Yeah, I assumed the current standard of using a flat, probably class D power amp that imparts as little colouration as possible, otherwise they’re cripplingly overspecialised. It’s what turned me off IRs when they popped up in the mid 2000s. There just wanted any quality control yet and you just didn’t know what you were getting. I figured out convolution and started making my own pretty quickly. I still have some, the speaker setup from my band’s first album and a setup that virtually nails Fear Factory’s Obsolete tone.
I’ve never actually used the captor, I figured anything that lets you grab a line level post power amp with a reactive load would do the trick (doing it with resistive load sounds like there’s a blanket over it!) I also figured every reactive would sound a little different the same way every actual speaker would, Have they made IRs optimised for live sound for people who use some kind of IR loader on their pedalboard?
I’ve heard complaints that even analog speaker sims like what’s on the Power Stage sound more coherent in the FOH than the IRs which seem better suited for studio use and just wash out and get buried. Can’t really say myself, haven’t tried it!
I just listened to that Mode Four clip and I really like it! Is it straight in? Boosted? It reminds me of Prong’s Cleansing tone but even more Prong than Prong! The riff is a little bit like Who’s Fist. Has a bit of Arch Enemy Rise Of the Tyrant sound mixed in too. Can’t argue with that at all. Bad@ss.
