Neural DSP Archetype: Petrucci X

John Petrucci’s Rig, Recreated Without Compromise

Neural DSP Archetype: Petrucci X distils John Petrucci’s entire guitar world into a single plugin. Few guitarists are as exacting, and few signature plugins are this complete: four amplifiers, his signature wah, pre and post effects racks, a professional cabsim with IR loading, and performance tools like Transpose and Doubler — equally at home in your DAW or running standalone, and compatible with Quad Cortex hardware.

The Four Amplifiers

• Piezo — designed for piezo pickups; emulates an acoustic body’s resonance and shines with single coils.
• Clean — sonorous and rich, with a bright switch for extra definition.
• Rhythm — thunderous and versatile; Tight, Bite and Bass controls interact with the gain for exact attack control.
• Lead — the spaceship amp: endless sustain and deep harmonics for singing leads.

Clean, Rhythm and Lead each carry a dedicated 4-band semi-parametric EQ with high and low-pass filters.

Front of the Chain

A wah that recreates Petrucci’s iconic wah tone, plus a compressor for dynamic control before the amp. Pre effects: Overdrive, Phaser/Vibe, Chorus and Flanger.

Cabsim and Post Effects

The cabsim uses impulse responses captured by Jimmy T at DTHQ — six positionable virtual microphones, room mics for depth, and full support for loading your own IRs. After the amp, three rack units: Stereo Chorus (vintage and spatial modes), Stereo Delay (crossfeed, crystal sparkle and tape saturation modes) and a dark Reverb with celestial shimmer.

Performance Tools

Transpose shifts your tuning ±12 semitones from the plugin. The Doubler creates a convincing double-tracked stereo image from one take. A live tuner lives at the bottom of the UI, volume responds to MIDI, and standalone mode adds a metronome with time-signature and accent control.

At a Glance

• 4 signature amps + wah, compressor, 4 pre FX, 3 post FX racks
• Cabsim with DTHQ IRs, 6 mics, room blend, custom IR loading
• Transpose, Doubler, tuner, metronome (standalone)
• VST2, VST3, AU, AAX, standalone — Mac & Windows 64-bit, native Apple Silicon
• Quad Cortex / Quad Cortex mini compatible; free iLok account required

System Requirements

Mac and Windows (64-bit), VST2/VST3/AU/AAX/standalone, native Apple Silicon support. Activation needs a free iLok account via iLok License Manager. Every customer receives their own individual license key, delivered by email together with the download after purchase.