Mercuriall Audio’s Greed Smasher plugin is a free emulation of Mesa/Boogie’s Grid Slammer overdrive pedal

Mercuriall Audio’s Greed Smasher is a free stompbox plugin that features a “precisely modelled” circuit based on that of the Mesa/Boogie Grid Slammer overdrive.

With that in mind, you’d hope that it’d sound pretty similar to the original hardware, and we’re also promised low CPU usage and stereo and mono modes. You can switch between low (2x oversampling) and high (2x oversampling) quality with the flick of a switch.

Greed Smasher is available for PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX formats, and can be downloaded now from the Mercuriall Audio website. In other news, the company’s Spark and U530 plugins are currently on sale, priced at $80 and $40 respectively.

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.