Two Notes Torpedo Captor 8 Ohms Reviews

Fantastic attenuator

The dynamic load inside does its job very well. Does not color your power amp output. The on-board speaker sim is not amazing, but it can help you out in a pinch. Line out can be fed into your favorite impulse loader.

Unleash Your Tone: The Two Notes Torpedo Captor 8 Ohms

The Two Notes Torpedo Captor 8 Ohms is a must-have for guitarists, whether in the studio or on stage. Its reactive load technology maintains your tube amp's authentic feel, while its transparent attenuation preserves your tone's integrity even at high volumes, unlike other load boxes. Plus, its balanced output ensures studio-quality recordings. It's essential gear for achieving professional sound without compromise.

Nice compromise

Great device for silent practice with tube amp.

Sound is acceptable with IRs. However, any loadbox is not that good as a real speaker.

Solid Workhorse

This device is a marvel of engineering. It works perfectly 100% of the time.

Due to the nature of how attenuation works in the Captor 8, I would not keep it close to your cab if you are micking it as it can be loud. If you are using it to get your amp tone into your DAW for using with IRs or to reamp (recab?) it should be fine.

Decent loadbox

Any home studio with neighbours or flatmates to take care of will invariably need an attenuator and/or loadbox of some kind. The Torpedo Captor serves this purpose well, although it is not as flexible as some alternatives, in the sense that it comes with a fixed Ohm correspondence and you will need to acquire the exact one for your current needs, without the possibility to adjust the Ohms if you change your amp. Also, the cab sim is OK, but it is not the best, and there is only one cab sim included, so you are stuck with it. This I suspect is to invite you to invest in their separate cab sim box.

A nice detail is the inclusion of Wall of Sound software license, if that is something that would help you decide.

Works great as an attenuator.

I'm using this strictly as an attenuator for my Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 50w. I can't comment on any other feature of this Torpedo. I was a little bit skeptical about a fixed attenuation, maybe the volume would be too low or too high (for playing in an apartment). There was nothing else of the same quality in this price range, so I took a chance and got this.

To me, I run my JCM 2000 DSL volume at 5-6 on the OD channel, and similar on the clean channel. That's where the sweet spot is IMO, and the attenuation is just right, the volume is great. It's loud enough so I have fun playing but it's not too loud at all. It's really perfect for MY PERSONAL SET UP. I can't tell if it "alters" the tone in any way, if it does I can't notice it. It sounds great, feels great and does the job great for me.

Does what it promises

Build quality is like a tank.

Attenuation is not giving too much option but it is enough to play on room level with the cab. However, if you want to crank the amp and play on room levels through your cab then it might not enough for you.

But it is not a deal-breaker as it does not require to connect through a cab. You can use WOS plugin for cab simulations and it does the job well.

The only thing is when I compare CAB sims vs the real CAB, I feel there is a slight gain loss (which makes sense as we are missing physical speaker's drive response and resonance there) but it can be tweaked within the amp.

As summary I think this is a great item for it's purpose and does the job well on recordings through a tube-amp at home.

Simple but effective

does the job well. Pretty sure there are more expensive devices that give the last 5% of tone on top but this is perfectly fine...

Does what it says, built well

There's not much to say about bare-bones attenuators / load boxes, really. I use it as a reactive load, and line out into an impulse response loader.

The Torpedo Captor's load doesn't try to emulate a certain speaker type, which is a good choice, imo. It lacks the ability to increase or decrease attenuation, but for this price that's just a nitpick - depending on your amp, it might not be enough attenuation. Especially considering the next step up is something like the Boss TAE, which would let you customize the load and all that, but for 10x cost too...

Ok for live use but not that great for recording

Works great for live use but for recording it has that hi and low cut filter somehow making it pretty midfocused. So with a midfocused amp like mine it becomes too midrangy and stale. But still a good budget option if you cant afford more expensive ones..

Outstanding

Excellent quality. Doesn’t suck out the tone when used to attenuate valve amps. Excellent transparency. Worth every cent.

Great

Does what it's supposed to do. Sounds great.

Captor 8 vs HX Stomp

I used HX Stomp for 10 days and didn't like it. There was a constant noise heard with gainy amps when not playing. And after ten minutes of playing my ears kind of "hurt" and I didn't want to play more. Overall, I just didn't like HX Stomp, didn't like to tweak, didn't like small screen and small knobs. I don't care how many reverbs, delays, etc. it had. I don't care how many amps it covers.

Before returining HX Stomp I did this: I spit the signal using line out output of my tube amp to HX Stomp in which I used IRs and reverbs. And I think it was much better sound. The sound came alive. The thing was that the amp speaker still needed to be connected.

So I decided to buy Captor 8. And I am really happy. I use only line out in Captor so it doesn't have to be connected to the current, so less cables. Good thing is has a volume knob (out level).

The software is very OK and I think it's easier to get good sounds than by using IRs. It has 14 cabs, many mics, EQ, Exciter, Compressor and reverb. I think less is more.

It also has poweramp simulation but I didn't use it because the signal from the tube amp comes after the poweramp and transformer.

Any negatives? Yes.

Would be nice if the device had more levels of attenuation. It only has -20dB which might be ok for you or not. I think there should be -10, - 20, -30 and - 40.

I think it should also have a simple audio interface built-in so USB output just to connect to the computer.

Anyway, I am much happier with my tube amp and Captor 8 than with HX Stomp. I think the sound my tube amp and Captor 8 is better and more lively. I'm just an amateur and this is only my personal opinion.

Absolute life-saver for home recording

I use this for recording demos at home – connecting my amp head to the Torpedo, which is connected to my audio interface.

Slap a blend of impulse responses on there, and you've got a great guitar-track!

The Captor also has a -20dB out for speaker cabinets, meaning you can attenuate your signal.

It also has built-in cabinet simulator for its output, but I recommend you skip that and tweak your own IRs in software on your computer instead (unless you're plugging straight into a PA or some such).

Awesome attenuator

I use it only as an attenuator even without plugging it into a power source. It tames my Marshall Origin 50 with 2x12 cab very well. Now I can crank it at the lowers power setting (5W) and play at bedroom levels. Even at 50 W fully cranked the amp will not kill you anymore. The tone seems to be a little brighter after attenuation, but that's not much of a concern since it can be dialed in accordingly. My amp feels the same to play with the attenuator plugged in, can't notice a difference. Wish the attenuation could be adjustable, but for the price I guess you cannot complain. Great product overall.

best product ever!!!

I love it , gave life to my amps and very nice built...

there only pros in my oppinion

Nice tool for recording or play your Amp in silence mode

Happy with the results

The fact it can be powered by phantom power makes it very convenient for my home recording needs.

I'm very happy with it

I bought this for my home studio.

Thanks to it, I can connect and directly record my Peavey 6505 MH with awesome fidelity and quality.

It also includes a download serial for the Torpedo Wall of Sound software, which is a super nice. high quality, cabinet emulator, which I have found super useful.

I've had the Captor now for around a year, and it has given me zero issues.

I totally recommend it.

Great unit for homestudio!

I purchased this in order to be able to record my tube amp without annoying anyone and with the captor i made it.

The attenuator works great and if your amp is up to 30 watt you can crank it up to the sweet spot while keeping it in room volume. Also for late night recordings the dry signal works great combined with WoS and the 16 free IR's that are coming with the captor.

For everyone who wants to play their tube amp and hear the putential it has to offer i highly recommend it. The rest can stay with annoyed neightbours calling the police to you :P