IK Multimedia’s latest amp sim plugin dusts off nine rare-breed Fender amps for 80 new Tone Models based on elusive and oft-overlooked brown-panel amps.

The amps in question, built between 1959 and 1963, sit slap bang in the middle of Fender’s Tweed and black-panel eras, and tonally melded the warmth of the former with the latter's cleanliness and clarity.

They were built for and used on some classic surf, country, blues, and early rock records, offering a distinct tone unlike other Fender amps.

These are amps that have pushed air for everyone from Chris Stapleton and Billy Gibbons to Mark Knopfler. And as Fender Senior Product Manager, Rick Heins, told Guitarist last year, these amps are getting rarer by the day, and are “almost unobtainable at this point.”

So a digital recreation of nine of them is the next best thing. The collection takes in new Tone Models based on three 1960 amplifiers: A Concert combo, a Bandmaster, and a 1x10 Princeton combo.

There’s a Deluxe and a Pro Amp from 1961, a 1962 Vibrolux and Super Amp representing 1962, and a Vibroverb and Vibrasonic from 1963.

IK Multimedia says, “Together, they deliver a wide palette of authentic American tones, from expansive cleans and sparkling small-combo response to bold 1x15 authority, smooth breakup, and pedal-enhanced lead sounds.”

The real amps have been captured using the latest TONEX V2 AI Machine Modeling technology through an SSL 4000G console with “carefully selected dynamic, ribbon, and condenser microphones”.

A score of the Tone Models also pair the amps with choice pedals and signal chains, including a Klon Centaur, a TS9 Tube Screamer, and the preamp section of a Fender 6G15 Reverb unit.

The Tone Models can be used across the TONEX ecosystem, including in a DAW, a TONEX amp-in-a-box pedal, the TONEX Plug headphone amp, and beyond.

The new IK Multimedia Brown Panel Signature Collection priced at $/€99.99 pre-tax.

See IK Multimedia for more.

The news comes after Alex Lifeson revealed he’s been capturing the tones of classic Rush albums for the Fifty Something tour, with his signature TONEX pedal sitting at the heart of his updated live rig.

What is it?

The first signature plugin for pedal-loving math rock guitarist Yvette Young sees MixWave promising to deliver her live rig in digital form. For the uninitiated, Young’s tonal shtick centers on spangly clean guitar tones and oodles of weird and ethereal stompboxes as heard in her band, Covet, as well as her growing solo catalog. So, this plugin is aimed, predominantly, at the math rock crowd.

At its heart, MixWave: Yvette Young is a digitized version of a Vox AC30 combo amp that stays faithful to its control panel, but one that treats the cabinet side like most plugins do – as a separate entity with tweakable speaker cones, with Alnico Blue and Greenback options, 15 different microphones, and mic placements.

Beyond that, there are nine different pedals, ranging from typical stompbox choices like reverb, analog delay, and a classic-voiced chorus, through to grit pedals like overdrive, fuzz, and octaver. More surreal soundscapes can be beckoned with the unique lo-fi modulator, and a compressor in place to produce “infinite sustain,” should it be needed.

Coming from a player who likes to do freaky things to her signal chain 90% of the time, all those additions are not overly surprising. But Young’s MixWave collaboration has also seen a slew of quality-of-life and workflow features added in. From a completely customizable signal chain to an onboard EQ and compressor, a transpose feature, a Focus dial for smoothing out harsh frequencies, a Vibe control for enhancing the top end, and a Contour for the finishing touch of EQ, the kitchen sink has certainly been thrown at MixWave’s latest signature tie-in.

Following on from work with Unprocessed’s Manuel Gardner Fernandes, JHS, and Spiritbox guitarist Mike Stringer, this is arguably the mathiest and most fully-loaded offering in its plugin stable. So, is it a treasure trove of tone, or style over substance?

Specs

• Price: $139 (approx. £105 / €122 – MixWave charges in USD)
• Type: Amp sim plugin - 64-bit VST3 / AU / AAX / Standalone
• Formats: macOS 10.13 to macOS 15 (Intel & Silicon Native), Windows 10 to 11 (64-bit)
• System requirements (minimum): macOS 10.13, Intel Core i3 Processor (4th Gen), 4 GB of RAM minimum, VST3, or Audio Units compatible host/DAW Pro Tools 11 or later for AAX format. Windows 7 (64-bit) AMD Quad-Core Processor / Intel Core i3 Processor, 4 GB of RAM minimum
• Contact: MixWave

Usability ★★★★½

For anyone familiar with amp sim plugins, everything from the format to the intuitiveness of its interface should require little to no adjustment period here, even if I feel the tuner is a little too tucked away for my liking.

One of its biggest draws in this regard is the sandbox-style signal chain, with every aspect fully customizable. A rummage through the built-in presets, including contributions from Holy Fawn, acclaimed producer Taylor Larson, and Ryan Fluff Bruce, shows just what a difference it makes to have pedals on either side of the amp, for instance, and inspires me to get experimenting. Left-clicking a block brings it up full-screen; right-clicking engages/disengages the effect; and I can click and drag to my heart’s content, making the plugin 10x more viable for several uses.

I also really enjoy the tuner (once found) for its clear, aesthetically pleasing display. Being colorblind, busier, strobe-style tuners wreak havoc on my eyes; this was very easy to use.

One of my only gripes here is its quartet of inputs, which can be confusing to anyone not accustomed to an AC30. The virtual cables often get in the way of the text beside each input, and the font size is brutally small to begin with. I understand that MixWave and Yvette Young have gone for authenticity here – the entire amp face layout mirrors a Vox. Still, here, a better display format would have been a smart way to digitize the original’s design.

The same goes for its control: the lack of a middle dial, while faithful to the OG, feels like an oversight to me. Neural DSP often adds extra features that the real amps its plugins are inspired by don’t have, and for me, this was the perfect way to do that, as it would make it a lot easier to dial in tones with the amp alone. The cab section strays from the AC30’s path, so why can’t the amp’s interface?

Speaking of which, the cab section is highly usable if I want to get really granular about microphone choices and placement details, with the axis, distance, angle, and delay all tweakable. As are the panning and levels of each of the cab’s four speakers, which can be assigned to be Greenback or Alnico cones. The polarity can be inverted on each mic, and the Vibe is a subtle but handy addition for getting a little more top end, especially if the OD is set quite woolly. Fine-tuning is plentiful.

But if all of that means nothing to you, or you find yourself out of your depth, the button to match mic levels across the four setups makes this incredibly granular part of the plugin pretty much idiotproof.

My biggest takeaway is how user-friendly this plugin is. If I want to get anal with every single detail, I absolutely can. If I want something plug-and-play, where I don’t have to concern myself with those kinds of intricacies, all I need to do is take a quick scroll through the provided presets, which just about cover all bases, to find what I need in a pinch.

Sounds ★★★★½

As soon as this plugin was announced, and given the weight of Yvette Young’s reputation as a master craftswoman when it comes to sparkly math rock and ethereal tones, I felt it could dislodge Neural DSP’s Tim Henson X as my go-to ethereal amp. During my time with the plugin, that theory has been mostly proven true (they coexist really well), but actually, putting it in such a limited box is doing it a disservice. Yes, this plugin is absolutely killer at creating atmosphere for what I predominantly use as foley and background tracks in a mix, but it does so much more.

Guitarist and content creator Drewsif has shown that, by placing the compressor, octaver, fuzz, and drive in front of the amp, along with some minor EQ notches in the upper mids, it can djent too.

It’s seriously impressive tone sculpting (check the video below), but I wouldn’t be in a rush to use this in a rhythm metal tone context. It can handle everything from scuzzed-up hard rock through to biting indie and smoky, edge-of-breakup blues, but there are plenty more metal-minded amp sims in my collection that outgun it in that area.

From my experience, at least, the amp itself is better serving as a platform for the effects. It’s got oodles of clarity and a really shiny clean sound, on top of which its feast of pedals can be stacked at will, especially tones where the reverb and delay come into their own.

There’s a real touch-sensitive, amp-in-a-room feel to it; it feels as unforgiving as an analog amp should be. As good as Neural DSP plugins are, it’s a skill to make a bad tone, and they do often polish your playing in a way that hides blemishes and mistakes. Here, I feel very exposed, and I think that’s something that actually works in its favor. It makes me play better, cleaner, and more dynamically.

But, as I say, it’s the litany of effects that steal the show. With the overdrive pedal dialed moderately and placed in front of the amp, I only need the reverb and delay to create heavenly magic, and there’s a slew of controls to get the most out of both pedals.

The Pitch feature on the reverb is ideal for making things a little weird, while the high- and low-cut dials are ideal for getting the track to sit better in a wider mix. Meanwhile, the sync feature on the delay, also found on the tremolo and lo-fi modulator, has quickly become a dream feature for me. So much so that it’s become my go-to delay across a multitude of tracks, helping tidy up all the respective tails and give everything a nice sense of uniformity.

The tremolo can go from slow drama to head-spinning wackiness, the chorus is an effortless hack for bringing more color and character to a tone, and the lag feature is a great addition for injecting a sense of oddity into the effect. And the fuzz, while not the lairiest, always retains plenty of note clarity, no matter how much you crank it. On full whack, it handles chords really well. It is incredibly annoying that, for whatever reason, its default sees everything maxed out, so when I turn it on without loading it up on screen beforehand, it can be quite shocking.

The octaver has dials for -1, -2, and +1 octaves and is pleasingly versatile, aided by the direct dial, which lets it add as much or as little grit and/or top-end as needed. It’s a very nice ‘season to taste’ option, and the drive benefits from an optional boost and tweakable silicon/mosfet/open-diode modes to reshape its chic. It’s options aplenty.

I was pretty excited by the lo-fi modulator coming into this review, but it’s actually the pedal that let me down the most. Maybe it’s because I’ve not found a need for sounds as warbly and off-kilter as it produces, but it’s just too weird, not applicable enough for my needs.

But as Young says in her demo video for the plugin, her music so often features one riff repeating for a long time, with subtle nuances pushing it along with each loop. It’s times like that when this pedal will shine, as it just takes the tone out of a pleasant-to-listen-to zone and into something purposefully messed up and out of tune. I’m certainly glad it exists in the plugin, it’s just not one I found myself using all that much. It’s like the evil twin of the chorus.

The plugin has a gluttonous feast of sounds lurking behind its digital grille, but what I did find is that the amp sounds much better with single coil pickups. I’m not sure exactly why, but be it a fat, fuzz-mangled tone or a cosmic clean, the bite of single coils is far more satisfying to me. That’s not to say it sounds bad with humbucker guitars – quite the contrary, even handled my eight-string Strandberg with aplomb – but there’s a more cutting magic to be found here that I can’t get enough of.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

Given Yvette Young’s standing in the modern guitar landscape, it’s no surprise that her signature MixWave plugin so successfully carries her trick-filled live rig into the digital realm. The analog-like feel of the amp, to me, is arguably its greatest asset, as it really helps me connect with the myriad effects on offer and makes me play a lot tighter.

Every detail and control bestowed upon each effect pedal has been well thought out, creating one hell of a canvas for everything from luscious ambiance to house-of-mirrors madness, and the fully customizable signal chain really seals the deal.

For players wanting a user-friendly plugin that does the heavy lifting for you, chances are that its presets will have you covered, with only minor tweaking needed most of the time. But if you want to get really specific, this plugin has your back.

There’s enough within its ecosystem to give me all I need in most scenarios, and with the freedom of the signal chain, I’ve actually found myself using a slew of its pedals alongside other amp plugins, helping me get more use out of them, too.

In my opinion, the plugin is best used as intended. It can get heavy, and there’s something particularly thrilling about getting stank face tones with the fuzz and octaver engaged. Still, for cleans, ambient, and sparkly math rock tones alike, it’s an absolute humdinger, and that’s where it’s been getting most employment with my projects.

Guitar World Verdict: For fans of Yvette Young’s luxurious, so often ethereal, so often otherworldly guitar tones, her first signature plugin is a homerun. There’s a huge amount of colors in its palette, and the amp is a fantastic platform for all of its pedals, with a rich array of subtle tweaking options to hand. Be it a main rhythm/lead amp for rock, blues, and indie players, or used for pads and swells in settings from jazz and pop to metal, it feels like a must-have producer’s plugin for just how much ground it covers. It’s a lot of fun to play with.

Hands-on videos

Yvette Young

John Nathan Cordy

Nick Broomhall

• Best guitar plugins 2026: my top plugins to level up your recorded guitar tones

STL Tones has expanded its artist royalty ecosystem, allowing players to earn money from the tones they create.

Tone chasing can feel like a thankless task at the best of times, so the prospect of earning recurring royalties from the end result is certainly an extra incentive. Better yet, STL says over $2.5m of artist royalties has been generated on the platform so far.

Until now, its signature tone packs, sold through ToneHub and ControlHub, have been created by select guitarists and producers, including those behind Bring Me The Horizon and Converge. Spiritbox producer, Daniel Braunstein, is also on the platform.

Now, the scheme is now being rolled out to the public.

Players can upload their tone packs to ToneHub, or their mixing and mastering chains to ControlHub, and earn royalties when they used by others in STL’s growing community. Your tones will need to cut through the mix of options on the site, but STL feels it’s an important moment in the industry.

“The launch represents a shift toward sharing platform revenue directly with the users contributing to the ecosystem,” it says. “The launch also reflects a broader evolution happening across the music industry, where artists increasingly rely on multiple revenue streams to build sustainable careers.”

Indeed, extra revenue streams have become a necessity for the modern working musician, so the STL scheme seems like a worthwhile feather to add to your bow.

ToneHub subscriptions cost $14.99 a month. It give access to over 7,000 pro-captured tones, and allows users to capture and publish their tones for others to enjoy.

See STL Tones for more.

There’s no greater indicator of the rise of digital amp modeling than the most die-hard tube amp lovers being drawn to the dark side, and now John Mayer’s digital tone journey has taken the next step: he’s using his plugins in the studio.

His signature plugin from Neural DSP dropped in December, with a Dumble amp and a faithful recreation of his Klon Centaur, an indispensable mainstay of his rig, standout features as it went on to bag a 4.5* review from us.

Mayer’s backing it so much that he’s using it in the studio alongside his more tangible go-to gear.

“If I were in a pinch, I would always use this plugin, and I have already on records,” he says in a new video for Neural DSP. “I’m just not going to tell you which ones they are, and I don’t think you’ll know.”

For a guitarist who has always championed air pushing, and who went to extreme lengths to blast his tube amps at the Las Vegas Sphere, which has famously strict noise restrictions, it’s a shrewd move. As he says, the plugin isn’t replacing anything, but it’s proven worthy enough for a spot in his arsenal.

“That is not meant to replace an amp,” he confirms. “I’m always going to play tube amps. It’s meant to give you more options. It’s meant to bring the experience of owning a tube amplifier and owning this gear into your home, no matter who you are.”

Indeed, owning a Vibroverb alone is going to cost a few grand, and that’s without factoring in the Dumble, Klon, and everything else within the €169 (around $190, plus tax) plugin. Digitalized gear has been bringing high-end tones to the masses for decades, and this continues the tradition.

“It’s meant to democratize the gear,” Mayer believes.

And he’s become a sucker for its reliability too. No more “dying delay pedals” because you forgot to unplug them during a break, and the 9V had the life sucked out of it; no more temperamental amps.

“I’ve looked forward to the year I would be able to simply have one cable, a laptop, and two speakers, and have that be the rig,” he notes. “It’s an authentic emulation of amps, but it’s already chained in [to your DAW] and has all the flexibility. It’s what I use at home.”

Mayer has been teasing a new T-style guitar on the road recently and is on the star-studded guest list for Buddy Guy’s 90th birthday party in October. It’ll be quite the party.

Mixwave has teamed up with ethereal guitar and math rock sensation Yvette Young for her first signature plugin.

The Mixwave: Yvette Young package is a faithful recreation of Young’s signature sound, which relies heavily on hand-wired Vox AC30 combo amps. It’s a simple one-amp-and-cabinet setup, bolstered by Alnico Blue and Greenback speaker options, with a range of mic selection options and Impulse Responses in place to maximize its mileage.

It comes fully loaded with nine pedals and effects, bringing Young’s trick-filled pedalboard and live rig to the digital realm. There’s an “immersive” reverb, “dark analog delay”, and a harmonic tremolo, with a “classic analog-inspired chorus”, and a compressor promising “exceptional sustain” also on offer.

The lot is rounded out with a modern-voiced overdrive, a “raw and reactive” fuzz pedal, and a synth-like octaver, while a lo-fi modulator – by far the most unique pick of the bunch – makes dialing in Young’s most hazy and dreamy tones as easy as pie.

That pedal has been crafted to deliver a “warped and unpredictable character” which adds texture and movement to guitar signals, complete with Speed, Depth, Offset, and Mix controls, as well as Wave, Bright, and Sync mini-switches.

Players can rearrange their signal chain as they wish. But the collab hasn't called it quits there.

The plugin also benefits from a built-in EQ and compressor, a Transpose feature, plus controls for Focus, Contour, and Vibe, which smooth out harsh frequencies, provide “elegant” EQ-ing, and enhance top-end harmonics, respectively. And there’s a tuner, of course.

“You can customize like crazy,” Young says. “There’s a whole lot to explore, and I’m just at the tip of the iceberg!”

The plugin is priced at $139 but is currently sold at the introductory price of $99, with a 14-day free trial for the tonally curious.

It joins Yvette's growing stable of signature gear, which currently includes her Ibanez Talman and Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer pedal.

See Mixwave for more information.

Elsewhere, Young recently discussed how she ended up in a Super Bowl commercial and the realities of going viral.

What is it?

Neural DSP and Darkglass are intrinsically linked as brainchildren of Doug Castro, who co-founded Darkglass in 2009 before doing the same with Neural DSP in 2020. While he officially left Darkglass after a majority buyout from Korg in 2022, which has since brought the world the excellent Darkglass Anagram multi-fx/modeler.

Neural DSP’s Darkglass Ultimate plugin is the continuation of its previous Darkglass Ultra emulation, which saw Darkglass’s modern-classic B7K Ultra and Vintage Ultra bass overdrive/preamp pedal designs ported into software by the man who designed them.

But, far from just ‘the same but better’, Darkglass Ultimate expands on Ultra with some impressive looking new features that turn this into a complete suite for bass tone.

First up is a collection of pre-FX virtual bass effects pedals, which allow you to hit the B7K/Ultra Vintage with additional color from Compressor, Auto-Wah, Octaver and Fuzz pedal emulations.

Neural has also paired the preamps with expanded cab options, allowing you to choose between emulations of the Darkglass 210C 2x10 cab of the original Ultra plugin, and a recreation of the Darkglass DG810ES 8x10 - new for Darkglass Ultimate.

But it doesn’t stop there, because on the other side of the preamp section sits a nine-band graphic EQ, and the signal chain is book-ended by the new Post-FX section, home to Chorus and Delay effects.

There’s great news for Ultra owners, too, because if you’re reading that thinking ‘Sounds great, but I don’t want to pay again!” you don’t have to. Darkglass Ultimate is a free upgrade for current owners of Darkglass Ultra. At the time of writing, Neural is also celebrating its birthday with a whopping 50% discount across all of its plugins.

Specs

• Launch price: $99 | €119
• Type: Bass plugin/FX suite
• Formats: Plugin (VST2, VST3, AU and AAX), standalone
• System requirements: (Mac): Intel Core i3 processor, OS 13, 8GB RAM (Windows): Intel Core i3 processor/AMD quad-core R5 2200G processor or higher, Windows 10, 8GB RAM
• Contact: Neural DSP

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

It's fair to say Neural DSP has had a phenomenal rise to the top of the modeling game, and to some users this reputation is based on its hardware such as the Quad Cortex and Nano Cortex.

But to many, Neural is a plugin brand first thanks to its vast array of software offerings. Indeed, Darkglass Ultra was actually Neural’s first release back in 2018, making it a software brand before anything else. As such, Neural is well-versed in making software that’s perfectly primed for this section of the review: intuitive to use, while also bursting with features.

Darkglass Ultimate can run as a plugin inside your DAW (VST2, VST3, AU and AAX formats), but it can also function in standalone without a host. The layout of Darkglass Ultra follows a similar template to Neural’s other plugins. Along the top of the pane sit five icons which switch the main screen between Ultimate’s key sections (Pre-FX, Preamp, Cabinet EQ and Post-FX).

It’s all heavily graphically-led which makes navigation incredibly simple. The preamp screen feels like ‘home’, treating the B7K and Vintage Ultra as the ‘amp’ in the chain, and a quartet of selectable buttons at the bottom allow you to switch between the B7K/Ultra Vintage as well as choosing whether you’re running through the 2x10 or 8x10 cabs.

Using everything is as simple as making quick selections and tweaking, and there’s a lot to tweak. The preamps include three-way selectors for Attack and Grunt, allowing you to tailor the punch of your notes when the distortion is engaged by filtering how much high end (Attack) and low end (Grunt) signal hits the saturation stage.

As well as this, there are toggles for selecting the centre-frequency of the midrange EQ controls, and if you’re so inclined, you can set the preamp to mirror your EQ selection between clean and driven sounds for a uniform tonality when shifting between clean and driven tones.

Neural has also included a host of utility features which includes a Transposer (capable of shifting the incoming signal up or down by 12 semitones), a Gate for minimizing noise, Tuner, Metronome and full MIDI control.

Put simply, the graphical representation and signal flow feels like having hardware in front of you. Neural’s handy Tooltips give you a quick description of any of the icons or controls you don’t understand, and the only thing I’d change about the way it functions would be adding the ability to change the order of the Pre-FX pedals.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

Collectively, Neural and Darkglass conjure words such as ‘modern’, ‘contemporary’ and ‘aggressive’ to mind. In other words, tones that will ensure note clarity, punch and the ability to be heard in a dense, heavy mix.

Upon loading the preset menu, there’s no doubt that these things are present in spades. We get presets designed by modern prog/metal titans including Karnivool bassist, Jon Stockman, Adam “Nolly” Getgood, Forrester Savell (Karnivool, Tesseract, Aristocrats) and more, as well as a selection created in house.

What’s quickly apparent is that the quality of the presets – which cover the B7K and Ultra Vintage fairly evenly – means that you'll be able to find most core sounds without having to create your own. From weighty, wooly heft, to spiky, punchy, blended distortion through to gritty vintage overdriven tones, there’s a lot on offer and helpfully pre-made for you.

The B7K is likely to be the preference for many players, offering surgical, grinding distortion, while allowing you to keep your low end intact by blending in the clean signal. The attack control is a great offering too, particularly if you want to achieve a heavier ‘pluck’ without imparting too much dynamic processing from the Compressor.

All of this is almost to be expected, though, particularly if you’ve used the original hardware or Darkglass Ultra for these applications before. The big surprise, however, comes when loading some of the Neural preset sounds. Here, you’ll find a bit more tonal breadth, designed to showcase just how versatile the Darkglass Ultimate suite can be.

There’s ping-pong delays, synth sounds and my particular favorite, Dub Joggler. This preset delivers an extra-smooth, fat bass sound that’s addictive as it is satisfying. Somehow, it manages to remove the bulk of your high end while still remaining entirely articulate, producing a huge sine wave-like tone.

Placing a touch of Auto-Wah in front and playing palm-muted lines with my thumb sends me down a dynamic rabbit hole of crystal-clean, filtered pops, squiggles and slides, enhanced even further by adding the Transposer to take the pitch into pseudo-five-string territory. Who thought we’d look to the kings of gritty bass for silky neo-soul tones?

Turning to the effects, and it’s a similarly intuitive story. Dialing-in sounds from the Compressor’s three controls (Compression, Level and Blend) is simple, perhaps too simple for some, but it clamps down nice and quick, while experimenting with the Blend control helps tame things to retain some dynamics if you go too squishy.

The Auto-Wah has controls for Sensitivity, Range, Attack and Decay speeds, and as with the Compressor, it produces usable, musical results quickly. Likewise, the Octaver follows the tradition of Octave 1 (-1) Octave 2 (-2) and Dry controls.

I found Octave 2 to be a little overpowering unless you’re playing on the upper frets, but it’s perfectly capable of the classic Boss OC-2 synth bass effect where you play an octave up and dial-out everything apart from the -1 octave signal. Run that into the Fuzz pedal and you’ve got a big, synth-y square wave sound which I’d love to have placed the auto-wah after.

After the preamp comes the Cab, EQ and Post-FX sections. The cabinets can be mic'd in stereo with a host of options for microphone types, including classic dynamic and condenser microphones as well as bass drum mics and a specialized SubKick mic for channelling the ultra-lows. You can drag the mics around, or get finer control using the settings for each, which even includes panning them and phase inversion. It adds an entire extra dimension to the variety on offer and in a world increasingly reliant on speaker IRs, it's great to have this much control.

The EQ is straightforward and allows for forensic sculpting of your tone. Finally, there's the Chorus and Delay Post-FX, and both aim to deliver analog-style approximations of modulation and echo. The delay in particular is very impressive, with controls for tempo syncing, Modulation and Ping-Pong between left and right channels. Neural describes it as "simple" in the manual, but it sounds great – instantly leading me to some drop-D Justin Chancellor-style riffs – and offers a lot considering it's 'only' part of this plugin.

Verdict

The EQ is straightforward and allows for forensic sculpting of your tone.

At a glance, it’d be easy to think you have Darkglass Ultimate figured out before plugging in as a heavy-focussed source of gained-up bass sounds. It does that, of course, but the reality is there’s so much more on offer here. So much, in fact that Neural has already announced that Darkglass Ultimate won’t be joining its Plugin Compatibility line of hardware-compatible plugins.

That’s due to a licensing agreement with Darkglass, which effectively stops the plugin from threatening Darklass’s Anagram hardware modeler/multi-FX. So, it’s worth knowing if you’re already pondering purchasing the plugin to stock your Quad Cortex or Quad Cortex mini: this is likely to remain as a software-only product.

But, it doesn't seem fair to penalize Darkglass Ultimate for what it can't be, especially when it performs so well. This is a fully-formed product in its own right, and it's upright on its own two feet as a DAW-based bass solution or standalone plugin.

Guitar World Verdict: Think Darkglass is only for heavy genres? Think again. Yes, this plugin has you covered for vintage and modern overdrive tones, but it'll also walk the walk for many other styles, to overlook that would be a missed opportunity. It delivers brilliant sounds and excellent usability at a price that makes it great value for money.

Also try

Hands-on demos

Neural DSP

Rabea Massaad

BreakingtheRelapse

• Best Neural DSP plugins: 10 recommended Neural plugins tested with sound samples

Fractal has entered the plugin world for the first time in a seismic move that sees the modeler specialist go up against Neural DSP and IK Multimedia in another corner of the market.

As one of the guitar world’s earliest pioneers in amp modeling and multi-effects pedals, Fractal has amassed a loyal player base dedicated to its various hardware products, which include the AM4, VP4, FM9 and beyond.

Its efforts so far have been solely focused on physical stompboxes, meaning Fractal has been contending with the Neural DSP Quad Cortex, IK Multimedia TONEX, Fender Tone Master Pro, and Line 6 Helix, among many others, with competition in the digital gear market reaching new highs over the past few years.

Now, though, Fractal has branched out into the digital sphere with ICONS – a brand-first release that puts Fractal’s acclaimed amp modeling and effects tones into a native plugin for DAWs and desktops.

It’s the first drop of many, which will form part of a wider plugin roll-out that will eventually look to position Fractal as a serious competitor to Neural DSP’s own Archetype plugin range, Line 6’s Helix Native offering, and IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube suite.

ICONS will also be going up against some other established names in the amp and effects plugin realm, including the Universal Audio Paradise Guitar Studio and Positive Grid Bias platform.

But, like we say, Fractal commands a particular stronghold in the market, and the thought of having its world-class modeling tech available as a native plugin for the first time – something, it should be said, that has been a long time coming – is a very tempting prospect indeed.

The first ICONS drop is dubbed “Fullerton”, and it features 36 US-style amps. In other words, it comes loaded with a bunch of Fender-inspired amp models, stretching the sonic spectrum from 1950s Tweeds, 1960s Black Panels, 1970s Silver Panels and more.

At first glance, it’s a really, really comprehensive assortment of Fender models, with amps inspired by Princetons, VibroVerbs, Bassmans, Twins, Deluxes, Supers and plenty more. And, like Fractal’s hardware pedals, these are fully interactive analog amps – no captures here – with corresponding tone-tweaking EQs and controls.

They’re joined by a range of DynaCabs specifically chosen for the included amp types, as well as a range of stompbox and studio effects lifted directly from Axe-Fx. More than a dozen drive pedals, as well as delays, reverbs, modulations and EQs, are all included in the drop.

As mentioned, ICONS is set to be a series of plugin drops, and there’s plenty of scope for Fractal to expand what is already shaping up to be a very promising venture.

“In short, ICONS delivers the sound and feel that Fractal Audio is known for, now available for your DAW or desktop, with everything you need to create truly iconic tones,” Fractal says.

“ICONS is not an Axe-Fx in software – its effect blocks feature streamlined types and controls that make it fast and natural to create great, complete tones centered on the amp and cab.”

The whole ICONS suite is available for $299.

Visit Fractal for more.

What is it?

Although it has owned PreSonus since 2021, Fender’s consolidation of the affordable gear and software firm – rebranding its DAW, PreSonus Studio One Pro, as Fender Studio Pro 8 – marks the Big F’s boldest statement of intent yet.

Coupled with the launch of Fender-branded motion controllers and interfaces, the new-look software represents a huge shakeup in the home and professional recording spheres, making it the first guitar manufacturer to have a product of its kind. It hopes it will give it the extra firepower needed to compete with industry leaders like Apple’s Logic Pro and Steinberg’s Cubase. As Fender told Guitar World at its launch, this is all the delights of Studio One Pro with Fender’s “special sauce” to boot.

Sweetening the deal are two big pulls: Unlike Logic Pro, the software isn’t exclusive to Apple, and, to celebrate the rebranding, Fender has chucked a glut of virtual Fender amps and pedals into the software as standard. To be exact, there are 39 guitar amps, 18 bass amps, alongside 125 modelled effects pedals, meaning many players wouldn't even need to fire up their go-to plugins when searching for a specific guitar tone.

Following the October 2024 launch of Studio One 7, which introduced AI-powered tools like stem separation, Global Transpose, and tempo detection, Fender Studio Pro 8 gets a clean aesthetic and workflow refresh, along with other key features, including Studio Verb, a reverb effect with different room modes and a spectral display.

There's also a great consideration for how the software will be used with every session. Chord Assistant is another new tool, recommending chords to users as they thrash out ideas, which will be welcome news to those with second-rate theory knowledge, and an AI conversion tool for turning audio files, be they recorded or imported, into editable MIDI notes, and notation software making for a powerful one-stop-shop.

Notably, NAMM 2026 saw a near comical amount of firms introduce new recording interfaces, aimed at everyone from amateur podcasters and budding bedroom musicians through to the top brass of producers. That emphasizes how big the home and studio recording market is now, and how much it’s expected to grow. So, by sticking its instantly recognizable logo front and center, and throwing even more quirks and perks into already powerful software, Fender is bidding to stay ahead of the curve.

The question is, does this make Studio Pro 8 the arch nemesis of Pro Tools and Logic Pro, or is this more of the same with a new coat on?

Specs

• Price: $199.99 | £169.99 | €199.99 (perpetual licence) $19.99 | £19.99 | €19.99 (monthly)
• Type: DAW
• Features: Full DAW recording suite with 39 guitar amps, 18 bass amps, and 125 modelled effects pedals. Also: Notation, Chord Assistant, and recordings to editable MIDI conversion  
• Connectivity: Inputs, outputs, full MIDI and expression pedalboard compatibility, and an onboard effects loop for the Mustang and Rumble amp sims
• Bypass: True, buffer, both (switchable)
• System Requirements: macOS® 13.5 (Ventura)**, Windows 11 22H2 or higher, or Ubuntu 24.04 LTS or higher, incl. its derivatives. 8 GB RAM minimum and 40 GB hard-drive space.
• Contact: Fender

Usability

Usability rating: ★★★★½

Fender’s modus operandi with Studio Pro 8 is for a DAW ecosystem that puts the guitar at its heart, and so pretty much every detail is built with that in mind. The general workflow leverages a signal chain-like system, with its new Channel Overview panel, giving a snapshot of what’s going on.

One thing I love is that here, simplified versions of .plugins are displayed with a universal black metallic aesthetic. So, if I want to edit my amp sim, I can do so without having to load the full plugin up. Right-clicking on a certain parameter, meanwhile, allows me to get straight into automating it. The entire workflow process is extremely streamlined and intuitive. Everything sits where it belongs, and nothing is hidden away behind reams and reams of menus and sub-menus.

The only issue I found with the Channel Overview is that, say with a Neural DSP amp plugin, the controls it displays, which include Input Gain, Doubler, and Transpose, are a little limited. Editing the amp's three-band EQ and accessing the overdrive pedal before it requires loading the amp properly.

For Fender’s native plugins, like the Pro EQ, I actually get a more intuitive interface with the EQ curve visible and editable in real time. For the Mustang and Rumble amp sims, I can see the plugin itself, just in a smaller window, but nothing is editable until the plugin loads. It's a useful feature that is a little disappointingly underutilized.

As someone with years of video editing with Adobe Premiere Pro, I found the workspaces and general setup to be incredibly similar, especially with the browser menu, which is split into categories for instruments, effects, loops, Splice (to access its Splice library integration), and internal and cloud-stored files. All are designed with drag-and-drop functionality in mind, and I frequently found myself doing things instinctively, not needing the instructions to guide me. It’s pretty novice-friendly.

Altering everything from tempo and time signature changes to volume automation work via key frames, which is another feature to compound the Premier Pro comparisons. I can click and drag, meaning I can have hyper-specific tempos like 120.45bpm, or I can manually input the information, which is the method I went for to keep things tidy.

I did encounter a few bugs along the way, including the tempo displaying a change when one wasn’t programmed in, although this didn’t actually affect the audio. But on the tab generation feature – a genuine life/timesaver – it added a load of messy and irrelevant tempo changes to the page.

The quickest way to get set up working on a project from an external source is by dropping a MIDI track into the project’s ruler, which then provides the relevant tempo/signature information, and populates tracks as they were named elsewhere.

Another great feature is Replace within the Mustang and Rumble amp and effects suite. If I’ve picked my amp and now want to shoot out a range of fuzz pedals to go before it, clicking Replace when the pedal is selected allows me to then cycle through the range of options, making it really easy to find the fuzz for me.

A search function with the amps and cabs would be a great benefit, though. Swiping from one end to the other can be a laborious task; typing ‘Vox’ into a search bar would be a huge time saver.

Finally, stem separation and notation features are definitely useful, but they aren't perfect. One track I fed into it didn't separate the two guitar tracks, so counterpoint parts were a little messy in the MIDI scroll, and it really struggles with lower-tuned guitars. But it still represents a decent time saver.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Fender Pro Studio comes with a lot of free instruments and plugins, but naturally, it’s the guitar amp suite that draws me in. After a very quick trawl through its pretty vast collection of amps – which is far from exclusive to Fenders – it’s clear that what I get here is a hefty sample of the Tone Master Pro’s sonic delights, and there’s a lot to love.

The Fender Twin combo is, unsurprisingly, a wonderful pedal platform, its clean, neutral tones easily mouldable to being a shimmering ambient tone with smatterings of delay, reverb, and a pinch of chorus, or kicked into gear with an overdrive; I particularly like the Tube OD for having switchable 12AX7 and 12AT7 tube sims. Other classic Fender flavours, from a Princeton to the warm and welcoming vintage grit of a ’59 Bassman, are pretty convincing, but not the best amp sims I've ever heard. For me, the most fun was had messing with the surprise additions, and they’re all very responsive to my pick attack.

Amongst them is the Excelsior, the wacky-looking, retro-futuristic combo Fender brought out in 2012 as part of its "Pawn Shop Special," and its caked in ‘50s edge-of-breakup, bright, spanky, but not without a bit of balls kind of tones. I went from zero to Dave Davies on a Charvel San Dimas, even with its Fishman Fluence humbuckers set on the modern voicing. Cranking the gain also gives that ‘cracked speaker’ sound and then some.

Upon discovering there were both a Vox AC30 and a Rangemaster-style treble booster, my excitement peaked, and dialling in a tone akin to Rory Gallagher's Shadow Play was quick, easy, and made pinch harmonics an utter delight.

What I did find was that the metal offerings, from its takes on the 5150 and Bogner Uberschall, were a little cliché; they’re geared for classic rather than modern metal. They had Gain galore, but as someone who likes a warmer rhythm tone, it was hard to dial that in without getting too fluffy. The Friedman BE-100 was the pick of the bunch for me here, and I had some success pushing a rockier amp like an ‘80s Marshall, but I can't see these amps getting much use when I have Neural DSP offerings right there instead.

Effects-wise, there is so much to get lost in, with personal highlights including the presence of a Big Muff, Memory Man Delay, and an EG7 Graphic EQ, in lieu of the amps having EQs as standard, which is something I'm really accustomed to with Neural DSP plugins.

I’d also like to give a quick shout-out to the Studio Verb plugin, which brings incredible, immersive reverbs to the fore, offering a little more Pink Floyd etherealness to whatever tones I dial in.

There’s a lot to explore, and I found the bar to be high wherever I tinkered. There aren’t any bad amps, pedals, or cabs per se, and even if there aren’t mic sim options for the cabs like on a lot of competitor plugins, there is plenty of scope for pretty much all genres I could think of.

Verdict

At long last, a DAW puts the guitar at the very heart of its operations, while packing it too with versatile, high-quality amps and effects, and a swathe of songwriting and band-life-assisting features built for the creative guitarist’s everyday.

At its core, it gives me everything I need to create and demo my ideas, with the new features designed to get to the heart of the matter, for speeding up boring processes while writing and collaborating with bandmates, with the chord assistant, Notation integration, and recordings-to-MIDI conversion being the standouts there. Sure, there are teething issues, but it's a big step forward to giving guitarists a catch-all toolkit for everyday.

Admittedly, there are a few features and functions that would be nice, like searching within the Mustang and Rumble amp sims, but with a really intuitive, drag-and-drop workflow and a finely assembled toolkit, for me at least, it's goodbye Reaper, hello Studio Pro.

Guitar World verdict: At long last, a DAW puts the guitar at the very heart of its operations, while packing it with versatile, high-quality amps and effects, and a swathe of songwriting and band-life-assisting features built for the creative guitarist’s everyday.

Hands-on demos

Fender

Chris Rocha Canal

• Best DAWs for guitarists: guitar-friendly music-making software

NAMM 2026: Fender has forged an exclusive global partnership with Samsung to bring its educational Fender Play service to TV screens for the first time.

The online service, designed to guide new players of electric and acoustic guitar, bass, and ukulele through their first chords, riffs, and songs, has proven successful since its 2017 launch. It’s helped encourage the patience and retention that learning an instrument requires, allowing people to learn in their own time and at their own pace, and working through the ranks of skill levels.

Until now, however, Fender’s lesson service has been limited to mobile, tablet, and computer screens, thus necessitating the Samsung collaboration to expand into TV territory. Greater accessibility to the service, then, is a big plus. Although for now, the app is exclusive to Samsung TVs, meaning it's a step, rather than a stride, in the right direction.

“With video-based lessons on Samsung TVs, learning an instrument fits naturally into daily life and helps players reach goals faster,” says Hun Lee, Executive Vice President of the Visual Display (VD) Business at Samsung Electronics. “By bringing Fender Play to TVs for the first time, Samsung is turning the largest screen at home into a place to learn and play together.”

This rollout is especially beneficial for Fender Play’s Jam mode. It aims to turn a player’s screen “into a stage,” with a visually alluring background accompanying selectable, specially curated background tracks for putting newly honed skills to the test.

“We are thrilled to bring Fender Play’s immersive learning experience to Samsung TV users, helping guitar enthusiasts take their skills to the next level,” adds Cliff Kim, President of the Fender Play Foundation.

“Our mission has always been to educate and inspire players globally, and this partnership allows music lovers to learn, practice, and play with Fender Play’s high-quality, interactive lessons directly on their Samsung TV.”

The app is expected to be released in the first half of 2026 and is free to download. Pricing packages for Fender Play subscriptions are currently split between $19.99/£19.49 a month, or $149.99/£144.99 annually for a saving of around $7 per month.

See Fender Play to learn more.

The news marks a bumper couple of weeks for Fender, which recently expanded into the home audio market where it will rival Marshall once more. It also relaunched the Fender-owned PreSonus Studio One DAW as Fender Studio Pro.

What is it?

Being no strangers to the world of guitar plugins, Universal Audio has thus far stuck with modeling individual amplifiers for its plugin offerings. Paradise Guitar Studio builds on that foundation, offering a modeling experience that, in Senior Product Designers James Satiago’s words, will “make any guitarist feel like they’re playing in a dream studio”.

That means 11 vintage and modified tube amps, 35 cab and microphone options, and 25 effects, including some of UA’s studio staples like the 1176 compressor, Lexicon-style reverb, and tape delay. There’s now a built-in guitar tuner, which was notably absent from their previous offerings, and 300 presets that cover rock, blues, indie, metal, and loads more.

Specs

• Launch price: $199
• Type: Plugin
• Formats: Mac/PC
• Amps: 11
• Effects: 25
• System requirements: macOS Big Sur 11, Monterey 12, Ventura 13, Sonoma 14, Sequoia 15 and Tahoe 26, Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit editions), Intel, AMD, or Apple silicon processor, Internet connection to download software and authorize UAD Native plug-ins (UADx), Free iLok account, Compatible with iLok USB (2nd generation or higher) but not required
• Plugin Formats: VST 3, AAX Native, 1-10GB space, 100GB recommended
• Contact: Universal Audio

Usability

To install Paradise Guitar Studio you will also need to download the UA Connect software, which houses all of UA’s Native plugins. The install time was rapid for me, but it may differ depending on your computer’s specs and the rapidity of your internet connection. For my testing I used my MacBook Pro M3 and my preferred DAW, Pro Tools.

If you’ve ever used any Universal Audio plugins previously, then you’ll easily be able to navigate your way around the interface. Presets are accessed by clicking on the text at the top of the window, which opens a separate, movable, and resizable window that allows you to navigate through the presets using various filters. To the left of this is the guitar tuner, and to the right some additional settings like stereo inputs and tempo syncing to your DAW.

Clicking through to the preset window, some of these are genre-based, for example rock or metal, whereas others are more about the textures of the sounds, like warm, dark, or bright. You can search via text, and you can favorite presets too, which I’m always massive fan of in any software. Overall, it’s very intuitive to navigate, and even though it doesn’t look visually impressive, for me the UA preset browser does the job.

Your signal chain is presented just below the preset name, in a block format that will be familiar to most guitarists. The input stage features a dedicated gate, and a volume knob to set your incoming signal. You then have the option for five different blocks in the pre-amplifier section, the entirety of which can be deactivated by clicking the circular button in the top left, and it has its own dedicated volume control.

Next up is the amplifier section, which features a single block for amp and cab each, again with the ability to deactivate and an individual volume control. There’s no option to run a dual amp setup within the software, but you can easily achieve this effect by running two tracks in your DAW. Finally, we get to the post-amp effects section, which again has five blocks where you can place effect modules. The output features another dedicated volume knob, as well as a limiter.

Adding effects to the preset is just a case of double-clicking on the particular section you want to adjust, which opens up a new window that lets you pick your devices. There are no limitations on where you can place them either, so if you want your reverb before your fuzz pedal, you can do that. One thing I do find here is that it’s not so easy to remove a block once you’ve added it; you have to navigate back to the ‘none’ block at the start of each menu, which gets a little tiresome when auditioning sounds.

Although the headline number is 11 amplifiers, in reality it's actually six core sounds, five of which have been represented in UA’s individual plugins and one which is new to the software world, the Enigmatic ‘82. Each amp has several variations, as well as the ability to make deeper changes to the circuits themselves via changing tone stacks, bright caps, or just utilizing the different channels each amplifier has. The basic amp controls are also always visible at the bottom of the window if you need to do quick edits.

The cab models are set in stone however, so there aren’t tons of tweaks you can make here. The mic choice is pre-ordained for each cabinet, with the only real change you can make to this portion being the amount of room sound you hear. That might be a dealbreaker for some, but you can also remove the cab entirely if you want to use your cab loader of choice or another software with 3rd party impulse responses.

Sounds

Grabbing my favorite Telecaster and plugging straight into the Hi-Z input of my audio interface, I set about demoing some of the tones to see how they compare to the myriad other software I’ve tested from Line 6, Neural DSP, Positive Grid, IK Multimedia, and others. Taking a scroll through the presets, my eye is immediately drawn to the appealingly titled ‘Big Mean Green’ preset.

It’s a Marshall-based tone with a 4x12 cabinet and a Nobels overdrive pedal at the front of the amp. I quickly deactivate the delay and reverb modules as I want something tighter, which delivers a pleasingly distorted rhythm tone. It’s nicely reactive to pick attack and the volume control of my guitar, and I’m surprised to not have to make any adjustment to the built-in gate when messing with the volume control.

Heading to the ‘Ambient’ tab of the preset browser, I click ‘Clean JBF Analog Ambi’, which delivers a first impression of the Enigmatic model. Having reviewed the Universal Audio Enigmatic 82 Overdrive pedal, I sort of know what to expect here. It’s not too dissimilar to the archetype Fender clean, with plenty of low-end and a sparkly top. It retains a lot of clarity even when I switch to the series circuit on my guitar, giving me plenty of fatness without losing any articulation.

With this preset, I get a nice sense of the stereo spread too, thanks to the combination of a 57-style dynamic mic and 414-type condenser alongside the micro pitch delay and a spring reverb. The delay ping pongs around to each side of my headphones, while the core amp tone feels more like it’s sitting in the middle of the stereo field. It’s a beautiful tone, and I find myself playing for well over twenty minutes on just this particular preset.

Moving on to some lead tones, I dial up the obviously Gilmour-inspired ‘Comfortably Sustained’, which utilizes the latest of UA's individual plugin releases in the Showtime 64 amplifier. The tones are absolutely monstrous, aided by both a compressor and Big Muff clone in the front end to lead to some suitably epic lead sounds. I’m straight into big bend territory, eking out every last ounce of sound through vibrato, and no doubt pulling some funny faces throughout.

Verdict

Universal Audio’s Paradise Guitar Studio is a welcome addition to the UA guitar lineup, offering a usability that’s more in line with what Line 6, Positive Grid, and IK Multimedia have been doing for a long time now. The sandbox of great guitar amp tones and a range of effects is pulled off in typical UA fashion, delivering a stunning sound quality that’s easily the match of any other guitar plugin out there.

There are fewer options than others in terms of both amp and effects sounds, and particularly the cabinet section of the plugin. During my testing I couldn’t help feeling it would be nice to switch out mics or change the angles and distances as I can in other software, so this is one place it falls short in comparison to other guitar plugins I’ve tried. The lack of an IR-loader also feels like a bit of a miss for me, as these are getting more and more popular amongst guitarists.

Guitar World: In terms of sounds, Universal Audio Paradise Guitar Studio delivers a utopia of modeled guitar tones that will suit pretty much any guitarist out there. The sounds are simply sumptuous, whether playing clean and ambient stuff or piling on the saturation for lead tones and heavy riffing. It won’t offer tone tweakers much in terms of the cabinets, and there’s no built-in IR loader, but if you want record-ready guitar tones at the click of your mouse button, it’s got them in spades.

Also try

Hands-on videos

John Nathan Cordy

Steve Kinney

Yvette Young

What is it?

John Mayer is a guitarist who's now become a household name. He is one of the few artists who has managed to demonstrate a virtuosic mastery of the instrument in the context of mainstream music - just ask any guitarist who has attempted that Neon riff.

From a guitar player's perspective, it’s more than just songwriting and technique that impresses - it’s tone too. Now, John Mayer is teaming up with Neural DSP to release a guitar plugin that makes these tones available to the masses. And the decision by such a world-renowned analog aficionado to collaborate on releasing models of his favourite tube amps and effects isn't just a big deal for fans and Neural DSP, but a showcase of just how far the technology has come.

What John Mayer brings in guitar expertise, Neural DSP matches with plugin know-how. The company has a renowned history in building guitar plugins with artists such as Cory Wong, Rabea Massad, and Misha Mansoor, all getting the Neural treatment, as well as authentic recreations of sought-after amplifiers demonstrated by the likes of Neural’s Soldano SLO 100 X plugin.

What makes this collaboration extra interesting is that John Mayer isn’t someone who has been known to use digital modeling to the same extent as some of those aforementioned artists in Neural’s Archetype roster.

Sure, he has been spotted with a Quad Cortex at Coachella, but is still primarily known for a discerning collection of boutique and vintage amps.

So, having someone like John Mayer diving in the deep end with a plugin is a real vote of confidence in where Neural’s digital modeling technology is at.

The Archetype: John Mayer X, then, is a meeting of two leaders in their respective fields that should yield some heavenly guitar tones. To achieve this, the plugin models three of John Mayer’s favorite amps - the Vibrato channel of his 1964 Fender Vibroverb, the Dumble Steel String Singer #002, and the Two Rock John Mayer Signature Prototype ‘Signature #83’.

You can use these individually or a blend of all three at once, and they all come with matching cabs and an array of microphones that can be swapped and moved.

Then, modeled after his actual rig, we have a collection of overdrive pedals featuring a recreation of the infamous Klon, as well as a Tube Screamer and a Blues Breaker. Other effects include an EQ and a compressor he uses in the studio, a harmonic tremolo, spring reverb and a Studio Verb which can mimic either a hall or plate reverb.

And of course, we have the usual global features in Neural’s Archetype plugins - a Noise Gate, Transpose function, and Doubler.

Specs

• Launch price: €199
• Type: Amp and FX modelling Plugin (hosted or standalone)
• Formats: Windows and PC
• System requirements: MacOS 13 Ventura or higher/Windows 10 or higher, AMD Quad Core R52200G/Intel Core i3/Mac Silicon M1 or higher, 1GB storage space, 8GB RAM
• Formats: VST2, VST3, AU, AAX
• Contact: Neural DSP

Usability

Usability rating: ★★★★½

As you will have gathered, there is a lot here to get stuck into, and thankfully, it's made accessible via Neural’s tried and tested interface. It’s highly visual, with the signal chain (Pre FX, Verb and Trem, Amp, Cab, EQ and Comp, Post FX) displayed at the top and the three amps plus the Three-In-One mode, situated at the bottom.

Just below that signal chain sit the global functions. All of this is represented via handy icons or easily understood text, which makes it a breeze to jump in and start playing.

The titles on the amps are a little hard to read, so unless you spot the somewhat discreet pop-up at the bottom of the screen as you select an amp, it may be a little difficult to discern the name of the one you are using if you're not familiar with their aesthetic. To be clear, it is obvious which one is currently selected, just not obvious what it's called.

The images representing the amps, cabs, and effects are all highly detailed, complete with movable dials and drag-and-drop microphones on the cabs. As a result, tweaking settings on the plugin feels oddly like adjusting real pieces of gear.

Furthering this is the fact that the plugin can run standalone. No need to fire up a DAW to fiddle around with some tones, just open the plugin app and go. When it comes to saving your tones, however, they all go into the same folder named ‘User’ with no easy way to organise them from the plugin.

Spoiler alert - this plugin sounds fantastic (more on that later), so I’m likely to be creating a large number of tones within it. Therefore, I’d like an easier way to organise the tones I create into separate folders for different projects/sounds so I can quickly recall them later.

This is mitigated a little by a tag function, meaning I can search tags for tones I’ve created, but I’d still prefer to have things stored in separate folders as well.

The last thing to mention here is the MIDI learn function. Simply right-click, select MIDI Learn, and adjust the MIDI controller you wish to use. Easy.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Given that we have a collection of presets from John Mayer himself, I’m going to start making some noise with those, then go from there. Lacking a PRS Silver Sky (Mayer’s signature PRS), I grab my Fender Elite Stratocaster and get stuck in. Immediately, the problem with the presets is a good one; I don’t want to stop playing them and evaluate the rest of this plugin.

The highlights for me are the Gravity Clean and Lead 2 Live Room presets. The former offers a glassy, clean sound, featuring plenty of low end but also a healthy amount of high. All on the edge of breakup so that it compresses nicely, reflects picking dynamics, and cleans up beautifully on the volume control with my Strat's fourth-generation Noiseless pickups.

The latter is a smooth, mid-forward lead, with a ton of compression and sustain, making it feel incredibly easy to play. There is a smattering of reverb to create some space, all of which makes it an absorbing tone. There are also presets from a large selection of other renowned artists such as Cory Wong, John Petrucci, and Joey Landreth that really showcase the breadth on offer with this modeled rig.

So, we know there are great sounds in here. Both the Gravity Clean and Lead 2 Live Room presets make use of all three amps at once. Looking at them individually, they are all amps suited to that edge of breakup, pedal platform thing, and are well-balanced in their tonal differences.

Smooth Operator (1964 Fender Vibroverb) is the brightest of the bunch, the Headroom Hero (Dumble Steel String Singer) is the most mid-forward, and the Signature 83 (based on the prototype for Two-Rock's John Mayer Signature amp, of which only 25 were made) brings more low end than the other two.

When it comes to how they break up, the Smooth Operator gives out that gnarly, aggressive Fender-style thing, breaking up relatively early on in the volume controls sweep.

The Headroom Hero unsurprisingly has a ton of headroom until you activate the FET switch. At which point, the clean headroom gives way to a pleasingly smooth overdrive. This amp also features a Mid switch that will move the midrange into a higher frequency.

The Signature 83 sports a ton of headroom, just not quite as much as the Headroom Hero, and is more full-range. All three of the amps have Bright switches to add some bite.

Each amp has EQ options. A subtle Bass and Treble on the Smooth Operator, a three-band EQ on the Headroom Hero, which, as well as being a much wider EQ sweep than the Smooth Operator, also has a pronounced effect on the gain, and another powerful three-band EQ on the Signature 83, which also includes a more subtle presence control.

It’s worth noting that the Headroom Hero is a little more streamlined than the real thing, in that it lacks the High and Low Filter controls, as well as the Deep and Rock/Jazz switches. Personally, I’m not missing them in this Mayer-esque context, but if you are after a more authentic replica of that particular amp in digital form, you may be left wanting.

Same too with the Signature 83; it’s missing the Mid and Deep switches, plus the Contour control of the Two Rock John Mayer signature it's based on.

Even with that streamlining of the controls, there is still a lot of versatility within the bluesy pop genre John Mayer resides. The amps can go from a delightful, crystal clear clean to a fun, old-school breakup and a rewarding, smooth drive. It's all very touch-responsive too, which makes them feel alive under the fingers.

Adding extra tonal possibilities is the cab section, within which we can switch between 11 different mics and edit their position to taste, as well as load in our own impulse responses if we want to.

What is clear, though, is that this plugin will not baby you into a good tone. For example, turn the Smooth Operators Bright switch on with the Treble in the wrong place, and you will find yourself having an ear-piercingly bad time.

This is arguably a good thing. It shows that the amps have been authentically recreated and demonstrates a trust that the user will know how to get the best out of them. To this end, I find that the Pre FX section is a useful tool.

The first pedal there is the ‘Just A Boost’, based on the Keely Katana. This fattens things up nicely, and once it’s on, you're going to want to leave it on. The Antelope Filter is next in the chain and is modeled on the EHX Q-Tron. An auto-wah style effect, I had a ton of fun recreating the intro to I Don’t Trust Myself, as the effect is very reactive to picking dynamics.

No blues/rock/pop rig would be complete without a complement of drives, and here we find some real treasure. The Halfman OD (Klon) and the Tealbreaker, which switches between Blues Breaker and Tube Screamer-style overdrives.

The Tealbreaker’s Tube Screamer side is great for recreating leads the likes of which can be found in Slow Dancing in a Burning Room. By far, my favourite way to use these drives is to have the Tealbreaker set up for this soft type of lead, and then bring in the Halfman OD for some mid-forward saturation.

The BB side of the Tealbreaker provides some great, full-range rhythm sounds, which I find a ton of fun for choppy, aggressive bluesy riffing, as well as the Hendrix-style, Bold As Love thing covered in John Mayer’s Continuum album.

The last item in the Pre FX section is the Millipede Delay, which is based on the Way Huge Aqua Puss. Emulating a short analogue delay with just Time, Feedback, and Blend controls, it’s a simple tool for adding a little slapback and beefing up those leads.

We aren’t quite done with effects before the amp, as next in the chain is the Gravity Tank. This is a two-in-one effect, providing movement ranging from a subtle wobble to an organ-like sound via a harmonic tremolo and some space courtesy of a convincing, delightfully drippy spring reverb.

It would be nice to have the option to move the Spring Reverb post-amplifier, but alas, none of the signal chain can be moved around in this way, which is a little limiting for anyone wanting to experiment with the models here.

What we do have post-amp is a powerful four-band parametric EQ that provides everything needed to make studio-ready tone tweaks, and a compressor. Another limitation comes with the compressor, as the only controls are Input and Output.

This is because the other settings one might expect to have access to are preset to Mayer’s specifications, allowing you to get straight to Mayer-esque tones. While I appreciate the benefit of this, I would rather have the extra versatility to tweak for myself.

The Post FX section consists of the Dream Delay and Studio Verb, with the reverb emulating both a Hall and a Plate. Here lies the longer delay times that the Millipede delay is lacking, and a more modern-sounding Reverb compared to the aforementioned spring reverb.

The delay is a fairly simple affair with just Mix, Feedback, Time, and Hardness controls. It’s that last one that I find particularly useful, as at zero, it darkens the delay, keeping it out of the way of the mix. Combine it with the Ping Pong option, and there are a lot of ambient tones to be found here.

The Studio Verb sports a Mix, Pre-Delay, Decay, Low Cut, and High Cut. My favourite setting is the Plate on a fairly high Mix (around 45%), with a short Decay and a little Pre-Delay. It results in a sound that encapsulates the guitar tone without getting in the way of it, adding a lovely amount of space, which is incredibly pleasing for those ballad-like clean riffs.

The highlight of the plugin for me is using these effects with the ‘Three In One’ amp, which blends all three amps together, recreating the setup John Mayer uses live and in the studio. The amplifier’s different EQs complement each other nicely, resulting in a well-balanced nature that lends itself to clean and edge-of-breakup sounds.

Turning the gain up here yields an old-school type of bitey overdrive. As I go to change settings on each amp, to find that I can’t. Similarly, the cab section is disabled too, meaning I cannot tweak any of the mic settings.

In this mode, the three amps and cabs are set to John’s preferences, with the idea that the user is able to blend in each amp to taste and adjust drive via an overall Gain control, and some reverb through a Room Send.

Again, like with the compressor, I see the benefit here, but I would rather have the extra versatility of editing each amp and cab for myself.

Instead, I set up the Three-In-One amp to an edge-of-breakup tone and make use of the drive pedals in the Pre-FX section. This is so much fun that I spend way too much time here. Combine this with the rest of the effects, and it’s bluesy/pop/rock heaven.

To round this all off, we have a couple of useful utilities in the Gate, Transpose, and Doubler. The Gate works well, easily getting rid of amplifier hiss.

Transpose allows a 12 semi-tone shift either way. Single note lines translate well throughout the range, and chords are good down to four semitones, at which point the more sophisticated voicings start to become a little dark and warbly, which is an impressive range for these types of chords.

The Doubler is a real plus in my book. It introduces an almost imperceptible delay and creates an impression of a stereo spread, similar to the effect of double tracking audio and panning the two tracks hard left and right. Once this is experienced, it’s hard to bring yourself to turn it off.

And I could say the same thing about the plugin as a whole. I just want to keep playing it.

Verdict

At €199, this is priced a little higher than other Archetype products, but for the John Mayer fan at least, this is the perfect plugin. Which is a pretty obvious conclusion, but recreating iconic tones from a highly discerning modern guitar hero is no mean feat, so Neural DSP deserves the plaudits for having done it so successfully.

Most will not be able to get the real amplifiers modeled here, so it’s a real treat to be able to recreate those tones within the plugin at sensible home-friendly volumes, even considering the streamlined controls of the Headroom Hero and Signature 83. With the included pedals, Neural has convincingly recreated the important parts of John’s rig.

Personally, I would have liked a bit more tweakability in the compressor, the ability to change settings on each individual amp in the Three-In-One mode, and more flexibility in ordering the signal chain. The flip side of having these set to John Mayer’s preferences, however, is that it points you squarely at his tone, which makes sense given that this is a signature plugin.

And for those of us who play live with a Quad Cortex, there will be a whole other element to be explored when this X edition becomes compatible with the unit soon.

Guitar World Verdict: From ambient cleans, bluesy crunch, and mid-forward saturated leads, the John Mayer Archetype X covers the gamut of Mayer’s tones. Modeling all the important elements of his rig, it’s the perfect plugin for fans and provides endless fun for guitarists in that bluesy/pop/rock realm.

Also try

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Neural DSP

Rabea Massaad

John Nathan Cordy

Vertex Effects

The Studio Rats

Pete Thorn

• Best Neural DSP plugins: 10 recommended Neural plugins tested with sound samples

Neural DSP and John Mayer have formed a landmark partnership to release Archetype: John Mayer X – a new plugin that makes some of Mayer’s most iconic guitar tones available to the masses in digital form.

It is, quite simply, one of the most significant gear launches of the modern era. On one side of the partnership is John Mayer – a 21st century guitar hero, lauded for his unrivalled guitar tones and famed gear collection, which comprises a range of boutique and vintage amps and pedals.

And, on the other side is Neural DSP – the market’s leading innovator in the amp and pedal modeling space, who, over the course of its various plugins, artist collaborations, and hardware launches, has changed the face of the amp modeler landscape as we know it.

A partnership between the two, then, seems surprising at first. Particularly, given that Mayer is largely a loyalist to vintage analog gear and tube amps. His tone – the muse of many YouTubers and social media accounts – is carefully curated from a stacked rig that has over the years featured Two Rocks, Dumbles, vintage Fenders, and a fluid pedalboard that always has a Klon Centaur at its heart.

For Mayer to put his faith and name into a plugin, therefore, is a watershed moment for modeling – and, likely, a compelling signal to players who may have felt reluctant to try the technology before.

It’s also a statement of Mayer’s intent to embrace new technology – similar to his approach with refining the Strat for his signature Silver Sky – and the ability of Neural DSP’s cutting edge software in convincing an analog connoisseur to place his faith in the product.

There have been signs this day would come, too. Not only was a Fractal used to record some of Sob Rock’s guitar parts, Mayer also played a Quad Cortex during a Coachella guest spot, and praised a Universal Audio amp modeler.

And so, Archetype: John Mayer X – it offers models of Mayer’s most prized gear, which have been behind some of the most influential studio and live guitar recordings of the past 20 years.

For amps, the plugin is “grounded in the amps that anchor his clean tones”. That means there are three standalone models based on his 1964 Fender Vibroverb, his Dumble Steel String Singer #002, and his Two Rock prototype signature #83.

There’s also an all-encompassing Three-In-One amp, which recreates the multi-amp setup that Mayer uses live and in the studio. Here, the amps – and matching cabs – are blended and routed exactly like Mayer’s own rig.

These are paired with matching cabinets for each amp, including Mayer’s Fender combo with a 15” CTS speaker, his Dumble cabinet loaded with a vintage EVM12L, and the Celestion G12M Greenback from his Two Rock cab.

Five essential John Mayer pedals have also been modeled. There’s the Justa Boost, a model of his always-on Keeley Katana compressor; the Halfman OD, a recreation of his indispensable Klon Centaur; and the Millipede Delay, a replica of his Way Huge Aqua Puss.

There’s also the Antelope Filter – a take on his EHX Q-Tron, which is essential for songs such as I Don’t Trust Myself (Loving You) – and the Tealbreaker, a two-in-one drive effect with sides for the Ibanez TS-10 and Marshall Bluesbreaker pedals.

The plugin also features Dream Delay – modeled after Mayer’s go-to Providence Chrono-Delay – as well as an additional compressor and EQ. And there's a tweaked UI, reportedly introduced at Mayer’s request, for greater usability.

It is, in other words, a comprehensive plugin that covers all the bases that any discerning Mayer fan would ever desire in order to tap into his tone.

As Neural DSP CEO Douglas Castro tells Guitar World of the plugin’s creation, the company first started working with Mayer back in 2022, and began work on the Archetype earlier this year.

“We had a call with John and after about 20 minutes of explaining that we could do pretty much anything he was looking for, he became genuinely excited,” he says of the collaboration. “That’s essentially how the relationship kicked off.”

The project was headed up by Neural DSP Plugins Product Manager François Barrillon. It was a partnership like no other, he explains to Guitar World, because it involved the Neural DSP team shipping all their modeling equipment from the HQ in Finland to Mayer’s studio.

It was a success, though, and the results speak for themselves. Mayer has already given his signature plugin its live debut on the radio during a Life with John Mayer radio show.

Guitar World has already reviewed Archetype: John Mayer X, too, with Pete Emery praising its ambient cleans and bluesy crunch, calling it "the perfect plugin for fans".

“There are still plenty of people who doubt digital amp modeling,” Barrillon reflects in an upcoming interview.

“I’m not trying to convert anyone, but honestly, if it’s good enough for John Mayer to use on stage and to develop a full plugin with us, it’s good enough for basically any player.

“I’m convinced that even die-hard tube amp purists will be very surprised by how dynamic, warm, and genuinely ‘real’ this plugin feels. I know plenty of tube amps that sound far colder and more lifeless than this.

“I’ll never forget sending John the first prototype,” he continues. “I was so nervous and thought, ‘God, I hope this sounds right.’ Two days later, he sent me a video of himself in the studio playing the Slow Dancing in a Burning Room solo through the plugin… and it sounded just like the record. That’s when I knew we had it.”

“John’s sound has inspired guitarists around the world, and it was a privilege to work with him directly to recreate the rig that anchors his tone,” Castro said in a press release. “There’s an intimacy to the way his rig responds – it breathes, it opens up, it carries emotion – and capturing that behavior was one of the most meaningful projects we’ve taken on.”

Archetype: John Mayer X is available now. It is priced at €169 in the US plus tax calculated at checkout, and €199 in the UK/EU VAT included.

Visit Neural DSP for more, and keep an eye out for Guitar World’s upcoming interview with the company on how one of the biggest gear collaborations of the modern age came to be.

[Update: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated Archetype: John Mayer X is Quad Cortex compatible. This compatibility will be made available at a later update]

Universal Audio has introduced Paradise Guitar Studio, a new amp sim plugin featuring 11 hand-picked vintage and modified tube amps for boutique clean and crunch tone chasers.

Packing classic amps, cabs, mics, pedals, and studio effects, it offers “an entire pro guitar recording chain in your DAW,” and aims to be all a player would need for a studio-grade recording session.

The plugin’s six amps essentially mimic its celebrated amp-in-a-box pedals, which have even won over tube amp fanatic John Mayer. Its Woodrow ’55 is based on Fender tweed combo amps from the ’50s, the Dream ’65 Reverb on a Fender Deluxe Reverb, and the Ruby ’63 channels a Vox AC30.

There are also carefully modelled takes on a ‘68 Marshall Plexi, and a Dumble Overdrive Special, made famous and legendary by Stevie Ray Vaughan, and brought to pedalboards by UA via the Enigmatic ‘82.

Its speaker cabinet spread is just as impressive, with Fender-inspired and Greenback-infused cab sims included in its arsenal. Effects-wise, toys include a Klon clone, Ibanez’s green tube screamer, Phase 90 phaser, Memory Man-inspired delay, and a 1176 compressor, which draws directly from its iconic rack-mounted unit.

Paradise has been designed to take the rocket science out of tone sculpting, with Universal Audio saying players can “capture the perfect sound in minutes with curated speaker cabinets and expertly-placed studio mics.” Post-amp effects like tape echoes and plate reverbs offer the finishing touch.

A tasty 300+ presets, ranging from blues and indie to metal and funk, also make diving into its tonal offerings super accessible, especially for those who love to reverse-engineer their plugins.

Finally, the plugin also offers a built-in tuner, noise gate, and limiter to stop clipping. It compounds UA’s desire for this to be a one-stop shop for guitarists.

As far as the interface on the native plugin is concerned, it’s guitarist-friendly – putting the amp and cab front and center, with pre- and post-effects slots nestling at the top, between its input and output level controls. The slots are limited to five on each side, and the effects are not restricted to a particular side of the amp, which helps each pedal double its diversity.

“Guitar tone is an endless journey to find your voice, so we designed Paradise to give you the keys to a studio full of classic tube amps, speaker cabs, stompboxes, and effects,” says UA's tone guru, James Santiago.

There’s a lot to like about the Universal Audio Paradise Guitar Studio, and its $199 asking price (currently reduced to $149) is sure to widen its appeal, too.

See Universal Audio for more.

The release comes hot on the heels of its Showtime '64 plugin, emulating amps championed by Keith Richards and the Beach Boys, as well as a major update to its pedals that meets surging user demand.

It might be that time of the year when we’re all spending our hard-earned cash on a Black Friday guitar deal, but when it comes to software, it’s also a great time to bag something for literally nothing. This year, you can pick one of ten plugins from Universal Audio completely free of charge, making it a great way to up your recording game without spending a dime.

This is my fourth year covering the Black Friday deals, but it’s the first time I’ve seen a company offer a selection of plugins totally free. It means it’s worth it for pretty much everyone, as there’s bound to be one from the list of ten that you don’t already have.

• Grab yourself a totally free plugin over at the Universal Audio site

As I own way too many Universal Audio plugins, I’ve used all ten of them previously, and for me, the Verve Analog Machines Essentials flies under the radar but can be really useful for your production. Quite often I’ll chuck it on a guitar track that needs a little extra push, but I don’t want to adjust the EQ or spend time rebalancing the entire mix.

If you don’t have one already, the 1176 Classic FET Compressor is another easy choice. 76-style compression has been on music for so long that it’s one of those things that just sounds right. It’s a fast-acting compressor, so great for tracks with transients, letting them sit better in the mix.

You can also bag the LA-2A, which is another popular compressor, but one that behaves in a different way from the 1176. I like to use a 76 followed by a 2A on vocal tracks, using the 76 to tame the fast transients while the LA-2A does a job smoothing any peaks or bringing up the overall level.

There’s also a guitar plugin included if you need some quality amp simulation, with the Universal Audio Showtime 64 included in the deal. It’s a great clean amp sim with bags of headroom, perfect as a pedal platform, whether you’re using an all-in-the-box setup or you’re feeding your audio interface with hardware stompboxes.

If you want something more creative, the Universal Audio Galaxy Tape Echo is also included, perfect for adding vintage tape delay tones to your guitar tracks. It’s super flexible, and I particularly love the BPM sync feature which locks in your repeats with the tempo of the song, adding instant professionalism to your tracks.

Shop more Black Friday deals

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What is it?

Finnish tone fiends Neural DSP have been empowering bedroom guitarists for years now, with a suite of amp sim plugins growing exponentially since Fortin Nameless digitized the Meshuggah signature amp in 2018.

A slew of signature plugins for everyone from Plini and Mateus Asato to Gojira and Cory Wong have followed, all powered by TINA, its unique digital modelling software. And they’ve followed a familiar recipe: three amps, pre- and post-amp effects, a graphic EQ, cab sims, impulse responses, and heaps of tone. They, too, have typically offered a secret weapon each time – the Gojira added a Whammy-style effect and octaver to the game, Tim Henson’s a pitch-shifting Multivoicer.

But what makes these plugins different is that they don’t just copy well-loved amps. They always alter the recipe, such as adding a Presence dial to a Marshall that doesn’t usually have one.

Teaming up with Periphery and Jackson signature artist Misha Mansoor for its latest, things are no different.

Chief among its toys is the one-two of its Laser pedal, inspired by the DigiTech Whammy and delivering 19 pitch-shifting and ring-modulating modes, and the Glitch pedal. Built on granular processing, it takes a guitar signal, chops it, and shuffles it around for mad, very rhythmic chaos.

For pre-FX, two pedals from his brand, Horizon Devices – the Compressor and Precision Drive – sit in pride of place in the plugin's virtual pedalboard. They're joined by a Tape Echo, Dual Octaver, and Chaos pedal, a distortion pedal designed to imitate a chainsaw.

Amp-wise, there's a Mesa/Boogie-style clean, a Rhythm amp that’s a hybrid of an EVH 5150 and an Omega Ampworks Granophyre, and a Lead amp that focuses on hot-rodded British tones.

Post-FX fun comes from a Modulator pedal for chorus and flanger flavors, a Stereo Delay, and Reverb, complete with an ethereal Shimmer mode that Neural users will recognize from its other plugins. There are also the universal features, including in/output dials, a Noise Gate, Transpose, and Doubler.

It’s one of the most feature-packed Neural DSP plugins, and arguably its most anticipated in years. So does it live up to expectations?

Specs

• Launch price: €125
• Type: Plugin - 64-bit VST2 / VST3 / AU / AAX / Standalone
• Formats: Mac/PC
• System requirements (minimum): macOS® 13 Ventura (or higher), Intel Core i3 Processor (i3-4130 / i5-2500 or higher), Apple Silicon (M1 or higher), 8GB of RAM or more. Windows 10 (or higher), Intel Core i3 Processor (i3-4130 / i5-2500 or higher), AMD Quad-Core Processor (R5 2200G or higher), 8GB of RAM or more.
• Contact: Neural DSP

Usability

Those accustomed to Neural DSP’s amp sims will find this offering instantly recognizable. For those who aren’t, everything is well signposted and easy to find, with ample space left to make the plugin visually stimulating. The not-so-metal pastel colour scheme is a welcome touch, too.

Where this plugin asserts itself, however, is with its extended arsenal of effects. If anything, it’s a little overwhelming knowing where to start, given how extensive its toy collection is.

Looking at the traditional pre-FX, the Clarity Compressor offers a huge scope of tightening and detail accenting options, vastly outshining the compressor of Archetype: Henson, my previous go-to.

The Precision Drive, meanwhile, makes tones a little more animalistic, but does have a tendency to get a little fizzy around the edges. I’ve learned to handle it diligently, and the Drive dial itself is more often than not backed off entirely. The Attack and Bright controls do the necessary work.

The Tape Echo is a novel addition, but I found myself turning on the Stereo Delay far more often, unless I wanted things to get really psychedelic, and the modulations are quite on-the-nose. They’re nothing remarkable, but useful bits of seasoning nevertheless.

The most fun can be had with the rest of its effects. The Chaos pedal is everything the Insane mode of a Line 6 Spider wishes it was, adding a buzzing, feral hiss to heavy rhythm tones, and the Glitch and Laser pedals are a whole other world unto themselves.

As its name suggests, the Laser is built to go pew pew, delivering sci-fi tones across 13 pitch-shifting presets and six ring-mod options.

The Trigger mini-switch is handy for instantaneous and momentary application, but the expression pedal is what I abused the most.

In Pedal mode, plugging an expression pedal in allows me to control its sweeps manually, while Envelope Mode reacts to my playing.

Here, the Sensitivity dial reacts to signal hum when cranked. It is better behaved when rolled back, but it isn't perfect. Using an expression pedal or MIDI automation for full dominion makes it far more usable, and a very fun tool to have, especially considering how wild it can get, with everything from Star Wars battle scene sounds to subtle detunes and inverted whammy sounds.

Doing a convincing Car Bomb impression has never been easier.

The ace up this plugin's sleeve is the Glitch, and it's definitely wild. While the Laser fares better when kept on a leash, this is all about randomness. Sure, there are parameters to set, such as defining the glitch loop length, character of the grain produced, and mix controls, but the randomness should still be embraced.

Of its four modes, Sequence is the most controlled, with notes played back in the order I played them, but with glitching strangeness injected in, with Interfere doing likewise, but with shorter grains that are far more random; it's the hyperactive little brother.

Pitch Delay is as I expected, with warped versions of my playing spat back out while Texturizer reverses the grains, for some really luscious sounds, especially on clean and edge-of-breakup tones, and was the one I frequented the most. It's certainly the easiest to get musical results from.

The pedal also reacts to pre-recorded parts, making it a fun post-production tool for adding unusual sounds in ambient breaks and outros, for instance.

In truth, I feel I’ve only just scratched the surface of what it can do, which is a plus and a minus – it’s not the easiest to master, but its wild antics are well worth exploring.

Sounds

Notably here, Mansoor has taken creative license when designing its trio of virtual heads, with the Clean amp inspired by his love for high-end watches, while the tiny, portable, and very modern-looking head offers a visage in huge contrast to the British, Celestion Creamback sounds of the Marshall amp it is based on. It’s important, then, to do your reading before diving in; otherwise, you may find yourself sculpting an amp for the wrong intended purpose.

The Clean amp certainly lives up to its billing via crystalline tones with a little edge, like a clean channel on a high-gain metal amp, as opposed to the gentle charm of a blackface Fender. Sprinkle in a little reverb, and you've got a clear, if not a little vanilla, clean amp that is prone to breaking up when I play with a little more force.

Use it as a tonal base for way more mileage. Leafing through the in-built presets, it has been transformed into a pretty convincing organ by utilizing the Dual Whammy function and Glitch for some trippy reverse delays. And it can also go heavy with the Dual Octaver, Drive, and Chaos pedals, combining for stank face-inducing fuzz anarchy, and trippy ethereal to boot. And as Haken's Rich Henshall proves with his presets, it can handle solos too, with the Drive's attack dial giving it enough of a push. It's not a one-trick pony.

The rhythm amp, conversely, is a little less transformable. It comes loaded with two voices offering different EQ voicings, with voice one more like the snarling 5150 tones most metal players are quick to gravitate to, and voice two bringing a more saggy saturation to the fore. Both handle the octaves well, performing with grit and clarity even in downtuned eight-string depths.

The Lead amp is warmer still, really leaning into hot-rodded Marshall territory with the bit between its teeth. There's an altogether more vintage feel to it, albeit with plenty of punch, meaning that it takes a little more taming for tighter sounds. But do so, and you have a feisty rhythm amp here which can be brought to contemporary speed, meaning if this were the only plugin you own, there are two solid-sounding amps for double-tracking metal. Maybe less so for jazz, although I did coax some fusion-y sounds out of it

Its lead tones are buttery smooth with clarity, even when the gain is pushed. That being said, its limited employment as a lead amp in the extensive bank of presets is surprising. I found it incredibly easy to craft a powerful but clear lead tone within a couple of minutes, leaning into what it's meant for. But as is the case with the Clean, there is more to the amp than meets the eye, and as a rhythm machine, it outstrips its stablemates. There’s a greater bite for me, with a heat that can be whipped into shape for those tight, gated riffs.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★☆

Expectations should be tempered before diving in, because Archetype: Misha Mansoor X doesn’t exactly behave like Neural DSP’s other plugins, and that is both its potential weakness and saving grace. I may have found the Lead amp far better at Rhythm tones than the Rhythm amp itself, and that the Clean amp can do way more than chime, but with that understood, I was able to manipulate the amp in far more ways.

As an avid Neural DSP user, I’m not so sure it quite dethrones Nameless and Gojira outright. Instead, it can be one of the gang – it’s not better or worse, just different. Different enough to want to blend with other amps, even if it isn’t necessarily the first one I load up every time.

It has enough features to make me content solely in its ecosystem, and, after hours of exploring, there are still way more wonders to be found. As a toolkit to aid my creative process, there’s always something to get inspired by.

Guitar World verdict: Two of its three amps are the most versatile and manipulable amp plugins I’ve ever come across, and its ridiculous roster of accoutrements has proved to be inspiration on tap. Navigating it is a piece of cake, choosing how to play with it is less so.

Hands-on videos

Neural DSP

• Best Neural DSP plugins 2025: 10 Neural plugins tested with sound samples

With the massive improvements in digital signal processing and modeling technology over the past decade, we can all agree that the line between analog and digital has gotten significantly closer, and the same applies for hardware in the recording world. Universal Audio’s digital recreations of consoles and outboard gear gives you an incredibly good representation of these expensive hardware units, and they’re even cheaper in the Rocktober sale with plugins starting from just $24.

It’s one of quite a few early Prime Day guitar deals I’ve seen emerging over the past few days and although the sale will last the entirety of the month, there’s no guarantee that discounted plugins will stay that way. The end of the sale will take us right up to the start of the Black Friday guitar deals too, so it’s a great one to get you ahead of the game if you’re the sort that likes to plan ahead.

• Save big in the Universal Audio Rocktober sale with plugins starting from just $24

I use quite a few different UA plugins in my own productions, whether I’m recording entirely in the box using guitar plugins, or I’m miking up a 2x10 guitar cab with a dynamic and condenser mic in a well-treated space. It’s really amazing how close they mimic the sound of the actual hardware I use, and starting with the plugin version of a hardware unit gives you a good insight into how the actual thing works should you come across one in the wild.

Here are 5 of my favorite plugins, all discounted and available in the UA sale right now.

Universal Audio’s latest plugin, the Showtime ’64 Tube Amp, is designed to authentically reproduce the 100 watt Fender Showman amp, “the American tube amp that powered generations of rock, surf, and pop music”. Even better, it’s free to download for a limited time.

The audio software expert says every detail of the amp’s circuitry – adored by everyone from Dick Dale, The Beach Boys and Keith Richards, through to modern-day tone enthusiasts like Jack White – has been captured. So, expect “shimmering cleans, bold crunch, and the famous tube-driven vibrato heard on countless recordings.”

It’s paired with classic microphone and cabinet setups for “album-ready” tones in just a few clicks. It works in all flavors of DAW, and natively, too.

Controls on the amp closely resemble those of a tangible Fender amp, with Volume, a three-band EQ, Speed, and Intensity dials for the Vibrato, and a Normal/Bright switch for true '60s swagger. Above the amp itself, the in/output levels can be tweaked, as well as the Room volume for a more traditional feel.

“The Showman was a different beast [to Fender Deluxe and Reverb amps], where it had no reverb. It was meant to be put through closed-back cabinets,” says James Santiago, Senior Product Designer at Universal Audio.

“It was about big, loud, punchy, clean tones. And one of the great things about that is you can take that volume control, get to two or three, four, five, even, and you're still not distorting in a way where the smaller amps that had two rectifiers and 18 watts would start to crumble.

“This thing is a solid-state rectifier,” he continues. “It's got a tight bottom end, so I can push things to seven, eight, and nine and get a little edge, but still maintain sort of the uniqueness of the guitar.”

Lastly, it comes with a range of presets, each tagged, making it easier to find the right genre, style, or flavor on the fly. Tags include Rhythm, Warm, Country, and Modern.

Typically, Universal Audio plugins are trapped behind the paywall of its US Spark platform. That unlocks over 60 plugins, from instruments to amp sims and standalone effects for $19.99 a month. But the Showtime '64 Tube Amp is free to add to your arsenal of plugins for a limited time.

Beyond that, a free 14-day trial period is available, and the purchased plugin can be added to three different devices.

Download now over at Universal Audio .

Back in January, Universal Audio channelled its amp modelling pedals into native plugins, and it changed one GW writer's playing habits for the better.

Positive Grid has ushered in a bold new era for its acclaimed BIAS FX platform with BIAS X – a newly engineered guitar amp and effects software that leverages artificial intelligence for a huge scope of tone-generating possibilities.

Since its launch around a decade ago, the BIAS ecosystem has proven to be one of the most respected and used tools for the average guitar player, undergoing a handful of revisions and updates to stay up to date with the needs of modern recording players.

The BIAS X, though, goes wildly above and beyond any precedent that Positive Grid may have set in the past, delivering a platform that might just be the most advanced amps and effects software currently around.

It’s no secret that we’re living in the age of AI, nor is it still a surprise when guitar gear that leverages such tech gets released. The Groundhog Audio OnePedal and Guitar Center’s Rig Advisor shopping assistant are but two examples.

Positive Grid has largely been at the forefront of those advances. Its Spark 2 practice amp debuted Spark AI, which can be used to create guitar tones from prompts.

In a continuation of that work, Positive Grid has now broadened the scope of its AI tech in BIAS X. There’s a lot to dig into, but the biggest advances are, unsurprisingly, concerned with artificial intelligence.

BIAS X offers both ‘text-to-tone’ and ‘music-to-tone’ functions. The former is probably more familiar – insert a text prompt for a guitar tone you have in your head, and the software will attempt to bring that to life. According to Positive Grid, you can get creative with prompts, too: “Try prompts like ‘sunset over Saturn’ and hear them come to life,” it says.

This extends into tone refinement as well. Rather than fiddling with digital parameters, BIAS X is also reportedly capable of making adjustments in real time. “Need more bite or less fuzz?” Positive Grid says. “Just ask for adjustments. Done.”

This streamlined workflow is at the heart of BIAS X, with Positive Grid asserting it represents the culmination of nearly eight decades of accepted tone-tweaking norms.

“The first guitar tone platform that understands musicians,” Positive Grid says of the new launch. “After 80 years of knobs, menus, and guesswork, you can finally just say what you want. Powered by Agentic AI, BIAS X creates tone from your input – fast, accurate, and made to sound like you.”

The ‘music-to-tone’ function mentioned above is even more interesting. With this, players can upload any song or guitar track and BIAS X will apparently recreate the guitar tone. To achieve this level of accuracy, Positive Grid trained its software using, erm, quite a lot of reference tones.

“Trained on over a million tones, BIAS X understands the sound of every genre, era, and technique,” it explains, “so you can explore tone without limits.”

At its core, the BIAS X package comes with 33 amps, 62 effects and all-new cab simulation, which have been crafted using an all-new advanced tone engine. Over 200 amps were analyzed in the making of the software.

This thorough approach "captures circuit-level dynamics like transformer sag and power amp response” – usually the downfall of digital simulations – for a harmonic richness and dynamic response that “traditional modeling can’t match”.

And, like all AI, BIAS X is a fully learning model, which means that the more you play through it, the more accustomed it will reportedly become to your playing style and tonal preferences.

The AI actually works, too. In Guitar World's early review of BIAS X, the software was commended for its tech, concluding, "The AI genuinely streamlines the creative process, without diminishing the ability to tweak manually."

The artificial intelligence aspect of BIAS X only scratches the surface of the wider software, which also features an IR Loader, a new workflow and overhauled UI.

Ultimately, this looks to be the logical and expected next step of AI's assimilation into the world of guitar gear, and while this advancement may have seemed like a novelty five years ago, BIAS X is very much a timely reminder of the age in which we live. Expect more of this in the future.

BIAS X is available now for $149.

Visit Positive Grid for more.

What is it?

You’ll have noticed by now – artificial intelligence has arrived, and apparently it’s here to stay.

There’s no hotter potato than AI in the world of tech; there’s also ongoing discourse about the ethics surrounding its use, especially when it comes to creative pursuits. Is it fundamentally right or wrong to hand over certain onerous tasks to AI, in order to streamline creative processes and, perhaps, achieve interesting end results? More importantly, does it get you closer to the guitar tone you’ve been searching for?

Positive Grid has become a mainstay in amp modeling over the past decade. The Spark desktop amp is now one of the go-to choices for a really capable small amp, its Spark Neo headphones offer silent, wireless practice, and the company’s BIAS amp and effects modeling software pushed boundaries - allowing the user to play ‘amp designer’ and offering component-level tweaking for a truly in-depth experience.

The company’s latest arrival to the guitar plugin party, though, takes things a step further. BIAS X is touted as “the first fully generative, guitar tone design software powered by agentic AI” – this being a type of AI that can perform automated tasks with or without human supervision, requiring minimal intervention in order to achieve results.

In theory, then, this seriously speeds up the process of tweaking and developing your tone.

Inside, we’ve 33 amp models, 63 effects, an IR loader and all-new cab emulation technology. Not an exhaustive list of models compared to some rivals, but still plenty to be going on with. Positive Grid also boasts of enhanced realism due to the use of machine learning and component modeling.

Another headline feature is the new tech behind the ‘Text-to-Tone’ and ‘Music-to-Tone’ features. That generative AI is used to develop settings and create tones based, respectively, on written user prompts, or by analysing music that is fed into the software. From there, the user can write further prompts to tweak the result.

Specs

• Launch price: $149
• Type: Plugin
• Formats: Mac/PC
• System requirements (minimum): macOS 11.7, 8th-generation Intel Core i5, 8GB of RAM Audio Plugin Formats: Audio Units, VST 3, AAX Native, 1GB of available storage space; Windows 10 Version 1903 (10.0.18362, 19H1) Intel Core i5 Processor, 8GB of RAM, Audio Plugin Formats: VST 3, AAX Native, 2GB of available storage space
• Contact: Positive Grid

Usability

To begin with though, I fired up BIAS X and went old-school. As a veteran of Line 6 GearBox, a former Kemper Profiler owner and a current user of a Line 6 HX Stomp and its associated HX Edit software, I’m well used to amp modeling software and thus far, of course, I’ve had to slum it with manual editing.

Over the years though, this has taught me some valuable lessons about dialing in the best possible sounds for my own needs, and regardless of how advanced the AI is, it’s still important to me that I get to adjust settings using my own skill and judgement.

Thankfully, BIAS X makes this a smooth process. I began with a good-sounding default black panel Fender amp model, added one of the selection of compressors, a rotary speaker emulation and a Space Echo, experimenting with mic placement in order to fine-tune the end result.

After only the first few minutes, I'd saved a good-sounding clean patch with some choice effects. The visuals are also good, displaying your signal chain in an easily understood, smart-looking style.

Sounds

There are, as mentioned, lots of amps and effects to get stuck into. As a nerd, it's slightly disappointing not to be able to mess around virtually with component changes and circuit design, but BIAS X's streamlined approach will probably appeal to more users.

And the amp models are on point already – BIAS X is a satisfying-feeling plugin to play through, and valve amp enthusiasts seeking a pleasing response from amp modeling might be pleasantly surprised.

The amps have a fairly standardized control set, so aren’t necessarily true to the originals (the Mark-series Boogie model omits the de rigueur graphic EQ, for example) – but this streamlines the dial-in process and alleviates 'mission creep' – good tones are generally simple to achieve without too much fuss over minutiae. And combined with all the various effects, you'll likely end up where you were aiming.

If you're struggling though, help is at hand. The AI capability of BIAS X is a headline feature, so it's time to find out what it's made of.

As luck would have it, I've some songs to brush up on for one of my projects, a Toto tribute band. Dialing in a Steve Lukather-esque sound is something I already know how to do (the playing is work-in-progress), but why not take the weight off my feet and let BIAS X have a crack at it?

I typed a request for a guitar tone befitting Hold the Line. Around that time, Luke was using a handful of different amps, including a Rivera-modified Fender (many a ‘70s session-slinger's secret weapon), as well as a Marshall amp or two.

To this end, Text-to-Tone calls up a Plexi model, with a Tube Screamer and a Dyna Comp in front, a little reverb afterwards, and straight away the gain level, EQ shape and overall response is impressively close to what you'd hope for.

The same goes for my next request – a cleaner, mix-ready background tone similar to the verses of Rosanna and various other Lukather rhythm parts. A different spread of gear materialized, but with a similarly competent end result.

The AI didn't quite hit the nail on the head when I typed in, simply, “djent” – but it did generate a high-gain metal tone, soon whipped into shape by requesting “tighter” and, then, “even tighter”. If you've a specific tone in your head but don't know where to start, the AI functionality might be very useful to you.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★☆

BIAS X is a very interesting and capable newcomer to the plugin market. It doesn't quite have the tweak-ability, or the mass of amp and effect models some rivals can muster, but there's still enough here to create pretty well any sound you could need.

The flip-side of this is that it's among the easiest amp modeling plugins to get to grips with, and to get great results in very short order. And it sounds excellent – that advanced modeling process has clearly paid dividends.

If you need to generate a variety of useful tones quickly and with minimal fuss, BIAS X might be just the ticket.

Guitar World verdict: Regardless of your feelings on AI as a creative tool, Positive Grid's new foray into generative amp modeling has some serious potential. It's superbly easy to use, has a good spread of features and the sounds are up there with the best in the plugin market.

Hands-on videos

Positive Grid

• Positive Grid Spark Mini review

Fender is wading into the DAW world with Fender Studio – an entry level, free-to-download recording app that comes equipped with official and authentic Big F guitar amp and effects models.

Available on macOS, Windows, and Linux – as well as iOS and Android mobile devices – it provides “the entire signal chain from guitar to recording”, with a host of Fender amps and effects pedals in between and tools for post-production.

The app is fully compatible with audio interfaces, meaning electric guitars, bass guitars, vocals, and plenty beyond them can be tracked, and it has been made for “players and music creators at every level, making it faster to capture and share ideas digitally”.

At a glance, Fender dropping a free DAW might seem a little bonkers, but with PreSonus (the firm behind Studio One Pro) part of the wider Fender family, it makes perfect sense. As such, Fender has tapped into the developer’s expertise, with its “world-class recording, editing, and production capabilities” transferring across.

Beyond one-tap recording, which takes the complication out of recording software and focuses on performance, there are amp sims for guitar and bass (a ’65 Twin Reverb guitar amp and Rumble 800 v.3 bass amp) – five pedals and an integrated tuner.

Those who sign up for a free Fender Connect account will also get access to six extra amps and effects, including a ’59 Bassman, Supersonic, and Tube Preamp. It also creates a comprehensive virtual pedalboard taking in overdrive, chorus, tremolo, fuzz, flanger, and a few flavors of reverbs and delays.

And when it’s a wrap on tracking, there are studio-quality editing tools to make the most of. This includes a compressor, EQ, reverb and delay, as well as some more obscure effects like a de-tuner, ring modulator, and vocoder.

It’s not just about recording, however. Fender Studio also comes loaded with 20 professionally recorded and fully editable jam tracks, ranging from pop ballads to all-out metal. Each track comes with multitrack audio and there are options to transpose, mute, solo, speed up or slow down individual parts for tailored shredding.

Fender Studio has been designed to synergize with the firm’s other digital offerings: Fender Play for learning, Fender Tone for tone-sculpting assistance, and Fender Tune for getting record-ready. This release, then, adds to a wide-ranging digital ecosystem that also offers greater competition to the market.

Of course, it’s to be seen whether the software can go toe-to-toe with other free DAWs like Reaper and Garage Band or if, perhaps limited in scope, it shines better as a mobile app for on-the-fly recording.

Notably, the promo video – which stars Joe Satriani-backed shredder Alyssa Day and the “Nile Rogers meets Eddie Van Halen” talents of Dre DiMura – focuses solely on the mobile version of the software, hinting at the above. But there is serious expertise behind its creation, and its $0 price tag is not to be sniffed at. Plus, official comments from Fender are talking up its full capabilities.

“Whether you are new to recording or a seasoned pro, Fender Studio delivers authentic Fender tones and intuitive editing capabilities to record, jam, create, and inspire, for free,” says Max Gutnik, EVP & GM of PreSonus, Jackson, Charvel, Gretsch, and EVH. “We are super-excited to hear all the amazing music it will help bring into the world!”

Conveniently, Fender’s super transportable audio interface, the Fender Link I/O arrived earlier this year and it features extensively in the video.

Check out Fender to learn more.

Eight Boss pedals have officially entered the digital realm for the first time, having been turned into a new plugin and added to the Roland Cloud of virtual instruments and effects.

Following recent moves from Hughes & Kettner, Blackstar, and Universal Audio, Boss made its first move to bring some of its most fabled physical gear into the plugin world.

However, its digitized stompboxes sit in Roland's subscription-only Cloud bank of digital gear, meaning users will need to subscribe to the whole suite of offerings – which includes everything from a Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus amp sim to tape echoes and synthesizers – to get them on their virtual pedalboards.

This comes in contrast to the standalone plugins produced by other firms. However, the fact that Boss plans to roll out more and more pedals from a line that has sold 19 million units since 1977, may offer some consolation.

The initial eight pedals recreate some Boss classics, such as overdrive and distortion pedals, and some less-predictable choices that may prove invaluable for bedroom producers.

The pedals launched in wave one are: the OD-1 OverDrive, PH-1 Phaser, SP-1 Spectrum, SG-1 Slow Gear, CS-1 Compression Sustainer, TW-1 T Wah, SD-1 Super OverDrive, and DS-1 Distortion.

Each pedal looks exactly like its physical counterpart, with a simplistic interface mirroring Boss’ famously user-friendly operation. Away from each pedal’s on-board dials, their input and output levels can also be altered, and there are tempo sync features for time-based effects.

It’s worth noting that the plugin can only load up one pedal at a time, but it can be duplicated to create a chain of effects.

“Since debuting in 1977, the colorful Boss compact pedal lineup has been loved by generations of musicians,” says the historic gear firm. “The plugin brings the authentic Boss compact pedal experience to computer music production for the first time.

“They’re used by everyone from beginners to professionals, and numerous legends have relied on various models for their signature sounds and the creation of the greatest recordings of all time,” it adds.

That, in truth, isn’t hyperbole. Take the OD-1, for instance, which has found its way into the hands of top-tier guitarists such as Tony Iommi, and Radiohead's Ed O'Brien, through to Rory Gallagher and Pete Townshend.

Other popular stompboxes missing from the collection include the CH-1 chorus pedal – beloved by Joe Satriani, Zakk Wylde, and Jerry Cantrell among others – and any number of its sizable digital delay pedal collection.

“Over time,” Boss says, “the core library will be populated with an ever-expanding selection of models derived from the historic hardware lineup.”

As mentioned above, however, how users access the pedals may prove to be a sticking point. New users are granted a fairly generous 30-day free trial of Roland Cloud, but beyond that, subscriptions start at $29.99 per year. That includes only a select array of the Cloud’s roster. The Ultimate package rises to $199 per year. For users just wanting to drop a DS-1 in front of their virtual amplifier, that’s a pricey outlay.

For those on the fence, a special-priced three-month Ultimate package is available for $39.99.

Head to Roland to learn more.

A new frontier of gear building may have just opened up following the launch of the rePEDAL, a free-to-download AI pedal plugin maker.

Labeled as “an experimental machine learning project” by virtual instrument builder Sampleson, it generates a randomized overdrive pedal at the click of a button.

“It works,” Sampleson says, “by randomizing the structure of the neural network, creating a new model with each iteration.”

The virtual pedal features one control dial for the Drive level, though its name, housing color, and – importantly – its tonal character changes when players hit the ‘Remake’ button.

Away from the pedal itself, the plugin features a noise gate, a Threshold dial, post-gain level control, and the ability to save a pedal so it doesn’t get lost in the infiniteness of auto-generation.

Checking out the firm’s demo video, there looks to be a fair amount of variety in the lottery pick-pedals. The Dror, for example, offers a very thick and warm fuzz sound, while the Worx delivers a much thinner and crisper tone, akin to a ’60s-style OD.

Of course, the downside is that, whatever the randomly working AI tech throws up is a complete gamble. It could take two clicks to find a killer boost, or 20,000. Regardless, it’s a very intriguing use of a technology that is still proving highly divisive.

“This project explores the creative potential of neural networks in sound design, moving beyond replication of hardware," says Sampleson.

The rePEDAL is currently in its beta phase, with Sampleson welcoming feedback as it looks to further its design.

Head to Sampleson to download.

The relationship between AI and the music industry has been intensifying in recent years. Some have embraced the technology, with Paul McCartney notably using it to finish The Beatles' Now and Then out of old tape recordings.

Meanwhile, longtime Jimi Hendrix producer Eddie Kramer has also mooted the idea of using it to bring more Hendrix into the world, while Alex Van Halen wants to adopt a similar approach to turn unfinished Eddie Van Halen demos into full songs. He’s already approached OpenAI.

Then there’s the Spark 2’s AI-generated tones, and the numerous other ways in which artificial intelligence hopes to revolutionize a player’s relationship with their gear.

On the other hand, arguments about the impact it has on human creatives – from artists to musicians, videographers, and beyond – and its ability to create fake songs and deep fakes of famous artists have raised concerns.

Thanks to the increase in power available from laptops and computers, more and more guitarists are turning to using plugins when it comes to playing, practicing, and recording their guitar playing. I've been using guitar plugins ever since POD Farm was released back in 2008, so if you want to find the best guitar plugin for your workflow, you're in the right place.

If you want to start using guitar plugins, you'll need a laptop or PC, an audio interface, and a pair of studio monitors or headphones. Latency, the delay between playing a sound and hearing it, is the big enemy you'll face doing this, which means you need a computer with a decent CPU and RAM. For more details on this, check out the what you need section of this guide, which will tell you everything you need to know.

For me, the absolute cream of the crop when it comes to guitar amp plugins is Line 6 Helix Native. Packed with pretty much any amp model and effect you can think of, it’s not the cheapest option, but it’s definitely one of the most all-encompassing. If you’re after something on a budget, then check out Positive Grid BIAS FX 2, which has a great selection of amps and effects. Alternatively, if you need a free option, you should check out the incredibly powerful Neural Amp Modeler.

For those new to guitar plugins, you'll find a very detailed FAQs section further down the guide that answers all the most common questions I've faced over the years. I've also included a glossary of key terms, as there's a lot of technical lingo used throughout the guide. For now, keep scrolling to see learn everything there is to know about the best guitar plugins available right now.

Best overall

I’ve been a longtime user of Helix Native and for me, it’s the most all-encompassing choice if you want a guitar plugin. With a gigantic array of amp and effects models and plenty of ways to order your signal chain, it’s a playground for guitar tones that can give you pretty much any sound you desire.

One of the best things about being a Helix Native user has been the consistent updates. At least a couple of times a year I’ve been the recipient of new amps, effects, and cab models for no extra cost. It means the choice has expanded significantly since I first bought it, giving me a huge amount of options for recording and silent practice.

The amp and cab models will require some tweaking to get the best out of them, and you can unlock a lot of extra capacity with the use of third-party impulse responses, but if you’re willing to put a little time into sculpting your sounds you will absolutely be rewarded. I also love the ability to make uber-complex signal chains, run effects in parallel, or put together huge stereo rigs. One for those who love experimenting with effects order and signal chains.

Best budget

If you’re looking for something good quality on a budget, then the standard edition of Positive Grid BIAS FX 2 is a great choice. It’s got plenty of amp and effects models for you to choose from, and a decent amount of customization options when it comes to signal path. It can typically be found for around the $/£100 mark, but if you hold on for one of PG’s regular sales it can be had for a lot less.

The user interface of BIAS FX 2 is really good-looking, making it a pleasure to work with in your DAW or as a standalone. I found it really easy to start putting together my own rigs, as well as creating them from scratch. The guitar match feature is a neat tool for giving you the feel of a different type of pickup if you need it, and it also comes with a metronome and looper, making it a great option for home practice.

A large update to the DSP engine a couple of years ago gave BIAS FX 2 a significant boost, putting it on a similar level to Line 6 and Neural DSP plugins in terms of quality. There’s more than enough choice to keep all but the most experimental guitar players happy in terms of amps and effects, making it excellent value for money.

Best for classic tones

Universal Audio originally designed these amp model algorithms for their range of hardware pedals, and now they’re available via your computer thanks to the release of the Universal Audio Paradise Guitar Studio. With amps modeled on Fender, Vox, Marshall, Dumble, and more available to play with, this is the ideal choice for vintage tone hunters.

These are native plugins, so you don’t need any specific UA hardware to use them, unlike their previous guitar plugin offerings. It is a shame that there’s no standalone version, though, so you’ll need a DAW to run them. What I love most is that it's super easy to navigate the presets and make changes to the tones, which gives you more time to start playing and less time faffing around.

The curation of presets is simply stunning, too. Thanks to painstaking work by the developers at UA, you can instantly get your hands on pretty much any iconic guitar tone. It’s really quite an amazing selection of sounds, great for recording or practicing late at night with your headphones on, and I found that I didn't need to tweak them all that much to get them to my liking either.

Best for metal

Coming from one of the most copied metal bands of the modern age, Neural DSP Archetype Gojira X offers quintessential metal tones for players who like to get heavy. Three amp types give you clean, rhythm, and lead tones to choose from, and there’s a nice selection of effects for adding extra texture to your sounds.

Neural DSP plugins are really easy to use, thanks to their excellent selection of presets and this is no different. Featuring sounds from Joel Duplantier himself, as well as a host of others from famous guitar players and producers like Nolly and Ihsahn of Emperor, you’ve got a huge selection of starting points for a variety of metal tones modern and classic.

The amps give you a decent amount of variety in terms of clean and mid-gain tones, but it’s definitely best used for chugging and shredding. I really love the octave and whammy effects, which offer excellent tracking and are perfect for beefing up those heavy riffs and leads. One thing that is a bit of a letdown is the lack of ability to change the signal order, so if you like tweaking your tone you might want to look elsewhere.

Best for effects

If you want a huge selection of amps and effects, IK Multimedia AmpliTube 5 MAX is a great shout. It’s also one of few guitar amp plugins to feature officially licensed models, with 11 brands like Fender, Orange, Marshall, and more.

The interface of AmpliTube 5 is ultra-realistic, so each piece of official gear looks exactly the same as its real-life counterpart, which can’t be said of many of the amp plugins here. It makes it very nice to look at, but it can feel a little bit clunky to use at times. I do like how many possibilities you get for manipulating your signal chain, however, and it’s similar to Helix Native in terms of how deep you can into tweaking it.

AmpliTube does its modeling on a component level, so you get some scarily realistic guitar tones here. The cabs are modeled using around 600 IRs per speaker so you can rest assured you’ll be getting some great sounds out of it. I love the sheer amount of effects it has too, with a massive range of modeled stompboxes that’ll keep even the most picky guitarists busy.

Best for bass

If you’re looking to record or practice your bass guitar with your computer, Neural DSP Parallax X offers a fantastic array of bass guitar tones. Typically you’d have to buy a bigger guitar amp plugin to get some bass tones, so having a dedicated plugin for the low end makes Parallax X stand out in a competitive market.

The user interface isn’t the easiest to use when you first get it, looking more like an EQ plugin than a bass guitar amp plugin, but once you get the hang of it it’s surprisingly powerful. The ability to drag your cab mic around in real time is a nice touch, and you can load in third-party IRs too.

The preset selection is excellent here, with plenty of readily available tones that are great for guitarists moonlighting on the bass for a recording. For actual bassists, you can dive into the built-in EQ and distortion components, as well as a compressor for controlling the low end. One thing to note is that there are no built-in effects besides the ones I’ve just mentioned, so if you like chorus or reverb on your basslines you’ll need to add these in your DAW.

Best for recording

If you’re a regularly recording guitarist who needs quality tones quickly, I highly recommend you go and check out STL ToneHub. I first came across this awesome bit of software while recording at No Studio, using it to back up actual amp recordings from my Orange combo and the studio’s EVH 5150 tube amp head. Needless to say, the results were incredible.

ToneHub features tones from Tue Madsen, Colin Richardson, and Will Putney amongst many other pro producers, so you know you’re getting great quality sounds from professional engineers. The quality of the presets is simply superb, and they’re great for dropping into your mix when you need to double or quad-track guitars.

Some might be put off by the fact that it’s subscription-only, so users who are only practicing at home with their guitar might want to look elsewhere. If you’re serious about getting quality guitar tones for your recorded mixes however, STL ToneHub is one of the best out there.

Best free guitar plugin

Neural Amp Modeler has been quietly taking the guitar plugin world by storm over the past few years. Developed as an open-source, completely free profiler plugin that utilizes machine learning to create some scarily accurate profiles of classic guitar amps.

It's an incredibly lightweight bit of software, so it doesn't take up too much space and doesn't need a beastly machine to run. It takes a minute to get your head around the loading of profiles (you need to select the directory rather than the captures themselves), but once that's done, you've got instantly great tones at your fingertips for absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, it doesn't yet work in Pro Tools without a wrapper or workaround, but any DAW that uses VST3 or AU is fine.

There are some phenomenally good sounds available in the Tone 3000 library of captures, especially considering they're free. Many users offer a taster, with you having to pay for access to more tones, but you can absolutely get by without spending a penny. I downloaded a fantastic Fender Deluxe Reverb capture, an awesome Plexi tone, and a high-gain 5150-style amp, all of which sounded fantastic. If you're prepared to dig through a lot of different sounds, you'll find everything you need here.

Also consider

For me, the above plugins should cover 90% of guitarists' needs when it comes to recording and home practice. I do appreciate not every guitarist thinks like me however, so here are some other options you can consider.

What you need

If you’re just getting started with guitar plugins, I’m here to help. I’ve been using plugins for nearly twenty years now so it’s fair to say that I’ve been there and got the t-shirt. So for all the beginners out there, here’s what you need to get up and running.

1. Computer

You’ll need a laptop or computer to start with, and ideally, something that isn’t completely ancient. Most guitar amp plugins ask for at least an i3 or i5 processor if you’re on Windows, and an Apple Silicon chip for Mac users. It does vary however, with older plugins requiring older machinery and vice versa.

A lot of plugins can run on older operating systems too, but I’d recommend Windows 10 or Mac OS 11 as a minimum to run your plugins. The general rule is the newer your OS is, the better, but of course that can run the other way as musicians found out with some of the recent Apple OS updates that nerfed their software.

You can probably get by with a machine that has 4GB of RAM, but to be on the safe side I’d recommend at least 8GB. Most newer machines will ship with this as a minimum. In terms of hard drive space, it can be anything from a few MB to several GB when it comes to how much space the plugin will take up so you’ll need to do your own research here.

Most plugin manufacturers list their system requirements on their website, so be sure to check those out if you have an older machine and want to run the latest plugins on it.

2. Audio interface

If you’re planning on recording or practicing at home with your computer and your guitar, then you’ll need an audio interface. An interface allows you to plug your guitar in, converting your real-world sounds into 1s and 0s that your computer can understand. Working like a tonal middleman, it’ll then convert those 1s and 0s back into analog sound so you can hear it through your monitors or headphones.

In terms of performance at the home studio level, modern audio interfaces are all very similar. To ensure you get good performance for your own setup, the combination of a modern computer and modern audio interface with a good driver on Windows will ensure your chosen guitar plugin performs well.

I recommend the following audio interfaces to get you started, all of which I’ve owned or tested:

Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 4th Gen - a good all-rounder.

Audient iD4 MKII - great sounding option, good for beginners.

Universal Audio Apollo Twin X - one for those who want a more premium experience.

IK Multimedia AXE I/O - a guitar-specific interface.

3. DAW

Once you’ve got your computer and interface sorted, if you want to record you’ll need to get your hands on a DAW. A good DAW will allow you to start creating your recordings, manipulating your sounds, and adding other instruments like drums, bass, and vocals.

I prefer to use Pro Tools which is the industry standard DAW, but there are a lot of different options out there that you can use like Ableton Live, Steinberg Cubase, Studio One, and Apple Logic Pro. Many of these have free versions or free trials, so I highly recommend you try out a few to find which works best for your particular workflow.

4. Studio headphones

I highly recommend going the route of studio headphones for beginners versus monitors, mainly because they’re cheaper, but they also prevent you from running into more complex issues with room resonances that studio monitors can present.

A good pair of studio headphones will ensure you’re getting the best possible sound from your guitar tones, isolating you from the room. They’re also a great shout for quiet practice later at night.

There are a million different options when it comes to studio headphones, so if you’re struggling to decide which to go for there are loads of great choices in our best guitar amp headphones guide.

S5. tudio monitors

Studio monitors are a popular choice for guitarists who are primarily into recording, as they allow you to craft other elements of your mix accurately alongside your guitar playing. Be warned however, good studio monitors aren’t cheap, so you’ll need to spend if you’re going this route.

Studio monitors also benefit from an optimized space, which could potentially mean acoustic treatment to your room, monitor stands to get them in the right position, and isolation pads to prevent any sympathetic resonance with your stands or desktop. If you’re just practicing then these aren’t so much of a worry, but if you want to get accurate mixes you’ll need to start diving into these.

Some studio monitors that are good choices for those who want to head down this route:

Yamaha HS5 - a very neutral-sounding speaker.

KRK Rokit 5 G5 - a good option if you want more low-end.

Adam Audio T5V - a more premium option for better sound.

FAQs

Key terms

• AAX: The plugin format used for Pro Tools.
• AU: The plugin format used for Logic Pro and GarageBand.
• Amp model (amp sim): A software emulation designed to replicate the circuitry and response of a guitar amplifier.
• Audio interface: A hardware device that converts your guitar's signal into a digital one that the computer can understand, and back into an audio signal to come out of your speakers.
• Buffer size: A setting that tells your computer how much time it has to process audio. Lower results in less latency, but more strain on the computer.
• Cab model: A digital recreation of a guitar cabinet.
• CPU load: How much strain a plugin or software places upon your computer to process.
• DAW (Digital Audio Workstation): A piece of software used for recording, editing, and mixing music.
• DI box: A hardware device that takes an unbalanced instrument signal and turns it into a balanced, mic-level signal.
• DSP (Digital Signal Processing): The algorithms and computing power used to alter digital audio.
• Gain staging: Managing volume levels at every point of your signal chain to ensure you avoid unwanted or harsh distortion.
• Hi-Z: A type of instrument input designed primarily for electric guitars, boosting the low-level signal of passive guitar pickups to something more usable.
• IR (Impulse Response): A snapshot of a guitar cabinet, microphone, and a room, that creates a very realistic cabinet sound.
• Latency: The delay between you picking a note and the sound coming out of the speakers.
• Parallel processing: Splitting your signal into two or more paths, applying different effects, and then blending them back together.
• Signal chain (signal path): The order in which your audio passes through your pedals, amps, and recording gear.
• Standalone: A version of a guitar plugin that runs without needing a DAW.
• Studio monitors: Speakers specifically designed to output audio neutrally, resulting in a tone that translates well on other systems.
• VST: The plugin format used in lots of different DAWs like Cubase, Reaper, Ableton, etc.

How we test

When I test a guitar plugin I’m looking at them from a place of experience. My first guitar plugin was Line 6’s POD Farm which came out in 1998 (although I didn’t start using it til the early noughties) and I’ve been a regular user of guitar amp plugins ever since then. Together with my colleagues on the Guitar World team, we’ve got a considerable amount of real-world experience with guitar amp plugins, and the actual amplifiers that inspire them.

Before getting stuck into the plugin itself, I’ll need to install it and make a note of the installation process. Installing some music software can be a real pain, so I’m looking for an error-free, simple installation that will have me up and running as quickly as possible. All being well, a great guitar amp plugin will install quickly and be seamlessly picked up by my DAW, allowing me to get started straight away.

My next test is to look at the usability of the plugin. I’m looking to see how easy it is to create your own rig from scratch, as well as the general look and feel of things. A good guitar plugin should be easy enough for a newbie to navigate but also have enough depth for more experienced players to get the most out of it. I’ll try it both in my DAW and as standalone if it has that option, all the time being careful to note how easy it is to use.

Next, I’ll look at the sound of the plugin itself, using decades of experience testing and using actual guitar amps. I’m looking to see accurate representations of the actual amps the models are based on, and a similar thing with the effects. I’ll look at how easy it is to get the sound you want when creating something from scratch, how the EQ controls effects the amp and parameter controls affect the pedals, as well as getting in-depth with the cabinets to examine how each cab reacts differently to microphone positions.

Much in the same way we’d test a guitar amp, the sound portion of testing a guitar plugin is the real crux of the matter. This means we’ll spend a good amount of time testing, ideally two weeks or more to really live with the plugin in question and ensure we have a good understanding of how it will perform over time.

Read more about how how we test products and services and how we make our recommendations.

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Apple has recruited the guitar expertise of Animals As Leaders' Tosin Abasi for an all-new rock/metal producer pack for its Logic and GarageBand digital audio workstations.

The high-profile pack features 170 Apple loops, with each one bringing a taste of Abasi's one-of-a-kind progressive creativity to the sound library within Apple's flagship DAWs.

Those loops deliver everything from dirt-shredded bass guitar samples and untethered blues metal guitar riffs, to lead guitar melodies, ambient, reverb-laden pads, and pensive echoes.

The pack therefore offers the chance to patchwork fresh ideas plucked from Abasi's futuristic brain, and layer in player-made ideas as if they’ve collaborated with Abasi first-hand.

Moreover, the release fills in a gaping genre hole that GarageBand users have long been wanting filled. The choice of Abasi as the player of choice is a shrewd move, with Apple partnering with one of the brightest and most innovative guitar talents of the modern era.

“There's nothing wrong with tradition, but I like being surprised,” Abasi says of the collaboration. “I like seeing boundaries pushed, I like new things. With these loops, I wanted to inject my identity. I like to listen to rhythmically complex music so when there are phrases, there's a natural expression of the complexity that doesn't feel forced.”

The pack is accessible within Logic and GarageBand systems.

Head to Apple for more information on how to download Logic and GarageBand.

It comes after the long-awaited release of a Sterling by Music Man version of the Kaizen, an oddball and space-age-looking electric guitar made by Abasi and Music Man.

Abasi's gear brand, Abasi Concepts, meanwhile has been flying. Alongside a raft of high-end six-, seven-, and eight-string guitars, the company launched its Micro-Aggressor compression pedal late last year.

Whether you want to admit it or not, we’re now firmly into the age of the amp modeler. Most modern guitarists are unwilling to lug a heavy 2x12 tube amp around with them these days, and recording a tube amp at home? Forget about it. The convenience of modeling now ranges from pro guitarists playing on the biggest stages and recording in the studio, to us regular guitarists recording and practicing at home. With the best Neural DSP plugins as part of your setup, you can get mix-ready, ultra-realistic guitar tones at the click of a button.

I’ve been using guitar plugins for a long time, with my first foray being Line 6’s POD Farm back in the noughties, and ever since then, I’ve been using them for the majority of my home recording exploits. Amp plugins make it much easier to audition sounds, tweak settings, and get them fitting nicely into the mix, and with the recent advances in modeling tech, they sound nigh-on indistinguishable from the real thing.

I was provided access to all the Neural DSP plugins in this guide, so you can rest assured I’m not reading from the spec sheet here. I’ve used, recorded, and tweaked every single amp and effect of each plugin, ensuring that they're firmly put to the test to determine which is the very best for your particular use case.

In my opinion, if you’re looking for the utmost versatility in a Neural DSP plugin, you should go for Archetype: Nolly X. For those who prefer their tones on the heavier side of the spectrum, then I’d definitely recommend checking out Archetype: Gojira X.

Neural offers two-week free trials for each of their plugins, which is a great way to audition them before you commit to buying one. I’ve included sound samples for each plugin so you can listen to how they sound in the context of a mix as well as with solo guitar sounds to help you narrow them down. If you want to learn more about Neural’s plugins before you buy, check out our extensive FAQs section, and our how-to-use guide for more info.

My top picks

Best overall

Overview: Of all the guitar plugins I tried out for this guide, I found Neural DSP Archetype: Nolly X to be the most versatile. Whether you want pristine clean tones, mid-gain riffing, or searing leads, it has the versatility to cover everything that you need. With four amp models and seven effects (including the EQ section), it may not sound like much but you can cover a tremendous amount of ground with just this single plugin.

Usability: The interface is incredibly easy to use with everything clearly labeled for you. Even if this is your first plugin it won’t take you long to get up and running. Along the bottom, you have the ability to mix and match your amp and cab models, with them running left to right in order of dirtiness. This means you can quickly mix and match for your base level tone before diving deeper into the amp settings.

Along the top, you have separate options for your pre-amp stompbox section, amplifier, cab, EQ, and post-amp effects. Before the amp, you have your usual selection of compressor, two overdrives, and interestingly, a delay stompbox for some more ethereal sound exploration. After the amp, you can choose from a single delay and reverb. It doesn’t sound like much on paper, but sometimes having fewer options gets you to where you want to be much quicker.

Sounds: The sounds here are simply superb, and whether you’re playing funk, rock, metal, blues, country, or anything else, you’ll be able to dial in a tone that suits you. The four different amps each have their own character and there’s plenty of range within each. So you can get cleanish tones from the first two models as well as more gain-y sounds if you turn up the gain or add some overdrive in front.

The presets are fantastic too, which is where I encountered the first real issue with this plugin. There’s no easy way to save your favorite presets within the plugin itself. Instead, you’ll need to create your own folders on your computer itself, and either drag and drop presets, or go back into the plugin, rename, and then move it to the correct folder. With so many presets to choose from, this honestly feels like a real oversight and something that shouldn’t be that difficult to correct.

Neural DSP Archetype: Nolly X Sound demos

Best for metal

Overview: I had to pick Neural DSP Archetype: Gojira X as my top plugin for modern metal players. Gojira’s tone and techniques are so widely aped now that they’ve become a staple part of the genre, and this plugin gives you those exact sounds quickly and easily. With three amps and matching cabs that give you clean, rhythm, and lead tones plus a great selection of effects it’s the best choice for modern metallers.

Usability: The layout is similar to the other Neural DSP plugins in that you have your individual sections across the top. Gojira X features an additional expression section at the start that gives you a whammy-style effect and an octave pedal, a signature of the band's sound. Next up you have your pre-amp stomps with overdrive, dirt, phaser, and chorus effects.

Next up you’ve got your amp and cab sections, a separate EQ, and then finally your post-amp effects which feature delay and reverb. At the bottom of the plugin you can quickly select amp and cab models, and there’s a link button that allows you to mix and match or automatically select an amp with its matching cab. The ability to freely move the microphones to your preferred position in the cab section is really powerful too.

Sounds: From classic 80s metal tones to modern djent, Gojira X can handle pretty much anything heavy. The three amp models deliver pristine cleans, chunky crunch tones, and saturated lead sound in that order, and while there’s certainly flexibility in the ability to dial in rock and blues sounds, this plugin is definitely performing its best in the metal genre. One thing to note is that if you’re using your own IRs, there’s no way to audition a bunch of them in the plugin, instead you have to load them one by one which is a bit of a pain.

In terms of effects the whammy is absolutely superb, I didn’t notice any glitching manipulating it with my mouse, although you’ll need to delve into MIDI mapping to get the best out of it with an actual footswitch. Having two overdrives in front of the amp allows you to drive the clean amp really hard, getting dirty tones out of it, and provides plenty of saturation options when using the dirtier amp tones. There’s no ability to swap the modulation effects to after the amp which is a shame, but probably not a dealbreaker for most metal players.

The delay and reverb section has an excellent amount of options too. You can add tape saturation and modulation to the delay tails for some expansive warbling tones, and the reverb has a shimmer mode alongside handy low and high cut knobs that let you dial it in nicely when playing with a full mix. With a gigantic amount of presets to get you started from players like Nolly, Lee McKinney from Born of Osiris, Ihsahn of Emperor, and Greg Kubacki from Car Bomb, it’s a modern metal paradise in terms of tones.

Neural DSP Achetype: Gojira X sound demos

Best for clean

Overview: It was a toss-up between this and the Tone King plugin to determine the one with the nicest clean sounds, but in the end, I decided that Neural DSP Archetype: Cory Wong X delivers the best clean tones overall. Again, we’ve got three amp models and matching cabs, a generous nine effects to play with including the EQ section.

Usability: I really love the interface of Cory Wong X, it’s bright and clear without being too harsh on the eyes, and compared to some of the others which are very dark and moody, it’s honestly refreshing to look at. As with the prior Neural plugins the design is the same, you’ve got individual parts of the chain across the top with an expression section that features a wah pedal, a pre-amp effects with envelope filter, compressor, tube screamer, and an additional overdrive pedal.

Next up you have your standard amp and cab sections with the ability to tweak tones, move microphones, and load custom IRs. Post amp you’ve got a selection of chorus, delay, and reverb for dialing in more ambient soundscapes. Along the bottom of the screen, you can quickly select any amp head and cab combo, linking or unlinking them to mix and match tones.

Sounds: I started with the presets and to be honest, I find Cory’s own sounds a little too surgically clean for my taste. If you’re playing your favorite Jimmy Nolen licks or you like these modern, ultra-compressed clean tones it’s fantastic, but I like my cleans with a little ambiance on them. Thankfully with the post-amp effects section, you can absolutely dial in post-rock-friendly clean tones for epic auditory panoramas alongside fast tremolo picking and fingerpicked chord work.

The first amp model appears to be emulating that straight into the mixing console clean tone, with the second offering a warmer, fuller sound. The final amp adds a bit more hair and has a gain switch for some dirtier tones if wish. It won’t do metal tones of course, but you can definitely get some nice classic and modern rock tones out of it once you drive it harder with the two overdrive pedals. It can also do some nice DI bass tones too, making it more flexible then you might at first think.

Neural DSP Archetype: Cory Wong X sound demos

Best for bass

Overview: The Neural DSP: Parallax X plugin looks a little bit different from the rest, and is one of only two plugins the company offers exclusively designed for bass guitarists alongside the Darkglass Ultra and some select sounds in Archetype: Cory Wong X. Here, you have just a single amp and cab selection alongside compression, two flavors of distortion, and an EQ section. Don’t let that put you off though, this is an endlessly versatile plugin for bass.

Usability: I’ll admit to finding the user interface of Parallax X a little bit mystifying at first. At the top, you only have the choice of amp and cab section, whilst at the bottom of the amp screen there’s a section for low compression, mid distortion, high distortion, and equalizer. Each of these can be switched off at will and offer numerous options for tweaking your sounds. It’s quite basic visually compared to the other plugins I tested for this guide.

On the cab screen, you have two speakers to choose from and each can be miked up with varying condensers, dynamic, and ribbon microphones alongside the ability to load your own custom IRs. Again, you can freely move the microphone to any position within a 90-degree radius of the speaker cone, giving you the option for more direct sounds or warmer, softer bass tones.

Sounds: In terms of tones, you might think it’s limited with only one amp and cab to choose from, but you can get a surprisingly huge range of sounds out of it. Whether it’s funky slap tones, punchy pop, or metal grind Parallax absolutely delivered in my tests. There’s a huge array of presets that will cover the vast majority of tones for players, whether you’re a full-time bassist or a guitarist moonlighting on your own recordings.

For the serious bass players, the main amp section works like a graphic EQ and you have three points you can drag around the screen to tweak your tones to your liking. They work as low, mid, and high, with low moving between 70 and 400 Hz, the mids fixed at 400 Hz, while the high end can be moved between 100 Hz and 2 KHz. The additional EQ section gives you low and high cut controls, 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1 kHz, and 1.5 kHz, so there’s a huge amount of scope for nailing your desired bass tone.

The mid and high controls also have their own drive knobs for adding some grind to your tone, and once you get used to the overall look of it, it’s a really powerful interface for mixing in bass tones with drum and guitar sounds. My one criticism is that there are no modulation or octave effects, so if you like to add additional sounds to your bass tone, you’ll need to use plugins or plug regular stompboxes in front of your audio interface.

Neural DSP Parallax X sound demos

Best for rock

Overview: The Neural DSP tone King Imperial MKII would be my number one choice for anyone who plays rock, whether modern or classic. It can also do some phenomenal blues tones, so if you’re not the sort of player who’s into the decidedly heavy-tone skewed lineup Neural offers, this is the plugin for you.

Usability: Tone King has a slightly different look to the plugins I’ve tested thus far for the guide with a similar layout, but a slightly less polished aesthetic versus the newer versions. The general gist is the same though. Across the top, you’ve got expression, pre-amp effects, amp, cab, EQ, and post-amp effects to scroll through. At the bottom of the plugin, there are options to look at the front or the back of the amplifier.

Before the amp, you’ve got a wah pedal in the expression section, and a compressor with two overdrives to help tame or saturate your tones. The amp section offers some pretty standard options with a lead or rhythm channel, plus the option to add reverb and tremolo. As with all the plugins you can manipulate the mic position via your mouse, and there are options to mic the amp in mono or stereo. Finally, the post-amp effects include chorus, delay, and reverb.

Interestingly you can put the amp on standby (why you would want to do this I don’t know), attenuate the output, bypass the rhythm channel, and add some high-frequency compression. You can also change the color by clicking on the Tone King logo, switching between beige, black, green/blue, red, or brown.

Sounds: Out of all the plugins I tested for this guide, the Neural DSP Tone King Imperial MKII was my favorite. As a predominantly rock and metal player, it delivers an incredibly lifelike tube amp tone that’s really akin to playing through a real amp, with some incredibly satisfying amp tones that can cover a lot of ground. Whether you want classic rock, thick blues lead tones, or cutting modern sounds Tone King does it all.

Having a single amp to choose from stops you from getting option paralysis and although it doesn’t have as many presets as some of the others here, there are definitely plenty of options to get you started. It does phenomenal clean tones too, and if it wasn’t so versatile it might well have taken the spot for best cleans in this guide.

With such an excellent effects selection you can get a myriad of sounds out of it from experimental progressive rock tones to your classic rock and blues lead tones. It can’t do high gain, but it will cover pretty much any other style with the right amount of tweaking. The original Tone King is based on the Deluxe Reverb, which as one of the most popular and versatile amps ever made gives you some clue as to what this plugin is capable of.

Neural DSP Tone King Imperial MKII sound demos

Best for djent

Overview: I’ve gone for the Neural DSP Archetype: Rabea X as my favorite plugin for djent tones. That said, you could definitely cover the djent sound with Nolly X, Gojira X, Fortin, and the Soldano SLO-100 plugins. The reason I went for Rabea X over all of those? Well, it might be that low-tuned tones are the core of djent music, but ultimately you’ll need something super versatile to cover the span of sounds djent can contain, and Rabea X is nothing if not versatile.

Usability: We’re back to the more modern Neural plugin look with Rabea X which is a little newer than the previous two. Across the top, you have sections for synth, pre-amp stomps, amp, cab, an EQ section, and post-amp effects. With a full-on synth built into it, you’ve got the potential for some really wild sounds. The synth gives you an arpeggiator, two oscillators, a filter, and the ability to set it as pre or post and blend it into the mix of your overall sound. It’s an instrument in its own right with a huge amount of flexibility.

The pre-amp stomp section features a compressor, octave, fuzz, and overdrive pedals for plenty of gnarly gain sounds. The three amp models cover clean, rhythm, and lead tones with matching cabs that can be stereo-miked with a variety of different sounds. Again, you can load your own IRs if you wish but be warned, it’s painfully slow auditioning them if you don’t know your tones. The usual EQ section features a refreshed look versus the other plugins I tested, and finally, you’ve got delay and reverb stomps to choose from in the post-amp effects section.

Sounds: I picked Rabea X predominantly for its high-gain tones, but really it’ll cover a wealth of styles in the rock and metal sphere. The three amp types can give you spanky or ambient cleans, low and mid-gain crunch tones, and of course, all-out drop G# djent. It really does excel in the high gain though, and will definitely suit the heavier type of guitar player. With presets specifically for baritone and seven-string guitars plus a powerful noise gate, it’s definitely worth looking at if you’re into chugging.

The effects selection is really versatile, with most of the major effects covered. It’s nice to see a fuzz pedal in the selection too, something I didn’t come across much in the other plugins. Although the modeling world hasn’t quite got a good handle on fuzz yet, the vintage setting is particularly nice here. Dialing in more expansive post-rock tones is definitely viable here with some nice settings available on the reverb and delay including a freeze mode on reverb stomp. That said, it would be nice to be able to switch the effects chain around, a criticism that can be made of all the Neural DSP plugins to be fair.

The tracking via the synth is surprisingly good, and although you do get some artifacts here and there, it’s a natural effect of a guitar's dynamic that’s unavoidable. With careful playing, you can definitely make it sound as though it’s an actual synth, and using it to underpin your regular guitar tone makes for some really interesting timbres. Overall Rabea’s plugin is a really interesting one, but I loved it for its heavier sounds.

Neural DSP Archetype: Rabea X sound demos

Also consider

For me, the plugins are above are the ones you should be spending your money on, and will have most bases covered. I did get to test a wider range of the plugins however, so if you didn't quite find what you were looking for above, here's some more for your consideration.

How to use Neural DSP plugins

If it’s your first time using Neural DSP plugins, then like many guitarists you may find yourself struggling to get a good sound. Unlike plugging into a real amplifier, getting great tones out of a plugin requires a little more exploration as there are more working parts in between you and your sound. Here are some tips to get you started.

Input gain

We could write multiple articles on this subject alone, and input gain is something that’s been hotly debated online. There are multiple ways you can get the best sound, but what it really comes down to is ensuring you have a good level of signal going into your audio interface before you start messing with any settings in the plugin itself.

Many guitarists make the mistake of having their input gain too low or too high, which means when you get to the plugin itself it doesn’t sound quite right. To further complicate things, different audio interfaces offer different levels of gain on the input, so there’s no one setting that every guitarist can use.

What it boils down to is making sure you’ve got the right amount of input gain to get a good signal, so not too little, and not too much. Finding the sweet spot will take some experimentation but it’s well worth taking the time if you find you’re not quite getting the sounds you want from the Neural plugins.

Amp/pedal settings

Tweaking and amp and pedal settings is no different from what you’d do with the real deal, and here it’ll all come down to personal taste as to what suits you. You can’t mess with the order of things with the Neural plugins, so if a plugin has its chorus pedal before the amp you can’t change that. Neural plugins do feature a huge selection of presets, so if you’re not really sure what you want it’s easy enough to cycle through these to give you a good starting point.

Cab sims and IRs

In my opinion, the cab is the most important part of the whole sound, and tweaking here can have a significant impact on your overall tone. The built-in impulse responses in the Neural plugins allow you to freely move the microphone position, which gives you a lot of flexibility. You can stereo-mic them with different microphone types, which is what you’d do in actual studio environments.

The ability to load your own cab sims can offer even more flexibility, although as I’ve mentioned in the guide multiple times, the Neural plugins don’t do a great job of letting you audition 3rd-party IRs, so be prepared to slog through them all if you’ve got a large collection. I tried some of my York Audio IRs with the Neural plugins and they delivered some superb guitar tones, so it’s well worth exploring this avenue if you aren’t satisfied with the stock sounds.

EQ and compression

One thing to remember when listening to your favorite guitar player’s tones is that it’s unlikely you’re hearing them without EQ and compression. As a general rule, I like to start with cutting the lows from 60 Hz, and the highs from around 14 KHz. This takes out a lot of the low-end rumble and harsh high-end from the sound, which can give you a much more natural amplifier tone.

Compression is something that needs to be explored to your own taste. Many of the Neural plugins feature a compressor on the pre-amp effects which can help tame some of your playing dynamics. If you’re mixing multiple guitars together during recording, then bus compression can help tie everything together.

FAQs

How we test

When testing the Neural DSP plugins for this guide, I was given access to each of the plugins to personally test each. My tests were carried out using Pro Tools, a MacBook Pro M3 Pro, Yamaha HS5 monitors, Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro headphones, and a Universal Audio Apollo X4 Gen 2 as my recording rig. I used multiple guitars for my tests, including a Fender Telecaster, a Gretsch semi-hollow guitar, a Chapman Baritone, and a PRS SE Mark Holcomb SVN.

For each plugin, I’ve provided an audio sample using a recent song I’m working on with my band. It includes a rhythm guitar part and a lead part. All rhythm parts were played with the default plugin setting (where appropriate) and the lead parts used a separate plugin. Apart from the Oxford Limiter on the master bus with a clean limit setting, I didn’t use any other plugins when exporting the audio, to ensure a completely uncolored sound sample.

Each audio sample features an ‘in-the-mix’ version as well as a solo guitar version. This is so you can hear how it might sound in your own productions versus how the guitar would sound on its own. All of the audio samples were played using my Telecaster in series mode, giving a humbucker-esque tone that’s well suited to the heavier style of the sound sample.

Aside from these tests, I also thoroughly explored the vast majority of the presets for each plugin, auditioning them through my studio monitors and headphones. Here I tried a variety of guitars to determine the sounds of each plugin and to see which category they’d best fit. During this phase, I made notes of how the interface feels, how easy it is to navigate, and whether everything is clearly labeled.

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NAMM 2025: Hughes & Kettner has responded to intense fan demand for the return of its famed Puretone tube amp by reviving it as a VST plugin.

It has been created in collaboration with Nembrini Audio, a software company with a solid track record of producing digital versions of classic gear, from Marshall and Fender amps to Klon Centaurs, Big Muffs, and Rat Distortion pedals.

This release, though – which has been dubbed “the digital recreation of a legend” – is its first officially licensed offering.

The plugin captures the amp’s “unmistakable personality for individual expression that has become a legend over the years” in an intangible digital guise and “no frills” format that mirrors the original.

The Puretone plugin offers a single-channel amp head that can evoke “crystal-clear cleans tones to blues crunch and rough-and-ready overdrive”, with six cabinet and four microphone emulations offering greater customization.

A Growl feature cuts the tone stack for an unfiltered and raw guitar sound. Its voicing section is bypassed with the dial in the far right position, while turning it to the left cuts the tone controls out of the circuit.

There is also a promise that, whatever players throw at the plugin via the amp head's minimal dials, and the pre- and post-amp effects on offer, guitar signals will remain pristine.

The amp’s controls comprise Growl (in lieu of a Gain), a three-band EQ, and a Volume dial for a no-nonsense setup. On the preamp side of things, the package’s pedal lineup includes a noise gate, a filter pedal with controls for Tight and Rumbling, as well as a three-dial overdrive pedal.

Rack-mounted post-effects total an EQ, tape delay, and spring reverb with more comprehensive tweaking options. Notably, each effect is draggable to change the signal routing for flexible sound design.

Players can choose from six cabinet emulation options, with two of the four microphone options employable at once. Three of its cabs are Hughes & Kettner builds. There's a VC 412 A25 with Celestion G12M Greenback speakers, a TC 412 A60 with RockDriver Classic 60 speakers, and a TM 212 with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers.

These are joined by a 4x12 based on an Orange V30, a 4x12 based on a VHT 412S, and a 2x12 which draws inspiration from Vox's cabinets. Those wanting to upload their preferred Impulse Responses into the plugin instead are able to do so.

The Hughes & Kettner Puretone plugin is available now and RRPs at $137 but has a discounted launch price of $49.99. It is compatible with Windows and Mac.

Head to Hughes & Kettner for more info.

Universal Audio UAD Amp Plugins: Need to know

These names seem familiar – weren't they pedal amps?

Yes, all three of these guitar plugins started out as hardware releases in the UAFX range – the Dream and Ruby were part of the company's first pedal amp 'emulator' releases, while the Lion '68 came later. So instead of UA software inspiring a pedal release, it's actually the other way around here. The algorithms are the same.

Do these have the same options as the pedals?

Yes, so if you're familar with the 1965 Fender Deluxe Reverb (Dream), 1963 Vox AC30 Top Boost (Ruby) and Marshall late '60s Super Lead / Super Bass Plexi recreations on those pedal amps, you'll very quickly feel at home here. And even if you're not, the interfaces are set up like the amps – but with added benefits. Extra mod options like boosts, bright switches and also six speaker emulations based on favourites from the respective amps' histories.

Any extras the pedals don't have?

The presets (some which are different to the pedals') are much more accessible on-the-fly than the pedals because you don't need a Bluetooth smartphone app to select them.

Don't I need a Universal Audio Apollo interface to run these plugins though?

No, these do not need any UA hardware to launch but have to be launched via your DAW of choice – you can't launch these virtual amps for practice as standalone software.

Specs

Launch price: $/£/€299 each / $399 for bundle
Type: UAD native Amp modeling plugins
Controls: Dream '65 Reverb Amp: Bright/Normal mode, Volume, Treble, Bass, Reverb, Speed and Intensity (vibrato), Boost level.
Lion '68 Super Lead: Presence, Bass, Middle, Treble, Volume 1, Volume 2, Bright Cap (Super Lead only), Boost, Ghost Notes, Room reverb, Noise Gate.
Ruby '63 Top Boost: Treble, Bass, Cut, Volume/Brilliant, Boost (EP-III with Normal amp mode/Maestro Rangemaster with Brilliant mode), Room reverb.
Features: Six speaker/Mic combos, 30 factory presets. Dream '65: 3x Boost modes (Stock, Lead, D-Tex), Bright cap. Lion '68: Lead, Bass and Brown amp modes. Ruby '63: Vib-Trem, Normal and Brilliant amp modes.
System Requirements: macOS Catalina 10.15, Big Sur 11, Monterey 12, Ventura 13, Sonoma 14, Sequoia 15. Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit editions). Intel, AMD or Apple silicon processor. Supported DAW compatible with VST3, AU and AAX plug-in file formats. See here for a compatible list.
Contact Universal Audio

Usability

Unlike previous UAD amp plugins, these are the first to be offered native, so they use your computer's processing power to run rather than a piece of Universal Audio hardware – namely an Apollo interface. So immediately the company has opened up the access here to a much wider potential user base.

Neural DSP's native amp plugins can be launched and used independently, but this trio requires a DAW to launch them. So if you want to fire them up for a practice session through your headphones or studio monitor speakers, you'll have to run a compatible DAW first. UA's list of supported software includes Logic Pro 11, Ableton Live 12.1, Pro Tools 2024 and Cubase 14, along with FL Studio 2024 and the company's own Luna. Though it's not listed, I had no problems with the latest version of GarageBand (10.4.11) on my own MacBook Pro either.

After using the pedal versions of these plugins, it's an interesting transition. If anything, it's easier to dial in and explore the sounds here – especially the comparative complexities of the Super Lead and AC30 sounds. For those coming from tube amps, the layout will be familiar and intuitive with the recognisable controls of the respective amps along the bottom of the screen and the amp mode and speaker selection represented above.

While the real amps obviously can't offer presets, those of the UAFX emulator pedals could only be accessed via the Bluetooth UAFX Control app. Here the 30 offered for each amp are just an arrow click away and soon become a hugely important launch point for me to explore the potential of these plugins. From clear nods to Jimi Hendrix songs and AC/DC's Young brothers from the Lion '68, to swampy vibrato and grit from the Dream and Queentastic drive and chimey clean from the Ruby, you can dive in and enjoy or tweak to make them your own and save to a custom preset.

It's a level of quick accessibility that I really can't overstate the importance of because it lowers the barriers of understanding what sounds these amps can deliver. You don't need insider knowledge on settings – choose a preset and note the controls. It's also an effective way to hear what impact the six speaker/mic combos for each plugin has, and a simple click allows you to audition alternatives. But try as I might, I just keep going back to the ol' faithful Oxford on the Dream '65.

The only drawbacks here that I see for those used to more wide open editability of amp plugins are the fact the ribbon, dynamic and condenser mic choices are tied to each of the six speaker emulations (you can also choose DI) and cannot be selected for the speakers independently. And for the sake of convenience and speed, I'd have liked to be able to launch these plugins independently from a DAW. Because they're not just a recording tool, as I discover.

Sounds

I'm going to go out on a limb, but one based on experience, and say the level of depth I have heard from Universal Audio's pedals, and the sense of feel and response I've got from them in a room and through headphones, puts the company at the forefront of tube amp modelling for me right now. It helps that its approach has focussed processing power on a specific amp each time, rather than trying to be all things to all players. Inevitably the same things that impressed me about the Dream, Ruby and Lion pedals are the draw again here – but the experience is a little different.

As I mentioned before, the presets being instantly available without an app really does give you a better understanding of why the original amps are so highly regarded. And in each case UA is expanding the experience to encompass mods and models. In the case of the Lion it's a Plexi amp fest with the Super Bass, Super Lead and EVH-inspired Brown mod, and the presets run the gamut across them.

The Ruby '63 includes the original spec AC30 alongside its later Top Boost iteration and a Vibrato-Tremolo mode that's great for brooding textures. The Dream '65 features three boosts that are inspired by specific mods from its history that saw it as a staple for session players –D-Tex is styled on SRVs mod by Cesar Diaz, Lead is the enhanced mid gain sound of the '80s 'OD Special' mod and Stock is a clean boost. The Dream's Bright cap is also only a click away, whereas on the pedal it involved connecting to the app and activating it on a smartphone. All of these features expand the versatility of the sounds, but the key here is quality.

I'm not a big amp plugin person beyond recording, but I know people who use them like practice amps every day use at home. My time with these three changed my playing habits. As I tried them out out my Tele, Mustang, SG and 1992 Gordon Smith G-1 through Yamaha HPH-MT7 studio monitor headphones and even going out to the recently released HeadRush FRFR-GO 30W portable cab, I didn't just discover excellent recording tools, but inspiring tones I wanted to use to just play for fun.

This is where I'd have liked to be able to launch them without a DAW for the convenience and flexibility Neural DSP plugins like its Tone King emulation offer. But like them, UA's offerings are great at low volumes. In ways the original tube amps simply can't be. This is a huge deal if you get your guitar kicks in the evenings after your kids are in bed. As self-contained virtual amps, they just feel right and perform extremely well if your laptop or desktop machine has become a creative hub for you.

For recording they're just such great tools to have at hand – even if it's just for overdubs over your existing tried and true favourites. It's like having thousands of dollars worth of vintage amps on call. They play nicely with the other reverb and delay plugins I tried them with, and I used the Dream plugin as a platform for my pedalboard, just as I have with the pedal version. You really need to keep the input gain on your interface from running too hot but I didn't hear any differences between pedal and plugin from my go-to edge of breakup setting.

How many of us will ever have get to plug into a real late '60s Super Lead or Super Bass? The sense of access here is a bit of a revelation as you can explore exactly why some players rate them as the greatest guitar amps ever made. The amp-in-the-room experience has the intimate response I look for too – it's in the sting and the crunch of you can lose hours in playing alone, and they clean up like the real thing. These representations of these classic amps will coax new voices from you as a player. It's really inspiring stuff.

As UA has expanded these amps with boosts and mods, it would have been nice to see a couple of reverb options in addition to a room control for the Ruby and Lion (the Deluxe Reverb's highly desirable built-in spring reverb), and the Ruby especially would have benefitted from a noise gate like the Lion has.

The lack of option to move or swap out mics for the specific speaker cabs may also be lamented by those used to more configuration elsewhere. But the theme with UA and its modeling output so far really does seem to be curation – and the UA team helmed by Tore Mogensen and James Santiago have done a lot of work to ensure this is a digital love letter to these amps. It shows.

Personally, I don't seek the deeper edibility – I honestly prefer the quality over quantity of tweaking options here as I did with the pedals, and those that want to can bypass the speaker emulations to use third-party IRs, though with the added drain on CPU from running another plugin that may bring.

Verdict

For the specific classic tube amps they model, these are currently the definitive articles when it comes to plugin choice right now – and I'd argue the same for their pedal versions that use the same algorithms. Usability-wise, I actually prefer the plugins for home playing because of the headphone experience – I think the absence of a headphone out on the pedals was a mistake from UA. Are these plugins worth $/£299 each? No, I think that's too much for a single amp plugin – however good. You can nearly buy one of the pedals for that. But there's a twist in the tale here.

These plugins are cheaper when bought together and are frequently discounted further – sometimes by a significant amount. So the full RRP is really not the full story here, and I'm factoring that into the review score. You can try each plugin free for two weeks to see and hear if they're suitable for your needs.

Existing UA Apollo owners will be disappointed there aren't yet Unison versions that take advantage of the designated slot on their hardware. Native versions obviously open up a bigger potential user base – perhaps people who haven't investigated amp plugins before. The UI is certainly a lot easier to approach for newcomers compared to the much more featured likes of AmpliTube. The appeal of simplicity in the user experience when dealing with such rich and nuanced amp sounds is definitely a selling point for me. It meant I could focus on exploring and playing.

I am struck at how well these plugins interacted with the guitars I tested them with – cleaning up especially well to explore dynamics. Blues fans will especially enjoy this side of the Lion '68. The Dream '65 boasts the best representation of a vintage Fender Deluxe's spring reverb tank I've heard from a plugin, and the Ruby is the benchmark for AC30 modeling for me. It's actually an excellent gateway to Vox. There's a lot to enhance your recordings and be inspired by here.

Guitar World verdict: All the tonal delights of UA's amp pedals with a friendlier user experience makes these the greatest plugin versions of three of the greatest tube amps in history. Just don't pay the steep full retail prices, ok?

Hands-on videos

John Nathan Cordy

Universal Audio

• Universal Audio UAFX Enigmatic ‘82 Overdrive Special pedal review

We’ve seen some red hot Black Friday guitar deals this year, but this discounted Universal UAD bundle from Guitar Center is absolutely absurd. Quite frankly, it borders on the down-right ridiculous: apparently, you can get a whopping 96% off the Universal Audio UAD Guitar FX Software Bundle.

We promise you that isn’t a typo, but if you think that’s a helluva discount already, just wait until you get a load of some of the numbers involved. According to Guitar Center, you can save, erm, $1,195 – yes, one thousand whole dollars – on the bumper bundle, which is currently listed for $49 despite having a regular price of $1,244.

While we’re slightly suspicious of some of the numbers involved here – we would be surprised if the bundle is actually worth $1,244 at full price, or that it would be flogged at a 96% discount – there’s still no denying that this is still a pretty bonkers deal.

Forget the sensationalist figures involved for a moment and try not to get too distracted by the wild percentages: a Universal Audio UAFX plugin package for just shy of $49 is absolutely stellar value any day of the week.

In this bundle, you get digital emulations of six legendary effects pedals, studio rack units, compressors and more – all of which are essential studio must-haves for any home studio setup.

For $49, you get two chorus patches: one inspired by Boss’ legendary CE-1 – which was championed by the likes of Rush and Red Hot Chili Peppers – and another based on the Roland Dimension D rack unit beloved by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Brian Eno.

Elsewhere, you get a reverb that takes cues from the legendary Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb rack unit, which can be heard on numerous 1980s classics; a Waterfall Rotary Speaker that offers the swirly six-string sounds of The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix; and a Galaxy Tape Echo, which bottles the tape delay tones of the Roland RE-201 to deliver an authentic Pink Floyd, David Bowie and Radiohead vibe.

Oh, and let’s not forget all of the above is apparently more than $1,000 off over at Guitar Center. Will we see a bigger discount this Black Friday weekend? We highly doubt it. In fact, you might as well snap this up just so you can brag to your friends about copping the biggest Black Friday deal out there.

If you're on the lookout for more discounts, make sure to keep your eyes peeled for more killer Black Friday guitar deals.

Shop more epic Black Friday deals

• Amazon: Guitar gear deals
• Fender store: 50% off guitars
• Guitar Center: Up to 50% off
• Musician's Friend: Up to 60% off sale
• Positive Grid: Save on Spark
• Sweetwater: Save up to 80% on gear
• Waves: Plugins just $19.99

Everything is AI nowadays, is what the Kaiser Chiefs would have sung if they’d gotten together twenty years later than they did. Whether you like it or not, AI is here to stay, and it’s only going to assimilate itself even further into every aspect of your life, including your guitar playing.

Much in the same way social media and YouTube are now a part of the guitar landscape, AI will change the topography of the music industry as a whole. It’s one of those adapt-or-die situations and I say adapt. You don’t have to wait for the AI revolution to help improve your guitar playing, because there are plenty of tools available right now. Here are 6 suggestions to get you started…

ChatGPT

It’s an obvious one, but ChatGPT can be whatever you want it to be. Need someone to suggest chords for a progression you have? How about some help troubleshooting why your guitar isn’t playing the way you want it to? The great thing about ChatGPT is that you can ask it follow-up questions, which is often a much more efficient way of solving problems than straight Google searches.

ChatGPT also gets to know you over time (if you enable the function) so if you keep asking it guitar-related questions it will provide more and more relevant responses. For even more power, ChatGPT has a paid tier that gives you access to more advanced models. The thing to remember is that it’s only as powerful as your prompts, so part of getting the most out of ChatGPT is asking it the right questions.

Check out ChatGPT

Positive Grid Spark AI

Spark AI currently features on the recently released Positive Grid Spark 2, but will be coming to all Spark amps in the future. This means if you already own one of these desktop guitar amps, or you’re planning on buying one, AI tone generation is within your grasp. Rather like the image generator Midjourney, Spark AI creates guitar tones when you prompt it. Not only does it allow you to create bespoke sounds, but it’s great for getting the tones of famous guitar players too.

We tried it on our Spark 2 review, and got some great success using phrases like ‘low gain, fat rhythm tone’ as well as things like ‘sludgy doom rhythm tone’. You can get as creative as you like with it and the more you input, the more it will learn, and the better it will get. Soon knob twiddling might just be a thing of the past.

Learn more about Spark AI

StemRoller

There's a lot of stem separators around at the moment. I really like StemRoller though, as it’s an open-source, freeware AI tool. that allows you to split the parts of songs down and isolate them. Say you wanted to jam along to the latest tune from your favorite band, you could search it via StemRoller and get the isolated track, remove the guitars, import it into your DAW, and play along with the rest of the instruments.

Depending on your computer it can take a little while to get your stems, anywhere between 5 to 15 minutes, but I’ve found the quality to be astoundingly good considering it's free. Some busy mixes can result in artifacts, but the majority of songs have worked really well for me. It delivers an instrumental, separate drum, bass, and vocal parts, as well as an 'other' category depending on the song in question, which is great for building your own backing tracks or helping you analyze a guitar part without the vocals getting in the way.

Download StemRoller

Suno AI

AI music generation is understandably, a bit of a sticky subject. Infamously endorsed by Timbaaland, Suno allows you to create bespoke music with a simple text prompt. It requires you to sign up for a free account but it’s scarily powerful, generating full songs in a matter of seconds. You'd think they'd be average or poor quality, but my prompt of 'crushingly heavy death metal song' delivered an actually good, usable result.

Prompts can be done in any style, whether it's rock, blues, country, metal, or anything else. You can also upload your own audio and have the AI finish it off, add lyrics, or generate more ideas based on yours. It’s a powerful addition to anyone’s songwriting toolbox, particularly great for those days when you’re struggling to make anything work and need a fresh perspective.

Check out Suno AI

iZotope Ozone

iZotope Ozone has actually been using AI and machine learning since before it was cool, way back in 2016. The latest version features a seriously powerful AI mastering tool that essentially acts as your own personal mastering engineer. Unlike many online mastering tools you might have come across, it also allows you to get under the hood and tweak every single setting, giving you a lot of control over what you can do with it.

Why would this be useful for guitar players? Well with more and more players opting to record at home, Ozone can help take your tracks to the next level. Giving you that loudness that will compete with others on Spotify and add depth to your mixes. With Ozone in your corner alongside some of the other tools on this list, it's entirely possible to create a great-sounding track by yourself. Think of it as your own personal mastering engineer.

Try iZotope Ozone 11 for free

DAACI Natural Drums

Drummers are a pain. They’re loud, take too much time to set up, and never help you with your guitar cab – just joking, some of my favorite people are drummers! That said, recording acoustic drums is difficult from home, and if you don’t play yourself, creating natural-feeling grooves is even more difficult. DAACI Natural Drums is an AI-powered drummer that can cover all styles, is easily tweakable, never gets tired, and never goes out of time.

Great just for jamming along to or to help you craft tunes when recording at home, it’s endlessly tweakable, allowing you to program grooves and fills with incredible variety and a really natural feel. A recent collaboration with Spitfire Audio means there are loads of great sounds in DAACI now, although I prefer to use it with a drum VST like Superior Drummer 3 or Steven Slate Drums.

Try DAACI Natural Drums for free

Conclusion

So there you have it, six great tools you can use right now to improve or augment your guitar playing. There’s a lot of naysaying about AI, but I’m a firm believer that you need to adopt new technology when it comes, and the earlier you do so, the more of an advantage you'll have over those who won't. So don't be afraid to mess around with these tools to help you get where you want to be.

Whether it's to improve your playing, songwriting, or just to help you have more fun, over the next few years we’ll be seeing an exponential increase in the amount of AI-powered programs available. More and more of these will be aimed specifically at guitarists, too, which could make it an incredibly exciting time to be involved in making music.

Learn more about AI

• Check out our wishlist of AI-powered guitar amp features
• Read why JustinGuitar is embracing AI
• Learn how AI is being used to restore old tapes

IK Multimedia has played a significant part in the digital revolution for both studio and live musicians, with its AmpliTube and Tonex ecosystems; both applications hold some serious regard amongst reviewers and players alike, and both have been charitably bundled into the Black Friday deal of a lifetime. This Black Friday, you can pick up the top-flight editions of both titanic applications from IK Multimedia for an impressive 83% off.

‘Going digital’ with your guitar rig hasn’t always been an alluring prospect – but today, there are fewer reasons to shirk the software than ever. Amp sims and modeling algorithms are close to a hyper-realistic singularity, already indistinguishable in A/B testing to the vast majority of guitarists (the rest of whom, let’s be honest, got lucky). The Black Friday guitar deals are easily the best time of year for guitarists to start their modeling experiments, as audio companies vie to offer the most compelling deals on their next-gen software and hardware.

In our Tonex software review, we found the biggest advantage of the software is easily its ability to model your gear. Rather than relying on pre-captured sounds and close-approximation patches to recreate an existing rig, you can basically print your rig to your own Tone Model algorithm – allowing you to take everything with you on the road without actually taking any of it with you on the road. If the idea of lugging your modded Fender Twin up another unreasonably steep set of venue stairs is enough to twinge your back, Tonex has you covered.

But with the Tonex Max package offered as part of this frankly insane discounted bundle, you might only ever think to profile some of your more esoteric pedals and cabs. After all, you’ll have access to thousands of proprietary and user-generated Tone Models straight away – including Tone Models of some incredibly sought-after vintage amps.

Garnering a full 5 stars out of 5 in our Amplitube 5 review, it's a phenomenal piece of guitar-rig-building software, that enables you to build your sound brick by brick from faithfully-modeled guitar amps, comprehensive guitar cab, mic and room impulse responses, and a flotilla of effects besides. AmpliTube 5 MAX v2 is the full package, including (but not limited to) premium analog models of Fender, Orange and Mesa/Boogie amps as well as a suite of Fulltone pedals and even a vintage Leslie. Better still, the new version supports Tonex, so you can insert AI-boosted Tone Models into your rig with no problem.

This deal is an unmissable one – unless, of course, you miss it. As long as you pick up and register one of either Max-version software before December 2^nd, though, you’ll be golden.

Check out more early Black Friday deals:

• Guitar Center: Up to 40% off
• Musician's Friend: Bag up to 50% off
• Positive Grid: Up to 50% off sale

While the distributor you use to upload your music to Spotify and handle your payments might be doing a good job for those basic functions, don’t think that that is all distributors do. The features and tools that your distributor offers can make a real difference when it comes to engaging more listeners and growing your fan base, both of which will increase your opportunities to make money with your music. One of Spotify’s recommended distributors, DistroKid, provides many of these features at no cost to their subscribers. Let’s take a closer look at some of DistroKid’s most important features for Spotify:

Hassle-free Startup on Spotify

DistroKid makes the process of getting your music on Spotify quick and straightforward. Just use the Simple Upload Form to upload your song; you just fill in the descriptions and details and select Spotify as a store. That’s it. From there, DistroKid handles all the rest, ensuring your song appears on Spotify without any hassle.

Another great feature is Unlimited Uploads. DistroKid knows that your distributor shouldn’t slow you down. That’s why Distrokid invites you to upload as many songs and albums as you want, helping you keep your Spotify profile updated with new music. Unlike other music distribution platforms, with DistroKid you don’t have to worry about additional fees per upload.

Get Recognized and Verified as a Spotify Artist

With DistroKid’s Instant Spotify for Artists Access, you essentially ‘skip the line’ and get immediate access to one of Spotify’s most powerful features, Spotify for Artists. Once there, you can manage your profile, access performance analytics, and gain important insights into your audience’s listening habits which can help you promote your music more effectively. More on that promotion in a minute, but along with Spotify for Artists access, DistroKid can help put you ahead of other artists by helping to get your profile verified.

Profile Verification Assistance from DistroKid provides step-by-step guidance on how to secure a verified artist profile on Spotify. This sets you apart from other users on Spotify, adds to your credibility, and ensures that your profile is officially recognized. But that’s not all. Once you’re verified, you get:

• A personal dashboard of statistics that you can't get anywhere else
• The ability to update your Spotify artist pic and bio
• An open door to pitch your new releases to Spotify’s editorial team
• Access to the Spotify team to answer any of your questions
• A blue verified check mark so your listeners know your account is legit

Promote Your Music

Like success on social media, it’s all about engagement. DistroKid’s Canvas Generator provides a quick and effective way to get more engaged with your listeners. This free feature will help you design an eight-second looping “canvas”, a visual for each of your Spotify tracks, creating a visually immersive digital experience that immediately makes streaming music more engaging.

Even though we have been focused here on features for Spotify that are included with a DistroKid subscription, you need to know about Album Extras, too. These are simple, low-cost add-ins that can really make a difference. For example, the Store Maximizer feature is a quick way to dramatically increase your exposure. This DistroKid feature distributes your music past Spotify, out to other major streaming services and online stores. The best part is that it’s zero effort on your part. You can start with Spotify and, with the same effort, reach other major platforms and audiences. It’s automatic and continues working for you as new outlets become available.

Get Rewarded for Your Efforts

Remember the Real-Time Analytics we talked about through Spotify for Artists? Those analytics provide the information you need to succeed. With detailed streaming data and other details about your audience, you’ll have the insight you need to understand your songs’ performance on Spotify. This empowers you to tailor your marketing strategies effectively–like marketing pros do.

Another completely free (and awesomely powerful) promotional tool available to all DistroKid artists is HyperFollow Links. This allows you to have just one link that leads to your music on all streaming services–not just Spotify. Having customized HyperFollow landing pages for your song releases drives pre-saves and increases engagement with any new music you put on Spotify.

For when you work on your music with collaborators, DistroKid provides Royalties and Collaborator Splits: When Spotify Premium or ad-supported customers stream your music, Distrokid makes sure you receive royalties for it, handling the split to ensure fair compensation and simplify financial management. Speaking of royalties, you should know that DistroKid supports a large number of payout options, including PayPal, ACH, wire transfer, eCheck, or even a paper check!

We’ve discussed mostly free features you’ll have as a DistroKid basic subscriber, but there are some very affordable paid features you’ll want to explore. One of the most powerful is Mixea, an HD Audio AI-assisted mastering tool. Just about anyone can use this tool to master tracks for a truly professional sounding product. It can deliver mastered files in 24-bit, 48k, or high-res WAV format. When they are this affordable, powerful features like this can ‘level the playing field’ for beginning music producers or those on a limited budget, allowing them to compete online with high-priced studios.

You can learn more about DistroKid features specifically for Spotify, as well as how Distrokid can help you reach listeners on other platforms here.

DistroKid is the Smart Choice

When you sign up at DistroKid, you won’t be alone. It’s used by major artists, like 21 Savage, Ludacris, Will Smith, and Tom Waits. Plus, with over three million artists using the service, it has become a major platform in the DIY distribution space. Why? Because for over 10 years DistroKid has been giving artists and labels the hassle-free features they need to compete:

• Effortless Distribution with unlimited uploads to online stores and streaming services
• Smart Promotion through a host of smart features to promote your releases, including video tools and automatic distribution to the most popular platforms
• Better Monetization making it easy to collect 100% of your earnings and access to real-time analytics you need to take your music to the next level

DistroKid’s all-in-one, subscription-based model makes the process of getting your music on Spotify and across other top music distribution channels quick and easy, but one of its most attractive features is that it is affordable. With annual fees starting as little as $24.99 per year that include unlimited uploads, this is a distribution proposition that’s hard to beat. You can even pay a flat rate to have your music on platforms for life, even if your subscription lapses. Check out all DistroKid’s pricing and service options.

Don’t think that all distributors are alike. Get the most out of Spotify and other top streaming services when you sign up with DistroKid and start streamlining your music distribution process.

Universal Audio has announced three new amp plugins, which take a trio of the firm’s highly praised UAFX amp pedals to the digital realm for the first time.

Notably, Universal Audio has elected to digitize three of its most well-known UAFX pedals – the Dream ’65, Lion ’68 and Ruby ’63 – two of which were famously favored by The Edge during U2’s residency at the Las Vegas Sphere late last year.

In November, The Edge ended speculation that he’d ditched tube amps for amp sims by confirming he had in fact rewired his pedalboard to fit in UA’s flagship UAFX amp pedals. Along with the physical Dream ‘65 and Ruby ‘63, he also used the Woodrow.

Now, two years after the physical amp pedals arrived, Universal Audio has made two of The Edge-approved UAFX units available as native DAW plugins for direct recording.

On paper, the Dream and Ruby models are recreations of Fender and Vox amps, while the Lion ’68 – which arrived shortly after the first three – seeks to recreate the tones of a Marshall.

The physical units have all received rave reviews from Guitar World over the years, and so to see their applications be extended to hardware-free direct recording via digital means is pretty neat.

In the firm’s own words, these three are directly based on their physical counterparts, and use the same algorithms. They offer “the timeless sound” of a Fender, the “prized vintage Top Boost” of a Vox, and “all the gorgeous cleans, aggressive breakup, and hot-rodded roar” of three 100-watt plexi amps.

Each plugin offers a range of amp-specific tones and add-ons, including a variety of tube-powered spring and vibrato effects, Rangemaster-inspired boosts and Maestro-style preamps.

Not only that, they offer a range of mic and speaker pairings, as well as a host of “expert presets” that let you dial in some previously curated tones, which can all be accessed within your chosen DAW.

There is, however, a slight catch: the UAD plugins all cost $299. To put that into perspective, the physical UAFX pedals will set you back $399. That’s only a $100 difference between pedal and plugin, which is rather bold. And you have to remember, with the exception of the Lion (which offers three amps), you only get one amp style per plugin.

To further contextualize that price, Neural DSP offers plugin packages that comprise a bunch of amps and effects for considerably less. Its Matchless Suite, for example, is less than €100.

Not only that, IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube 5 Max – which has five amps and a huge range of effects – is currently available for just $99, and is by comparison usually around $299 at full price. Having said that, you do get the prestige of Universal Audio’s algorithms, and the knowledge that the tones have been literally approved by U2.

Plus, they're currently at an introductory offer of $149, which lasts until December.

Visit Universal Audio to find out more.

Limp Bizkit guitarist and all-around gear aficionado Wes Borland has partnered with STL Tones for a new plugin suite, Tonality: Wes Borland.

The plugin pros at STL say the collaboration has successfully captured “the sonic and visual anarchy that Wes has become so renowned for”, serving up three different amps and a virtual pedalboard.

To achieve that, its most advanced hardware modeling algorithms were put to the test to trace the schematics of Borland’s most beloved – read: used and abused – amplifiers, pedals, and cabinets. The result is a careful recreation of Borland’s live rig in an affordable digital format.

The three-amp package digitizes the sonic souls of Borland's Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus, Diezel VH4 and Selmer Zodiac 50 MKII Tremolo.

The two-input channels and three-band EQs on the Roland have seen it become many a player’s preferred clean amp, and this digitized version is said to be just as transparent. Diezel’s “extremely versatile” 100-watt head, meanwhile, satisfies the heavier end of Borland’s tone-chasing thanks to four distinctly voiced preamps, all of which have independent gain, EQ, and master controls.

The amp trio is rounded out by the “chime and saturated breakup tones” of the Selmer Zodiac, which offers a nice middle ground between the transparency and grunt of its stablemates.

Five pedals are on offer here. The Big Wezz is based on Electro-Harmonix’s Big Muff fuzz pedal, the Mini Filter on EHX’s Mini Q-Tron, and the WB7 two-in-one chorus/flanger on the Ibanez CF7.

There are also two delay pedals to get suitably spacey with. The Borland Delay is based on Dunlop’s revered Echoplex tape echo, while a take on Boss’ ever-flexible DD-8 digital delay completes the one-two.

The collection of combo amps, heads, and pedals have been paired with digital repro’s of Borland’s favorite speaker cabinets, which have been measured and scrutinized to provide “the ultimate in realism and accuracy”. For good measure, and to mimic Borland’s artistry, the cabinets have been adorned with some typically weird paintings.

Five different microphones were used in 156 different positions for tireless Impulse Response captures, and they can all be adjusted within the plugin.

Tonality: Wes Borland helps to strengthen and diversify STL Tones' plugin roster. Previously, the brand has worked with producer Will Putney, Josh Middleton, and Andy James, among others.

Of why it has singled out the Limp Bizkit riff-monger for its latest Tonality plugin, STL Tones says: “Borland isn't just a guitarist; he's a living, breathing art piece, redefining what it means to be a rock star.”

The STL Tones Tonality: Wes Borland plugin costs $149, but is currently reduced to $99.

Head to STL Tones to learn more.

Whether you are a songwriter, solo artist, band, producer, or record label, you know how important it is to follow through after you’ve made a great recording. As good as your recording is, until it reaches the right audience, your music is stuck in limbo. While friends and local fans can offer you and your music important support, the real success in today’s music business can only be found by getting your music into the ears of the boundless audiences found online. The good news is that the availability of streaming services and online music retailers has put a global audience within your reach. The not-so-good news is that it’s not always obvious or easy to get your music up there, let alone sounding good and promoted so that your tracks rise to the top selections. Not to worry, there’s more good news: a subscription service called DistroKid can help.

DistroKid is a leading DIY digital music distribution service that provides musicians with easy-to-navigate tools to sell, stream, or distribute their music through online music retailers. With its user-friendly suite of innovative audio, video and administrative features, DistroKid empowers artists to succeed with some of the top music retailers, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and more.

Top 11 Features of DistroKid

Having DistroKid’s features at your disposal is like having a music industry marketing, public relations, audio engineering, and graphics partner. Here are some (not all) of the most powerful DistroKid features that are helping creators and labels reach global audiences:

• Instant Spotify for Artists Access: Get on the most popular streaming service fast with DistroKid’s immediate access to Spotify for Artists so you can manage your artist profile, access analytics, and make real-time updates.
• Mixea: Master your tracks to professional-grade audio quality with this cutting-edge mixing software. Easily find the sound that fits your track with AI-assisted automation and different EQ and intensity options
• DistroVid: Reach a larger audience with video when you upload and distribute music videos. Put up as many videos as you want with just the flat annual fee model with no additional costs per release.
• TikTok Artist Accounts: Leverage TikTok’s viral potential and easily manage TikTok accounts to directly engage with followers. You can apply for a TikTok Artist Account directly through your DistroKid account.
• Spotify Canvas Generator: Increase engagement by creating eye-catching, looping Canvas videos for each of your Spotify releases.
• Unlimited Uploads: Keep delivering for your fans. Upload as many tracks and albums as you want with DistroKid’s flat annual fee model, without extra charges per release.
• YouTube Monetization: Automatically monetize your music videos from ads and YouTube Music paying subscribers and track that revenue. Get paid when your music plays.
• Automatic Distribution to Major Platforms: Save time and increase your reach by making your music available on all major streaming services and online stores worldwide. Automatic Distribution makes it easy.
• HyperFollow Landing Pages: Increase your music’s visibility and income potential by creating custom landing pages for your releases to drive pre-saves. With pre-saves, your fans can save music even before it's released.
• Split Payments: Automatically divide earnings among collaborators, ensuring fair distribution of royalties.
• Store Maximizer: Set yourself up for growth so your music is automatically added to new stores and streaming services as they become available.

Learn more about all the hassle-free DistroKid features that can give your music a creative edge on the most popular music streaming and social media platforms.

Why You Need DistroKid

When you sign up at DistroKid, you won’t be alone. It’s used by major artists, like 21 Savage, Ludacris, Will Smith, and Tom Waits. Plus, with over 3 million artists using the service, it has become a major platform in the DIY distribution space. Why? Because for over 10 years DistroKid has been giving artists and labels easy access what they want most:

• Distribution: Allows unlimited uploads to online stores and streaming services
• Monetization: Makes it easy to collect 100% of your earnings
• Metadata Customization: Gives you control to customize your metadata
• Storage: Offers storage services
• Promotion: Provides a host of smart features to promote releases, like Playlist Spotlight, Promo Cards, and Vizy Video Generator

DistroKid’s subscription-based model makes the process of getting music into distribution channels quick and easy, but it’s also affordable, with really attractive annual fees starting at just $24.99 per year–and that includes unlimited uploads. You can even pay a flat rate to have your music on platforms for life, even if your subscription lapses. Check out all DistroKid’s pricing and service options.

If you are sitting on some great music or just can’t get the traction you need on the most popular streaming platforms, sign up with DistroKid and get the tools you need to reach your global audience. 

When Joe Satriani signed on to tackle some of Eddie Van Halen’s most iconic guitar parts in Sammy Hagar’s Best of All Worlds tour, he knew his regular amp rig wouldn’t cut it: it was too focused on fattening up the high strings – great for solos, but not for EVH’s trademark rhythms.

He turned to Dylana Scott at 3rd Power Amplification, who set out to capture what Satriani and Hagar considered to be Eddie’s greatest tone: Van Halen’s 1986 Live Without a Net rig, featuring modded Marshalls with power soaks and effects processing.

The resultant guitar amp, the Dragon 100, has accompanied Satriani on all the Best of All Worlds dates so far, but nobody else has been able to get their hands on that elusive Marshall-on-11 tone just yet.

Fortunately, mere moments before Satch headed off on tour, IK Multimedia captured the sound of this fire-breathing collaboration, and has now added it to the Joe Satriani Amp Vault Signature Collection, which launched last month.

Dialed in by Satriani and captured at Hagar’s Red Rocker Studios in Northern California using IK’s AI modeling tech, the eight new Dragon 100 models promise to deliver classic Plexi tones with a finely tuned dynamic response that gets the best out of single-note lines and chords alike.

The new models will be included for anyone who picks up the plugin, and available as a free download for existing users, bringing the suite’s grand total up to 67 Tone Models.

“My 3rd Power Dragon 100 amp is a vintage-sounding and modern-featured head inspired by the legendary 1967/1968 Plexi Super Lead 100. It sounds like a roaring Plexi recorded with the best mics, preamps and EQs, perfectly balanced like a great, legendary recorded guitar track,” says Satriani.

“Harmonically rich and touch-sensitive with plenty of gain on tap, there's nothing quite like it. It's my favorite new amp.”

In fact, Satriani loves the collaboration so much that after road-testing the rig on the Satch/Vai tour, he’s employing three heads on the Best of All Worlds tour, which kicked off earlier this month.

“I just completed the Satch/Vai tour of the USA using just one Dragon head with two matching 3rd Power 4x12 cabinets,” he explains.

“My new setup for the ‘Best of All Worlds Tour’ with Sammy Hagar will feature an all-Dragon (wet/dry/wet) system with 3 heads powering 6 cabinets. It's an awesome sound!”

For anyone seeking the real physical deal, the Dragon 100 is now available to preorder from Bananas at Large, with a current wait time of three to six months. Available as in a range of 25, 45 and 100-watt heads and combos, the amps start at $2,999.

Hand-wired, point-to-point builds, the Dragons use a laydown mains transformer to deliver 500V to their EL34 power tubes for extra saturation.

This is further controlled via 3rd Power’s HybridMASTER control which “simultaneously controls the volume, limits the DC current and regulates the DC plate voltage of the tube circuitry” to get the tone right for the venue, no matter the size.

There are all kinds of smart EQ features, too, including – deep breath – Plexi/Cascade Preamp Modes, 400Hz Boost, Vintage/Modern Tone Stacks, Ultra Presence (4 Switchable High-Frequency Shelf settings), Low Freq. Push, Vintage/Focus Power Amp Modes.

The Joe Satriani Amp Vault, meanwhile, is available now for $/€99.99, and features a wealth of classic Satch sounds (Marshall, Soldano, 5150), plus some rarer pieces (a vintage Fender ’53 Tweed Deluxe for one) and, of course, its own Dragon 100 models.

IK Multimedia has more info.

Nirvana tone obsessive Aaron Rash has spent the last few years tumbling down the rabbit hole of Kurt Cobain’s feral In Utero electric guitar sound. Now, he's produced a painstakingly put-together pack of Impulse Responses that lets guitarists harness the iconic In Utero tone "without touching a single physical amp".

Nirvana’s Nevermind follow-up (which Steve Albini offered to produce for free, so long as they beat him at a game of pool) was released in 1993 to great acclaim. It saw Cobain take his guitar tones in a wiry new direction – a sound Rash has been determined to recreate.

As such, the Utero Sessions IR Pack follows years of investment into research and gear-chasing to nail the record’s distinctive sound. Even if at times he felt it was a fruitless endeavor.

“I have bought and sold probably seven different [Fender] Quad Reverbs to find the perfect sounding one, because – news flash – they don’t all sound the same, even with the same speakers,” he says of the process. “They really vary all over the place.”

“Every amp is different and it's going to affect the tone,” Rash said of his tone hunt to MusicRadar earlier this year. “I found speakers make the most difference, especially for distortion tones – it’s night and day.

“I’ve always thought about it like this: if you take white noise and you run it through a speaker, every speaker is going to have its own profile. Distortion is just like white noise, really – if you hear it without going through a speaker, it just sounds like trash. The speaker is really important.”

The problem Rash faced was that the speaker he longed for – one made by legacy speaker brand, Utah, specifically for the Quad Reverb – is extremely rare. Only a few were made.

But he couldn’t cut corners, saying: “With its undersized magnets, and 16 ohm voice coil, nothing else sounds quite like it.”

Away from the speaker intricacies, Rash endeavored to use the same 1940s ribbon mics Nirvana used, despite them coming at an “astronomical” cost.

Says Rash: “I sourced all the original microphones that were used on the record, preamps, literally everything. I honestly don’t want to know how much I’ve spent to do this, but it’s done! And I am so happy to share it with you guys.”

Rash also points out that the room in which the IRs were created was crucial, adding that Steve Albini and Cobain’s guitar tech, Earnie Bailey, helped guide him on his mammoth journey.

The software is compatible with amp guitar plugins, with Rash personally recommending the Softube Vintage Amp Room. However, he says any kind of Fender Twin Reverb-emulating plugin will do the trick.

“The amp’s not really important,” he confesses. “What’s important is the IR pack.”

The Utero Sessions IR Pack is available now for $49.99.

Head to Aaron Rash to learn more.

How much is the price of a Steve Vai gig ticket? Well, that doesn’t matter anymore, because the electric guitar virtuoso has just launched an app that lets you beam him directly into your home.

Crafted with 4DR Studios, the Zeus In Chains iOS and Android app lets users project a pre-recorded video of Vai shredding the track from which the app gets its name, wherever they please.

Of course, it’s not quite the same as a live show, and you are only beaming a recording of Vai, not Vai himself, onto the screen of your phone, but it’s a pretty neat concept regardless.

Want to see Vai shred his Ibanez signature guitar in your garden? Or how about while standing in the middle of a swimming pool? Desperate for a toilet break, but need some shredding motivation?

All of that, and whatever else your brain can come up with, is possible. Heck, the recording could even be used as entertainment for your pets, or some in-meal entertainment while you’re eating your dinner.

According to a press release, Zeus in Chains uses the latest advancements in technology to optimize volumetric video and create a hyper-realistic model of Steve Vai, which is then projected using augmented reality.

“Volumetric video creates 3D avatars of real people, capturing genuine emotions, bringing soul to the digital realm,” explains 4DR Studio’s Natasja Paulssen. “Using our technology to capture Steve is the ultimate proof of this. The app is the beginning of a new journey into the virtual worlds that are coming into existence now.

“This moment signifies the true commencement of a symbiotic relationship which enriches both what music can bring, and get, from this new world.”

The project began “several years ago” when Vai was introduced to Paulssen via a mutual contact, after Vai had discussed the possibility of using holographic technology for a performance of some kind.

Years later, that has now become a reality – thanks to a recording that utilized 48 cameras – and Vai will now be using the fan-generated clips of him shredding in a cereal bowl and tapping away on the palm of someone’s hand in an upcoming video for Zeus in Chains.

“This app allows the user to visually capture me performing Zeus in Chains into any environment through their phone,” Vai notes. “I encourage folks to download this app and create some crazy content of me performing at a historical location near you, or in a hilarious situation, and upload your video to a platform of your choice to help me finish this video.”

What’s more, Zeus in Chains has been described as “the first step” on the road to more holographic content.

“The virtual world is the third wave of the digital revolution, following the Internet and then social media,” he goes on. “The primary intent of this undertaking is to explore new ways to experience songs, and more broadly tie an immersive fan experience in to the realm of artist performances.

“This is the initial first step within a broad vision tied to exploring the virtual world in augmented reality via co-creating this video with the fans.”

Fans can upload their clips to any platform the wish with the #VaiEverywhere tag.

The Zeus in Chains app is available for $2.99 on iOS and Android now.

Kiesel has partnered with audio specialists PolyChrome DSP to create the HyperRig – a new all-in-one plugin that has set its sights on shaking up the world of digital guitar tones.

There are a few headlines here: first, the HyperRig represents the first time Kiesel has branched outside the realm of electric guitar production since 2015, and is the firm’s premier effort at producing a digital guitar amp and effects package.

Second, it’s been released to some huge claims, the boldest of which finds Kiesel promising the HyperRig will “set out to blow your wildest expectations of how your guitar can sound and feel, using a single plugin”. 

Oh, and it’s got “the world’s fastest transposer” for speedy transpositions as an added USP: “You can now transpose your guitar (and other instruments) with a response that’s unlike anything you’ve experienced before.”

In order to blow player’s minds with its HyperRig, Kiesel has equipped is one-stop-shop for amps and effects with three amp models, 15 speaker sims, an IR loader, two EQ pedals, a collection of pre and post effects, and a handful of extras, including full MIDI control, a noise gate and a “3D space tone processor”.

So, at first glance, it’s quite a humble collection, but Kiesel insists this is plenty to curate enough tones to sweep you off your feet. In fact, there are currently more than 300 “masterfully curated” presets developed by Kiesel players and artists that HyperRig users can explore.

That, and the brand has promised this is just the start: “Your inspiration will never run dry with an ever growing collection of presets,” it says.

For some specifics, there are Maple, Carbon and InFusion amps for a range of crystal cleans, classic crisp and crushing crunch, and Delay, Reverb, Compressor, Boost, Drive and Chorus effects.

In other words, the HyperRig is evidence that Kiesel and PolyChrome DSP are intent on taking the fight to the likes of Neural DSP in order to nudge its way into one of the most profitable and popular arenas of the modern guitar world. 

It’s rather competitively priced, too: the HyperRig is available for $129.

Find out more over at Kiesel.

Gibson has been in the forefront of the music industry for the last 130 years providing the world’s best musicians with the most iconic and highest quality hand-crafted guitars to play. Gibson continues to be at the head of innovation and has developed an exceptional guitar learning app to help beginners and advanced players learn and develop. The Gibson app works with any guitar and offers in-depth, quality learning via a curated journey where players of all levels develop new skills and master their favorite songs quickly in a fun, engaging, and interactive approach. 

What’s more, the Gibson App provides a host of unique features, including a built-in digital amplifier with acoustic and electric effects that you can “crank up” while you’re learning or jamming along with your favorite tunes. It’s tailored for every skill level, from the first-time player to the serious accomplished musician, with a “gamified” yet thoughtful AI approach that makes learning and advancing fun as well as informative. 

Beginners can learn basic skills quickly, starting with how to pick a string and fret a note. From there, simple melodies are introduced, and rhythm and lead guitar rudiments are broken down into easy-to-digest skills and lessons that incorporate animated diagrams, video tutorials that provide real-time feedback, and more.

Players can also learn at their own pace by slowing down lessons, looping difficult parts, and repeating as many times as necessary until they’re ready to advance to the next level.

Even better, the Gibson App makes it possible to learn and also use your new skills by playing songs from your favorite artists. Most songs in the app are offered in Easy, Medium, and Hard versions so that no matter your skill level, you can rock out to your favorite song mightily and immediately by learning each part with step-by-step video instructions followed by interactive lessons.

Players can also select a backing track to jam along with, and the app will provide scales and licks that work with the song, as well as ways to improvise over licks. Intermediate and advanced players, meanwhile, can challenge themselves by learning to play in the style of some of the most popular guitarists of all time, from Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen to Slash, Adam Jones, and beyond, by diving deep into specific songs and skills. Players can also select guides in multiple genres and styles of music to up their overall skills and become more well-rounded guitarists.

And you can do it all while sounding like a rock star. The Gibson App includes a digital amplifier that transforms your iPhone or iPad into a full stack, allowing users to explore their sound and add effects to their playing. In addition, the app also provides a metronome, tuner, training calendar, access to Gibson TV’s impressive programming, and more.

The result is an unbeatable package and a game-changer in the digital guitar instruction world. Whether you’re a beginner and just getting started, an occasional player at home, or a serious gigging and recording musician, the Gibson App provides guitarists with everything you need to learn and play – and have fun doing it. 

Guitar World readers can enjoy an extended 30 day free trial of the app. On iOS, use the code GW24 or this link. On Android, you can redeem the offer here. You can cancel anytime during the trial without being charged. The offer is only available to new customers.

The 2020s played host to the era of the smart guitar, with innovations such as Lava Music’s effects-loaded offerings – and the ever-growing interconnectivity between guitars and gadgets – pushing us towards a gear future characterized by technologically advanced instruments.

As such, it was only a matter of time before Harley Benton, the champion of cheap guitar gear, threw its hat in the ring and started rubbing shoulders with the tech giants of the guitar world – and that time has now arrived.

Enter the TravelMate-E – an all-new space age acoustic electric guitar unlike anything Harley Benton has released before, which serves as the brand’s most radical release yet.

That much is clear from the outset, as an appraisal of the aesthetics will show. The guitar boasts a single-cut carbon fiber build, which accommodates both a side-mounted soundhole and a quirky, flame-esque soundhole below the strings.

At its core, the stealthy space age six-string features a thinline body, an arched back and fingerboard for “comfort and playability”, DLX die-cast tuners, a carbon fiber nut and 20 frets.

Said to “redefine what it means to take music on the road”, the $270 TravelMate-E also looks poised to become one of the cheapest ‘smart’ guitars on the market, with fully fledged app connectivity allowing players to utilize the brand’s new onboard “SP1 Smart Speaker”.

That system offers reverb and modulation effects, and works alongside the app to navigate “a wide range of tones and effects directly from your instrument”, according to Harley Benton.

It’s worth noting the app itself is offered by Enya – an existing company that specializes in smart guitars, and already has a range of all-in-one instruments to its name.

In fact, it is the Enya logo that the main soundhole has been fashioned to represent, making the TravelMate-E something of a collaborative creation. 

Elsewhere, the TravelMate-E also offers Bluetooth connectivity, and a USB jack for digital output and charging.

With all that said, the TravelMate-E looks to be a strong, affordable entry into the tech game from Harley Benton, which is clearly keen on catching up with the more established smart guitar brands out there. 

Granted, pricier alternatives (such as the Lava Music Lava Me 3) are more advanced, and have touchscreens built into the guitar, as well as apps for learning, looping, practicing, recording and more.

At $270 though, the app-only approach seems wholly justified, and the TravelMate-E looks to be a neat gateway guitar for those who may be looking to see what all the fuss is about.

Harley Benton is also keen to sell the aptly named TravelMate-E as a commendable travel guitar. It says the model “may just be the perfect guitar for portability and versatility”, citing its light weight, compact size and durability to support its point.

For those who like the look of the futuristic design but aren’t sold by the digital enhancements, Harley Benton has also released the standard TravelMate. This variant is built the same, though doesn’t incorporate the Smart Pickup System. That model is priced at $195.

Head over to Harley Benton to find out more.

As a self-confessed pedal addict, I've been guilty of hoarding enough stompboxes to fill multiple pedalboards and leaving many of them to gather dust or sit out of sight in a drawer. That all changed last year though, because I bought a Line 6 HX Stomp to replace all the delay, reverb, and modulation pedals on my 'board. I also got myself Helix Native to go alongside my unit, not realizing I'd end up using it more than the HX Stomp itself for daily practice and recording sessions at home.

Now, Helix Native is notoriously expensive, but for a limited time, you can get it with a massive $160 reduction at Sweetwater, taking the price down from $399.99 to just $239.99. It's not quite Black Friday prices, but considering the ridiculous amount of amp and effects models you get alongside the ultra-deep customization options, it's well worth the outlay in our book.

I use my HX Stomp pretty sparingly in a live context. It covers reverb, delay, and modulation effects, for the most part, living in my amplifier's effects loop. When it came to using it for recording in my DAW however, I found myself running out of DSP blocks as I needed to simulate my Orange amp in the chain, as well as the numerous overdrive, boost, and octave pedals that run in front of my amp.

Luckily I'd taken advantage of the upgrade offer available for Helix Native when you purchase an HX unit, so I could harness all the power of the HX Floor for significantly less money than splurging on the hardware unit itself. This means no issues loading up a clone of my regular setup when recording at home, as well as using more in-depth sound design style tones with multiple amplifiers and a myriad of delay and reverb models.

The amount of amp tones on offer in Helix Native is frankly ridiculous, whether you want pristine clean tones, edge of breakup, or modern metal sounds. The effects are similarly expansive too, offering a whos-who of stompbox models from the most esoteric modulation pedals to countless famous overdrive models.

Best of all, and something I hadn't realized before I entered the Helix ecosystem, Line 6 is constantly issuing updates that add new models and features. Since purchasing my unit last year I've already received new amps, cabs, and effects models, and prior to that, there was a huge update for all the cab models that resulted in much more realistic sounds. This means despite the relatively high cost of entry, I feel like I've already gotten more than my money's worth.

It’s never been easier to get great recorded guitar tones at home, and now Waves has dropped its biggest sale of 2024, so it's never been cheaper either. With many Waves plugins dropped back to Black Friday prices and others starting from just $9.99, the Waves Big March Sale is the perfect chance to get a fantastic guitar mixing chain up and running for much less. Now, if that’s not enough to tempt you in for a browse, Waves is also offering additional free plugins (from this list) the more you spend, making it even more insane value for money.

If terms like gain staging, mid/side EQ, and parallel processing are alien to you, don’t let that put you off diving into the wide world of mixing and mastering. Creating your own mixes is easier than ever, and with loads of advice available online, it’s actually quite easy to start turning your own riffs into fully-fledged songs.

There are 260 plugins and bundles available in the Waves Big March Sale, but to make life easier for those of you who are new to recording and mixing, we’ve picked out 7 of our personal favorites that will amp up your guitar tones in no time.

Related buyer's guides

• Best guitar audio interfaces: top picks for every budget
• Best microphones for recording acoustic and electric guitar
• Best laptops for music production: record your guitar and beyond
• Start recording with the best DAWs for guitarists

NAMM 2024: Laney’s latest announcement marks something of a historic moment in guitar amp production, as it releases three new physical amps alongside an accompanying digital plugin version.

The three new BCC Ironheart amps appear to be replacing and upgrading the now discontinued IRT Ironheart range of tube amps and, like its predecessor, the range includes one 30-watt 1x12 combo, plus a 60-watt head and a 120-watt head. Now though, they are all produced in the firm’s UK Black Country Customs workshop –hence the BCC designation.

Alongside the new production base, there’s a revamped boost circuit, which enables it be driven to high gain heaven without getting muddy on the bass side, plus a host of connectivity, including a speaker emulated line out with switchable cab sim, FX loop and a host of speaker outputs.

The big news here though is the concept of launching an amp with a matching plugin, which now it has happened, suddenly seems like an obvious choice to make, but is a first for the industry.

"We're incredibly excited to unveil the Ironheart plugin," says Laney’s Product Manager, Simon Fraser-Clark. 

“As a brand, Laney have always been creative thinkers and innovative designers and it’s an evolutionary step to offer the unparalleled flexibility and tonal possibilities of our awesome Ironhearts, in digital form. This marks a significant milestone in the industry, merging the best of British analogue and digital technologies to cater to the evolving needs of modern musicians.”

Unlike the behemoths like Fender, which have the resources to create software in-house, Laney has partnered with a third party, teaming up with Aurora DSP to produce the plugin.

The resulting Ironheart software can be used as a standalone digital amp, or integrated into a DAW and comes complete with two Laney IRs, various mic options and two models of the firm’s Black Country Customs pedals, the Steelpark and Monolith.

Best of all, it comes bundled free with any purchase of a physical amp and it can also be purchased separately. Guitar World reckons its safe to predict we’ll be seeing a lot more matching software released alongside physical products in the near future. 

Back on the amps themselves… the Ironhearts were originally developed following Laney’s work on Tony Iommi’s signature amp, the TI100 and still carry some of that heavy DNA. 

As such, all of the amps – and indeed, the plugin – feature three channels (clean, rhythm and lead) and are described as “extremely versatile, aggressive sounding” amps. 

The circuit uses EC883 (aka 12AX7) tubes in the preamp and 6L6 power tubes, a classic high gain pairing – found in the likes of the EVH/Peavey 5150 among many others – which Laney says results “a harmonically rich, creamy overdrive with a punchy and defined low-end response.”

Prices are set to be $1,299 for the 30-watt combo, $1,499 for the 60-watt head and $1,799 for the 120-watt head.

Laney has broken more new ground this NAMM, by unveiling the world’s most powerful FRFR cabinet – a 2,600W 4x12 that’s almost as loud as a jetplane taking off. Really.

This also isn’t the first time Laney has teamed-up with a third party for a software solution, back in 2021 it released a collection of 15 cab-sims in collaboration with Two Notes. 

For more information on the new BCC Ironheart range, head to Laney.

Neural DSP is closing out the year with one more plugin release, the Morgan Amps Suite. It features three models of Morgan amps – the AC20, PR12 and SW50R – two overdrive pedals, a tremolo and '70s-inspired tape delay for a virtualized replica of Morgan’s vintage/modern amplifiers.

Founded in 2009, Morgan amps have been played by the likes of Tosin Abasi (Animals As Leaders), Michael Landau (James Taylor) and Josh Smith (Joe Bonamassa, Raphael Saadiq). Now, the firm has collaborated with Neural DSP for a plugin version of three of its models to offer a more affordable way for players to achieve Morgan tones.

In its superlative-laced press release, the Finnish plugin designers believe that "few brands shine as brightly as Morgan Amplification". With its vintage-inspired but modern-minded amps designed to integrate with complex pedalboards, it’s a savvy choice that three of its single-channel amps have now been made available in the digital realm.

The AC20 is a 20-watt amp based on the Vox AC30 and is said to offer “rich, thick tones at high gain settings”. The PR12, meanwhile, is a more compact 12-watt amp based on the Fender Princeton Reverb that, alongside being viable for clean and overdriven tones, features a spring reverb.

Then there’s the higher output, 50-watt SW50R. It’s inspired by Dumble cleans but comes loaded with a tube-driven reverb tank for extra spice. The physical amps are entirely hand-wired and built to order, and often a go-to for grunge and stoner tones. Luckily, there will be no thumb-twiddling wait list with its digital twin.

As with every Neural DSP plugin offering, the Morgan Amps Suite is equipped with pre- and post-effects and processing. On the pre-amp side, there’s a compressor pedal based on the circuits found in high-end recording consoles. It has a blend knob and a two-way attack switch. Here, its fast and snappy setting could bolster funk grooves, with the slow setting mimicking more traditional compressors to suit legato and slide playing.

There are also two overdrive pedals. The OD1 strives for a warm midrange, whilst the OD2 is more gung-ho, offering much higher gains. Its in-built tremolo pedal, meanwhile, is inspired by the analog tremolo circuits found on classic American vintage amps and features a sync ability.

Jump over to the post-amp effects and you’ll find a ‘70s-like tape-echo unit, modernised with tap tempo, a ping-pong mode and HP/LP filters. There’s also what Neural calls a “studio-grade” reverb that “covers everything from subtle reflections to infinite ethereal soundscapes”.

All of those features are pushed through a Morgan 112 cabinet equipped with a virtual Celestion Creamback speaker. The cab sim has a fixed-baffle design which draws inspiration from ‘60s style builds and can be further tweaked with a 9-band graphic EQ and HP/LP filters for all three amp models.

The transposition feature first unveiled in Archetype: Petrucci is present too, allowing players to pitch shift their guitar up or down by 12 semitones to give your tuning pegs a well-deserved break.

The plugin is rounded off with a doubler feature for a double-tracked stereo impression, a metronome with time signature, note value and accent controls, and a live tuner at the bottom of the interface.

Says Neural CPO Francisco Cresp: “What we share with guitarists is a deep and abiding respect for legacy sound. Our modeling technology has been able to precisely capture the nuances and features of the Morgan amps, and bring them to life in a plugin version for anyone to access to their fullest extent.”

The Morgan Amp Suite comes in at $99, the usual price for its non-signature plugins.

Its release comes hot on the tails of Archetype: Mateus Asato, which launched in October, and news that the updated Archetype: Plini X will be the first plugin to have compatibility with the Quad Cortex floor modeller.

For more information, head on over to the Neural DSP website.

HeadRush has rebooted the cult classic ReValver amp software in the form of the ReValver 5 – an updated modeling engine that offers seamless integration with the brand’s multi-effects pedalboards.

Notably, a new form of the ReValver software returns for the first time since 2014, when it was updated to its fourth edition by Peavey – the company who first introduced the award-winning modeling platform in the early ‘00s, when digital amps were still in their relative infancy.

Five years after Peavey issued that update, it was announced the brand had sold the guitar amp software to Audio Media Research – a company that was then later acquired by inMusic, which in turn is the parent company of HeadRush.

So, after a few years in the digital wilderness, ReValver is finally back and, according to its new owner, better than ever, introducing some updated specs and functionality that sees it work alongside HeadRush’s hardware catalog of multi-effects pedals.

But as is well-documented, the ReValver returns from its exile in particularly competitive market conditions. Line 6, Neural DSP and now Fender have all been pushing the boundaries of the amp sim arms race for some time now, and as such HeadRush has its work cut out to make its new product cut through the noise and find a loyal player base.

With that in mind, it’s important not to write-off HeadRush’s own pedigree in this corner of the market, and as such, the return of ReValver – bolstered by the former’s considerable experience in this field – looks like a surefire win for the company.

That, and ReValver already has a loyal faction of players who’ve been with it from the start. Indeed, ReValver offered the only officially licensed Peavey and Budda amp plugins during its heyday – and it still does.

As mentioned, though, this is a totally new beast altogether that has pulled out all the stops in order to make a statement, and perhaps even issue a friendly warning to its competitors.

The biggest headline here is the ReValver and HeadRush compatibility. In essence, both factions have “combined their renowned amp and effects models to offer a truly stunning array of tonal options”.

In practice, that means HeadRush presets can be crafted in ReValver and used to record with in a DAW via the ReValver’s VST and AU plugins, while amp models from the ReValver plugin can be transferred to HeadRush multi-effects for use on-stage.

This is a functionality that many players crave when looking for a suitable amp modeling multi-effects unit, and is a demand that Neural DSP is only just getting up to speed with with its first ‘board-compatible Archetype plugin.

Here, though, it’s not just one plugin available – it’s loads, and that list includes the only officially licensed Peavey and Budda amps, too, which were made with “the aid of the original equipment”. Specifically, the plugin offers Peavey 6506 and 6506+ amps.

But how many amps and effects you get depends on how much you’re willing to pay for them. ReValver 5 is free to download with some basic models available, but there is a range of expansion packs that deliver the tonal goods. The $12 Standard package includes 12 amps and 12 stompboxes, while the most expensive $79 Producer collection offers 50 amps and 77 stompboxes.

Examples of digital amps include models from HeadRush, as well as ones inspired by the likes of Marshall, Vox, Engl, Fender and more.

Other notable highlights of the ReValver 5 include the RIR2 cab module for experimenting with mic type, placement and environment, compatibility with third party IRs and an intuitive control layout.

The updated software also utilizes Audio Cloning Technology, which “takes ReValver’s cabinet modeling and EQ matching to the next level” by letting players clone the sound and characteristics of other instruments, including acoustics and – notably – other guitar and pickup combinations. 

A Gig Mode with full MIDI mapping also helps facilitate studio-to-stage application for the software.

All in all, it looks to be a fairly robust return for ReValver, and HeadRush looks to have made every effort to make its new software as competitive and appealing as possible in a heavily crowded market. Only time will tell if it's done enough.

Head over to HeadRush to find out more.

Blackstar has expanded its ever-growing suite of amp sims by rolling out two individual St. James plugins that promise to deliver “the most authentic guitar amp plugin experience” possible.

The St. James name will probably be familiar to most, but for those unaware, last year Blackstar sought to create some of the lightest tube amps “on Earth” through its new St. James portfolio, which has since been bolstered to include a host of heads, cabs, and combos.

Then, earlier this year, the boutique British guitar amp manufacturer broke into the amp sim software market by debuting its flagship St. James plugin – a holistic plugin package that relayed two incomprehensibly lightweight St. James tube amps into a digital format.

Now, Blackstar has split that suite into two, unveiling streamlined standalone plugins for its EL34 and 6L6 amp models.

We say “models,” but Blackstar is keen to avoid that word – instead, it’s adopted a “Designed, not modeled” mantra, which, in essence, is the company’s way of saying that these are less amp simulators and more guitar amps in their own right.

It is, of course, a sensible idea, and one that not only gives guitarists the chance to play through one amp without having to download the other, but also one that considerably slashes the price point. 

To that end, the EL34 and 6L6 plugins each carry an introductory price tag of $29. That’s exactly $100 more affordable than the fully fledged St. James Suite plugin. Granted, the price will eventually rise to $69, but that’s still pretty competitive.

As an overview, the EL34 is designed for US cleans and British crunch, and is marketed as an ideal pedal platform for funk, blues, and beyond. The 6L6, meanwhile, is more focused with “pristine cleans and hi-gain overdrive tones,” and is especially concerned with “classic crunch and aggressive modern metal sounds.”

Owing to the way each plugin was designed and set up (“meticulous measurements using highly technical equipment, decades of technical experimentation, and in-depth market research”) the EL34 and 6L6 are said to provide the unparalleled touch and feel response that is so often seen as the downfall of many digital amp sims.

Each package arrives with Blackstar’s CabRig next-generation DSP speaker simulator, which offers separate channels of cab and mic combos. At this point, it’s worth noting these presets are “fixed,” meaning players aren’t free to experiment with mic positions or cab combinations, which was the case with the larger suite.

Similarly, whereas the flagship plugin offered pre- and post-effects and an EQ, these separate plugins deem such features surplus to requirements. 

Both of the above were designed by the same team that developed Blackstar’s Artisan, Series One, ID:Series and physical St. James products, so you can bet they sound top notch, too. Other appointments include an on-board tuner and noise gate.

As well as all the above, the EL34 and 6L6's predecessor has also been treated to its first upgrade. The flagship St. James suite now offers a tuner and artist-designed presets, and of course, both the individual EL34 and 6L6 plugins.

The individual St. James EL34 and 6L6 plugins are available for $29 apiece. 

Head over to Blackstar’s plugin website to find out more.

With just a week to go until the big day, the Black Friday guitar deals are in full swing and Thomann may have just dropped the most varied sale we’ve seen so far. Thomann’s epic up to 60% off Cyber Week sale sees hefty discounts on over 900 products from guitars and pedals, basses to recording equipment, and so much more - and if that wasn’t enough, you can also score 80% off software. 

Now, we know you’ll be inundated with offers at the moment - it seems every brand and retailer has launched a sale in the last few days. But don’t worry, if you live in the UK or Europe, we’ve done the hard work for you, scrolling through countless pages of deals to pick out our favorites. Check out our top picks below.

It is hardly surprising that we are seeing some of the most generous discounts applied to Harley Benton instruments. Thomann’s own brand is already a low-cost alternative to larger companies such as Fender, Gibson, Ibanez and PRS, but when there are discounts this big applied to some of the most popular models, they become even more enticing. 

One of our favourite models, the Harley Benton MR-Modern is down from £252 to a mind-blowing £174! Modeled after a Mosrite, this punk-ready guitar is a total steal at this price. There’s also a whopping £100 off the fan favorite, Harley Benton Fusion-III HSH Roasted, which is now only £263. This high-performance axe punches well above its weight and is a must-have guitar for any budding shredder. There are also deals to be had on Harley Benton pedals, with both the Tag Team and Sidecar down to a mere £34. 

Of course, it isn’t only Thomann-branded gear on offer - there are plenty of big-name brand discounts, too. Are you a fan of Gibson’s formidable singlecut? Well, you’re in luck as the Gibson Les Paul Standard 50s P90 is down to only £2,222, that’s a saving of £258! Perhaps the Epiphone alternative is more your speed? Well, in that case, the Epiphone Les Paul Standard ‘60s has gone from £611 to £525. 

Now, that’s just a snippet of what’s on offer. There is so much more to sink your teeth into so we implore you to take a deep dive into the sale for yourself. The sale runs until the 27th of November, but stock will be limited on a few of the items so don’t hang about. 

This year's Black Friday guitar deals mean big reductions on lots of tempting gear, but for guitarists and home studio producers, we’ve found something extremely exciting for you. I’m a massive fan of IK Multimedia, thanks in part to its ever-growing range of portable recording gear, but it all started with Amplitube. As the first - and, in my opinion, still the best – amp simulator to break into the mainstream, it’s become a staple part of many producers’ recording rigs – and luckily you save big on AmpliTube and Tonex in this epic Black Friday sale. 

IK isn’t shy about offering deals on its legendary software. Still, we don’t recall seeing one as big as this on its Amplitube 5 Max package, essentially the full-fat version of Amplitube, including all its licensed amp collections from Fender, Mesa/Boogie, Soldano, and the like. Not only that, the offer also extends to IK Multimedia’s Tonex Max package, which gives you the chance to create and share tone models based on pretty much any real-life amp you can think of. 

There’s a lot for guitarists to like here, especially at this low price. Black Friday 2023 continues to deliver the goods, so be sure to take advantage while the offers are still live.

For guitarists, Amplitube has long been the standard bearer of amp simulators. The very concept of being able to take your electric guitar, plug it into an audio interface and then be able to play, practice and record with a near-unlimited number of amps, cabinets, pedals and microphones still has the capacity to impress in 2023.

The most recent vintage, Amplitube 5, reduced from $299 to only $79.99 this Black Friday, continues the journey with incredible collaborations and models from Fender, Orange, Mesa/Boogie and more, making it an indispensable part of any home studio arsenal. 

Tonex is a more recent innovation from IK and allows people to access Kemper-like abilities to capture and model hardware amps to store within your laptop for future use, effectively creating Amplitube sims of real-world amps. 

Do you have a friend with a bigger or better tube amp than you have? Ask them nicely if you can model it, and then – in a way – it becomes your amp, too, only without the need to lug it in and out of a van every time you play a show. 

Once you’ve got the amp saved, it then operates in the same way as any Amplitube model, giving you complete control over all of its individual parameters, and the chance to pair it up with a range of different cabinets, pedals and microphones to get the perfect tone you’ve been looking for. 

Now, if you’re familiar with elite amp modeling solutions like the Kemper system, you’ll know they don’t come cheap. This makes the Black Friday deal for Tonex Max – down from $299 to just $79.99 – quite remarkable and well worth a look. 

Literally every amp you could ever think of for under $80. What’s more, if you purchase both Amplitube 5 Max and Tonex Max, you can have both for the even lower price of $129.99. Black Friday truly is the gift that keeps on giving.

Looking for more great Black Friday deals? Check out our Black Friday hubs below

• Black Friday Positive Grid deals
• Black Friday Fender deals
• Black Friday guitar pedal deals
• Guitar Center Black Friday deals
• Sweetwater Black Friday deals
• Musician's Friend Black Friday deals

We’ve only just hit November and already the Black Friday guitar deals have started rolling in. First up, everyone’s favorite smart amp manufacturer has dropped a huge official Black Friday sale, with Positive Grid offering big money off their Spark amps and a huge 60% reduction on BIAS software. We're big fans of both products here at Guitar World, giving a rare five stars out of five in our Positive Grid Spark review.

We have a real soft spot for Positive Grid gear here at Guitar World and many of us use their amps and software ourselves. In fact, there's a Spark Mini sitting on our desk as we type this and you can guarantee we'll be plugging in at some point today during a break. So of course we’re super pleased to see it get a $40 discount in the Black Friday sale. In our Positive Grid Spark Mini review, we praised it for its abundance of quality sounds and surprisingly loud tones given its size, and made it our top pick in our best mini amps guide.

There's loads of gear included in the sale and we’ve already spotted a tasty $40 reduction on the Positive Grid Riff audio interface, which we think is one of the best guitar audio interfaces you can buy today, giving it four stars out of five in our review. As well as the discount on Riff there are some awesome bundle deals on recording software with $480 off the BIAS Platinum bundle and $270 off BIAS Essentials if you’re looking to upgrade your amp and effects modeling game. 

You can also get your hands on another Guitar World favorite in the Positive Grid Spark GO, which is probably one of the smallest amps we’ve ever seen and has a nice $20 discount in the Black Friday sale. In my Positive Grid Spark Go review, I gave it plenty of plaudits for its loud performance, usable practice tools, and massive sound selection.

If you already own a Spark amp, there are also a bunch of accessories to get your hands on including the traveler which is half price at just $30, and the super cool looking crimson grille for the Spark Mini, which has a hefty $30 discount, taking it down to just $20. There are loads of software deals too including additional cabinet impulse responses, effects pedal add-on packs, and the Positive Grid EQ and compressor for mixing purposes. 

We'll be keeping track of all the Black Friday Positive Grid deals as we move closer towards the big Cyber Weekend sales event at the end of the month. Will we see any better deals on Black Friday than those available today? It's hard to say. Today's deals are already really good, so we're not so sure there will be further reductions on what's available now, but there could be more items added to the sale later on.

It’s finally happened: after three long years of waiting, Neural DSP has officially launched its first-ever Quad Cortex-compatible plugin.

Arriving in the form of an updated signature plugin for Strandberg-toting Australian prog virtuoso Plini – dubbed Archetype: Plini X – the software will be the brand’s flagship offering to work seamlessly with Neural DSP’s highly celebrated floor based modeler.

Now, there is some good news and some bad news. First, the good news – Archetype: Plini X will be a completely free update for those who are already in possession of the original Archetype: Plini plugin. A pretty significant (and generous) move from Neural DSP, it has to be said.

Alas, the bad news is that – as was previously reported – the Neural DSP plugin users will have to wait for a CorOS update due to arrive in “the near future” before they can make the most of Neural DSP’s new cross-platform capabilities.

The reason for that? Well, assimilating Archetype plugins with the Quad Cortex is a meticulous process: “Our plugins and Quad Cortex are built on two extremely different architectures, and how we build plugins has evolved drastically over the past five years,” said Neural DSP.

Still, it’s a strong step in the right direction, and the precedent has now been set for Neural DSP to deliver what players have been patiently (and, in the cases of some YouTubers, not so patiently) waiting for since the Quad Cortex was unveiled at NAMM 2020.

Naturally, Archetype: Plini X is only the first plugin to receive this treatment. As a statement from Neural DSP confirms, “the company intends to have more plugins finalized for Quad Cortex compatibility”.

Does that mean expanded versions of Tom Morello, Tim Henson, Petrucci and Mateus Asato Archetypes in the near future? Probably.

“Our users have been asking for plugin compatibility with Quad Cortex for some time and after a lot of intense effort over the last several years, it will soon be a reality,” said Dan Davies, Chief Marketing Officer at Neural DSP.

“It’s been an immense challenge but one we will soon achieve and are incredibly proud of.”

As well as offering Quad Cortex compatibility, Archetype: Plini X also builds on the original plugin, offering new octave, fuzz, delay, distortion and modulation effects. Other features include transposition capability, a double, a metronome and a live tuner.

The Archetype: Plini X is available now for $119, or as a free update for existing users.

To find out more, head over to Neural DSP.

This update comes at a significant point in the history of amp modeling units. Indeed, the scene has never been more competitive, with the recent arrival of Fender's Tone Master Pro further upping the stakes.