NA Voice DC30 Custom Valve Guitar Amplifier

There are a lot of Vox simulations available, but up to now they did not really convince me very much, even less as I've been playing a real Vox for years - decades ago.

This one is - in my opinion - not only the most authentically sounding simulation of this iconic amp, I also like a lot that it includes the authentic 3 channels, 6 inputs plus Reverb and the Vibro-Trem circuit.

I totally had forgotten how great a Vintage AC-30 really sounded and still today sounds. So does this DC-30 simulation. Playing immediately sounded very familiar and resulted in very convincing tones - at (bed)room level - which has been absolutely impossible with the - in reality - incredibly loud real amp due to the vintage single volume design of the circuit.

The Vib-Trem channel is great for typical clean(er) Shadows or Beatles' guitars but also for these typical late 60's Italo-Western soundtrack guitars with a lot of reverb and tremolo. The built-in Vib-Trem unit sounds incredibly good and unique, very different from most pedals. Retro tube tones to die for.

The Normal channel is great for these typical warm, sweet Brian May tones, Normal and Brillant channels both can give you typical Rory Gallagher or Status Quo tones, but not only, Ritchie Blackmore also played AC-30's before Deep Purple Mk. II (Think of "Hush" or "Concerto for Group and Orchestra", Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page also in their early Yardbirds years, as well as the - in my opinion - completely underrated Terje Rypdal and a lot of other great players.

The additional Link/Bridging option here extends the sonic possibilites and is especially very useful for overdrive tones.

Basic tone is excellent, but what I really like is that these very unique, vivid Vox harmonics sound very accurate here, the gain range is very exactly the one of the real amp, also the reaction to attack is very authentically. My only complaint - if one - could be that treble in the bright channel at higher gain and treble settings may sound a little bit too sharp and still a little too digital for my taste. The real amp also is capable of a lot of very intense treble, maybe even too much at certain settings, which also can sound very biting, even too sharp, nevertheless the authentic treble tube breakup still shows some more sweetness at the same time, which I miss here a little, compared with a real AC-30. Nevertheless too intense treble sharpness easily can be compensated with the Cut (Reverse Presence) tone control as well as with the additionally built-in harshness control here.

But this is complaining at a very high level, most other AC-30 simulations, I know, are miles away from the beautiful, in general very convincing, authentic tones of this simulation. Concerning all other sonic aspects this simulation feels and plays very much like the real amp.

As the AC-30 has a rather mid-scooped sound, it also works well with pedals with some mid boost, Tube Screamer, SD-1, OCD, Klon Centaur, Zendrive are a good choice. My personal favorite is the SD-1, as it's tone additionally adds more harmonics than eg. a Tube Screamer, which even increase the already great harmonics of the amp. (If you know "Ambiguity" from Terje Rypdal (Chaser album from 1985), these are exactly the tones you get from this combination.).

Alternatively also an equalizer pedal in front can be a good choice to add some mids, without altering the amp's tube tone itself too much, which also makes the tone more similar to a Plexi, but generally the AC-30 always sounds sweeter, more harmonious, less rough than a Plexi, with more singing sustain but less dirt at higher volume settings.

The built-in cabinets sound good, the Vox cabinet of course sounds great, but also the Twin cabinet with the JBL's sounds very interesting, a quite different, but convincing voicing, but the simulations also works well with a lot of other speakers/cabinets.

An AC-30 simulation in this quality has been long overdue, as this amp is - in my opinion - even today one of the best sounding allround amps with a very unique tone, which you hardly can get out of any other amp. (Or out of any other amp simulation - in this case.).

In the future a Marshall 1959/1987 Plexi simulation in the same quality from Nembrini Audio would be highly appreciated from me, but also a Hiwatt DR-103 or maybe a Dover DA-50 simulation.

But at the moment this plugin certainly will become one of my favorite amp simulations. Great work.