Chow Centaur

Name: Chow Centaur
Author: Chowdhury DSP

by Chowdhury DSP · Distortion · Klon Centaur overdrive emulation

Not rated yet

Chow Centaur is an emulation of the Klon Centaur guitar overdrive pedal, with the pedal's Gain, Treble and Level controls.

It offers a Traditional mode built with circuit modelling and a Neural mode that uses a recurrent neural network for the gain stage, and it is free.

Best for: Guitars, Bass, Keys & Synths. Genres: Rock & Indie, Metal.

Keywords: hardware emulation, overdrive, free, AI/machine learning, circuit-modelled, electric guitar, warm, transparent, 90s, bass, clean, mixing, open source, single-band.

What it does

Chow Centaur is a free digital model of the Klon Centaur overdrive pedal. It started as a research project, and it models the same circuit two different ways, described in a published paper (arXiv 2009.02833).

Traditional mode: nodal analysis and wave digital filters model the circuit directly.
Neural mode: a recurrent neural network emulates the gain stage, trained on about four minutes of electric guitar recordings run through a SPICE model of the circuit.
Pedal controls: Gain, Treble and Level, as on the original pedal, plus the mode switch and a bypass.
Character: aimed at the Klon's transparent overdrive: gain and warmth without changing the guitar's natural tone much.

Version 1.4.0 is free and open source under the BSD 3-clause license.

Source: Chowdhury DSP product page

When to use it

Chow Centaur is the free way to get a Klon-style transparent boost in front of an amp sim, and its two modelling modes make it an interesting study as well as a tool. Compared with The Scream, which models the Tube Screamer, it covers a different pedal and aims at a transparent boost rather than a coloured drive. It does far less than Saturn 2 or Thermal: three knobs and one character, with no multiband or modulation options. Bedroom Producers Blog felt it lacks the hardware's mystique, but for a free plugin it covers the essentials.

Best for: clean boost and light to medium overdrive into an amp sim.
Genres: rock, blues and indie; also as a boost in front of high-gain amps for metal.
Look elsewhere if: you want many pedals in one plugin or a full amp rig (Archetype or AmpliTube), or a deep sound-design distortion (Saturn 2).

What producers say

Seen as a faithful, if plain, free Klon emulation.

Bedroom Producers Blog (2021, version 1.3.0) said it "ticks all the boxes" for the Klon's essential qualities, giving gain and warmth without much change to the natural tone.
Reservation: the same review felt it probably lacks "the same mystique" as the original hardware.

Bedroom Producers Blog article

Where to buy

Chowdhury DSP: Free

Tutorials and reviews

Similar plugins

Clon Minotaur by Nembrini Audio · Klon-style transparent overdrive · Free
JHS Morning Glory by MixWave · Transparent overdrive pedal model · $49
Efektor Blues Barker Breaker Overdrive by Kuassa · Overdrive pedal · $19
Dr Drive by Audiority · Modern overdrive pedal model · Free
808 Overdrive Pro by Nembrini Audio · TS808 overdrive pedal model · Free
Green Reaper GR9 by Audiority · Tube Screamer TS9 overdrive model · $20
bx_yellowdrive by Brainworx · Overdrive pedal emulation · $29
HTS9 by HoRNet · Tube Screamer-style overdrive · $7.94
bx_greenscreamer by Brainworx · Overdrive pedal emulation · $29
Efektor OD3603 Overdrive by Kuassa · Overdrive pedal · $25

All distortion