maxim|digital audio Overdrive [Freeware]

The Maxim Digital Audio Overdrive plug-in is a free VST plug-in that runs on both PC and Mac operating systems. The process of installing it should be quick and easy, granted that you have a DAW that can run VST plug-ins. After downloading it, just follow the standard step by step installation instructions, and you're good to go. It should automatically put the plug-in file in the proper place, but I'd check that upon installation it's in your DAW's plug-in folder anyway. Learning the plug-in should only take a glance, as it's very simple in make up. It's just got three sliders to control drive, muffle, and output. You don't need to know anything else about the plug-in, and I don't think you'd be able to reference a manual as they most likely didn't make one.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I'm no longer running the Maxim Digital Audio Overdrive plug-in, but when I was it was in Cubase SX software on a Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv8000 lap top with 2 GB of RAM and a 3.0 Ghz processor. I ran everything through a MOTU 896 HD. Ever since I made the switch to a Pro Tools system, I haven't had the need for this plug-in. Although, you can run it in Pro Tools if you've got the Fxpansion VST to RTAS converter. In terms of how much processing power this plug-in takes up, it really isn't much so I wouldn't worry about it.

OVERALL OPINION

Maxim Digital Audio offers up a nice amount of free plug-ins, but they've definitely decided to go with quantity over quality, as I really don't think this Overdrive plug-in is usable. While I usually don't expect too much from a software overdrives to being with, this one is well below the quality that modern overdrive and distortion plug-ins are capable of. I just can't say that it has a realistic sound in any capacity. I guess if you wanted to really just give yourself a lo-fi sound, you could with the 'muffle' parameter, but as far as a traditional overdrive goes, this just doesn't do the trick. If you're downloading free plug-ins from Maxim Digital Audio, you might as well download all of them, but I wouldn't go out of my way for this one.