Free Software Friday is our regular Friday feature here at the dBs blog. We dig the depths of the music production and media webosphere and discover what downloadable plugin freebies are worth double clicking each week.
Nembrini Audio joins the ranks as yet another developer looking to recreate the iconic Klon Centaur sound with its free plugin, the Clon Minotaur Transparent Overdrive.
Some of you may have come across the Klon Centaur overdrive pedal. Manufactured in the early 90s and costing an eye-watering $5,000 it became renowned for enhancing an amplifiers natural distortion without colouring the sound. Thirty years on and Nembrini Audio's free emulation of this iconic pedal is certainly tempting and not just because of the price difference.
Mimicking the Centaur's simple three knob control layout, the Clon Minotaur pairs the gain, treble and output controls with two modelled diodes that handle waveform clipping. The level of the gain knob sets the balance between the two diodes (clean stage and clipping stage), which are summed up before reaching the treble and output controls.
The treble can be used to cut or boost the higher frequencies, but many users of the original Klon Centaur argue that this control should only be used for cutting to prevent high frequencies affecting the amps natural sound.
Overdrive as an effect for guitar is pretty far reaching regardless of genre, and we've seen plenty of people expounding their love for the Clon Minotaur's impact on more extreme genres.
Clon Minotaur is available for Windows and macOS (VST, AU, AAX / 64-bit only) and can be downloaded for free using the link below. A free iLok account is needed to run the plugin, but no iLok is required.
https://www.nembriniaudio.com/products/clon-minotaur-transparent-overdrive
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