Amazing standalone plugin

I'm not a sound engineer or recording guitarist, I just started using Amp Sims mainly for convenience, to practice/play quietly and with minimal gear, so this is by no means a "technical" review, just my personal thoughts/experience for anyone interested.

There are two main things I don't like about amp sims, one is the option paralysis I end up finding myself into when I'm given 50 amps, 300 cabs, 100 effects, 30 microphones... I just can't find a sound that I say "ok, this is it" and stick with it. I'm lured into tweaking a bit more, and swapping and changing, and it makes me kinda anxious. The thing I learned most from buying pedals and amps and building pedalboards and managing my Gear Acquisition Syndrome was that the quality of my practicing or jamming sessions is always better the least gear/options I have. There's people that don't have this problem, but I do, I guess that's a difference between real musicians and hobby players...

The other one is even more pathetic, but I don't enjoy "computerized" User Interfaces... I don't like dialling in scales of values, faders, mixers, dragging icons, scrolling lists, you know... This may seem silly but it's my honest and subjective opinion and worth what it's worth.

So Neural DSP and Cory's Archetype solves these two things I dislike: It presents you with reduced virtual gear in a stylish and familiar UI that can even run as a standalone app, with no need for a DAW pesting you about new projects and inputs and tracks... You just open it and bam, you're live with the exact same settings you had when you turned it off. You have a nice tuner, a noise gate, handy midi mapping... The UI design is really neat...

You get 3 amps, according to a Neural DSP's post on FB, the "DI Funk Console" is based on an SSL Console Channel Strip, the "Clean Machine" on the Roland Jazz Chorus, and the "Amp Snob" on a Dumble amp. Honestly if you're not looking for high gain metal tones you will be perfectly happy with these, it's a really sensitive choice of emulations since it gives you not 3 amps, but 3 different "topologies" really, for the ultimate desert island guitar amp simulator. You have DI console topology (overdrives sound terrible, as they would on a real console, but it's a sound), you have a transistor based amp (overdrives sound OK, as they would on a real transistor amp), and you have a tube based amp (overdrives sound amazing). I love all of them. The Clean Machine and Amp Snob are so versatile you can get very convincing Fender and Vox voicings, respectively. The Amp Snob, being the only featuring a valve power amp emulation, is the only amp that doesn't get excruciatingly loud when you engage the overdrives, it simply overdrives/compresses more. The Big Rig overdrive into the Amp Snob FREAKING RIPS and feels soooo responsive and dynamic, really top notch. I'm really happy and impressed of the way both the Clean Machine and especially the Amp Snob react to the guitar's volume knob, effectively giving you control of overdrive dynamics via the volume knob.

I can't comment too much on the cabinets as a I have very little experience with IR's and stuff. But I can say that they really are 50% of the final sound. I don't know what speakers they're emulating here, and I wont dare to guess. They sound very nice, you can have any cabinet with any amp and you can bypass the cabinet (cool with the Funk Console, not so cool with the others).

As for effects, their chain is fix and i'm glad it is that way, one thing less to lure me into tweaking. You get a wah (cool), an envelope filter (very cool!), a compressor (very useful), a tube screamer boost/overdrive (ok) and another overdrive/distortion (ok). I'm not really interested in the overdrives but it's nice to have those two options, the "Big Rig Overdrive" is kinda but not really a Rat emulation, I would say Rat inspired but not near as hard hitting as a Rat or other "Diode Overdrive" emulation. The Postal Service envelope is just awesome, super easy to dial and very flexible. The Wah is also super convincing but I didn't enjoy the auto-wah function as much as the envelope filter pedal, and they have very different feel and tone.

After that there's a super effective 9 band EQ, very very powerful indeed.

Finally you have a very nice sounding delay with hi and lo cuts that you can route in stereo ping pong but you cannot perform runaway oscillations (shame). And finally you get a reverb pedal which I enjoy at very low decay settings. At long decays it's a bit too much "modern" for my taste, and it's a shame it has no pre-delay control. By "too modern" I mean it's very hifi sounding, with a lingering mysterious modulated tail... I mean it's beautiful sounding really, but not my cup of tea. The shimmer is also beautiful, but again, waaaay to worshipy to me. And I cannot even tame it's octaves or anything. Honestly this reverb feels completely misplaced here, I would much prefer to have an octave pedal instead of this shimmer reverb. Yes, it sounds beautiful, but at longer decays it's such a specific sound that it quickly becomes distractive and feel misplaced if you play anything besides that cosmic unicorn worship deal. I would prefer something more authentic and less futuristic, I can't even turn those freaking modulated trails off... Something like a plate or spring reverb would have been much better suited for this plugin's vibe IMO.

Things I didn't like: - Presets are heavily Stratocaster Single Coil oriented and I can't delete them; - Can't run in full screen; - Final Fantasy Reverb with no control over pre-delay, modulation, or shimmer;

Of all the sims I tried (Amplitube 5, Amp designer and Helix Native) this was definitely the one I enjoyed the most, which is not saying it was the "best sounding", all of them sound good, but this Archetype was the most pleasant to operate and play.

Great cleans and plenty of funk

I am not the biggest filter or wah fan but the functions work very well, I like them over any other digital ones I have tried. This has great features like the tuned for 4th position compressor and many great sounding clean amps.