After teaming up with ex-Megadeth man Kiko Loureiro last year, Neural DSP poster boy Plini has now linked up with Mateus Asato to write a song in a day.
Cozied up in a Los Angeles apartment together, with sunlight peering through the Venetian blinds, the pair were also armed with a guitar each – Plini his signature Strandberg, Asato a Suhr with tortoiseshell pickguard – and a Quad Cortex (used as an audio interface only) to create a song together.
“It's like dating,” Asato jokes, “it's like a Neural DSP Tinder,” to which Plini hits back with, “There might not be any romance but at least we can have sex.”
The resulting video offers a candid insight into how both musicians approach songwriting, with Asato especially eager to learn some of Plini’s virtuosic secrets.
At one point, Plini questions whether, “We should maybe try playing these chords in a more rhythmic way,” to which Asato curls a massive smile.
“Please,” he begs, “I need that Plini touch”. Before beaming, “The tones are freaking good – these plugins, man!”
There’s a great dynamic between the two guitarists, with Asato especially concerned by the emotion and flow of the song. Plini often assumes the role of the producer throughout, casting off cliche ideas in favor of something more flavorsome.
This is the third creative session Plini has done with Neural DSP, with the first coming with another signature plugin artist, Nolly, back in 2020.
As revealed by Plini, these videos represent the only time the Aussie has written with another guitarist in real time. That contrasts Asato, who says he’s played in “infinite” collaborative sessions.
“I never played in a band as a kid,” says Plini. “I played in my bedroom by myself, then eventually I started a band to play the music I'd written. So I've literally written with other people three times. It's a good learning experience.”
The song is a gorgeous blend of crystalline clean tones and hopeful, ethereal chords, peppered with bright swells and embellishments. It then goes down a darker route with grunting fretboard runs syncopating with the drums, during which the octave pedal on the updated Archetype Plini X comes into its own.
That was a mood shift driven by Asato, who turned to Plini and said, “I feel like this is more of a passage to something else. Right now we're in this emotional hope sort of thing; now we have to get a little mad at people.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without some solos, and they offer sweet and sour palettes – Asato’s fizzing with energy and passion, Plini’s much more clouded, emphatically evoking Vai and Holdsworth vibes.
Neural DSP was founded in 2017 and is celebrating its seventh birthday this month. It has created signature plugins for huge names, including Tosin Abasi, Tim Henson, and Cory Wong.
It has also created one of the most popular amp modelers in the Quad Cortex, which has been used by everyone from Gojira to Tesseract and Sleep Token.
