“I wanted to design something that would not only be capable of but excel at any tone I might need”: Prog metal trailblazer Misha Mansoor teams up with Neural DSP for Archetype plugin suite that nails his Periphery tone – but does so much more

Neural DSP has announced its latest Archetype X signature guitar plugin suite and this one is a biggie, with Misha Mansoor joining the likes of Gojira, John Petrucci and Cory Wong in offering an in-the-box guitar plugin solution for nailing his electric guitar sounds.

It seemed such an obvious collaboration that it was to our amazement that Neural and Mansoor hadn’t already sat down together and gamed out a guitar plugin; the Periphery riff-master’s state-of-the-art metal guitar tone is absolutely the Neural demographic.

But no. Not, until today. At least it looks worth the wait. Sure, there will be many adding to cart, signing up for the 14-day free trial right this minute, to add some of Mansoor’s chuggable djent to their tone arsenal, but that is just the start of it.

With three core guitar amps, a generous array of effects, plus some tailor-made for Mansoor, this will of course do Periphery sounds – only it will do so much more besides. Neural bullishly describes it as “The ultimate toolkit for modern metal guitar” and when you consider what’s in it, the Finnish brand might just have a point.

Also, we said “in-the-box” but with the Archetype X plugins, you can get that in the device, on the floor, downloaded for your Quad Cortex – albeit you will have to wait for a future CorOS update.

So what’s inside? Mansoor says pretty much everything he needs. Just add a Jackson Juggernaut.

“I wanted to design something that would not only be capable of but excel at any tone I might need, from crystal-clear cleans, to chimey breakup, to djenty tones, to absolutely crushing heaviness,” says Mansoor. “I wanted to create a bit of a sound-design sandbox that could act as a launchpad for inspiration… I genuinely cannot wait to see what people do with it!”

Mansoor says he had a wishlist of sounds going into this but the final version goes “above and beyond”. We’ll start with the amps. There are three of them.

The Clean is based on a “modern American classic” and that means headroom for days, big sounds that your pedalboard will love. “Push it harder, and it breaks up into a thick harmonically rich overdrive,” says Neural, “with the kind of character that moves from glassy cleans to classic rock crunch with ease.”

There is an onboard boost switch plus a Voice switch for toggling between two EQ profiles. Next up is Rhythm, a high-gain amp for “tight, percussive riffing” – or what many people would call “chug”. Again, you have a Voice switch.

The graphic for this is kinda cool, too, and is inspired by Mansoor’s love of supercars. But what sells this one is the fact you can tune your electric guitar down, turn up the gain to burn, and it will articulate all the nuance in your riffs.

Finally, you have the Lead amp. Could this be based on Mansoor’s signature Peavey Invective tube amp head? Neural says it is inspired by “custom-modded British classics and purpose-built for expressive solos and singing lead lines”.

Think saturation and heat, heaps of sustain, and again a two-way Voice switch. Each of these amps is served by a separate outboard 9-band graphic equalizer. You will not want for tone-shaping options.

There is a typically generous array of CabSims. You have seven virtual microphones to mic them up. You can run this in stereo or mono and this module can be used as an IR loader. A virtual room mic is available for adding depth before you start touching the reverb.

Given that this plugin is officially a Misha Mansoor joint, it is only fitting that we have his Horizon Devices Compressor pedal and Precision Drive in the list of pre fx. You’ll also find a Dual Octaver, Tape Echo emulator, and the single-knob Chaos distortion pedal which gives you that classic Swedeath chainsaw tone.

But there’s some exotic stuff here, too. Neural calls them “Special FX” and they’re what you can use to make things really interesting. There is the virtual treadle-equipped Laser stompbox, which has 19 presets, ring mod, pitch shifter, all with sweepable parameters, plus an envelope mode for automatic dynamic effects.

“It’s perfect for breakdowns, transitions, and experimental sections, and becomes even more powerful when combined with other effects,” says Neural.

Next up there’s the Glitch, a granular processing effect that chops up your guitar’s signal and rearranges it. Glitch can make glitchy sounds, weird textures, and has four modes: Pitch Delay, Sequence, Interfere, and Texturizer.

We like the sound of its Chaos Macro, which randomises multiple parameters simultaneously for experiments in granular guitar tone. Hey, overdrive is like the air we breathe. It’s essential but not exotic. This is the kind of thing that could really take your tone off-road.

As for post-effects, you can apple chorus/flanger with the Modulator, add stereo delay with onboard ducking, and a dual-mode reverb. There’s also a Preset Explorer to help you manage and order these sounds, with Mansoor supplying 34 of them.

Neural DSP CEO Douglas Castro says this is the brand’s most ambitious plugin suite yet.

“We’ve combined Misha’s iconic tones with bold new effects, versatile amps, and creative tools that invite guitarists to experiment, redefine their sound, and carry modern metal into the future,” he says.

And you can try that for yourself. Priced €125 (excluding taxes), the Archetype: Misha Mansoor X is available now. See Neural DSP for more details.