Sampleson releases Overheat, a freeware saturation effect for DAW applications on Windows and macOS.
I always tell myself no more saturators right before downloading another saturator. If you’re like me and you can’t get enough harmonics added to your sound sources, then you’re in luck. Sampleson’s latest release, Overheat, is a free saturation plugin with a tiny footprint.
Overheat has a rather straight-to-the-point interface, which kind of reminds me of the SSL Native line of plugins. This even applies to the very clear metering, which takes up the interface’s middle section.
The left section of the interface houses the Pre-gain, Drive, and Post-gain knobs. These are super handy, as you can use these to gain stage before applying saturation directly to the signal path.
The right side of the interface has Color and Low-pass knobs. Low-passing saturation is nothing new and functions as you’d expect. Color seems to affect the midrange, at least without me running sine waves through Plugin Doctor. Most importantly, CPU usage is light, as is the install size.
Overheat is a great-sounding saturator, and it is low enough on the CPU usage that you can apply it to multiple channels without taxing your workstation. It works especially well on clean guitars, electric bass, synths, and anything else that needs a little warming up.
The best thing is that it is particularly quick to dial in, and there are some presets that Sampleson has bundled together with it to give you some handy starting points. The character of the saturation itself is pleasing and isn’t at all overbearing when liberally applied across a whole mix.
BPB reader Michal Ochedowski tested OverHeat and shared his impressions in our comments section:
“I can confirm that OverHeat does sound good. Effortless peaks squashing with just three knobs and good saturation/distortion as a bonus. It’s a pity none of the controls are available for automation lanes, except bypass.”
Grabbing Overheat is easy. All you need to do is enter your email address to receive your free license. After that, it’s a simple matter of running the installer, and you’re off to the races.
There is, unfortunately, no oversampling to speak of, but if you run at 48 kHz or higher, you’ll be fine. You can even run it at 44.1kHz. I won’t tell the aliasing police, I promise.
Overheat is available for Windows and Mac computers. Supported plugin formats are VST3 and AU. It is a universal plugin, so Intel and Silicon users can snag this for their next production.
Download: Sampleson Overheat
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11 Comments
Tomislav Zlatic
onThank you to BPB reader Alex for the info about OverHeat.
Drugged Bunny
onTheir email link just redirects me to the main Overheat page asking for email address, tried in two browsers.
Looks good, thanks for posting, but no joy in working link for me!
Michal Ochedowski
onI had the same situation yesterday. I waited till the next day and the same link worked. I also noticed that the version number has changed from 1.0.3 to 1.0.4. I presume that they were fixing an issue before letting us download.
Bob
onIt’s 1.0.5 now.
Michal Ochedowski
onThey keep rolling out improvements. I just downloaded v1.0.6.
Bob
onIf only there was a changelog…
Neytcev
on“I always tell myself no more saturators right before downloading another saturator.”
That’s so funny! And truth … Thank you!
Easy
onIt’s funny because it’s true.
Drugged Bunny
onThanks all, it now autostarts the download after entering email address.
PureFire
onAwesome sounding plugin, many thanks. The GUI is a bit dark but no worries, i look forward to using this on more instruments, btw the rest of Sampleson’s website is also worth a look, some great quality plugins on offer.
Matteo
onIt’s fun to take a saturator and run it on extreme settings on something like drums or guitar, and then run Smooth Operator or Soothe after it, set to reduce to those same harmonics. You get a real… different sound, something like an old 8-track tape. Thanks for the link!