Blue Cat Audio has introduced Blue Cat’s Free Amp, a freeware virtual guitar amplifier based on the company’s premium “Destructor” and “Axiom” guitar amp simulation software.
Blue Cat’s Free Amp provides three different amp models (Classic Clean, Classic Drive, and Modern Drive) with matching cabinet emulation for each virtual amp type. Although the built-in cabinet simulation can’t be bypassed completely, setting the Tone knob value to 100% should provide a signal that is clean enough to be used with an external cab sim.
The plugin’s control scheme is pretty standard for a virtual guitar amplifier, with adjustable Gain and Drive, a 3-band equalizer (Low, Mid, High), as well as Tone and Volume parameters. Additional controls like undo/redo functionality, bypass, window transparency, and user instructions are positioned at the top of the user interface. Speaking of the UI, each guitar amp model comes with a different front panel design. The design is clean and simple, with subtle colors and large enough control knobs.
Blue Cat’s Free Amp can cover a range of popular guitar tones, from clean to crunch and heavier types of distortion. To my ears, the plugin shines at producing clean tones, an area that isn’t covered by most other freeware virtual guitar amps which are usually aimed at metal guitars. To help new users get started with the plugin, Blue Cat Audio has also included a set of 24 presets.
Although the plugin might be a bit too streamlined for advanced users and guitar players who want complete control over their tone, I think it is a great pick for both beginners and musicians who need a quick guitar amp solution for jamming. Blue Cat’s Free Amp can be downloaded completely free of charge from the product page linked below, no registration required. The product is compatible with all VST, VST3, AU, and AAX plugin hosts on PC and Mac.
Blue Cat’s Free Amp is available for free download via Blue Cat Audio (25.3 MB download size, EXE installer, 32-bit & 64-bit VST/VST3/AU/AAX plugin format for Windows & MacOS).
Last Updated on July 13, 2018 by Tomislav Zlatic.
