Tis’ the season when the Production Expert team members are all chiming in with their favourite new products of 2019. I know that the expectation is to write about a piece of hardware. But the truth is, I haven’t made any significant hardware purchases in 2019. I’ve made some very useful and, to me, important minor ones, like the new desk-mounted mic stand that clamps on to the side of my desk. It is way better ergonomically for me than the tabletop stand I was using. Or the set of Vic Firth drum mute pads I bought myself as an early Christmas present, so my wife’s and my needs can coexist peacefully under the same roof. But they are hardly product-of-the-year worthy in the grand scheme of things.
Software, Not Hardware For Me
More of my professional life this past year has been spent with new software rather than new hardware. And there have been many new software releases in 2019 that have blown me away. If I am to limit myself to one new piece of software as my product of the year, it is one that comes from a small company called Nembrini Audio. Many of you likely haven’t heard of them. Nembrini Audio is a small company run by Igor Nembrini, the developer responsible for many of the iconic Brainworx guitar amp/cabinet plug-in emulations. He started his own company and has had a number of new releases this past year.
While they are all excellent, the one that has made the most significant impact on my guitar processing as a mixer, it is the BST100 Super Overdrive Guitar Amplifier. Now that is a pretty aggressive-sounding name and not one that immediately appealed to me. I don’t often work with in-your-face hi-gain screaming lead guitar parts. While this plug-in, of course, does that very well, it has a broad range of tones. So extensive in fact, that it has become my goto amp for clean with-a-bit-of-grit guitar sounds.
I am not a guitar player, but I often record guitar players. And I have used many of the popular guitar amp/cabinet plug-ins out there and many of them are excellent. But the BST 100 has that intangible something extra that puts it over the top for me.
BST 100 Super Overdrive Guitar Amplifier
It features two channels driven by four 12AX7/7025 Virtual Tubes, carefully modelled and fine-tuned for the cutting edge 90s guitar amplifier hi-gain sound. The Normal channel has bright and clean/crunch switches for crystal to creamy crunch tones. And the Boost channel is fantastic for USA style hi-gain guitar tone. The plug-in also includes complete recording chain emulations, with five amp cabinets, five microphones to choose from, and a mixer section to blend two of the mics along with a separate ambience channel. Plus, it’s got the obligatory built-in noise gate that works surprisingly well when dialled in sparingly. The plug-in also hosts an impulse response loader, providing the ability to load in your own favourite cabinet impulse responses. Alternatively, you can even bypass the whole recording chain section if you want to incorporate some of your hardware into the signal flow.
So, what does it sound like? Here are two samples of some mixes I have done with it: two different guitar players, two different guitars, same amp plug-in. Neither is playing with a particularly aggressive tone, underlying the versatility of this high gain amp emulation.