Neural DSP Plugins (not the QC)

I fired up the Cali plugin yesterday. Idk if it's just me but I love the sound of the plugins for a little bit but something about the low end sounds off. At first it feels and sounds great but then becomes a little too much. Anyone else or just me?

I pretty much live on Nolly’s presets in the Cali
 
I fired up the Cali plugin yesterday. Idk if it's just me but I love the sound of the plugins for a little bit but something about the low end sounds off. At first it feels and sounds great but then becomes a little too much. Anyone else or just me?
Yup, boosted lows and highs across their plug-ins, classic hi-fi salesman EQ tactic :p

Sounds great though and looks very pretty. I feel most are redundant though, seems like most of them comes with some sort of 5150 variant and you’re basically buying IRs and a couple effects.
 
Yup, boosted lows and highs across their plug-ins, classic hi-fi salesman EQ tactic :p

Sounds great though and looks very pretty. I feel most are redundant though, seems like most of them comes with some sort of 5150 variant and you’re basically buying IRs and a couple effects.
Not to open a can of worms but does that relate to the aliasing term people get amped up about lol
 
NDSP Henson really does have the best 2204 in a plugin I've come across. Well worth checking out if you like the classic Marshall thing (50% off atm)
 
They sound good but I’m not buying again from NDSP until they update their plug-ins to Apple Silicon!
 
I think the wave has broken for me on NeuralDSP. Genuinely I find their products a bit cringe. Their entire marketing schtick turns me off thoroughly, I doubt I'll be giving then any more money any time soon.

For modelled amps, I'm sticking with my Axe 3 and Helix. A plug for @MirrorProfiles IR's as well - they're really good!
 
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I think the wave has broken for me on NeuralDSP. Genuinely I find their products a bit cringe. Their entire marketing schtick turns me off thoroughly, I doubt I'll be giving then any more money any time soon.
Fair, but I genuinely don’t think there is a better product as an alternative. Softube’s stuff seems to always hold up well in my shootouts, but something just feels off with the gain staging when I have to (guessingly) boost 10dB+ to get it feeling right. They also don’t have a standalone version and the overall experience doesn’t feel as slick.

Not really sure what the issue is with their marketing tbh - because they have artist endorsements or the way they use social media or something? I’ll take NDSP’s approach any day of the week over the daily IK sales emails (for products I already own), or the viagra pill approach other companies seem to take.
 
Loved Nameless and still like it quite a bit. Was bitterly disappointed by NTS.

I've tried many of the others, and those have been very good, but once I got hold of Fractal hardware, everything NDSP became a distant afterthought.

There are also other plugins I like more than the NDSP stuff, but I'll keep those out of this thread to not derail. All of the above aside, you'll likely get a good and highly useable product with NDSP plugins.
 
Loved Nameless and still like it quite a bit. Was bitterly disappointed by NTS.
Nameless is possibly my favourite one, but I just love those Jose style mods. I totally overlooked NTS, but I think it’s really underrated and unique. The included IR’s for both are absolute guff and don’t really do either amp justice.

I love the Fractal stuff too, and use it from time to time but I just find the standalone apps/plugins infinitely more useful for me and I don’t really think there’s much in it sonically. Apples and oranges in some ways - IMO the benefit of Fractal is the total control you have, the benefit of the NDSP plugins is you have a GUI, everything is pre-routed, it’s easy to use as a plugin on multiple tracks, use external MIDI controllers etc.
 
I appreciate that the plugins tend to sound good with little tweaking and can be kind of simplistic and limiting by design. Kind of tempted with the 50 percent sale but the quad cortex mess turns me off.
 
My tone needs/wants/desires are not that broad, so I like the Petrucci one. I do agree it's too expensive; the only thing that made me buy it was the half-off sale last November.

The sounds are very good to my ears, and I was surprised at the range of tones in the presets. I also like all the effects except the EQ, because they sound great, and are simple to use. I wish the EQ was the same one they put in the IIC+ plugin- it's sliders at fixed frequencies, which I prefer to parametric.

Oh and the metronome (Iirc is only available in the stand-alone, which is what I use) has some nice features: beat subdivisions, choice of time signatures, and you can assign various "sounds" to each beat, independently.

The free trial is nice, but be careful. It's just a version of the "puppy dog close." The one where the salesman allows the family to take the puppy home for the weekend, knowing full well there's no way in hell the kids will let mom & dad take that dog back to the store! haha
 
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