Misha Mansoor has spent years reshaping what modern metal can sound like. Now he's teamed up with Neural DSP to create a plugin that's just as restless and experimental as his approach to music.
Archetype: Misha Mansoor X isn’t your typical amp simulator. Sure, it’s got the crushing tones you’d expect from the Periphery founder, but it also throws in some genuinely weird effects that’ll make you rethink what a guitar plugin can do.
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Anyone familiar with Mansoor’s work in Bulb or Periphery knows he doesn’t stick to the rulebook. His riffs bounce between clean and heavy within the same song and this plugin captures his restless energy and creativity.
“I wanted to design something that would excel at any tone I might need,” Mansoor explains. “From crystal-clear cleans, to chimey breakup, to djenty tones, to absolutely crushing heaviness. I wanted to create a bit of a sound-design sandbox.”
The sandbox includes two effects: laser and glitch. Laser mashes together ring modulation and pitch shifting to create sounds that feel slightly more sci-fi than metal. Glitch chops up your signal and spits it back out as stuttering, chaotic textures that can turn a simple chord unrecognisable.
Archetype centres around three amplifiers that cover Mansoor’s tonal range. The clean amp gives you that glassy American sparkle, while the rhythm amp delivers a tight, percussive attack that makes djent riffs cut through dense mixes. The lead amp, based on a modified British design, sustains forever and screams when you need it to.
Each amp connects to carefully captured cabinets with 378 different impulse responses courtesy of producer Adam “Nolly” Getgood. With seven virtual mics, you can position and blend sounds until you find something that works.
Not just for metalheads
While this plugin obviously excels at heavy tones, it’s surprisingly versatile. The Pre FX section includes faithful recreations of Mansoor’s Horizon Devices pedals and extras like a dual octaver that can make your guitar sound like a synth bass. The Chaos distortion lives up to its name, turning signals into grinding, industrial textures. Post-processing includes a modulator that blends chorus and flanger, stereo delay with smart ducking and a reverb that can go from subtle room ambience to huge, shimmering soundscapes.
Whether or not you’re making metal music, there’s a lot to explore here.
Neural DSP included a new Preset Explorer that makes finding sounds way less tedious. You get 34 presets from Mansoor himself, plus 338 more from other artists and producers. That’s enough starting points to keep you busy for months (or weeks, depending on how fast you work).
“Heavy music has always moved forward through risk and reinvention,” says Neural DSP CEO Douglas Castro. “We’ve combined Misha’s iconic tones with bold new effects and creative tools that invite guitarists to experiment.”
Whether you’re chasing Periphery-style complexity or want some fresh sounds to mess around with, Misha Mansoor X will give you plenty of room to explore.
