Musicians, especially guitarists, have searched for ways to capture big amp tones at low volume, at least for the last few decades.
Fortunately for many of us, solutions are plentiful as hardware amp emulators, faux-amp plug-ins, and—our focus here—load box/speaker emulators are there to help us capture the sounds of our favorite amps minus their usual volume.
With that, let’s take a look at two popular load boxes, the Two Notes Torpedo Captor and Suhr’s Reactive Load/IR.
Two Notes Torpedo Captor
Two Notes is a French company that’s best known for its highly sophisticated Torpedo cabinet simulator unit and speaker simulator plugin software. Their effort here is the compact and affordable Captor – a unit that eschews digital modelling and LCD screens, allowing for a simpler analogue approach for getting your amp’s signal into a mixer or DAW without the need for microphones.
Around the back of the small metal unit is an amp input plus speaker thru and attenuated -20dB outputs. On the unit’s front panel is an XLR out that carries the single onboard cabinet simulation at line level and combines an out-level control along with a three-way switch that optimises the tone for guitar or bass – alternatively, you can switch off the speaker simulation altogether. A balanced non-speaker simulated jack output also allows for raw amp tones and audio pros will appreciate the ground lift and phase switches.
Support is fixed, though the Captor is available in 4-, 8- and 16-ohm versions. The Captor runs off phantom power, although an external centre-negative nine- to 24-volt DC supply can also be used.
In Use
If being used purely as an attenuator, the Captor’s fixed 20dB cut gives a substantial amount of attenuation. While it can take a 100-watt high-gain amp to a sensible gigging level, a 15-watt amp is reduced to home practice levels. Because of the thru output is exactly what it claims, you can plug the Captor’s non-attenuated output into an external attenuator. The Captor’s attenuated tone is a little bright and fizzy anyway, so nothing is sacrificed sonically to enjoy a finer degree of control.
While the Captor restricts you to just one speaker simulation, this may not be an issue, as it sounds great. It sounds fairly bright, with a closed-back cabinet/speaker set-up, tightly controlled bass and a dry, punchy tone that rock players will certainly enjoy. The bass setting gives a warm and smooth tone. If your DAW/interface allows you to add EQ, compression, delay and reverb effects to the monitor/recording signal path, it can give you even more fun.
However, if that’s not to your taste, then you should know that Two Notes provides two workarounds. The first is the Torpedo CAB stompbox that contains 32 cabinet simulations with optional software control. The other option is the free downloadable plug-in called Torpedo Wall Of Sound.
The downloadable Torpedo Wall Of Sound is compatible with Mac or PC and is compatible with any DAW that will run plugins in AU, VST, RTAS and AAX format. The free download comes loaded with two virtual cabinets, eight microphones and eight power-amp simulations, and when entering a unit-specific code that comes with the Captor will give you access to 16 cabinets.
There’re also various rooms where you can alter ‘mic position’, and add effects and EQ to the sound while the Captor unit works as a load box to silence your amp.
Combined with the Torpedo Wall Of Sound, the overall theme is very similar to the UA OX, although the processing is done by your computer rather than the Captor. In standalone form, it may lack versatility, however, the Captor does do a lot of things really well, a few examples being, it’s solidly made and when integrated with a DAW, it opens up a world of quality direct recording possibilities.
Suhr Reactive Load/IR
Since its release, Suhr’s Reactive Load has won fans over for its ability to provide a realistic speaker cabinet–like load to your amp while translating the signal to a line-level DI for studio or live gigging use.
High-quality impulse responses (IRs) have become the norm, as a way to provide cab simulations in everything from digital amp modellers to in-the-box recording solutions to stand-alone cab-sim units, so it was the natural next step to load a pack of WAV files into the hardware that Suhr had already created, and the result was the Reactive Load/IR.
Design
Suhr’s front panel has an IR selector along with an LED read-out window and LED clipping indicator, headphone level control with 1 /8-inch aux input and 1 /8-inch headphones output, DI level control with LED input-signal indicator, and mini-toggle switches for +6 dB signal boost and high cut.
The unit’s back panel has an amp input (at eight ohms, 100 watts max), speaker output (for when you need a “live” cab besides patching the DI/IR signal to an interface or mixer), a USB connection, input for the included nine-volt DC power supply, along with balanced/unbalanced outputs for the IR-unfiltered DI. The unit is mounted in a rugged, metal enclosure that weighs 6.7 pounds and will easily sit on top of most amps.
The unit stores 16 different speaker and cab IRs and comes loaded with classics that have been produced for Suhr by Celestion. If that isn’t enough, it should at least provide plenty of on-the-fly selections to match your gig-venue needs, and the USB connection to your computer that allows you to easily save its factory presets and load in any third-party IRs in WAV format to reconfigure the onboard selections whenever you need it. While some users may miss the inclusion of cab-editing software for post-cabinet EQ and other processing, processing can be achieved at the FOH desk or in your studio DAW.
Performance
Testing it through a Friedman Small Box head) along with a 20-watt Dr Z Carmen Ghia into the Reactive Load/IR, while also tracking several presets via Pro Tools to evaluate the sounds in the mix, gives the impression of an extremely capable unit, when it comes to both feel and sound. Suhr’s Reactive Load/IR delivers a familiar, breathing and tactile response straight away.
The Celestion-produced factory IRs sound great and includes a selection of 4×12, 2×12 and 1×12 cab and mic mixes that can be used to suit many genres and playing styles.
Conclusion
While both units are excellent, the Captor X offers quite a bit more overall compared to the Suhr’s reactive load. With that being said, there is something about the simplicity of the reactive load which many users enjoy.