Heeb recently released version 0.1 of CrunchDude, a free, simple guitar amplifier emulation VST effect plug-in for Windows. As the name implies, its strength lies not only in clean or over-the-top lead sounds, but especially in the crunch sounds it can produce.
Features:
- The Input section. No distortion takes place here yet, only amplification and equalization plus a Low Cut control (which determines the cut-off frequency of the 6 dB/octave filter).
- Two Pre-amp sections. These are switched in series, and are completely equivalent. You can switch them on and off. They have a 3-band equalizer with adjustable cut-off frequencies, and a Drive dial that determines the gain and the resulting distortion. The equalizer is "passive", which means that when Low, Mid, and High are in maximum position, no alteration of the sound takes place (flat frequency response, 0 dB gain).
- The Output Stage section. Again, you have the same type of 3-band equalizer at your disposal, an Output level dial, and an extra Low Cut.
- The Cabinets section. There are two almost identical sections in parallel here, which you can balance with the Mix dial. You can switch this section off. The sound of both sections is determined by their Prox (proximity) and Fdb (feedback) dials.
