Best Neural DSP Plugins: Your Guide to Modern Metal Tones

Neural DSP has completely changed the game for in-the-box guitar tones. If you’re making modern metal, chances are you’ve either used their plugins or heard them on countless records. They’re powerful, they sound ridiculously close to the real thing, and they offer a ton of flexibility right inside your DAW.

But this brings up a massive question we see all the time: which one is the best?

Here’s the thing: it matters which amp sim you use, just like it matters which guitar or pickups you choose. If you’re chasing a specific sound, the plugin is a huge piece of the puzzle. However, just buying the “hot new plugin” isn’t a magical fix for your mixes. The real magic happens when you understand how to use the tool and, more importantly, how to make it sit in a dense metal mix.

So let’s break down some of the top Neural DSP plugins for metal, what they excel at, and some actionable tips to get you started.

The Go-To Neural DSP Workhorses for Metal

While a skilled producer can get a killer sound out of almost anything, these plugins provide incredible starting points that are already 90% of the way to a mix-ready tone.

Archetype: Gojira

This plugin is a straight-up monster, just like the band it’s named after. It’s not just for chugs; it’s a creative sound-design tool. If you want crushing, modern, and slightly unconventional tones, this is your go-to.

What it’s great for: Ultra-modern rhythm tones, dissonant high-gain textures, and creative effects.

Key Features:

• Three Amps: A clean, a mid-gain ‘Rust’ amp, and a high-gain ‘Hot’ amp. The Rust amp is perfect for that signature Gojira-style grind.
• Pitch Shifter: This is the secret weapon. It’s a polyphonic octaver and pitch-shifter that lets you create everything from subtle detuned thickness to full-on DigiTech Whammy dive bombs without ever touching a pedal.
• WOW Filter: A unique vocoder-style filter that can be controlled by an envelope or MIDI for wild, synth-like guitar sounds.

Actionable Tip: For that signature Gojira rhythmic attack, select the Hot amp and dial the gain to around 6 or 7. Before the amp, engage the built-in booster pedal, but keep the level low—around 2-3. The real trick is in the post-EQ. Use the graphic EQ to make a surgical cut around 350Hz to remove mud and a slight boost around 4kHz for bite. This keeps the low-end tight while letting the pick attack slice through the mix.

Archetype: Nolly

Adam "Nolly" Getgood is a legend in modern metal production (Periphery, Animals As Leaders), and this plugin is a reflection of his meticulous, mix-ready approach. If you want tones that sound polished and tight right out of the box, this is arguably the industry standard.

What it’s great for: Pristine high-gain rhythm tones, articulate prog-metal leads, and versatile clean sounds.

Key Features:

• Four Amps: Ranging from a crystalline clean to a modified high-gain behemoth. Amp 2 and Amp 3 are the money-makers for most metal rhythm work.
• Built-in Boosters: Nolly’s love for boost pedals is well-known, and they’re baked right in. The pre-effects section includes multiple boosters that are essential for tightening up the low end.
• Comprehensive Cabs: Comes with a massive collection of Nolly’s own cabinet impulse responses, giving you an insane amount of tonal variety.

Actionable Tip: The secret to Nolly’s signature tight sound is hitting the front end of the amp correctly. Choose Amp 3 and engage the red booster pedal in the pre-effects section. Flip the “Tight” switch on the pedal—this is non-negotiable for percussive riffing. Set the pedal’s Level to around 5. This carves out the unnecessary low-end flub from your DI before it gets distorted, resulting in a clearer, more aggressive tone.

Fortin Cali Suite

If you want the raw, visceral sound of a modded British high-gain amp, the Fortin Cali Suite is pure aggression in a plugin. It’s less about pristine polish and more about raw power and attitude.

What it’s great for: Thrash, hardcore, death metal, and any genre that needs a raw, amp-in-the-room feel.

Key Features:

• Three Amp Modes: Based on the legendary Fortin Cali amp, with controls for pushes, pulls, and mods that drastically change the amp’s character.
• ZUUL Noise Gate: Fortin’s ZUUL is one of the best noise gates in the business for tight, high-gain riffing, and it’s included here.
• Grind, Pushed, and Violence switches: These controls are your ticket to aggression. ‘Grind’ tightens the low-end, while ‘Violence’ adds a whole other level of gain saturation.

Actionable Tip: Don't sleep on the ZUUL gate. For ultra-tight staccato riffs, put the ZUUL first in the chain and crank the threshold until it aggressively clamps down between notes. Then, select the main amp channel and engage the Violence switch. This combo gives you an incredibly tight and saturated tone that’s perfect for fast, palm-muted playing without any unwanted noise or hiss.

Archetype: Plini

While known for his god-tier prog and lead playing, the Plini suite is a surprisingly versatile tool for all kinds of metal. It excels at clarity and articulation, making it perfect for complex chords and soaring leads that need to cut through a busy mix.

What it’s great for: Progressive metal, liquid-smooth leads, ambient clean tones, and articulate rhythm sounds.

Key Features:

• Studio-Grade Effects: The built-in compressor, delay, and reverb are top-notch. You could easily use them on other instruments.
• Three Versatile Amps: A shimmering clean, a crunchy rhythm, and a harmonically rich lead amp. The lead amp is incredibly responsive to playing dynamics.
• Simplicity and Workflow: It’s one of the most intuitive Archetype plugins, letting you dial in great sounds fast.

Actionable Tip: For an epic lead tone, use Amp 3 with the gain around 7. Now, here’s the key: place the Compressor module after the amp block. This is a classic studio trick to even out the dynamics of a lead without squashing the feel. Set a low ratio (around 2:1) and adjust the threshold so you’re just getting a few dB of gain reduction. Follow that with the beautiful built-in Delay and Reverb to create that massive, spatial sound.

Beyond the Plugin: It's How You Mix It

Okay, so you’ve picked a plugin and dialed in a sick tone. You’re done, right? Not even close.

That’s just the raw material.

The real difference between a demo-quality guitar tone and a pro-level one comes down to post-processing. A great amp sim is only the first step. The next, and arguably more important, steps are EQing your metal guitars to fit with the bass and carving out space for the snare and kick, then using strategic compression to glue them together and control their dynamics.

This is where your skills as a mixer take over. You could give ten different producers the exact same Archetype: Nolly preset, and you’ll get ten completely different sounding mixes. Why? Because it’s the thousands of small decisions—the EQ cuts, the bus processing, the fader automation—that shape the final product. Your choices are what matter, not just the tool you choose.

See How the Pros Actually Use These Tools

It’s one thing to read about settings in a blog post. It’s another thing entirely to watch the pros who actually mix your favorite records dial in these exact tools on a real session.

The best mixers in the world, including many of our Nail The Mix instructors, know that the plugin is just the start. They might use the same Neural DSP plugin as everyone else, but they know how to EQ it, compress it, and make it serve the song.

On Nail The Mix, we put you in the room with them. You get the raw, unedited multi-tracks from bands like Lamb of God, Periphery, and Architects and watch the original producer mix the song from scratch, explaining every single move. You see why they chose a certain amp model, how they EQ’d it against the bass, and what subtle bus processing they used to make it sound massive.

Ready to see how it’s really done? Check out our full catalog of mixing sessions and see what it takes to go from a good tone to a legendary mix.