http://www.surprisesoundlab.com/ssl-27_015.htm
Sometimes the sound pressure level of using a loud amp can be too much for you, your front of house operator, your neighbours or even the other guys on stage. But it's all about the sound, right? So you need to come up with a solution that lowers the stress threshold somewhat while retaining that tone. The SE-120 from Surprise Sound Lab is one such solution. It works really well and delivers a more-than passable cabinet sound to your DAW or any other . You don't even need to power it.
From Kim Hardee, Designer at Surprise Sound Lab:
"For recording and live performance a common practice is to place a microphone very close to a guitar speaker cabinet and connect the output of the microphone to a recording device or a mixer. This approach has several problems. First, it requires using large and heavy speaker cabs. Also, the results can be somewhat unpredictable due to technique and bleed-through from other instruments.
A speaker emulator DI load box can be used instead of a speaker cab and microphone to take the speaker-level signal directly from an amplifier and output a signal than closely mimics the sound of the closed-miced cab.
I purchased several speaker emulators and found that they all had some limitations. All of them either didn't sound like a speaker cab or had too little control over the sound. Also, the ones with an internal dummy speaker load required the purchase of a different unit for each impedance (4, 8 or 16 ohms).
I designed a filter circuit that matches the frequency response of a typical 12" guitar speaker. I also designed a dummy load that matches the impedance vs. frequency characteristics of a typical guitar speaker.
Finally I added two controls to provide control of the tone.
I think the result is a speaker emulator load box that can replace a speaker cab and microphone without sacrificing tone. I hope you agree."
I agree!
Guitar: 2010 Music Man Axis. Stock with the exception of the D-Tuna
Amp: Laney VH-100R & L412 Cabinet (Greenbacks)
Cables: Providence
Camera: Canon 60D (me) and Sony HDR CX150 (SE-120)
Soundcard : AVID Mbox Pro 3
Computer : Apple iMac 27" i7 3.4 GHz 16 GB RAM
Software : Pro Tools 10 LE, Air Reverb over SE-120 track to take away some dryness.
Apple Final Cut Pro X (video editing and Youtube compression).