WHAT'S IN THE BOX?
CONTENTS AND STRUCTURE OF THE CAPTURE SETS: 36+ CAPTURES PER SET
Every Capture Set comes with a minimum of 36 captures. The captures are structured in 6 gain levels and 6 EQ settings per gain level. The captures are delivered within presets. There will be at least 6 presets ranging from "Clean" to "Lead". Each preset of a certain gain level holds 6 captures with different EQ settings that will ensure you find a good fit for almost any guitar and pickup. When loading a preset and switching to the stomp mode, you can easily switch between the various EQ settings within the preset. A cabinet module is included in the preset, where you can quickly load one or two of the supplied IR's and test them with the captures. Unfortunately it is not possible to share the IR's together with the presets - Neural DSP has omitted that option in order to prevent piracy of 3rd party IR's on their platform. Therefore a download link to a ZIP file containing the IR's is sent to your e-Mail address after the purchase of a capture set. This is also where you will find documentation of each included captured amp (and pedal) settings.
IMPULSE RESPONSES (IR's) / CABINET SIMULATION: 6 CUSTOM MADE IR's
IR's are considered by many to be the best way to do cabinet simulation. Good IR's are practically indistinguishable from the real cab and microphone(s) in sound and response. Our capture sets come with the IR's of two cabs. For combo amps it is the internal speaker and an additional cab that sounds good with that particular amp. For amp heads the original cab intended for the particular head is used and an additional cab that suits this amp well. Most often the additional cab will be a 1968 MRSH 4x12 Basketweave cab with G12M25 75Hz Pulsonic coned speakers, which is one of the most musical cabs ever and which sounds good with pretty much any amp.
Our IR's tend to be on the warm/full/balanced and smooth side of things.
There are 3 IR's for each of the 2 cabs, so 6 in total. Either of them works well alone, but they blend well together two. They provide an efficient way for the user to tailor the tone more to his liking - towards brighter or darker tones or somewhere in between.
DOCUMENTATION: PDF FILE WITH FULL DOCUMENTATION OF EACH AMP SETTING
We painstakingly document all the settings on the amp and pedals for each capture. This documentation in PDF format is provided as a download with each purchase. Download an example of documentation provided with each capture set.
HOW DO I RECEIVE CAPTURES?
1. Select the amp you want to buy and press "Add to Cart"
NAMING SCHEME & LEGEND
NAMING SCHEME
All of our captures follow this naming scheme:
MODEL & MAKE
Due to copyright and respect towards their owners we do not use full/real brand and model names. We usually abbreviate the names by leaving out the vowels and sometimes skew the naming towards a meaning that hints towards the original designation.
CHANNEL
If the capture set includes captures of more than one of the amps channels, the channel designation will appear after the model.
VB: Vibrato Channel
BR: Brilliant or Bright Channel
NR: Normal Channel
I & II: Many manufacturers designate their channels simply with the roman I and II
GAIN LEVELS
Each amp is captured at 6 gain levels. Depending on the gain available within each amp, pedals might be used to acquire Overdrive and Lead levels of gain. For higher gain amps the inherent gain of the amp is used for these gain levels and the user is intended to add his favorite pedals, as we keep our main focus clearly on capturing the amps as authentically as possible. The gain levels included are:
Clean: Cleanest setting of an amp still retaining musicality. For even cleaner sound reduce the input gain.
Edge: At the edge of breakup - crunches up with hard attack or higher output pickups.
Crunch: Distorts with normal pick attack, cleans up with very soft picking.
Dimed: Most amount of gain that is attainable from the amp alone without any pedals.
Drive: Overdrive levels of gain. Pedals are used for low gain amps. Captures of amps with enough gain come without pedals.
Lead: Lead levels of gain. Pedals are used for lower gain amps. Captures of amps with enough gain come without pedals.
SIGNAL LEVELS AND INPUT GAIN
All captures have been recorded with a vintage single coil style pickup equipped Strat. In many cases the user is required to adjust the Input gain on the capture for his guitar/pickup. For example a vintage style humbucker would require to be lowered by about 4-5 dB to be at the same gain level as a vintage single coil. Higher output pickups might need even a lot more reduction in input gain - don't be afraid to lower it and experiment with lowered input gain on higher gain captures - the tones remain completely authentic.
EQ SETTINGS
We test our captures on all pickup positions of a Fender Vintage 62 Hot Rod Strat with LeoSounds 50s pickups and a stock 1979 Yamaha SA-1000 (ES-335 type). There is quite a wide variation in the EQ settings, but we usually do not leave the realm of usable and musical tones. The EQ settings are not attributed to a particular guitar, but in general Single Coil pickup guitars will work best with the BAL, WRM and FAT settings, while Humbuckers will tend to sound best with BRI or THN settings. BAL is usually a good middle ground or starting point, but the best setting for a particular guitar or pickup will often be towards the brighter or darker settings.
THN (Thin): Similar to bright, but with less bass - best for Humbucker guitars.
BRI (Bright): Quite balanced, but more high end, presence and bite.
BAL (Balanced): Rather even distribution of frequencies, works well with most guitars.
WRM (Warm): More mids and less highs. Works well with Single coils and bridge PU.
FAT (Fat): Great to tame harsh PU’s or to get huge tones from any guitar.
SCP (Scooped): Recessed mids and increased bass/treble. Works well in many situations
PEDAL ABBREVIATIONS
For the capture sets that do include pedals, we have a list of usual suspects that we usually use. There might be some exceptions, but for the most part these are the staples. If pedals are included, then usually 6 from the list below will be part of a capture set and are what we think sounds best with a particular amp.
BST: Vertex Boost
POT: Analogman Prince of Tone
BSB: Marshall Bluesbreaker MKI (Vintage)
808: Ibanez Tube Screamer TS808 (Reissue)
KLN: Klon Centaur clone (DIY build from AION kit)
TMY: Timmy Overdrive
PAG: Kingsley Page
MIN: Kingsley Minstrel
RAT: ProCo Rat (Vintage White Face model)
SHR: Marshall Shredmaster (Vintage)
CAPTURE TYPE
Generally DI captures in combination with a good IR sound most authentic to the reference source, at least according to our extensive testing. Therefore this is what we recommend our customers for the best user experience. Some of our sets will however include full captures, but this is not going to be our focus point due to the quality advantage of DI captures in conjunction with good IR's.
DI: Direct injection capture - the amp has been captured without a microphone and needs a cab sim or an IR (Impulse Response file and loader) in order to be usable with a DI capture.
CAB: Full capture of the amp, cab, mics and preamps. No need to add any other elements - plug and play. These sound very good on the Quad Cortex, but in our view the DI captures in conjuction with the IR's we provide sound even better.
IMPULSE RESPONSES (IR's) / CABINET SIMULATION
Each amp comes with 6 IR's (which consist of 3 IR's from 2 different cabs). A dark and a bright IR provide an efficient way for the user to tailor the tone more to his liking - towards brighter or darker tones or somewhere in between. The IR's of each cab have been specifically designed to mix well together, but either of the dark/bright profiles will also sound fine on their own. The naming scheme is as follows:
BRIGHT: usually an R121, U87 and SM57 or M160 mic blend for a more detailed sound.
DARK: a R121 often off axis at the cap/cone edge of the speaker for a more full bodied sound.
MIX: a blend of the two IR’s above that works well with the most use cases of the captured amp.