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Archetype John Mayer X Plugin Review – Does this plugin even sound like John Mayer?
Introduction
We all love John Mayer, even if you don’t, you can’t argue that he has had a massive hand in changing and inspiring thousands of guitarists! So when I saw that Neural DSP had teamed up with him to release Archetype John Mayer X plugin, it peaked my interest a bit!
I wasn’t going to review this plugin, but I kept seeing it pop up on my Instagram feed, and I was very suspicious. I finally caved and thought I would put together my honest opinion of this plugin! No paid content or free products here! To be honest, I haven’t even bought the plugin; I am doing this whole review of the demo period. I want to be able to say that this review is my full and honest opinion (unlike some of the videos and reviews out there).
So let me begin by running through some of the features in this plugin. Now, this plugin has a lot to it! So I am only going to brush over the effects and controls. I would be here all year if I did a deep dive into the plugin.
Archetype John Mayer X Plugin
Archetype John Mayer X is a full suite of pre- and post-effects, plus amps and other utilities that allow you to replicate John’s recording set-up. Combining three of his most famous amps, plus his pedalboard of effects, allows you to replicate sounds and tones from his albums and live shows that he is well known for.
To create this plugin, Neural DSP went into John’s personal studio and modelled various parts of his rig and spent many hours making sure it was as accurate and realistic as possible, giving you John Mayer’s famous studio tones at your fingertips in your own home.
For the controls and features, I will break it down by sections. So, I will go through each page and talk about the main bits. Neural haven’t formally announced which effects and amps it has all been based on. However, I will take a fair guess as to what I believe they are. I may be wrong, so you can let me know if you think they are something different over on my contact page (Contact Page).
Pre Fx
- Justa Boost: Is a clean boost (with the option to add some grit to the sound if needed), allowing you to push the front end of your amp. I believe this is based on the Keeley Katana clean boost.
- Antelope Filter:
- Halfman OD: No surprise here that this is a Klon type pedal. Your standard Klon controls allowing you get those clean boost sounds John is famous for.
- Tealbreaker: This is a take on 2 of John overdrive pedals, there is a switch on the pedal so you can swap between a Tube Screamer or a Blues Breaker. The label colour will change depending on which one you have selected.
- Millipede Delay: This is a short slapjack delay that is based on the Way Huge Aqua Puss delay. It can go from 20ms through to 290ms of delay.
Verb & Trem
- Harmonic Tremolo: This is a Harmonic Tremolo that Is based on the Harmonic Tremolo’s inside vintage Fender Amps.
- Spring Reverb: A spring reverb tank based on the spring reverb inside John’s Fender amps.
Amp
- Smooth Operator: I believe this is based on a Fender amp, I think it is a hybrid of Fenders amps, mainly Fender Deluxe reverb or Vibroverb.
- Headroom Hero: This one is based on John Meyers personal Dumble. So it will either be the Dumble Steel string Singer or Dumble Overdrive Reverb.
- Signature 83: The last one is fairly simple, I believe it is based on the Two Rock John Mayer Signature Amp
EQ & Comp
- EQ: This is a studio quality 4 band semi-parametric Equaliser. Based on one that John uses in his live and studio rig. Allowing you to sculpt the sound further.
- Compressor: This is based on one of John’s studio compressors and set up to how he would normally use it. However, you can adjust the input and output setting for the compressor.
Post FX
- Dream Delay: A studio delay quality effects in a pedal format that is fully stereo compatible. This delay has delay times much longer than the Millipede Delay in the pre effects.
- Studio Verb: Similar to the delay above, this is a studio quality reverb in a pedal format.
More on the Archetype John Mayer Plugin
As with most of the Archetype plugins, the Archetype John Mayer X plugin features a handful of useful features. The plugin features a built-in tuner, a detune/transpose feature which allows you to detune your guitar down to -12 or +12 semitones. Finally, there is a doubler effect which recreates the sound of a double-tracked guitar on the fly.
Being a plugin, you can control any part of the plugin using MIDI and automation. So using it in a recording and production environment would be fun as you can turn effects on and off and adjust. Controls as needed.
The plugin is available to purchase from the Neural DSP website for £199. You can also get a 14-day trial over on the website. Please bear in mind you will require the iLok application and an account. The plugin will also require you to have around 1GB of free space on your computer with a minimum of 8GB of RAM.
The Sounds
All the sounds you hear will be 100% from the plugin. I haven’t added any post-effects or any EQ’ing. All reverbs, delays, drives will come from the plugin itself. In the demo songs, I used the “Gravity Clean” preset, then changed a few of the settings around. For the second demo song, I added the Klon-type pedal to the front to make it a bit more overdriven.
When it comes to the sound samples, you will just see me messing around in the application. I am using the standalone version of the app for the sound samples. I split the sound samples up into three sections: the pre-effects, the amps, and the post-effects. This will give you a feel of the sounds and what the plugin is capable of.
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What are my thoughts?
The Design
I can’t fault the design of the plugin, super nice to use, super easy to modify any parameters. The graphics and controls have been well thought out! All the effects look unique but are easy to know what they are based on! You have endless effects and options; however, it all feels “real” and homely.
On a similar point to the above, finding the Cabneit emulation and microphone settings is a bit tricky at first! You only get the options for cabs if you select a single amp, then the icon appears. This is a bit of a strange choice in my eyes, but once you know it is simple enough to get to.
Speaking of the effects and amps, I do find the names and designs rather amusing! The Klon pedal and Dumble amp make me chuckle every time I read them.
"I will give credit where credit is due, the way this plugin reacts to your volume control! It does clean up a lot!"
The Sounds
This is where it all matters! What do I think of the sounds? Honestly, it’s okay! It is good fun and sounds decent, but all the time I was playing it I just felt like it was lacking in something! If I am 100% honest, although this plugin can do a lot and contains a lot of features, I was never blown away by how great it sounded! Which I found odd because it does sound good, but does it sound as good as I thought it would considering the amps they have modelled?
I will give credit where credit is due, the way this plugin reacts to your volume control! It does clean up a lot! Very responsive! You can really set up a nice overdriven sound and control the whole tone with your volume! Which is what you want if you are running an amp like this.
More on the Sounds
Also, the pedals and effects are wonderful! The Slapback delay pedal sounds amazing and “warm”. The overdrives are responsive, punchy and feel very familiar to anyone who plays similar kinds of pedals in real life! Also, the harmonic tremolo and river tank are glorious! The Tremolo sits in your sound just perfectly, it isn’t overpowering or wobbling!
The Cab editor in the Archetype John Mayer plugin isn’t as responsive as I would like. You have a huge choice of mics and positions to pick from, but they don’t seem to really make a difference! You could use this plugin for ages and never touch the Cab section, and I don’t think you would be losing out on much.
The Drawbacks
Looking at the Activity Monitor on my Mac when using the plugin in its “stand-alone” format. It was using 213MB of RAM! Which for me seemed like a lot. This was in stand-alone mode. I didn’t have a guitar plugged in, so no audio was being made. Checking the CPU usage, it tells a similar story! This plugin will not run smoothly if you have a lower-power computer! I am sure they could improve the computer resource usage!
Even though they have modelled all three of John’s main amps, the experience doesn’t feel anything like playing a multi-amp set-up! It just sounded like one amp rather than three amps being played together. I have played a rig involving two amps a few times, and there is a physical experience which this plugin doesn’t have! In fairness, I don’t think any plugin can replicate that feeling and sense.
"For me, this plugin wasn’t anything special!"
Final Thoughts
Would be interesting to know if you can use this plugin on the Quad Cortex! I would be interested to see if that is possible! Having the ability to use this plugin at gigs at your feet would be super neat. However, I would want it to be easy to control and more “pedalboard-friendly” if that was the case. If not, I wonder what it would be like to run on a computer in a live rig? Using a MIDI controller to control the effects! Be interesting to find out. Maybe that is another article! I wonder if John Mayer himself will be swapping to this plugin over his full live rig? That will be the true test!
What I did notice is that you have to get your input gain on your interface correct. If you have it too high, then it will just overdrive and sound rubbish; too low, and it will be too quiet and not enough brunt! You really have to set your input gain right. In fairness, this is true with any amp sim plugin or production in general, but with the kind of amps in the plugins, it is fairly sensitive to input gain.
My Final Words
For me, the Archetype John Mayer X plugin wasn’t anything special! Listening and watching some other reviews and also watching the release videos, I thought this plugin was going to be something better. Flicking through the presets, they all seemed the same kind of things! This is completely my opinion, but I don’t feel this plugin is worth the price! It is great to mess around with and allows you to try out high-end amps and effects; however, I think any of the Neural DSP plugins will get you 80-90% of the sounds.
Conclusion
What do you think? Do you agree with my review? I tried to go into this review with an open mind and not to glaze over that it is a John Mayer plugin. Honestly, I don’t see myself buying this plugin! This is mainly for the reasons I said above, but also I don’t tend to get on with amp sim plugins anyway! Take this one, the Archetype John Mayer X is a super powerful and great-sounding plugin, but I didn’t really ever enjoy playing it or using it! However, that is a me issue!
Are there any other plugins you want me to try? What did or do you think of the Archetype John Mayer X plugin? Have you bought it and do you use it? Let me know over on the YouTube video comments! I would love to know what you all think about this plugin.
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