Here’s a weird one. An emulation of a Digitech Whammy pedal (made famous by the likes of Dimebag Darrell and Tom Morello). Now you can have all those screeching, plunging and just plain weird effects right on your desktop.

The Whamdrive is, essentially, a pitch-shifter, but differs from others that you might have come across by being firmly rooted in its stompbox origins.

You can control the incoming audio signal in real-time, either on-screen via the user interface, or with an external MIDI controller (if you’re really fancy).

The unit contains 14 different pitch modes—octave up and downs, a range of 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th variations, as well as 2 octave up and down options—and there’s a drive section as well.

I certainly didn’t care for the drive sound on this (which, inexplicably has cabinet simulation already on board), but the pitch-shifting functionality howls just like a bought one.

There’s a level control and single tone control, meaning you’re likely to need a separate EQ to stop excessive face-melting (especially when you’re using the ‘2 octave up’ settings).

Not the prettiest-sounding plug-in I’ve ever used, but then again, when did a Digitech Whammy ever sound pretty?

PROS: In the world of VSTs this is likely a one-of-a-kind
CONS: Little tone control, especially compared to the control you have over pitch

DOWNLOAD: http://www.audiorammer.com/site/?q=freetortion-series/volume-iv-whamdrive-distortion