GreenMachine Amp - Everything a guitarplayer needs!

After I presented the Extremist VST some time ago, some folks asked me on Facebook etc., if I knew about a real great Amp Simulation VST, of cause a free one. And of cause I know some. Today I want to feature the one plugin of that kind, which was the most fun for me to work with. This means, all other free Amp Simulation VSTs had their weak spots. At GreenMachine, on the other hand, I had never the feeling that something was missing or didn't work as I expected. It is a solid piece of software, which has features, for which you have to pay a lot if you use GuitarRig etc.

To describe all features of this plugin in detail would really be too much for a blog posting. But every guitar player who plugged an electric guitar into a quality amplifier should be able to grasp the GreenMachine intuitively. Of cause GreenMachine offers all a standard Amp or Amp Simulation has to offer and a lot more.

Quality: GreenMachine is a very old plugin and a former commercial product which was set free by it's programmers some time ago. Because of that there's no support for GreenMachine. But you will not need any support at all. The extensive PDF manual tells it all. The GUI is not TOO clean but well arranged and should be easy to grasp for even semi experienced musiciens. The plugin did never crash, and is RAM and CPU friendly. Multiple instances in one DAW? Are you crazy? Why should one need to run multiple Amp Simulations simultaneously? Seriously: I never did that ;)

Conclusion: GreenMachine is in my opinion todays best free Amp Simulation for guitar and bass. If you want to play and record guitar with your computer and don't want to pay a cent, GreenMachine is your choice. For guitar- and bassplayers a must have!
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD GREENMACHINE!

Extremist - Rough Heavy Metal Sound for Guitarists!

Today I want to feature a VST effects plugin, which is ideal for all guitarists looking for THE extreme Heavy Metal Sound. It is no full featured Amp simulation, but a distortion effect, which has some special features. The plugin has all stuff, neccessary to get a really powerful Heavy Metal sound from your guitar. First, there is a really nice Noisegate, which makes it possible to not let humming or other disturbing sounds get into the signal. You can also "creatively abuse" the noise gate to get some special unusual effects. Additionally this VST has a stereo 14 band equalizer. There are also a few presets, which convincingly mimic the sound of certain Heavy metal subgenres. The spartanic Reverb section of the plugin, does not really convince me and therefore I personally recommend to turn it off and use another reverb plugin with Extremist. Even if Extremist is intended for the use with guitars, I also recommend to test it with other sound sources, such as drums and synthesizers.

Quality: The VST is running stable and did never crash or cause my DAW to freeze. The only unpleasant thing I experienced with Extremist is, that with certain settings it rarely gives no sound at all. The Extremist is not REALLY ressource friendly, but also no ressource hog and should work without problems, if your computer is not too ancient.

Conclusion: Extremist is for sure not the best plugin for guitarrists, but it delivers what it's name promises: Extreme guitar sounds without compromise. Because it is no fully featured Amp simulation, it is neccessary to use it with a couple of other plugins in the effects chain to get the full guitar sound out of a computer. I don't want to say that this VST is a must have. There's simply too many great guitar plugins available for free out there to do so. Still it does no harm to have Extremist in your VST collection.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD EXTREMIST!