Made by someone who kept hitting the same wall you did.
Cathode Audio is one person, working independently. Cathode exists because every amp sim I tried eventually ended at somebody else's decision. Captures (as good as they've gotten) end at one setting, frozen. Modeled amps have knobs that work properly, and then they end at the amp list a company finished writing. The amps I love aren't settings or catalog entries. They're circuits that argue with you, and I wanted to be able to change one.
Standing on LiveSPICE's shoulders
Real-time circuit simulation for guitarists isn't my invention. LiveSPICE proved it was possible years ago, and a small community has been playing through simulated circuits ever since. It's a brilliant piece of work that deserves enormous respect, and it hasn't seen active development in a long time.
Cathode is my attempt to carry that idea forward: modern solver, calibrated power-stage feel, a UI a guitarist can love, validated against SPICE ground truth, and maintained as my actual job. If LiveSPICE got you here, you're exactly who I built the deep end for.
What I'm committing to
Buy once, keep it. No fake sales, one founding window ever.
NAM export of anything you build. The free Player loads whatever the community shares. Bridges, not walls.
I'll never claim "more accurate" than the capture or modeling tools. Different thing: more alive, more control, and open to change.
Talk to me
Questions, skepticism, feature arguments, amp lore: hello@cathodeaudio.com. The monthly devlog is where the build happens in public.