TaraTube Overdrive & Distortion vacuum tube

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.