Overloud is giving away free licenses for the TH-U Essentials guitar amp sim (normally $89) until January 20, 2025.
TH-U Essentials is a release for macOS (VST, AU, AAX, standalone) and Windows (VST, AAX, standalone). Overloud is giving away 1000 TH-U Essentials licenses daily from January 14 to January 20.

TH-U Essentials is a guitar sim suite with 43 models, including amps, cabs, effects, and mics.
Overloud includes 41 patches covering various styles and setups. The devs also captured 10 real guitar rigs and fully reproduced the plugin’s setups.
The plugin includes a Fluid IR loader, which allows you to load standard IRs and convert them into Fluid IRs.
Overloud explains that Fluid IRs are advanced IRs that capture more characteristics than standard IRs, such as the speaker’s dynamic behavior and harmonics.
The fully MIDI-controllable setup also features Amp Tweak, which enables users to mod the amps by switching out preamp and power amp tubes and simulating the action of a Variac.

If you want more than the stock offerings, there’s plenty available, as the TH-U ecosystem offers more than 28,000 captured rigs and 42,000 IRs.
These include official packs from players such as Eric Gales, Greg Howe, and Megadeth alumni Marty Friedman and Glen Drover.
Overloud debuted the base version of TH-U in February 2019, and TH-U Essentials is the latest release of the guitar rig suite.
To get your free copy of the plugin, you’ll need to create a free account on Overloud. This requires a name and email address, and newsletter signup is optional.
After I signed up, Overload immediately sent me an account verification email. After verifying my email, I returned to the TH-U Essentials product page and requested a free copy of the plugin. The company promptly emailed me a serial number to activate the plugin.
There was also a download link in the email that outlined the five-step process of installing and activating the plugin.
If you’re curious to hear the TH-U Essentials tones, there are several videos up on YouTube that showcase the sounds, including both official and user videos.

After the freebie became available this week, several users uploaded YouTube demos of the current version of TH-U Essentials.

These are handy for assessing the current state of the release and illustrating how the components work together.
Check out the deal: TH-U Essentials (FREE until January 20th – Overloud account needed)
More:
11 Comments
Paramita
onI tried it, for a free amp sim it’s not bad at all.
I still prefer the sound and UI of BIAS FX2 though !
Stephen Charlton
onYeah, BIAS FX is pretty good. That was my go-to until I went to Neural DSP.
FF
onBoth Bias FX and NDSP amps sims have very simplistic engines and overprocessed IRs.
TH-U is a step-up in accuracy. Even the free ones from Audio Assault and VTar kick Neural’s ass.
FF
onPlus, Overloud gives away free presets every month.
https://www.overloud.com/downloads/presets
Paramita
onInteresting and also controversial :D
One thing is sound and tone, many people these days obsess about small tone details and yet the music we hear often feels robotic (I am not into shredding or nu metal).
Another thing is UI and UX, I personally don’t want to mess with IR loaders and complicated setups, I like to recall my sounds from just one that’s one reason I love BIAS FX2, it has all I need and sounds great.
But for the younger metal players with time on their hands I can see the appeal, VTar has aggressive sounds, thanks for sharing, their free plugins seem good.
alex
onNice! Thx. Gonna check it out. Overloud makes some really good plugins.
Marcel
onNice product. Good sound quality, simple user interface, and not too CPU hungry.
It is simpler than Amplitube or Guitar Rig, it is more similar to Nembrini LiveRig (which I also like).
TH-U Essentials only has a few amps and FX. It is more a teaser than a full product.
Stephen Charlton
onThanks for the review :)
Saylor Twift
onFree BasiQ2 released by Kuassa
kuassa.com/products/basiq2-equalizer
Paramita
onHow very boring. Just get the excellent free TDR Nova EQ.
Frits van Zanten
onTried it, but the volume in the presets is very uneven. some presets behave weirdly (blast at low/regardless volume settings) and IMO might even damage your ears when you use headphones, so be careful. The GUI/view is default 100%, which makes you see only a close up of a part of the amp, and resets itself to 100% when changing presets. When you add another amp the already present amp stays in the chain; I think it would be more practical if it would replace it when you put in ON/OVER it. So I think there is room for some improvement.