Two things I wish I knew about Neural DSP sooner

Their tech is next-level, but knowing these two things was a game-changer for me 

Since it was founded in 2017, Neural DSP has changed the guitar gear game dramatically. Its first plugin arrived soon after, and then, in November 2020, the Quad Cortex arrived. It quickly rivalled, and for many players, usurped the likes of Kemper and Axe FX as their modeller of choice, and converted more tube amp fanatics to the dark side. Line 6’s Helix Stadium hopes to change the narrative there, but only time will tell there.  

Over the years, I’ve come to find two quirks of the firm and how people use its products that, to me at least, came as a surprise. Once I learnt this, I was able to get the very most out of what was an expensive purchase. If you're anything like I was, you'll find these two nuggets of nerdy wisdom extremely useful.

Their amps aren’t always what they seem

Neural DSP has released a smattering of faithful amp recreations in plugin form, taking in the likes of the Soldano SLO-100, Mesa/Boogie Mark IIc+, and Tone King Imperial Mark II. But its signature amps, especially, aren’t always what they seem.

You may have noticed that the firm rarely says what the amps on its signature series releases are meant to be, and there’s good reason for that. Typically, they are ‘inspired by’ famous amps. Rather than recreating the recipe, they mess around with the formula.

That often means that extra features not included on the amps proper, such as Depth and Tight controls, are added in. Or, in the case of the newly released Misha Mansoor X plugin, the Rhythm amp is something of a Frankenstein. It's a unique and fierce blend of two legendary high-gain amps, believed to be the much-loved EVH 5150, also modded for the Gojira plugin, and an Omega Ampworks Granophyre, which Neural DSP has its own dedicated plugin for.   

As such, it helps to know this when dialling in tones. While the EVH is quite a bitey, high-gain amp, the Granophyre is a little tighter and darker, so it's helpful to know how the overarching characters of those amps combine before diving in, especially when you know the voicings of your pickups intimately.

For instance, my Chapman ML1-7 has a mahogany body and passive, more classic rock-inspired pickups, which make for a dark, not overly gainy sound from the off. So instantly, when plugging into this amp with that guitar, I'm looking to dial in some brightness, because I don't want to be balls deep in the shadow realm before I've even played a note.

That wider context is especially useful with the Clean amp on Misha's plugin. Unlike other clean amps, t's not designed to be a delicate-sounding thing. It can do crystal clear cleans, but a Fender Twin it is not. It's far colder and far more modern.

Beyond that, it's also a killer pedal platform, and I found it to be an insanely good rhythm and lead amp when using the in-built overdrive and other accoutrements. Knowing this helps you get the most out of your plugins.  It makes the outlay so much more worthwhile.

Give me my amp back

The Quad Cortex has become insanely popular, with countless big-name artists — from Slipknot and Sleep Token to Gojira and Tesseract — adopting it. But the more I’ve spoken to artists who use it, and read about others, the more I’ve noticed something interesting.

As standard, the QC comes loaded with over 90 different amp recreations, from shimmery Fenders to thick Oranges and balls-out Mesas. There’s a lot to explore, but many players don’t actually use any of them. Instead, they turn to its amp capture feature and, more often than not, extract the soul of the tube amp they were using beforehand for their tones.

For all its built-in versatility, many players prefer the unique character of their own amps.

In that sense, the QC is often chosen for its portability above all else — especially by bands touring overseas. It offers an incredibly close approximation of the amps they know and love, without the hassle of hauling them around. Settling into that new piece of gear becomes easier and far more familiar.

That’s the funny thing: you never really know what amp a player is using onstage anymore. When I was a teen, I’d edge as close to the stage as possible just to see what stacks my heroes were playing through. Now, it’s a little more cloak-and-dagger — even more so when you consider that, beyond its built-in amps, a player could be running a capture of virtually any amp that’s ever existed.

All this has made me feel that I might not be using my QC to its fullest extent. The stock amps do sound great, and I love that I can bring over tones from a host of Neural DSP plugins – the fact not all of them are compatible yet does irk me a lot, though – but, while my old Laney Ironheart has been reduced to a bedside table (it looks sick, imo) I could be bringing its magic to my QC. I can turn it on, dial in my favourite settings, and then extract that sound. Better still, it's still tweakable beyond the capture, increasing its versatility.  It isn’t a one-dimensional thing.

Understanding these two things can help you get the most out of your space-age equipment. Learn from the pros; they’re pros for a reason.

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