OverHeat is the most recent software release from Sampleson, who produce a wide range of player-focused virtual instruments. This latest offering sees the company turn their attention to effects processing, providing users with a harmonic distortion plug-in that aims to add depth, warmth and character to individual sources or entire mixes. Best of all, OverHeat is free for anyone to download.
The plug-in has been designed to emulate the type of distortion found in valve-based analogue circuits, and is said to add harmonic content to a signal in a pleasing and musical way on a wide range of sources, as well as replicating the compression that occurs when components are pushed to their limits.
The simple GUI houses a pair of gains controls which are placed both before and after the main Drive parameter, whilst the overall tone of the plug-in can be controlled using a Color dial. A variable low-pass filter (ranging from 1 to 20 kHz) is also present, providing users with some control over their signal’s high-frequency content.
OverHeat features a fully scalable interface, and has been optimised for low CPU usage.
Compatibility
Overheat is supported on PCs running Windows 7 and above, as well as both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs (no minimum OS requirements are specified). VST3 and AU plug-in versions are available.
Availability
Overheat is available now as a free download from the Sampleson website.
