Product Reviews by KVR Members

To be honest, Rectifiers never have been my favorite amps. But this plugin sounds excellent. It also seems to sound a little bit different to some other Dual Rectifier simulations, which I've heard or tried up to now.

I've noticed a more dynamical reaction, a generally more aggressive, more transparent sound with less fender-like politeness and compression, which I noticed on other Rectifier simulations, instead with more of an almost British voiced directness and rawness, nevertheless the tones still remain typical, excellent Rectifier tones.

Apart from a lot of other great tones for me the real secret weapon of this plugin is - really surprising for me - the Pushed voicing of channel 1. It not only creates the expected decently crunched Tweed amp tones, but at higher gain settings you also get some (for a Mesa Boogie) astonishingly great sounding and very dynamically reacting JTM/JMP Plexi tones, with the additional advantages of a really good working tone control plus even more fine-tuning options due to the very effective Bold/Spongy and Tube/Diode switches. Maybe with more of this typical Mesa Boogie low-end, but this is not necessarily a disadvantage, and also can be reduced easily if wished by reducing Bass.

This voicing alone would be worth the plugin. In fact it was the main reason for my purchase.

I also noticed, that the 3 different voicings of channel 2 and 3 seem to be better balanced than on some other Rectifier simulations, so the different voicings also seem to be better usable, as they all have their different, special qualities.

A great sounding all round amp.

Tones to die for.

Simply the best, most naturally sounding and reacting simulation of an EVH amp, I know.

Great, convincing tones, authentic feeling and reaction of a real tube amp while playing, good built in cabinet selection, but also the IR loader works fine. The Cleaner is - additionally to the regular tone conrtols a good idea, as it allows reducing (too intense) low end or high end sizzle. In most cases it anyway is not really necessary, as the plugin anyway sounds top notch, but it can be used for some additional tone shaping as well.

Interesting plugin, good sounding, natural saturation combined with nice, more or less decent modulation and other sound shaping options. Some presets even remind me a little bit of a Leslie in slow mode.

Very interesting concept! Can sound really strange or weird, but also very good. Sound quality also seems to be very good.

Some presets and a manual would be helpful. Nevertheless a great idea.

One wish - concerning all your plugins: I miss an ASIO implementation on the standalone versions, as the ChowCentaur already has it. Also an on-off bypass switch would be fine.

One of these plugins, for which I've been waiting for years.

Not only is it long overdue, that especially this pedal gets a good sounding plugin release, this one also sounds excellent. As it is also usable as standalone solution, it even sounds fantastic without any additional amp simulation or cabinet IR.

Great, very natural tone and response. Convincing alternative to Tube Screamers and other pedals. Should also work well with bass, synthesizers, organs, ... I think.

All I miss is an on-off bypass-switch.

(One issue(?) I've noticed is, that in neural mode the display shows porcessing but sometimes the signal is not routed to the output, you don't hear anything, or sometimes only after some time, or the signal routing stops abruptly. The same happens sometimes, if you switch from traditional to neural mode. Also in neural mode some plugins, which are connected to the output of the ChowCentaur seem to receive a signal, other don't. But in traditional mode everything always works fine.).

Sounds and behaves even better than the real gear! Much more flexible too, due to a lot of additional features.

Although the plugin has some disadvantages, which mainly seem to be issues of the real gear, not of the programming itself, it sounds very unique and excellent, if you're looking for vintage tube (amp) tones with a lot of individual character.

The amplifier section sounds fantastic, but it also can – if you wish - sound really noisy without the noise reduction properly adjusted. Great vintage tube amp tones, at higher gain settings you get extremely naturally and musically sounding crunch and even great overdrive tones with the right harmonics, good dynamic reaction and a typical tube saturation.

One of – if not – the creamiest, smoothest tube saturation / overdrive, I've ever heard from a plugin. Usually I complain about too much (digital) harshness of most – so called - tube simulation circuits, I know, especially at higher gain/saturation settings, whether they are amp simulations, equalizers or compressors, here I personally sometimes would like a little more addditional treble bite and rawness, but this additional bite you also can add with the equalizer section, if adjusted as treble booster.

I personally use this plugin mostly with electric guitar, as this amplifier has it's very own, unique sound with a very special character, some early breakup tube amp tone with a lot of sweet, singing sustain and very good harmonics reproduction, also with good dynamic reaction, ranging from clean through crunch to even excellently sounding tube overdrive, which I hardly can compare with any real (guitar) amp, as even most vintage (guitar) amps, I know, cannot produce these kind of tones, modern amps anyway not.

Maybe these tones are comparable to some late 50's, early 60's British audio or studio tube gear or amps (Mullard, Watkins, , , , ), it is neither really a typical Tweed nor a typical Plexi tone. Basically some sort of fuller bodied, harmonically richer and well balanced, very musically sounding vintage tube tone.

The plugin sounds excellent in combination with guitar, but also should work well with other instruments, I think, if you're looking for a lot of vintage voiced tube breakup colouration and saturation.

The tone section works fine, if you adjust it properly, allows good fine tuning, as you can boost or cut individually selected frequencies, obviously the Tone Level control works reverse, boost needs turning counterclockwise, cut turning clockwise.

The limiter/compressor section basically would sound great, but unfortunatey at more intense attenuation settings the output signal increases again, if the input signal gets weaker, so it reacts more like a swell pedal, which in most cases practically is not very useful or the desired result, rather some creative effect, even if this may be the authentic reaction and behaviour of this circuit. Some additional setting options would be useful to be able to adjust this section so, that it works like a typical limiter/compressor.

The three different sections, amplifier, equalizer and limiter/compressor can be activated individually, which is a useful feature.

I also noticed that the signal output is extremely high at higher gain settings, even more with equalizer in boost mode, so an additional master / output volume control would be helpful.

The quality of the tube simulation and the very unique sonic character of this plugin – apart from these smaller issues - are excellent. Nevertheless I think, some people will like this plugin, because of it's unique character, others will not, because of the same reasons.

Very good sounding, useful plugin (at least for me). Generally works with all audio sources or instruments, but I mainly use it as an additional gain and tone shaping stage in combination with electric guitars and (vintage) amp simulations.

You don not really get the huge amount of gain of a typical guitar tube amplifier preamp, but you get very convincing, authentically sounding, clean to slightly crunched tube tones, which work fine as additional tube booster in front of eg. an already good sounding Tweed, Vox or Plexi simulation. Bass also sounds great through this plugin, alone, but also in combination with eg. an Ampeg simulation the tone really improves - for my taste.

For more overdriven tones you can also cascade two or more of these units, which also seems to work very well.

Mixing triode and pentode character allows good control over even and odd harmonics. The tube simulations really sound - and also as important – behave and react very authentically to the input signal, in terms of attack and dynamics, which is not always taken for granted if compared to some other tube simulation plugins, I know. Here you get very tube typical tones and behavior and a very realistic harmonics reproduction.

Bass cut, circuit temperature and circuit power control allow good fine adjustment, as well as the three different, selectable tube types.

For me one of the most realistic sounding and reacting tube circuit simulations, I know. Good tones at a low, fair price, if compared with some other, similar products from competitors, which sonically did not convince me more, to be honest.

Nevertheless my personal wishes for maybe a future upgrade would be an additional treble cut, a mid-notch or even boost/cut with adjustable or some selectable frequencies between 250Hz and 2500Hz and also more gain or an additional gain boost option or alternatively a second, swichable triode stage.

Hooray! My favorite spring reverb is back and even more flexible and better sounding than before.

I always liked original version, but unfortunately it did nor seem to work properly or not at all in combination with Win7 64-bit or later. At least not on my systems, which I always regretted.

This new plugin really sounds and works great, and the huge number of different IR's are a big advantage. Great selection of different reverbs.

Nevertheless I think, two additional options could even improve this plugin in the future: An additional IR-loader, so that you also can use other, external (spring) reverb impulses, and maybe a mixing/blending option, so that you can individually mix two different reverb impulses, maybe even with a .wav save and export option.

After some first testing this tube amp simulation really seems to be one of the really good and very naturally sounding tube amp simulations on the market.

I often have the impression that an authentically GUI meanwhile is more important than authentic sounding and reacting tones for tube amp simulations, or at least helps a lot to cover missing sonic authenticity. One company once defined this as "...inspired by legendary amps". My personal interpretation of a definition like this usually after testing was "We tried to come close to the real amp's tones but unfortunately failed."

Therefore I find it positive here, that this plugin does not even try to simulate the look of a specific tube amp, but gives you a well organized set of adjusting and tweaking tools instead and concentrates on sonic quality and authenticity.

The presets are a good orientation, in fact this plugin seems to be extremely flexible, you can adjust good sounding clean as well as high gain tones and almost everything in between at a very high quality level, to be honest, a lot of well known - and also more or less expensive - amp simulations from a lot of professional competitors sound much more wrong and worse to me than this one.

The real (not only for a freeware plugin) luxurious secret weapon of this plugin seems to be the Staging section, which not only allows to select the number of preamp gain stages but also offers some more tweaking options, like blending between a more mid-scooped American and a typical British voiced tonestack and much more. Also very useful are the decent informations, what a control does, if you move over it or use it.

Very musically, organically, naturally sounding tube amp tones, with also good dynamic reaction.

Maybe for even more additional tweaking options some different preamp and power amp tubes could be added in the future (eg. Mullard, EI, Tesla, RFT ECC83, Sylvania, Tung-Sol, RCA 12AX7, Russian 6N2P, ... as preamp tubes, EL34, EL84, 6L6, KT88 from different manufacturers as power amp tubes, or maybe also selectable single ended or push-pull power amp circuits, with pentode/triode switching.).

But also as it is now, this is one of the best and most naturally sounding tube amp simulations for me, I've heard in the last time.

The most positive, most musically sounding plugin surprise for me this year.

Keep on developing so good and professionally sounding and working plugins! And thank you very much for this one.

Addition after some time of testing: I unfortunately noticed meanwhile that the overall sound - especially if compared to my favorite amp simulations - always sounds a little bit too musty and muddy for my taste, independent of the tone and gain controls. Somehow like heard though a curtain. Treble and harmonics could be more present, bass and mids could sound tighter, not as loose and present as now. Usually I complain about to digital and harsh sounding treble, here the sound is too round and diffuse for my taste, some typical treble, harmonics bite, directness and freshness is missing, also the dynamic reaction to pick attack could be improved. Sounds rather to me, as if the plugin had a built in always on compressor.