Hell Yes Loop Lab has released Burning Stones, a free/pay-what-you-want guitar amp plugin for macOS and Windows.
Ricardo from Hell Yes Loop Lab sent this one over after we recently covered HYLL Pressure, the developer’s free soft clipper. I liked the quirky visual design of that plugin, and Burning Stones continues in a similar direction.
I appreciate that kind of original interface, especially in this day and age of unoriginal vibe-coded plugin looks; it is refreshing to see something with a quirky personality.
Burning Stones is described as a fictional high-gain desert amp built for rough guitar tones. It is not based on a named hardware amp, which is probably for the best, because I like trying something new on my guitar.
The main controls are Input, Gain, Power, Tone, Feel, and Output. Input pushes the guitar into the amp and brings out the compression, while Gain handles the preamp drive from light overdrive to heavier saturation.
Power changes how the final amp and speaker stage behave. Hell Yes, Loop Lab suggests keeping it controlled for heavier sag or opening it up for more final-stage push.
Feel is another important control. It changes the response from lighter to more compressed. Output is simply the final level after the amp and cabinet, not another drive control.
The plugin can move from cleaner cabinet tones and small-amp-type sound to much more overdriven and saturated sounds.
Burning Stones includes five built-in cabinet voices, so you don’t need external IRs. Main 57+121 is the balanced cabinet, Bright 57 is more direct, Doom Room is the main heavy voice, Doom Bloom is bigger and thicker, and Doom Edge keeps the same character with more definition.
You also get factory presets (though user presets are supported), and the A/B/C snapshot system lets you compare three temporary states as you shape a tone.
Burning Stones is available as a macOS AU/VST3 and Windows VST3 plugin. It is distributed as a direct download with no installer or plugin manager, so you copy the plugin file manually to the appropriate folder and rescan your DAW.
Download: Burning Stones (FREE/pay-what-you-want)
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Last Updated on June 24, 2026 by Tomislav Zlatic.
