The Boss

Name: The Boss
Price: 9.99 USD
Author: Nembrini Audio

by Nembrini Audio · Distortion · Amp-in-a-box distortion pedal

Not rated yet

A distortion plugin from Nembrini Audio modeled on the Marshall Guv'nor, the original amp-in-a-box pedal, with its LED diode clipping.

It has passive three-band tone controls and an Analog Link feature, and is on sale for $9.99 (regular $39).

Best for: Guitars, Bass. Genres: Rock & Indie, Metal.

Keywords: bass, crunchy, bus processing, electric guitar, drum bus, mid/side, clean, hardware emulation, built-in mix knob, classic, gritty, heavy, mixing, parallel processing, single-band, solid-state, thick.

What it does

The Boss (full name The Boss Led Diode Distortion) models the Marshall Guv'nor, which the developer calls "the first 'amp in a box' pedal". The idea is to get the drive of a classic British stack from a pedal-sized plugin.

LED clipping: a model of the pedal's solid-state LED diode distortion circuit, the source of its amp-like crunch.
Gain: sets the amount of drive, from light crunch to thick British distortion.
Tone stack: amp-style passive three-band tone controls that interact with the gain stage, as on a real amp.

A larger Rack edition, The Boss Rack, is sold alone or in a bundle with the pedal. It adds:

Ultra bass: an extra bass boost band for heavier low end.
Mix and phase: a wet/dry control for parallel distortion and a phase inversion switch.
Mid/side and Analog Link: mid/side operation, and Analog Link, which adds small variations between channels as in analog hardware.

The current version is 1.2.8. It was on sale when checked, and a demo is available.

Source: Nembrini Audio product page

When to use it

The Boss is a cheap, single-circuit British drive pedal, a good pick for adding Marshall-style crunch in front of a clean amp sim or on a bus. Compared with The Scream, it models a different, more amp-like pedal and has fewer controls, but costs less. Unlike Saturn 2 or Devil-Loc Deluxe, it has no multiband split, modulation or wide range of distortion types; it does one sound. The Rack edition narrows the gap with mix, mid/side and bass controls, which makes it more useful on bass and drums.

Best for: British crunch from clean amps, pedal-style distortion on guitar, and gritty bass or drum bus drive (with the Rack edition).
Genres: rock, hard rock, metal, indie.
Look elsewhere if: you want many drive types or deep sound design (Saturn 2), or a Tube Screamer-style boost (The Scream).
Tip: Production Expert used it on a drum bus as well as guitar and bass; try the Rack edition's wet/dry mix there.

What producers say

The one review found was very positive about its tone and range.

Production Expert tested the bundle on lead guitar, fretless bass and a drum bus, and said it had "character and drive to spare" on all three.
Praised: a "vast range of tone-shaping possibilities" from the interacting gain and tone controls, and the Rack edition's extra features.
Criticisms: the review raised none.

Production Expert review

Where to buy

Nembrini Audio: $9.99

Tutorials and reviews

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