Product Reviews by KVR Members

I usually only use tape echoes as I do not like the tones of modern delay units very much.

So I was very positively surprised about the tones which this delay is capable of. All the different features not only allow good, flexible modern delay sounds but also really convincing vintage delay to echo tones, which you additionally can refine with Grit or Smear, so I was capable of recreating some nice vintage echoes with the advantage of some more additional features like the modulation, ducking and filter sections, if necessary.

The only things I miss are more detailed informations about the different patterns of the pattern control in the manual.

Would be helpful in maybe the next upgrade.

Nevertheless one of the most flexible and best sounding delays, which I know. Highly recommmended.

Excellently sounding recreation of one of the most unique and iconic synthesizers even, in my opinion.

I also know some other plugins which are based on this instrument, some also with some more features, but in comparison I personally find the Lowdown the one with the most authentic, most convincing sound.

Only a few, but very effective controls, so the unit is sonically more flexible than it looks at first glance.

I only have a single wish for a future upgrade, an additional waveform selector for both oscillators, as some other simulations already have it. Even if this may not be absolutely authentic, it increases the sonic flexibility a lot.

Not only for the quality comparably cheap and also sonically very flexible spring reverb plugin.

I know some good sounding sping reverb plugins bujt even more not really convincingly sounding ones, at least for me. For some time therefore I preferred using convolution reverb solutions, if it came to spring reverb, but these ones also have some limitations, especially concerning the recording quality of these files, which can differ a lot.

The Hornet SpringVerb seems to sound very good, it can be adjusted very individually and even some more extreme settings seem to sound really convincing, nice natural, organic tones, simple, but effective GUI and controls, selecting the number of springs (1,2,3) alone changes a lot but not only, you can easily adjust some small, decent spring reverb as well as large, dense and intense ones and a lot in between.

Some presets would have been fine.

Nevertheless five stars for the sound quality and flexibility. Good work.

Nice tube warmer, sounds good. Unfortunately it - even at higher drive settings - still remains very clean, so it is hardly usable as some sort of tube overdrive, not even if you stack some instances.
But the clean tube sound is really good, also in front of another tube amp or tube preamp.
For adding tube character to some digital sources it works fine, also as a clean guitar tube (pre)amp or booster.

I do not see - or hear - any cutting edge development, sorry.

First I do not see any sense in a convolution reverb with some fixed IR's, which cannot be replaced by other individual ones from within the plugin, second I do not see any modifying options, not even a simple hp and lp filter, much less other controls apart for the mix knob, third after some seconds always audio processing stops, especially if selecting another IR and cannot be activated again or the pugin not only crashes my DAW but also my soundcard, so that I have to restart my whole system. (My Intel i7 hexcore from 2021 should not be the problem, I think.).

Tried it several times, always the same result. Fourth, the built in IR's don't even sound very good in my opinion.

There are a lot of much more flexible and also much more reliable working convolution reverb plugins available, which do what they promise.

Maybe you better change your marketing proposal to "the fastest crashing convolution reverb". Just an idea which at least comes closer to reality in my opinion.

Even for a 0.95 pre-relase disappointing. 0,95 for me means, that all basic functions work flawlessly, but maybe some minor bugs still occur. So this for me rather is a 0.1 "sketch", certainly not ready for release.

I also do not mind very much, if a plugin is CPU or GPU based. If it does not work as it should, it simply is a fail.

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.

In general, good, natural sounds, but in some aspects unusual controls. A manual would have been more helpful than a boring, amateurish demo video alone.

The reverbs sound good, work fine, also delay and phaser, unfortunately I cannot say the same about chorus.
With width at zero activated chorus reduces output level drastically, but chorus more or less sounds like a chorus should. But if you turn on width, you immediately get an increased output level, combined with a lot of metallic, synthetic noise, which to me sounds like a combination of ring modulator and comb filter, but hardly has anything to do with my idea of a chorus, rather damages the whole sound in my opinion.
Widening for me is something different. A good sounding chorus even more.

Therefore the chorus section needs an upgrade, as it is, it is more or less unusable in my opinion, which is a pity, as the rest of the plugin really sounds convincing, also the flexible eq is a good idea.

Adjustable delay time in milliseconds is missing, a manual, which gives more precise infomations about some functions and also an option to choose between m/s and l/r would be fine, I think.

A trial/demo version also would have been a good idea. Even more, as this meanwhile - just like a manual - should be anyway self-evident for a new plugin.

Could be an excellent plugin with some improvements, I hope they will follow soon.

One point deduction for the chorus, another one for the missing manual and demo version.

At first glance interesting, at second boring.

In principle a very simple synthesizer, combined with a handful of nature tone samples, which can be mixed with the synthesizer tones.

The samples are nor even "playable" nor editable, which means, they always sound the same, independent of the keys you use. All you can do is to adjust the mixing level.

Amateurish concept in a nice GUI, but nothing innovative nor outstanding. Synthesizer tones are not bad, but also far away from being in ayn way unique or top notch.

Rather some sort of "my first synthesizer" toy for kids in my opinion.

One of the best sounding and most flexible synthesizer plugins, which I know.

Almost too many features, but of course you do not need to use them all, alone the existing presets sound very good. I've also bought some more vintage based expansions, which also up to now did not disappoint me.

More than fair price for the quality and features.

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.