Neural DSP is greatest recognized for its high-quality amp fashions, whether or not that’s its $1,850 Quad Cortex flooring modeler or plugins in your DAW. Its newest providing is the €139 (roughly $142) Archetype: Rabea plugin. The Archetype sequence is a group of artist collabs the place Neural builds out a set of amp sims and results to seize the essence of that exact musician’s sound. Whereas quite a lot of artists throughout genres have labored with the corporate, the Archetype sequence has undoubtedly trended towards the heavier finish of the spectrum, with names like Gojira, Tosin Abasi, and John Petrucci getting concerned. Rabea Massaad undoubtedly falls into that class together with his band Frog Leap, and backing up Stormzy. However Archetype: Rabea provides an fascinating new wrinkle to Neural DSP’s formulation – a synth.
Earlier than we get to the synth half, let’s run via the core options. There are three amp sims in Archetype: Rabea – clear, rhythm and lead, which cowl every part from vivid Fender chimes, to dying steel chug, to unadulterated shred. There are round 100 presets included that make dialing in tones easy. Neural takes a really skeuomorphic method to interface design, and in the event you’ve ever used a guitar amp earlier than (which I’ll assume you’ve got in the event you’re studying this), you’ll really feel proper at house. All three amps sound fairly good proper out of the field and it’s simple to tweak them to your liking.
Archetype isn’t only a handful of amp sims bundled collectively, although. You possibly can mix these amps with numerous totally different speaker cupboards, simulated totally different mic placements, and there’s a four-band EQ for additional high quality tuning the tone.
The underside finish is kind of tight and the distortion satisfying. I don’t suppose anybody is prone to mistake Neural’s plugins for a real-deal tube amp. However that’s kinda inappropriate, so long as it sounds good. The sound straight out of the field could be very full and sounds nice by itself, however wants heavy EQing to take a seat proper in a mixture. Additionally, the amp sims can get fairly noisy, nearly such as you’re standing proper in entrance of an actual cranked amp. Fortunately, there’s a noise gate builtin – make pals with it.
The entire level of Archetype is to be a whole guitar rig, so that you additionally get a bunch of results with every installment, too. Rabea comes with a compressor, octaver, overdrive, fuzz, delay and reverb “pedals,” in addition to pitch shifting and doubling results. Once more, whereas these cowl all kinds of tones, they actually excel on the heavier finish of the spectrum, which is the place many different digital amp and results sims can fall flat for my part.
The entire results are fairly stable, however the octaver and reverb are simply my favourite. The octaver enables you to mix in each an octave beneath and above what you’re enjoying, and has each a classic and fashionable mode. The previous is nice in the event you’re on the lookout for that dirtier, glitchier old-school vibe. The reverb has a freeze perform, with impartial pitch management which – when mixed with the octaver and doubler – delivers actually lush pads that can drone on ceaselessly. You possibly can even change the pitch when you’re enjoying over it to create progressions. It’s an interesting option to begin sketching out concepts for songs, nevertheless it’s not likely sensible for performing.
Neural DSP
However what actually units Archetype: Rabea aside is the Overlord Synth. It’s a twin oscillator, monophonic, subtractive synth that follows the pitch of your guitar. This can be a first for Neural DSP, and the corporate claims it’s a “world-first,” although I couldn’t independently affirm that declare. What I can say is that there are pitch-tracking guitar synth pedals and MIDI guitars that may management synths, there are additionally pitch-tracking instruments that you would be able to pair with a softsynth to manage it with a guitar, however I wasn’t capable of finding an all-in-one pitch-tracking guitar synth VST.
The sound engine itself is nothing too fancy: two oscillators with 4 waveshape choices, a low move filter with 4 totally different modes, a reasonably primary arpeggiator, and a pair of envelopes to manage the amplitude and filter. You possibly can coax dreamy and delicate plucks out of it, nevertheless it actually shines as a synth bass machine. As a result of the choices are restricted, even somebody new to synths ought to have a reasonably simple time coming to grips with Overlord.
In fact, the massive query is how properly it tracks enter out of your guitar. And I’m joyful to report that it’s almost excellent. Now, it’s monophonic, so you possibly can’t play huge synth chords the way in which you may with a MIDI controller, nevertheless it had no hassle maintaining with groove steel riffs and mid-tempo pentatonic solos. The demos on Neural’s website even make it feels like it might deal with finger tapping, however my finger tapping expertise are principally non-existent. There was not often a stray be aware, or odd abrupt minimize off. It’s simply a number of the greatest pitch-tracking I’ve seen in a plugin. There’s the occasional artifact when sliding across the neck, however when you regulate your enjoying model it’s fairly to attenuate them.
All sounds on this demo, aside from the drums, are created utilizing solely a guitar working via Archetype: Rabea.
The true magic begins taking place, although, while you mix all these numerous parts collectively. You possibly can mix within the synth together with your guitar, pitch the oscillators one fifth and one octave beneath, activate the doubling impact and create only a large wall of sound. You possibly can then freeze that utilizing the reverb pedal, retune the synth to play the identical be aware and an octave up, and solo over that drone in equally bombastic model. Archetype: Rabea is principally guitar tone maximalism at its best.
When you’re already a fan of Neural DSP’s merchandise, Archetype: Rabea is a straightforward promote. It’s a high-quality digital guitar rig with a really wonderful synth in-built. Even in the event you’re primarily within the synth aspect of issues, the €139 isn’t too unhealthy. Sure, the synth is pretty primary, however you get a handful of results to course of it, and the pitch monitoring is prime notch. You’re most likely gonna pay at the very least $99 for any respectable industrial synth plugin, so an additional $40 to have the ability to natively management it together with your guitar is a small worth to pay.
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