Product Reviews by KVR Members

Really cool addition, with three really essential amps. Ok, the Rock '59 RR is not really Sixties, but rather Seventies, as little as it's G12T-75 speakers, but Input I offers a typical Sixties Plexi tone nevertheless. while Input 2 offers the Hot-Rod tone, so it in fact is two amps in one.

The Fuzz and Treble Booster are essential effects for this era, even more useful is the Magnetic Delay (Echorec 2 - Gilmour/Pink Floyd), as it offers a very unique sounds, a little different to tape echoes, even more to later analog and digital delays and this in excellent quality.

Overloud also offers the Echorec as separate plugin in the GEM series, but this one is more expensive and for guitar use this version offers in principle all you really will need, including all authentic, switchable head combinations plus individual time adjustment, so alone this Echo unit could be worth a purchase.

The AC15 is a nice AC30 alternative, the Super Reverb also does a good job and Rock '59 RR offers a lot more sounds than first expected.

Also the amp deep editing option, which allows the use of different tubes, is a nice feature for some customizations.

The cabinets sound good, but meanwhile I almost always prefer using SuperCabinet (with the TH-U amps, but also with Rig Player), as it even offers more customization and tailoring options.

Recommended.

Really cool, excellent "darker" off-mainstream sounds, usable from cinematic to halloween and beyond and also more intense editable for more individual use.

Good, sonically flexible freeware entry into the Mndala 2 world with nevertheless a lot of useful editing and deep editing opions. Recommended.

Could have become a good plugin, if the sounds, even the Dry version were not as much reverb overloaded. You get more of a room sound and some other modulations, than of a natural drum sound.

If you look for a drum sound with a lot of reverb, distortion and modulations added, this plugin might be the right one for you. If you look for an authentic, pure, organic and not "digitally optimized /made worse" Taiko Drum sound, you hardly will get the desired results.

I like real Taikos or similar drums, but these tones have not been, what I expected.

In other words, real, recorded or sampled Taiko Drums sound different, at least for me. Their natural harmonics, which are capable of filling a whole room or hall, do not even need any additional digital reverb, distortion or modulations, to sound great.

Nice GUI, nevertheless, unfortunately not equally nice tones.

Mndala 2 is a interesting plugin platform, the plugins themselves mostly are some sort of interesting off-mainstream selections, mostly somewhere between (natural) noises and (really good, but rather unusual) instruments.

While Mandala's first version still was a little more complicated, Mndala 2 now presents itself as a professional, well designed platform with an individual, also very good working concept, so this is not just another sample player, but something much more complex at contemporary state-of-the-art level.

The presets usually already sound good, can be modified by an interesting visual control system, but Mndala 2 also allows a lot of additional editing and deep editing options too, so at first glance all the possibilities and features are not really recognizable.

Klavir is at first glance a more "regular" piano plugin, with only few presets, but if you use them, you soon notice, that this plugin is much more than just a simple piano plugin.

The sounds are based on this captured piano, but they range up to drones, pads, even to some sort of piano-sound-based synthesizer tones, which mostly sound excellent, but additionally can be intensely modified or altered to even completely different tones too.

Also a good start into Mndala 2, as Klavir is freeware but is nevertheless capable of showing the user the potential of the whole system.

Highly recommended.

First of all, as JEN as well as Thomas Organ are mentioned in the description:

As far as I know the history and even if it seems to be desribed and written wrong in Wikipedia, Thomas Organ did not invent the Wah, but Vox. (But this would be a longer story...).

After my first testing of this plugin I therefore really was very pleased, that this plugin really simulates the tone of a real Vox/JEN wah and not a Thomas Organ design based Dunlop, which I never liked.

The very first time, a Wah tone really made me grin all over my face, was, when I got my first JEN white Fasel Wah. This was this specia, uniquel Cream, Hendrix, Trower, .. tone, I always had been looking for and never got out of any other Wah pedal, especially not out of one based on the Thomas Organ design.

Therefore it is great for me, that this plugin sounds very authentically, just like my own real JEN.

So far, so good, but:

The GUI looks wrong, typical for a JEN is the yellowish-white border around the bottom plate, while the GUI seems to show just an ordinary Dunlop.

Even if this plugin is freeware, a wah pedal simulation plugin makes little sense to me, if it has no on/off swich and even more, if it has not option to control the wah sweep with a midi-expression-pedal while playing.
What sense makes especially a wah plugin, which you only can use as a fixed wah or as a post-editing effect, which only can be adjusted manually? Especially, if the sound itself is excellent.

This plugin would be the best sounding wah plugin, I have heard up to now, but without a pedal control option it is - at least for me - hardly usable. Unfortunately. How shall I use and control it, while playing, without a third hand?

Maybe also implementing an additional auto wah option could be a good idea, not really authentically, but if digital simulations can even be better or more flexible than the real thing, this might not be completely wrong, I think.

Also nice would be an option to be able to select between some different original Fasel inductor coils, a white and red would be a good choice, or if some customizing anyway happens, also alternatively a Halo coil.

Would be nice, if this plugin still could be upgraded with these features, as the tone itself really is very good. I would not mind to pay for an upgraded future version with these options. With them implemented, this immediately would be my favorite wah plugin. As it is, I unfortunately have hardly any use for it.

At the moment it is easier for me to plug my own JEN in front of my audio interface instead. (I still have kept my old Stealth MIDI pedal, as I was hoping for a really good sounding wah plugin like this one somewhen, but unfortunately I still cannot use it, due to the missing MIDI control option. What a pity!).

I have a few midi-expression-pedal-controllable wahs (Strange enough for me, that most wah plugins are not), but they unfortunately all do not really sound like a Vox/JEN does.

This one sounds, as a Vox/JEN wah should, but unfortunately is not pedal controllable, which is hard for me to understand. Is like a guitar without strings or a tube amp without tubes for me. May look nice, but does not really work, as it should.

For the excellent, authentic tone I would have given five stars. But at the moment one star is deducted again, because of the missing on/off switch and most of all the missing MIDI expression pedal control option.

Nice addition to TH-U.

I must admit, I am not the biggest fan of the Greg Howe amps, my main reason to buy this addition was the PlexiPhone / PlexiTone pedal.

I am not really a Tube Screamer fan and of most of my favorite pedals (OCD, Zendrive, Timmy, ..) there are not even any plugins available (not inside TH-U as little as outside) or at least not really very authentically sounding ones, so the PlexiPhone not only fills this sonic gap a little, in fact it is even more, a really good sounding Plexi-in-a-Box, which sounds more convincing to me than a lot of Plexi amp simulation plugins, apart from a few excellent exceptions.

Just add Supercabinet and you get a wide range of excellent Plexi-based tones, from classic crunch to high gain, even without the additional Boost.

As meanwhile also the Greg Howe Lick Box is existing, in principle an even more customized, a little different voiced version of the PlexiPhone / PlexiTone with separate Gain, Tone, Volume controls for both Crunch and High Gain mode, I really would appreciate, if this pedal also could be implemented into the Greg Howe addition in a future upgrade.

But even the PlexiPhone alone sounds more convincing to me than most Marshall models within TH-U, which I find strange. If you can create such a convincing simulation of this pedal, why does this not work with the real tube amps equally good?

But I'm anyway hardly using any TH-U amp models meanwhile, these simulation simply do not convince me very much, but TH-U also offers Rig Player alternatively, and - not all - but some Rig Libraries offer really convincing simulations, also beautiful rarities, which match my expectations on a good amp simulation much more.

The really outstanding exceptions, concerning the built-in models are the PlexiPhone and also the Rockguy / Rockman Sustainor for me.

Highly recommended for all TH-U users, who like good Plexi-based sounds.

I've tried to install the Beta Suite under Win10 on an Acer Nitro 5 from last year, but unfortunately my DAW's or hosts (Reaper, Canatbile, Cakewalk, Gig Performer) do not find any new plugins.

So I deleted this plugin again.

I also find it strange, that the installer asks me to define the program folder but does not ask me where to install the VST2 and VST3 files.

A lot of promises on the website, but up to now the released results have little to do with these promises, quite the opposite, sorry. From a Beta-version I at least expect, that the installation works flawlessly and that a DAW is capable of identifying the plugin as plugin.

As far as I have experienced up to now, just once again a lot of disappointing hot air, but little substance or content.

An - in principle good idea - is one thing, the realization often a completely different pair of shoes. Even more, if almost all other competitors do a much better job with at least working results.

One of the very few really convincingly sounding Plexi plugins, which I know.

Most of them simply do not at all nail this unique tone, especially concerning the low end and even more treble and harmonics. The amp simulation itself is excellent, although my favorite Plexi plugin nevertheless is another one, one advantage of the Softube version is the simulation of all possible channel bridging variations.
The look with the defect Middle control and the sticker is not really my taste, to be honest, but also does not affect the sound.

What - unfortunately - affects the sound is the channel strip, which precisely means, the cabinet/speaker/microphones section. In principle also not bad, Softube relied on the experience of a Mr. Tony Platt, who - even if has produced some AC/DC and Foreigner albums - seems to have a really strange taste if it comes to microphoning a 412 Marshall cabinet.

My main complaint is, that you have to choose between dynamic, FET or tube microphones only but cannot combine them, at least a SM57 and an U87 are existing, but unfortunately no ribbon R121, which in my opinion is essential for capturing a Marshall 412 cabinet, a SM57 for me basic tone plus some additional R121 for some more bottom is for me more or less the industrial standard, so I do not really understand, why this combination is missing here.

The bigger 1960BHW cabinet in principle also is a good choice, the G12H30's do a good job, but they will not match everybody's taste, I think. Some people would have preferred some G12M's, others maybe some Blackbacks or even some EVM 12L's.

I personally mostly prefer deactivating the channel strip and use a separate IR section with some other speakers/cabinets instead, which works well or use only the SM57 alone plus maybe a little U87 room character.

Nevertheless and despite of Mr. Pratt's strange taste a really convincing Plexi SLP simulation. My favorite Softube Marshall amp plugin, while the 2203 (which also is a JCM, not a JMP in my opinion) and the Kerry King do not convince me so much, due to the much too scratchy treble, the Silver Jubilee at least sounds much better and more pleasing to me than my real one from 1987.

The 1959 sounds to me, like a 1959 should sound, but some deep edition would be appreciated, eg. being able to choose between different tubes, Mullards, RFT's. EI's, ... or also between some additional speaker options.

Despite of my complaints five stars, as I only know one or two other, comparably good and authentically sounding Plexi plugins.

Nevertheless a directly recorded real Plexi still is a completely different pair of shoes....

In principle a really good plate reverb plugin. Seems to sound much smoother, rounder, more diffuse, more naturally and organically than a typical EMT-140 based plate reverb plugin.

I still am not sure, if I really like this smoothness so much as a replacement for or alternative to a typical EMT-140 plate reverb, but the RO-GOLD has it's own, more unique character and sounds very good in my opinion for some decent reverberation, wetter sounds rather remind me of a mix between a very good studio spring reverb plus some very warm real room reverberation, which is no bad result, but in my opinion not exactly the kind of tone, I personally associate with a typical, very intense plate reverb.

In other words, the RO-GOLD sounds in some way more naturally, more organically to me than a EMT-140, which has more this typical metallic plate reverb character, while the RO-GOLD already has more the character of some excellent, very well balanced real room reflections.

I personally would prefer it over most ambient reverbs, because of the beautiful natural character, which (still) sounds very unused and different to most other (plate) reverb plugins.

The few controls are sufficient for proper adjustment, reverb tones like these ones hardly will need more controls. If you like them, you like them, if not, more controls also hardly will change this impression.

As it is freeware you cannot do much wrong and try it.