The BBE Stomp Ware Free Fuzz is a virtual fuzz plug-in that is modeled after a real hardware guitar pedal made by BBE. The plug-in is part of the BBE Stomp Ware bundle of plug-ins, which consists of eight plug-ins total of virtual pedals like this one. Installing the bundle is easy enough, and as long as you install the right format for your system, you should be okay. Using the plug-in is even easier, as there's not very much to it at all, much like it's hardware counterpart. The plug-in just has parameters for volume and fuzz, and a switch for choosing either an amp or DI setting. For this reason, a manual really shouldn't be necessary at all.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I'm currently running the BBE Stomp Ware Free Fuzz plug-in and the full Stomp Ware bundle on my recording system at home. My home studio is built around a Mac Book Pro that has 4 GB of RAM and a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, on which I'm running Pro Tools LE 8. I've got Pro Tools running with a Digi 002R audio interface and I'm monitoring with a set of Adam A7's. This plug-in doesn't take up much processing power at all...

OVERALL OPINION

In general I'm not big on using software distortions as they generally come off as thin and inauthentic in my opinion, and I can't say that the BBE Stomp Ware Free Fuzz shifts this notion in the slightest. While the plug-in will certainly give you some fuzz, to me it just takes away from a clean guitar sound. It's almost like the bottom drops out when you turn up the fuzz. This bundle is cheap enough and has a few decent plug-ins in it, but I wouldn't recommend getting it for the Free Fuzz and other distortions...