MusicRadar Verdict
At the core of the Neural DSP Archetype: John Mayer X plugin are brilliant guitar tones, and I love that you don’t have to be a Mayer mega-fan to enjoy what’s on offer here. Despite not being much of a fan myself, I never felt like an outsider using his signature plugin, because the core sounds are fantastic, no matter what your preferred playing style or genre.
Pros
- +
Features a huge selection of unbelievably good guitar tones.
- +
Great for those who want clean or low/mid-gain.
- +
The option to line up all three amps at the same time is awesome.
- +
Plenty of editing available via the cab section with mics and placement.
Cons
- -
You can’t adjust the overall signal chain.
- -
Unsurprisingly, there’s nothing here for high-gain fans.
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What is it?
When Neural DSP announced it had teamed up with John Mayer for a plugin, two worlds that probably couldn’t have been further apart were suddenly thrust together. On the one side, there are vintage tube amps, analogue pedals, and boutique single coil pickups. On the other, it’s 1s, 0s, and a pair of studio headphones.
It’s a mind-blowing thing when a guitarist famous for using bespoke Dumble amps announces a digital version of their rig, and with Neural DSP Archetype: John Mayer X, suddenly, there’s a guitar plugin that may satisfy even the most rigorous of tube amp tone defenders. I can’t have been the only person questioning whether this was the event that was finally going to make me put down my tube amp and go for a full modelling rig.
The plugin models three of John’s favourite guitar amps, with the vibrato channel of his 1964 Fender Vibroverb, a Dumble Steel String Singer #002, and the Two-Rock John Mayer Signature Prototype ‘Signature #83’. His pedals are also present and accounted for, with approximations of a clean boost, Klon Centaur, Ibanez Tube Screamer, and Marshall Bluesbreaker making up the overdrive section.
A filter pedal based on the EHX Q-Tron is available alongside a short, analogue delay for slapback sounds in front of the amp. The 'Gravity Tank' effect combines harmonic tremolo and spring reverb, and you also get an EQ and compressor modelled on units he uses in the studio. At the end of the chain, there's another delay pedal and a reverb pedal, giving you plenty of options for tone tweaking.
Specs
- Launch price: €199
- Type: Amp and FX modelling plugin (hosted or standalone)
- System requirements: MacOS 13 Ventura or higher/Windows 10 or higher, AMD Quad Core R52200G/Intel Core i3/Mac Silicon M1 or higher, 1GB storage space, 8GB RAM
- Formats: VST2, VST3, AU, AAX
- Contact: Neural DSP
Usability
Usability rating: ★★★★½
The Neural DSP John Mayer plugin is arranged very similarly to every other Neural plugin, so if you’ve used one before, you’ll feel right at home. The signal chain is accessible via the top of the window, starting with the ‘pre-fx’ that features a boost, filter, two overdrive pedals, and a delay effect. The harmonic tremolo and spring reverb is next, titled the ‘Gravity Tank’ and interestingly placed before the guitar amp section.
The following section houses the window to select from John’s amps, and even more interestingly, an option to run all three at the same time. The visual shows all of the amps on one stage, and they get blacked-out accordingly depending on which setup you select. With the blend option selected, there’s no option to adjust the cabinet settings however, you can only do this with a single amp type selected.
Each amp has its own control scheme, differentiated by individual designs for each control set. Bright and Mid switches are available alongside the usual EQ controls, with two input types on the Dumble, while the Two-Rock amp features a Bright switch, two EQ types, and a Presence control.
These controls are scaled down from the actual amps Mayer uses, so if any super-fans were looking for exact recreations, they might be slightly disappointed here. Personally, I don't think it hampers the usability of the amps all that much.
Opening up the cab window, it’s the usual fare for a Neural plugin. You can change microphone types with 11 different options, as well as the ability to load a third-party impulse response if you wish. With dynamic mics, condenser microphones, and ribbon microphones available to be selected, each cabinet allows for the placement of these in any way you see fit, adjusting their position on the speaker as well as the distance away from the cabinet. You can also flip the phase between the two mics if you want to create some purposefully thinner tones.
Next up, we have the EQ and compressor section. It’s a wide, four-band EQ that covers lows, low mids, high mids, and highs. You also get additional low and high cut options to tweak things further.
The compressor offers a simple two-knob layout which will be familiar to any guitarist who’s used one on their pedalboard, with knobs marked Input and Output for simplicity. The final section of the app features a Dream Delay and studio reverb, with the delay able to switch between ping pong and regular tones, while the reverb can be set to hall or plate.
There are 18 presets from the man himself, and a full 40 artists have contributed their own presets to the plugin, which is the most I’ve seen in any Neural DSP product. The preset browser finally has a Favourites option, something I’ve been crying-out for over many years using Neural plugins, with presets featuring tags for descriptions and a useful ‘recent’ section to quickly recall your last used settings.
Sounds
Sounds rating: ★★★★½
With a single-coil-equipped Telecaster plugged into my Universal Audio audio interface, I start by clicking through the Mayer presets to see what sounds are available. It’s no surprise to find that these are mainly made up of clean and low/mid-gain sounds, with some specific presets for Gravity, and a tone from the Dead & Company celebratory concerts. If you’re looking for a plethora of song-specific sounds however there aren’t all that many, with the bulk made up of more general-purpose tones.
They respond well to volume knob adjustments, allowing me to clean up the dirtier tones before applying more gain when I want to start playing lead, just like the man himself does. As you might expect, there’s plenty of blues-lead-friendly stuff here, whether you want notes that ring out for days or those edge-of-breakup tones that respond to your picking dynamics.
If you’re not a blues player, there are still plenty of great sounds to dig into here. The quality of the trio of amps is such that you can get bright Fender jangle that can be pushed into a harsher breakup from the Smooth Operator, a more mid-focused tone from the Headroom Hero, or more low-end from the Signature 83. It’s surprisingly versatile, and of course while there’s no high-gain, the combination of boost pedal and two overdrives means things can get pretty saturated when you need.
There’s a lot of fun to be had in the Pre-FX section, and I particularly enjoyed the Justa Boost pedal, which just makes everything sound better and has a switch to add even more gain. The overdrive section does what you’d expect, and the trio of Klon, Bluesbreaker, and Tube Screamer style sounds means you can coax a lot of different tones out of it. The Antelope Filter modelled on the EHX Q-Tron is a load of fun, and the Millipede Delay in front of the amp is great for classic slapback sounds, adding a nice bit of thickness to the tone without being immediately obvious.
I found it a bit of a shame then that you can’t place the spring reverb and harmonic tremolo of the Gravity Tank after the amp. The lack of signal chain maneuverability is something present on all the Neural DSP plugins, but I personally prefer my reverb after my amp. As something of a tone tweaker who spends a lot of time playing guitar ‘in-the-box’, I would love to see the same flexibility you get on the Quad Cortex present in the plugins too.
Verdict
The Neural DSP John Mayer plugin is a triumph in many ways, but mainly in that it’s managed to bring the two opposing worlds of tube amp purists and modelling aficionados to a single, incredibly good-sounding place. It delivers damn good guitar tones quickly and easily, with enough variety to keep players of all kinds entertained.
It delivers damn good guitar tones quickly
For those who like to tweak, the lack of signal chain agility could be a limiting factor. It would be nice to be able to move elements back and forth at will for deeper experimentation, and with the three amp setup, I would’ve liked the flexibility of customizing the cabinets of each for super deep editing. I imagine those players are in the minority however, and the ability to instantly get your hands on some of the greatest guitar tones of the modern era will more than make up for the lack of flexibility.
MusicRadar verdict: At the core of the Neural DSP Archetype: John Mayer X plugin are brilliant guitar tones, and I love that you don’t have to be a Mayer mega-fan to enjoy what’s on offer here. Despite not being much of a fan myself, I never felt like an outsider using his signature plugin, because the core sounds are fantastic, no matter what your preferred playing style or genre.
Test | Results | Score |
|---|---|---|
Usability | Loads of presets and very easy to navigate | ★★★★½ |
Sounds | Fantastic sound selection that will please most players | ★★★★½ |
Overall | A brilliant plugin that can cover a lot of ground | ★★★★½ |
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