Voxengo Boogex free
I'm a non-professional but still devoided french guitar player/arranger. I've been working on music at various stages (singer, guitar player, songwriter, arranger, both in studios and on stage) for more than ten years now. And I can say in all honesty that the Boogex is the only I like using to enhance/reshape the sounds I produce with my guitar and pedals (very few pedals actually but, it's true all of them top-quality).
My sound-engineer (on other projects than the ones I lead) first told me that he didn't like the Boogex but after he watched me work with it, he eventually decided to use it and now does use it often. I think it's the best plug-in I have, or at least I can SAY that it's the one I use the most. And, by Jove, it's FREE!
Actually (honest) I was checking this site to see if there was any chance of bying the same stuff as hardware to go onstage with it as nearly all my guitar sounds have some Boogex features in tem and we're going onstage soon. Well... I'm going to check out the compressors for I need one to master our debut album (already nicely reviewed as a demo in mags).
To conclude I would say that I will sign with just my initials so that nobody can find me, for I like my sound (and journalists in many countries have said they did too so...) and I would hate people to have such a clue about how it's made (even if other "secrets" are involved...). I would hate people thinking such a praise of the Boogex to be some sort of advertisemnt. It's FREE. They don't even sell this stuff and its GREAT. I mean. Thank you for that, really.
I like this plug a lot. The ability to load IRs is a very nice touch. This amp sim is very very good at making outrageously distorted f'**ked up guitar sounds like Hendrix at Monterey, the Stooges or "I heard her call my name" by Velvet Underground. It's also capable of some very nice retro "dirty-clean" sounds.
It's perhaps not ideal for faceless hi-fi wall of distorted guitars like all those American nu-rock bands, but that's not my bag anyway.