The G-Force Speaker Filters

About speaker filters

The frequency response of a guitar amp speaker is much more limited than that of the "fullrange" speakers used in home stereos, headphones or PA systems. Especially the high frequencies (above 5 kHz) are absent. This limitation is actually a good thing, since distorted sounds become unpleasant in fullrange speakers. A speaker filter/simulator/emulator is meant to simulate the limited frequency response of a guitar speaker, so that a distorted guitar can be played through fullrange speakers without sounding too bad.

However, a recorded guitar signal is colored by many things:

1. Different guitar speakers may sound different (sometimes even when they are of the same brand and model, which perhaps says something about lack of component quality).
2. The speaker cabinet's construction affects the sound.
3. Different microphone models sound different, and will pick up different sounds depending on their distance and angle relative to the speaker cone as well as the room acoustics.
4. The microphone signal is amplified by a mic preamp, either a separate one or one built into the mixer input. These may also color the sound slightly.

Due to all these influences it's unfair to compare a speaker filter with a real speaker, but usually speaker filters have at least variable low- and hi-cut filters. The low-cut filter might be used to simulate open or closed speaker cabinets while the high-cut filter can be used to simulate different microphone angles.

You might also make your own inexpensive "speaker simulator" using a crossover circuit meant for speaker cabs. In a crossover circuit the audio signal is divided into low, mid and high frequencies for the different speaker elements. If used as a speaker filter you only use the midrange frequencies.

The G-Force Speaker Filters

The G-Force Speaker Filters are located in the Output section. Since they are global they can't be saved into presets, but you can also make your own decent speaker filter from the Hi- and Lo-cut filters in the Delay block (with zero Delay time). The Resonance filter may also work, but the Parametric equalizer does not work well as a speaker filter since it only cuts -12 dB of the signal.