Captor X vs Suhr rl IR vs Box of Doom

tjnx

Member
Looking to do some recording in an apartment this winter and need to keep the noise down. Any thoughts / preference on which way to go?

I saw Matt Heafy was using the Box of Doom before but I believe now he is using a Captor X.
I think he is using it here and it sounds pretty good.



Also any recommendations on budget monitors? Thinking about these:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...305p-mkii-5-inch-powered-studio-monitors-pair
Thanks
 
Last edited:
mic still sounds better if you are A/B'ing back and forth but if you do your own IR of your own gear it is almost identical but you would notice the difference if you listened back to back. I'd say go with the Suhr and then Torpedo X if you had to rate em.
 
I agree I still prefer mic'ing but it's not it the cards yet. It seems they both sound pretty good. :D

I cannot believe the tones I’m getting out of the torpedo X. I don’t know why anyone would use a mic anymore….
Do you have IR's you prefer?

I've been using CabIR and Valhallir. Thinking of getting the Ownhammer Heavy Hitters and calling it quits.... I find myself having too many options with IRs and not just playing!
 
There are two reasons why so many people praise and buy the Torpedo Captor products: They‘re cheaper than competing products and Two Notes invest in a lot of social media / influencer marketing.

In regards to quality and accuracy the Suhr RL or Fractal LB-2 are in another league, though.
 
I returned a Captor X recently. It has some great bells and whistles, and more than capable of great tones. But I have three other load boxes, and when comparing the load's influence on tone without using any onboard software, the Captor X came in last for me.
 
Apparently the driftwood loadbox is the top dog from a few I’ve heard. Looking at the impedence curves of several load boxes, I see now why I feel my two notes torpedo live is thin below 100hz. Big difference between the two notes and products like the suhr RL for sure.
 
Also yes the trivium guys were originally planning on using the box of doom for the megadeth tour that just started. They even tracked the new album with it originally, however josh was not happy with the tone, thought it was alittle boxy in the mids, no pun intended. They ended up retracking all of the rhythm guitars with my Mesa OS cab with a 57. Leads on the new record are an SLO, with I believe still the box of doom
Though, with a redback 150 speaker. the problem with things like the box of doom is the whole thing is the speaker/cabinet. It’s not nearly as solid as a real cab on the back baffle, which can lead to some non pleasing results.

The IR they are using live and during streaming is an IR from nolly getgood, a 57 on one of his Mesa cabs.
 
Last edited:
I returned a Captor X recently. It has some great bells and whistles, and more than capable of great tones. But I have three other load boxes, and when comparing the load's influence on tone without using any onboard software, the Captor X came in last for me.
Same experience with Two Notes products, not that impressive if you focus purely on the sonics. Big on features and cool looking software though.
 
I just got a Captor X that I bought used for a great deal. It works and sounds great. I've had a Waza TAE and an OX box in the past.
They all work nicely. I like the X because of the dual outputs and form factor. It's smaller and easier to take to gigs. I run one output to FOH and my other out to my ASC-10 sitting in front of me.

When playing live, unfortunately everyone in the audience can hear what loadbox you are using, so there is that. :eek:
 
Last edited:
The Fryette Powerload is an amazing sounding loadbox (same load as the PS50 or PS100). I had the Waza TAE, still have and OX, and a captor X.
As a load it kills both. the analog cabsim is pretty versatille and has a really cool vibe and sounds great with a Cab M+, becacsue it has 2 outs, 1 analog cabsim and 1 without. So if I would buy something it would be a Powerload and a Cab M+. Powerload IR is coming soon, it will have everything in 1 box. Analog ccabsim and IRs.
 
Thanks for the replies. I'm looking more for how well it does a recorded sound rather than attenuated sound as I can't really play loud at all.

From what I heard initially the Suhr has always sounded best, but the mix on the Trivium stream was decent and certainly better than what we sound like live. I don't know for sure if that's what they were using in the hanger but that is what was said in chat.

To get a decent live tone with out much fuss and having a little flexibility in the moment with the app would be a pro for the captor X, but it seems you may have to work a bit more for it.

I'm not the best recorder by any means but in my experience even an sm58 on a cardboard box sounded better than what I could get with IRs, but this could likely be due to lack of experience.
 
I just got a Captor X that I bought used for a great deal. It works and sounds great. I've had a Waza TAE and an OX box in the past.
They all work nicely.

When playing live, unfortunately everyone in the audience knows what loadbox you are using, so there is that. :eek:
what do you mean, cause they can see it? haha
 
Thanks for the replies. I'm looking more for how well it does a recorded sound rather than attenuated sound as I can't really play loud at all.

From what I heard initially the Suhr has always sounded best, but the mix on the Trivium stream was decent and certainly better than what we sound like live. I don't know for sure if that's what they were using in the hanger but that is what was said in chat.

To get a decent live tone with out much fuss and having a little flexibility in the moment with the app would be a pro for the captor X, but it seems you may have to work a bit more for it.

I'm not the best recorder by any means but in my experience even an sm58 on a cardboard box sounded better than what I could get with IRs, but this could likely be due to lack of experience.

Sitting properly in a good mix, no one is going to be able to tell the difference. What I did with my X is add a couple of York Audio IRs that are my favorites and I use those. They really sound fabulous with this unit.
 
I’ve only used the Torpedo and I love it. Y’all have me curious if I can get better tones with the negative comments about its sound. Hmmmmm
 
My ears also tell me that Suhr is better as a load for IR's than the torpedo. I use the CAB m+ and reload as my load. A trick is using the through feature on the CAB m+ BEFORE it hits the load. So to me, I am grabbing the unaltered signal off the amp through the cab m (applying the IR and listening through phones) and then having it hit the load rather than having it hit the load and then taking that signal into IR.

In theory, I "should" be minimizing the coloration of the load on my tone but I am sure some nerds will tell me why I am not. I have a bunch of the torpedo cabs that came with the software and some I bought from ownhammer a few years back but I use my own two the most. One is a 57 on a weber legacy and the other is a cascade fat head mixed with a 57 also on the legacy. Sometimes all the extra shit they add in the IR's makes it sound too polished and not raw enough.
 
Back
Top