Wish Suhr Reactive Load Impedance Curve + other loadboxes?

Sean Ashe

Sean Ashe

Power User
After reading in another thread how the Fractal LB2 and Suhr Reactive Load differ, I think that the RL could be a good addition to the impedance curves offered, since many folks have a Reactive Load who may want to match their amps. raises hand. As of now I've done my best to match by using a Marshall 412 style impedance curve that fit the tone the best to my ear, as I've read that's what Suhr's is based on.

Adding curves from other loadboxes or attenuators (TwoNotes, Ox, PowerStation, HotPlate, etc) would likely help out those who have used those units, match to that sound, with more ease.

Having the comparison between various load impedances available, could even help to incentivize some to swap their load boxes or pick up an LB2 if that was the one they felt best represented their sound.

Personally, i have very little issue getting the Fractal units to sound just like my amps, even without a tone match. But, as Yngwie Malmsteen once said.."more is more"!
 
sprint said:
wondering why a modelled IC would need to be set for Power Station since it's amp section is tube based? Should its tube power section not lock on to any cab at the right IC automatically?
Click to expand...
The curve would represent the Power Station's internal reactive load, not the power amp's response to an external load. I've measured the load impedance at the Brite/Warm setting. I didn't save the measurement, but it looked similar in shape to the LB curve. If I were to move the low peak to the appropriate frequency, they'd probably be close enough.
 
You can replicate the curve using the controls in the tab, using the LB2 curve in the box. There are several posted curve graphs out there of most if not all of the load boxes in production to use as a reference. I kinda feel though that there's more to matching those other boxes than a simple impedance curve.
 
Sean Ashe said:
After reading in another thread how the Fractal LB2 and Suhr Reactive Load differ, I think that the RL could be a good addition to the impedance curves offered, since many folks have a Reactive Load who may want to match their amps. raises hand. As of now I've done my best to match by using a Marshall 412 style impedance curve that fit the tone the best to my ear, as I've read that's what Suhr's is based on.

Adding curves from other loadboxes or attenuators (TwoNotes, Ox, PowerStation, HotPlate, etc) would likely help out those who have used those units, match to that sound, with more ease.

Having the comparison between various load impedances available, could even help to incentivize some to swap their load boxes or pick up an LB2 if that was the one they felt best represented their sound.

Personally, i have very little issue getting the Fractal units to sound just like my amps, even without a tone match. But, as Yngwie Malmsteen once said.."more is more"!
Click to expand...
Can someone help me understand how the IC is used (and valuable) when ToneMatching?
If you were using the LB-2, would you set the IC to the LB2 setting JUST for the ToneMatch?
And/or do you then change the IC to match the (4x12) cab you are later going to plug in to?
Or do you keep the LB-2 IC setting no matter what (4x12) cab you later plug in to?
 
BBN said:
Can someone help me understand how the IC is used (and valuable) when ToneMatching?
If you were using the LB-2, would you set the IC to the LB2 setting JUST for the ToneMatch?
And/or do you then change the IC to match the (4x12) cab you are later going to plug in to?
Or do you keep the LB-2 IC setting no matter what (4x12) cab you later plug in to?
Click to expand...

The IC of any cab/load will change how the amp reacts. So, lets say you're using your amp with the LB2 and love the tone, and then want to make an equivalent sound on the Axe: You would match the impedance curve (LB2) and then dial it the amp block as close as you can. After, you would do a tone match (in between the amp and cab) to squish out any eq differences. Realistically there's no rules, this would be more for the specific case of amp matching I think?

In my case, all of my amps are going into suhr reactive loads (2 for stereo, more is more!) and then into IRs in my DAW (which i capture later, to load into the axe). The amps I'm using for recording I would never feel comfortable taking live (old plexi, old iic+) so it would be nice to capture even how my amp is 'seeing' a load, since that's my baseline for dialing in the tones. As I said in my original post, I don't really have too much trouble doing this matching with just the amp block settings and no tone match, but IC+tma would be even closer.
 
Sean Ashe said:
The IC of any cab/load will change how the amp reacts. So, lets say you're using your amp with the LB2 and love the tone, and then want to make an equivalent sound on the Axe: You would match the impedance curve (LB2) and then dial it the amp block as close as you can. After, you would do a tone match (in between the amp and cab) to squish out any eq differences. Realistically there's no rules, this would be more for the specific case of amp matching I think?

In my case, all of my amps are going into suhr reactive loads (2 for stereo, more is more!) and then into IRs in my DAW (which i capture later, to load into the axe). The amps I'm using for recording I would never feel comfortable taking live (old plexi, old iic+) so it would be nice to capture even how my amp is 'seeing' a load, since that's my baseline for dialing in the tones. As I said in my original post, I don't really have too much trouble doing this matching with just the amp block settings and no tone match, but IC+tma would be even closer.
Click to expand...
Thanks Sean - interesting perspective. I never thought of dialing in an amp while connected to a load box.

My usual usage (and why I bought the LB-2) was because I love the sound of my Marshall Rig (JMP-1 and 9200 power amp) through my Mesa 4x12 and I want to ToneMatch my Marshall with the Axe version of the JMP-1. I feel this is necessary (at least for me) because the power amp paired with the JMP-1 in the Axe is not really close to the 9200. (again, at least to my ears).
So I'm dialing something close in the Axe....then running my Marshall rig into the LB-2, and into my Axe, so I can ToneMatch to get them closer.
In my case, since I'm then running my Axe into a SS power amp and into my Mesa 4x12 cab, I believe I should be using an IC that matches my Mesa 4x12.
I know there are not hard rules here, but I believe (if I'm thinking this through properly) that is my best starting point for the proper 'match'.
 
I was playing around with the 4 reactive load box curves today and testing them vs. the various other curves in the amp block. It would be interesting to have a Suhr RL and Fryette PowerStation curve too. Would give you a sense of the differences in real life. Then again, if you go with the LB-2, you can then tone match your real amps to the Axe FX models if you wanted 1:1, almost like a capture/profile.
 
Would love to have the SIC of the Suhr RL in there.

For folks that own the thing and some of the amps in the Fractal ecosystem, it would be of tremendous help in getting models to match their gear that much closer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom