There's nothing quite like the sight or sound of a wall of cranked Marshall guitar amplifiers, as evidenced by their continued popularity on-stage since the first units were handmade in a British garden shed way back in 1963. But as fans of any vintage amplifier will tell you, getting that sweet, natural tube distortion usually means cranking the volume up way past socially acceptable levels. That's fine if you're playing to an audience of thousands, but if you're just jamming at home, or even if you're trying to capture the best tone in the studio, high volumes simply aren't practical.

One of the solutions to this problem has been digital modeling, i.e. the recreation of classic analogue amplifiers and effects with software or a standalone device. Modeling has come a long way the past few years, with the likes of Native Instrument's Guitar Rig software and in particular Fractal's range of Axe-FX hardware coming incredibly close to replicating the real thing. But all the Marshall simulations on these modelers (as great as they are) haven't borne the official Marshall stamp of approval yet, hence why these models are often called something like "Brit 800" rather than "Marshall JCM 800."

Marshall had been one of the few amp makers left to embrace digital modeling (its JMD:1 series of modeling amps still made use of tubes in both the preamp and power amp), but the march of progress finally caught. Marshall has released the $199 Marshall "Plexi" Super Lead plugin, the first and only software modeling plugin to bear the company name. The plugin—released by Universal Audio with help of Softube (the same company brought in to help with the JMD:1) and AC/DC engineer Tony Platt—is a digital recreation of a 1959 100-watt Marshall Super Lead, famously known as a Plexi.

The Plexi is particularly worthy of the digital treatment, thanks to it being the amp behind the sound of Eddie Van Halen, Green Day, Jimi Hendrix, and more. As is common these days (the Axe-FX is based entirely on the method), the virtual Plexi isn't just a replication of the final sound of the amplifier. It instead rebuilds the entire amplifier digitally, component by component. The idea is to replicate the valve feel so sought after by guitarists. According to Universal Audio, one of Marshall's own reference Plexi amplifiers, built in 1967, was used as the basis for the simulation.

In addition to the amp simulation, the plugin also features a variety of microphone options, including FET and dynamic models along with different placement options. Also included is a recreation of the original 1960BHW 4x12" speaker cabinet that the amp would have been used with. Unfortunately, for those hoping to just get the plugin and start knocking out some riffs, the Plexi currently only works in conjunction with Universal Audio's Apollo audio interfaces and PCIe audio processing cards, which start at $300 and rise rapidly from there. Still, it's nice to see an analogue institution like Marshall finally making a move into the digital plugin world, however small it might be.