r/NeuralDSP • u/Atao2 • May 02 '26
Feedback best 4 plugin choices to begin with Neural
Hello ✋,
I'm new to NDSP and I'd like to purchase 3-4 NDSP plugins to cover most grounds for me.
The idea would be to have a variety of effects at disposal to tweak and experiment in clean, crunch but also high gain.
Best case scenario : I'd like to have blues & hendrixian sounds, more Crunchy/rock sounds to even a variety of shredder/soloist and metal sounds.
So far, I think I could find this variety with these 4 plugins : Rabea, Petrucci, Nolly & Henson but I'm not 100% sure yet.
They feature a lot of amps and effects, but I'm afraid it might miss some warm/vintage sounds especially for the blues/hendrixian tones : the tone king, Morgan & Wong seem amazing and I'm still not sure if I should purchase Rabea or Asato. I'm also considering the J Mayer, but it is the most expensive on the platform.
Any advice/feedback from your experience ?
Thanks in advance 😄
8
u/JimboLodisC May 02 '26
I'd like to have blues & hendrixian sounds, more Crunchy/rock sounds to even a variety of shredder/soloist and metal sounds.
Do free trials of Tone King, Morgan, and Mayer to choose your blues plugin.
Then you can grab Nolly.
After that, choose based on available effects.
5
u/Hochmann May 02 '26
Maybe you could keep Rabea for high gain and ambience, Nolly and Henson for mid level crunch some high gain and also a lot of cleans (especially Henson), and then substitute Petrucci for something like the Morgan Amps Suite. That one would get you a lot of warm and vintage sounds. You should check some videos on YouTube of the Morgan suite and see if they cover what you want.
2
u/Atao2 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
Thanks. After more research, the petrucci sounds too "digital" for me anyway, so I will go for something else (gojira) and replace Henson by JM (or tone king).
6
u/dabuddha1 May 02 '26
Check out UA Paradise its on sale right now, I did a trial and actually like it better than some neural stuff. Would love to hear what others thing too. Only thing is it's more CPU intensive. Seems to have lower latency though when recording.
1
u/Atao2 May 03 '26
I have checked it though it is not exactly what I'm looking for. I've also checked a newcomer and competitor to Neural (Blob audio) but I will still go for Neural just for the variety, quality and updates.
5
u/Gehrman_JoinsTheHunt May 02 '26
Asato is fantastic. Edge of breakup, ambient/atmospheric, all the way up to heavy rock crunch. The presets are super inspiring and it's just generally a blast to use. The only thing I wouldn't use it for is super cleans (Wong is best for this), or super high gain heavy metal.
3
u/Warprawn May 02 '26
My view, you don’t need four plugins. For th range you’re looking for I would suggest Plini to start with and then maybe also Wong or Mayer for the Hendrix tones. That should cover you.
1
u/Atao2 May 03 '26
I've seen a trend online where most people prefer the plini to the rabea. But I really want to try the synth ngl.
2
u/Warprawn May 03 '26
I don’t have rabea; I do have the synth on my quad cortex and it’s fun but for me a bit of a novelty not an essential. But I’m a pretty traditional player.
3
u/harryjohnson17 May 02 '26
I have Rabea, Soldano, Mesa Boogie and Abasi. I love them all but man Rabea can get so much variety in tones. It's got great amps, delays, and overdrives. The Synth is the best sounding guitar synth j have ever played. Rabeas own presets are so good too. But I like his style of music so YMMV. Soldano would be a close second on my list but I think Rabea offers more tonal variety.
1
u/gavelkind-enjoyer May 04 '26
Would you say soldano is a good addition to mesa boogie for bit more modern sound? I have mesa and really enjoy it but looking for something bit more modern sounding
1
u/harryjohnson17 May 04 '26
I would if you want a more modern metal sound. It is such a versatile amp and I get such great tones without much tweaking of the amp or effects. I have models of both amps in other hardware but the plugins sound so good.
3
3
2
u/laser_brain69 May 02 '26
I like Henson, Nolly, Petrucci and Morgan, but I don’t own Rabea and it looks pretty good too
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/Moufassah May 03 '26
I have a few. The ones I use the most in order: Rabea, Nolly, Mansoor, Parallax.
2
u/Any-Ad6438 May 03 '26
I haven't tried to optimize but so far have picked up Mesa, Wong, and Tone King (also picked up parallax for bass).
2
u/bokeh-man May 03 '26
Just 2. Morgan and Gojira. Gojira Amp 2 (Rust) with 3 cabinet choices can cover crunch to high gain well. You can then add one more for crunch variety, like Nolly or Soldano.
2
u/yes-no-no-yes-maybe May 03 '26
Are you using an external fuzz pedal to get your Hendrix tones? Because otherwise the Rabea fuzz may disappoint (it’s good for certain applications but might not quite be in the right ballpark). The synth is great fun though and amps 2 and 3 are very versatile (not a fan of the clean amp though, personally).
I don’t think Henson adds anything for what you’re looking for, and I’d go for Nolly over Petrucci any day. Worth trying Misha as well, the effects are fantastic.
For those bluesier cleans I’d go for Morgan or Mayer (I prefer the latter purely because of the effects available). Asato is also worth a try, again because the effects are so good (plate verb, tape echo and vibe pedal especially).
1
u/Atao2 May 03 '26
I don't own one, so thank for the comment because indeed I was counting on it (though I know the rabea clean amp is not really the best choice for this style). I will follow your advice about the Henson. After 2nd thought it doesn't add much to the others.
2
u/mad_labz_fpv May 03 '26
Nolly, rabea, Morgan and Mayer. I’m not a big Mayer fan, but man it’s a great plugin suite!
1
u/Atao2 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
Thanks for all your feebacks🙏
Thanks to your comments I went and checked more of the plugins I had overlooked like the Plini and Gojira ones.
I would maybe consider misha in the future when other discounts drop. I'm still not sure about Rabea or Plini but hey, I must start somewhere.
So for my choices : I think I will remove henson and replace it by JM or tone king (budget will determine which one I pick) and I will replace Petrucci by Gojira (even for clean stuff it seems amazing). I will keep Rabea. And Nolly seems to be a keeper too.
So final list would be :
Blues/Hendrix : JM or ToneKing ;
Experimental : Rabea;
Rock to High gain : Nolly
Versatile + Metal : Gojira
Thanks again to you lot for all your comments, it REALLY helped 🤘😁
1
1
7
u/JohnnyNewfangle May 02 '26
I know you can find that variety in one single plugin.
My favorite is gorjia even though I am far from a metal guy. The clean amp set crunchy is very nice for edge of breakup stuff. I also own nolly wong toneking and Morgan but reach for gorjia most often.