Redbox VS outboard cab emulator

So....I only use my GM for certain travel gigs (smaller van, adding keyboards, etc) and have finally found the following:

The built in Redbox emulator is not nearly as good as some of the other DI / cab emulators, or, something in using the amps speaker out routed through an outboard emulator yields better tone.

I performed this simple test:

Hooked up one XLR to the built in Redbox and routed to channel 1 on my mixer
Hooked up the speaker out to a Palmer cab emulator / DI which I ran the XLR output to channel 2 on my mixer, and then routed the speaker cable out of the DI to an active load box (once you plug in a speaker cable to the GM it should be looking for a load, I would think)

Took out all effects / equalization from the board and switched between the two channels - wow. No comparison. Tone was a thousand times better using the outboard emulator. Tried tons of combinations of settings on the Redbox and the palmer and the amp and the guitar. All round always better with the palmer through the PA.

Would love to hear if anyone else has gone this route. I would also love to hear if HK would ever update their Redbox. I've heard people ask for the ability to add IRs, but frankly, I really don't see the need if you have a good emulator. Perhaps if I was recording with it I would want to have different cabinet or room sounds, but for live, thats just not the sound I'm looking for.

DB

Interesting thoughts. I have no complain with the redbox sound, to be honest, but am interested in trying outboard emulation nonetheless. Have you got any recordings you can share?

So...You're right, the GM needs to see a load otherwise it will automatically swap the power soak to Silent mode to load the output with its own internal resistive one. Other than that I'm afraid I have no experience of using the Redbox. I know how it works and how the circuitry is set up but as to how good it sounds? It's always been plain old speakers for me.

This is an area where we don't have too much info on the forum. Anyone else able to add their own?

I'm sure the Palmer will sound better than the built-in RedBox...

One thing I know is I played a medium size stage at a larger indoor venue recently for 2 consecutive nights and the first night my 412 was mic'd with a Sennheiser e609 with a Clearsonic panel in front so most of my guitar sound was in the monitor for me.... 2nd night I had the soundman switch to the RedBox AE on my Triamp Mk3 and it was night & day on the tone...  RedBox was soooo much better than the mic'd cab!

When recording from the GM40 Red Box into Pro Tools via a Focusrite Scarlett 6i6, I get a weird wah/meow-like sound in the initial string attack. At first I thought maybe the amp gain was too hot or I was digging in too hard, but it happens on all channels/gain settings. With so many moving parts between the amp and the DAW software/hardware I'm not even totally certain of the exact source of the trouble...going to record via mic when family is out and I can turn it up to see if it persists. Til then am just throwing this out there to see if anyone else has experienced similar issues that they've been able to isolate to the Redbox, and how to get around them?

Experimented with other ways of recording, including going from a multi-effects pedal, and direct from guitar to audio interface and using plugins, to model high gain, and still had this issue...almost like the higher harmonics are ringing out really strong on the initial string attack and fading quickly. Maybe all the modelers are guilty of doing this? Last but not least I'll try mic'ing the amp and that will probably solve the problem

Can you get a recording of it and post it on here?

Just wanted to share that I got myself a BluGuitar BluBOX which is a small external Impulse Response speaker emulator as I didn't much like how the RedBox AE cab simulation sounded on the GM40D. I switched off cab sim and the signal goes into the BluBox and out to my Focusrite Scarlett. So far no problems with hum or interference. It made a huge difference to my sound.

Would be great to hear a comparison recording of the Redbox vs the Blubox if you have the time