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Blue Cat's Free Amp
Blue Cat's Free Amp
"The free guitar amp simulation plug-in"
Price: Freeware
Blue Cat's Free Amp - The Free Guitar Amp Sim Plug-In (VST, AU, AAX, VST3) (Freeware)

Blue Cat's Free Amp is a completely free guitar amp simulation plug-in offering three amp models created with the acclaimed Blue Cat's Destructor amp simulation modeler.

MacOSUniversal BinaryWindows Vista or newerWindows x64 (64-bit)VSTVST3AAX64-bit AAXAudio Unit
Also in Bundle: Free Pack

Inspired by legendary guitar amplifiers from the real world, the included "classic clean", "classic drive" and "modern drive" amp models cover a wide range of guitar amp tones, from clean vintage sounds from the early days of electric guitar to modern high gain metal tones.

Operating the plug-in is extremely simple: load it in your favorite host application, choose a preset or an amp model, and play! Like with a real guitar amp, you can tweak the frequency response with the included EQ and adjust the amount of drive - but watch out, it goes to 11!

With version 1.1, you can also load your own impulse responses (IR): add your favorite cabinet, microphones & room setup and feel at home!

Last but not least, this plug-in is entirely free: no registration required, no dongle, no newsletter... It's just 100% free!

If you are looking for a more powerful guitar and bass amp simulation modeler, check out Blue Cat's Destructor. For a complete amp simulation solution with built-in effects, check out Blue Cat's Axiom.

Main Features

  • Free guitar amp simulation plug-in.
  • 3 amp models inspired by legendary amplifiers: "classic clean", "classic drive" and "modern drive".
  • Simulations based on the Destructor dynamic distortion and amp modeling engine.
  • Load you own cabinet or reverb impulse responses to add color to the amp simulation.
  • No latency.

Blue Cat Audio Standards:

  • Available in most plug-in formats for Mac and Windows.
  • Full MIDI control and automation support, MIDI Learn.
  • No CPU load on idle: processing shuts down when fed with silence (optimal CPU usage).
  • Customizable user interface with transparency & zoom.
  • Smooth Bypass: noiseless plug-in activation / deactivation.
  • Undo/Redo.
  • Full featured integrated presets manager.
  • Copy/paste the state of the plug-in between instances.
  • Any sample rate supported.

Typical applications: Guitar amp modeling for clean, crunch or heavy distortion tones.

User's GuideOn The BlogPresetsTutorialsNewsletter

Blue Cat's Free Amp - The Free Guitar Amp Sim Plug-In (VST, AU, AAX, VST3) (Freeware) Blue Cat's Free Amp - The Free Guitar Amp Sim Plug-In (VST, AU, AAX, VST3) (Freeware) Blue Cat's Free Amp - The Free Guitar Amp Sim Plug-In (VST, AU, AAX, VST3) (Freeware) Blue Cat's Free Amp - The Free Guitar Amp Sim Plug-In (VST, AU, AAX, VST3) (Freeware)

User Comments & Reviews

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Downloads

MacOS

Need help with downloads? Click here!

System Requirements

MacOS

  • An Intel or Apple Silicon processor.
  • Mac OS 10.9 or newer.
  • Any VST / Audio Unit / AAX compatible application (64-bit) .

Windows

  • An SSE2-enabled processor (Pentium 4 or newer).
  • Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows 7, 8 or 10.
  • Any VST / AAX compatible host software (32 or 64 bit).

For more information about supported platforms, see our Knowledge Base.

Versions History

V1.23 (2024/02/15)

  • Fixed GUI performance issues on MacOS 14 (Codename Sonoma).

V1.22 (2022/12/12)

  • Added Apple Silicon support for AAX Plug-in Format.

V1.21 (2022/09/02)

  • Added an option in global & preset input settings to send MIDI events when MIDI-enabled parameters are modified in the plug-in (to update control surfaces accordingly).
  • Improved undo management and automation when using the mouse wheel to move knobs.
  • VST: improved parameter value display in some host applications.
  • Mac: installers and plug-ins have been notarized to avoid security warnings on Mac OS Catalina and newer.
  • Mac: fixed user interface display issues on early versions of MacOS 10.9.
  • VST3: fixed some parameter update issues in some hosts.

V1.2 (2022/01/03)

  • Native Apple Silicon (M1 processor) support.
  • Dropped 32-bit support on Mac.
  • Now requires MacOS 10.9 and newer.
  • Added MIDI control support (MIDI CC messages) for Next and Previous Preset commands, with MIDI learn.
  • Improved MIDI & automation control settings with lock, reset and "save as global setting" capabilities.
  • Unicode support.
  • Reduced the number of threads used by the plug-in.
  • Reduced memory footprint.
  • VST3: fixed random crash in Ableton Live 11 upon load.
  • VST3: fixed parameters update issues in Studio One when bouncing tracks.

V1.13 (2020/12/15)

  • Arrow keys can now be used to navigate presets.
  • Improved smooth plug-in bypass (faster and smoother transition).
  • New high resolution graphics for knobs.
  • Reduced disk footprint.
  • Misc DSP performance enhancements.
  • Windows: improved GUI loading performance.
  • Mac Audio Unit: fixed plug-in listing in some host applications (Plogue Bidule).
  • Mac: fixed GUI performance issues on native P3 displays and improved performance on other displays.
  • Mac: fixed mouse wheel that required large movements to change parameter values.
  • Mac: fixed mouse cursor flickering issues.
  • Mac: fixed Esc key not closing fine edit parameter dialog.

V1.12 (2019/12/20)

  • Improved convolution performance for large impulse responses.
  • MIDI Program Change preference is now saved into session instead of global preferences, so each instance can now use different MIDI channels. It is also saved in the user default preset.
  • VST3: added program change support for VST3 plug-in format.
  • Mac: much faster GUI rendering on recent Mac OS systems.
  • Mac: fixed user interface not properly shown on retina displays in some applications built with the 10.14 Mac OS SDK (Cubase 10.5 for example).
  • Mac: fixed settings panel rendering issues in dark mode on Mac OS Mojave and newer.
  • VST: the user interface is now properly resized in Cubase on Windows when loading skins.
  • Dropped support for legacy RTAS plug-in format.

V1.11 (2018/12/13)

  • Improved convolution performance for the impulse response loader on multicore processors.
  • Now included in the Free Pack bundle.

V1.1 (2018/10/09)

  • Load your own cabinet and reverb impulse responses.

V1.0 (2018/07/10)

First release.

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