Made by someone who kept hitting the same wall you did.
Prickly Pear Audio is one person, working independently. Cathode exists because captures — as good as they've gotten — kept ending at the same place: one setting, frozen. The amps I love aren't settings. They're circuits that argue with you.
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 tools. Different thing: more alive, more control.
Talk to me
Questions, skepticism, feature arguments, amp lore: hello@cathodeaudio.com. The monthly devlog is where the build happens in public.