I am well down the load box rabbit hole. I liked some aspects of the Ox Box, but I found I could never get a nice clean sound on the Plexi channel of my Friedman Smallbox through the Ox, yet could always get a lovely clean sound in the room, so sent it back.
I tried everything I could think of to get it clean to no avail. I eventually thought that it was the effect of amp in a room, and the SB would be breaking up in the room, but this just became more apparent when using the Ox. It is a horrible fizz to the notes.
I have since acquired the Suhr RLIR which I can get all the lovely clean sounds on.
Since sending the Ox back I have found this thread:
https://uadforum.com/ox-amp-top-box/41510-crackling-noise-problems-ox-3.html#post285749and there are a number of other threads where people were having similar issues not being able to get clean sounds.
I was hoping someone on here might have a Friedman SB and Ox, and could test if they can get a nice clean sound?
Even trying with one of the other Friedman amps would be interesting to see if you get the same results.
There are good and bad points about the Ox, but it did have a very full cab sound, which I liked, and I would like to see if I may have had a faulty unit.
Comments
Be good to hear from people using Friedman Amps, specifically the Smallbox if possible.
My beef with load / line level attenuation is specific to Tetrode power valves, where i get the same fizziness - Power Station, Suhr RL and evening passive DI are all the same.
True attenuators (ie taking a % if the power but not down to like level, don’t have the same issue
I’ve actually used that setup to track all the guitars for an album I’m currently producing. (Also used a JCM 800 and a Kemper for weirder sounds too.)
Had no issues getting a clean sound at all. In fact all of the guitar sounds are great.
Once the album is finished, and released, I’ll post up some links to it because there are quite a few pieces of gear and software used on it that people often enquire about.
It will be interesting to hear @Nerine results though, and if the SB can stay clean through the Ox, I might give it another go. Always good to have options!
- The fan comes on and off on demand totally in sync with your playing. For example, when you hit the low E string hard, then mute it quickly, you hear the fan on full, then stopping. It is really obvious in a studio environment. I suppose it is to be expected given how compact the unit is. The Suhr does this too, but it is much more subtle. No fan on the Ox is great, but huge box.
- Personally I didn’t like the additional features on the X like the double tracking, enhancer etc. I didn’t even like the eq on it. It felt a little gimmicky to me, but others may find it useful.
- The tone knob on the front (can’t remember what it was called) which morphed between scooped and mid heavy sounds was ok, but probably more useful at gigs.
- The small room reverb is excellent. When I managed to dial this in it gave me the same feeling as the Ox.
- The small size is great, but the fan noise is the downside.
Ultimately, I didn’t like or need the extra bells and whistles and prefer the Suhr into an IR player in Logic Pro, then find IR combinations I like, then load into Suhr or Iridium for hardware playback. Also, I have the Suhr Ace box which ‘feels’ really good. Considering all this, the Captor X wasn’t for me. However, if you have no load boxes or IR players already, the Captor X would be an excellent choice.
Ive never had any issues with levels feeding it. In fact, so little so, that I’ve actually given it almost no consideration at all. I set my amp how I want it to sound and the Ox kinda does the rest. Yeah, I gain stage it in the software and then into my mic preamps etc, but I’ve never heard the Ox do anything it’s not supposed to. I.e. distortion or clipping etc.
I also have Suhr RL boxes and love those too. I use the OX when I want to just practice away from a computer.
When I was learning about all this stuff I had some frustrations with distortion and sample rate mismatches. That does tend to give ugly distortion on clean sounds and I messed up that way a couple of times when setting up.
I am able to get a nice clean with the Suhr RLIR by cranking the master, and keeping gain low and making up signal on the SRLIR level control (if required). The amp and Ox is stored away just now while we have house renovations, but I will have to try this with the Ox when I get a chance.
@Epsilon How do you run the SB and Ox to get clean?
Been extremely impressed with the OX tbh.