Two notes Captor X+

As well as updating their excellent reactive load box, Two notes have upped the ante on the software side considerably...

As the name makes clear, Two notes’ new Captor X+ replaces the Captor X in the company’s hardware product range. The original Captor, a rugged, compact, single‑channel reactive load box, attenuator, amplifier DI and two‑slot loudspeaker simulator, was released in 2017 and remains available. To that, the Captor X added DSP, to support a microphone/loudspeaker simulator that could store up to 128 presets. These were created using the company’s free Torpedo Remote app, and the contents were drawn from an onboard library of 32 DynIR virtual cabs, up to 512 cabinet impulse responses (IRs) and a selection of EQ and effects. Three switchable levels of attenuation, switchable stereo/dual‑mono outputs and MIDI‑based preset recall and parameter control completed the picture.

Plus Points

The new model enhances that offering in two significant ways. First, it adds a (post‑load) Virtual Load Shaper, in which virtual loudspeaker impedance curves can be used to reshape the tonality of the amp. Second, it includes a True Stereo DynIR Engine, which makes possible independent positioning and panning within the sound field for the two mics in a DynIR cabinet‑based stereo preset, and for the two impulse responses in a stereo IR preset.

Cooling is by a combination of a built‑in ‘cooling tunnel’ and a fan — but the latter is only engaged when it’s needed, and when perched on top of this THD UniValve during the review period, it didn’t kick in once.The Captor series’ signature metal housing and cosmetics are retained, and the Captor X’s front‑ and rear‑panel control and connector layouts are too. Approximately half its volume and panel area is occupied by a ‘wind tunnel’, used to cool the internal reactive load; apparently this is assisted by a thermally‑controlled fan when necessary, but it’s a low‑noise type and didn’t even fire up once during the review period, so I assume it’s only needed for high‑wattage amps. A white LED in the tunnel indicates power on, and a red one signals clipping of the input and/or output signals, and flashes during USB data transfer.

The front panel hosts four rotary control knobs, a button to toggle between high and low input levels, and a 6.35mm (quarter‑inch) stereo headphone jack. On the rear are the 12V DC power inlet, MIDI ports (both mini‑jack and USB‑C), ground‑lift and three‑position attenuation (0, ‑20 or ‑38 dB) switches, a 6.35mm speaker in (ie. from amp) jack socket and another for speaker out (to loudspeaker), as well as two balanced XLR DI outputs.

There are a few bundled software tools, and I encourage you to read the separate boxes about Genome 2.0, Capture Studio and NAM and AmpNet model support. But here I want to focus on the Torpedo Remote app, which is available for macOS (10.7 to 10.13+) and Windows (7, 10 or 11), and there’s a slightly different version for iOS/Android devices too. Its main purpose is the creation, editing and management of Captor X+ presets, which can be created in two modes: Virtual Cabinet mode employs Two notes DynIR mic/cabinet simulations; and IR Loader mode utilises third‑party IRs. The desktop version, which connects to the Captor X+ over USB, is essential for the upload and management of the onboard DynIR virtual cabinet and user IR libraries. The mobile app connects via Bluetooth.

When creating a preset in Virtual Cabinet mode, the Cab tab in the Torpedo Remote user interface allows you to choose one of the 32 DynIR cabinets in the Captor X+’s onboard library. The Miking section allows you to choose two microphones from a list of eight, and you can independently position these in the virtual studio, set their output levels and, in Stereo mode, pan them. In Dual Mono mode, you can route the mics separately or blended to the L‑R outputs.

In the IR Loader mode, the Miking section allows you to select any two of the IRs you’ve loaded into the Captor X+’s library. As with the virtual mics, you can set their individual output levels, stereo pan positions and Dual Mono routing. The IR length determines how many can be stored: for 20ms IRs it’s 512, while for 200ms ones it’s 44.

Signal Path

The post‑load‑box signal passes to the Virtual Load Shaper, which lets you change the tonal profile of the signal by using one of the five preset virtual impedance curves, or by creating a custom version using the swept‑frequency Presence and parametric Resonance controls. The signal then passes through a noise gate. Here, you can select a soft or hard gating action, and the threshold can be set manually or, courtesy of a learn function, automatically.

The signal then enters a Mic FX section with three EQ options for each mic or IR: Guitar, Bass and Custom. The guitar and bass modes employ a ±20dB five‑band EQ, whose centre‑frequency options can be switched between Guitar (120, 360 or 800 Hz, or 2 or 6 kHz) and Bass (50, 120, 360 or 800 Hz, or 4kHz). In Custom mode, there’s a 12dB/octave sweepable (10‑500 Hz) high‑pass filter and a ±20dB five‑band EQ, with overlapping, semi‑parametric bands spanning 60Hz to 12kHz. The lowest band (60‑240 Hz) is...