Linda Audio has released SuperCrunch, a freeware guitar amp sim plugin for digital audio workstations on Windows.
In an era of fully featured amp suites, floor modelers, and all sorts of other digital goodies, there is something to be said about a simple amplifier with a matching cab. Linda Audio’s SuperCrunch is straight to the point, being slim on options yet big on tone.
Supercrunch is a two-channel amplifier with a somewhat unusual interface. Upon first opening it, you might be curious about where some of the more usual elements reside.
The left of the interface houses the input gain and drive knobs. The drive helps to distort the signal. If you’re like me and leave your Hi-Z input on the quieter side, you can help compensate with the input gain.
Next to the drive knob is the channel selector for the lead and crunch channels. Off to the right, you will find the brightness, clean blend, and output control knobs.
Brightness helps if the pickups in your guitar are particularly dark. The clean blend knob seems to blend in the DI signal and the processed signal, which can help with the overall clarity of a signal.
A noise gate is included, which anyone who plays around on high gain will appreciate. The traditional tone stack as most guitarists know it isn’t present. Instead, Linda Audio has opted to include an eight-band graphical equalizer in the signal path.
This can be automatically gain compensated or left as is. The equalizer is before the drive stage of the amplifier itself, however. It’s a novel take on the usual tone stack and reminds me heavily of the paid Rhino in terms of unorthodox tone-shaping implementations.
The feature set is rounded off by a pair of impulse responses serving as the cabinets. These can be swapped off so you can use something like NadIR for your IRs if needed.
All said, Supercrunch is a fun little amp sim and a welcome change of pace from the plethora of choices available for guitarists on the market today.
Supercrunch is available for Windows computers only. Supported plugin formats are VST2 and VST3. There are options for 32-bit and 64-bit hosts.
Download: SuperCrunch
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Last Updated on April 29, 2023 by Tomislav Zlatic.
