Neural DSP Archetype Plini VST Plugin: Detailed Review

In today’s huge world of guitar VST plugins, finding a good plugin that will cover a wide range of tones your playing may require is a difficult task to do. One of our generation’s most versatile and inspiring electric guitarists is Plini. His distinctive sound seamlessly and elegantly combines a remarkable range of musical genres, including progressive, fusion, and metal.

Neural DSP is one of the more known companies that created some of the greatest VST plugins out there. Plini inspired them to create a signature VST plugin that will reflect the tones of Plini. They had reached out to him and he luckily for us responded and agreed to collaborate.

What Is Neural DSP Archetype Plini?

Archetype Plini by Neural DSP is a guitar effects VST plugin that will give you a diverse tonal capability many popular guitarists have today. It is a great tool for both professional and amateur guitarists or producers.

Having one of the Archetype Plini or any other Neural DSP plugins at your disposal is always a good thing. Neural DSP plugins offer a recognizable appearance and feel. The Archetype Plini is simple to use if you’ve used any of their other plugins in the past.

Target Audiences For Archetype Plini VST Plugin

Archetype Plini is a professional-level VST plugin. But this does not necessarily mean that it was made primarily for professional musicians and producers. Archetype Plini can be used by anyone who is willing enough to spend a few bucks on a great quality VST plugin.

Considering that the Archetype Plini is the most versatile out of all Neural DSP plugins in terms of tone, this plugin will be perfect for anyone. This plugin can produce a variety of sounds, including powerful modern metal guitar tones, sparkling brilliant ambient clean tones, and soaring melodic leads. When you consider how simple it is to use and the standalone capabilities, this plugin provides a lot for very little cost.

What Are The Amps In The Archetype Plini?

The versatility of this plugin would not be possible without its different amplifier types. There are three types of amplifiers that capture the tonal quality of Plini’s sounds.

He is known for having a tonal range from a reverb-laden crystalline ambiance to a warm jazz tone. His lead tones capture the wet feel dominant in the mid-range. With that comes the responsiveness of the pickup selector which will give you even more versatility.

The Archetype Plini comes with three different types of amp models. Each one of the models will give you a different feel and tone.

Clean Amp

Archetype Plini comes with a great Clean amplifier simulator. The tone you can get out of this amp is simply amazing. It has a great high end as well as the warm low end that is soothing to the ear.

With this amp simulator, you can easily achieve the tone of high-end amplifiers. Considering that it is for a fraction of the price you cannot go wrong with this one. Apart from sounding great, it has a truly unique sound and vintage feel.

The controls are rather simple and easy to use. You have your gain, mid, treble, master, and presence knobs to perfectly dial in your tone as well as standby and power switches. With that, you have a bright switch to give brightness to your tone.

Crunch Amp

Along with two other amp simulators, you also get an amazing crunch amplifier sim. This amplifier is a perfect meeting point of both worlds, the high gain distortion, and a crisp clean sound.

This amplifier will capture a perfect crunch tone similar to the British new-wave tone and still keep you in touch with the time. The use of this amp is fairly simple and with a couple of knob modifications, you can achieve the perfect tone for your song.

Like many other amplifiers, this simulator also comes with knobs to dial in gain, bass, middle, treble, and master and a knob for presence. Like the clean amplifier, this one also comes with a switch for brightness.

Lead Amp

All of those who like the heavy metal feel and tone will fall in love with the Archetype Plini Lead amp. It has everything one heavy player may need to achieve the perfect distorted tone with great punch.

With this amplifier, you will get the perfect tone for playing rhythm and great riffs. Combining it with the effects will further widen the tonal pallet and give you the perfect tone for soloing. It will respond greatly to almost anyone playing.

Like the other two, it also comes with the same pattern of knobs for gain, bass, mid, treble, master, and presence as well as the switches. Leads and heavily modified, hot-rodded riffs were kept in mind when creating this virtual amplifier.

What Are The Effects and Cab Sims In The Archetype Plini?

So far we have covered just the shallow waters of the Archetype Plini. With an amazing set of amplifiers, this plugin also comes with a great set of guitar effects to further improve the tonal quality. The effects you can find in this plugin are the compressor, overdrive, EQ, reverb, and delay.

The use of these effects is fairly simple. The signal chain starts with the compressor to overdrive which is further connected to an amp and cab sim with EQ in between. Then comes the delay and reverb. Almost everything one guitarist may need.

One of the key features behind the tone of this plugin is the cab sim. You can get hardly anywhere without a good cabinet and mic. It has a major role in the character of the tone.

Neural DSP designed a highly complete and flexible cabinet simulation module with six virtual microphones that may be positioned around the speakers to provide maximum versatility. This module may also be used to load your favorite impulse response files.

Is The Neural DSP Acrhetype Plini Easy To Use?

Out of the many plugins out there, the Archetype Plini is as straightforward as it gets. The interface is really simple and easy to understand for anyone who has a basic knowledge of amps and effects.

Still, if you have never had any experience with guitar equipment, this may the perfect solution to start learning. There are no excess features that will get in your way of creating the perfect tone.

In the top part of the interface, you will be able to see a couple of knobs that are there to dial in the input and output volume. The feature I really love about this plugin is the gate knob which will kill any excess noise that may disrupt your recording.

What makes this plugin great is the many different factory presets that come with it. This is a great starting point for beginner players who do not know how to dial in the tone. After a few adjustments to your playing, you will end up with the tone characteristic of you. You can further save it as your own preset and still keep the factory one intact.

Conclusion

Throughout the years I have gone through many different VST guitar plugins and amp simulators. Nothing produced a reaction out of me like the Archetype Plini or any other Neural DSP plugin.

Considering the pricing of this plugin, it is a bargain. The usual price is 119EUR but at the moment of writing this article, you can get it for 59.50EUR on the NeuralDSP website. Also, if you want to have a quick taste, it has a 14-day free trial.

I have played on many different real amps, both bad and good quality ones. This plugin captured the feel of a real quality amp really well. In terms of ease of usage, it is really easy to use and pretty straightforward.