What Is The BEST Neural DSP Plugin?

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0:00 - Let The Games Begin
1:23 - Archetype Abasi
3:35 - Archetype Rabea
5:00 - Fortin Cali
6:39 - Archetype Cory Wong
7:35 - Darkglass
8:22 - Archetype Gojira
10:46 - Omega Granophyre
12:15 - Mesa Suite
13:14 - Archetype Tom Morello
14:28 - Fortin Nameless
16:55 - Archetype Petrucci
19:09 - Archetype Tim Henson
21:22 - Archetype Nolly
22:43 - Fortin NTS
23:23 - Tone King
24:14 - Soldano
25:47 - Parallax
27:56 - Archetype Plini
30:05 - and the winner is…

[KeyanHoushmandLive]

What's your favourite Neural DSP plugin? Let me know in the comments below!
Thank you Xander Raymond Charles for making this Tier List and inspiring me to make this video 🙌

[farbhy]

If Neural could update nameless with a pitch shifter, eq, and *any* of those effects pedals, we have a clear winner.

[josuastangl]

13:21 You are, Neural actually has tons of Marshall tones:
- Nolly's amp 2 is THE classic 2203 JCM800
- Morello's is a different JCM800 (2210)
- Henson's amp 3 is a Marshall
- Bea's amp 2, the first Kraken channel, is modelled after a JCM900
- Nameless is a modded Plexi
and Cali is also a modded Marshall.
If you want to include it, Plini's amp 2, a Friedman BE100, is also essentially a modded Marshall.

[LifeHawkeye]

Hi Keyan! I just wanted to extend my sincere gratitude to you for putting this specific video out brother. I’ve commented on your channel before but I’ve been putting together my own home studio now over the past several months and it’s something that’s been a daunting task for me. I’ve always been the guy who could play guitar well but knew zero about gear much less recording music on my own. I’m a husband, a father of 4 children, and for a few years I had lost my passion for playing guitar and quite frankly it was a real cause of depression for me. It’s been your channel amongst a few others that have really helped me realize my goal of getting a home studio started and re-lit that fire for playing my guitar again. So THANK YOU Keyan! I’ve consulted your channel primarily for everything regarding audio interfaces, studio monitors, using the quad cortex, and now specifically concerning which neural DSP plugin(s) I want to invest in. I will continue to refer to your channel for everything related to guitar/gear/playing you name it. Don’t let any of the haters make you ever feel like your opinion doesn’t matter or that you aren’t qualified to speak on these subjects because you ARE. Hey I’m a 49 year old dude so I’m probably twice your age but I have no reservations whatsoever in taking advice from you Keyan. Again, thank you for your channel and all the hard work you put into delivering quality content my friend. After watching this video and researching the plugins for months now, I think I’ve settled on the Plini being my first one to purchase. 😊 🤘🏼

[Simpaiii]

I own the Plini, Nolly & Gojira and absolutely love them. I agree that the Plini one is just so damn inspiring. I just dial in a cab-less clean tone or a thick lead with tons of delay/reverb and could just play for hours. The Nolly one just has the Rhythm tone I always craved for and I've never used anything else for that ever since I bought it. The Gojira is just great for some more experimental stuff. I love creating freaky octaved leads or weird "synth"-esque stuff with it

[soilent]

I'm glad you moved up Gojira. I bought the Cali and the NTS earlier on, but God damn does the Gojira absolutely slay. Not to mention you get THREE amps and cabs AND a ton of effects AND the ability to pitch shift with the whammy pedal . It has everything I'd ever need and I honestly haven't even touched the Cali and NTS since I bought the Gojira. Definitely S tier for me, and I have no problem getting great tones when playing in drop A, G, or F. Gojira absolutely kills it!

[soulrebornofficial]

I have many Neural Dsp plugins but the ones that really made me jump on my seat are Gojira and Plini!
They have an incredible quality and are the two plugins that push me to experiment and always do something new or weird!
I just picked up my Strandberg Sarah Longfield and installed the Juggernauts on it and can't wait to see how it sounds with these plugins!
Great video!

[Inlay]

Mate I really enjoy how informative your vids are, even though we all really play different types of metal/music, we can really get something out of what you deliver.
Much respect

[KM-tvkm]

For heavy rhythm tones the Omega is by far the best, even Misha agrees cause that’s what he uses when demoing and doing final tracking for Periphery, then he reamps with other stuff

[simonr]

I love the IIC+. One of the most "real" feeling sims I've played.

[dtremblay]

I just made my first 2 gigs this weekend playing through Archetype Gojira (with presets change automation) direct to poweramp and cab....so easy to setup, sounded awesome and i got a bunch of great comments on my tone! I love this plugin!

[phantomtearswav]

NTS and Gojira were my first 2 purchases from NDSP, and later on I bought Nolly, the SLO-100, Granophyre, Cali, and most recently, Plini. I've demoed the other plugins but found that most of them weren't really for me (though I am very interested in the Tom Morello plugin). Ranking the plugins I own from most to least favorite, it would go something like this

1. Archetype: Nolly - probably the one I've used the most. I don't really use the clean or lead amps that often on it, but the crunch tones are great for more rock-style tones, and the 5150 is a 5150. I also really like the cabs on this one, though I do usually just use external IRs or plugins anyways (mainly the GGD Studio Cabs).
2. Granophyre - it's close with the Nolly plugin for me, but Nolly edges it out ever so slightly. I really love the harsh growling kind of tone that comes from the Granophyre. It especially pairs well with the GGD Studio Cabs plugins and you can really get some nasty sounding tones from it.
3. Archetype: Gojira - this one's a bit weird for me. I really love the main amp tones and as I mentioned before, it is one of the first NDSP plugins I owned. More than anything though, I primarily use this for the effects, namely the whammy and the octaver and usually put that in front of a different amp. I don't really like the crunch amp that much, and the clean amp is a bit too breakup-heavy for my tastes.
4. Archetype: Plini - in a way, this one's sort of the inverse of the Gojira for me. I primarily use this for cleans, and I think the heavy amp sounds pretty different from some of the other plugins. Oddly enough, I've found myself using it mainly for 2000s nu-metal kinds of tones, which sounds weird but it just works. Haven't messed around with the crunch tones much, but the clean tones are the main selling point for me. Pretty much the perfect plugin for the djent ambient cleans.
5. Fortin Cali - this is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I think when dialed in right, it's great for more of that "classic djent" style tone that's super jangly and bass heavy. At the same time, I've found this amp is very difficult to dial in compared to the other plugins, and it takes a while for me to get something I'm satisfied with. But for the Meshuggah kind of sound it works pretty well for me (I know the Nameless obviously does that, but I didn't like the Nameless when I demoed it personally). I don't like the crunch settings, but the cleans are pretty nice.
6. Fortin NTS - this was the first NDSP plugin I owned, and at the time was the only one that I really liked the sound of. I still do like using this from time to time, but it is also a little weird to dial in much like the Cali. The main reason why I don't come back to this plugin as much is because for whatever reason, it gives me a lot of performance issues. No other plugin does this, so I'm convinced that it's gotta be this plugin in particular.
7. Soldano SLO-100 - this is probably the plugin I've used the least. Definitely sounds good and works for the Soldano sound as you would hope for, but for my style I don't think it's quite right for me. Not the biggest fan of the cleans, though I have found interesting tones when cranking the clean channel with the crunch switch enabled. But overall, not really for me personally. The high gain is a bit too bassy for me.

[lukecifer]

Archtype Nolly is so versatile with tone combinations and the basic effects, had it for 2 years now and still in love with it, weather I'm recording or just plugging in and playing

[Sebastiside]

Damn I gotta give Fortin nameless a try! big Archetype rabea fan

[sillyness]

While the Otto II II lived on my guitar bus for a long time, lately I've come back to Granophyre. Such a great plugin.
I 100% agree with Nameless and Plini in S tier, those are just iconic.

[sergeantslowpoke]

I'm personally a massive fan of the sound of the granophyre, I've been using that sim for a long time now, I own a lot of the neural dsp plugins and it is still my go to for any high gain tone. Plini Rabea and Petrucci all three have really amazing lead sounds, Abasi has super unique cleans and very interesting and different (albeit niche) rhythm tones. I use all of them in my workflow for different things

[compucorder]

There's a lot of great insight in this tiering. Especially coming from a guitarist who is really familiar with the type of tones than Abasi, Rabea, Gojira etc.. are intended to serve. For me, I'm less of a high-gain, more quiet-loud, drone, noise, ambient. So I have Nolly for the gainier side, and that does me fine, alongside my physical amp for that, an Orange Rocker 30. My favourites are the Morgan Suite and the Toneking Imperial. I've tried Cory Wong, and liked it for the clean tones. Shout out to the clean tones from STL Tonality Wes Borland 'Borland' JC120 sim too. But, apart from Morgan / Toneking, I'd probably like to get Mateus Asato next. Unless they get Mk.gee on board, which would be awesome.

[ryce]

Nice and informative video, Keyan! However I wished you did a short demo of each plugin (with your favourite setting) for comparison

[QualityBeveragereview]

I got the Soldano and parallax combo going. Crushing results!

[xandjer]

The Obsidian and Granophyre are both real amps, but I actually agree with your list. Great video as always Keyan!