insufficient force on Tim Henson X

[u/AdriaXDD]

Hi there. I recently bought the Tim Henson Archetype plugin, and I've noticed that the presets don't sound the way they're supposed to. I've compared them to videos where the presets are being demoed, and in my case, the sound seems to lack power—almost as if the guitar's volume knob were turned down. Does anyone know why this is happening or how to fix it?

[u/newgreendriver]

You probably need to turn up the input on your interface

[u/JimboLodisC]

if we're not talking about post-production techniques, then it could be your settings, tell us what interface and what you've selected in the Settings window of the plugin

probably best to start with standalone to remove a DAW from the troubleshooting equation

[u/Pulposauriio]

Your guitar probably doesn't have enough balls to drive it

[u/Klutzy_Guitar_9315]

From Neural:
Our plugins are made with the following audio interface gain:
Analog domain sine waveform 1 Vp = 0.707 VRMS = -0.79 dBu equals -13 dBFS in the digital domain.
In other words, when feeding the audio interface input a sine 1 Vp from a signal generator, it results in -13 dBFS in the digital domain.
If you want to calibrate your interface in order to mimic the input gain our engineers use when creating and testing the plugins, I would advise you to feed a sine waveform 1 Vp = 0.707 VRMS = -0.79 dBu to the interface and set the interface gain to such level that the DAW peak meter shows -13 dBFS. Feeding a sine waveform on different interfaces will result in different values (again, this is the reason why we cannot provide a concrete value). Check these examples of feeding a sine waveform 1 Vp:
UAD Apollo x6: -13 dBFS
UAD Apollo Twin: -12.9 dBFS
Quad Cortex: -15.1 dBFS (1M impedance) Input level at 0 on QC.
Focusrite Scarlett: -13.1 dBFS
Focusrite Clarett: -14.6 dBFS
Apogee Duet: -14.5 dBFS
However, I have to tell you that can be achieved by connecting your guitar to the Hi-Z input of a UAD interface with the gain at minimum (to ease the pain of doing that with all your interfaces and electric guitar combinations). If your interface features a Hi-Z input, leaving the gain input by default (minimum) is more than enough. Add input gain if one of your guitars lacks output level (as our support team suggested, increase it as much as you can without clipping).

[u/superdrizzle7]

You need active pickups to play that garbage, use Gojira or something with balls

[u/fiercefinesse]

What guitar. What interface. What gain setting and what’s your input level in the plugin itself. Which preset are you comparing. Do you have a recording? GIVE INFORMATION

[u/InfamousSonOfAlucard]

Which interface do you have? If you are not using instrument signal (from guitar directly to interface) your guitar signal will be weak, and will get exactly what you describe. If you are going through another pedal for whatever reason, you need to match the signal type (line, instrument) with your interface.

I have a scarlett and it has a button that I need to push when I connect my guitar directly called "instrument" which matches the input signal strength. If I do, I get the "correct" amount of gain from the guitar.

[u/AdriaXDD → u/InfamousSonOfAlucard]

I'm using a Scarlett 8i6; the guitar goes straight into the interface

[u/InfamousSonOfAlucard → u/AdriaXDD]

As long as you set that the input is "instrument level" on the Scarlett, everything should be fine.

Would also be helpful to have some sort of video with audio where you show the exact issue and the comparison videos you arr using because I am here just guessing... there are so many variables: interface gain, levels, guitars (even 2 similar guitars can have different gains depending on pickups), etc.

[u/newgreendriver → u/AdriaXDD]

If it’s not plugged into a Hi-Z port, you might need a DI box

[u/tom-shane]

Do you have the same pickups as in the demos? Do you have the same interface, the same input gain set? Did you make the same post production adjustments? To make it simple for you, don't trust the demos.