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GAS Therapy Wants To Replace All Your Guitar Amps With A FREE Plugin

By 23 Comments3 Mins Read
GAS Therapy Guitar Amp

GAS Therapy releases AnyAmpIR, a free guitar cabinet IR loader plugin for Windows, macOS, and iOS (the iOS version costs $4.99).

I’m a long-time guitar player, so my ears immediately perk up when I hear the word “free” bandied around.

You might already know about this plugin if you are familiar with Michael Mon and the GAS Therapy video series on his YouTube channel. If not, then please let me introduce AnyAmpIR.

AnyAmpIR has a reasonably lofty mission statement in providing any amp you want and doing so with minimal fuss. Michael recently did something similar with his AASamplerPlayer plugin, providing a bare-bones sample player that is easy to use.

In the case of AnyAmpIR, we have a simple cabinet IR loader with some clever functionality to make loading and browsing impulse responses faster.

The GUI has three controls: The button on the left loads the IR file, the knob in the center lets you browse all the IRs in the original file’s folder, and the rightmost knob controls the output volume.

The top section of the interface shows the loaded IR filename and lets you select the next and previous IR using the left and right arrows.

The plugin scans the loaded IR’s filename to detect terms resembling popular guitar amps. The GUI will automatically change to represent the captured cabinet depending on the loaded IR.

So, if your IR filename contains the word, Marshall, the GUI will update to look like a Marshall amp.

One of the guitar amps included in AnyAmpIR.
One of the GUI options in AnyAmpIR.

As any guitarist knows, a lot goes through the signal path to make a sound. Things like your tonewood, strings, amp, cabinet, and even how you use your fingers influence the sound.

Michael believes that the amp’s distortion isn’t important at all and that you can replace it with any distortion and a set of IRs.

As a guitarist of over 20 years, I can’t honestly recommend AnyAmpIR as a complete amp replacement. However, we all have different techniques, and the guitar tone is what matters in the end.

YouTube video

AnyAmpIR definitely does the trick as an IR loader. To me personally, it is somewhat jarring to see a Mesa head with no accompanying distortion, and I’m sure somewhere, a legion of metal and punk guitarists are claiming it as pure sacrilege.

But again, we all use different techniques to produce music, program our synths, and shape our guitar tone. With that in mind, check out Michael’s video below to learn more about his philosophy.

YouTube video

If you’re looking for a free alternative to the many amp sims out in the wild, look at Neural Amp Modeler, which BPB has previously covered. The newly released 0.71 has lower CPU consumption, and you can take advantage of 1000s of free amp models and IRs there.

If AnyAmpIR piques your interest, it is available for Windows, Mac, and iOS. Supported plugin formats are VST3 and AU. AnyAmpIR is a universal Mac application, so you can try it whether you’re running Silicon or Intel.

UPDATE: This article was updated to correct some factual errors about AnyAmpIR’s functionality. We apologize for the mistakes, which are now fixed.

Download: AnyAmpIR

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Liam is a producer, mixing engineer, and compressor aficionado. When not mixing, he can be found pretending to play guitar, as he has been doing for the last 20 years.

23 Comments

    • mx

       on

      i also had to read it twice at first, then thought about being a smartass and stating the point that the wood on an electric guitar is the last thing that influences anything…
      but actually there are worse things in the world than people who believe in things like that.

      Reply

  3. Numanoid

     on

    The new issue of Computer Music is out today, it comes with DH Plugins Halo 2 Lite

    “Ahead of its release and for a limited period only, CM brings an exclusive preview version of Halo 2”

    I note that DH Plugins have done similar limited releases for the first version of Halo also:

    https://bedroomproducersblog.com/?s=halo

    Reply

    • sparella

       on

      The greatest contributors to electric tone are the transducers in the signal chain, imo. Differences in materials affect the acoustic projection and might be felt where the player’s body contacts the instrument, but those differences don’t meaningfully contribute to the electrical signal that the pickup generates.

      As Michael’s video mentions, see Jim Lill’s series on ‘Where does does tone come from’. One video includes examples of drastic body material changes that have negligible effect on the electric tone.

      Reply

  5. Rafael

     on

    I mean it’s just a cab impulse player, for which there are plenty already. I like the simplicity on this one but it ain’t as revolutionary as it tries to make itself to be.

    Reply

  6. dandruffcereal

     on

    Did you even watch the video? Michael explains that you don’t need built-in distortion or EQ, as it limits your customizability and can be done using other plugins of your choice, in whatever order you want. Michael also linked Jim Lill’s video, which shows how every guitar amp is a different combination of a cabinet, EQ, and distortion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcBEOcPtlYk). In terms of solely simulating a speaker cabinet, the plugin is perfect. Tonewood nonsense eliminated. For your case, you are not done and need to replicate the EQ and distortion of a Marshall or Mesa head.

    Reply

  9. Bthelick

     on

    IR’s have been around for 2 decades, but they are just static. Static responses are not appropriate for dynamic systems such as non linear processes like amps fed but a real guitar. They don’t react to the dynamics of the instrument, at all. You can get overall tone colour but nothing like an actual amp.

    Reply

  11. Michael from playpm

     on

    Hi William, thanks for the review and comparison with Neural Amp, but I’m not sure if you fully understand my AnyAmpIR.

    I don’t know where does high pass filter and low pass filter come from. It only has 2 knobs, one is IR scroller, one is output volume finetune, the tone shaping all comes from IR switching, it’s designed to re-created the IR provider’s will on how he think a good clean guitar amp signal line should be.

    I’m also not sure if you went through my introduction video, maybe it’s too long to finish, but I think this report definitely needs some revise. We need to separate opinions and facts.

    Reply

    • MilkThatCow

       on

      since cabs are just colour why don’t we all just go back to 1995 and use early digital lowpass filters instead of irs?
      btw I love this Tommy Wiseau of the dsp world.

      Reply
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