The gear

Every amp, cab and pedal

Eight amps, 41 pedals, five cabs and a microphone in front of each one. Every piece is its own DSP voicing rather than a preset on a shared effect, and every control on screen drives the thing it says it does.

All of it is free. The tone engine is not the part we charge for, and it never will be — a crippled engine would make the free tier a demo rather than a trial.

RigShed on iPad: a presets list and tuner on the left, the signal chain across the top, a photograph of the Green Scream overdrive filling the middle with its three knobs beneath it, and a panel on the right for swapping the drive
iPad and Mac run three panes: your rigs on the left, the chain across the top, and the gear browser on the right. The piece you are editing is shown as the photograph of itself.

Eight amps

Each one was fitted against a measured reference, and fitted so that noon on the gain knob is the sound it was measured against. That is why the factory rigs keep the gain near the middle and find their character in the pedals and the tone stack, rather than by pushing an amp somewhere it was never fitted.

  • The clean amp is our own model of a blackface-style valve combo into a 12-inch open-back cabinet
  • Presence sits before the nonlinearity, so hard playing drives the top end into compression harder than the mids
  • Power-amp sag: the rail droops under sustained load, so a hard-strummed chord compresses rather than just getting louder
  • Costs 0.10% of one core — roughly 30× cheaper than running a neural capture
  • A bass voicing the octave pedal switches into automatically, flat from 41 Hz to 1 kHz
  • Clean, a into the open-back 1×12, photographed in its own setting

    Clean

    Into the open-back 1×12

    Our own valve combo into a 12-inch open-back cab. Sparkling clean, breaking up as you dig in.

  • Ember, a into the open-back 2×12, photographed in its own setting

    Ember

    Into the open-back 2×12

    A small, early American combo that breaks up the moment you lean on it. Raw, warm and loose.

  • Chapel, a into the open-back 2×12, photographed in its own setting

    Chapel

    Into the open-back 2×12

    A chiming British combo: bright, glassy cleans that turn to a jangly, vocal crunch.

  • Brickwork, a into the closed-back 4×12, vintage, photographed in its own setting

    Brickwork

    Into the closed-back 4×12, vintage

    A big British head with no master volume, crunching from the power valves. Classic rock rhythm.

  • Anvil, a into the closed-back 4×12, vintage, photographed in its own setting

    Anvil

    Into the closed-back 4×12, vintage

    A British head with an extra gain stage: hot, forward and aggressive. The sound of hard rock and early metal.

  • Satin, a into the closed-back 2×12, photographed in its own setting

    Satin

    Into the closed-back 2×12

    A smooth, compressed boutique overdrive that sings. Fluid leads and touch-sensitive rhythm.

  • Furnace, a into the closed-back 4×12, modern, photographed in its own setting

    Furnace

    Into the closed-back 4×12, modern

    Modern American high gain: tight, scooped and huge, for low tunings.

  • Foundry, a into the closed-back 4×12, modern, photographed in its own setting

    Foundry

    Into the closed-back 4×12, modern

    Cascaded high gain into a closed-back 4x12. Tight, heavy and still alive to the hand.

The amp panel on iPad: the amp shown as a photograph of itself, with its six controls laid out beneath
Each amp has its own six controls, and all six drive real DSP. The tone stack sits before the valve stage and presence after it, which is where they sit on the real circuit — so turning the bass up genuinely drives the amp harder.

Two of them at once

Both amps sit at the amp's place in the chain, so everything after the amp is after both of them.

In series

The first amp drives the second.

In parallel

The same guitar goes to both, and a blend sets how much of each you hear.

The second amp is a full amp, not a copy of the first: any of the eight, or a capture of your own, with its own cab and its own microphone in front of it.

  • Measured on a power chord: 4.4 dB more upper-harmonic content than the clean amp driven by the hottest distortion pedal flat out, for 1.5 dB more intermodulation
  • Within 3.9 dB of a closed-back target from 60 Hz to 8 kHz, and level-matched to the clean amp so switching compares tone rather than loudness
  • Seven knobs, not six — Depth is power-amp feedback at the bottom end, the chest thump, and the clean amp has no equivalent
  • Saturation runs at 4× oversampling, so what you hear is harmonics of the note rather than fold-back
  • Two amps run at the amp’s place in the chain: in series, where the first drives the second, or in parallel, where a blend sets how much of each you hear
  • The second is a full amp — any of the eight, or a capture of your own, with its own cab and its own microphone in front of it
The amp panel on iPhone showing two amps running at once, each with its own controls and a blend between them

Five cabs, and a microphone in front of each

A speaker on its own is only half of a recorded amp. The other half is where the microphone is standing.

  • Type — dynamic, condenser or ribbon, or leave it as the cab was voiced.
  • Position — across the speaker, from the centre of the cone out to the edge.
  • Distance — up against the grille, or back off it.

Set independently for each amp, so two amps in parallel can be miked two different ways.

  • Open-back 1×12, a cabinet, photographed in its own setting

    Open-back 1×12

    Cabinet

    The cab Clean is voiced into.

  • Open-back 2×12, a cabinet, photographed in its own setting

    Open-back 2×12

    Cabinet

    The cab Ember, Chapel are voiced into.

  • Closed-back 2×12, a cabinet, photographed in its own setting

    Closed-back 2×12

    Cabinet

    The cab Satin, and any loaded capture are voiced into.

  • Closed-back 4×12, vintage, a cabinet, photographed in its own setting

    Closed-back 4×12, vintage

    Cabinet

    The cab Brickwork, Anvil are voiced into.

  • Closed-back 4×12, modern, a cabinet, photographed in its own setting

    Closed-back 4×12, modern

    Cabinet

    The cab Furnace, Foundry are voiced into.

The cab panel on iPad, showing the microphone type, its position across the speaker and its distance from the grille
The microphone is set per amp. The photographs above are the cabs as the app shows them, with the microphone already standing in front.

Or bring your own

Load a capture as either amp and an impulse response as either cab, as many as you like.

Captures are .nam files and impulse responses are .wav. Drop them into the RigShed folder in Files or in the Finder and they appear in the app — no import dialog, nothing to convert. A rig remembers a capture by name and fingerprint, so it finds the right one again even if you have reorganised your library.

Whatever architecture a capture was trained with, it loads. The engine links all five — including the one every modern capture uses, which is what people mean when they ask about A2. That is not a version badge: it is the reason a capture someone shared this morning opens rather than erroring.

There is no cap on how many you keep, on any tier.

What Neural Amp Modeler is, and whether you need it →

  • A loaded capture, a your own amp, photographed in its own setting

    A loaded capture

    Your own amp

    A plain head with your capture's name on the plate, and two controls — Level and Mix. A capture is a fixed snapshot of one amp at one setting, so there is nothing else to offer.

  • The Loop Shed, a five-track looper, photographed in its own setting

    The Loop Shed

    Five-track looper

    Five tracks up to 90 seconds, and every track keeps its own rig — record a rhythm part through Chapel and play a lead over it through Foundry.

41 pedals

In the order a real board would run them, which is the order the app starts in. You can reorder the whole chain, and where a pedal sits changes what the next one hears.

Each one was photographed somewhere that suits it. That is not only decoration: in the app the piece you are editing fills the panel as its own photograph, so the board you build is the board you see.

Noise gates

First in the chain, before anything has a chance to amplify the hiss.

  • Silencer, a noise suppressor, photographed in its own setting

    Silencer

    Noise Suppressor

    Balanced and general purpose.

  • Flatline, a noise reduction, photographed in its own setting

    Flatline

    Noise Reduction

    Gentler, more musical.

  • Smart Cut, a fast gate, photographed in its own setting

    Smart Cut

    Fast Gate

    Fast and tight.

  • Whisper, a noise gate, photographed in its own setting

    Whisper

    Noise Gate

    Shallow — tames hiss without killing sustain.

  • Sentinel, a multiband gate, photographed in its own setting

    Sentinel

    Multiband Gate

    Brick wall, for chugging.

Compressors

Evening out what you play before the drive stage gets hold of it.

  • Red Squeeze, a compressor, photographed in its own setting

    Red Squeeze

    Compressor

    Classic squeeze.

  • Studio Comp, a studio compressor, photographed in its own setting

    Studio Comp

    Studio Compressor

    Studio-style sustain.

  • Optical, a optical compressor, photographed in its own setting

    Optical

    Optical Compressor

    Smooth optical response.

  • Duality, a transparent comp, photographed in its own setting

    Duality

    Transparent Comp

    Parallel blend, stays transparent.

  • Golden State, a bus compressor, photographed in its own setting

    Golden State

    Bus Compressor

    Fast, FET-style.

Wah

A treadle you rock with a finger, with Level beside it.

  • Cry Wolf, a vocal wah, photographed in its own setting

    Cry Wolf

    Vocal Wah

    Broad and throaty. The one that sounds like a voice.

  • Howler, a high-q wah, photographed in its own setting

    Howler

    High-Q Wah

    A narrower, sharper peak, so it speaks harder.

Octave and pitch

Before the dirt — both need a clean fundamental to follow.

The Basement octave pedal on iPhone, shown as a photograph with its controls beneath it
Basement drops the guitar an octave and switches the amp into its bass voicing automatically — without that, a bass part through a guitar amp arrives with no bottom, because the guitar voicing costs 18.3 dB at 41 Hz and that is exactly where the open E lands once it has been halved.
  • Basement, a octave down, photographed in its own setting

    Basement

    Octave Down

    A clean octave down, one note at a time. It leaves the amp alone.

  • Shifter, a pitch shifter, photographed in its own setting

    Shifter

    Pitch Shifter

    Twelve semitones either way, with a treadle and a harmony switch.

Drives

Six ways into break-up, from a clean nudge to full fuzz.

  • Green Scream, a overdrive, photographed in its own setting

    Green Scream

    Overdrive

    Mid-humped overdrive. The clean guitar runs under the hump, so the low E stays.

  • Sunrise, a overdrive, photographed in its own setting

    Sunrise

    Overdrive

    Transparent and low-colour.

  • Vermin, a distortion, photographed in its own setting

    Vermin

    Distortion

    Hard, aggressive clipping.

  • Gilded Drive, a transparent od, photographed in its own setting

    Gilded Drive

    Transparent OD

    Clean boost into gentle break-up.

  • Sputterbox, a fuzz, photographed in its own setting

    Sputterbox

    Fuzz

    Spitty, gated fuzz.

  • Big Wool, a fuzz / sustain, photographed in its own setting

    Big Wool

    Fuzz / Sustain

    Thick and scooped, with long sustain.

Equalisers

Five genuinely different equalisers, not one with five presets.

  • 7-Band, a graphic equalizer, photographed in its own setting

    7-Band

    Graphic Equalizer

    Seven faders, 100 Hz to 6.4 kHz.

  • 10-Band, a graphic equalizer, photographed in its own setting

    10-Band

    Graphic Equalizer

    Ten faders, 31 Hz to 16 kHz.

  • Parametric, a parametric eq, photographed in its own setting

    Parametric

    Parametric EQ

    One sweepable bell — Freq, Q and Gain.

  • Studio EQ, a dual parametric, photographed in its own setting

    Studio EQ

    Dual Parametric

    Two sweepable bells, low and high.

  • Pure Boost, a eq / boost, photographed in its own setting

    Pure Boost

    EQ / Boost

    No filters at all. One clean level control.

Modulation

After the cab, where modulation sits on a real board.

  • Ensemble, a chorus, photographed in its own setting

    Ensemble

    Chorus

    Classic bright chorus.

  • Small Choir, a analog chorus, photographed in its own setting

    Small Choir

    Analog Chorus

    Warmer, darker chorus.

  • Four Stage, a phase shifter, photographed in its own setting

    Four Stage

    Phase Shifter

    Four-stage phaser with feedback.

  • Jet Stream, a flanger, photographed in its own setting

    Jet Stream

    Flanger

    Jet-sweep flanger.

  • Tremolo, a tremolo / vibrato, photographed in its own setting

    Tremolo

    Tremolo / Vibrato

    Amplitude and pitch modulation.

  • Omnibus, a multi modulation, photographed in its own setting

    Omnibus

    Multi Modulation

    Combined modulation.

Delays

All five take tap tempo and BPM sync, in note divisions.

  • Digital Delay, a digital delay, photographed in its own setting

    Digital Delay

    Digital Delay

    Clean, precise repeats.

  • Night Shift, a analog delay, photographed in its own setting

    Night Shift

    Analog Delay

    Bucket-brigade — the repeats darken as they go.

  • Flashpoint, a delay / looper, photographed in its own setting

    Flashpoint

    Delay / Looper

    Modern and pristine.

  • Skywriter, a multi delay, photographed in its own setting

    Skywriter

    Multi Delay

    Tape-style, with wow and flutter.

  • Fadeaway, a analog echo, photographed in its own setting

    Fadeaway

    Analog Echo

    Dark, soft analogue echo that fades early.

Reverbs

Last in the chain — the room the whole rig sits in.

  • Room Verb, a room reverb, photographed in its own setting

    Room Verb

    Room Reverb

    A small, natural space.

  • Skyline, a big reverb, photographed in its own setting

    Skyline

    Big Reverb

    Plate.

  • Hall of Sound, a hall reverb, photographed in its own setting

    Hall of Sound

    Hall Reverb

    Large hall.

  • Basilica, a spring / plate, photographed in its own setting

    Basilica

    Spring / Plate

    Ethereal and ambient.

  • Spring Tank, a spring reverb, photographed in its own setting

    Spring Tank

    Spring Reverb

    Vintage spring tank.

The wah panel on iPad, with the treadle shown as a photograph and the pedal's controls beneath it
The two wahs and the Shifter have a treadle that rocks, which is why the app draws them from a body and a plate rather than one flat image. The photographs above are the composed versions of the same pieces.