GEAR 2021: Neural DSP's Archetype series of guitar plugins has amassed a formidable reputation as repositories of great tone, featuring superlative artist tie-ins with the likes of Tosin Abasi, Cory Wong and Plini.
The latest in the series has seen the Neural DSP boffins hunched over in the coding room in the company of Joe Duplantier as they look to capture all of his Gojira tones in one software package.
Neural DSP calls describes the Archetype: Gojira as the “heaviest plugin in the universe,” and inside you'll find everything you need for replicating Duplantier's tone. Or, rather, simply have a fresh tonal landscape to explore and put your own spin on things.
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Running the full spectrum of Duplantier's tone, the plugin will help you dial in ambient, washy tones and high-gain chug, that skyscraper-chewing rhythm tone upon which rides the French progressive metal band's rhythmically audacious sound.
There are three guitar amplifiers available: Clean, Rust and Hot. Clean is described as “a pristine model of a vintage tube amplifier“, y'know, just the ticket for glassy cleans, but when pushed it will deliver a nice degree of saturated tube overdrive. Rust is all about the crunch, but that comes with a caveat from Neural DSP that the gain range here is the widest they have ever came across.
Finally, Hot is on-hand for Duplantier's most fire-breathing tones. The serving suggestion from Neural DSP advises you to pair it with the Time Effects and onboard Pitch Effects for maximum effect. Which brings us on nicely to the effects...
The Archetype: Gojira comes with a Pre Effects bundle comprising Overdrive pedal (OD), Distortion pedal (DRT), Phaser pedal (PHSR) and a Chorus pedal (CHR). The Pitch Effects is where the ground falls out from under your feet. There are, however, two very special effects in the package, Wow and Oct, both crucial for playing through the Gojira songbook.
Wow is a MIDI-programmable pitch shifter that has a trio of modes with a response that promises to be better than the best analogue units. Oct is a polyphonic octaver pedal that can add two independent octaves, -1 or -2 octaves below your dry signal. When you think of it like that, it's really the monster button, for pushing the bassist out of the mix, squashing all before you.
Elsewhere you've got a 9-band EQ and a cab sim section featuring 100s of IRs made by the fair hands of Adam "Nolly" Getgood. You can, of course, load your own, and there are six virtual mics that you can position around the virtual cabinets, which all adds up to a lot of fun, real, virtual and otherwise.
The Archetype: Gojira is available now, priced €129, with a 14-day free trial just to make sure you can handle all of that power...
See Neural DSP for more details.
