Neural DSP Archetype: Tom Morello

No synthesizers were used in the making of this plug‑in.

Over the last few years, Neural DSP have quickly established themselves at the cutting edge of guitar rig simulation, with both software and hardware offerings that deliver impressive results. On the software front, the latest release is Archetype: Tom Morello. Like other titles in the Archetype series, Neural have worked in collaboration with the named artist to create a software simulation of their complete rig. So, if you like the idea of having access to the epic guitar sounds that shaped Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, or any of the other musical projects that Tom Morello has brought his distinctive guitar style to, then Archetype: Tom Morello is bound to intrigue.

All The Rage

Tom Morello has used pretty much the same rig (guitars, amp, cab and compact collection of pedals) for most of his career. Indeed, as he described in a recent ‘rig rundown’ video on YouTube, the now well‑worn mid‑1980s Marshall JCM800 2205 amp that sits at the heart of his setup even has various settings marked by each knob; it’s a ‘set and forget’ that’s lasted over 30 years! The amp is faithfully represented here alongside his equally long‑standing Peavey 4x12 cab, with each element having its own page in the familiar Archetype UI. There’s plenty of flexibility too: the user is given the ability to adjust the amp’s controls away from Tom’s preferred settings, the cab sim page allows you to use two virtual microphones simultaneously (from a choice of 10), with control over their position relative to the speakers, and you can load other IRs should you wish.

The included pedals are arranged across a number of pages and, in terms of the signal chain, sit in front of the amp, in the amp’s effects loop, or as ‘post’ effects. Tom is well known for his use of the DigiTech Whammy pedal and that’s included here, but positioned in front of the amp you also get a virtual Dive Bomb pedal, which offers a further pitch‑shifting effect, providing a pitch glide either up or down, with the speed of the glide controlled by the expression pedal. It’s a cool effect.

This is a Tom Morello rig emulation so, yes, you get a Whammy pedal — and the plug‑in makes setup for a MIDI expression pedal very easy.

True to how the man himself runs his setup, most of the other effects are placed within the amp’s effects loop and arranged across two pages of the GUI. The emulated...