Recording - July 2019 - 48

REVIEW

STL Tones STL Tonality
REVIEW BY ALEX HAWLEY

S

TL Tonality is a plug-in suite by STL Tones, and
was developed by Grammy-nominated producers Howard Benson and Mike Plotnikoff.
STL Tonality is a guitar amp and cabinet modeler,
designed to recreate the same hard-hitting rock
guitar tones that can be heard throughout their
long list of album credits, such as Bon Jovi, My
Chemical Romance, Three Days Grace, P.O.D,
Daughtry, Hoobastank, The All-American Rejects,
and many more.
Mike Metlay got some information about their
motivations in creating the plug-in and some technical details that aren't obvious from the website,
which you can read about in the interview following this review. First, though, we'll learn about the
software itself.

Amp 1

Overview

STL Tonality Howard Benson includes five amps, three pedals, five speaker cabinets, a tuner, and a gate. The included
amps are Benson's and Plotnikoff's "go-tos" for recording
guitar, which can be mixed and matched with any of the
included cabinets or with your own impulse responses.
The guitar tones in STL Tonality originated from meticulous
notes that Benson and Plotnikoff took over years of tracking,
detailing how each tone was created and captured. Using
their session notes, they were able to recreate the original
tones from those records, and carefully model them for the
STL Tonality plug-in. Plotnikoff commented, "It wasn't just a
guitar plug-in that created a distortion...we really wanted to
create our guitar tone."

Tones

The main amp (Amp 1) is based on a Bogner Uberschall.
It's got an aggressive, punchy rock and metal sound with
plenty of gain and sustain on tap. It works great for soaring
leads and overdriven rhythm parts. It pairs nicely with Cab
1, which is a slanted 4x12. This cabinet is nice and bright
with a tight bottom end, made to cut through just about any
mix. It doesn't require much tweaking to get it in the sweet
spot, either. I always appreciate amp models that allow you
to keep the creative energy flowing without having to stop
and dial in a tone before you are able to roll. The only limitation of this particular model is the inability to clean it up
completely. Even with the gain all the way down, and with
48 RECORDING July 2019

Amp 3

adjusting the plug-in's master input level, it ranges from dirty to
full distortion, but if that's the tone you want, it shines!
Amp 2 is based off of a Wizard metal amplifier, with a highgain lead channel and a clean channel. The clean channel is
bright with a well-rounded bottom end. It can be pushed into
a nice medium-gain tone, and pairs nicely with Cab 2 (straight
4x12) for a tight closed-back sound, or with Cab 4 for a smaller
open-back tone. I found myself rolling off the treble and presence
with this particular model, as the high end of the clean channel felt a bit unnatural to my ears, especially as chords ring out
or notes sustain for a longer period of time. The lead channel
screams for high-gain sustain and chunking power chords. It pairs
best with Cab 2, which rounds out the top end of the amp and
provides a really nice bottom end for a full-range response.
Amp 3 is based on a 1974 Marshall JMP 50 Tremolo with
normal and bright channels, and covers a variety of different
styles. The normal channel starts with a medium-gain tone which
cleans up nicely with the gain rolled back, or can be pushed to
the edge of breakup and into overdrive. When matched with
Recording - July 2019

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