Product Reviews by KVR Members

Nice, in principle good sounding amp sim.

Everything necessary is there, soundwise it is - in my opinion - more American voiced, which means, you get some good clean, crunch up to intense overdrive / lead sounds out of it with some sort of more Fender / Mesa Boogie than Marshall oriented character, I would say.

Bright and Clean Blend are nice features for fine-tuning, the GEQ anyway. Some visual center position of the EQ would have been nice, also a reset to zero option and maybe a separate eq preset storing option, but as this is freeware I do not want to complain.

The cabinet section also works fine, I only noticed that, if I deactivated it and wanted to use external IR's instead, the final sound became a little too dull and indirect for my taste. Obviously using the built-in cabinet(s) is the better choice here, unfortunately, as I usually prefer using my own IR's, but ok.

Also the position of the main power switch irritated me first, as I thought, that this was the cabinet on/off switch.

Apart from these minor complaints a nice, simple, but effective amp simulation with - properly adjusted - a lot of good and useful sounds.

Well, it fuzzes...

But in my opinion who seriously needs any bass-overloaded fuzz tones in 2023 after decades with transparent overdrives and bass reduced overdrive and distortion pedals?

Does, what it promises, but is not really my sound, not even with the GEQ activated. I get better sound out of my favorite tube amp plugins alone.

The right choice, if you look for typical late 1960's to early 1970's fuzz tones, but not really a competitor to a good SD-1, DS-1, Klon Centaur, OCD or RAT simulation in my opinion, despite of the - theoretically - more flexible adjustment options.

Sounds too transistorized, scratchy, trashy and inharmonious for my taste, sorry. High-Gain Rectifier Mayhem or a serious alternative to any other good high-gain real tube amp simulation this is certainly not.

Maybe it works better with sythesizers....

Almost everything, you can expect from a delay, in a single plugin.

Not only usable for texture or ambience delays, but also of course. Very musical, natural sound, excellent sound quality and almost every feature, which you can need.

I usually do not like digital delays, but prefer tape echo plugins, but they sometimes do not exactly sound as I want them to sound. The four bottom controls of the Tungsten (Dual, Fdbk, Smear, Wear) allowed me, to adjust within some seconds exactly the delay/echo sound, which I always had been looking for.

Not to speak of some more unusual delay or drone sounds, if you use freeze and/or grain.

I can only be grateful, that a top-notch plugin like this is freeware. So thank you very much to the developer of this masterpiece.

Cool look too.

Cool, extremely flexible chorus (and more) with a really good basic sound, which you can alter very intensely. Sound quality is excellent, the results never sound digital or sterile but very organic and natural.

You can adjust almost everything to your needs, from vintage chorus or even flanger sounds to more modern ones, but you can also adjust some nice, more unusual experimental or spacious modulation sounds.

I think, this is - if properly adjusted - one of the best sounding and also most flexible chorus plugins, which I ever have heard, if not the best one.

Not only for a freeware plugin excellent! Highly recommended.

Certainly not an amp (plugin) for everybody. But also much more than just a Metal amp plugin, although for this specific use this plugin is excellent, of course.

Not only, but also the perfect choice for guitars with dropped tunings, seven- or eight-string or baritone guitars, due to the tight basic voicings, even more in combination with the additional Tight control, which the plugin, but not the real amp offers.

Typical, maybe even more "metallized" Engl sounds, but due to the several switches (Bright, Bass boost, Mid boost, ...) also more decent, not only Metal compatible voicings are adjustable.

The Clean channel also already offers nice crunch sounds, but also some good. more modern voiced cleans, of course, but certainly is no vintage clean channel, although you also can adjust some more vintage character to it, by adding the Bass boost and/or reducing Treble and Presence, while the Crunch channel already offers as much overdrive as the Lead channels on some other amps, Lead I and II sound even heavier, if not to say, brutal, nevertheless very musically.

This plugin proves, why a lot of great guitarists use an Engl on stage. Maybe not especially this one, but in principle the typical concept is very much the same, only the basic voicings can differ between more vintage oriented and more modern and aggressive.

These amps simply sound excellent, are capable of cutting through every mix and the voicings are more intensely individually customizable or adjustable to different guitars and cabinets than the amps of some competitors.

This is no amp, on which every setting automatically sounds right, but once you have adjusted the controls right - in combination with the used guitar and cabinet - you can get absolutely fantastic sounds.

Also due to the immense gain, but also treble reserves sometimes less is more here, especially concerning preamp Gain, Treble and Presence. Nevertheless treble sounds excellently, never too shrill, scratchy or too digital.

Even better, if not to say, iconic is the harmonics reproduction and reaction to pick attack of this plugin, which lets you completely forget, that this is "only" a plugin and not the real amp itself. Very much like a real good, old Plexi, but only on double steroids and much, much hotter and heavier.

Due to the tons of gain this plugin is comparably more noisy than some others. I also found, that adjusting threshold alone, which usually works fine for me, is not always enough here. If I want to let some tones ring out, the tail still included some noise again or the signal was cut off too early, but with the three controls you can adjust the Noise Gate to your playing style well, it only lasted some time to find my personal best setting.

I am not really a Metal or drop tuning player, but this amp / plugin sounds awesome and also is a good choice for other sorts of overdrive and high-gain, due to the fantastic harmonics and also the very flexible sound shaping options, which allow a lot of sonic customizations.

One of the best Engl-based plugins, which I have heard up to now. I also find the Engl typical concept with the additional voicing switches sonically more flexible in comparison with competitors. A Rectifier, 5150 or SLO have their very unique sounds, which you can fine tune more or less, while this amp / plugins also offers more different voicings than the basic ones, also due to the wide range of the single controls.

If the plugin sounds a little bit too sharp, too aggressive and direct in mono mode, try using it in combination with eg. a good adjustable mono to stereo widener plugin, which smoothes out everything a little, adds some more dimensionality and chances are good, that you land in high-gain heaven, even without needing any additional delay or any other improvements.

This plugin also proves, that a really talented, skilled and experienced programmer even in 2023 does a better job than any AI based neural network. Unfortunately there are not very much programmers existing worldwide, which are comparable with Mr. Nembrini. Therefore I am very grateful, that programmers like him still exist and that they do such an excellent work, even if some marketing hypes rather lead into a different direction during the last years.

Highly, highly recommended.

Obviously Mr. Wolff's - whoever he may be - ideas about a good phaser and mine are worlds apart.

The plugin has a lot of controls and sometimes you even manage to adjust some usable sounds, but more often not. What you not or only hardly can adjust, are any authentic Small Stone, Phase 90 or PS-1A, much less any Bi-Phase tones, which are for me the typical phaser tones, which I expect or am looking for, if I want to use a phaser.

This plugin does not really sound like a phaser to me, sorry. It just "wobbles around" a little. Or a little more, but it has no really unique, musical phasing character at all. No matter how you adjust all the knobs. It also does not at all sound unique or as iconic as the already mentioned pedals.

So maybe usable as an average studio phaser for commercial music, but for guitars (or synthesizers) it does not really convince me in any way. Less features, but better, more iconic sounds I had preferred more.

I have freeware phasers, which nail the tone much better, using less knobs, if not only a single one and this for free.

In principle a flexible tape echo, but unfortunately no authentic simulation of a real model, like eg. a Copicat or Echoplex. Maybe a little more similar to a Space Echo, which I unfortunately never really liked very much.

Not really bad, but sonically not really my taste. The tape echo tones, I am looking for, sound different. For me it rather sounds like an average digital delay, which has been modified with some additions to sound more "tape echoish".

Drive and Dirt controls do something, but the results do not really remind me of - for me - typical tape echo tones, if delay time is set to zero, the results rather sound like a flanger to me. Some modulation wobbling, more similar to typical Memory Man modulations than to authentic, mechanical tape echo irregularities.

Is usable, but hardly will replace any of my favorite tape echo plugins.

The basic concept of this plugin may be good, but unfortunately the realization is not for my taste. Needs a quality upgrade in my opinion.

Also this strange 1970's home audio GUI looks awful.

Nice Bluesbreaker combo amp, which in principle is a JTM45 with Tremolo (only in the Normal channel) added. Also nice T650 Celestions, better known as Silver Alnicos, which offer more mids and a more decent treble range than eg. the Alnico Blue. In some way some sort of predecessor of the G12M's, I would say in the same way as the Bluesbreaker/JTM45 is the predecessor of the 1959.

The amps sound similar, but the Bluesbreaker has a slightly different voicing with (still) more bass and less intense treble, in principle still closer to a Bassman than a SLP is. Nevertheless the typical Marshall vintage crunch is well audible.

The 212 cabinet also is an open back, which of course also sounds different to a closed back 412.

Nice vintage tone, but the amp has a tendency to sound more diffuse and more muddy than a 1987/1959, nevertheless you get some beautiful tones, if you adjust the amp properly. Using the High Treble channel alone works nice in combination with bass reduction and more presence, for example. Also the clean sounds are beautiful, so, what you get are some good Yardbirds to Cream tones, for Hendrix, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin tones I rather recommended the 1959.

The Tremolo sounds ok, but unfortunately is limited to the Normal channel, which is authentically, but I personally had preferred it also or even more in the High Treble channel too. But ok.

The Bluesbreaker is an amp, on which not every setting automatically sounds great, mostly because of the vintage design, but you can adjust some really good, authentic sounds. Played through a 412 G12M cabinet you get the typical JTM45 sounds, so this plugin also is nice, more vintage voiced alternative to the 1959. For vintage Marshall fans anyway a must-have, I think.

Good choice, if you look for classic 1960's vintage tones which sound different than typical Tweed amps or than a Vox.

Good programming work.

Really cool, innovative and useful plugin.

The Celestion speaker shaper offers a lot of well known options but also some rather unusual ones.

The system is based on 8 popular guitar and 3 bass Celestions, which can be even more customized and used in cabinets with 1 to 8 speakers. The different cabinets are mixable, also a very good microphone selection of 8 microphones is included.

One of the more unusuals features is speaker size adjustment. Did you even want to know, how a 8" V30 sounds or a 24" Pulse? No problem here and also not everything in between.

You can also customize the speakers concerning age, ohms, new, used, have the choice between open or closed back cabinets plus some other useful features like eg. the choice of the used magnet: Ferrite M, Ferrite H, Alnico, Neodymium. Take eg. a G12M, replace the Ferrite M with an Alnico and you get - more or less - a Ruby. Take the G12M Creamback and use the Ferrite H and you get the G12H Creamback but you are not limited to existing speakers. Ever wanted to know, how a 15" V30 sounds with Neodymium magnet? No problem.

This system is a lot of fun but also a very nice, useful tool which can produce convincing results fast and easy.

The big advantage is it's flexibility. I personally do not think, that this system will replace any large, already existing cabinet IR libraries, but is is or can be a good alternative or even addition, I think.

Another advantage is, that this plugin also works within Amp Room, where it allows in my opinion more flexibility and much better adjustment options, than the built-in cabinets offer.

For me one of the most innovative plugins, not only from Softube.

My only complaint is, that it could have included some more speakers, like eg. the V-Type, the 10 Creamback or also some not anymore produced Celestions, like eg. some Blackbacks or a Sidewinder...

But this is complaining at a very high level.

If you also consider what you have to pay for single good cabinet IR sets - although some excellent ones also are offered comparably cheap too - this also is a comparably cheap solution, not only for guitar but also for bass, if not a bargain.

The by far most extreme Softube Marshall plugin.

Think about two JCM's stacked and with Treble and Presence at 10! Or something like this.

Not really my idea of a great Marshall sound, but this amp obviously is intended to be played live on very big stages very, very loud and there should cut through every mix, I think.

Very intense treble and harmonics, very tight bass, so no really the right choice for fans of eg. Rectifier or 5150 sounds with tight, but massive bass, this amp is more extreme, with a focus on immense treble and - more or less - mids, even more on harmonics.

For my personal taste too extreme, also because of the 412 K-100's, but nevertheless a good plugin, if you look especially for this very special Kerry King sound.

What I had preferred more instead, would have been the unique, white/blue Yuki/D_Drive JVM as a plugin. She not only looks much better, but also plays much better than Kerry King for my taste.

Very special, but well programmed, nevertheless.