Reactive Load Box 2023 Deathmatch

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easstudios

easstudios

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4 different amps, 4 different cabs, 4 different load boxes. Exaggerated thread title, just use whatever works for you.

Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier + Mesa OS Cab + 4 loads
Friedman BE100 + EVH 412 cab(G12EVH Greenbacks) + 4 loads
Bogner Uberschall + Mesa Boogie Traditional cab (V30's) + 4 loads
Peavey 5150 + Marshall 1960TV + 4 loads.

Same IR used for each amp, I matched the IR to the cab used for each example.

Yes, I could adjust settings for each load box, but the goal here is to see which load box responds most like a range of cabs with different amps.

Hopefully this is helpful.
 
Very thorough job here. What are your personal conclusions?
 
Bram576 said:
Very thorough job here. What are your personal conclusions?
Click to expand...

Cabs rule, if you can use a real cab then tapping a DI and using IR's is ideal. Same is true if you are making NAM/Kemper/ToneX etc models, I think this way has the least compromises and the most versatility for adjusting the tone after.

Suhr seems to consistently sound close to these cabs. On some amps it gets bright a little quick and I dig the React IR there. Suhr has the closest bass peak, but its still a bit light compared to real cabs.

React IR is a touch lighter in the low resonance peak, and a bit softer on top. Feels a bit stiffer to play. By far the best features of these - attenuator, decent sounding IR loader, poweramp model, reverbs, headphones etc. Pretty close to V30 cabs.

Driftwood was super disappointing. Really thought I'd love it based on what a lot of friends told me but I just don't like it at all. Seems nothing like a cabinet response, low end is wild and in the wrong place, tons of low mids, nowhere near enough top. Feels nice to play though.

Fryette is sort of its own case - I think its sensible for them to have a slightly flatter (and adjustable) impedance curve as it pairs with its own poweramp where you can fine tune the last bit. With this stuff its easier to just add a bit more, and itll be responding to the actual cab you have hooked up. Obviously that means it suffers a bit when used as just a load. Plus points are it accepts any impedance, it can be used as just a poweramp, it works GREAT as an attenuator, it can add FX loops to amps that dont have them. Its an all round problem solver that is worth having around IMO.

I think its quite hard to get this stuff exactly right because there are physical properties interacting with the electronic ones, and its hard to model that with just circuits. Beyond that - I think whatever you choose is SOME kind of compromise, so its about picking what works best for you. They each have slightly different feature sets and may pair better/worse with certain amps. Some people like darker tones, some brighter. Rectifiers are so fussy, amps with a lot of NFB are probably fine with anything.
 
easstudios said:
Cabs rule, if you can use a real cab then tapping a DI and using IR's is ideal.
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By this you mean like on the st rock using the out to the cab, then collecting the DI amp tone into your interface and then running an IR there?
easstudios said:
Rectifiers are so fussy, amps with a lot of NFB are probably fine with anything.
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Man, I’ve really noticed this. The rectifier gets real weird in amp sims, and using IRs.
 
Bram576 said:
By this you mean like on the st rock using the out to the cab, then collecting the DI amp tone into your interface and then running an IR there?
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Yeah either that, or if your amp has a slave output, you can run that into a DI box. Or you can use a DI with a pad into an unused speaker output while a cab is connected. All will give the same result, just make sure a cab is connected so the amp sees that as a load.


Bram576 said:
Man, I’ve really noticed this. The rectifier gets real weird in amp sims, and using IRs.
Click to expand...
Yep, aside from a lot of IR’s being captured in weird ways, so many Rectifier models are done with weird loads or if you’re lucky, a reactive load.

The better ones get that power amp behaviour right. For the others….. try using an additional impedance curve before the IR and blend it it in to get the very top and bottom end right. It helps a surprising amount (definitely shows how that interaction is CRITICAL for amp modelling):

 
Great comparison vid, thanks for putting that together. I just got a Driftwood RL myself and I think I prefer it to my Suhr RL currently only because it fills in the void missing in the low mids by the Greenback impedance curve scoop that the Suhr was modeled after. I usually choose bright IRs to begin with, so my end result with the Driftwood will sound chunky and balanced. The Suhr hypes the lows and highs out of the gate, so I might end up choosing a darker, thinner IR to match, or EQ the amp differently. They both feel great to play, with maybe a slight edge to the Driftwood.

You can definitely get great sounds with either. I prefer both to my powerstation when using it as a standalone reactive load.
 
easstudios said:
Yeah either that, or if your amp has a slave output, you can run that into a DI box. Or you can use a DI with a pad into an unused speaker output while a cab is connected. All will give the same result, just make sure a cab is connected so the amp sees that as a load.



Yep, aside from a lot of IR’s being captured in weird ways, so many Rectifier models are done with weird loads or if you’re lucky, a reactive load.

The better ones get that power amp behaviour right. For the others….. try using an additional impedance curve before the IR and blend it it in to get the very top and bottom end right. It helps a surprising amount (definitely shows how that interaction is CRITICAL for amp modelling:)

Click to expand...

Thanks for your wealth of knowledge here!

I do use my st rock a lot and wind up using that for tones. I’m going to give it a go attenuating down into my Mesa cab then capturing the amp DI. See how my results shift!
 
Thanks for posting this. I thought the react ir was most like the real cab with recto and V30 cab and sounded best there. The Suhr sounded best with the be. With the Uber and 5150, it was a little closer, but after listening again I prefer the react IR there too but thought the Suhr sounded great too. The Fryette wasn’t bad, just didn’t sound as good for my tastes. The Driftwood was a massive disappointment. I went in expecting it to be the best and it was by far my least favorite. It rolls of too much high end and sounds the least like the real cabs here.
 
Very cool video, thanks for posting it!

I'm kind of split between preferring the Suhr and the React IR. Like you said, in the highs, the Suhr seemed to get just a touch brighter than the real cab load while the React felt just a bit closer to the real thing, but the low end of the Suhr was a bit more accurate.

I suppose if you wanted to get fussy, it seems like you could just add an EQ after the Suhr to trim back a hair's worth of extra treble response and have something that's practically indistinguishable from the real thing.
 
Driftwood was pure shit. @VESmedic swears by this box. He usually has a good ear with this stuff. I almost pulled the trigger on one but ended up buying other shit first. Glad I didn't.

I'm still curious about the RedSeven Amp Central but I may just have to go with the Suhr. I want to see if its any better than my Fryette Power Load IR.
 
Another reactive load shootout. I think the Driftwood is one of the best sounding here:

 
easstudios said:


4 different amps, 4 different cabs, 4 different load boxes. Exaggerated thread title, just use whatever works for you.

Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier + Mesa OS Cab + 4 loads
Friedman BE100 + EVH 412 cab(G12EVH Greenbacks) + 4 loads
Bogner Uberschall + Mesa Boogie Traditional cab (V30's) + 4 loads
Peavey 5150 + Marshall 1960TV + 4 loads.

Same IR used for each amp, I matched the IR to the cab used for each example.

Yes, I could adjust settings for each load box, but the goal here is to see which load box responds most like a range of cabs with different amps.

Hopefully this is helpful.
Click to expand...

Is this the Fryette PS100?
 
PurityS.L.G said:
Driftwood was pure shit. @VESmedic swears by this box. He usually has a good ear with this stuff. I almost pulled the trigger on one but ended up buying other shit first. Glad I didn't.

I'm still curious about the RedSeven Amp Central but I may just have to go with the Suhr. I want to see if its any better than my Fryette Power Load IR.
Click to expand...
@VESmedic knows his tones, and I get why he likes the Driftwood. It feels nice under the fingers and gets a bigger bottom end than the others. Red7 seems to measure VERY similar to the React IR. I haven't used one, but some friends sent some files to me - Its got a bit less top than the Suhr, but also less of the resonant bass peak.

pipboy90 said:
Another reactive load shootout. I think the Driftwood is one of the best sounding here:

Click to expand...


Yeah - I think any load box can be made to sound good. The point of what I was doing here was to compare them to actual cab loads as a reference point. The problem without using a cab as a reference is its hard not to dial it in to sound good for a specific load box, which in turn will make the others sound off. The goal for me here was to find which load boxes behave most similarly to various cabs, when using various amp designs.

I wanted to love the Driftwood, but it simply doesn't meet that task in any of the examples. The low end peak is too low and wide, the high frequency shelf is almost non-existant. To match a cab curve, you'll need to be doing a good 10dB of corrective EQ in various parts of the frequency range.
 
easstudios said:
PS 2A. I think the reactive load circuits are the same, just different power amps. Im curious if the dedicated reactive loads from Fryette have a different circuit though
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What made you choose warm+brite combo?
 
The React sounds so much better and more like the real cabs than the Suhr to me. The Driftwood sounds much worse than the others.
 
No TAE? Been using that daily for the past 3yrs. Amazing, plus fantastic reverb, comp and delay built in. None of these other boxes have that.
 
tallcoolone said:
No TAE? Been using that daily for the past 3yrs. Amazing, plus fantastic reverb, comp and delay built in. None of these other boxes have that.
Click to expand...
I’ve never used one! Looks a great unit, would love to hear how the load (at various settings) compares to real cab loads
 
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