Building upon Mike Soldano's legendary SLO-100 amplifier, the reimagined Soldano SLO-100 X guitar plugin elevates the iconic American high-gain guitar sound to new heights.
HELSINKI, FINLAND, May 7, 2024 — Neural DSP has launched the Soldano SLO-100 X guitar plugin, a perfect virtualisation of the legendary amplifier that originated American high-gain guitar tone, inspired by the unique circuitry of guitar amplification that Mike Soldano pioneered over four decades ago.
In the annals of guitar amplification, few names command the reverence and awe bestowed upon Mike Soldano and the Soldano SLO-100 – widely regarded as being responsible for the American high-gain sound that’s tweaked the tone of guitarists such as Vivian Campbell, Warren DiMartini, Mark Knopfler, and many other guitar greats.
“Capturing Soldano’s solder-soaked genius became a goal for Neural DSP. In 2021, we introduced the Soldano SLO-100 plugin, and recreating every nuance of this extraordinary amplifier was an immense responsibility that we did not take lightly,” states Douglas Castro, Neural DSP Technologies CEO. “Now, in 2024, we’re pleased to revisit this titan of tone and update it with our most advanced plugin technology. We’re proud to introduce the Soldano SLO-100 X — everything a Soldano amplifier is, captured in virtual form. And like the original SLO-100 plugin, it’s also quite an accomplishment.”
Pre Effects
Four unique algorithms complement the SLO-100: a compressor, boost (OD1), overdrive (OD2), and a vintage chorus. Each of these processors is tuned to perfectly complement the Soldano sound.
Amplifier
Just like the actual amplifier, the plugin features two channels covering the entire dynamic range required by the modern guitarist. “Normal” is a crystalline clean channel. The “Bright” switch provides a treble boost for extra definition. The “Crunch” switch adds a gain boost and an extra layer of warm-sounding saturation. “Overdrive” provides additional gain, perfectly balancing presence and fatness, ideal for both driving rhythms or soaring leads.
Features
EQ — Ideal for detailed spectrum adjustment, the onboard 9-band graphic EQ comes with high and low pass filters for total control over frequency response.
Cabsim — A comprehensive cabsim module features hundreds of impulse responses (IRs) captured by Neural DSP. There are six virtual microphones that can be easily positioned around the speakers. And in addition to the hundreds of IRs, this module can be used to load your own IR files.
Post Effects — There are, of course, classic and smooth delay and reverb engines with straightforward controls that let you easily achieve your ambient goals. Soldano SLO-100 X also comes loaded with new features such as Transpose — which can pitch your guitar up or down by a constant interval (+12/-12 semitones) to quickly and accurately change the tuning of your instrument — and Doubler — which sends your signal to a simulated stereo field that emulates the sound of a double-tracked recording. And Soldano SLO-100 X further features an additional live tuner that displays at the bottom of the newly redesigned user interface, and a metronome to control time signature, accent sounds, and note values. (The metronome is only available in Standalone).
“Mike Soldano’s name is synonymous with the classic American high-gain guitar-amp sound, and we set out to capture every nuance of that in the plugin version,” states Dan Davies, Chief Marketing Officer, Neural DSP Technologies. “Mike was a pioneer creating those sounds in the 1980s, piecing them together in an era when components weren’t readily available. Our goal was to bring his achievement to an entirely new medium that keeps intact every bit of his sonic integrity. And that’s exactly what Soldano SLO-100 X does, but with the inclusion of every modern digital feature guitarists could want or need.”
Soldano SLO-100 X is a free update to existing users. For more information and to update or purchase the plugin, click here.
