It's insanely popular on the sister site. What makes it so sought after? There are plenty of guitar amps out there already.

 

They sound good and look good. (At least the ones I use)

I guess because they are insanely expensive, everyone is over the moon they can get them for free.

But you're right. There are plenty of good plugins, but not in such a nice package.

 

now days, a "guitar amp" vst does not sound the same as they used to sound +10 years ago (early versions of Guitar Rig, AmpliTube), i presume neural dsp nails it with their own craftsmanship at modeling guitar amps. A small tip how to find out if a guitar amp vst sounds good or not: adjust properly your instrument input gain on your audio card, make sure to NEVER clip. Plug and load a guitar amp vst and start playing, the what to look for: "head room" it is what you get on a real amp.. you are controlling your playing dynamic nuances with your fingers.. when you start to hit those strings hard it is where the "tubes" saturation will naturally kick in etc. and that is the hardest part to model on a guitar amp vst. why? way too many "random events" a real tube amp produces it is the what creates that creamy distortions of all kinds. But, we are getting to there .. slowly.

 

Last edited: Dec 17, 2025 at 3:40 PM

Decent plugins with a lot of collaborations with great artists and a lot of marketing. That alone made them the most popular amp sims on the market right now. They also got some hype at the beginning from using neural networks, which was kinda new back then.

My opinion is that this technology is not superior to good circuit modeling, but it can still sound decent. While their original Soldano was not accurate from my experience, you could still get some great sound out of it. I didn't test the new version, so I guess that it has been improved since.

The inherent flaw of this type of modeling is that it can miss hidden internal states, where a circuit will behave differently under a specific scenario, which the input tones of neural network modeling can't always reveal. This is why this technology is best used in combination with good old circuit modeling, which is what Mercuriall is doing, and with great success.

So while not my personal favorites, you can certainly get some great sound out of them. Also, the GUI and workflow are fantastic, which has been copied by many like STL Tones or Mixwave.

 

They are the best amp sims on the market. Best quality, cleanest GUI, plethora of presets. Now free.

What's not to love?

 

am I crazy or these plugins doesnt have a dry/wet knob ?

 

the plugins are good i tested them yesterday.. pretty good distortion effects and Amps

 

iLok + not being cracked for long time, that makes lots of hype,
they sound great, but they keep recycling stuff too

 

I guess a lot of people play guitars. I haven't tested them on synths yet, but one day I will

 

iflock to those cracked ilok.

 

I personally have never liked them, they have always sounded too clean, too polished, too processed for my liking and especially for Metal, and they sound "soft" in a mix, there are a hell lot better options out there, to my ears STL is at least two tiers above them, and when i decide to go legit that's my route...

 

hype really. if you know what you are doing recording and mixing wise, then, even the old Podfarm is still a mamoth of vst and will still sound just as good as a real amp and pedals. but mind you: you do need to know what you are doing and what you are looking for.
keep in mind that just because you bought a strat and a marshall, doesn't mean you'll be sounding like Hendrix.