Suhr Reactive Load (OwnHammer IRs) vs. AKG C 414 XLS Mics

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keennay

keennay

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Hey all,

I'd like to share with you guys info on the Suhr Reactive Load if you haven't already heard about it.

This little device connects to your guitar amplifier from the speaker output to its 8 ohm speaker input and converts the signal to a line level, acting as a load box. What's different about the Suhr Reactive load versus existing products is that the reactive load technology represents your guitar amp signal as accurately as possible without loosing the dynamics commonly found from resistive loads. The resulting signal itself isn't very useful without any sort of speaker cabinet emulation. One excellent speaker cabinet simulator is the Torpedo Wall of Sound III plugin (from Two Notes Audio Engineering) for DAWs such as Logic, Pro Tools, and Reaper. This would allow you to load a variety of Two Notes or 3rd-party impulse response libraries (commonly found as .WAV files) and output what you'd expect to hear from a microphone setup.

The Suhr Reactive load is an excellent device for musicians wanting play at bedroom/headphone volumes, record without the hassle of setting up microphones or isolation cabinets, or completely bypass the speaker cab emulation route & re-amp your amp to a separate power amp for applying time-based effects and/or creating a W/D setup. For those primarily looking to take advantage of speaker cabinet emulation, simply plug your guitar amp to the Suhr Reactive Load, connect either the balanced or unbalanced line output to your audio interface, load up the Torpedo Wall of Sound III plugin to your DAW & impulse response libraries of choice, and you're good to go!

Additionally you can find a video guide by Rockinchippy (GroomedNoodlers.com) here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ-uzSnBoA4


Here's a demo I put together comparing a recording through the Suhr Reactive Load & OwnHammer impulse responses versus the real microphone setup.

The amp used is a 1976 Marshall JMP 2203 (100 Watts). The Torpedo Wall of Sound III plugin was used to load OwnHammer Celestion G12H-30 (55Hz) Blackback impulse responses into Reaper software. That setup included two virtual microphones: a condenser & room mic.

Two AKG C 414 XLS microphones were used for the real setup: 1 close mic to a 1982B Marshall 4x12 cabinet with Celestion G12H-30 (55Hz) Blackbacks from 1979, and another as a room microphone. All tracks were recorded simultaneously to give as accurate of a demo as possible.

Cheers!


Suhr Reactive Load + OwnHammer G12H-30 (55Hz) Blackbacks vs. (Real) Microphone Setup:


Suhr Reactive Load + OwnHammer G12M-25 (55Hz) Blackbacks:
 
I am really interested in checking out a Suhr Reactive Load. In your comparison however I think the Suhr and the Ownhammer are being completely destroyed by your real cab miked up. Don't take that the wrong way. Your real deal stuff sounds great. Your attempt at capturing as good of a sound as that in the quiet way is not there yet.

Thanks for doing this comparison. The amp and cab sound big and fat but the impulses sound thin and scratchy in comparison. Let me know what you think because what you are using is exactly what I was thinking about buying for myself.
 
i think that you should try to capture an IR of you cab whith your mics and re do this comparison. The ownhammer Ir that you pick for this demo sound thin against the real cabinet.

don't get me wrong i'm a huge fan of this type of recording, i even own a souh reaload too, but for a fair comparison between the real deal and the reactive load + IR, you should try to capture the IR of the real cabinet.
 
Yup, real cab/mic wins for me. I found that the only way to get a sound I liked with my cab sims was to not have my amp on load. In other words, I was still running the cab and it still made noise in the house despite blankets, roxul panels etc.. (bass travels). At that point, why bother? I think you could get closer to the mic'd cab with other impulses though but for me, I figured might as well just mic the amp. I would like to see if I could get better results with the Suhr because it does not rape your high end and note definition like a hotplate on load does, but I am not willing to spend 500$+ canadian to see if I like it. The two points above make sense, try to do a capture of your own cab and run them against each other because in this example, the real cab eats the IR for lunch AND dinner.
 
I also think the tone would be much better, if you chose IRs that are more similar to your mic sound, i.e. some darker, fatter ones. I find the sound with the IRs too harsh, it doesn't have to be this way. e.g. rockinchippy gets great tones using the Suhr Reactive Load and Ownhammer IRs (link: https://www.youtube.com/user/defleputube/videos )
 
I too liked the real cab way better, but I want to do this with my fryette power station.

Question for those suggesting making your own IR of a cab. Is that easier to do than a Kemper profile? I ask cause when I make a Kemper profile of my amp it is not quite the same as the real thing...and I guess it is my micing technique or room...(but the real amp sounds cool) ...so will I run into the exact same thing with a cab IR? Or is it more idiot proof?
 
Real cab sound a LOT better. It's not even close. lol
 
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