Fortin NTS and Nameless Metal Amp Sims | Neural DSP

Fortin NTS and Nameless: Brutal Metal Tones (Neural DSP Amp Sims)

ByJason Stallworth

Is it possible to get a brutal metal tone with amp sims? Technology has indeed come a long way but most amp sims fall short when it comes to metal (what I really mean is most of them completely suck!).

There are only a small handful of amp sims that truly work for metal. And there’s two particular sims that stand-out – Neural DSP’s Fortin Nameless and NTS amp sims.

In this post, I’m going to share my metal tone settings and give you a full review of both the Fortin NTS and Nameless amp sims.  I’ll also include videos where you can hear these tones (with both 6 and 7 string guitars!). And you’ll find several of my hidden recording tips within the post…

Fortin NTS and Nameless Amps and Features

Funny story (intimate background music playing) – I downloaded the demo versions of both NTS and Nameless, and played through each one for about a week.

I was pretty impressed with both, but I didn’t want to cough up the money right away for both sims. For my style of playing, NTS seemed to fit me best.

I pulled the trigger and bought the NTS, only to find out I actually bought the Nameless plugin instead by accident! Ahhhh!!! Okay, okay – so it wasn’t the end of world…

Sticking to my decision (temporarily) to only buy one, I immediately started digging into Nameless. It took me a little time to really dial in a tone that suited my ears and I began to realize I was getting a particular sound that I’ve never gotten before. This is something I look for in tones – creating a tone that doesn’t sound like everyone else.

***I encourage this philosophy, big time. Too many guitarists waste time trying to dial in a Killswitch Engage tone or a Megadeth tone, or whatever. Why do you want to sound like someone else?? Why not create your own sound instead? – End of rant!

A couple of weeks later I purchased NTS, and here we are today jamming through two killer metal amp sims.

But before we get into my personal settings using these sims, let’s break down the differences between Fortin NTS and Fortin Nameless and go over some of the features.

Fortin Nameless

Neural DSP Fortin Nameless

The best way I can describe the Fortin Nameless amp sim is it has this particular bite to it. This gives it a unique tone, and I don’t really know what to compare it to other than the actual Fortin amp, which I’ve never played through (I need to change that!).

Nameless has 2 gain stages, and I think this is where that ‘bite’ comes from. It also have a dominating presence that allows your guitar to really cut through the mix with clarity.

It’s built for metal, but you can also get some cool classic thrash metal and hard rock tones from it. And when you back off the gain, you open up even more possibilities in style. So on that note (no pun intended), Nameless is quite diverse for a metal amp sim.

You can learn more about Fortin Nameless at the Neural DSP website: https://neuraldsp.com/products/fortin-nameless-suite/

Fortin NTS

Neural DSP Fortin NTS

Fortin NTS is the most brutal metal amp sim I’ve ever recorded with. It has this awesome mid-range that gives you that powerful, chunky tone. And talk about gain…it’s like going to the gym and ‘making gains, bro’ (sorry for the pun!).

Although the NTS isn’t quite as diverse as Nameless in regards to style, you have more options to shape your tone. To compliment it’s gain, you have these extra knobs called ‘Girth‘ and ‘Grind.’ You can play around with those for days.

The NTS sim also has a second channel. This is more for a cleaner, lighter tone. I haven’t messed around with it too much, as it’s hard to get away from channel 1.

It’s like having craft beer for the first time (channel 1); you just can’t go back to the lighter stuff (channel 2). That probably wasn’t the best analogy, but you get it, hopefully.

This amp sim is perfect for our extreme genres of metal such as death metal, melodic death metal, and metalcore. You can really pull off any modern metal tone with it.

You can learn more about Fortin NTS at the Neural DSP website: https://neuraldsp.com/products/fortin-nts-suite/

Fortin Cabs and Mics

Neural DSP Fortin cabinet and mic - settings for Guitar 2

Now THIS is where most amp sims fail – cabinets and mics. You could flawlessly model the circuitry of a real tube amp but if you’re off on the cab and mics, it’s going to sound like crap.

It would be like having the most beautiful boyfriend or girlfriend, but they’re a complete total jerk (or the ‘C’ word if you want to go there!) – yeah, it just ruins what could be awesome.

In my opinion, this is one of Neural DSP’s strong points. And realistically I think the creators knew that if they were going to model something like Fortin amps, they had to go all the way with the full package.

At first glance you may be wondering why there aren’t more cabinet choices. And I wonder if at some point they will add this as an upgrade.

However, I would personally rather have one amazing sounding metal cab than 10 mediocre cabs. You do have several mic choices, and you can get wide range of tonal changes with those.  

Jason’s Recording Tip:

As I record two rhythm guitar tracks and hard pan each, I’ll like to have a slightly different tone for that 2nd guitar.

In this case, I’ll just use a different mic set. Having that subtle difference in guitar tones adds so much depth and fullness to your mix. I’ll get into the mic combinations more when we talk about my personal settings.

*If you want more tips on recording guitarist, I wrote a full guide for you on this post: Complete Ho​​me Recording Studio Guide for Metal Guitarists

Fortin Stomp Boxes

Neural DSP Fortin pedals

Both Nameless and NTS come equipped with three stomp boxes for more gain and tone shaping: ZUUL, Hexdrive, and Grind.

After messing around with these, I’ve gotten the best (and tightest) tones using a combination of two. What you see above is the ZUUL and Grind being used together. And that’s more than enough to clean up your tone (remember, these amp sims are created to act like real amps).

*I don’t mess around with pedals too much. I like to keep things as simple as possible, so my review on these pedals isn’t as detailed.

VIDEO: Fortin NTS VS Nameless

Are you ready to hear both the Fortin NTS and Nameless amp sims in the same video? Of course you are…

I’m giving you three different metal tones in this video:

  1. Fortin Nameless
  2. Fortin NTS
  3. Both together in the same song!

*If you go to YouTube, click on the description and you’ll see the times where each tone starts! And please make the world a better place by sharing my video (and this blog post too!). 

My Nameless Tone Settings

Now let’s get down to the details of my Nameless amp and EQ settings. What I’m sharing is what you just heard in the video above.

Remember, I record two rhythms tracks. My amps settings are the same. What changes from one track to the other is the mics. And I’ll actually cover that below after going through my amp settings for both Nameless and NTS.

Amp and EQ Settings

  • Off/On Switch: ON!! (okay okay…bad joke)
  • Master Volume: 6.2
  • Presence: 3.8
  • Bass: 3.8
  • Middle: 6
  • Treble: 6.5
  • Gain II: 8
  • Gain I: 7.8

*For some amp sims I cut the bass some to leave room for my bass guitar and drum tracks. Your bedroom tone is much different from the tone you’ll use in the overall mix.

My NTS Amp Settings

My NTS amp and EQ settings aren’t much different from my Nameless settings. And that’s kind of normal for me. There’s just a few adjustments I made, and I’ll go over those below.

Amp and EQ Settings

  • Channel: 1
  • Girth: 7
  • Grind: 6.3
  • Gain: 6.5
  • Volume: 6
  • Bass: 6
  • Middle: 4
  •  Treble: 7
  •  Depth: 7.5
  • Presence: 6.5
  • Master(of Puppets!…lol, another bad pun!): 4.5

*The Fortin NTS (in my opinion) sounds