x
audiokid 13 July 2017

Sneak Peak: New OX Amp Top Box from Universal Audio at Summer NAMM Show

— OX enables guitarists to get the ultimate studio tone from their tube amps, anywhere, at any volume —

SCOTTS VALLEY, CA • July 13, 2017 — Universal Audio is excited to debut the OX Amp Top Box at Summer NAMM 2017. This premium reactive load box allows guitarists to play and record their tube amp in its ideal sweet spots — from the edge-of-breakup to fully cranked — at any volume level, and with instant album-quality mic, room, and speaker cabinet emulations at the turn of a knob.

“OX is like no other box on the market,” says Universal Audio CEO and Founder, Bill Putnam, Jr. “It removes the barrier of getting perfect tone from tube guitar amps, at any volume. At its core is the world’s finest speaker attenuator and reactive load. But then we took it several steps further with UA’s own ‘secret sauce’ — namely Rig presets with stunning mic and studio emulations; and Dynamic Speaker Modeling, which emulates speaker breakup and cone cry like no other box in history.

“OX is the ultimate tool for tone-obsessed guitarists who want album-quality tube amp sounds, anywhere, anytime — with zero compromises.”

The OX Amp Top Box is scheduled to ship Q4 2017 with a US street price of $1299.

OX Amp Top Box – Key Features:

  • Premium, no-compromise analog reactive load box for tube guitar amps
  • Five finely-tuned guitar amp attenuation levels — from off, to whisper quiet,
    to full band volume
  • Front-panel “Rig” control for instant, album-quality mic and speaker cabinet emulations
  • UA Dynamic Speaker Modeling faithfully emulates speaker breakup and cone cry
  • World-class Universal Audio EQ, compression, delay, and reverb effects built-in
  • Selectable 4, 8, and 16-Ohm operation
  • Front-panel Headphone out for silent practice with cranked tones
  • Balanced TRS line outs, and S/PDIF digital output for recording
  • Pair with OX mobile or desktop app over Wi-Fi for editing and saving presets

Comments

Davedog Mon, 07/24/2017 - 13:42

There may be one or two more boxes that work off of this principle. I'm not too sure what they are or who makes them. I think that Suhr makes one also...However.......

This is not to be confused or even associated with any kind of resistive load box like has been around for so many years. These boxes simply loaded the amp head up so it was happy seeing a load and allowed the player to dial back the overall volume in whatever environment they might be playing in. The boxes dissipated this load as heat and the resistance remained constant on the head. It also KILLED the tone and response.

This is, however, not what really happens to a tube amp head in use. The output resistance is constantly changing and this has a LOT to do with the feel and sound of your tube amp. So some smart person figured out how to create a loading circuit that satisfies the amps' need for resistance at its output and also one that allows the resistance curve to work its magic.

If you think its horseshit and hype, you need to get out more and try things out. These things actually work quite well. Check out some of the live rigs of the bigger names in guitar wankers and chances are theres an amp head somewhere under the stage with one of these boxes on it feeding small perfectly designed speaker cabinet and this is where FOH is getting their feed from.

As for a recording tool, I've used mine and can say how nice it is to use an actual high wattage amplifier in a small room with neighbors and get the full effect of the output tubes breathing fire and reacting much like they would in an open arena or outdoors.

I don't know about the others but my Rivera comes with a nice EQ and a bunch of charts taken from actual speakers and their responses that lets you dial up a basic overlay of aspects of many popular speakers. My favorite being the EV 12L with a frikkin Marshall in front of it. But who would want to tote that around for even a minute???

pcrecord Fri, 01/03/2020 - 08:33

RichD, post: 463019, member: 51808 wrote: I just got an OX. I’m a little puzzled on how to set it up. Reading everything I can. Does this do away with the need for going through a mic pre? Do I just go straight from the OX to my Apollo Twin Duo interface?

The Idea behind the OX is that you can use your physical amp with or without a cab and have a line level output to send to your audio interface..
You plug your guitar to your amp, take the speaker out of the amp and send it to the OX and YES, you should send the line output of the OX directly to a line input of the Twin (which are combo mic/line inputs)

I you didn't have the Twin, you could use the usb connectivity directly to your computer.. but having 2 audio sources is a real pain so you should use only one (at least in the PC world)

Have fun !!

x

User login