Vee Guitar Amp
by Viper ITB
5.0 / 5     (4 votes)
Vee Guitar Amp is a guitar tube amp simulator, designed to deliver clean-ish, crunched and distorted signals in a lo-fi, warm, vintage style.

It includes a noise gate, a speaker cab emulation, a studio ambience emulation, a flanger and a unique "widening/doubling" effect. It is a strongly coloring low-gain amp, created to add a realistic vibe to electric guitar/piano tracks.


NOISE GATE (hidden). Everything below -55 dBFS is muted.

TUBE PREAMP with an overdrive circuit. It responds to playing dynamics, i.e. the hotter the signal, the more harmonic content and distortion will appear. If the signal is too hot and the amp breaks up too easily, use the -9dB PAD switch. If the signal is too quiet, use the +15dB BOOST switch (NOTE: you will effectively bypass the noise gate). Use both switches to achieve a +6dB boost. Use the GAIN knob to fine tune the preamp signal strength and overdrive.

BRICKWALL LIMITER (hidden). The 20:1 FET type compressor. The more you hit it, the more harmonic distortion and clipping it produces. The limiter is an integral part of the amp sound, contributing greatly to crunch and distortion.

SEMI PARAMETRIC EQ. Low Shelf and High Shelf EQ controls are independent from Low Mid and High Mid Peak controls. The signal is divided into two identical streams and recombined after the EQ section. This is known as "parallel EQ'ing", commonly used in analogue domain devices.

SPEAKER CABINET (hidden). The operating range of the driver is a classic 75Hz-5kHz range. The sound resembles a 2x12 cab, miked in an "off-axis far" manner. The cab was designed to attenuate the most troublesome frequencies, lowering risk of bad, ringing resonances, thus helping to achieve decent sound without too much EQing and notching.

SPRING REVERB. A "VeeSpringVerb" circuit, emulating a mono spring reverb. The circuit is included in the bundle as a separate VST plugin.

FLANGER. A stereo flanger. Its main purpose it to change mono signal into stereo and color it with a classic and popular flanger effect.

STUDIO ambience emulation. Designed to create a realistic vibe by injecting a "room" reverb into the dry signal, as if the cab was miked with an additional condenser mic.

WIDENER. A unique "VeeWide" circuit (also included as a separate VST). The idea behind the effect is very simple and was widely (pun intended) used in the '80s. This knob delays the right channel signal by 0-2000 samples, benefiting from a certain psychoacoustic phenomenon: human brains cannot distinguish echoes when they are 20-50 ms away from the main signal. When used on strings/pad track, it creates a "widening" effect, giving illusion that sound comes from "everywhere", tightly filling the entire stereo scene. When used on guitars/keys, it creates a doubling and slapback effects. As you turn the knob clockwise, you will notice that signal "moves right". This is an illusion - check the VCA meters of your DAW to see that L/R levels are perfectly leveled. Combine this effect with the flanger (which tends to "shift" signal to the left) to create a unique and interesting stereo effects. Experiment and have fun!

THANKS go to Antress (for generously shared tube overdrive algorithm, FET compressor "circuits", low and hi shelf eq circuits and GUI knobs, Christian W. Budde for his awesome VST Plugin Analyzer, David Gibson for showing the classic delay trick used in "VeeWide" plug.
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claudio (italy) Jan 22 2016
(5 / 5)
Jan 22 2016
congratulations.... very well done. it produces a really "credible" old style sound. i tested it just a few times but i'm really satisfied of the results! thank you
Viper ITB Jan 29 2016
Jan 29 2016
Thank you for kind words! I hope it serves you well!
Krimpatul Oct 01 2015
Oct 01 2015
The WIDENER trick could be useful also to simulate two guitars playing at once, as did Dimebag in live gigs, with a delay time of just 10ms.
Bongaga Jun 13 2015
(5 / 5)
Jun 13 2015
So I've bee trying to get a certain bass sound like the one Crown the Empire uses in the song "Bloodline". I was actually able to get it with this. I mean it's not exact but it's pretty damn close. Not bad for a free VST. It sounds like the guy above me doesn't think you can get a clean sound but you can. Just BARELY and I mean BARELY add gain through Vee. Just enough to get a signal (as low as it can go) then amp it with FerricTDS another free VST for this purpose). Booyah. Hope this helped.
Viper ITB Jun 29 2015
Jun 29 2015
Good observations, thank you very much for this tip. Guys, try Bongaga's method also on acoustic guitars or keyboards to just "dust and fatten" the tone without going into audible distortion. BTW: thanks for telling about CtE, I did not know them. They really kick ass!!! :)
Great sound! May 05 2015
(5 / 5)
May 05 2015
Holy... This is incredible! Good sound and works even for simulated guitars (not for too clean ones though). A bit CPU heavy, but certainly worth it. One of the best free amps and better than some commercial ones. Suits Les Paul type sound.
Viper ITB Jun 29 2015
Jun 29 2015
Thank you, I hope it serves you well! I agree with you, it is too CPU heavy - I am going to slim it to save some CPU cycles. Oh, and I also included VeeWide and VeeSpringVerb without "memory" :/ - my apologies. An update soon!