The cab‑modelling pioneers take on the rest of the chain, right from the preamp input to the mics.
Two notes have acquired a strong reputation for their hardware and software speaker emulators, and now they’ve turned their attention to modelling the complete guitar‑amp chain, from the amp’s input jack to the mics on the speaker. The result is the OPUS, a compact device that could be equally at home on a pedalboard or a studio desktop, and it offers a small selection of preamp models that can be used in conjunction with a choice of valve output stage models, followed by their dynamic IR cabinet emulation. The device can store 99 presets, features MIDI integration plus USB‑C support, and allows detailed editing of the amp models via the Torpedo Remote app for iOS, Android, macOS and Windows.
Essentials
The OPUS is built into a surprisingly compact, tough steel case, with two turn‑and‑push encoders on the front panel above a small, very clear monochrome OLED display window. The input, located on the right‑hand side, can accept instrument, line or amp levels, as selected by a slide switch. (Note that if Amp mode is selected it’s essential that a suitable dummy load or speaker cabinet be connected to the output jack.) There’s also a USB port and a power inlet on this side, for the included laptop‑style brick PSU. Power requirements are 12V DC at 200mA or more.
The OPUS can optionally be placed between an amp and speaker (or load box).
On the left of the case is a 3.5mm TRS MIDI port (a MIDI DIN adaptor cable is included), with two more 3.5mm jacks accommodating an aux in and a headphone out. The main outputs are a balanced XLR DI with a ground‑lift switch and a quarter‑inch TRS jack. A dual‑mono output mode lets you select a point in the OPUS signal chain so that separate signals can be sent to the XLR and jack; for example, for tracking separate dry DI and processed signals at the same time. A micro‑SD card slot on the rear panel allows for additional storage of third‑party IRs in WAV format if the internal capacity of up to 512 user IRs isn’t enough.
The OPUS includes DSP and effects, including an enhancer that can enhance both highs and lows, a noise gate, a three‑mode EQ and a reverb with 12 model types. One of the keys to a really good amp emulation is the quality of the virtual cabinets, and the OPUS comes loaded with the exclusive Series‑O DynIR Cabinet Collection, comprising 32 cabs that include a selection from Two notes’ Artist series releases. For each cabinet, there’s a choice of eight mic models, as well as dual miking and front/rear mic positioning. There’s also an acoustic DI facility, with over 40 acoustic impulse responses available.
The preamp section is based on five classic amps and is intended to cover all styles, from super clean to high gain. Foundry offers a clean Fender‑like tone, but with the ability to add some warm saturation. Peggy is for bass players and clearly informed by old Ampeg amplifiers, providing bass sounds with a lot of depth and a warm midrange push. Albion is more rock‑orientated and takes its inspiration from Marshall amps, characterised by a vocal midrange, plenty of weight and lots of gain on tap — this covers both classic and hard rock genres. Foxy also has a British muse, this time unmistakably Vox, with its chiming highs, musical overdrive and tonal versatility, which runs from ’60s pop to rocking. For those with more modern tastes, the NiftyFifty high‑gain preamp channels ’80s rock guitar sounds, but it can also serve up modern high‑gain tones.
The OPUS also presents a choice of four modelled power stages, based on 6L6, EL34, EL84 and KT88 valves configured in push‑pull Class‑A/B or Class‑A configurations, and with additional controls to tweak their response. These are designed to deliver authentic clipping and compression characteristics when pushed. You can pair the preamps with their appropriate power stages for emulating classic amps, but you can also mix and match to create your own variations.
Torpedo Remote
Available for desktop computers, phones and tablets, the Torpedo Remote app requires the OPUS to be registered, after which it can function as an editor/librarian. It’s possible to program the OPUS from the hardware front panel, of course, but it’s far easier with the app. From here it is also possible to audition/purchase optional cabinet DynIRs, as well as importing WAV‑format user IRs.
Tabs in the editor window access Virtual Cabinet, IR Loader, Cabinet Manager, Preset Manager and IR Manager pages. When in Virtual Cabinet or IR Loader view, all the key amp parameters are visible, with the screen arranged into logical sections covering the amp modelling, miking for mics A and B along with axis and distance adjustment, plus a post‑effects section split into EQ, Enhancer and Reverb. There are also input and output level meters with control over the main output volume. The three EQ options are five‑band, with guitar or bass configurations, or a Custom mode, with five adjustable frequency bands plus adjustable low‑ and high‑cut filters. The Enhancer has controls for Body, Thickness and Brilliance, all switchable from guitar to bass, along with a wet/dry blend control. For reverb there’s a choice of all the usual suspects, from loft to cathedral and including the usual plate and spring variants, and control over size, colour and echo.
While editing is possible using the hardware, the Torpedo Remote app for desktop and mobile devices makes it much easier — and allows you to load user or third‑party IRs too.
In the amp section, the preamps offer all the expected gain and volume controls along with an appropriate tone stack, and for high‑gain sounds the adjustable‑threshold noise gate, which has hard or soft operational modes, is available to clean up the proceedings when necessary. In the Power Amp section, there’s the choice of valve type in Class‑A or push‑pull configurations, along with pentode and triode options. Rotary controls adjust Volume, Contour and Depth for further tonal shaping.
In Virtual Cabinet view, the upper left of the window is given over to a view of the speaker cabinets and mic setup, where the virtual mic position can be adjusted via dragging or via the rotary controls. In IR Loader view, the waveforms of the selected impulse responses can be seen. It’s from this page that other IRs can be loaded, including those from third parties, as discussed above.
Magnum OPUS?
The OLED display and use of graphical icons makes editing from the pedal's front panel very logical, and it’s convenient to have this direct hands‑on access in some scenarios, obviously, but for speed of editing you really can’t beat the app. Since I wrote this review shortly before the OPUS was launched, I worked with a beta version of the app (on macOS) and found it very stable and extremely intuitive.
The first thing most people will be tempted to do is trawl through some of the presets to get a feel for what the thing can do. But while there are some great presets here, I think this approach could be misleading, since you won’t always know what guitar type or pickup setting the preset designers have in mind. For example, my own tests were done using an HSS Strat, and with that some presets came up sounding just a little too bright. But it’s very easy to tweak the settings to suit the guitar if you have the app open: in most cases a little adjustment of the tone stack or the post‑effects EQ will get things right where you want them to be, though don’t neglect the power amp controls, as they’re really useful in dialling in the right amount of ‘weight’.
There’s good touch responsiveness here, in that moderate rock sounds clean up well as you back off the guitar volume or pick less aggressively.
Just as promised, I found that the amps covered pretty much all styles, from country clean to uber‑filth, with blues and classic rock lying somewhere in between. There’s good touch responsiveness here, in that moderate rock sounds clean up well as you back off the guitar volume or pick less aggressively, while the range of cab and miking options provide a wide choice of tonal character. Pairing the preamps with their appropriate power stages produces results reminiscent of specific amps but, particularly if you’re searching for an original sound, there’s a lot to gain from exploring less obvious pairings. The onboard reverb choices are very practical and sounded high quality to me, and the Enhancer section provides even more options for tonal fine‑tuning. It’s great that any of the sections can be bypassed too, as you could, for example, use just the speaker emulation with another amp‑modelling product, or bypass the speaker emulator if sending the virtual amp signal to a physical amp/speaker.
Ultimately, there are already many good amp‑modelling plug‑ins on the market, and a good number hardware choices too, so the OPUS isn’t short of competitors. But it stands up well alongside them, and has the benefit of incorporating the proven cabinet emulation technology on which Two notes built their reputation. I particularly like the way that there are just a select few preamp and power amp options, but they’re presented in such a way that many combinations are possible. It makes editing much easier to handle than if you have hundreds of amp models to scour through!
In short, then, the OPUS covers a huge amount of tonal ground; it does it well, and if you use the app for editing, you can get the results you need very quickly.
Pros
- Sounds good.
- Extremely compact.
- Practical range of analogue connection options.
- Well thought‑out editor app.
Cons
- None of note.
Summary
A compact and easy‑to‑use amp/speaker modelling solution for pedalboard or studio.
