Ignite Amps

Good, very flexible (guitar) overdrive / distortion pedal, on the one hand it continues, where the also excellent TS-999 or TSB-1 (some sort of slightly hot-rodded, sonically more flexible boutique TS based pedal plugins) end, on the other hand it sonically also reminds me a little bit of an OCD, if properly adjusted, but has enough gain reserves to work equally well as distortion or high-gain Metal pedal.

As I have not found a convincingly sounding OCD based pedal plugin up to now, I prefer using the ProF.E.T. for these sort of tones. Gives a nice dynamic reaction to attack, offers a good harmonics reproduction, more than enough dirt and power and also the four-band eq does a good job for adding more depth and low end rumble and / or more treble bite.

A reviewer complained about the harshness, I personally think, this is depending on the signal chain, a pedal like this one should be placed in front of an amplifier, it will not produce so convincing results if it is positioned behind an amp or as mastering saturation effect. But I also found it in combination with some amps sounding too harsh, with other ones exactly this "harshness" resulted in a convincing harmonics reproduction, but also a different cabinet IR can change the final sound impression a lot, so the whole signal chain is some sort of interactive system, also a pedal like this one will not sound very convincing at too high gain settings and in front of an already heavily distorting high gain channel. In combination with a clean or crunch channel it works best in my opinion.

Also sounds good without an amp plugin or only combined with a power amp (eg. the still excellently sounding TPA-1) just with a cabinet IR behind.

Excellent plugin, not only because it is freeware.

Still a very rare gem, although this plugin meanwhile is not the newest one.

A tube power amp plugin alone sometimes really can be helpful and in this case this plugin really does a very good job, even more, as it is widely adjustable and tweakable and it sounds good and very convincing.

The only thing I miss is a "little brother", which means, an EL84 / 6V6 power amp, maybe switchable from push-pull to single ended mode and maybe with additional pentode / triode switching.

Top-notch, not only for a freeware plugin.

The sound of ProF.E.T. is extremely harsh, with a tendency to attenuate the mid/upper mid to high frequency range.

I tried to use it to add some distortion for other material than electric guitars and the result is absolutely not pleasant, so ProF.E.T. might not be the solution if you are looking for a generic distortion plugin.

Because of the harsh tone and the fact that it doesn't has a Dry/Wet mix parameter to sooth out the harshness, I think as an insert effect it is not well suited.

I can imagine only using it on an auxilary bus for my guitars, but even there only with high caution, adding just a little bit of gain because the effect comes in really hard.

I can not understand all the positive reviews.

I have a recording studio with several hardware preamps...a Mesa Triaxis, Mesa Rectifier, and ENGL E530. I also use THU IR cabinet / IR management software. I was actually getting pretty good tones with just the preamps, but i was also searching for a power amp plugin sim for some time. The signal chain was just not complete without a power amp to create the tone and feel of a real amp. Well i tried a lot of plugin software and the Torpedo Two Notes hardware unit...they just didn't sound good to me. So finally i read an article about the TPA-1 from Igniteamps. I was amazed at the realism of this plugin and how the various power tube combinations sound. This plugin really sounds like a power amp is connected in my signal chain. I can feel the difference in the lows and air movement from my studio monitors as well as the extra body in the tone high gain, and clean guitar sounds now have. Can't believe a beautiful piece of software like this is free when there is so much mediocre stuff out there for a lot of money. And it gets better...i am using the TPA-1 as a power amp sim between the output of my Boss GT1000 core AIRD amp model outputs, and the THU IR plugin. The TPA-1 has added another level of realism to the GT-1000 AIRD amp models that make them sound as good as any amp models i have heard including the latest from Fractal for a lot less money.

This thing is amazing....just download it and try it out. You will be glad you did.

The hardware EQs this Ignite plugin is based on are expensive. Notice: I said are expensive. This one plugin will do the job of three of the original hardware EQs! The "legacy" unit didn't have the midrange section; they had to create a special midrange EQ for mastering purposes. Everything you could think of to shape the tonal characteristic of a sound is all right here.

In case you're wondering, no, this is not just an appealing GUI based on a unit from the 1950s. It's designed to sound better than all the other emulations or "tribute" units floating around. This isn't some Synthedit waste of RAM and processing power. The tube sounds alone are worth downloading this VST plugin. They could have charged hundreds of dollars for this, and it's free. Get this EQ...

...no, seriously, why are you still reading this? I said, get this EQ!

I have the original NadIR, with the "two slanted cab" file loader GUI. That was the one available before STL got in the mix. I believe that's the source of the confusion.

If you know someone who still has the original, that one will do just fine. There's tons of free IR's all over the place, so whichever one you get, you're good to go.

Watched a YouTube video on the Pultec EQ, downloaded this plugin, boosted and attenuated the bass and treble (as they showed in the video - makes no sense, right?!) and WOW! What a difference. It's in serious danger of replacing all my 'warmifier', and tube plug-ins.

I own and compare most of the Amp plug-ins that exist today. They are very well balanced and relatively inexpensive. I recommend the 5150, Vox and Bassman. For pedals, try XoticBB and Tc. Combine them with the IRs you own. You will be very happy.