Guitarists today are spoiled for choice, and that goes doubly true for players who use computer-based amp modeling software. I’m one such player, and I don’t miss the size, weight, deafening volume, or cost of owning an amp and cabinet collection, to say nothing of all those pedals and cables. For clean to mid-gain tones alone, I already have more terrific options than I need, including NeuralDSP’s Tone King and Cory Wong and Mateus Asato, PolychromeDSP’s Lumos, and Universal Audio’s new Paradise Guitar Studio. All work slightly differently, but they can each output record-ready tones that are really, really close to the (often incredibly expensive) hardware that they model, and they each give you plenty of great-sounding presets to start from.
So do we really need one amp sim package?
NeuralDSP thinks we do, because the Finnish company just dropped a major new release yesterday called Archetype: John Mayer X. It doesn’t model Mayer’s type of gear but his actual hardware units, along with all the actual settings he uses in the studio and on stage. It even has some presets that he designed. Which is great if you want to sound like John Mayer—but what does the software offer for those of us not trying to cover Continuum?
To find out, I spent a few hours playing with Mayer X, and I came away impressed. NeuralDSP has released so many metal amp sims in the last few years that I’ve come to associate the company with downtuned chugga-chugga. Don’t get me wrong: I like long hair, skulls, and palm-muted riffs as much as the next person, but it’s nice to have some variety.
Mayer X’s effects pedal lineup.
Mayer X brings that variety by modeling three of Mayer’s amps: a 1964 Fender Vibroverb, a Dumble Steel String Singer #002, and a not-yet-released prototype Two-Rock. Each amp also comes with a model of its associated speaker cabinet, in front of which you can freely position zero, one, or two microphones to shape the recorded sound and to control the room tone as desired.