Let’s get it said right up front: this is one of my favourite amp head VSTs of all time.LePou makes great stuff and his amp heads are second to none. Of all of them however, I think this one is the best.The 456 has just the right amount of muscle and crispness, not to mention huge amounts of gain, but still manages to sound tight and focused, even when pushed to the hilt.So here’s what’s on offer: A drive and an output knob (obviously).

LePou Plugins has released a Mac version of its Le456 preamp effect plugin. The Le456 is a preamp sim roughly based on German gear. Spiderman swinging. It has 2 channels and 2 modes per channel. Each channel/mode shares the same features. Apart from the usual tone controls (drive, low, mid, high and contour), each channel/mode offers two different tone stacks. My favorite amp sim maker LePou has just released a slew of updated versions of his amp sims and the impulse loader LeCab2.

Two channels, each with two further options: High Gain and Low Gain for the higher gain channel; Clean and Crunch for the lower gain one. You’ve got bass, middle, treble and contour controls on each channel, plus Focus, Bottom and Bright presets. These presets affect the sound profoundly, and it’s a good thing. Of all the amps I’ve tried over the years, I’ve never met one that was effected so little by the controls. Essentially, this amp has one setting: GO! It’s just lucky that that setting is totally awesome.They say that talking about music is like dancing about architecture, and that’s the case here. The only way to really get what this amp does is to hear it.If high gain is your thing, you can stop looking.

Free rs232 communication software. You’ve just found the Holy Grail.(NOTE: Don’t be concerned if your download looks a little different from the one above—it’s just a different skin).PROS: One of the best sounding amp VSTs out there, periodCONS: Not the most versatile amp on the planetDOWNLOAD.