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Flextron DC14

Guitar Amp Sim and FX Modeling Plugin by AXP
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Flextron DC14
Flextron DC14 by AXP is a Virtual Effect Audio Plugin for Windows. It functions as a VST Plugin.
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Flextron is a virtual-analog guitar amp based on a concept of the hybrid guitar distortion pedal I've built for myself a while ago. The prototype pedal in its turn was based on two commercial tube emulation technologies – Flexwave by Crate and Cooltron by VOX. This combination was discovered by accident when I was repairing my bandmate's VOX Bulldog distortion pedal. I didn't like the Bulldog that much, however I got interested in its low-voltage tube design so I assembled a copy on a test bench. On its own it has provided very little overdrive, just as expected, but when combined with the Crate Flexwave preamp (my favorite solid-state distortion) it has completed its already great tone, giving it more fullness and presence. I've used this arrangement for rehearsals and some gigs and got complemented for the tone.

Flextron goes a step further and accurately models a range of Crate solid-state amps powered by the Flexwave circuit. Every stage of the preamp signal path is carefully analyzed and modeled with the same attention to details as my previous SoftDrive GV and SoftAmp FM25 plugins.

The Flexwave amp design has evolved over the years. I counted 6 different variations. After careful analysis, I've narrowed down the scope to 3 models. The one I've played with was made in the late 90's and I think it's ahead of the pack. However in 2000's they have changed the gain channel structure significantly and after some consideration I've decided to model all three.

The Cooltron circuit in its turn stayed the same across their pedal range. I've tried a couple of different approaches to modeling it before settling on the final one. Since I've had a real physical implementation at my disposal I was able to successfully verify the accuracy of the digital model.

Interestingly, both Flexwave and Cooltron follow exactly the same idea – they essentially are an asymmetric clipping stage biased by the low-passed feedback signal. Having made my own SoftAmp 3OD model I can say that this is exactly how a real guitar amp triode stage works. The main difference is that Cooltron uses a 12AU7 tube running on 6V anode voltage for the authentic tube waveshaping, while Flexwave relies on an asymmetrically configured "rubber diode" pair to achieve the same effect.

In addition to the fully featured 3-channel preamp and a tube saturation stage, Flextron offers a dual-mode stereo reverb (algorithmic and convolution-based), a speaker simulator with two cabinet models and an ambience control (intended mainly for practising in headphones), a switchable order oversampling and a set of visualization instruments, such as an EQ curve plot and stage bias meters.

Just as with my previous plugins, every single control is remapped to produce linear response on a dB scale.

Additional details can be found in the bundled manual.

Latest User Reviews

Average user rating of 4.00 from 2 reviews
Flextron DC14

Reviewed By fese [all]
August 10th, 2014
Version reviewed: 7 on Windows

When I read that this plugin is supposed to be an emulation of solid state amps from Crate, I was a bit skeptical, because I had an amp from Crate when I started like 25 years ago and it sounded horrible.

After giving it a test run I must say that in this case digital sounds definitely better than analog, at least better than my first amp. It models three amp types, has three gain stages, a reverb and ambience effect and also a cab simulation which is not standard in the world of freeware amps sims. The GUI is, as always with AXP, not some 3D rendered simulation of the hardware which make no sense in the digital realm but a carefully crafted, very usable design with a logical layout, not too small and not too big. A real pleasure.

Playing with a Les Paul type guitar, I find that the 90's amp is better suited for clean playing as is has more twang in the high end, and the 2000's emulation seem better suited for distortion and hi gain sound, but this might probably be different with another guitar or playing style.

AXP has set up his own niche with his solid state emulations, as if to prove that with all these all tube guitar emulations around, transistors still have a reason to exist, and he delivers. Flextron is arguably the culmination of the previous efforts.

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Flextron DC14

Reviewed By VedFerrer [all]
August 2nd, 2014
Version reviewed: 1.0.0 on Windows

Nice solid state sound, , thanks for sharing.

cpu very low usage in my laptop and fast gui tweaking.

congratulations !.

Read Review

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Comments & Discussion for AXP Flextron DC14

Discussion
Discussion: Active
nr1killabee
nr1killabee
2 August 2014 at 6:28pm

Nice job, good amp emulation but the plugin eats lots of CPU on my PC.

AXP
AXP
4 August 2014 at 11:04pm

Hey, thanks for the feedback. There are some specific components that are CPU-hungry, namely the Ambience control - set it to zero and see if it helps. Also reduce oversampling (4x is enough most of the time). There are some cases when the Speaker Sim and Spring Reverb could cause CPU spikes, we are currently discussing it in the support thread: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=417324.

Boone777
Boone777
22 August 2014 at 8:02pm

I like it too. I compared the cab sim section to Nadir+Kalthallen IR trying to replace the cab sim section with something else. Altough some alternatives came up I find that the original sound really stand its own. Great set and forget tone.

mr-es335
mr-es335
6 September 2014 at 3:09pm

Hello, .

The site is down...how may I be able to obtain this plugin?

Thank you.

BlackWinny
BlackWinny
6 September 2014 at 3:33pm

Can you PM me, I'll send you it in private (since it is a freeware).

AXP
AXP
6 September 2014 at 4:00pm
The site will be up later tonight. Thanks for your interest.
AXP
AXP
6 September 2014 at 4:00pm
The site will be up later tonight. Thanks for your interest.
BlackWinny
BlackWinny
6 September 2014 at 4:05pm

Ok. Nice! Your amps are really excellent! It would have been pity to loose them so quickly...

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