Nembrini Audio

Very cool and great sounding release.

I both know a lot of Leslie simulation plugins but also have been using this unit in reality for a long time and for me it does exactly, what you expect from a very good Leslie simulation, without needing to use the too heavy and too big original chest, while getting comparable, if not even better adjustable sounds.

Very warm, organically and vintage sounding, convincing and authentically sounding and behaving rotary tones, well and flexible adjustable (separate drum and horn speed adjustments plus drum and horn blending control). Also the guitar/keyboard inputs allow more flexibility, not to speak of the tube drive intensity control. If you use a Hammond organ plugin, you can easily adjust even typical Jon Lord sounds, but of course also very clean but still warm and organically sounding ones, but also sounds great with guitar in front of eg. a Tweed, Vox or Marshall amp, but also works well with more modern amps.

The effect can be very subtle, but also very intense and everything in between, but it always sounds really good.

I personally like this unit even more in combination with a (polyphonic) octaver plugin with -1 oct setting, almost gives you some sort of fake-synthesizer sounds from your guitar or bass, or use it with a Taurus, MiniMoog, OB-Xa or Prophet5 and you also get awesome sounds and if you activate Break, you still have a wonderful warm and great sounding tube preamp active without this typical Leslie modulation.

Once again proves, that Mr. Nembrini still does a great job. For me one of the best and most authentically sounding effect (pedal) plugins, I ever have heard.

Top-notch.

The other classic British sound.

Well made "Classic" with some modern (additional fx) improvements.

One of the best and most authentically sounding Orange amp simulations, I have heard up to now.

The amp istelf at first glance - and if you do not already know it - looks very puristic, but the sounds are not at all, rather very, very flexibly adjustable.

I always have been a fan of Hi/Lo inputs, the F.A.C. control is a gem, so I always had been surprised, why it never has been used in a lot of other amps. The principle is simple, different, switchable coupling capacitors, which control the bass intensity, here after the first two gain stages, as far, as I know. A Baxandall tone control is the next gem, as it allows, if you know, how to adjust it properly, not only good bass and treble but also midrange control, lower the controls, and you get some sort of fake-mid-boost, increase them, and you get some mid scoop and in between a nice flat response too, technically the mids remain untouched, but you can boost or cut bass and treble intensively and therefore you can adjust very different frequency curves. HF Drive, as some sort of Presence does a good job and Gain of course also does, what it should.

Nice pre- and post-fx section, ok, two compressors I do not really need, also not, as Orange amps anyway do not react as dynamically as Marshalls, but Noise Gate, a very flexibly adjsutable Doubler and 808 Octane are really good additions. Post-fx delay and reverb do a good job, although I had preferred a tape echo (Echoplex or Copicat) and a spring reverb, but ok. The equalizer can be helpful for more complex sound shaping or for some precise HP/LP filtering, on the other hand the amp's tone controls mostly also can do the job for me. But still nice for adjusting a different voicing, no doubt.

The built-in cabinets work fine, alternatively you can use the IR loader.

The sound quality is excellent, a nice alternative to a vintage Marshall, similar in some ways, different in others, so there are reasons, why Orange amps still are popular and used today. This one is a nice vintage variation, but even rocks nicely standalone, if you look for hotter and heavier sounds, use the 808 Octane or a external overdrive/distortion pedal and you also are there.

A more solid, more balanced sound, warm, bluesy or even jazzy cleans and full bodied (British) overdrive to heavy overdrive sounds, which nevertheless can offer more than enough treble bite and offer an excellent (passive) bass-tightness control too. So all, you really need in my opinion, even in 2025.

But - and this is an advantage for me - you either like the sound of Orange amps or you do not. They have their own, unique character and do not try to please every taste and Orange also always did their own thing, independent of any mainstream hypes and developments. (If you like Marshall and Hiwatt sounds, you most probably also will like Orange sounds, if you like Fender/Mesa Boogie sounds, maybe not so much.).

The real amp is a 120W beast without Master, as a plugin this hardly is a problem, but maybe another reason, to use the plugin instead of the real amp.

A must have for Orange fans, I think and also for me, as I the last Nembrini releases had not been so much my taste. This one is it again and included pre- and post-fx sections are nice additions too! Well done.

Not my favorite guitar fuzz/distortion pedal, but obviously still popular and liked from others.

Good, if not meanwhile legendary vintage Fuzz/Distortion/Sustain pedal with a nicely unique sound, which you can like or also not, the highlight of the pedal certainly is the combined high pass / low pass tone control, called Filter here, which allows a good - or even better, compared with other units from the same time - adjustment to the used guitar and amp.

Nembrini typical very good, authentic and convincing sound, the -15dB option is a nice addition for some cleaner tones.

A Nembrini version of a Small Stone, Small Clone, but also maybe of a Pitch Fork would more be my taste, but this plugin is freeware and (not only) for a freeware the sound and programming quality is excellent.

By the way, this unit also sounds fantastic in front of eg. a Taurus, Minimoog, OBX or other (vintage) synthesizers, but also in front of a Hammond! In front of them I like it even more than as a guitar pedal.

Certainly not an amp (plugin) for everybody. But also much more than just a Metal amp plugin, although for this specific use this plugin is excellent, of course.

Not only, but also the perfect choice for guitars with dropped tunings, seven- or eight-string or baritone guitars, due to the tight basic voicings, even more in combination with the additional Tight control, which the plugin, but not the real amp offers.

Typical, maybe even more "metallized" Engl sounds, but due to the several switches (Bright, Bass boost, Mid boost, ...) also more decent, not only Metal compatible voicings are adjustable.

The Clean channel also already offers nice crunch sounds, but also some good. more modern voiced cleans, of course, but certainly is no vintage clean channel, although you also can adjust some more vintage character to it, by adding the Bass boost and/or reducing Treble and Presence, while the Crunch channel already offers as much overdrive as the Lead channels on some other amps, Lead I and II sound even heavier, if not to say, brutal, nevertheless very musically.

This plugin proves, why a lot of great guitarists use an Engl on stage. Maybe not especially this one, but in principle the typical concept is very much the same, only the basic voicings can differ between more vintage oriented and more modern and aggressive.

These amps simply sound excellent, are capable of cutting through every mix and the voicings are more intensely individually customizable or adjustable to different guitars and cabinets than the amps of some competitors.

This is no amp, on which every setting automatically sounds right, but once you have adjusted the controls right - in combination with the used guitar and cabinet - you can get absolutely fantastic sounds.

Also due to the immense gain, but also treble reserves sometimes less is more here, especially concerning preamp Gain, Treble and Presence. Nevertheless treble sounds excellently, never too shrill, scratchy or too digital.

Even better, if not to say, iconic is the harmonics reproduction and reaction to pick attack of this plugin, which lets you completely forget, that this is "only" a plugin and not the real amp itself. Very much like a real good, old Plexi, but only on double steroids and much, much hotter and heavier.

Due to the tons of gain this plugin is comparably more noisy than some others. I also found, that adjusting threshold alone, which usually works fine for me, is not always enough here. If I want to let some tones ring out, the tail still included some noise again or the signal was cut off too early, but with the three controls you can adjust the Noise Gate to your playing style well, it only lasted some time to find my personal best setting.

I am not really a Metal or drop tuning player, but this amp / plugin sounds awesome and also is a good choice for other sorts of overdrive and high-gain, due to the fantastic harmonics and also the very flexible sound shaping options, which allow a lot of sonic customizations.

One of the best Engl-based plugins, which I have heard up to now. I also find the Engl typical concept with the additional voicing switches sonically more flexible in comparison with competitors. A Rectifier, 5150 or SLO have their very unique sounds, which you can fine tune more or less, while this amp / plugins also offers more different voicings than the basic ones, also due to the wide range of the single controls.

If the plugin sounds a little bit too sharp, too aggressive and direct in mono mode, try using it in combination with eg. a good adjustable mono to stereo widener plugin, which smoothes out everything a little, adds some more dimensionality and chances are good, that you land in high-gain heaven, even without needing any additional delay or any other improvements.

This plugin also proves, that a really talented, skilled and experienced programmer even in 2023 does a better job than any AI based neural network. Unfortunately there are not very much programmers existing worldwide, which are comparable with Mr. Nembrini. Therefore I am very grateful, that programmers like him still exist and that they do such an excellent work, even if some marketing hypes rather lead into a different direction during the last years.

Highly, highly recommended.

This delay plugin offers a lot of options (digital or analog style, filter, ducking, chorus or tremolo, etc.) but remains eay to use.

Very versatile distorsion, which can be use for guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, etc. I particularly the Mid Side and Spread features.

First of all, as JEN as well as Thomas Organ are mentioned in the description:

As far as I know the history and even if it seems to be desribed and written wrong in Wikipedia, Thomas Organ did not invent the Wah, but Vox. (But this would be a longer story...).

After my first testing of this plugin I therefore really was very pleased, that this plugin really simulates the tone of a real Vox/JEN wah and not a Thomas Organ design based Dunlop, which I never liked.

The very first time, a Wah tone really made me grin all over my face, was, when I got my first JEN white Fasel Wah. This was this specia, uniquel Cream, Hendrix, Trower, .. tone, I always had been looking for and never got out of any other Wah pedal, especially not out of one based on the Thomas Organ design.

Therefore it is great for me, that this plugin sounds very authentically, just like my own real JEN.

So far, so good, but:

The GUI looks wrong, typical for a JEN is the yellowish-white border around the bottom plate, while the GUI seems to show just an ordinary Dunlop.

Even if this plugin is freeware, a wah pedal simulation plugin makes little sense to me, if it has no on/off swich and even more, if it has not option to control the wah sweep with a midi-expression-pedal while playing.
What sense makes especially a wah plugin, which you only can use as a fixed wah or as a post-editing effect, which only can be adjusted manually? Especially, if the sound itself is excellent.

This plugin would be the best sounding wah plugin, I have heard up to now, but without a pedal control option it is - at least for me - hardly usable. Unfortunately. How shall I use and control it, while playing, without a third hand?

Maybe also implementing an additional auto wah option could be a good idea, not really authentically, but if digital simulations can even be better or more flexible than the real thing, this might not be completely wrong, I think.

Also nice would be an option to be able to select between some different original Fasel inductor coils, a white and red would be a good choice, or if some customizing anyway happens, also alternatively a Halo coil.

Would be nice, if this plugin still could be upgraded with these features, as the tone itself really is very good. I would not mind to pay for an upgraded future version with these options. With them implemented, this immediately would be my favorite wah plugin. As it is, I unfortunately have hardly any use for it.

At the moment it is easier for me to plug my own JEN in front of my audio interface instead. (I still have kept my old Stealth MIDI pedal, as I was hoping for a really good sounding wah plugin like this one somewhen, but unfortunately I still cannot use it, due to the missing MIDI control option. What a pity!).

I have a few midi-expression-pedal-controllable wahs (Strange enough for me, that most wah plugins are not), but they unfortunately all do not really sound like a Vox/JEN does.

This one sounds, as a Vox/JEN wah should, but unfortunately is not pedal controllable, which is hard for me to understand. Is like a guitar without strings or a tube amp without tubes for me. May look nice, but does not really work, as it should.

For the excellent, authentic tone I would have given five stars. But at the moment one star is deducted again, because of the missing on/off switch and most of all the missing MIDI expression pedal control option.

In my opinion the by far best and most authentically sounding and behaving simulation of this legendary preamp.

A lot of additional features make this plugin even more versatile than the real unit. In fact you get a complete, well equipped rack tube amp system plus a lot of good sounding and working effects.

Can be used as a preamp alone, with the included power amp and cabinet section as a complete (rack) tube amp or also in combination with another power amp.

Beautiful, highly dynamically reacting British clean to crunch tones, authentic, typical British overdrive to high-gain tones with a very flexible tone control and a lot more.

I just have been considering to buy the real preamp, but this plugin offers even an additional complete professional rack for much less money and sounds, behaves and reacts - in my opinion - exactly like the real device, so the decision was easy.

A must have for every Marshall sounds fan, I think, but not only for them.