A classic setup to tighten the sound of a tube amp is to increase the input signal level (causing the amp to overdrive more) by placing an overdrive pedal in front, usually with gain set to zero, level at full and tone or EQ knobs according to taste. So what do you do if you’re reamping a dry guitar track with a digital amp sim, like LePou’s sims that I blogged about earlier?
Well, it would seem obvious you need an overdrive pedal sim as well. No overdrive pedal is more popular than the classic Ibanez TS-9 Tubescreamer – so unsurprisingly there are a number of pedal sims based on it. One of the best and most popular is made by Italian amp makers (real, physical amps :-) ) Ignite – and it’s free! It’s a VST plugin called TS-999 SubScreamer, and this is what the UI looks like:
Prominent features of the TS-999 SubScreamer (it’s very closely modeled on the physical circuit layout, hence the component stuff):
- Dynamic 2N3904 BJT input and output buffers analog modeling
- Dynamic 1N4148 diode clipping circuit analog modeling
- Symmetric / Asymmetric clipping mode
- Normal / Fat mode
- Selectable Mono / Stereo processing support
- Switchable Input and Output Buffer modeling for better CPU performances
- Selectable oversampling rate (up to 8x)
- Variable Input Level control for better response to different pickups
- Double precision floating point operations support
The stereo mode means it works in a centralized bus setup with a single amp sim for multiple tracks, which I blogged about earlier.
Go try the TS-999 now! Download it for free here.
