Distortion Types

Warm vintage saturation modelled on vacuum tube behaviour. Uses tanh waveshaping with a 2nd harmonic enhancement stage that adds even-order harmonic content for natural musical warmth. Drive range of 1x-21x into saturation.

tanh + 2nd harmonic

Magnetic tape saturation with smooth arctangent compression. Includes a tape head bump simulation that naturally warms the low mids without explicit EQ. The gentlest of the classic algorithms - always musical.

atan + head bump

Solid-state asymmetric clipping with an edgy, aggressive character. The positive and negative half-cycles clip differently, producing odd harmonics and a pronounced grit at higher drive settings.

asymmetric exponential clip

Full-destruction fuzz with extreme cubic soft-clip and sputtery buzz. At high drive levels, hard clipping kicks in for a compressed, sustain-rich wall of sound with a rectification buzz characteristic of vintage fuzz circuits.

cubic soft-clip + rectifier grit

Wavefolding synthesis-style distortion that generates complex harmonic spectra by folding the waveform back on itself. The number of fold stages increases with drive, producing progressively richer and more inharmonic content.

multi-stage triangle fold

Digital bit-depth reduction and sample-rate decimation. Drive simultaneously reduces bit depth (16 bits down to 2) and increases the hold-sample decimation factor, creating the lo-fi aliasing and staircase quantization artifacts of vintage digital hardware.

quantization + sample hold

GIMZWARE's premier tube algorithm built on the Koren 12AX7 triode model - one of the most mathematically accurate vacuum tube simulations available. Enhanced with GIMZWARE HEAT, our proprietary harmonic enhancement layer that adds controlled even-order warmth and presence beyond what standard tube emulation achieves.

Koren triode + ADAA + HEAT

Advanced tape saturation based on a simplified Jiles-Atherton magnetic hysteresis model. Captures the true nonlinear magnetization curve of tape - including the direction-dependent lag between input and output - for authentic compression and saturation that responds differently on the way up versus the way down.

Jiles-Atherton hysteresis

Circuit-accurate feedback clipping modelled on the TS808 op-amp topology, where silicon diodes sit inside the amplifier's feedback loop. Produces the characteristic mid-forward, asymmetric clipping of the original circuit with screaming harmonic edge at higher drive settings.

TS808 feedback topology + ADAA

Multi-stage cascaded germanium transistor saturation modelled on PNP Fuzz Face topology with temperature-dependent bias drift. Two cascaded stages build sustain progressively, and the simulated bias drift adds the unpredictable sputtering character that makes vintage germanium fuzz pedals so sought-after.

PNP germanium cascade + bias drift

Transparent multi-band harmonic exciter that adds controlled harmonic content without obvious coloration. Three frequency bands are processed independently - low, mid, and high - with an envelope follower that dynamically shapes the excitation amount, keeping the result musical at any input level.

multi-band harmonic exciter + envelope

Iron-core transformer saturation modelled using a modified Langevin function. Captures the low-frequency intermodulation and asymmetric soft-limiting that occurs when audio transformers are driven into magnetic saturation - the warmth of analog studio console transformers pushed hard.

Langevin transformer saturation

A heavy, aggressive amp model trained on high-gain tube hardware. The LSTM network captures the complete nonlinear behaviour of the amp including power-stage compression, cathode follower interaction, and speaker response, producing thick sustain and a scooped mid-range that cuts through dense mixes.

A tight, focused drive model trained to capture the backbone of classic rock and modern high-gain tones. Emphasizes the mid-range and delivers precise pick articulation at lower drive levels, opening up into a full compressed saturation when pushed. The LSTM hidden state tracks transient dynamics across buffer boundaries for continuous response.

A searing lead tone with exceptional sustain and harmonic bloom. Trained on the preamp stage of a high-gain head known for its vocal lead quality. NeuralVenom produces the long-release compression and upper harmonic sizzle that makes single-note lines sing at any tempo.

Warm, musical breakup with dynamic sensitivity. Trained on a vintage low-wattage all-tube combo pushed into natural power-amp compression. Neural Soul responds convincingly to input level - soft playing produces clean, harmonically rich tones while harder picking or higher Input Gain drives it into saturated breakup. The most touch-responsive neural model.