Witch Pig releases Siberian Hamster, a free ProCo RAT guitar pedal simulation in VST3 and AU plugin formats for Windows and macOS.
Few distortion pedals have a lasting legacy to the same extent as the ProCo RAT. Authentic versions of the pedal can be a little pricey, but luckily Siberian Hamster is free from Witch Pig.
Siberian Hamster closely resembles the ProCo RAT’s main pedal functions. You’ll find a distortion knob that provides the dirt in this dirt box. You can get biting distortions or even get close to a fuzz pedal at less extreme settings.
A low-pass filter is present, which helps to dial in the distortion itself. All the way to the left brings it into fuzzy territory. I don’t like going past the midpoint. If you’re using a darker amp or amp sim, it might help to get some of the mids and highs to sound more prominent.
The final control is the volume knob, which provides the output gain for the pedal. You can ride this a little harder to get a pleasing boost.
Siberian Hamster’s core sound is solid and is very much in line with what I’d expect from a RAT pedal. It is very much a love-or-hate-it sound.
If you’re more used to amp distortion supplemented with a boost, this might not be a great fit. If you like getting that old-school death metal sound with something a little British in voicing, it does that quite well.
It works great on acid basslines and sub-bass. You can get snarly synthetic leads quite easily once you’ve mastered the controls.
I’m personally a fan of free or inexpensive guitar-oriented stuff. As such, I think Siberian Hamster is worth a download. It is simply amazing that you can build a no-cost practice rig with just a handful of plugins these days.
Siberian Hamster is available for Windows and Mac computers. You’ll need a host capable of supporting VST3 or AU plugins to use it.
Witch Pig hasn’t provided many details on what sorts of Macs are supported. As such, you might have to do a little testing on your own to see if it works for you.
Download: Siberian Hamster
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5 Comments
Brenny C
onWitch Pig makes some good free plugins.
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onHello
can’t connect to their website because it’s labelled as a not secured connection.
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onwith firefox
MRG
onIt appears the site doesn’t support https, which is pretty rare these days indeed. And a very bad idea.
You should be able to use it nonetheless, by disabling the “HTTPS-Only mode” in the Settings of Firefox.
I cannot in good conscience tell you to do it, it’s generally a bad idea to turn this off. But it can be done. Don’t do it. Or turn it back just after you’re done. But don’t do it, ever! Please.
Your decision. :/
Jeff
onI use Firefox and have no issues on that site.