Free amps, IRs, and the Reaper mix

Open-source capture player. Load a .nam of a real amp and it is that amp.

The current free standard. Pair with a tight high-gain capture and a separate IR.

Free NAM (and IR) captures. Filter by amp, rating, and style.

Search “Revv,” “5150,” “Diezel,” “Fortin” and download a handful. Quality varies — trust the ratings.

Dual-channel high-gain amp. Clean plus a modern lead that loves drop tunings.

No capture hunting. Turn cab off, hit NadIR, done. A metalcore default since 1.0.

Three-channel preamp: Californian clean, hot British rhythm, tight lead.

Rhythm channel for verses, lead for the big chorus. Still free.

Three-channel tube preamp, same family as The Anvil, different voicing.

A second colour when Emissary is too scooped or Anvil is too British.

One amp called Djent God, plus gate, drive, and four ML cabs.

Fast djent/metalcore tone without a capture library. Cab can be bypassed for your own IRs.

Open-source ML amp with clean and lead channels.

Lightweight, Linux-friendly, good for a second layer or a laptop rig.

Free Custom Shop: pedals, amps, cabs, mics. All-in-one if you want a pedalboard.

Heavier than NAM, but useful for clean/prog tones and for learning a full chain.

JFET high-gain preamp / distortion stomp. Four-knob tonestack.

Put it in front of a milder amp, or use it as the gain stage into an IR.

808-style overdrive voiced for down-tuned guitars.

Level up, drive low. Tightens the low end of a 5150-style amp the way a real Tube Screamer does.

The other free Tube Screamer. Tiny, oversampled, still the metalcore input trick.

First insert after the gate. Drive 0–2, level 7–9, tone noon.

SansAmp Bass Driver-style bass preamp.

Not a guitar amp — it is how a lot of metalcore bass sits under drop-tuned fives.

Zero-latency dual IR loader. Two cabs, mix, filter, and bundled IRs.

The metalcore cab. Load a tight V30 and a darker 421-style IR, blend 60/40.

Eight-channel IR mixer with a Cartesian blend. Zero latency.

When two cabs are not enough. Mix mic positions without leaving Reaper.

Reaper’s convolution plugin. Add a .wav impulse, keep the rest dry.

No extra install. File → Add, keep length short (cabs, not halls), 100% wet.

Studio cabs bundled with NadIR. Start here before you hunt packs.

Good enough to mix a song. Swap later, don’t stall tracking.

Free V30 1×12 mix (Royer + 57) from Celestion Plus. Email gate.

A known-good vintage-30 centre. Brighter than a modern djent IR — useful as the ‘open’ cab in a blend.

Filter the same library for cabinets and mic packs.

Grab two contrasting IRs (bright cone + dark dust cap) and never look at a 75-file pack again.

FFT analyser with a stereo correlation meter. The one you leave on the master.

See the 200 Hz build-up and the 8 kHz fizz instead of guessing.

LUFS, true peak, LRA. Free version is enough to master.

Metalcore masters live around −9 to −11 LUFS-I with true peak under −1 dBTP.

Parallel dynamic EQ. Surgical cuts that only grab when the fizz spikes.

Dynamic cut at 3–5 kHz on the guitar bus, or a master 200 Hz dip that breathes.

Wideband mastering compressor. Slow, clean, not a brick.

1–2 dB of gain reduction on the mix bus before the limiter. That is the glue.

Three vintage passive program EQs with a modelled triode stage.

Broad strokes on the guitar bus or mix bus when ReaEQ feels too clinical.