Load Box Wars (vintage tones) - UA, Suhr, Two Notes, Fryette
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- Опубліковано 1 бер 2018
- Going more vintage this time. LOAD BOX WARS with UA, Suhr, Two Notes, Fryette using ONLY their load box functions. Into the computer where it gets a lovely CELESTION PLUS IR treatment.
www.celestionplus.com/product...
1x12 Lynchback IR, as well as my 1x12 Friedman cab with Lynchback speaker for reference.
I used a blend of:
G12 Lynchbk 112 O R-121 Balanced Celestion.wav
G12 Lynchbk 112 O SM57 Thin Celestion.wav (9db quieter than the 121 IR)
50's Fender NoCaster Tele
60's Fender Bassman Head
Klon KTR
Bogner Oxford
Guitar Acappella:
00:55 UA OX
02:10 Suhr Reactive Load
03:09 Fryette Power Station 2 (no EQ switches)
04:07 Fryette Power Station 2 (no EQ switches)
05:06 Two Notes Torpedo Studio
06:05 Real Cab - Friedman 1x12 Celestion Lynchback
Guitar In the track
09:06 UA OX
10:12 Suhr Reactive Load
11:20 Fryette Power Station 2 (no EQ switches)
12:35 Fryette Power Station 2 (no EQ switches)
13:44 Two Notes Torpedo Studio
15:09 Real Cab - Friedman 1x12 Celestion Lynchback
16:49 UA OX internal speaker simulator (trying to get close to the cab sound)
There's full resolution files on band camp for FREE here:
bighairyguitars.bandcamp.com/...
Fryette blows them all away. No contest!!!
Absolutely!
Adding the SOLO-part timestamps :)
1:12 - OX
2:10 - Suhr
3:09 - Fryette (Flat)
4:07 - Fryette (Brite/warm)
6:05 - Real deal
1:57 - OX Solo
2:56 - Suhr Solo
3:54 - Fryette Solo(Flat)
4:52 - Fryette Solo (brite/warm)
6:51 - Real deal Solo
1:43 - Ox
2:41 - Suhr
3:40 - Fryette Flat EQ
4:38 - Fryette B&W
5:38 - 2 Notes
6:37 - SPEAKER
The Fryette sounded most natural to my ears. They each had their moments of sounding really sweet, though. Nice demo. Thanks for doing these.
The Fryette Power Station 2 gives you complete EQ control. It is also a re-amp and can make any lower powered amp up to 50 watts. Your 1 watt Marshall or 5 watt Fender Champ can be made up to 50 watts! It also allows you to use 2 cabinets with your amp and the cabinet can be a different impedance..The Power Station 2 also gives you a great effects loop! I use it with my Marshall 1962HW. Now not only can I crank my Bluesbreaker and keep it at any volume I want but I can put a delay and Reverb after the natural power tube overdrive in an effects loop! I’m in tone heaven! Do any of these others have an effects loop? The Power Station is a clean tube driven power amp. It can be used to power anything like your amp modelers etc.. It is one of the greatest pieces of guitar gear I’ve ever bought.
Shawn Glass for the revamp, do you run a line level into the aux in and mic the cab that way ?
Do I understand correctly, I can use the PS2 from my amp into my HX stomp, use the cab simulations and then out to FOH/desk?
Suhr is the one that sounds most like the speaker to me. Fryette sounded a bit muted, whereas the OX and Torpedo were a little bit brighter than the speaker. The OX probably sounds great with its own speaker emulation, but as a pure reactive load, it sounds like the Suhr is still the king.
Fryette! That is such a versatile device. I power my Kemper with it and it screams!
It really is a gem!
nice work Michael!! you are the load box master!
Maybe I am biased because I already have Suhr Reactive load, but as far as I can hear, I've made the right choice :)
Thank you for comparison!
I am currently in the early stages of using my new OX, so far used an original 5150 and Victory Sheriff 44. For the first time EVER in 30 years of home recording and production, I am happy with my sound and thoroughly enjoying recording what are THE BEST guitar sounds I have had! I think my Kemper powered rig may soon find itself on eBay/Reverb... the only thing holding me back is the amazing sound of the Kemper in a live situation .... recording wise Kemper doesn't quite cut it. :-) cheers mate for such a great UA-cam channel :-)
Do you use the cab sims on your ox?
My initial reaction is that I liked the Suhr and the Fryette with warm and bright engaged. For this particular case, I preferred them over the mic and cab. The mic and cab blended the best, but in this instance I'd want it to stick out ever so slightly in the mix.
Great comparison. Thanks for putting this together.
I liked Fryette best on this one🤘🏻
Hey man just wanted to say thanks for the videos, I’ve been mulling over these boxes since I’m now only a bedroom player and these vids really help!
Now, we need to include the Suhr reactive load IR.
Yes anyone know if the newere Suhr reactive load IR sounds as good if not better than this original Suhr Reactive load?
@@sojerz1044 Hi! The loadbox is the same. The stock IR´s aren´t that good and there are no built in presence, reverb or eq controls.
Thx as always you made it as good as possible.
GREAT WORK AGAIN, MICHAEL!
The Suhr sounded great to me!!
Do they ‘feel’ significantly different under the fingers?
Fryette, no hesitation !
I would like to hear and see a comparison taking the line output of the Suhr Reactive Load using the internal load and using a guitar cabinet as the load.
Real speaker and mic for ever
I always thought the two notes sounded bleached/dry/lacking warmth because of it's digital processing, but this has made me question that. It was easily - and by a wide margin - the worst sounding unit here. It may be due to the 'spikeyness' of the output waveform but even if without that I still think it would sound dry. Suhr and Fryette sounded best to my ears and I did go back and listen again - I don't think I am hearing what I am seeing in the waveforms. p.s. This channel deserves more subscribers.
Good test and great playing. Subscribed.
Nice! After extensive research, I decided to go with the Rivera mini rockrec. For me it was in the right budget and had some cool features to it. It's too bad it wasn't in this video too. Great videos!
I agree. Rivera makes great products. I wish I had though of that too.
Great comparison. I felt like the Fryette sounded the closest to the real thing.
Awesome comparison ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Awesome, Mike!
I liked the OX as a load box with the IR better than with the UA speaker sim on, I have to say the real thing sounded best than all the others.
I totally agree. I decided to keep the OX because it’s my favorite sounding load box. The internal sims are still cool, but I’m very happy with the load + Celestion IR’s.
Thanks for this vid 👍
Hello!I have a question, maybe you could help: Hello! I need to reamp (different amp) my guitar tracks. I live in a flat (so, using an amp on full volume, with a real cab is not an option). I use a Two Notes Torpedo Reload to attenuate and reamp my tracks. Still, I feel like the reamped tracks sound flat, dull, not punchy and different from the real amp connected to a real cab. My question is: Which attenuator/load box/reactive load box has the closest result to a real amp, full volume with a real cabinet? Fryette? RedSeven? UAD Ox Box? Other? Thanks in advance and cheers from Portugal!
Man thanks si much for this Reactive loads videos! So helpful! Have you compared the new Two Notes Captor Reactive load vs the Suhr Reactive? If not can you tell which you think is better or if the Captor is as good as he Suhr!?
I haven't tried the Captor. I would assume that it's voicing is in the ballpark of the Torpedo. The Suhr seems to have a unique voice (as they all do).
Nice comparison. I will say, as a Torpedo Studio owner, per the manual you should just be "tickling" the orange on the meter but looked like you were hitting the input and output almost full bore. Really liked the Fryette and Suhr.
Thanks, I’ll take another look at that.
I did a test today with moderate output, and the input at -24, -12, -6 and clipping. There really wan't much difference. "Cilpping" obviously added a bit of to the sound. Actually, as with most things guitar related, the hotter levels sounded better to me.
To my ears, OX was brightest, Suhr a little chunkier, more mids, and Fryette was the thinckest. Pretty different!!
Real cab sounded the best to me thanks for the video
very good test thank you !
I have finally decided to go this route. Fractal Audio now has the X-Load which is very nice. I'm gathering an assortment of 20-30 watt EL84 mini heads. Out of the heads, into the X-Load, and then into an Atomic Ampli-Firebox (It's an IR Host and running Celestion 4*12 IRs!!), and then into a Yamaha THR10C running in the Flat mode. I'm getting excellent results. The Ampli-Firebox can also send both a line level out to the Yamaha and at the same time send an XLR signal to a mixer or channel strip.
@Michael Nielsen Hi, could you try the new celestion DSRs instead of the IRs? DSR are Dynamic Speaker Responses and they are light years ahead of IR. Thank you
Thoughts on the "feel" of the OX Box in comparison? I have watched a lot of reviews and almost all reflect on the fact that although the volume drops as expected, the OX seems to be one of the only reactive load boxes/attenuators that retains the true feel of a cranked amp. Thanks for the great video!
It actually dosent replicate the feel that well. UA don't make amps and it shows when the ox felt more pedaly vs the fryette, Suhr, boss tae.
Might be too long ago to remember but i was wondering if you ran the Fryette at 8 or 2/4 ohms going into the ir, the suhr sounded closest notably in terms of dynamics compared to the fryette but i'm wondering how much it had to do with running your bassman into an 8ohm load to simulate an 8ohm speaker versus running it into a 4 ohm load into a simulated 8ohm speaker. If it was ever the case... Or maybe the line out on the fryette signal bypasses some of the impedence circuits, its quite confusing actually !
Nice shootout, I understand you do this in the context of producing a song with a particular sound, but I feel it would have been more productive to hear the bassman alone, maybe a bit louder to better judge de sound of the load boxes... I have a couple of two notes, two thd hot plates and the the ox and they all sound different... I would like to try the fryette load IR though...
I'm interested to know what those units did to your Bassman's hum. Was it more pronounced in the DAW compared to the real cab?
Great demo!!! I still prefer the sound of the real cab.. but the OX is really close...
Anyone know if these load boxes make a Friedman amp any greater than they already are? My gut says no way- but here are these load boxes for sale....
Great sounds! One question, did you use a plugin to load the IR on your DAW?
Yes. I used either the Redwirez mixIR2 IR loader, or the TwoNotes Torpedo Wall of Sound. I prefer the 2Notes because it has so many options to adjust your sound. The Redwirez is nice and simple.
great thanks for this
There is a lot more of this metallic string buzz vibration sound in most of them except the fryette (which seems a little dull) and the amp (which sounds like what I want to hear). This matches my own experience with both the two notes and the suhr RL and quite a few modelers as well. I wonder if if the peaks you showed in the waveforms account for that. I'd love to be able to dial that out. Super annoying sound to me. Do you hear this too?
Hey Michael, regarding the ox box you wrote that the IR was added in daw but I don't get how that would be possible with the ox as they don't let external IRs other than UAudi IRs be used to my knowledge . Could you clarify that please ? cheers
Hi, Michael! Thanks for video! How i can use OX with a loadbox only ? I don't want to use Rig or other things in OX , how i can switch off everything without a loadbox ? I have mesa boogie triple head 150w, i cannot find best a loadbox for my amplifier (((
Great great video, in your opinion is the Fryette a better more transparent attenuator than the OX? How do they compare? Thank you
Always been curious of load boxes and wondered if i was missing out on something great but after hearing this and a few other videos, i'm more than happy with my axe fx. This sounds ok but nothing more
Do you have any familiarity with the Rivera Rock Crusher (the original version - not the recording version). It’s a attenuator/loadbox but not a cabinet simulator (Recording version is also a cabinet simulator). I have been using it as an attenuator only. I want to connect it to my DAW. It has balanced and unbalanced line outs. What is the next step, do I simply plug into the DAW and then run it through a cabinet simulator via software? I am asking as I have Bias FX2 (Software), but I was not sure if that constitutes the cabinet simulation I need with this type of connection (or if it does). I cannot seem to find anything on line to explain how to use this non recording version of the Rock Crusher with a DAW. Thanks! Great channel BTW!
Thanks for doing this!
When you show the waveforms and compare the peaks, are the tracks with the different Load Boxes printed with the IR?
Thanks Again!
Hi Dror, thanks for pointing that out. The pic I showed was BEFORE the IR took place. I just did a test now. Once the IR is applied, there's is MUCH more similarity between all of the waveforms from the different load boxes.
I face the same issues with the added gain on my Torpedo Captor. Have you figured out how to navigate around that? I have to compensate with drastically changing my gain stages but I haven't really figured out a repeatable recipe.
Great demo and playing!!! I had the suhr but after I tried the ox the suhr went to ebay. Ox is way better,more natural and super easy. You just need to think about the playing and the music ....
The speaker by a mile. I can literally hear all the digital crackles from that IR.
Hey Michael as I’m watching you play thru the Fender amp into a Lynchback IR via the Suhr Reactive Load, I cant quite make out where you have the Output knob on the Reactive Load set. Is it maxed out or barely on?? Thanks in advance!!
It's set to about 2:30. 3:00 was a little too hot of a signal, so I backed it off just a bit from there.
Thanks Michael!
Thx for the vid! Is the sound in the room coming out of the desktop monitors since there's no sound out of speaker cab?
I'm trying to decide between the Suhr RL:IR, the Two Notes which is the same but with an iPhone app and no direct aux for easy jamming, and the Fryette PS2 which has an amazing attenuator for still playing out.
Correct. I'm hearing the sound from the studio speakers. They're all good. You really can't go wrong with any of those options. There's also a new Fryette Power Load with IR's coming as well. ...to make your life more complicated.
@@BigHairyGuitars Haha noted and ty brother!
Have you tried the Weber? Wonder how it compares. Great demo - thank you!!!!
Alone, Suhr sounded nice (had that rubbery thick tone), Fryette sounded similar but less bright (but nicely balanced), OX sounded ok, Two Notes sounded terrible.... then again, so did the speaker 😁 but in a mix, the OX was awesome and didn’t mud out like the others.
Two Notes almost sounds fuzz like
It did sound fuzzyish.
Yep. Yuck.
Not to say Two notes is bad, because I the happy owner of one. I'ts like any piece of gear, it my not suit every application.
It seems to have a more open top end. That’s where the fuzz feel is coming. I think if you dial in a cab that compensated for that, it’s really nice
Question: I need a good way to replace my tube amps for silent playing with headphones and recording direct to DAW like Pro Tools and Ableton. I am considering the following options to use with studio monitors and my laptop:
Kemper
Fractal Axe FX III
Direct load box plus amp
What would you pick and why?
My friend had the Kemper and Axe Fx. He has been into modelling for over a decade. Sold them after getting an Ox. Now he plays the new Marshall Studio Vintage and a vintage BF Twin. He can crank the Marshall and put it through the Ox and into the computer and out to stereo monitors for low volume practice.
Great vid! I've only just started to notice how my torpedo live drives my Princeton, think this is due to the loads impedance curve yeah? ever since then I've been curious how other load boxes react with amps
Thought the UA sounds best, shame it doesn't do third party IR's, my collection is big and it would be such a waste
I wish you could do internal IR's in the OX. That would be amazing. But it's easy enough to add them in software.
What's with the Buzz in the background ? Lots of clipping in the audio. Maybe turn down the signal gain for the video.
How does the ox get plugged in to everything? It comes from the amp into the ox and back to the amp? Or do you need a set of external speakers that come after the ox? Thanks for the help
You can plug your amp head straight into the Ox. No need for external speaker connections if you don't want them.
Suhr sounded closest to the speaker. Kinda underwhelmed with the OX.
Interesting note on the OX: Looks like he is running out without any internal speaker sim, and adding an IR afterwards in pro tools. OX doesn't contain any IR's, it's speaker modelling is different technology. So far I've seen a few clips where people have ran the OX into IR's and I've been underwhelmed. HOWEVER, where I have seen the OX used with it's own internal proprietary speaker modelling it really impresses me. It seems that as a load box on its own, the OX is good, but no better than it's competitors. But from what I've seen so far, the OX using it's own speaker modelling technology just has the edge over IR's. Of course, this is largely subjective :)
Matt Spicer interesting, I’ll look up those said videos where they don’t put IR, I probably watched only 2 videos about the OX yet.
@@AquinoJosh Michael does actually demonstrate this at the end of this video, 16:22 where he switches from OX w/IR to using OX w/OX's own speaker modeling. You can definitely hear the difference.
Does the note definition/separation in the UA stand out more compared to others? I'm hearing a clarity with the UA in the video compared to the others but I'm not sure if it would sound harsh. I want to get a UA or Suhr but still undecided.
Perhaps there is more clarity. It’s definitly not harsh. Perhaps more hi-fi though. The Suhr is more mid hump and makes guitar sound fat.
@@BigHairyGuitars thanks I heard it has some issues with some amps, update issues and some users not being fans at all. It sounds like the Suhr is more straightforward but colours the tone. Hmm. I'm really just looking for silent recording and practicing and play mainly blues, rock and lighter music. I had the Torpedo but found it was a bit digital sounding. Do you have any recommendations?
So if you had to buy 2 notes Torpedo Captor or a Suhr Reactive IR which one would you go with?
I haven't heard the IR's in the Suhr yet. So I'm not sure I can answer that.
I think the Ox did significantly better here. I actually liked it the most of the load boxes with the Fryette close behind. The real head turner for me across all of your videos in the series so far is the Two Notes for just how much I'm DISliking it. Quite frankly, I think you saved me a fait amount of money with that alone. I love Wall Of Sound, but the load itself plays a big part.
That makes me think of an idea. Could you run a slave/direct out from your head to your pre or interface in order to use something like Wall of Sound, and keep the amp plugged in to an actual cab? Comparing how the speaker as a load fares directly towards the load boxes.
God Zoidberg interesting. I think you’d have to run the line out of the amp into a DI box, but I think that would work. I’ll see if I can get that working
that would be great, you can use a Di Box which can handle speaker signals, or just use the Suhr RL, there is a speaker Thru jack on this unit. What you take care of is the Input impedance of your preamp, it shall be high, use the HiZ input if possible. Also the Line Out Level setting on the Suhr is important, if its low the signal has more body and depth. Take care
The Torpedo sounded surprisingly bad! 😱Edit: actually they all sounded pretty bad compared to the real thing.
The Fryette sounds muffled, the Two Notes sounds harsh. The UA and Suhr are on par with each other.
The Real Cab is still the deal. And if you compare a tube preamp in front of a loadbox going into a IR with a software preamp going into a IR you can't hear any difference ...even in dynamics.
I think I'd rather take some compression (not unlike speaker compression) than the fizz/noise I'm hearing, in particular, from all the others ... don't think I'd use any of these, other than the Fryette ...
Would love it if you could get an Aracom into the mix (I know, 'never satisfied' - these reviews have been great, so thank you/don't mean to sound 'ungrateful'! lol)
It's just that the Aracom has been the gold standard for me, ever since coming across it via SoloDallas, and trying out MANY attenuators/DIs/load boxes ...
Would love for you to do at least an Aracom / Fryette, head-to-head ...
Never seen a Aracom in person before.
Have you seen any SoloDallas YT vids with it? ... You need to get hold of one. You have 2 Kempers, for Buddha's sake ... ! ;)
All sounded to close to call. Fryette needed bright added to sound the same tone as rest.
what camera are you using? I want to start making videos.
Honey Bee!!!!!!!
Using the Flat setting on the Power Station is not valid as that setting the Power Station is a purely resistive load. You should have also used Edge Deep as that is the most active load setting.
Chris Delis that’s true, but I did include the 1/2 reactive mode as well. Which on the day sounded better than the fully reactive Edge Deep.
Yes I've compared the reactive loads of the Power Station, Unleash and THD HotPlate with an actual speaker and they all vary somewhat. I think Suhr even recommends using an EQ when using his box for slaving which some of the Bradshaw guys did back in the day when slaving amps. I'm not sure you would call the flat resistive load as technically compressing it's just not varying the frequency response as real speakers and reactive loads do. This is why techs use a resistive load when taking measurements on an amp as using a reactive load would give inconsistent measurements for things like wattage ratings etc. When using the Power Station as an attenuator even in the flat position the PS 6L6 amp is still connected and reacting as it should to the speaker. At that point your attenuated amp is kind of like a mondo tube preamp complete with output stage distortion. Anyway, you're clips are always great. Do you find you prefer the IR's to mic'ing? I've used a number of different IR's but still prefer using real mic's. I'm trying to make my own with the Two-Notes software and compare but haven't quite figured it out yet.@@BigHairyGuitars
OX had the most clarity overall.
Suhr was the closest by far, but still a little thicker and fizzier. OX/2 Notes was probably a bit more accurate than the fryette, but man it adds such unpleasant high end. I would much rather have the tweaking options of the fryette than deal with the OX/2 Notes. Can't decide between Suhr and the Fryette. Depends on how much you can tweak the fryette I suppose!
Surprised how much I dislike the OX and 2 Notes despite their price
Yeah, that high freq distortion sure sounds like he's overdriving an input preamp circuit or maybe between DAW signal chain. Maybe this guy can't really hear it 'cause his ears are shot.
Is there ANY reason to get the OX over the Suhr if all I want is a load box? I don't think I'll ever use any of the fluff on the OX and it's just so damn expensive. The Suhr, from what I can tell, is purely a load box which is all I really want.
If you want JUST a load box, get a Suhr, Fryette Power Load, or a St Rock React:IR. All very well made great sounding load boxes.
@@BigHairyGuitars Cool man, the Suhr sounds amazing here and I'm a little biased towards Suhr because of their guitars so... will probably opt for that. Thanks :)
@@thiccchungus588 If you're a fan of the Suhr guitars or Amps, you'll love the tone of their load box
@@BigHairyGuitars May be a silly question but are there any considerations or issues with running physical guitar pedals through a load box like this?
David G no, but I don’t think the level will be hot enough
Is the UA speaker emulation better than the Celestion IR or is it a marketing gimmick?
Better? That’s really for you to decide. They are different. One way to describe it is the UA being more “maliable”, or “vibrant” or “lively”.
The Celestion IR’s are a little more “solid”, “gutsy” and “firm”.
When a real speaker is mic’d correctly it sounds like all of those things. But that is hard to achieve unless you’re in a good isolation, studio, listening scenario
Have you tried the boss unit yet? I wonder how it compares.
Haven't tried the Boss yet. I heard from some friends with good ears that it's excellent.
What IR loader were you using?
fryette sounds the best.
Do you thing the fryette would be the best platform for pedals,being so flat,compressed?
I wouldn't call it flat, but it definitely has a more compressed feel (not using 'compression' as a bad word here). It's like that compression that happens when you turn up an amp, and things get a little easier to play. I think the choice comes down to your favorite sound. If a pedal sounds good in your amp, all of the load boxes will handle it fine.
Ox sounded 'best' Suhr & Fryette darker, Torpedo brightest. Suhr matched speaker best...IMLO
Real speaker sounds much better
Sorry, but something is seriously wrong here and it is the guitar for sure, there is an issue with the main source, no sustain for starters...
So none of the levels sound correct it sounds like clipping on all of them. All buzzy and his E string is actually fretting out as well.
I think if I heard this before buying my Torpedo I would’ve held off. I have AXEFX II which I use with Torpedo Live I get way better sound than you are hearing in this video.
I can’t wait to hear the sweet tones you’re getting! Please post!
Glad I’m not the only one who heard the clipping. If you can get past that then it’s a good demo but the clipping on every track was really distracting.
@@aDarph_ I totally agree!
Disliked the UA ox big time to bad,hoped it would perform better as a load box.
oh funny. I actually think that I like the UA OX the best as a load box.
Michael the OX sounds super fizzy especially ... can you dial that back?
That "fizz" isn't coming from the OX... the others have it too. The OX may just be giving a closer representation of the direct signal, which is definitely making the fizzy sound clearer.
the IRs sound like crap
With careful approach IRs can sound nearly indistinguishable from miked cabinet. For example with www.st-rock.com/React-IR/ and it`s built-in tools for IR extraction it is possible.
Man they all sounds bad.....very bad
why do caucasian guitar videos always have to be distorted?? about 95% of european video pertaining always distort the signal. Kinda makes sense mentally I guess to those who like drugs.....instead of living clean.....LOL
ua-cam.com/video/XijVT0wefio/v-deo.html
1:57 - Ox
2:56 - Suhr
3:54 - Fryette Flat EQ
4:52 - Fryette B&W
5:52 - 2 Notes
6:51 - SPEAKER