Free player · standalone + VST/AU · macOS & Windows
Real amps. Real knobs. Not snapshots.
A capture is a photograph of an amp at one knob setting. A Cathode design is the amp — the tone stack interacts, the power stage sags under your pick, and every knob actually works.
30-SEC PROOF CLIP · dark app footage drops here
Why it feels different
Every knob is doing real work.
No crossfading between snapshots
Turn a knob and the whole amp responds at once — the way the real thing does when tone and volume fight over the same signal.
Feel in the power stage
Dig in and it sags. Back off and it cleans up. The touch response comes from calibrated models, not a frozen file.
We interop, never trap
Keep your NAM workflow. Any Cathode design can export a NAM profile, and the free Player loads whatever the community shares.
Cathode Player · free
Play amps the community designed.
Every shared design arrives with its knobs alive. Standalone or in your DAW.
About Player →Cathode Designer · $149 perpetual
Build the amp that doesn't exist.
Open any design and change anything — swap parts, re-voice it, hear it before you solder.
About Designer →