Archetype: Rabea is an all-in-one digital guitar rig that’s additionally a synth | Engadget

is greatest identified for its high-quality amp fashions, whether or not that’s its Quad Cortex ground modeler or plugins to your DAW. Its newest providing is the €139 (roughly $142) plugin. The Archetype collection is a set of artist collabs the place Neural builds out a set of amp sims and results to seize the essence of that specific musician’s sound. While quite a lot of artists throughout genres have labored with the corporate, the Archetype collection has positively trended towards the heavier finish of the spectrum, with names like Megadeth, Meshuggah and Gojira getting concerned. Rabea Massaad positively falls into that class together with his band , and backing up . But Archetype: Rabea provides an attention-grabbing new wrinkle to Neural DSP’s components – a synth.

Before we get to the synth half, let’s run by means of the core options. There are three amp sims in Archetype: Rabea – clear, rhythm and lead, which cowl all the pieces from brilliant Fender chimes, to demise metallic chug, to unadulterated shred. There are round 100 presets included that make dialing in tones easy. Neural takes a really skeuomorphic strategy to interface design, and for those who’ve ever used a guitar amp earlier than (which I’ll assume you may have for those who’re studying this), you’ll really feel proper at house. All three amps sound fairly good proper out of the field and it’s straightforward to tweak them to your liking.

Archetype isn’t only a handful of amp sims bundled collectively, although. You can mix these amps with varied totally different speaker cupboards, simulated totally different mic placements, and there’s a four-band EQ for additional advantageous tuning the tone.

The backside 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. But that’s kinda irrelevant, 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 sit down proper in a combination. Also, the amp sims can get fairly noisy, virtually such as you’re standing proper in entrance of an actual cranked amp. Thankfully, there’s a noise gate builtin – make mates with it.

The complete level of Archetype is to be an entire 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. Again, 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.

All of the consequences are fairly strong, however the octaver and reverb are simply my favourite. The octaver allows you to mix in each an octave beneath and above what you’re enjoying, and has each a classic and trendy mode. The former is nice for those who’re searching 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 may even change the pitch when you’re enjoying over it to create progressions. It’s a captivating method to begin sketching out concepts for songs, but it surely’s not likely sensible for performing.

But 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 is a primary 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 and that may management synths, there are additionally that you could pair with a softsynth to regulate 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 go filter with 4 totally different modes, a reasonably fundamental arpeggiator, and a pair of envelopes to regulate the amplitude and filter. You can coax dreamy and delicate plucks out of it, but it surely actually shines as a synth bass machine. Because the choices are restricted, even somebody new to synths ought to have a reasonably straightforward time coming to grips with Overlord.

Of course, the massive query is how properly it tracks enter out of your guitar. And I’m joyful to report that it’s practically good. Now, it’s monophonic, so you’ll be able to’t play huge synth chords the way in which you would possibly with a MIDI controller, but it surely had no hassle maintaining with groove metallic riffs and mid-tempo pentatonic solos. The demos on Neural’s web site even make it seems like it could possibly deal with finger tapping, however my finger tapping expertise are mainly non-existent. There was not often a stray notice, or odd abrupt minimize off. It’s simply a few of the greatest pitch-tracking I’ve seen in a plugin. There is the occasional artifact when sliding across the neck, however when you alter your enjoying type it’s fairly to attenuate them.

The actual magic begins occurring, although, whenever you mix all these varied parts collectively. You can mix within the synth along with your guitar, pitch the oscillators one fifth and one octave beneath, activate the doubling impact and create only a huge wall of sound. You can then freeze that utilizing the reverb pedal, retune the synth to play the identical notice and an octave up, and solo over that drone in equally bombastic type. Archetype: Rabea is mainly guitar tone maximalism at its most interesting.

If you’re already a fan of Neural DSP’s merchandise, Archetype: Rabea is a simple promote. It’s a high-quality digital guitar rig with a very wonderful synth in-built. Even for those who’re primarily within the synth facet of issues, the €139 isn’t too dangerous. Yes, the synth is pretty fundamental, however you get a handful of results to course of it, and the pitch monitoring is prime notch. You’re in all probability gonna pay at the very least $99 for any respectable, so an additional $40 to have the ability to natively management it along with your guitar is a small value to pay.