After years in the making, It’s finally here - my @NeuralDSP Archetype X plugin. It sounds and feels exactly like my rig on its best day, with expert mic placement and engineering. I threw everything I had at this project, knowing that you wouldn’t be reading this unless we got it right. And thanks to the brilliant minds at @NeuralDSP , I can say we’ve created a plugin that perfectly recreates the sound and experience of playing tube amplifiers, as well as effects pedals and outboard gear. And now you can play it too. Head to neuraldsp.com for more. neuraldsp.com/plugins/archet…

This video was taken the day I played through the first build of the @NeuralDSP Archetype JM X plugin. We’d set up my amp rig in the live room and were switching between the rig and the plugin. I threw every test at it; does turning the volume knob to 5 create a natural response in tone? It did. Does a single note that’s held die out without a noise gate eating it or the “math” just giving up? It did. Do two notes bent at once with distortion on create natural harmonic overtones exactly like the amps in the room? They did, exactly. I had the engineer switch between signals without my knowing. “That’s the amps,” I’d guess. “Plugin,” the engineer would say, several times. It had fooled me. Neural DSP had done it. It wasn’t just a faithful recreation of my sound - it was the first plugin I’d ever heard that proved that digital modeling could create a digital emulation with zero compromises. I’d like to say that we went back and forth countless times, making tweaks until it was right, but the truth is that they pretty much nailed it on the first try. Only a few EQ changes and some changes to a couple of the effects pedals were needed. The thousands of hours of creation came to fruition yesterday when the plugin was released, and it’s been a joy to see and hear players putting this software to the test and being as impressed as I was in this video. Thank you to every guitar player who created such clever and great sounding presets and for spreading the word. I can’t wait to hear all the new music that’s created with this plugin. Getting my sound is just the beginning of what it can do, and I can’t wait to hear what musicians create with it.