIT-O-MATIK.
The idea is simple:
Your real amp → Line Out / FX Send → Audio Interface → Conv-O-Matic → Cabinet IR → Monitor Output
At the same time, the original guitar signal can still be used by the Check-O-Matic timing radar for real-time playing analysis.
Free IR library – more captures are coming
This library will continue to grow.
More cabinets, speakers, microphone positions and power-amp comparisons will be added as new measurements are completed.
So if you like experimenting with guitar tones, check back occasionally for new free guitar cabinet impulse responses.
Marshall, Celestion, Laney, Shure and other product names are trademarks of their respective owners. They are used only to identify the equipment used for the measurements. Neither Guitar-on-demand nor mx-pro is affiliated with or endorsed by these manufacturers.