Amp Room vs Neural Amp Modeler

Amp Room is Softube’s guitar and bass platform for building tones from modeled amplifiers, cabinets, pedals, microphones, and studio effects. Five suites cover ENGL Savage Mark II, Marshall, Vintage, Bass, and Metal, with different gear combinations in each. Officially licensed effects come from Tube-Tech, Empirical Labs, Trident, and other makers. Suite Mode presents selected gear sets, while Studio Mode allows further tone shaping. Suite listings include a custom impulse-response loader, eight IR Producer Packs, customizable signal chains, and cabinet captures with movable microphones. Suites can be expanded with other Amp Room Suites and Amp Room Ready products. The software runs as AU, VST, VST3, or AAX inside a compatible DAW on macOS or Windows; it is not standalone. Use requires Softube and iLok accounts plus internet access. Prices range from €99, paid once to €149, paid once, with a 20-day trial.

Neural Amp Modeler (NAM) uses deep learning to create models of guitar amplifiers and pedals. The project is free and open source, with three code repositories under permissive licenses that are open to contributions. Users can train models online in Google Colab or install the Python-based trainer locally from PyPI. The Gateway plugin loads and plays snapshot models of gear, while ParametricOD demonstrates modeling across an overdrive's knobs and switches. The plugin repository produces VST3 and AU plugins as well as a standalone desktop application. Models can be shared through TONE3000, a community-organized online library. NAM runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Raspberry Pi, embedded systems, and websites. Existing A1 models remain supported in NeuralAmpModelerCore and NeuralAmpModelerPlugin. Builders can incorporate NAM's open-source modeling technology into their own products. The training code depends on PyTorch Lightning; version 0.12.3 excludes compromised Lightning versions 2.6.2 and 2.6.3.