Liminal Amp is a free Neural Amp Modeler for Akai MPC and Force. It plays A2 captures through a noise gate, a tone stack and a cabinet IR the way the official NAM plugin does, at the lowest CPU cost we could measure, on the hardware itself.
Measured on an Akai Force: the whole plugin uses about 16% of an audio block
The sound of the official NAM plugin, on the MPC itself. Small on purpose, so there's room left for the rest of the song.
Liminal Amp runs a capture and a cab, and nothing else in the signal path. Everything it does is aimed at sounding like the official plugin while leaving the MPC room to breathe.
Captures are trained at 48 kHz and the MPC runs at 44.1 kHz, so Liminal Amp resamples around the model just as the official plugin does. The capture's EQ and dynamics sit where the capture put them. The noise gate and tone stack are the official plugin's own code.
NAM's A2 fast path for the amp and FFT convolution for the cab. An 8192 sample cab IR adds about 3% of an audio block on a Force, where the direct way would cost many times that.
Captures and IRs are found and loaded in the background, then handed over without a gap. The audio never waits on a card or a file.
Put .nam captures in a folder named models and .wav IRs in a folder named irs, on any drive or card, in packs if you like. The plugin remembers where it found them, so a project's amp and cab load as soon as it opens.
The official plugin's chain, in its order. The amp runs an A2 capture at its Lite size, which is how it stays light.
16.1% of an audio block, p99 19.0%
Mean share of one audio block on one core: 44.1 kHz, 128 frame blocks, about 2.9 ms. Good for one or two instances alongside a project.
Made for the touchscreen, with nothing hidden on other tabs. The amp is on the left, the cab on the right, and the knobs below, each group with its switch above it.
The page has a pulse: a picture of what the loaded capture does to a note, and valves that glow with your level.
When a capture loads, one plucked string is played through it in the background and drawn under the amp's name. A clean amp shows a sharp attack that fades, crunch holds the note and evens its peaks, and high gain is a solid wall. It's a picture of the capture, not a meter, so it stays still while you play.
Three power valves in the corner show your output level. The heaters glow dull red in silence, heat up one after another as you play, and cool over about two and a half seconds once you stop.
The plugin serves small pages to a phone on the same Wi-Fi as the MPC, in its own look. No app to install and no password.
Two switches for when the default isn't right for the project. Both are off until you turn them on, and a project or preset keeps them as saved.
Runs the capture at the MPC's 44.1 kHz without resampling. It costs less, but the capture's tone shifts slightly, about 8% lower in frequency, which is why the official sound stays the default. On MPC's own meter a Force project went from 30 to 34% with a capture and an IR, to 27 to 29% with Eco on.
Plays an A2 capture at its Full size, 8 channels instead of 3. On a Gen 1 Force that alone takes about 57% of an audio block, so it's for simple projects or faster hardware. It asks twice: the first tap shows a warning, and a second tap within six seconds turns it on.
Share of one audio block on one core, at 44.1 kHz with 128 frame blocks. Shorter IRs cost less.
| What runs | Mean | p99 |
|---|---|---|
| The A2 capture at its Lite size, with resampling | 11.9% | 13.8% |
| Plus the noise gate and tone stack | 13.1% | 15.0% |
| Plus an 8192 sample cab IR: the whole plugin | 16.1% | 19.0% |
| The capture at its Full size, with A2 Full on | 57% | not used unless you turn it on |
Liminal Amp installs the way MPC plugins did before MPC OS 3.10.1, so it needs SSH access to the device (modded firmware). Use one install method per device. Your models, irs and presets folders are kept across upgrades.
Force, MPC Live and Live II, MPC One, MPC X, MPC Key 61
Synths folder with vstscanner.sh from the Force VST plugins distribution.Gm0rb - VST - Liminal Amp folder into Synths. On a Force with MockbaMod that's /media/662522/Synths..nam captures in a models folder and .wav IRs in an irs folder, inside the plugin folder or anywhere on your cards.sh /media/662522/Synths/vstscanner.sh on the device. MPC restarts, and Liminal Amp is under VST, manufacturer Gm0rb.MPC Live III and other RK3588 units, 64 bit
Liminal-Amp-<version>-mpc-aarch64.zip from the MPC OS Plugin Catalog. Its installer picks this build on a Gen 2 device.install.sh as root, following its INSTALL.md. A removable card's Synths folder is the safest target.Gen 2 is new. The 64 bit build is the same plugin, and projects and presets move between generations, but so far it has been tested under emulation only, not on a Gen 2 device. If you run it on one, tell us how it went. Akai doesn't test or support third party plugins, so save your work often.
Yes. Liminal Amp is MIT licensed and free to use on anything you release. Captures and IRs you download from TONE3000 belong to their creators and carry their own licences, which the plugin keeps beside each download. If it ends up on your records, you can buy Gmorb a coffee.
A2 is a Neural Amp Modeler model architecture. Liminal Amp is made for A2 captures, which it runs at their Lite size by default. Tap Browse TONE3000 on the amp to pick them on your phone, or put .nam files you already have in a models folder.
Gen 1: Force, MPC Live and Live II, MPC One, MPC X and MPC Key 61. Gen 2: MPC Live III and other RK3588 units, with a build tested under emulation so far. It runs on the hardware in standalone mode; it isn't a desktop plugin.
For now, yes. Installing needs SSH access to the device, on Gen 1 with the Synths folder and vstscanner.sh, and on Gen 2 root access to run the installer.
That's the point of it. It resamples around the capture as the official plugin does, its gate and tone stack are the official plugin's code, and its cab convolution was checked against the official one. Eco trades a little of that for CPU, which is why it's off by default.
Any .wav in a folder named irs, at any sample rate. A stereo IR is mixed down to mono, and up to 8192 samples are used, or 4096 with Short.
Put Liminal Hz after it for a room. For a fuller rig in one plugin, try NAM by jacob-sabella, also in the MPC OS Plugin Catalog. The two install side by side. Liminal Amp stays small on purpose.
Open an issue on GitHub with your device, MPC OS version and what you did. Akai doesn't support third party plugins, so please don't contact them about it.
Free, for MPC and Force. Put Liminal Hz after it and give the amp a room.