Neural DSP unveils Archetype: Cory Wong X. Wong, a Grammy award winning guitarist with his own Fender signature Stratocaster, is known for his versatile playing in jazz, rock, and funk styles. His plugin offers a wide variety of options for players in search of clean and edge-of-break-up tones. The plugin is feature laden and has three amp models, a Cabsim speaker simulator, new room reverbs, pre and post effects, and 139 new presets.
The amps: D.I. Funk Console is based on an analog channel strip, is optimized for direct clean sounds and works well without a cabinet. The Clean Machine is an “amalgamation of the best clean amps.” It delivers clean tones with a warm top end. The Amp Snob is tube amp emulation. Lower gain settings offer clear tones and increased gain offers edge and breakup.
Cabsim is a speaker simulation module featuring six virtual microphones. Mic position is adjustable. The Cabsim features 108 different IRs per cab. The Room Send adds adjustable room reverb. Wah-Wah is a signature Cory effect and can be mapped to a MIDI expression pedal or switched to auto-wah.
Pre-Effects have creative names. The Postal Service is an envelope filter, The 4th Position is a compressor. The Tuber is a tube style booster, and The Big Rig Overdrive is a powerful overdrive pedal that pushes saturation to the edge of fuzz. Similarly, the post-effects section features The 80s, a lush, shimmering vintage chorus reminiscent of the famous Roland sound. Delay-y-y is based on BBD analog circuit design that promises warm tones. The Wash is reverb with a Shimmer switch that creates a lush long tailed modulated reverb.
I tested the plugin in standalone mode. The initial buffer setting of 512 samples had too much latency. I quickly adjusted it to 64 samples which worked nicely. The plugin is organized and intuitive, and easy to navigate. With 139 presets it would take a long time to investigate them all, which are divided into Cory Wong, Artists, and Neural DSP categories. There are a lot of great clean, dirty and in-between tones, with a lot of presence.
An effects loop mixer would be helpful to quickly turn down the amount of pre and post effects, as the sounds are great but for some uses you might want to dial the effects back efficiently without going under the hood.
The plugin is very powerful and has something for every guitarist. The new Archetype: Cory Wong X plugin is free as an update to existing Archetype: Cory Wong plugin users. It works in a standalone mode or as a plugin on your favorite DAW. Direct only $125
