Developer NSP has announced the release of his newest creation called Over Diver od82o, an overdrive effect in VST plugin format for 32-bit and 64-bit host applications on Windows.
The plugin features a diode-clipping circuit which has a distinctly “crunchy” sound as opposed to vacuum tube-based distortion preferred by snooty amp purists, even though they often have diode-based overdrive pedals at their feet and plugged into their amp at all times.
Over Diver is still in beta, so it’s still a bit buggy. When I first tried to load it up in a send channel it crashed and burned every time without fail, but then I reduced my sample rate to 44,100 Hz and finally got it up and running. However, it was still acting a bit strange, so I made sure to select the “Use fixed sized buffers” option within the plugin wrapper in FL Studio just for good measure. A lot of people raise a fuss about this, but it’s a perfectly normal thing when trudging through the beta phase. Even Hive from u-He went through a similar stage in development.
I’m certainly no expert on the topic of distortion, nor do I have much use for it, but I must admit that I rather enjoyed playing my cheap Squier Strat through this plugin. The overdrive has the perfect amount of “crispy goodness” that blues and rock guitarist all know and love, and it even sounds great on a drum track or a synth lead.
There are four switches at the very bottom of the GUI that determine the overall quality of the drive circuit, oversampling resolution, stereo processing, and symmetrical / asymmetrical diode clipping. Symmetrical clipping results in negative harmonics, and asymmetrical clipping results in both even and odd numbered harmonics, which will produce a brighter, sharper tone.
With a few bugfixes and a little more documentation, Over Diver has the potential to become one of few distortion plugins I care to use, especially now that Camel Crusher is no longer supported.
Over Diver od82o is available for free download via KVR Audio (32-bit version 1.56 MB download size, 64-bit version 1.81 MB download size, ZIP archive, 32 & 64 bit VST plugin format for Windows).
Last Updated on October 9, 2016 by Tomislav Zlatic.
