Kuassa offers the Pillar Power Amp plugin as a free add-on with any Efektor Gainia purchase.
So far, 2023 has been a blessing regarding guitar plugins for your average axe slinger. The wizards over at Kuassa have been on fire this year as well, and the release of the Gainia preamps is a great addition to the currently available guitar plugins repertoire.
The even better news is that, along with purchasing any of the Gainia preamp plugins, you can access the Pillar power amp emulation for free.
Now, Pillar on its own isn’t going to do a whole lot to the sound of your guitar or bass. It has a trio of IRs, with a 1×12, 4×12, and 8×10 cabinet, all selectable. You can disable these if you’d like, using only the simulated tube to work with the preamp of your choice before going to an IR loader.
In practice, it sounds pretty nice, and I used it in conjunction with the high-gain Efektor Gainia XT and the default 4×12 cab option. You can ride the input a bit to simulate the breakup you might get from a power amp before it goes to the cab.
I also found that Pillar works quite well with the free JCM800 preamp on offer from Mercuriall, wherein you could build quite a low-cost bespoke amp sim of your choice with a few handy elements.
Pillar does offer 8x oversampling, which is handy for keeping the aliasing police at bay. You can also load it in as a module for the Amplifikation 360 suite to use it in all sorts of crazy chains.
Additionally, I did find it worked quite well in conjunction with Helix Stomp, loading just the preamp model for a handful of amps before sending the output on its way. Coupled with the free MIKKO2 IR which we covered a few months back, I could coax out quite a gnarly and pleasing sounding 5150 Block Letter sound.
As to whether or not you need a power amp emulation when Ignite Amps TPA-1 is still perfectly usable, I’d say that is solely up to your preference. I like the inclusion of the cab IRs. It’s a tidy and quick-to-use little package that has a quality all of its own.
You get Pillar for free when purchasing any of the Gainia preamps, as previously mentioned. They’re currently on sale for $9.99 at most plugin retailers, and you could likely knock the price down further if you have any credit available at Plugin Boutique.
Pillar is available for Windows and Mac computers. Supported plugin formats are VST, VST3, AAX, and AU. It is Apple Silicon native.
Download: Pillar Power Amp (Free with any purchase of Gainia preamp)
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