I recently found out about Celestion's DSR speaker emulations, which are an alternative to IRs. Here is their description of DSRs: https://www.celestionplus.com/dsr-overview/ A short excerpt:

What are Dynamic Speaker Responses?
Taking Impulse Responses to the next level of detail, accuracy and feel, the Dynamic Speaker Response is not simply a speaker’s frequency response but also its “attitude”.

Celestion has developed an in-depth measurement technique that enables us to build complete and intricate physical models of speakers and cabinets describing the dynamic, non-linear behaviour in immaculate detail. This results in precise, all-encompassing models that go beyond the straightforward linear processing of convolution (the technique used to deploy Impulse Responses) to infuse the non-linearities, interactions and dynamics synonymous with the “feel” and “realism” of guitar speakers in the digital domain.

DSRs are, unfortunately, not interchangeable with IRs, and are (unless I have really missed something) not compatible with S-Gear or other IR loaders. You can only run them with the Celestion SpeakerMix plugin.

I downloaded the free demo SpeakerMix plugin, which comes with some sample speaker DSRs. To compare them, I downloaded the Celestion IRs for the G12M-65 Creamback - 1x12 (Closed), which is one of the speakers that come in the SpeakerMix demo. I then started playing with the IR loaded into S-Gear vs S-Gear with speaker emulation off and the SpeakerMix plugin after it to do the speaker emulation.

I don't pretend to be an amp/speaker tone expert, but to me the SpeakerMix DSR emulation sounds noticeably better. They seem to have more depth, more 3D-ishness. I haven't tried using them in a mix, but when I just play through them it feels and sounds way more exciting. One drawback is that they use way more CPU resources than IRs loaded into S-Gear.

So... before I shell out money to buy SpeakerMix (and probably a bunch of DSRs to go with it), can someone please convince me that I'm wrong and these DSRs are just marketing hype that my brain has bought into? Or maybe that they sound better, but in a mix no one will be able to tell the difference? 'Cause I really shouldn't buy this, but I am very tempted.

These have been out for a while, and I don’t think they’re changing the world of IR’s. I might have to try it again (if I can demo it again) but from memory it didn’t do anything ground breaking for me. Despite the graphics, I also found the UI clunky.

Lately I have had more interest in blending in room IR’s, that are now turning up in some plugins and IR packs.

At the time I demoed the SpeakerMix, I also demoed the Softube Celestion Speaker Shaper. I actually preferred the Softube one, but despite buying it, 3 months later I am still using IRs for all new presets I create.

The mix IRs that are in the York Audio packs are much better than anything I come up with, and being able to instantly load them in any plugin with no tweaking required wins out every time for me.

I've been using it for quite some time and prefer it to stock IRs in nearly every case. Dynamic IRs add an extra level of realism that isn't obtainable otherwise, in my experience. I have a few of their DSR speakers. Greenbacks, Creambacks, V30s, and their Pulse bass speaker, which is also very good. It's not a game-changer, most things exhibit only subtle changes at this point. The sim game has gotten rather good.

I've decided to hold off getting SpeakerMix, only because I am trying to stick as much as possible with plugins that are Mac Silicon (M1) native, which SpeakerMix is not yet.

Thanks for the tip on York Audio IRs! They are my new favorites, I think. Adding the rear mic IR gives me a similar kind of "live, 3D" sound as the SoundMix stuff.

todfiste wrote:

I've decided to hold off getting SpeakerMix, only because I am trying to stick as much as possible with plugins that are Mac Silicon (M1) native, which SpeakerMix is not yet.

They've been awful at providing updates so I wouldn't expect Native compatibility any time soon.