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Analog/Digital/Hybrid
Digital
Pedal/Rackmount
Rackmount
Price Paid
8000 SEK / $1118
Condition
New
Features

 

For those that don't know what this is - it's a device that takes the speaker output from your amp and adds microphone and loudspeaker emulation to it, allowing you to record silently. 

 

 

  • Analogue, Reactive 100watt RMS loadbox
  • 32-bit DSP featuring: 
  • Speaker emulation via Impulse Responses
  • Microphone emulation via Impulse Responses 
  • Power amp emulation
  • EQ 
  • PC/Mac software editor
  • Additional cab models available for download/purchase 

 

Ease of Use
5 (easy)
Pros

Incredibly easy to use. Plug the speaker cable from your amplifier into the Torpedo Live and then connect the Line Out into your DAW, recording device or PA. Very realistic and impressive sound. This really delivers! Aside from choosing different cabs and mic's (which makes a HUGE difference), the EQ section is incredibly useful. The 5 band eq frequencies are very well chosen, allowing you to re-shape the tone very well. Very low latency. The device has a verifiable latency of only 2.85ms. Excellent build quality - the unit is robust and solid - the whole thing gives a feeling of quality. For those of us wanting a home recording solution that allows us to use our existing valve amp(s), the Two Notes Torpedo Live may well be the answer. I've been using impulse responses for home recording for years now, combining the use of a load box (attenuator) to reduce/negate the amp's signal to the speaker and provide a line signal to my DAW, which is then processed by a plugin, which can load speaker and mic impulse responses. The results are very impressive and unless you are a skilled engineer with a sound-proofed studio, will usually be much better (and above all consistent) than if you tried to mic your cab yourself. Now - to do this and monitor the results in real time without interference from your cranked valve amp, you would need a good load box (such as a Weber Mass, TAD silencer, Palmer, THD Hotplate) and most importantly a VERY good sound interface, a DAW and a good computer. For it to work well, your sound interface and computer need to be able to process the analogue DI from the load box, apply the impulse response for microphone and cabinet and then spit it back out to your monitors - and it needs to do it quickly enough for there to be no discernible latency. Human beings have different abilities to detect latency, but anything upwards of 10ms and you are looking for trouble. You need some quite impressive hardware to achieve that - and the more tracks you have in your DAW project, the more stress you put on your system - meaning less processing power to monitor your guitar in real time. So what the Two Notes Torpedo Live does is to take care of this procedure in one unit. It provides the load box, plus the impulse response processing for different cabs, mic's (and even power amps if you want to record with just a preamp or an overdrive pedal), and eq. And it does it all with 2.85ms of latency, which is very impressive. The downloadable software editor is very easy to use and allows easy modification and adjustments of the setup. In addition to being able to select different cabs and microphones, there is also the ability to adjust microphone position - both the distance away from the cab and the distance from the centre. You can also select a mic position behind the cab if you desire. The array of microphones is a list of the usual suspects - dynamic mic's such as the Sure SM57, Sennheiser MD421, ribbon mic's such as the Royer 121, Beyer 160 (damn nice mic!) and condensers such as the Neumann U87 and Blue Dragonfly. The cabinets available are numerous - 4x12s, 4x10s, 2x12s, 1x12s from the typical sources - Marshall, Fender, Engl, Roland etc. I got VERY impressive results from the Torpedo Live and depending on your circumstances and what gear you already have, I would strongly recommend it - OR strongly recommend one of two alternatives... A) If you DON'T have a top-notch, studio-quality sound interface that can process and monitor very low-latency signals, and you DON'T already have a good load box that can handle your amp's output, then get the Two Notes Torpedo Live. B) If you DON'T have a top-notch, studio-quality sound interface that can process and monitor very low-latency signals, but you DO have a good load box for your amp, then buy the Two Notes Torpedo C.A.B. instead. It does everything the Live does, but doesn't have the load box (and is thus much cheaper). C) If you DO have a top-notch sound interface and computer and you DO have a good load box, then you are in luck - buy the Two Notes Wall of Sound III software plugin, which does everything that the flagship VB101 unit (about twice the price of the Torpedo Live) can do, but does it all in software. IMPORTANT: Something to bear in mind when evaluating gear like this - you have to be familiar with the sound of a mic'd amp. It won't sound like an "amp in the room" - if that's what you're expecting, you'll probably be disappointed. In addition - please use your ears rather than your ego when listening and detach yourself from any voodoo/dogma spewed by fanboys on their manufacturer's forums, as they try to justify and reassure one another about their purchases. As I said - use your ears, not your ego. Load boxes do not all suck tone (despite the protestations of fanboys of other digital gear) - Eddie Van Halen, Steve Stevens, Doug Aldrich and anybody who used a Bob Bradshaw rack in the 80s (pretty much everybody) use load boxes with their rigs. More and more people are turning to using this method for recording - both at home and in professional studios. Even if you use a low wattage amp (even 1 watt), you'll know that if you crank it, it's blisteringly loud. You can get that cranked tone recorded by using the Two Notes. For those that may be interested - I ended up NOT buying the Torpedo Live, as I fall into category C) above, and I was able to get the same results by using the Wall of Sound software plugin, and I'm not doing any live work.

Cons

Only 100 watts load box. Those people using a 100 watt valve amp will doubtless be producing way over 100 watts peak, which may overload the Torpedo Live. Bearing in mind how many 100 watt amps there are, I'm surprised they didn't opt for 150 watts (as they have in their flagship VB101 model). However, unless the "sweet spot" of your amp resides at ultra-high volume, this is not going to be a problem. All-or-nothing attenuation. Unlike most standalone load boxes, you cannot *partially* attenuate the amp. You either get the full volume speaker signal, or you kill the speaker signal altogether. For studio recording, that's no problem, as you will probably want to monitor the pure signal from the Two Notes (and what you hear is what you get!), but for playing live, I can imagine that you might want to partially attenuate your screaming amp, yet still monitor yourself through your speaker, whilst sending the processed signal to the mixing guy, which is not possible - it's all or nothing.

Sound Quality
5 (excellent)
Reliability

Seems very well built.

Customer Support

Very good - I mailed their help desk with a couple of questions and they were very quick to respond and solved my problems.