Brummer released ToneTwistPlugsm, a free collection of distortion VST plugins for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Ah, who doesn’t love a little distortion on their guitar DIs? Cleans are fun and dandy, but getting a little hairy is always an absolute joy.
Before we continue, read our guitar recording guide to learn how to get the best possible guitar sound in your DAW.
Now, I typically lean on my Helix or TONEX setup to get a little distorted edge to my recordings. However, I’ve spent the day tinkering around with ToneTwistPlugs – a collection of open-source plugins modeled after some rather famous guitar pedals.
You can get the famed Swedish chainsaw tone with MetalTone, an emulation of the Boss MT-2 Metal Zone.
I’ve never been a huge fan of this pedal in real life, but it makes for a wonderfully buzzy fuzz pedal in the right circumstances. The tone seems to be there when running in front of one of the milder Orange captures for NAM.
You’ve got the CollisionDrive, which is modeled after the superb Precision Drive from Horizon Devices. This is a personal favorite, as I love the integrated gate.
I use the modeled version of this quite frequently on my Helix for more modern metal tones, and CollisionDrive seems to hold up just fine as a boost with your Dual Rec or 5150 emulation of choice.
Rumor I’m not super familiar with, but it is based on the Devi Ever Ruiner. It’s a fuzz, so you’re well prepared to riff away in B standard with a little Electric Wizard.
TubeScreamer likely needs no introduction. However, this is modeled after the Ibanez TS-9 instead of the TS-808. Still, it’s been one of the go-tos for decades as a boost in front of an amp. It functions just fine here and pairs quite well with most of the high-gain amp sims you’ll run across to tighten up the tone.
The collection is rounded out with ValveCaster and BoobTube, which I’m not familiar with at all. ValveCaster is based on a distortion pedal built as a DIY schematic. It sounds great to my ears, but I’ve never handled the real deal.
BoobTube is a different take on ValveCaster and also sounds wonderful in front of your JCM800 emulation of choice.
ToneTwistPlugs is a fun little set of distortion plugins. I could see them working quite well with your guitar of choice or any synth lines that need aural destruction.
The collection is available in VST2, VST3, CLAP, and LV2 plugin formats for compatible hosts on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
UPDATE: Windows Defender detected an issue with the Windows version of the software. Link removed.
Download: ToneTwistPlugs (FREE)
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7 Comments
Ian / Nihil Quest
onNot that it matters a lot, but you don’t get the Swedish tone with Metal Zone, it’s a different pedal, Heavy Metal HM-2W. MZ was rather universally hated until recently.
FilFil
onThe MT-2 wasn’t hated. People were just snobbish towards it, because it only did one thing (well): mid-scooped Metallica.
MRG
onv0.5 of the pack was released 30 minutes ago, the KVR links are currently outdated but I’m sure it’ll get fixed soon.
If you want the freshest of fresh lemon-scented plugins, just go to the GitHub release page:
https://github.com/brummer10/ToneTwistPlugs/releases
Olaf Tryggvasson
onthanks!
Olaf Tryggvasson
oni love the metal zone. one of my favorite (plug) pedals, alongside the rat, and the centaur, for a little zing, going into the amp. i love the whistling overtone coating it creates.
never get the sheep mindset of so many that look at the calendar, see a certain shape of the characters we use to conventionally keep track of time, and decide – completely arbitrarily, in my view – something “no longer” sounds good, because of the shape of those characters. “it’s 2023, we don’t like this no more”. “that’s the 80s”. “that’s not “modern””, etc. that’s such a sheep mindset.
i mean, legitimately liking or disliking something, for esthetic reasons, is everybody’s right and prerogative, but these “trends” and “fashions”… blah.
thanks for the heads up on the pack. will try them. i actually need a good distortion for bass. i can’t find anything that sounds dense without actually distorting like crazy, which i never thought sounded good on bass.
lopso
onWindows Security detected a virus (Trojan:Script/Wacatac.B!ml) in ToneTwistPlugs-v0.FpVlGxnJ.6-win64.zip.part, threat level “severe”
If you downloaded this plugin run a scan immediately, and admins should issue a warning in the meantime
Circuitdust
onThe virus detection is a false positive. The developer discussed it here: https://github.com/brummer10/ToneTwistPlugs/issues/4
It is however annoying that Windows Defender keeps detecting it and quarantining it, so I set up some file exclusions and that solved it for me.