Motherload - speaker simulator, loadbox, amp attenuator, motherload, sequis, palmer, thd, hotplate, weber mass, recording guitar, direct box, guitar di

motherload_guitar_amplifier_loadbox_recording_directbox_music

“The Motherload is the best speaker simulator out there by far... ”

“I will tell you my initial impressions... the Motherload exceeds the Palmer in functionality and tone!!”

Need We Say More?

"What's particularly impressive is how it responds to my power amp's volume -- you don't get that sort of character from digital modeling.
This is so close to the real thing. I know all cabinet simulators say that, but now I know the difference. And it's nice to be able to use my valve power amp for recording. Oh, and it's nice not to have to haul guitar cabinets. Overall Rating: 10"
Taken from www.harmony-central.com User Reviews
http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data/Sequis/Motherload-01.html

"This is a dummy load and speaker simulator of the highest order...It allows you to push your amps to whatever extent you need to get the sound you're looking for while keeping the volume down. I think it was designed primarily for stage work, but it is fantastic in the studio...It makes it very easy to get a good sound balance on stage...you will no longer have to choose between tinnitus and a limp sound...I can't begin to add up how many hours it has saved me in the last year. You just plug it in dial up your sound - there are no bad ones - and start recording. You don't have to buggerise around for hours with different cabs and mic's, it's just all there at your fingertips. Sound Quality: 10 Actually it goes way past ten 10 - it takes your sound to places you have only wished for in the past. If you are looking for a sound, any sound, but haven't found it, my suggestion would be to start with one of these. If 10 is the best guitar sound you have heard this is 12... and it is built in a way that would make a military engineer proud. It will outlive you ... in a good rack it may outlive civilization...it is a piece of pro gear that will last a lifetime and evolve with your sound... and you've got to ask how much is that worth? When you consider that to get it's extrodinary sound quality and flexibility this thing does the job of not one high-end mic and cab combination, but many, and then the sound proof room to put them in, you're actually getting a helsinkihelveticanetica of a lot for your dollar..."
Taken from www.harmony-central.com User Reviews
http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data/Sequis/Motherload-01.html

"I'd like to send you a copy of our new album, which has been entirely recorded (guitars as well as bass) with the Motherload... I have never been more satisfied with my recorded guitar sound than I am now - awesome!"

"You guys have suceeded where all others have to date failed! The Motherload actually sounds like a miked cab, rather than a processed guitar sound, excellent work!" Nick Kemp, Clara Studios

"I worked alot w/ the guy in the UK and he was able to help me figure out how to tweak it so that I was able to get around the clipping/distortion problem...My tracks sound really amazing now...thanks for being so diligent in getting me answers when I was confused. The fact that you guys
worked w/ me over a 2 month period to make it right was above and beyond and I'd have to say its the best customer service experience I've had with anyone in years...maybe ever. The Motherload is a killer product that more people should know about. Much better than the new Palmer sims..." Dan Barnhart, Motherload MK I User

"My first impression of the Motherload used as an attenuator connected to a speaker - amazingly good!"

"I now realise that striving for such low volume in my lounge from what is a very loud 30 Watt amp is simply asking too much of the amp. But, amazingly, the Motherload contrives to improve the sound even at low volume... It sounds very, very good...I'm very impressed!"

"The BEST bass D.I. that I have ever used...and I have used them all."

"I use it at every stage of the music making process. I was very surprised to find that it works great on bass and keyboards, and with my POD also. I have also been using it to sweeten up vocals and tighten my drum tracks...a great alternative to traditional EQ. Thanks for building such a great product...I thought it was just for guitars?!?"

"I have to say this box sounds great !! I was suprised that the attenuator goes from full on to full off."

"The Motherload arrived today and is sounding great. I'll use it for house feed on a live gig tonight."

"The nice thing about the Motherload is that you can emulate a number of different speaker types."

"I'll be honest, I was expecting to contact you within a couple days to return the Motherload. I didn't think it would be a significant improvement over my preamp's built-in cabinet simulating direct output. But it was."

"The real litmus test was comparing it to my Line 6 POD. Surprisingly, it beat that too (at least to my ears). Particularly impressing is how it responds to my power amp's volume -- you can't get that character out of a POD. Best of all, I can actually use my valve power amp."

"The Motherload is the best speaker simulator out there by far... "

"I have spent a little time with the Motherload and it is far superior to the PGAs. Now all I have to do is be satisfied with my playing/recording."

“I just tried my Tonebone into my amp's clean channel and it sounds great.”

“I will tell you my initial impressions... the Motherload exceeds the Palmer in functionality and tone!!”

“THE SINGLE BEST PURCHASE I HAVE MADE FOR RECORDED GUITAR TONE…IT CHANGED EVERYTHING!”

"The openess of the Motherload give FX and overdrive pedals enough breathing room to really shine."

“I haven't heard the Motherload myself, but my techs were all very excited by it, saying it had a more realistic low-end thump than the Palmer, just like a real speaker, …everyone seemed really impressed with it.”

"The producer I was working with had spent some time A/B'ing the Motherload against several vintage speaker cabs (Marshall celestian green back was one I remember) and had created his own 'presets' of those cabs by finding a match with the parameters of the Motherload and basically marking each pot...we had a good choice of vintage cab simulations to try on a specific head without having the real thing."

"I also found that the Motherload could produce very 'brilliant' sounds, for example making an electric guitar sound almost acoustic in timbre. this was kinda cool for adding guitar effects to tracks that had the basics done but needed something on top."

"The speaker simulation is very good as well as the attenuator. I just finished recording a death metal band using the Motherload exclusively and the band said that they never had such a good guitar sound before. It's not quite like the real thing but very close. It's very nice when you mix it with a mic'd speaker - run the Motherload thru a Little Labs IBP into one channel of a Chandler TG-2 and the mic'd signal into the other channel and mix to taste."

"I have a Pod Pro, a Sans Amp and the Hughes and Kettner Tubeman, but nothing comes close to the Motherload. You can use your favorite amp with it and unlike a Pod you have the real feel of playing a tube amp."

"The Motherload has a real rawness I like... doesn't sound as processed as the Palmer. The rawness of the Motherload really lends itself to FX. The Palmer's smoothness doesn't bring out the characteristics of my FX and OD pedals. For example, I could tell the difference between my Red Snapper and Red Llama."

"The reason I'm writing is that I've been told there's an improved Motherload mkII in production and since the original unit has already become one of my favorite pieces of gear, I'm really interested in the new version."

"Flexibility of the Motherload allows me to get a wider range of sounds that I can't get with the Palmer. If I want a little fizz on the top to change things up in a mix, then I can do it with the Motherload. If I want a darker, midrangey sound, I can get that with the Motherload as well. I'm not stuck with any one particular sound."

"It's excellent. The POD doesn't even come close to it, and I have both. You have the feel of playing a real amp and it sounds actually pretty nice, too. The sound might be a little grainy {the Motherload MK II has corrected this issue}, depending on the amp you use, but it's totally in your face unlike the POD, which always has a distant and unfocused character in the mix. The Motherload also has the best power attenuator I've ever used - much better than the Marshall Powerbreak or even the THD Hot Plate."

"I bought one of the 2 channel Motherload's in November and it has been the best piece of gear that I have added to my rig in a long time...now I don't have to compromise my guitar sound when recording at home...I have tried the Palmer and Groove Tubes, both very simple to use, but no comparison to the actual tone and versatility that I get from using the Motherload. As a MAJOR bonus, the attenuator is HANDS DOWN, THE BEST attenuator that I have ever used... The thing is built like a tank... worth every penny..."

"Just took delivery of a 2 channel Motherload this morning, I haven't had much chance to play with it but my first impressions are that this thing is going to be a helsinkihelveticanetica of a box ! Plugged my Soldano decatone 100 head into it and twanged away on my PRS for a while and Wow!! sounds just like my rig when cranked..."

"For bass there is nothing better."

"...we also compared the load-section of the Motherload to a Marshall Powerbrake (for those who want to attenuate their amps but still drive a guitar speaker) and in this area the Motherload completely and utterly outperformed the Powerbrake. This is by far the best load I have ever heard and because it is not using the guitar speaker as part of the load the tonal quality of the Motherload's load does not change no matter how much you turn it down. The tones are warm and meaty whereas the Powerbrake very, very quickly becomes very fizzy and 'papery'."

"It's (as I said) not for the faint of heart or people looking for instant gratification, it does however halve the time needed to get a good guitar sound without resorting to EQ at all."

"If you want something that sits there quietly between the amp and DAW/Tape, forget it, the Motherload isn't it. If you want something that works to shape the sound (including all the tweaking you need in all three spaces, namely: amp, motherload, pre) then it doesn't get more versatile than this. To me it isn't different from mic'ing a cab, working around with positioning, mics and EQ... except that it's all contained in one unit."

"I tried the attenuator section of the Sequis Motherload which is sold seperately and called 'The Richter Control'. The test was very brief but I did feel that this beast is very different to anything I've tried before. It sounded much less 'papery' than other attenuators I've tried before and as an added bonus: The Richter ALWAYS attenuates the entire amp 100% which means that the sound doesn't change no matter how much you attenuate."

"For studio recording "crunch guitar" at the moment I hooks up the Roland to a Mesa Boogie Mk1V and run things through a Sequis Motherload. Am I having fun? You bet!!!!!!!!!"

"Well, much to my surprise the Motherload Mk2 is radically different and first impressions using an Engl Savage and a Mexico Telecaster and J***s' '72 Les Paul Standard were very good indeed. This thing now sounds AND FEELS really rather like a miked up guitar cab..!!"

"In direct comparison with the Palmer PDI-03, which to me still is the one to beat when it comes to D.I. guitar sounds, the Motherload Mk2 sounds more real and is capable of loads more sonic scope using the controls on the front panel. It's got much more bottom than the Palmer. The high end is more open than Palmer...the Motherload feels much more like playing a non-master volume amp...So much to my surprise I actually believe the Motherload Mk2 has surpassed the Palmer PDI-03 as a direct injection tool. Which took some doing..!!"

"In-house engineer T** S***** was digging it too, he said it sounded amazingly like a speaker cabinet - right down to the low end 'chug' / sub frequencies...We feel it goes a long distance past the discontinued Palmer unit and is a bold step forward for cab simulation."

"I must say that my first impressions seem to be right. This is a very serious option for anyone recording guitar direct to disk...if you need an attenuator for your valve amp you really should check out the attenuator from the Motherload. Rick makes a separate unit called 'The Richter' and it is BY FAR the best load I have ever tried."

"I use a Sequis Motherload (consider it a Palmer on steroids, growth hormones and six ball transplants... no wonder I love it)."

"...about comparing it to a Palmer DI, well, I can't, it's not fair!, I've used the Palmer PGA-04 which is similar to the Motherload, and the Motherload smokes it to the ground in sonics and flexibility. The Motherload has a complete signal path including the ability to act as a splitter so the player can still play through his cab while you record through the Motherload without needing to have a separate splitter+dummy loads."

"In terms of sonics the Motherload is a lot more versatile, it can be as in-your-face as the PGA but it can also be a lot more subtle, the addition of distortion is one thing not to be understated, it can add definition to a mushy part."

"The internal topology also makes reamping easier and the fact that it has a dedicated FX loop means that the FX doesn't get sonically imprinted by the amp if you don't want to, and you can use the Motherload to shape the FX box's sound."

"And how does it sound? Fan-expeletive-tastic, whatever sound you're after this thing does it, acoustic, jangly, distorted, ultra-low, etc... as a matter of fact it does both detuned guitars and electroacoustics extremely well, it ain't cheap though, but it's a quality product, the controls are solid and chunky (Unlike the Palmer's which always gave me headaches), the front panel is well laid out...the whole thing is built to outlast civilization, it's THAT rugged."

"I've used the MASS, and yes it's close but no cigar... if I were to compare the Motherload to the MASS, the Motherload is even closer to a mic'd cab sans certain specific things (i.e. lack of room and instrument spill, phase issues, etc.) but it sounds pretty damned close."

"BTW, the Motherload does indeed love bass and I love the Motherload - awesome unit!"

"It sounds fantastic. For great clean sounds I use pre 0, res - 0, res + 4, And all the pots up full. I like that setting for bright distortion sounds also. Sounds like an amp with a great mic in "no room"."