Celestion Introduces The SpeakerMix Pro Plug-in Featuring Dynamic Speaker Responses
by The Press Desk   20th November 2020

Just saw this too

I don't know if Celestion could have less info about this product on their site. No videos or screenshots... Too pricey! SpeakerMix Pro should be free and they can just charge for these so called "DSR" cabs.

Yeah it's a bit expensive - no demo either. Looks pretty cool though. I have most of their existing speaker IRs. I wonder if these new DSRs are really any different than the originals.

Hopefully they will fill out the available models with more speakers in the coming weeks...including the Lynchback even though it is discontinued.

Too expensive given the alternatives (ML sound lab mikko, the new amplitube 5 IR section, ggd zilla edition, etc...)
and an additional 50$ for other speaker addons...

IMHO the sweet spot would have been 49.99$ to 79.99$...with 99$ already being expensive...for the full plugin and speaker catalogue.

Also really dont like the fader approach after STL libra or FaIRmaggedon were released with cartesian mixers
that make blending mics SO MUCH intuitive.

Also its not like celestion were anywhere near the top of the best sounding IR developers out there...
Imagine being celestion and the warehouses of amazing vintage stuff they must have
and not do pre-rolas, pulsonic cones, uk made v30 or things like that...
I always thought it was a massive wasted opportunity...

I probably don't understand enough about IRs in general, but how big a difference could a non-linear cabinet sim make?

Are they emulating/modeling a speaker instead? Is it just a combination of IRs?

Curious what this really does...

Edit: watched the interview above. So supposedly component level modeling. Seems interesting but quite expensive and no demo?

I would love a trial version. Try the dynamic response they advertised.

Does sound pretty good in that demo video. The speaker response dynamic is appealing... but not at that price I don't think. It's more than any amp sim I've bought.

The price is high for sure, even so I am curious about it though. I love using IR's, but they still lack some mojo. In a setup where one can't always use a Mic I'm always looking to make that part of things better. Again, the price is crazy for what it is.

Curious how this differs from two-notes wall of sound celestion dynamic IRs aside from more room options and the z curve. The price is off putting especially with no trial.

Edit: Looks like two-notes DynIR is static but can change position within the wall of sound plugin in real time.

Anyone know if there's a working promo code for December 2020? The Black Friday one is expired. Figured I'd pull the plug since they give 10 free DR's with the SpeakerMix Pro app if I buy it for $199.

given the amount of competition and typical pricing for plugins in 2020, let alone from a relatively new (the digital part at least) company with no track record for support/updates/stability, and the fact there is no way to demo the product, the pricing for this is utter lunacy.

The only justifiable way to change this would be for it to tie in to a reactive load box that has some kind of apollo style hw/saw impedance matching. Even for $200 you can get so much more for your money from other software, and you can likely demo those.

With no demo, charging for 10 impulse packs is quite a commitment with no guarantee they’ll work stably or sound good for the customer.

I just took the plunge and bought it since they're offering 10 free DR's with the app.

My initial thoughts are "wow, this thing actually nails it!" The key for me was to turn up the z all the way.

OTOH, some real negatives with the install hassles and pricing.


Maybe a real review later after I've eaten my pizza...

Cool, please do let us know how it compares to regular old IRs.

I imagine that when you hit the "Complete Checkout" button, loud horns and bells went off at Celestion, with employees running around screaming with glee, "Somebody bought SpeakerMix Pro! Finally, somebody bought SpeakerMix Pro!!"

LOL...That's pretty much what I thought too after I bought it! I had instant buyer remorse but here are my thoughts so far:

I had issues with it. software was a bit buggy and had a graphics issue where it left a large white border along two sides of the GUI.

at first I didn't think much of it, but I've gotten more involved with it and I will say that they are on to something with these DSRs. they do sound more "alive" and the feel is better when actually playing into them. also, support has been very proactive with me and they actually fixed the graphics issue within a few days and sent me a personalized .dll to install which corrected that issue.

still a little buggy as it crashes Samplitude PRO X4 but they are continuing to work on it. The crash is never sudden and catastrophic. it only occurs when you go to shut down the project, then it crashes to the desktop. but working in it and saving has been solid.

another annoyance that I hope gets corrected is that is needs to "call home" periodically, so you need an internet connection from time to time. it has a checkbox for "remember this machine" but even though I checked it the first time, I've had to login and "re-authorize" a couple times.

maybe it's because I'm going into this from a Suhr Reactive Load which has a built in impedance curve, but I keep the Z control very low. for me, increasing it just hollows out the tone and makes it very fizzy on top.

problems aside, it sounds and feels pretty good, and their support has been quick to respond to my reported issues. hopefully they'll have a more solid release candidate soon. but they really should get a demo going, and re-think pricing for awhile anyway.

also hope they get more DSRs of other models and hopefully some nice vintage and/or out of production units released very soon.

Hah! Yeah, I guess the decision was easier for me since I had a bunch of the Celestion IR's already and they offer a cheap upgrade to the dynamic version. There's a clear difference from the IR's alone, especially with the z-curve thing cranked. Quite possible the closest I've heard to playing through a real cab. Still Not sure it makes financial sense for most when Wall of Sound gives you two quite usable cabs for free , but I guess it all depends.

Will follow up with a less half-@$$ed review later.

Same here, although not crashing it exactly. In Studio One, if you have it open in the session when it starts up, you have to re-select the speaker/cab/mic combo by clicking on the mic again once, at the outset of opening the project. It's related to an annoying design choice in which it keeps a border around the currently-selected item in each tier as if it's already selected, but in reality, nothing is yet selected; it just doesn't quite scream that at you. I've found that similarly, I sometimes had to click on the cabinet and again the mic after switching one or another just to get it to change the selection. When in doubt, if you don't hear a switch, my advice is to just click the cab and then the mic again just to be sure. Quirky as all get-out, like a beta release or something.

I've only had it a few hours but so far y inclined to agree. There's no competition from my go-to THU, even when loading up the Celestion IR's directly in their IR loader cabinet. That's at least in part because of the hassles in getting any kind non-phase-cancelling stereo image with two different ones in TH3. I've found it pretty much requires using a splitter/mixer and two cabs. Beyond that though, there is just a tonal difference even with a mono signal. I sill will obviously use THU for effects and such. It also seems more realistic and responsive than the WOS cabs I've tried, although I don't think I've tried their "dynamic" kind of IR if it's something beyond the normal cabs.

That checkbox has some issues in S1 also.
Must vary by amp & guitar . For me, z-curve cranked has been awesome so far. I'm also using the Suhr. The model without the IR loader or any of the filter buttons on it.


Agreed. They've got an uphill battle against the likes of Overloud, Line6 and Two Notes in the cost/value ratio unless they at least give some bare minimum rack components like Wall of Sound does AND give a free demo version. It might be that they're worried people will copy the IR's without but for Christ's sake: find a way, people.

OTOH, they probably know they're onto something with the sound, and if people are using cab IR's but not a full-blown modeller program, they're probably the picky sort like me that never is satisfied with even a little less than perfect. So maybe there is a latent niche audience or just the occasionally curious guy with a few hundred bucks to burn. Either way, they need to expand their audience big-time and to do that, need to get these little glitches out of the way. Still early on though.

You might double-check there; they've got at least 20 or so out now. Earlier today grabbed the ten that came with it plus the other 10-12 I had already as IR's (those were a $3.50 per speaker upgrade). I have to say, charging separately for the different IR's for the same speaker is lame, even if if they are different size configs (1x12 vs 2 , open vs closed, etc). OTOH, I like how at least now we don't have to keep loading up the "balanced" IR's and comparing to the "light" and "dark" IR's to see which fits better. The slider makes that so much easier. And the LEft-->Right delay is perfect for stereoizing a single cab, as the integrated Room ambience. Perfect, really.

Yeah my take is that 2-notes DynIR is about positioning within the sound stage stage. They created a blue million IR's for each mic/cab combo but so you don't have to root to find the right one while you drag the mic around, it picks it for you automatically.

Celestion's "Dynamic IR" is something else altogether, and IMHO it's obvious once one uses it with a decent variety that it's "next-level" in terms of getting that last little bit of mic-in-front-of-cabinet realism. It's apparently reacting in a truly "dynamic" way, as evidenced by the fact that a single instance with two cabs is using 25% CPU of my i9900k. Guess I'll need to get comfy with the freeze function. Leaving aside CPU being a possible roadblock for some, I suppose there's a lingering question whether enough people are even using real amp heads with load boxes nowadays AND don't want to just mic the damn amp for it to catch on . For me, since my tracking and control rooms are the same room, I like it to avoid having to switch to headphones and so I know what I'm hearing is all what's tracked (vs. what's coming out of the cabinet). Plus tube amps are loud as all get-out when the power amp is driven, and that gets annoying fast.

Two-Tone's WOS comes with two cabs for free and while I don't prefer them to some of the Celestions, YMMV; some may not agree. It's pretty hard to compete with free. Plus unless one puts a Vitalizer or something in front of the Celestions, WOS's exciter is likely to tip the scales the other way for those looking for a more saturated sound. In their defense, the price of the Celestion is offset greatly by the 10 free DIR's the give you.

I also bought Speakermix Pro around a month ago. I immediately don’t like the Z-curve and left it off all the time as it was sounding totally artificial in my opinion. Everything gets to sound scooped in the mids and super bright.

Actually I was trying to like using Speakermix Pro and DSRs until Amplitube 5 was released. After that I actually forgot about it. Might turn useful some day, but Amplitube’s VIR impulses sound and feel better to me and also their interaction with amps in the Amplitube is much better.

I also hate the speaker selection method in Soeakermix where I have to scroll horizontally through 10 speakers and and all the list could be put on a single page without need to scroll. But they instead opted for too big icons. And nothing gets selected until you select speaker + cabinet + mic.

Thanks for posting this little review. I've always been a big fan (and purchaser) of Celestion IRs, and was aghast at the price of this, but it's still kept my interest. The clunky interface you're describing sounds atrocious, particularly having to select three different things before hearing a change. The multitude of options that come in a celestion IR pack are hard enough to organize efficiently, and the SpeakerMix implementation seems to be a step backward.

Maybe it's just me, but I've always found the base Celestion IRs to be the best starting point for dialing in a balanced sound in just about any application that lets me load an IR. I keep coming back to them time and time again (I have several collections from Two Notes, OwnHammer, Lancaster, GGD and the Neural DSP includes). This peaks my interest, but $200 even with "10 free" DSRs is steep when everyone is fawning over the VIR tech in Amplitube 5. The fact that I can demo neither product currently is making me suuuuper sad

I already made a mistake of buying a product without a demo, even though it had great reviews. Not gonna make the same mistake again.
Really weird that they don't want people to try it out, especially if it's some proprietary modeling that cannot just be captured by an ordinary IR and so is not at risk of being copied.

IMO Amplitube, has always been amongst the least convincing amp modelers, same goes for Line6.. But Amplitube 5, is different?

I am running Speakermix with real amps. Usually Marshall Studio Vintage 20 > Suhr RL > RME Babyface. As for the myriad of options when using the Celestion file system IR method, SM is easier tonally. You have a slider for mic placement that allows to to sweep the cone sweet spots quickly and get those "balanced", "fat", "dark" etc tones much quicker than reloading another IR.

I think it is a good direction for Celestion, they just need to perfect the software and build the library fast. I want to be able to access something like the Heritage G12M greenback or the Alnico Cream soon and not 5 years from now. And hopefully some tasty vintage models as well.

If you check out the Amplitube 5 thread (I know its kind of a bear at this point), there's a lot of people saying that it's the top of the heap now. Taking everything with a grain of salt, the biggest contributing factor seems to be their VIR technology, but the only way to really get access to this is to pay at least $99 for Amplitube 5 SE and there is no way to demo it.

You can check out some of the upgrades if you owned Amplitube 4 and/or stuff from the Custom Shop - everything was apparently upgraded or re-modeled in some way for Amplitube 5 and that will carry over even to Amplitube 5 "Custom Shop" (the "free" version of Amplitube 5) but there seems to be confusion surrounding what is and isn't present as far as sound engine upgrades there as well.

Those of you not digging the Z-curve, try moving the mic near the edge of the speaker, in dark->dark2 territory , and switching to the Royer. With a speaker like, I dunnoh, Vintage 30 maybe. IMHO with the Z-curve cranked is where it pulls ahead of the Two Notes a bit. Though since the latter bundles so much stuff like an exciter, compressor and preamp, one either has to pull up the equivalent for Celestion or not use it.

Difficult to do an exact A/B test but those are my subjective impressions so far. Anyways, worth a try with the Z curve

Yes, believe it or not. I would put Amplitude 5 at the top of the list in the bang-for-buck dept among modellers. Then again, if you have a half dozen tube amps; several hardware modellers; a dozen overdrive pedals; preamps from Mesa, Victory; and a Suhr reactive load box as I do, then speaker sims are probably the only thing you need in the first place. So my view is that for people like me in that boat, might as well get the best one out there. In that respect, I must respectfully disagree with the other user's pecking order.

If any one would like to hear a sound comparison with the Studio One Project raw file and so on attached, I can oblige. Or I can just post a few demos of the Celestion vs Two Notes vs Amplitube vs TH-U speakers along with the raw files in a bit. It's impossible to do an exact comparison, but with the way my guitar and overdrive pedals are dialed in at the moment, along with the rest of the strip, it's easy to hear the difference just among the speakers.

I will say none of them sounds bad, but to my ears, there's a verisimilitude and 3-dimensionality with the Celestion the rest just don't have. At the moment,
I'm running the Vintage 30 G12 Celestion DIR

SpeakerMix Pro sounds fantastic to me. Very "realistic".

I used it today, for the first time, with Amplitube 5's Brit 8000 (Marshall 800) -- removing the cab/mics/room -- and used the Celestion Ruby & Blue in a 2x12 closed cab config with a Strat for a track something like Bowie's Rebel Rebel. Best combo for that type of classic rock (70s proto-punk) sound I've heard, by far. Way better than Amplitube alone.

T-RackS Sunset Sound Studio 1 Chamber is becoming my go-to reverb for classic rock electric guitar anyway, so that was the perfect match for this, though I did have to roll off a lot of HF on both (which is fine).

Even with the current discount it's pricey, but considering the exceptional sound and outstanding interface, I'm thinking, so far anyway, it's worth it. It gives me much more of the "feel" I've been missing with sims. I haven't experienced any bugs with it yet in Pro Tools 2020.12 on a Mac running Mojave. Sucks big-time that you can't demo it. I've never used a Kemper or Axe-Fx, but I do have real amps, a Helix Stomp, Helix Native, some of the UAD amp sims, Kuassa, Two Notes, Ownhammer, 3Sigma, 7deadly IRs with Impulsive loader, etc, etc, for comparison, and this one's impressive.

I've been using mixIr by redwires a lot lately. I think it sounds really good but its my 1st venture into IR’s.