Search Results for: V Type

Hi Henry (@cheekysoundsystem on Instagram) really great to speak with you today – thank you for taking the time to chat with me. As a founder of Cheeky Sound System, you’ve been building cabinets for quite some time now.

We value you as a customer of Celestion and are interested in the ways that you’ve used the Celestion Axi2050 AxiPeriodic driver in your sound systems. Your innovation in the application of this driver has intrigued us. So, could you tell us a bit more about that!

I’m a founder of Cheeky Sound System collective and we’ve been building speaker boxes and putting on events since about 2013/14. More recently, in the last five or six years, our sound system has grown to be something quite large, and also high spec, due to Celestion drivers.

 

So, why did you pick the Axi2050 driver?

First of all, it doesn’t have a crossover, which we liked – it involved less processing and we really felt that the sensibility of the designers of this driver was to take an audiophile approach. These drivers could be used in a high-end domestic setup, however we’re PA, so we wanted to have a very flexible system that’s very comfortable operating at high SPL.

These drivers can go loud, but they’re also capable of handling all sorts of different music and they can reproduce frequencies as if it was in a listening room environment. We were searching for a way to combine some ideals of high-end, living room or listening room setups and translate them onto a club-focused or dance floor setup.

 

Tell us a bit more about the sound system and the things you’ve done with it.

We developed our current system for a venue we were operating. And we were aiming to be as high quality we could make it. Stylistically, modern but with a reference to the past. With it, we’ve achieved a good amount of success. Sadly, we lost it at the start of covid.

But life keeps going.

We’re based in South London and have been doing lots of collaborations with other promoters to host their events, in addition to our own. It’s been a great journey. We’ve slowly professionalised and progressed to working with higher quality components, and using Celestion drivers was a key part of that.

Basically, working with Celestion drivers when respecifying all of our component parts went hand in hand with working with better amplifiers, for example. When we decided that we wanted to replace our high frequency drivers, we did a lot of research to try and figure out what we wanted, and the Axi2050 driver really fit into what we wanted from our speakers.

 

Okay. So what’s the benefit?

In a lot of dance systems, the way that the drivers are used and the way they’re set up, they really like a very minimal and clean signal. We wanted the flexibility to suit a wider range of music, and this driver was able to do that in a way we hadn’t experienced with others.

Other drivers that are used in club/party environments, they have quite a brutish sound. They’re aggressive, and I think that’s partly because it’s required to be able to reach high volume for long periods of time. Celestion’s Axi2050 drivers, however, can go from very comfortable to very loud and still be gentle, which is a flexibility which many other drivers don’t offer.

The sound is very smooth; they can handle the delicacy of certain types of music very well. They are comfortable in a setup with aggressive drivers, but they don’t sound aggressive themselves. In our previous systems, the high frequency has had to be quite full on in order to match the lower frequency, so they end up losing detail and dynamic range. This has now been resolved with the Axi2050.

We were very intrigued in the technology behind these drivers, and it was an exciting prospect to start using them.

 

Where do you see these drivers being utilised?

I know they’re used in some stadiums, but they’re also used in very expensive home setups. They’re more expensive for a reason, but you get what you pay for in life.

I don’t know if this driver was specifically designed with large format PA in mind. We recognise however, that this driver was out of the ordinary, and we could incorporate the values of it into what we were doing.

 

 

So what genres of music do you tend to work with?

Let’s say we do the full range!

Just over the summer we’ve worked with artists performing dubstep, jungle, reggae, techno and house, as well as some experimental electronic music. We’ve even run some prog metal bands through the sound system. It’s a good range of music that we’ve been quite happy to play with, and I think that was definitely our intention. We knew that we wanted a sound system that could be flexible.

We’re really keen to have flexibility, certainly in the upper ranges. I think in a lot of dance sound systems in particular, the frequencies where the vocal range sits can get lost. We knew that this driver was going to be quite comfortable in that range, so it was a big part of the appeal.

 

What’s your background in the world of pro audio?

So, I got into it by just being an enthusiast. Ten years ago I was a part of a DJ collective, and we were hosting our own events, and you take the inevitable next step; you start to put your own speakers together and it was only in 2018 that we started to think ‘maybe we could stop doing more of our other work and do more of this’.

There were three of us who started to go full time at that point. Although, it’s not the only thing I do. For the last ten years I’ve also been working in the hemp industry, mostly using hemp to produce fabrics and servicing the fashion industry with hemp and organic natural fibres for their garments.

There’s been an interesting collision recently, because I’m now working with another designer to help build a sound system which is using hemp in the construction as much as possible. The material for the cabinets is a formaldehyde-free hemp board and we’ve also got another smaller speaker which is using hempcrete as the body of the cabinet.

Wow!

It’s based off an old Japanese audiophile Hi Fi, which used concrete. So we’ve got some new ambitions to focus on, sustainability in sound system building. I know that Celestion have also produced Hemp speakers, haven’t they? For guitar amps.

Yes! The Hempback has a hemp cone.

It will be really cool if this trend further progresses. One of the key things about speakers is that they mostly are made out of plywood, and there’s been some major issues with plywood. The price has got very high, it fluctuates a lot and sometimes it’s difficult to get hold of. We’ve been thinking about ways to develop a sustainable and regional production of sheet materials of hemp, mostly hemp without any of the nasty chemicals. In order to use hemp as a replacement of plywood.

 

That sounds really cool. So do you build your speaker boxes or cabinets yourself?

On our team we have people who have carpentry skills, and all of our recent boxes were built by one guy just outside of Nottingham.

However, I built all of our original work, so our first full speaker box barely had a straight line!

How did it sound?

Not too bad! I was quite proud of how it sounded, but they didn’t look particularly neat. Not that it mattered at the time, but as we progressed, you want the woodwork to be as good as it can, and so we brought people in to do that.

 

What are your plans for the rest of 2024?

We’re still looking for a new building to make home. And then we’ve got a few festivals in the summer we’re looking to do. We’re also doing a series of gigs near where we live in Deptford.

I’m also focusing on trying to develop more of a hemp speaker company. I think we’d also be using the same Celestion drivers for that, and perhaps other Celestion drivers…

I’m looking to build partnerships with people who may be interested in more sustainability in speaker building. There’s a belief that not only is there an environmental benefit, but you may also have an acoustic benefit too.

Beyond that, there’s opportunities to build cabinets and horns with hemp too, which are moulded in a way that gives interesting flexibility. So, in summary, we’re looking at some more experimental and less common speaker designs.

That same ethos towards experimentation and expanding our horizons is what led us to the Axi2050 driver, a desire to do something a bit different with our sound system.

 

Just to finish off – how have you found the driver overall when running events?

We haven’t looked back. In both indoor and outdoor environments they just sound so nice and really different to what we were working with before.

They keep up with the big thunderous low end, but they can do it in a way which isn’t hurting your ears. And they can maintain their delicacy and detail. We’re looking forward to many more events with it!

—

About the Axi2050 AxiPeriodic Driver

Performing the role of two speakers in one, the Axi2050 is a high power, high-output driver which reproduces a frequency range of 300Hz-20,000Hz without the need for a midband crossover. It delivers an extended frequency range and an exceptionally accurate signal, enhancing clarity and speech intelligibility, as well as reproducing music more dynamically and with greater coherence.

Find out more about the Axi2050 driver – https://celestion.com/product/axi2050/

Ipswich, UK (February 26, 2024) — 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 performances, proudly introduces the Celestion 100 Impulse Response Collection. This downloadable library of impulse responses meticulously captures the tone of the Celestion 100 loudspeaker — recently introduced in 2024 commemoration of the company’s 100^th anniversary — for any digital music production platform. Whether in a DAW for recording or a modelling amplifier for performance, these impulse responses (IRs) place one of the most iconic and historically significant Celestion sounds within arm’s reach of any musician, recordist, or producer. The Celestion 100 IRs are available for audition and download at celestionplus.com.

The Celestion 100 speaker traces its roots to the original G12, a general-purpose 12-inch radio speaker that was later fortified to meet the rapidly evolving demands of electric guitar amplification in the 1950s and ’60s. This iteration became the T530 or “Alnico Blue,” which worked so well that it was installed in the Vox combo amps (a favorite of The Beatles) that powered the “British Invasion” of the early 1960s. Today’s hardware Celestion 100 delivers the tone of those early alnico speakers and its many descendants and variants, but with more durable materials, state-of-the-art manufacturing processes, and precise tolerances — akin to a collectible automobile that has been not merely restored but tastefully modernized.

The Celestion 100 Impulse Responses digitize these sonic characteristics via a meticulous recording process, beginning with studio-quality, go-to guitar cabinet microphones such as the Royer R-121 ribbon, Shure SM57, and Sennheiser MD421. 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.

With the Celestion 100 IRs, musicians can expect a blooming low end and bell-like treble coupled with a sweet, shimmering midrange. When overdriven, the IRs compress gradually and musically, softening the notes’ attack in the exact same fashion as classic Celestion alnico loudspeakers.

The complete Celestion 100 IR Collection includes five cabinet configurations:

• 1 x 12 open-back
• 1 x 12 closed-back
• 2 x 12 open-back,
• 2 x 12 closed-back
• 4 x 12 closed-back

These reflect the most widely used setups for studio recording and onstage use across single, dual, and four-speaker cabinet sizes. Each of these can also be purchased and downloaded as a single impulse response, though the full collection represents a significant cost savings compared to buying IRs individually.

Paired with a DAW and IR loader plug-in, modeling amp hardware, or amp-top load box, the Celestion 100 Impulse Response Collection provides 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.

The Celestion 100 Impulse Responses join an extensive family of acclaimed Celestion IRs, including the Shades of Greenback Collection, G12-50GL Lynchback, Neo Creamback, Copperback, Hempback, Vintage 30, and many more.

The Celestion 100 Impulse Responses are available for downloadable as individual IRs and as a complete collection at  celestionplus.com..

About Celestion Digital

The introduction of authentic Celestion Impulse Responses represented the company’s forward step in making their celebrated speaker tones available as digital downloads. Celestion IRs capture the essential behavior of a speaker in a particular cabinet in the specific space in which it was recorded, including the frequency and phase response of single drivers as well as the interaction of multiple speakers. They offer significant benefits in both recording and live production, enabling the desired tone to be precisely and consistently reproduced regardless of the recording or live sound environment. Explore, audition, and download the extensive collection of Celestion guitar and bass Impulse Responses at celestionplus.com. Celestion’s own SpeakerMix Pro sees the company delivering a truly forward-thinking studio software solution that enables users to get every ounce of tone from Impulse Response technology. The companion Dynamic Speaker Responses (DSRs) for the plug-in exemplify the next generation in speaker response emulation, representing a true advancement in the technology of digital speaker tone.  Celestion Plus.

About Celestion

With worldwide headquarters in Ipswich, England, Celestion design, develop and manufacture high-quality professional audio loudspeakers and compression drivers for sound reinforcement, premium guitar and bass guitar loudspeakers. These world-renowned speakers are used onstage and in clubs, theatres and other venues the world over. 2024 marks Celestion’s 100^th year, please join us in the celebration. celestion.com

Worms, Germany  (November 20,  2023) — Established in 1993 as a guitar amp repair shop in Worms, Germany, Tube Amp Doctor has grown to be a world-leading company providing electron tubes as well as many other parts for both musical instrument and home hi-fi applications. If nobody else has it, chances are they do. As the guitar amp world is close to our hearts at Celestion, we’re privileged to be able to spend time speaking about business and music with TAD founder Andreas Hecke.

A musician, Andreas Hecke tells us that his business was founded out of a personal need for parts and his business grew from there.  “Nobody was able to fix my 1955 Fender Bassman amp properly. So, that caused me to want to learn how to fix amps myself. It turned out that finding the correct parts here in Germany was an issue back in the late 1980s.” he says. “So, I sourced them from U.S. companies and imported them. It quickly turned out that there was a certain demand for proper parts, so I started to make a business out of this. The idea was to finance my studying at the University of Mannheim. And the business grew quickly.”

And his company’s beginnings as a repair shop helped them to later produce quality products.

“We were running a repair shop for many years and collected the experience of the worst-case scenarios, since we mostly received amps that had an issue,” he says. “We offered the experience we collected in years of fixing tube amplifiers to R&D engineers at amp manufacturers and we used it to improve quality at our tube production partners as well as our own TAD tube testing. It’s sort of a perfect circle — which seems unique in our business.”

And he credits the key to his company’s success with listening to his clients’ needs and implementing improvements in production, combined with passion for the products.

“One point is the fact I did understand and connect the different key people in the company. But this is helpful in general in any kind of business. Specific to TAD, it’s the love and passion for the product. We talk to the R&D engineers of guitar amplifiers and learn about their requirements. Then we use this knowledge to trigger improvements at the production sites for the tubes themselves.”

Hecke sites the TAD REDBASE™ tube series as his company’s important innovation.

“Many micro-innovations have been realized to improve tube production processes. Today we have the literally failure-free TAD 6L6GCM, 6L6WGC, 6V6GT, EL34, EL84, KT88 and GZ34 REDBASE™ tubes in ongoing production,” adds Hecke. “And More classic tube types including a 6550A, 12BH7, 12AT7/ECC81 and 12AX7/ECC83 are now very close to being ready for volume production.”

And the accomplishment that he is most proud of?

“Setting up a company and a brand known in our business worldwide,” says Hecke. “And that many of our team have worked with us for a long time — 10, 15, 20, and even 25 years! That shows me we’re doing something right.”

Click here to read the full interview with Andreas Hecke on the Celestion Speakerworld blog

About Celestion

With worldwide headquarters in Ipswich, England, Celestion design, develop and manufacture premium guitar and bass loudspeakers, and high-quality professional audio drivers for sound reinforcement. These world-renowned speakers are used onstage and in clubs, theatres and other venues the world over. Contact Celestion at: info@celestion.com and visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/celestion.

www.celestion.com

 

Ipswich, UK (July 26, 2023) —Celestion, one of the world’s leading suppliers of professional loudspeakers and compression drivers for sound reinforcement applications is proud to introduce the FTR12-4080DL (4-ohm) 12-inch, cast aluminium chassis, ferrite magnet low frequency driver which is specifically designed for subwoofer applications. Well-established as an 8-ohm driver, this purpose-built subwoofer is newly available in 4-ohm, making it ideal for applications that are hungry for every watt of amplifier power when delivering uncompromising bass.

The Celestion FTR12-4080DL features a 4-inch (100 mm) voice coil, providing 1400W of continuous power handling and 88dB sensitivity with an output frequency range of 20-300Hz. The half-roll elastomer surround offers improved modal distribution for reduced distortion and enables greater stability at extremes of excursion (with an Xmax of 13.6mm) for a solid, deep bass response.

The Airflow vented magnet assembly allows for dynamic heat dispersion, minimising power compression and enhancing product longevity. The driver features optimised double suspension for enhanced control and linearity and the glass loaded paper cone features a weather-resistant impregnation for extreme durability.

Developed at Celestion’s headquarters in Ipswich, England, this loudspeaker was designed using specialist FEA (Finite Element Analysis) modelling techniques, enabling the Celestion engineering team rapidly to achieve genuine increases in performance, including greater efficiency, and exceptionally low distortion.

The new FTR12-4080DL cast aluminium loudspeaker emphasizes Celestion’s continuing commitment to delivering a wide range of high-quality solutions for sound reinforcement and professional audio applications.

FTR12-4080DL Specifications

Nominal diameter                 305mm / 12in

Nominal power rating          700W

Continuous power rating    1400W

Rated impedance                4Ω or 8Ω

Sensitivity                              88dB

Frequency range                 20-300Hz

Chassis type                         Cast aluminium

Magnet type                          Ferrite

Magnet weight                      3.6kg / 126oz

Voice coil diameter              100mm / 4in

Voice coil material                Round copper

Former material                    Aluminium

Cone material                       Glass loaded paper (weather-resistant)

Surround material                Elastomer

Suspension                          Double

Gap height (Hg)                   9.5mm / 0.37in

VC winding height (Hvc)     32mm / 1.26in

Xmax                                      13.6mm / 0.54in

About Celestion

With worldwide headquarters in Ipswich, England, Celestion design, develop and manufacture premium guitar and bass loudspeakers, and high-quality professional audio drivers for sound reinforcement. These world-renowned speakers are used onstage and in clubs, theatres, and other venues the world over. Contact Celestion at: info@celestion.com and visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/celestion.

www.celestion.com

 

St. Louis, MO (February 6, 2023) — Asking the question “What type of guitar player is Richard Fortus?” is potentially dangerous, because trying to answer it just might cause one’s word processor to run out of hyphens. Fortus is currently playing the dream gig of standing onstage next to Axl and Slash in Guns N’ Roses, whom he joined in 2001. He has recorded, toured, or done both with marquee artists across literally every style of modern music, including Rihanna, Enrique Iglesias, Thin Lizzy, Fiona Apple, BT, and Crystal Method. He’s been a full-on band member of The Psychedelic Furs and more recently supergroup The Dead Daisies. His film score contributions include Monster and The Fast and the Furious franchise. He joined Celestion for a far-ranging conversation about his genre-defying career, influences, musical values, gear, and how Celestion speakers — especially the Alnico Cream, G12H family, and Gold — have been his musical partner during his entire journey.

Even before his teens, Fortus’ musical tastes were eclectic. “As young as 11 or 12, I was obsessed with players like Robert Fripp, Jeff Beck, Steve Howe, early Santana, and Peter Frampton,” he recalls. “My first band, The Eyes, would play our childlike versions of songs by bands like Return To Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and the Dregs. Then when I turned 14 or 15, I heard The Clash and everything changed after that. It all became less ‘muso’ and more about songwriting and energy. We started covering bands like The Police, U2, The Damned, and The Psychedelic Furs.”

That makes it poetic that he would find himself in the Furs and co-writing songs with lead singer Richard Butler for what would become the project “Love Spit Love.” Though Guns N’ Roses’ needs from a guitarist could not be more different, that could describe any two projects on which Fortus has ever played. “Producers who hire me often say, ‘I just want you to do your thing,’” he explains. “So, I think carefully about what they think ‘my thing’ is, then try to deliver it. But really, it’s simply that I just love all types of music. I think I don’t get typecast because I pull from such a broad palette and genuinely love it all.”

Whatever the genre, Celestion speakers are a cornerstone of the sound Fortus delivers. “In my live rig with Guns N’ Roses I have two amps that the front-of-house engineer mixes,” he says. “One is a little Magnatone Twilighter with an Alnico Cream. The other is a 100-watt Voodoo whose cabinet has two G12H and two Golds arranged diagonally from each other. The G12H gives me more of the tight low end I want to hear. The Gold provides more of the shimmer on top. The Cream just has the most magical midrange right out of the box.”

Such results set Fortus on a path of Celestion-izing many of his prized vintage amps. “I also have a low-powered Fender Tweed Twin,” he notes. “I put a pair of Alnico Creams in it temporarily while I had its stock speakers re-coned. I never put the stock ones back in. Those Creams turned a good amp into a great amp.

“I feel like Celestion is part of my voice,” says Fortus at the end of the interview. “I have a real affinity for British amps, so much that I had 240-volt power installed in my studio so I can run them as they were meant to be run. Beyond the tubes and transformers, the biggest part of that sound is Celestion.”

Read our full-length interview with Richard Fortus on the Celestion blog here, and learn more about Celestion’s guitar loudspeakers here.

About Celestion and Celestion Guitar Speakers

An important element to essential British guitar tone since the birth of Rock & Roll, Celestion Guitar Speakers are famous for their lively and vocal midrange character with plenty of sparkle and chime. With worldwide headquarters in Ipswich, England, Celestion design, develop and manufacture premium guitar and bass loudspeakers, and high-quality professional audio drivers for sound reinforcement. These world-renowned speakers are used onstage and in clubs, theatres, and other venues the world over. Since 2017, Celestion Digital has offered the tones of the company’s legendary guitar and bass speakers as downloadable impulse responses that work with most modern guitar effects processors and amp-top load boxes. Contact Celestion at: info@celestion.com and visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/celestion.

www.celestion.com