Find the capture behind the sound you want.

Start with gear, then refine the sound

Type an amp or pedal name into Tone Explorer, or use the maker and gear filters. Setup helps distinguish amp-only, pedal and full-rig captures. Type separates NAM captures from cabinet impulse responses. Artist associations can be useful context, but do not mean that an artist used a particular uploaded capture.

A search for a Tube Screamer can lead to this Ibanez TS9 capture set. Compare its individual settings rather than assuming that every file with TS9 in its title has the same gain, tone or recording chain.

Use measurements to narrow a shortlist

Switch between Guitar DI and Bass DI and use the sound filters to find the response you want. Drive describes measured behaviour from clean toward high gain; brightness, mids, low end and feel let you refine a broad gear match.

Measurements use a consistent source, making comparisons useful across capture names and creators. They describe the recorded model under those conditions, not every possible setting of the physical amp or pedal. Different microphones, cabinets, capture levels and controls can all matter.

Find something close, then listen

1. Open a promising tone and select a capture.
2. Read its response graph and use Sounds like to find measured neighbours.
3. Check the percentages as similarity indicators, not a claim of identical tone or shared circuitry.
4. On desktop, add candidates to the NAM player and hear them with the same DI.
5. Compare available SC/ST and SH conversions if you plan a pedal-format workflow.

Keep the capture’s context

The tone page retains creator credit, source, licence and capture descriptions. Check those details before downloading or sharing a model. Gear names identify the subject of a capture and are not an endorsement by the manufacturer.

Tone Explorer searches captures and their associated gear. For playing, start with the desktop browser player; for a combined amp-and-cab result, read the NAM merge guide. Both guitarists and bassists can use the same discovery workflow with the relevant DI view.