I tried a Captor X

[broangiel]

I'm not a Misha fan so you are kind of barking the wrong tree there, you are also missing the point. A "better" load profile is subjective as I already stated. You need to put in context what the product is for and why it is so. If you want something that closely resembles a speaker load box, then go for those that have that feature. It is simple as that.

lol that's why I was asking. I prefer those options and was curious about whether or not the load profile was improved over the Captor. I don't know why my question prompted a lecture.

 

[MrWulf]

And if you look back at what I said, I merely said that it was intentional to facilitate the use of IRs (something which their designer has explicitly said over at one of the gear forums) to start with before you went on about how having impedance curve more closely resembles a speaker means it is "better" because otherwise other brands wouldn't have put efforts in (in some attempt of name dropping to imply that one set of products is better than others due to more "efforts" involving in it). In the actual real world, "better" impedance curve is clearly not better objectively at all. You didn't say that it was the most important but it was important enough that you prefer the ones with "speaker-like" impedance instead so you might as well just said that, to begin with, don't you think?

 

[broangiel]

And if you look back at what I said, I merely said that it was intentional to facilitate the use of IRs (something which their designer has explicitly said over at one of the gear forums) to start with before you went on about how having impedance curve more closely resembles a speaker means it is "better" because otherwise other brands wouldn't have put efforts in (in some attempt of name dropping to imply that one set of products is better than others due to more "efforts" involving in it). In the actual real world, "better" impedance curve is clearly not better objectively at all. You didn't say that it was the most important but it was important enough that you prefer the ones with "speaker-like" impedance instead so you might as well just said that, to begin with, don't you think?

To each their own. It’s not worth arguing. I didn’t mean to offend you by suggesting the Captor was a piss-poor approximation of a speaker load (even a very generic one). And before you bring up the “use with IRs argument,” the other loads I cited are also designed to be used with IRs, so I’m not sure why you think that’s a winning argument.

 

[Guitarjon]

As far as sound goes I'm going to work on the comparison soon. I think I'll do a little high gain clip with one of my Rectos and a mid gain Marshally clip and I'll run them through the LB2 with an OH IR in the Axe Fx III. Then I'll do the Captor X and I'll run the same riffs and amps etc through that but once also with the IR in the Axe Fx and also once but with the same IR loaded into the Captor, just to see what sort of difference the IR loader itself makes. Should be interesting!

 

[AussieTerry]

All these talks of loads, im half expecting a pool boy to show up.

 

[The Thing Upstairs]

As far as sound goes I'm going to work on the comparison soon. I think I'll do a little high gain clip with one of my Rectos and a mid gain Marshally clip and I'll run them through the LB2 with an OH IR in the Axe Fx III. Then I'll do the Captor X and I'll run the same riffs and amps etc through that but once also with the IR in the Axe Fx and also once but with the same IR loaded into the Captor, just to see what sort of difference the IR loader itself makes. Should be interesting!

This is what I'm most interested in. Would it be a paid promotion or just you testing load boxes?

I've been very happy with my Boss TAE, it's very useful for me - the attenuator part os fantastic, recording is great and the power amp functionality is excellent - my AxeFx also sounds amazeballs through it.
Would love to see a video where you compare them all

Started you thinking now ..... could get expensive ...

 

[Guitarjon]

Here's a new comparison between the Fractal X-Load and the Two Notes Captor X:




What do you guys think?

 

[DudeManBrother]

I’d take cap x all day. The dryer, tighter sound will layer guitars quite easily, leave room for added saturation, and the midrange will help it sit in the mix.

Fractal sounds pretty good isolated, but there’s too much low end and boomy low mids. Once I high pass and compress the palm mute region: the scooped mids would be out of balance with the top end, so it’ll probably sound a little harsh and possibly fizzy until I boost the midrange to compensate.

 

[Guitarjon]

Editor's note!!: I already touched on this in the video but perhaps I should have talked about this more in-depth. The impedance curves in the Fractal are very much baked in, so the response on the UK setting will sound as if it's connected to a V30. It sounds great but it is a little limiting. Of course you also have the US voicing but that's not a kind of sound that I'm usually after. Now, the Captor X has a more generalized impedance curve and according to Two Notes this was done on purpose so that the device works well with any amp/IR type you want. You can then finetune the sound of the captor's simulated impedance curve with the enhancer and/or eq effects in the post-fx section. This makes the unit more flexible. It does mean that it takes more effort and perhaps a more trained ear to get those results but it at least means that you can get a wide range of sounds out of it. Just wanted to clarify! Cheers!

 

[broangiel]

Editor's note!!: I already touched on this in the video but perhaps I should have talked about this more in-depth. The impedance curves in the Fractal are very much baked in, so the response on the UK setting will sound as if it's connected to a V30. It sounds great but it is a little limiting. Of course you also have the US voicing but that's not a kind of sound that I'm usually after. Now, the Captor X has a more generalized impedance curve and according to Two Notes this was done on purpose so that the device works well with any amp/IR type you want. You can then finetune the sound of the captor's simulated impedance curve with the enhancer and/or eq effects in the post-fx section. This makes the unit more flexible. It does mean that it takes more effort and perhaps a more trained ear to get those results but it at least means that you can get a wide range of sounds out of it. Just wanted to clarify! Cheers!

How can that be when the impedance curve is based on a Greenback? Is that the "sponsored content" talking?

 

[broangiel]

How can that be when the impedance curve is based on a Greenback? Is that the "sponsored content" talking?

LOL

 

[The Thing Upstairs]

@Guitarjon - thanks for doing the comparison. It helped validate my thinking that I made the right choice buying the Boss Waza TAE with the ability to match impedance curve with amps. As well as being great for recording, its an excellent attenuator and great power amp for my axefx.

In your tests, I preferred the fractal x-xload for the mesa tones and preferred the captor for the Marshall tones. Using the captor to load the IRs on the Marshall, the x-load improved to the point where I liked them both.

Would still love to see you doing a comparison of the Ox, Boss, Ps2 etc. Keep up the great content!

 

[laxu]

Editor's note!!: I already touched on this in the video but perhaps I should have talked about this more in-depth. The impedance curves in the Fractal are very much baked in, so the response on the UK setting will sound as if it's connected to a V30. It sounds great but it is a little limiting. Of course you also have the US voicing but that's not a kind of sound that I'm usually after. Now, the Captor X has a more generalized impedance curve and according to Two Notes this was done on purpose so that the device works well with any amp/IR type you want. You can then finetune the sound of the captor's simulated impedance curve with the enhancer and/or eq effects in the post-fx section. This makes the unit more flexible. It does mean that it takes more effort and perhaps a more trained ear to get those results but it at least means that you can get a wide range of sounds out of it. Just wanted to clarify! Cheers!

IMO it's more of a cop out from Two Notes because fitting in the inductors needed for a properly reactive load into the size of the Captor X most likely was not possible or would have been more expensive to make.

As your great video shows, the Captor X does not by any means sound bad in the comparison but I expect that it does not sound and behave exactly like the amp does into a real guitar cab because the amp will see a different load. I've owned the Fryette PS2 and currently own a Bluetone Loadbox and both had a very marginal effect on the tone if the signal chain is amp -> load -> cab vs amp -> cab. Since the Fryette is switchable between reactive and resistive, it was clear that the resistive settings sounded and felt worse.

Purely for sound I would be extremely happy with the Captor X. I did not feel it sounded worse in your video, just different. A bit of amp EQ changes would probably do it for me. It has a great feature set in its price range. But since we can't gauge how they feel to play from sound alone, that might be the difference.

I sold the Fryette PS2 because it was not useful with my Bogner and it did not feel as good to play as amp -> cab directly. This was easy to test by matching volumes with a decibel meter and toggling the bypass switch. Note that this is not a failing of the Fryette, just that the Bogner does not benefit from powertube distortion and my Bluetone 4x10 cab was perhaps not a good match for whatever impedance curves Fryette adheres to.

 

[SpaceDock]

Can anyone speak to the attenuator capabilities of this? It looks like there is just one setting fixed at -20db and I don’t know how much that is really going to be in a room.

 

[rexbinary]

Can anyone speak to the attenuator capabilities of this? It looks like there is just one setting fixed at -20db and I don’t know how much that is really going to be in a room.

Three settings: Off, -20db, -38db

 

[laxu]

Can anyone speak to the attenuator capabilities of this? It looks like there is just one setting fixed at -20db and I don’t know how much that is really going to be in a room.

Basically -20 dB is getting you to loud-ish home volumes as long as your amp is <50W. I feel it is a bit too loud to use at home if I really crank my 45W Bogner but seems to be quite alright on my 35W Victory.

The -38 dB setting would be very quiet, at least for me probably way too quiet.

I would not buy the Captor X if you need an attenuator. I'd rather run it with cab sims through studio monitors than try to use it with guitar cabs to attenuate an amp.

 

[The Thing Upstairs]

The purpose of an attenuator isn't just to get an amps volume lowered. It is also to tune to the amps power section for a specific feel/sound at a manageable volume. I wouldn't be happy with a fixed cut.

Best way to demo this is with a modeller - increase / decrease an amps master vol while changing level to compensate for increase / drop in volume and you will hear and feel a change in response (on axefx this is super easy to demo)

 

[laxu]

The purpose of an attenuator isn't just to get an amps volume lowered. It is also to tune to the amps power section for a specific feel/sound at a manageable volume. I wouldn't be happy with a fixed cut.

Best way to demo this is with a modeller - increase / decrease an amps master vol while changing level to compensate for increase / drop in volume and you will hear and feel a change in response (on axefx this is super easy to demo)

Majority of attenuators have fixed steps of attenuation due to the way they are built. Some more, some less. Some add an extra L-Pad in there for even more but with continuous control. These setups are fine as long as you have options that work for your use cases.

My Bluetone Loadbox has just -12, -15 and -20 dB attenuation settings. I would like to have -9 and -24 for a bit more versatility but the three settings cover more than enough range to make it work for home volumes, which is what it is built for. The manufacturer can make a version with different settings if the customer wants something with more stage appropriate settings.

I can also just run the line out into a poweramp to have very precise control over the volume.

I do feel the -20 and -38 dB settings are pretty drastic but maybe a function of how it is built and just offered as an additional option. Even with that unit if you can disable the cab sims you can run the line out into a poweramp like I can with the Bluetone.