Kerry King Signature

Thrash metal is visceral, energetic, aggressive. Getting the right depth and texture of sound, the right bite in the attack, the right snarl on the tail, is essential. You need an amp like a wild animal, like a fighter, like a beast.

Kerry King has spent four decades at the vanguard of the scene, blazing trails and busting guts with his edgy in-your-face sound, so naturally his signature amp – the custom Marshall 2203KK, a.k.a. "The Beast" – is the only place to start if you're after super high gain and punchy articulation in a single rig.

Beast Mode

"Beast Mode" engages Kerry's own signature EQ-boost-and-gate combo for an extra million percent of awesome.

Expert engineers

Softube brought in Kerry's own engineers, Terry Date for studio setups, and Chris Paccou for live, to give the most authentic, mix-ready version of Kerry's sound possible.

Component-modeled for perfection

Close enough is not good enough for Kerry, for Marshall, or for Softube. So we go component-by-component to build the most detailed software models possible.

More than an amp

Signature amps are nothing new – this plug-in is a model of the custom hardware Kerry King signature amp from Marshall, closely recreating Kerry's very own unit with all its quirks and special sauce. What's extra-special about this plug-in is the detail beyond the amp itself – down to the cab, the microphones, the engineers, the spaces, we've built a complete mix-ready workflow.

The amp's four KT88 power stage tubes have been expertly modeled, along with every other individual component of this premium unit, to give the most accurate software emulation imaginable. But that's only the beginning of the signature experience.

Top experts in thrash tone

We recorded impulse responses from Kerry's own Marshall Mode Four 4x12" cabinets (featuring Celestion G12K-100 12" speakers) at the famous Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles with multiple professional mic selections and placements designed by iconic producer/engineer Terry Date, famous for his work with Deftones, Pantera, Dream Theater, and Overkill. So down to the cab, the room, the microphones, you're getting all the top-quality studio sound of a mix-ready thrash setup.

On top of that, we visited with Kerry at a stadium show in Stockholm in 2018 to capture his on-stage live setup too, overseen by FoH engineer Chris Paccou. There's huge variety in this plug-in, and yet at every setting it sounds phenomenal; curated by the world's leading engineers in these tones.

The Kerry King Cabs panel

In addition to the amp itself, the plug-in provides a complete setup and workflow for getting mix-ready sounds. Both studio and live setups are represented in the side panel with cabs and microphones recorded in real world situations for the greatest depth and authenticity of sound.

You can take the recommendations of Terry Date, engineer for some of the greatest bands in the history of heavy music, or tweak and combine them in the 'custom' section, with a channel for each specific microphone placement offering pan, volume, and phase. Explore every fantastic facet of this amp's sound.

The real thing

Making great music requires a mix of hard work and inspiration. We've done a ton of hard work on this plug-in so you can get inspired by using the very same gear as a verifiable colossus of the thrash metal scene.

So whether you're engaging "Beast Mode" and smashing a stadium with Kerry's own signature EQ-boost-and-gate combo, or laying down gutsy layers in the studio, you can rely on the Softube Marshall Kerry King Signature amp to get you sounding bigger, better, and beastlier than any mere human should.

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