Celestion, the premier designer and manufacturer of guitar and bass loudspeakers, well-known as the “Voice of Rock and Roll” behind many of music’s most memorable guitar performance, is proud to introduce the first in their collection of Artist Series Impulse Responses, the Tony Iommi Impulse Responses. This digital collection of IRs faithfully captures the tones of two iconic cabinets that have been used extensively by Tony Iommi, on record and on stage through different eras of Black Sabbath’s history, for use on any digital music production platform. Whether in a DAW for recording or a modelling amplifier for performance, the Tony Iommi IR series places his iconic tones within reach of any musician, recordist, or producer, and are available for audition and download at celestionplus.com
Widely considered the father of Heavy Metal, Tony Iommi has seared the sound of his legendary Laney amps and cabs into the history of rock ‘n’ roll. From the late ‘60’s grind of a cranked LA100 BL 100W head (boosted with a modified Arbiter Dallas Rangemaster because it just wasn’t heavy enough) through a LA412 HLC cab, to the 90’s smack of a signature model GH 100 TI head through a TI412S cabinet, he has written, recorded and toured some of most iconic music in the history of Classic Metal.
That iconic Iommi guitar tone is a sound that countless guitarists have aimed for, and it’s now possible to get a bit closer by playing through authentic digital versions of two of the Laney cabinets used by Tony.
The new Tony Iommi IR Series includes:
Tony Iommi Laney LA412 HLC:
Closed back 4×12”, Green label Goodmans® speakers. A late 60s cab recorded by Tony from 1969 through the early 1980s – it is THE sound of those early Black Sabbath records.
Tony Iommi Laney TI412S:
Closed back, 4×12 Celestion G12H speakers. This cab was owned by Tony and used extensively in the studio and on tour through the ‘90s – the sound of latter era Black Sabbath.
Both cabinets are available either singly or as a collection.
Celestion employs a meticulous recording process to digitize the sonic characteristics of their acclaimed Impulse Responses, beginning with studio-quality, go-to professional guitar cabinet microphones. Each IR thus offers a variety of mic type and placement options and can be loaded into any IR host within a DAW or into stand-alone amp modeling hardware. The result is an authentic speaker emulation that sounds every bit as outstanding as its hardware counterpart.
Paired with a DAW and IR loader plug-in, modeling amp hardware, or amp-top load box, Celestion Impulse Responses provide authentic tone alongside lively and dynamic response, all without introducing latency. These benefits create a playing experience that is as credibly vintage as any speaker can achieve, but with real-world performance that is predictable and reliable in today’s most demanding recording and performance applications.
Combining Celestion’s unparalleled all-areas access, together with considerable speaker response know-how, Celestion will introduce future Series of Artist IR collections captured using guitar speaker cabinets made famous by legendary and influential artists.
(Top photo - Max Sticca)
