A cabinet simulator is made of 2 things:
- An impulse loader, which is a plugin with various options,
- An impulse, which is an audio file. This audio file is the sound print of the gear you wish to emulate. The impulse is what will allow you to simulate the sound of the chosen cabinet, so its quality is essential if you want a good result. In fact, your cabinet simulator is merely an impulse loader. Then you choose what type of cabinet you want to emulate.
How to use it?
That's simple. You pick one of the plugins below, for example LeCab 2, then you place it after your amplifier simulator, and you load an impulse in it.
The cabinet simulators you can download below are provided without any impulses, so you have to find or buy them and load them in your cab simulator. You may download free impulses, below, find some on the Internet (free or not), or make them yourself...
LePou gives us access to no less than 6 impulse slots simultaneously! For each one of them, you can invert the phase if needed, set the delay time, configure a lowpass and a highpass filter, and of course you can set the pan and volume. You can also solo each slot, link the loaded impulses of 2 slots (but other controls remain independant). You can also control the latency. The lower it is, the more CPU-consuming it becomes and vice-versa. Last but not least, the graphic interface is nice and clean!
But why would I use 6 cabs at the same time?
Well, with only one guitar take, you can get six differents sounds, which allows you to get a bigger sound, or to obtain sounds that are impossible to achieve with only one cab, by using various impulses, modifying the panning or the other settings... You don't have to use all six available slots, but if you wish to experiment, you can. I usually use two impulses of the same cab but with different microphones, so it will simulate the sound of a real cab recorded with two microphones. And if I want a bigger sound, I can add more impulses. Very convenient.
One nice improvement over the previous version of the plugin, it now remembers the impulses' folders of origin. So you don't need to scratch your head anymore if you don't remember what impulse was used when the impulse name is not explicit.
Download LeCab 2 from the official site and make a donation if you like it!
I give you the possibility to download it from here nevertheless, but I strongly encourage you to support LePou and visit his website: LeCab 2 (Rev1) (Poulin_LeCab2_Rev1.rar, 849 KB)
NadIR is a free plugin from Ignite Amps. This Italian company makes and sells real guitar amplifiers, and they develop excellent amp simulations (demos on this page). NadIR allows you to load an impulse in either available slots and modify the settings as you see fit. You can pick a mono, double mono or stereo signal, set the processing quality depending on your computer ressources, use high-pass and low-pass filters, set the delay and panning of your impulses.
Downloads
PC VST 32 bits (Ignite Amps NadIR 1.0.2 VST PC x86.zip, 3.41 MB) PC VST 64 bits (Ignite Amps NadIR 1.0.2 VST PC x64.zip, 3.45 MB)
Mac VST (Ignite Amps NadIR 1.0.2 VST Mac Universal Binary.zip, 6.65 MB) Mac AU (Ignite Amps NadIR 1.0.2 AU Mac Universal Binary.zip, 6.73 MB)
This plugin is offered to anyone who buys the complete collection of Redwirez impulses, or you can buy it separately for US$ 49. It is efficient and stable, and it's also very thorough because you can load up to 30 impulses simultaneously and it offers an excellent sound quality. In fact, it's in direct competition with LeCab2, except that LeCab2 is entirely free. MixIR2 will indicate you the name of the impulse that was previously loaded and you will have to go and get it where it is now stored. This plugin isn't free but it's excellent.
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