OrbitCab — Free Guitar & Bass Cab IR Loader (VST3/AU/CLAP)
OrbitCab — Cabinet IR Loader — is a tool that gives your guitar its final tone and makes it sit in the mix.
We’re a band. We record ourselves and we help others record. We made OrbitCab for ourselves and we give it to you — free, open-source, under AGPL. Grab it. This is our vision of sound, and we share it.
Play music, drink beer, pet cats, be happy.
Darwin’s Cat, Oi!
How to record? Plugin or hardware
There’s no single recipe, but here’s our take:
Recording rhythm guitar
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Pedals — live if you can (especially fuzz/distortion): they’re the most non-linear parts of your chain.
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Preamp — live if it’s good, but a simulation works too (DAW / processor / modeller).
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Power amp — use a simulator (DAW / processor / modeller); live only if you have a really good tube amp and a good reactive load box.
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Cabinet (speakers, mic) — use a simulation in the DAW. That’s exactly what OrbitCab is for.
Recording bass guitar
For bass — do the cabinet in the DAW.
Recording solo guitar
For guitar solos you have more freedom — use processors/plugins, but here too we recommend doing the cabinet in the DAW.
Common setups
All in the DAW
No hardware amp. The guitar goes as a dry signal into the interface’s Hi-Z input, the amp is built in the DAW (e.g. NAM, AIDA-X — pick a model without a cabinet), and OrbitCab is the cabinet after it.
Preamp (line-out)
We use a separate preamp, the preamp of a combo, or the preamp of a head. The line-out signal goes to the interface’s line input. In the DAW, OrbitCab gives the cabinet sound. This is our favorite setup for rhythm guitars (especially distortion) and for recording bass.
Load box
The amp is fully in use, but instead of a speaker there’s a load box (reactive load) — it gives the power amp a safe load, and from its line output (line/DI) it sends the signal to the interface’s line input. In the DAW, OrbitCab gives the cabinet sound. This setup is popular with tube-amp owners. You must not feed an amp’s speaker output into an interface — that’s exactly what the load box is for.
Guitar processor
A guitar processor with cab sim off works as an amp simulator. The processor’s line-out goes to the interface’s line input (or straight over USB), then in the DAW OrbitCab gives the cabinet sound. This is our favorite setup for recording guitar solos.
Pedals only
If you don’t have a good processor but you have pedals (distortion, fuzz, overdrive), connect their output to the interface’s Hi-Z input, but don’t forget to put an amp sim (NAM, AIDA-X) in the DAW, then OrbitCab. The order is the same as in hardware: pedals → amp → cabinet.
Don’t: double cab
Don’t feed OrbitCab a signal that already has another cabinet in it — a mic’d cabinet, or an amp/processor with cab sim on. Two cabinets in a row sound dull and boxy. There should be one cabinet — switch the extra one off. Two IRs inside OrbitCab are not this: they sum in parallel, it’s still one cabinet. A double cab is when a cabinet is already in the signal before OrbitCab.
Plugin features
By trying and tweaking IRs, you can seat the guitar in the mix. You can use two IRs, blend them, and adjust the parameters of each:
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HPF — removes low-end rumble.
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LPF — controls harshness and brightness.
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TRIM — trims the IR tail: dry it out (remove the echo) or, the other way, leave it more wet.
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Dry/Wet — blends in the dry signal to bring up attack; at high dry watch the phase — you can get comb filtering.
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Phase — polarity inversion (180°); helps when summing two IRs, or a DI and an amp.
Download
| Platform | Formats |
|---|---|
Windows (x64 / ARM64) |
VST3 · CLAP · Standalone |
macOS |
VST3 · AU · CLAP · Standalone |
Linux (x86_64 / ARM64) |
VST3 · CLAP · Standalone |
Get the latest release, checksums and source on GitHub.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s a preamp, and what’s a power amp?
- preamp (preamplifier) — instrument-level in (the guitar straight), line-level out (tapped from the line-out or FX-send). Shapes the sound: gain, tone, overdrive — that's where the "dirt" comes from.
- power amp (power amplifier) — line-level in (FX-return), speaker-level out: tens of watts, to physically move the speaker and the air in the room.
What’s a Hi-Z input?
The high-impedance, "instrument" input on your interface — for the signal straight off a guitar or bass pickup. A passive pickup has a high output impedance and needs an input with a much higher resistance: Hi-Z is about 1 MΩ, while a normal line input is around 10 kΩ — a hundred times lower. Plug a guitar straight into a line input and it chokes the pickup: the highs and the attack are gone. So a guitar or bass straight in goes only into Hi-Z.
What goes into Hi-Z, and what into a line input (line-in)?
Into Hi-Z — whatever sounds like a bare guitar: the instrument itself, or a guitar through ordinary pedals (overdrive, distortion, fuzz — any stompbox, they're instrument-level). Into a line input — whatever is already boosted to line level: the line-out of a preamp or head, a load box output, a processor output. Mix them up and you get either a thin, weak sound (a line source in Hi-Z) or clipping and crackle (a guitar straight into a line input).
What’s an IR, and what’s a cab sim?
An IR (impulse response) is a short WAV — a snapshot of how a particular cabinet, with its speaker and mic, colors the sound. A cab sim is any cabinet simulation (in an amp, pedal, processor, or plugin) that applies that snapshot. OrbitCab is a cab sim that loads IRs.
Is OrbitCab an amp sim?
No. OrbitCab is the cabinet, the last stage of the chain. It adds no gain or overdrive — put it after your amp, preamp, or amp sim. The amp makes the dirt; OrbitCab makes it sound like a miked-up cabinet.
Where does OrbitCab go in the DAW chain?
Last in the guitar chain: the sound source (amp sim, preamp, or a processor with its cabinet off) → OrbitCab → then EQ, compression, mix. The one rule: there must be no second cabinet before OrbitCab — neither a miked one nor a cab sim left on.
Which amp output do you record from?
From the FX-send — it's the preamp output, with no cab sim, so you can feed it into OrbitCab and add an IR. Be careful with DI / line / XLR outputs: many amps already have a cab sim on them — feed that into OrbitCab and you get a double cabinet (a DI is fine only if its cab sim can be switched off). And never take the speaker output (the one for the speaker) into an interface — you'll fry both the interface and the amp.
My amp already has a cab sim — isn’t that enough?
It can be. But a built-in cab sim is baked into the recording — you can't change the cabinet later (and it's usually made for the stage / for convenience). In OrbitCab the cabinet is a plugin on the track: the track holds the dry signal, and you can try and swap IRs any time, until you bounce the project to a final file. Want a plug-and-play sound — the built-in one is enough; want flexibility — use OrbitCab.
Can I load my own IRs?
Yes. Drag any standard WAV IR into either of the two slots — your own captures or third-party packs. And a starter set is already bundled: the Brutal and Emerald IR packs by Jester-Dyne Productions.
Does it run on Linux?
Yes. Native VST3 and CLAP builds for Linux — x86_64 and ARM64, no Wine, no shims.
Does it work for bass?
Yes. Load a bass IR and it works exactly like it does for guitar: two slots, blending, per-slot parameters.
Is OrbitCab really free and open-source?
Both. Free, with no account and no trial; the source is open under AGPL-3.0. The license covers the plugin's code, not your music — anything you record is yours.
Does OrbitCab have Super Cow Powers?
No — as any respectable program should (ask aptitude moo). No super cow powers here; super cat powers, yes, but we officially deny those. Load IRs, don't hunt for easter eggs. Mooo. Meow.
Will OrbitCab get the stains out of my jeans?
No. It's a cabinet IR loader — not a washing machine, not an amp, not a tin of herring. One job, done properly. The jeans are on you.