smaolab

Works well in Reaper. Excellent sound quality with tremendous versatility. Resizable GUI. Recommended.

I really was curious about this release.

I already have some tube simulation plugins and as a guitarist of course a lot of tube amp plugins, but I never have been a big fan of tubeless overdrive/distortion pedals in front of a tube amp. Nevertheless sometimes one or more additional tube gain stages are a good and useful idea - in my opinion - for optimizing tone.

Also sometimes a simple, but authentic sounding tube preamp tone is what I'm looking for.

The TaraTube seems to do a good job for these purposes.

The basic sound (1-3 gain stages) reminds me in a very positive and naturally sounding way of a typical Tweed amp preamp, nice sparkling treble, good bass and a really authentic tube tone with also good dynamic reaction.

Adding more gain stages thickens things up a little more, which also results - in combination with an electric guitar - in the typical unfiltered vintage amp bass overdrive, which sometimes can already sound a little bit too loose and maybe a little bit too fuzzy, but this problem you also have with any unfiltered real tube (pre)amp circuit.

Nevertheless one of the most naturally sounding tube tones, which I know from a plugin like this.

Reducing bass to make the plugin a little bit more compatible as tube overdrive is easy, all you have to do is to add an equalizer or even a simple hp-filter and reduce the bass frequencies somewhere in between 70 - 160 Hz.

This improvement "plexifies" the tone a little so that also more gain stages and more overdrive will sound more convincing - in my opinion.

If I use or build a real preamp tube circuit, I also easily get some typical tube compression, if I stack at least 3 or 4 stages, which results in noticeably more sustain and compression, which I miss here a little, if I add some more gain stages. On the other hand here the tone - even with more gain stages - remains very naturally and dynamically.

I suppose the gain stage simulation is a simple and rather neutral one without any cathode bypass capacitor and comparably low plate resistor. Maybe a switchable hotter alternative would be a nice idea for an future version.

But at least an additional hp filter would be the more important improvement in my opinion, maybe also a lp filter for reducing some of the very high frequencies, if not a complete tone stack.

But this is just an idea for a future upgrade maybe and complaining at a very high level.

Also of course does a good job for adding some very good tube character to all sorts of other instruments or even to vocals.

If you need an authentic, excellent and very naturally sounding all-round tube tone for almost every purpose, this plugin is in my opinion a great choice, even better sounding and working than some comparable commercial alternatives, which I know.

Good work! Thank you for offering such a gem as freeware.

Really good tones.

In my opinion rather an overdrive than a distortion plugin, which I personally anyway find better. Nice, natural saturation and clipping, in my opinion better sounding than eg. a Tube Screamer or comparable units.

What I miss a little is some "British punch", like you get it eg. from an OCD, the tones here rather remind me of some American Tweed amps, which also is a nice choice.

Maybe a little bit similar to a Klon Centaur, very transparent tone, but maybe even more naturally sounding and reacting.

Amount does a good job, as it allows rounder, warmer tones without making them too muddy as well as sharper, more treble oriented ones, which also do not sound too shrill or harsh.

One of my favorite (free) amp plugins, which usually does not like overdrive/distortion pedals in front very much, also harmonizes well with this one.

The Dry/Wet control also is a good and useful idea.

I'm curious about the release of TaraTube and am hoping that it has a comparable good quality.