Product Reviews by KVR Members

NAM Universal (NAMU) is great if you want to use NAM as a stereo instance on a rhythm guitar bus or if you want to run a stereo spring reverb in-front of a clean model without it getting collapsed back to mono. They've also included some other useful features like a tuner, pedal NAM model slot, dual IR loader and some useful effect modules. There are some problems/bugs and missing features that could be fixed in the future, but it already has a lot of advantage over the original NAM plugin.

The first thing I noticed with NAMU that I didn't like is how the gate responds around the threshold level. When the signal is hovering right at the threshold cutoff the sound becomes choppy and terrible. The gate in the original NAM plugin doesn't have this problem so this is probably the only advantage the original NAM plugin has over NAMU. I believe Wavemind could fix this behaviour by introducing a hysteresis parameter to the gate and setting it 6dB below the threshold or so. I hope they will do this in a future update.

The second thing that annoys me a bit, but is more of missing feature, is that the dual IR slots have no pan! Being able to load two different IRs and pan them left and right is such a useful feature and really a shame that you can't do it in NAMU. I really hope that they can add this feature in a future update as well.

I can't say that I understand or like the Instigator module that much, but you can use it as an extra tonestack to shape the signal between the pedal model and the amp model. The Aggravator module is great though. The tight and smooth controls are perfect for getting very boomy or fizzy models under control, and the oomph and sparkle can add some of the low-end and highs back in a more pleasant way. Really dig this one.

Definitely my favorite NAM loader so far, although it still can be improved.

The perfect plugin for doing the Andy Sneap multiband compressor trick on rhythm metal guitars. Simple and fast to work with, low latency, sounds great, easy on CPU. You can ofc use it to compress the low end on other sources as well, but I find it mostly useful on chugging metal guitars.

Ever since I first tried out the free Fircomp 1, I have known that this developer was going to make something really special in the future. Luckily enough, we didn't have to wait for too long before he released Fircomp 2. I bought it the day it was released, and I have never been so satisfied from buying a plug-in! My go-to clean compressor used to be the excellent Fabfilter Pro-C2, and even though I didn't expect this one to replace it, I changed my mind after using Fircomp 2 for just 2-3 days.

Fircomp 2, together with Fabfilter Pro-Q3, are my most used third party plug-ins (probably my most used plug-ins overall, except for JS:Volume/Pan Adjustment) by a long shot. Fircomp 2 has all the functions I could ever want or need in a clean, digital compressor and it does it with the same quality and perfection as the Fabfilter Pro plug-ins and some iZotope plug-ins. I have yet to find a single negative thing to say about it. I especially love the fact that it can be used as a brickwall ISP limiter, without causing a single sample of delay (and it's not just hard-clipping the peaks either, because I have tested it for harmonics and aliasing, and it creates neither).

It's very easy on the CPU as well. For me, it uses about 0.3-0.4% CPU while the GUI is shown, because the meters use a bit extra, and only 0.2% while the GUI is closed. This is on a Intel i7-8559u (4-core 8-thread, laptop CPU in a Intel NUC). The GUI is fully re-sizable and vector based, so it looks just as sharp no matter what size you are using (perfect for 4k monitors). The metering is nicely drawn, with both input/output, gain reduction+makeup, peak metering, peak hold and LUFS-short term included.

You get all of this for only €27 or $31! Absolute madness. He has also updated it with 2 new modes (VCA mode and Coupled Peak Mode) since the release that has only expanded it's usability even further.

The only thing I can say is. GO BUY IT NOW!

Very easy and fast channel strip style EQ that doesn't use more than 0.2-0.3% CPU (i7-8559u) when all bands and both filters are active and at most 0.4-0.5% when the analyzer is also active. From what I can see it has a type of symmetrical proportional Q which is very musical and easy to set, especially when you can either turn the knobs or just drag the bands around on the graph directly. I would like to have the option to set it to asymmetrical for a even faster workflow but considering that it's free, it already does a lot! Another very important, and impressive detail for a free EQ, is that there is no cramping at all near Nyquist. This is a real issue I have with many free EQ's, and even some stock and paid-for ones. This one however, sounds airy and open in the high frequencies. The low- and high-pass filters are also great with the option to set steepness of the slope from 6dB/oct all the way to 48dB/oct. Not something I would use very often in a minimum phase EQ but it's nice to have the option to. You can also set the gain range for the frequency graph, enable the analyzer for either the input or output and sort the bands if you have messed around with them. All in all, a very feature rich little EQ that doesn't take up much space or CPU, and it's free! Crazy.

If this would evolve later on into a paid-for EQ, where you have a couple of more bands, asymmetrical setting and a linear phase mode, I would happily pay for it.

This thing rivals even the best (and most expensive) paid tape emulators out there. Try it yourselves! Consider supporting the creator through his patreon account if you like it.