The Tonespotter™ Impulse Response

When Eminence Speaker made the decision to develop Impulse Response (IR) profiles for their legendary guitar speakers, Michael Britt was an obvious candidate to lead the project.

Before earning a reputation as a developer for exceptional sounding IRs that are compatible with most amp modeling software and profiling modelers such as Kemper, Helix, Fractal, and others, Britt had a distinguished career as a guitar player. His career includes playing guitar for the country group Lonestar for over 26 years. The band formed in 1993 and played bars all over the US and Canada before landing a record deal with BNA Records in 1995. To date, Lonestar has sold 10 million units and has had nine #1 Country songs as well as a #1 on the Hot 100 Pop chart with "Amazed" in 2000.

Speaking about his experience as a professional musician, Britt said, "Over the past 22 years, I've gotten to work with many of the best musicians, writers, and producers in Nashville, and I learned as much as I could. I was so green when we first got our deal that I certainly had a lot to learn. Since then, I've spent years chasing tone and have been fortunate enough to have the luxury of being able to try and buy some of the best guitar gear in my quest to sound better."

For the last several years, Britt has been using the Kemper Profiling Amplifier onstage and in the studio. During this time, he has been extremely pleased with the Kemper's capabilities. "I've spent years chasing tone and have been fortunate enough to have the luxury of being able to try and buy some of the best guitar gear in my quest to sound better. Describing his experience with the Kemper Britt said, "I've been using the Kemper Profiling Amplifier onstage and in the studio since 2014 and have been extremely happy with what I can do with the Kemper."

In his quest for tone perfection, Britt began building his own IR profiles for the Kemper. "I profiled my amp collection as well as any other amp I can get my hands on for a couple of hours and compiled a bunch of my favorite profiles," Britt said.  Using the tried and true system of profiling amps and speakers he developed modeling his amp’s and cabinet’s tones, Britt meticulously created the Eminence IR (Impulse Response) library.

For profiling the Eminence speakers, Britt installed each speaker in a 3rd Power 112 cab switchback cabinet with a partially open back. Describing his cabinet selection, Britt said, "Using the 3rd power cab delivers a relatively flat response, so it doesn't impart as much cabinet sound to the speaker you're using with it. Also, the diagonal ports in the 112 keep standing waves and resonant cab frequencies to a minimum. What you end up with is a very even sounding cabinet with exceptional frequency response, which enables precise capture of the speaker's character."

Each Eminence speaker IR download includes seven different IRs with each of the seven IRs generated using distinctive microphones enabling users to achieve their preferred tone. Included microphone selections for the Eminence Speaker IRs are Shure 57 on-axis, Shure 57 off-axis, Royer R-101 ribbon, 57/Royer combination, Sennheiser 421, Sennheiser 906, and Neumann U 87 large-diaphragm condenser. Additionally, each IR has multiple sample rates of 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, and 96 kHz to allow universal usage.

While describing the process of creating Impulse Responses for Eminence, Britt said, "Profiling speakers is more of an art than an exact science." Once you try the Eminence IRs on stage in your amp profiler, or in the studio with your DAW, you'll agree, Michael Britt is the Rembrandt of speaker impulse responses.

Immediately after purchase the download link for your IR purchase will begin processing and will be available for you to download after processing is complete. You will also receive an email with the link to download your purchase at a later time.

Each purchase will be delivered to the folder you have designated for downloads as a compressed zip file.

To expand the file on a Windows computer:

1. Right-click the .zip folder and select Extract All.
2. Navigate to the location where you want your extracted files to appear and click Extract.

Your extracted files will now appear in the location you chose in step two. Note: Extracting to the desktop makes files easier to find, but it is not advised to store them there permanently.

To expand the file on a Mac computer:

1. Double click the .zip folder.
2. Locate the new contents in the same location as the .zip folder.

Please consult your device or software documentation for installation instructions after your files have downloaded. Each IR has multiple sample rates of 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, and 96 kHz to allow universal usage.

Each Eminence Speaker IR includes seven different IRs generated using seven distinctive microphone techniques enabling users to achieve their preferred tone. Included microphone selections for the Eminence Speaker IRs are:

• Shure 57 on-axis
• Shure 57 off-axis
• Royer R-101 ribbon
• 57/Royer combination
• Sennheiser 421
• Sennheiser 906
• Neumann U 87 large-diaphragm condenser

Metal genre Eminence Speaker Impulse Response sound samples were recorded using:

Guitar: PRS Custom 24, Bridge Pick Up 

DAW: Logic X > Bias FX > Amp: Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier > Opto Comp Compressor > EQ: +1db @ 60hz, +1db @ 120hz, +1db @ 250hz, -1db @ 500hz, -2db @ 1khz, +1db @ 4khz, +1db @ 8khz, +1db @ 16khz

Direct out of the amp in Bias FX into Eminence Speaker Impulse Response loaded in Space Designer.

The original track was duplicated twice to create 3 tracks.

• Track 1: Off-Axis SM57 - Panned 20% left
• Track 2: U87 - Panned 20% Right
• Track 3: Royer- Centred

Rock genre Eminence Speaker Impulse Response sound samples were recorded using:

Guitar: Les Paul ‘57 Goldtop Reissue - Bridge Pickup
DAW: Logic X > Bias FX > Amp: 69 Plexiglass > No Effects

Direct out of the amp in Bias FX into Eminence Speaker Impulse Response loaded in Space Designer.

The original track was duplicated twice to create 3 tracks.

• Track 1: Off-Axis SM57 - Panned 20% left
• Track 2: U87 - Panned 20% Right
• Track 3: Royer- Centered