SoftDrive GV is a virtual-analog model of the Marshall “Guv’nor” and “Guv’nor GV-2 Plus” guitar distortion effects. The Guv’nor is a solid-state distortion pedal first issued in 1989 to recreate the sound of a cranked up Marshall stack in a small stomp-box format. It became rather popular in the 90’s and is still used widely nowadays for its quality high-gain sound and a its tonal versatility. It was re-issued in the early 2000 in an updated housing and incorporating a new “Deep” control to mimic the effect of a JCM2000’s “Deep” switch.
This VST model is a tribute to the original effect and models the circuits of both the “vanilla” Guv’nor and its modern GV-2 variant.
SoftDrive GV expands on the original design and brings in new possibilities unthinkable of outside of the digital realm. In the spirit of my prior creations, this plug-in also features a few things to visualize what’s going on inside the box.
UI Controls
The effect’s controls are broken down into 4 sections:
- Six control knobs of the original analog effect.
- Four switches to toggle different stages.
- Four sliders to tune the physical parameters.
- Four buttons on top to control the VST plug-in.
1. Knobs:
- Gain – input gain, also affects the pre-emphasis filters.
- Level – output attenuation, frequency-dependent (see “Bright”).
- Deep – low-end resonance, also gives a slight top-end boost (GV-2 only).
- Bass – low frequencies in the output signal.
- Mid – middle frequencies in the output signal.
- Treble – high frequencies in the output signal.
2. Switches:
- Mode – switch between GV-1 and GV-2 circuit models.
- LEDs – toggle the LED clipping stage of the circuit.
- Bright – toggle the treble roll-off of the “Level” control (The famous “C22 Mod”).
- Power – toggle the whole effect on/off.
3. Sliders:
- Voltage – power supply voltage (the default is 9v).
- Fidelity – Op-Amp’s open-loop gain non-linearly from 100 to 200000 (default is 200000).
- Scale – “time scale” of the model, effectively shifts the frequency response.
- Mix – dry/wet mix.
4. Buttons:
- About.
- Check for updates.
- Toggle HQ mode (oversampling).
- Toggle Stereo mode.
UI Visualization
The plug-in UI has 2 areas that visualize the model:
1. Overdrive Stages – features an icon for each stage where saturation occurs:
2. Filtering Stages – features two logarithmic plots that show the amplitude-frequency characteristics of the filtering stages:
- Pre (Input filter + OpAmpA + OpAmpB).
- Post (Tonestack + Deep + Output filter).
Installation
Unzip the archive and put the “AXP SoftDrive GV.dll” or “AXP SoftDrive GV x64.dll” to your VST folder. Make sure to select the one appropriate for your system (Win32 or x64).
Notes
- Enabling the HQ (oversampling) mode introduces an 8 sample delay. It won’t be compensated by the DAW. It will be fixed in future releases.
- This plug-in requires the Windows Imaging Component library. It’s included in all Windows versions starting with Windows XP SP3. If you are using Windows XP SP2, you can get it as a stand-alone library here.
- It is my hobby to develop VST audio effect models. I’m not getting paid for it and I use my own limited spare time to do this work. If you like my projects and would want to encourage the future work please consider doing something from the following:
– Tell your friends about my site and my plug-ins
– Send me audio samples you’ve made with my plug-ins
– Drop me a line or two with any comments and suggestions
– Make a small donation through my web site.
Version History
1.0.0 – 03 Sep 2013 – Initial release
1.0.1 – 07 Sep 2013 – Fixed sound corruption when multiple instances are open.
License
This software is licensed for an unlimited usage by everyone, including personal, commercial and scientific applications. You are NOT allowed to modify it (including both the binary code and the copyright information) or sell it, in either stand-alone or bundled form. The plug-in is provided “as is” without a warranty of any kind. In no event I shall be liable for any damage associated with the usage of this software. I encourage further distribution by sharing a link to the effect web page.
Please send your questions and suggestions to my e-mail or post them on the site.
VST is a registered trademark of Steinberg, GmbH
“Marshall”, “Guv’nor”, and “Guv’nor Plus” are registered trademarks of Marshall Amplification plc.
AXP is not affilated with or endorsed by Marshall Amplification.
AXP SoftDrive GV (c) 2013 Alexander Petrov-Savchenko.
http://www.soft-amp.com/
