Positive Grid built its reputation on letting you rebuild an amp from the components up, and this BIAS FX 2 review looks at whether that approach pays off for real home recording. BIAS FX 2 is a pedalboard-and-amp environment with a slick, drag-and-drop interface, a deep effects library, and a link to the companion BIAS Amp engine that lets you swap tubes, transformers and tone stacks inside each amp. It runs in every major DAW and standalone. If you like sculpting a signal chain visually and chasing tones by tweaking the amp’s guts, few plugins make it this approachable.
What this BIAS FX 2 review focuses on
The heart of BIAS FX 2 is a visual pedalboard where you chain stompboxes, one or two amps, a rack, and cabs in any order. The amps are inspired by the usual American and British classics plus high-gain modern voicings, and because the engine models circuits at component level, small tweaks to bias, tube type and tone stack produce believable changes rather than static presets. Positive Grid also runs ToneCloud, a community library of thousands of user presets, which is a fast way to find a ballpark tone and then refine it.
Version 2 sharpened the cab section too, with dual-cab and dual-mic blending and a set of impulse responses that respond well to placement. The Guitar Match feature, which nudges one guitar’s response toward another modelled instrument, is a fun extra, though it is no substitute for the right pickups. Overall the appeal is a modern, colourful workflow that hides serious depth behind an easy surface.
A high-gain rhythm recipe in BIAS FX 2
BIAS FX 2 is strong on modern high gain, so here is a tight rhythm chain. Put a green-style overdrive first as a boost, gain low and level high, to tighten the low end before it hits the amp. Choose a high-gain amp voiced like a Rectifier, set gain around 2 o’clock, and pull the bass on the amp back to roughly 4 so the palm mutes stay defined. In the cab section, load a 4×12 with a mic modelled on an SM57 at the cone edge, then add a second modelled ribbon mic slightly off-axis and blend it under the 57 for weight, checking phase so the low mids add rather than cancel.
Then mix it properly. High-pass the rhythm guitars around 90 to 100 Hz to clear space for the bass and kick. High-gain amp models often spike around 3 to 4 kHz, so a wide 2 to 3 dB cut there removes the harsh fizz without dulling the attack. Record two separate takes, pan them hard left and right, and let the double-tracking create width. A small 4 to 5 kHz shelf boost only on the panned pair can add presence once they are sitting in the stereo field.
- Gain staging: Keep your DI peaking near minus 12 dBFS. Component-level models react to input level, so a clean, controlled signal in gives the truest response out.
- ToneCloud tactics: Grab a community preset as a starting point, then strip its reverb and delay, fix the cab mic, and re-EQ for your mix rather than trusting it as-is.
- Bass guitar: BIAS also models bass rigs; a driven amp blended in parallel under a clean DI, both high-passed lightly, gives a modern aggressive bass tone.
The honest pros and cons
A balanced BIAS FX 2 review has to name the weak spots alongside the strengths.
- Pro: Component-level amp modelling makes deep tone shaping intuitive, and the drag-and-drop pedalboard is genuinely fun to use.
- Pro: ToneCloud offers a vast, free bank of starting points, and dual-cab mic’ing gives real control over the recorded sound.
- Pro: Strong modern high-gain and lead voicings straight out of the box.
- Con: Deepest amp editing needs the separate BIAS Amp software, so the true component tweaking is a two-app affair or a costlier bundle.
- Con: ToneCloud quality is wildly inconsistent; many presets are drenched in effects and unusable in a dense mix.
- Con: Some users find the raw tones a touch fizzy or hyped, and cleans, while good, are not as characterful as Guitar Rig’s.
How BIAS FX 2 compares
Against IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube, BIAS FX 2 trades a giant parts catalogue for a friendlier interface and component-level editing. Against Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig, it is more amp-obsessed and less of an all-purpose effects box. Overloud’s TH-U counters with rig capture, and Neural DSP’s Archetype plugins, sold only from Neural DSP’s own site, push single-amp realism further. BIAS FX 2’s edge is the combination of visual pedalboard building and under-the-hood amp surgery in one colourful package.
Who should buy BIAS FX 2
Reach for BIAS FX 2 if you love designing tones by feel, enjoy a visual pedalboard, and want strong modern high-gain sounds without a steep learning curve. If you want the deepest custom amps, budget for the BIAS Amp side too. For everything upstream and downstream of the plugin, see our guitar recording guides, our mixing tutorials on taming amp-sim harshness, and the free tools in our audio tools hub. BIAS FX 2 is not the last word in raw realism, but as a hands-on tone laboratory it is one of the most enjoyable and productive amp sims a home recordist can run.
