Mooer Radar vs Nux Solid Studio | Comparison Of Two Popular IR Loaders

[@CatPickStudios]

Hey everyone! Just wanted to mention that there's things in this video I would do differently if I would remake the comparison 3+ years later. There's lot of useful information about this units here as well though, so I'm keeping this one live. Just take everything I say here with a grain of salt. ;)

[@joelbizzle4174]

Keep in mind that while the SS sounded brighter, it can be mellowed out with the mic placement. (Looks like it was set to center) which is the brightest place on a speaker cone. Good review!

[@xabieririarte3351]

I'm so confused, I hear the fizz that's present in the NUX pedal, but I can also hear that the Radar sounds very muffled and bassy. However, with the IR that you loaded, the Mooer sounds a little bit fizzier than the Nux. To my taste, I find some of the NUX tones to be more useful in a mix than the darker sounds the Radar provides, and like many people say, I'd rather be moving knobs than navigating a menu at a rehearsal or a gig. I just wish the NUX unit was less fizzy, though, I'm not convinced yet. Thanks for your video! The A/B comparison part is how I think these kind of videos should be made.

[@rangerdoc1029]

I like the brightness of the SS & really prefer knobs over navigating a menu , but the Radar sounds way more real. For me I'd say the Radar is the clear winner, just EQ it brighter. Plus it's cheaper.

[@silvawaremusic9265]

That's the answer, without a doubt! thanks

[@andreas-franke]

Missing bass cabs in the solid Studio. Got the Mooer Radar in December 2017 and use it live with my own IRs and love it so much!

[@CatPickStudios]

You can upload your own basso cab there, but I get what you're saying. Do you use power amp sim with the Radar? To me that seems to be the only thing I don't like about that pedal.

[@andreas-franke]

Most of the time I don't use the power amp sims, because I use IRs from my Ashdown ABM 600 EVO IV's power amp and my Ashdown RM 610T cabinet.

[@CatPickStudios]

Sounds good! I got to try an Ashdown amp at TGU18 and even though I'm not a bass player I could tell that thing was awesome.

[@acidtripstu]

Thanks for the demo!! Can't say I want either of them now... Can you compare to the hotone?

[@CatPickStudios]

If Hotone sends me one, sure. Many people seem to be interested in their pedal as well.

[@LucasMarques-zs3tb]

A have the mooer radar and its a great pedal, you need to press and hold the red button before plug the cable into PC to uptate and load custom IR, i never has any problem with the mooer radar program.

[@Mtkmusic.]

Great interview thank you, Was the first song you played a blackberry smoke song?

[@countstoneula]

I’m wondering if the “thru” on the Solid Studio was having an affect on the Radar. There has to be some sort of internal buffering going on if it’s splitting the signal. Great video though, it’s interesting how all of us favour one sound to the other. Overall I preferred the Radar, but the Solid Studio was great. And I like how you were recording them both at once instead of an A/B. I bet if you combined them into a stereo sound it would’ve sounded excellent. Keep up the great videos!

[@CatPickStudios]

Thanks! I tried to research the SS thru output with very little results. If I would the video again I would just use the MXR A/B box I got recently. I really want to like the Mooer because of the size, it's just super convenient. I just don't seem to click with it sound wise.

[@Joe.Shmo.Eskimo]

On my studion monitors, the Mooer sounds really compressed and muddy while the Nux had all the dynamics but reeeaaaally fizzy. I'm sure the problem with the Nux, you could fix with moving the mic placement more towards the edge and playing with the tube settings. The Mooer I'm sure you could clean it up with the EQ settings but the compression from the Mooer was the deal breaker for me.

[@rick.enbacker]

Doesn't the thru on the Nux affect impedance? Isn't the sound going to be different by plugging a preamp directly into the Mooer? Strange, 1) to me the Mooer sounds more realistic here than the Nux, contrary to what you say in the video. 2) The Mooer sounds incredibly different in other videos, and a LOT better. I'm confused !

[@cathaldalymusic]

Good review, I was considering these two for my new rig. But the Mooer sounds way more realistic than the solid studio. The nux sounds fizzy to me

[@CatPickStudios]

Thanks, glad it helped!

[@dnamusicchallenge5995]

Hey thanks for this. I needed this review. Thanks

[@CatPickStudios]

Glad it was helpful!

[@perrysworship1319]

Thanks for your detail sharing. The demo really helps me to make the buying decision.

[@flyingformation1878]

What did you buy?

[@ludlowfalls8856]

Thank you for the video... I ordered the NUX

[@CatPickStudios]

Happy to help!

[@McLeanAB88]

@@CatPickStudios I have a Nux on the way as well!

[@TomsGreenMind]

The mooer sounded better, but I like how tactile the NUX is. Seems like the NUX could have been dialled in a bit better for the stock cabs, but the Ohnhammer cab sounded way better! Interesting comparison.

[@CatPickStudios]

Thanks!

[@oscargarciahinde4247]

I'm gonna have to add myself to the pile of people saying that my own Radar doesn't sound dark or muddy at all... I dunno, something weird has to be going on. The power amp sim also seems punchier and more realistic on my unit than what I hear on this video. Like, if I had only heard this review I'd never have bought the Radar, but my own unit sounds very different. I haven't updated the firmware in a while though. Maybe something strange is going on there? My radar sits in the effects loop of an Orange Micro Dark, this way I bypass the poweramp on the Micro Dark completely. Could be some buffering weirdness causing this problem. Coincidentally I also have a Revv G3 feeding the Micro Dark as the core of my distortion tone, so our setups are very comparable :)

[@CatPickStudios]

Ok now I'm really starting to think I need to get the Radar one more time and try it out properly. Maybe the Solid Studio has some sort of buffer that messes it up or maybe my unit had some bug in it. I need to find out. :)

[@KozmykJ]

That's odd. I don't find my Radar dark at all. With or without power amp switched in. I'll have a delve and see if I can make it go dark. I wonder if your firmware update hurt it somehow ?

[@CatPickStudios]

Might be. Unfortunately I had to return the unit, so I can't check that out anymore.

[@cibbantwist]

If you haven't found out already, some mini/micro USB cables you get with products that use them only for charging are charge only. They use cables with fewer leads to cut costs. Copper is expensive. PS. Thanks for a good comparison BTW. It helped me a lot.

[@CatPickStudios]

Thanks, I actually learned something! Appreciate it!

[@cibbantwist]

You are welcome! :)

[@2n3chordjams70]

GOOD JOB here and congrats on the growth of your channel. The 1st and last groove you played sound real familiar and really good! Once you come up with the right "click bait" vid I think your channel will really take off. JAM ON!!!!! BTW no comparison, the Nux wins outright. DON

[@CatPickStudios]

Thanks Don, appreciate it!

[@JoeFic9997]

Thanks for the review and detailed comparison!! I researched both of these and chose the NUX SS. I’m glad I did because the fizziness heard was easily dialed out. In fact there are 24 different eq settings on the front panel alone with 3 mic placements and 8 different microphones. That doesn’t include the Drive and Presence adjustments either which have a large range. This has become my primary practice source for headphones because I can use any of my amplifiers and pedals. The 9v power required is always available from my pedalboard too. However if I was putting something small together I’d probably opt for my Hotone Nano 5 watt with a Mooer Radar (for its size) as the Hotone has a Terrible speaker simulation but otherwise it’s fine for such a small SS amplifier.

[@rderfa]

Great video, man!!! Thanks a lot!!! Cheers.

[@CatPickStudios]

Glad you liked it!

[@carlodevivomusicontent2138]

i bought a mooer Radar, it arrived, i unpacked it, downloaded the latest firmare, plugged my guitar in my pedal board and out in the radar into a p.a. . I played for 20 seconds, put down my guitar and put the Radar back in the box and never touched it again. There's too much digital latency

[@CatPickStudios]

Haha sorry to hear it was such a disappointment right away. Not all products work for everyone.

[@countstoneula]

When was this? I heard a recent update puts the latency as less than 2ms now. I’ve been wondering myself if the latency would bother me. If you don’t plan to use it anymore send it my way. :)

[@CatPickStudios]

I shot this video in early August, maybe the update came out after that? :)

[@vaguitarts3443]

@@CatPickStudios Ничего такого не заметил. Звиздит....

[@drdma1]

Carlo, do You want to sell it? I'm interested.

[@charlesco689]

If one looks at other reviews, looks like you did something very wrong

[@henrod27]

Im not a big fan of the nux solid studio and the mooer is a great pedal but it clips alot at time, but what I notice if you get any type of preamp sin for example a mooer 004 day tripper and fx chain with a NUX Mini Studio IR Loader with your favorite 3rd party IR it blow the mooer radar out of the world, mini studio does not clip what so ever, and it just better for Cab IR

[@BENDBLUES]

Did You ever try the Blubox? I would like to know how are it compared to NUX.

[@CatPickStudios]

Unfortunately no. There's literally none available in Finland right now.

[@BENDBLUES]

I have the BlueBox, but it miss the "power amp" in case of play in line just with preamp.

[@CatPickStudios]

Oh so it doesn't have power amp sim in it?

[@slayabouts]

Everyone needs to remember that these are replicating the sound of a *mic’d* cab, not the natural sound of a cab in the room. Even though that’s what you try to capture with a microphone, it’s not what actually happens If you listen to the guitars solo’d from a full mix, they’ll most likely have some of that fizz of the Nux. I’d be willing to bet the Mooer in a mix would have no clarity or definition at all because it lacks the same high end

[@ssmetalrulz]

Any idea how these two compare to the Two Notes Torpedo C.A.B. ??

[@CatPickStudios]

Well the new Torpedo Cab Mini has all the same functions as the Solid Studio but a much more complex and advanced than SS.

[@artemvsotnikov]

Привет, земляк! Возможно ли использование какой-то из этих примочек без предусилителя?

[@auxnibauxnib7494]

Да, NUX всё-в-одном.

[@TheIsahn]

Great job man! I personally liked more the solid studio, Would you mind making a video playing more metal stuff with these pedals?

[@CatPickStudios]

Thanks! I'm actually working on a proper review of Radar, I could include a small comparison between the two into it as well playing metal stuff.

[@johnjones4369]

I realise that sound is an opinion but I thought the SS sounded horrible. The Mooer sounded so much better to me

[@CatPickStudios]

Haha you are absolutely allowed to tell your opinion here, no worries! I find it really interesting to hear what stuff everyone likes. Something I really like might be complete garbage to someone else and I think that's what makes music interesting.

[@jeffhudson2567]

I believe that you're defeating the NUX IR by running out of the Thru output. That fizzy sound is a dead giveaway. So, really, this comparison shows the Mooer IRs compared with the NUX poweramp and no IR. If you listen to your other NUX video, it's clear that it sounds completely different. Great comparison of the two, otherwise!

[@CatPickStudios]

Well actually the Thru output works so that you can send both unaffected signal and one with the power amp and cab sim. So what you heard was Nux IR. :)

[@tudosobrepedaisepedaleiras]

Cab box vs radar?

[@CatPickStudios]

Never tried the Cab Box so I'm afraid I don't know.

[@tudosobrepedaisepedaleiras]

@@CatPickStudios thank's

[@zolwikwkurwik]

One thing I don't like about your solid studio videos ia you don't tweak anything like the mic positioning to make it sound better, you just stand there and do nothing while it sounds like crap many times

[@CatPickStudios]

This is a comparison video, so comparing sounds is only one thing out of many. Diving too deep into sound differences between the two would result in a super long video. If you want to hear all the mic positions etc. on Solid Studio I have a separate demo video for that.

[@tatatis1986]

Nux sounds fuzzier...its like all the presets have more or less the same sound...mooer is more real...I have seen other reviews and its really very good even close to torpedos when compared...I don't know if this comparison is near reality...maybe its your sound a bit dark to not help the radar stand out...

[@CatPickStudios]

I think the darker sounds from Mooer's poor power amp simulation. What I didn't mention in the video was that I had power amp presence cranked on the Mooer for the whole video and it still sounded dark. For the last test with the Ownhammer IR in both pedals I activated the EQ section on Mooer to boost some highs to make it less dark and the end result was shrilling highs, crazy low end and no proper mids. I don't know what else I could have done. Maybe I had a faulty unit or something, but I doubt it. I even updated it to the latest version before shooting the video.

[@tatatis1986]

CatPick Studios Maybe I was wrong then...the reviews I have seen is on the quality of the ir cab alone and it is pretty good...

[@CatPickStudios]

Yeah you might be right. I've seen other people demo the Radar as well and it sounded pretty good. Don't remember anyone talking about power amp sim though, so that's why I suspect it's the weak link.

[@tatatis1986]

CatPick Studios Probably yes

[@ItsFish2k]

Any chance you could do a more detailed comparison on the poweramp sim? That's really the most important part to me, seeing as how both pedals are able to load in external IRs.

[@alvaroantelo1065]

10:54 sound review

[@Neil-Aspinall]

So were you recording straight in a DAW?

[@CatPickStudios]

Yep.

[@thammananchaiyanon3633]

Who win but i like nux

[@FirstRuni]

Nux sure paid you. Both equalizers should be in 0.

[@CatPickStudios]

Yeah no.

[@restugonjreng672]

Thxxx

[@MalCooper]

I think the Radar has loaded your guitar pickups and reduced treble(+clarity) (Input Impedance is 100k Ω when 500k or 1M Ω is preferred.) While the SS Studio has less loading of your guitar pickups and therefore better treble and clarity. But if the Pure Sky or Revv were on all the time this would not be the case. I have the Radar and don't experience the muddiness heard here. I am using it mostly with a Micro Preamp and other pedals in front of it with great results. Thanks for your video.

[@MalCooper]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/aIfbqqV5msmgr7M is a good example of expected clarity

[@CatPickStudios]

Thanks for an interesting comment, I actually had to check this stuff with a friend of mine before I replied to make sure I get everything right. I didn't mention this in the video, but I actually had either the Pure Sky or Revv on in the video all the time. I thought of them as "preamps" even though neither is really a preamp pedal. This means both Radar and Solid Studio should receive the same low impedance signal assuming both overdrives convert the signal to low impedance. I someone pointed out, there might have been something wrong with the software update on the Mooer Radar even though it seemed to update just fine. Or maybe I didn't realise you need to heavily EQ the signal from the pedal as they seemed to do in the video you linked to. The strat clip for example seems to have +10db boost in the 4-5khz range to make it sound clear.

[@krailanuar]

Nux Solid Studio Win... Im New User NUX MG30 User

[@pauloing1pauloing167]

10:56 click here to save your short lifetime on Earth

[@rudyhamblee523]

nux for me

[@franciscohartung4406]

come oooooooooon 1k!

[@CatPickStudios]

Only 5 to go as of typing this!!!!

[@franciscohartung4406]

congrats dude!

[@CatPickStudios]

Thank you!

[@АлександрФролов-ь7ц]

И то, и другое, что-то прям ужоснах...

[@oiluminado10]

Mooer wins!!!

[@conartist267]

Not interested in the packaging, manuals or so much talking, only the sound.

[@yigit_okyay]

Too much talk

[@FirstRuni]

Похоже, парня затащили в торгово-промоутерскую блудню. Оба прибора могут звучать прекрасно.

[@N8oRMusic]

pronounced "new ex"

[@CatPickStudios]

Ok

[@SamuraiBud]

that tiny radar is a joke

[@CatPickStudios]

It was a pretty big hit in the IR loader world for a brief time but that sure didn't last long.

[@fedormikhailovich5993]

Владимир ,а на русском есть??

[@TheJoecoool]

something wrong with your connections that is why the mooer sound muddy

[@CatPickStudios]

Nope, all of my connections work well.

[@ricardovilhena8454]

The Radar is very dark and bassy

[@CatPickStudios]

Yeah I think it’s the power amp simulation that causes that.