Neural DSP Amplifiers

I’ve spent the last little bit head down in guitar reviews and you can be sure that I will continue so long as I can but I wanted to step away for one article and talk about one of the many excellent ways to get an amplifier sound, when you don’t have the amplifier, or even if you do, how to get that sound onto a recording with no compromise and a minimum of set up hassle.

You may know Neural DSP as the maker of the incredible Quad Cortex. We’ve all heard the rants and raves of profilers versus traditional amplifiers. I don’t see the two as EITHER-OR, more accurately I see them as AND. I love the sound and feel of an old tube driven amplifier but hauling one around is not on my list of things to do any more. I will surely plug in and turn it up when I can, but those days are more limited now, because moving a full Marshall stack is just not on for me at this point, and while I do live in a standalone house, if I run either of my Marshall 100 watt heads where they like to be run and to me sound most awesome, my neighbours can hear them clearly, and some are not enamoured of the sound. Getting that sound into a recording is a bigger challenge because now I need to run cables and set up microphones. While the recorded sound can be superb, I can get as good a sound on the recording from my Quad Cortex and pretty much no one will care at all. If I do play out, more and more I am told “don’t bring an amp”. The venues want a feed to the PA so they can control the volume and the sound, and as the world has changed, that volume is going to be lower than I would likely choose. A laptop and a simple interface are small, easy to carry and without compromise on sound, not that the audience cares about the amp any way. The only person in the audience who does care is the grumpy guitar player in the back with arms crossed and determination that he or she is a far better player than I. That latter part is likely true. A full chat tube amp will not make me a better player.

There are some amps that I would like to own but for monetary and space reasons it will not happen. When I got my Tone King Imperial Mk II I really fell in love with the sound, and that it incorporates Tone King’s own superb attenuator means that I can get the sound at a volume level that works for most any scenario. The only thing that it doesn’t do is transport easily. It’s heavy. And there is a pedal board that I use with it as well, even though it is, for me, a very simple board. When Neural DSP announced their Tone King Imperial Mk II plugin, I decided it was worth the expense for a long term experiment.

What I learned was surprising. There is not the feel of an amp pushing air the same way as the real amp vs the plugin pushing air through FRFR speakers. However, once recorded, I have yet to meet anyone who can say whether I miked the real amp or used the Neural DSP plugin.

Since buying the Tone King Imperial Mark II Neural DSP plugin, I have bought many more, always waiting until there was a sale on.

I know have bass amps (Darkglass, Parallax , artist specific amps (John Petrucci), amps from Mike Fortin, the Tone King, a suite of Morgan amps, a Mesa Boogie Mark IIC+ suite, and one of those amps that I have always wanted but could not justify, a Soldano SLO-100.

I have had the joy to play a real Soldano SLO-100, in purple tolex and in a time and place where I was allowed to let it rip. It sounded glorious but I couldn’t handle the volume for long. While auditory memory is fragile, I think that I can recognize sound when it is right and in my opinion, the Neural DSP Soldano SLO-100 is RIGHT. I have Soldano SLO-100 presets for the Quad Cortex, for my Kemper, for a Helix and from IK Multimedia. None of them are shit, but the Neural DSP plugin is the one that is most right.

I can load it as a plugin when recording, or apply it after the fact in mixing to a plain flat guitar recording, sort of the most dramatic kind of reamping. Let me take you through this awesome plugin now.

The Amplifier

Let’s start on the amp screen. The plugin can run standalone which is how I am showing you the screenshots, and indeed you can play through it using your standard recording interface, in my case either an Apollo Twin X or Clarett+ 8Pre going to a pair of Focal studio monitors, or use it as a plugin in your DAW. I use either Logic Pro X but am increasingly using Universal Audio’s LUNA for my recording work.

This plugin was developed in conjunction with Soldano, so it doesn’t have some weird naming or logo. On this main amp screen you see an accurate representation of a real Soldano SLO-100 head with all the expected controls doing exactly what you think that they should do. Neural DSP has added some additional functions outside the amp, including a noise gate, a transpose function and a doubler effect. In practical use, I find them all very effective.

You’ll note that the amp face is the second option, with the first being a set of virtual pedals built in conjunction with Soldano that can be used in front of the preamp on the amplifier. Some people get their undies twisted because there is not a pantheon of third party pedals. Ok. If that’s you nothing prevents you from putting any pedals you want between the guitar and the interface. My own experience says that the virtual pedals are really good sounding and I would encourage anyone to try them out before having a conniption.

The screenshots are from the default preset, which is what you would expect to hear from a generally set up Soldano SLO-100. When you use an existing or create your own preset, the knob positions as well as state of the pre and post effects plus the amp itself are visible on screen. The Neural DSP Soldano-X plugin comes with a number of Neural DSP presets as well as a number of artist presets. I’m a simple person and found most of the artist presets far more overblown than I would ever use myself so for the purpose of this article I used only Neural DSP provided presets.

i ran into some recording issues using the plugin with UA Luna, so I switched to Logic Pro and got what I wanted with zero hassle. I will let both providers know of what happened as contributing feedback positively is a good practice.

For the examples, I used the Gibson Greeny Les Paul that I am evaluating plugged directly into the Clarett+ 8Pre. As I intended to do NO post processing to the recordings at all and wasn’t in need of a hot channel strip in a UNISON channel on the Apollo, this way seemed quick and easy

I set up four tracks in Logic Pro, one for each of the different presets. it read directly from input 2 on the Clarett+ and had the Soldano X plugin in the Insert slot. I had picked the presets in advance, but I like working this way because if I come back after recording and want to tweak the plugin settings, I can do this after the fact. I did not do so this time, but wanted to, particularly on the second track because I think it could use some help.

The first example uses the Ambient Clean preset, partly because so often folks hear “Soldano” and think hot overdrive. SLO-100s can do a really nice clean by just manipulating the amp settings. This preset uses both pre and post effects. I used both pickups on the Green which is the out of phase sound.

The second example uses the Far Far Away preset, and I have to say it sounded better while recording than what I got. I actually attribute this to using both pickups which are then out of phase. I think it would have been nicer if I used a different pickup selection, or a different guitar.

The third example uses the Default setting with just the neck pickup. That’s the Soldano SLO-100 sound, creamy, rich and with loads of sustain. I tend in practice to use the Default as my starting place for most every use of the plugin, it is really that nice.

The fourth example uses the Crunch preset. It has more compression than the Default present and I used only the bridge pickup for this bit of not particularly unique riffage.

In every case, I get enormous versatility out of this plugin and if needs be, can record completely silently using only headphones.

I love the sound of a real Soldano. In fact I think that the Soldano SLO Mini does a really fine job of sounding like an SLO-100 but even it is very loud. Since here in Canada, for an SLO-100 and 4x12 cabinet, I’m well past $5,000 I am not in anyway disappointed with what I get with the plugin at 99 Euros. It may not be exact, but it is well past good for me, and I get to keep the better part of $5000, not annoy my neighbours or develop a relationship with the local police.

Wrapping Up

I get really fatigued by people who bitch and whine that a plugin doesn’t sound like a real amp and who never bother to take into account the massive cost, space and potential legal issues of a full size head and cabinet. If you really think that there is such a massive difference, save your coins and buy a physical head and cabinet and leave the rest of us who have to live in the real world alone. I assure you that if you get a club gig today and roll in with a 100w head and cab stack, you are going to be very unpopular very quickly. I have an associate who went to a gig and brought a 40w tube amp and was told before he even unloaded not to bring the amp in. They would take a feed from his pedal board and put it through the house PA. Fortunately he had an amp pedal with him, one of the Blackstar units and the gig went off fine. But imagine what could have happened.

I have not the space or the money for a real Soldano SLO-100 and matching cabinet. However, I don’t feel like I am missing anything when I get to recording. You may discover the same value proposition.

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