Product Reviews by KVR Members

I'll use gear (hardware and vst) in boneheaded ways sometimes which I should probably be arrested for, but the only thing I've used this for once, was for inserting into a track I was micing a Fender Frontman small 10-watt/6" speaker with, on a suble, lowish distortion setting, and it added a very happening "something" to the amps' sound, and I kept it engaged through until the entire song was mixed down and ready to chuck into my YT channel for haters to revile. The amp was on the clean channel, but dialed in to a clangy, disgusting chaotic sound nevertheless (my hobby is obscure mid-60s garage rock, informed slightly with early 1976-77 punk rock...the two styles are fairly similar) covers and original try-to-be, wannabe 60s-sounding songs I, my GF and my buds come up with). This Contrast Distortion Mini lent something which helped that vibe along really nicely.

It may not be cool here to refer the reader to that song on my channel, so you can hear what I mean, idk if that might be considered "spam" or something. If so, then to the admin here, if it's necessary to edit this part out of this review, I completely understand. That would be a song, "House Of Love" by The Parameciums, on YouTube. Anyway, this quite brilliant VST comes recommended by me.

First thing I found after getting this was the authentically tube-ish, harmonic MIRACLE it did when I applied it to a drum track...I simply stick 2 or 3 $12.00 Pyle sm57s and an Octava-brand condenser haphazardly about the drumkit and press "record" -- good enough for The Kingsmen when they recorded "Louie Louie"; PLENTY good enough for me. This prompted me to buy the paid version, which has 2 additional modeled compressors, and, since I was drooling over the site anyway, I also got the "mixer desk" sim, which has interesting models of various mixers' elements, sounds good...though I'm vague on what that one is used for, exactly, as the models incorporate compressor and 2-band eq, which are both very mild in their effect. May have been better without those being in the way of my "real" comps and eq channels, and to have just left them as colorization VSTs. But meh, they're still great. The paid version of this compressor is only about 2% better than this free one. But yeah, this free compressor lends major wonder to any track you use it on.

This dev wasted my time. "Free as in free to create, not free as in free beer", you discover right as you're ready to download. I don't appreciate being insulted, and I don't appreciate lowlives' attempts to deceive me. KVR need to move this to the paid plugins section; this doesn't belong in the "free" section. "Free but not free as in free beer, just 'free to create'", I smell man-buns and confusion about which public restroom to use re the designers of this.

I gave away my Fender 15-watt ss amp to some kid who was learning guitar, and later, I started to miss it. How crazy, that someone would model THAT amp, that's funny. This is a great-sounding plugin, and I sometimes use it even though I own the full suite of Amplitube. And this has a mode which turns the transistors into tubes! SoftAmp are some radical, forward-looking geniuses, no sarc.

Since VST amp speakers aren't real, you can feel free to "abuse" guitar rigs by running bass thru them. This sounds great with bass. And the tube version, I guess turns it into something in between a Champ and a Princeton. Sounds great on guitar, both modes. If this were my only amp sim, I'd actually be fine. But I like the idea of having access (via Amplitube) to amps I've never even seen in person before, such as Hiwatts and Oranges. ..I'm from a small remote west Texas town, lmao. Kudos to SoftAmp for this unique plugin, and for their generosity in offering it for free.

I'm frothing at the mouth and popping boners for this plugin. If I found something on the sidewalk that said "Joe Meek" on it, I'd eat it without hesitation. Really, I'm such a hard Joe Meek poseur, I've bought a rack processor (a real, 3-D one, the British Channel), a microphone, and a couple of other things, just because they had "Joe Meek" written across them. I would have bought The British Channel because it was green.

This, I'm not sure of its Meek-worthiness or even its relation to anything Meek. I don't think he would have cared much for it. You must set everything on full to get a usable sound from it. I sort of like it. Lends itself well to the 60s garage rock/1976-77 punk rock I'm into and most influenced by. Degrades the sound nicely and subtlely, if dialed in right. Not all I would have expected, but not bad, especially for free.

I come from late-70s New Wave / (actual) Punk. I really liked the wild experimentation that movement revived in the case of the really fringe bands...Throbbing Gristle, No New York, The Fall, early PiL, Suicide, Tuxedomoon etc. Yes, I'm a billion years old, meh, age happens. These efx pedals are The Bomb, lol. Very unconventional. Love it.

If you're a ponytail Millennial born 6 months ago who can't decide what gender you are, don't bother; this isn't for you. It won't enhance your acoustic guitar. When you use it, it harms Mother Earth. But for the .00017% of the music-involved populace who possess fully intact cerebral cortexes, you owe it to yourself to look into this plugin.

Not bad for being free. I'm skeptical that it really emulates what I think it's posing to be. Not especially characterful. I don't come back to it much. Not to say that it sucks by any stretch; it's a good EQ and gain-stager. It's an EQ going as a Redd channel strip for Halloween.

I didn't even need this, I have the full outlay of Amplitube. But it looked cool and was free. It's right up there. Wide variety of clean, dirt, and tones, just from one amp and one available modeled speaker, up to 2 cabs loaded 1x12 with V30s. Very impressive. Aesthetically great; you know how sometimes when a gear bit is toy-like and fun to interact with, it adds to the enjoyment. Their full paid outlay must be incredible.

Fun series of effects to experiment with. Great for making anything lower-fi. The "club PA system" when placed in your master track, will make your project sound exactly like it was recorded live in a high school gym.

Perhaps I don't have the "right" to review studio gear, since I can't pursue it on a FT basis; home recording is relegated to being a hobby for me. Although I have been multitracking off and on beginning with cassette 4-tracks in 1981, then on to an ADAT/mixer/compressor rig for a time, and then some Boss BR stuff.

I only got into DAWs and VSTs 2 years ago, just to make my friends STFU. I was aghast at the notion of trusting a computer with my tracks. But I tried free Mixpad, and then I got Reaper and Mixcraft 8. My fears have actually been semi-realized at times; never once do I remember any other recording rig apart from a DAW not being able to keep tracks in time with each other, not even once do I recall my ADAT crashing, and then when I bring it up again, only the MIDI tracks are left; the audio tracks have vanished. Never had to go find some 11-year-old whose thinking is convoluted sufficiently to be able to understand the complexities (read "stupidities") of the cyber realm to come and fix one of the myriad ludicrous problems which are retarded...I mean, unique, to DAWs.

Anyway, this tool is MAGIC. I put it at the end of my master track, and my sucky, pathetic music has undergone one of those chrysanthemums where a worm turns into a butterfly, or something like that. Very "tubey". Actually gets me close to the armhair-standing type of 4-dimensional yet lo-fi sound of ... The Doors' 1st album and "Fresh Cream" come to mind. I love the sound of those and certain other 60s albums. You can feel the tubes glowing as you listen. Even the urinals in whatever studios those were done in must have been all-tube, I mean...

So yeah, this ADHD tube limiter is 100% recommended from here. I crank the "drive" to high; often to 100%. And I crank the gain as high as it's practical to do before I must apply too much reduction and the sound gets too flattened. I just adjust with respect to any compressor VSTs I have applied to audio tracks, so they work together and don't clash. I can't believe it's free. Many thanks to this ADHD lot. They're geniuses, and they're generous. Well done.