Overview

Natively Yours! Iconic British Tube Sound from a Boutique Legend

If you are after that iconic guitar sound of the 60’s and 70’s, rest assured that the Dirty Shirley Amp will give you one hell of a tone! Influenced by the design of the Marshall JTM-45, the Friedman DS-40 delivers a rich sound that is reminiscent of the guitar work heard on early Led Zeppelin and ZZ Top records. The new Plugin Alliance version features 105 high end recording chains, a scalable user interface and a Recording Chain On/Off parameter. Now in all major native formats, take advantage of the vibrant tones made popular by the legendary British guitar amps used by the likes of Jimmy Page, Jerry Cantrell, Billy Gibbons and Eddie Van Halen.

Why Choose the DS-40?

Quickly reamp your guitar DIs through Friedman’s authentic vintage tone

Sculpt your guitar tone with Brainworx’s top notch FX rack

Select from 100+ killer Recording Chains that were captured using some of the best mics and outboard gear and tracked through a Neve VXS desk

A Little Bit of History

Inside the realm of boutique amp design, Dave Friedman is an absolute legend. Through the years, the Friedman brand of guitar amplification has grown with a timeless tone and remains in high demand among many top guitar players, producers and studio engineers around the world. Originally Dave designed The Dirty Shirley to capture Jimmy’s incredible tones that he was getting from Modded Marshall amps. The rest of the design focuses on the modern guitarist’s needs while still retaining that vintage sound –– The Friedman DS-40 is an excellent way to get the sound of a highly customized amp right in your DAW.

As is the case with many classic British amps, Friedman’s dual 6L6-based Dirty Shirley DS-40 amp is one channel amp with separate Gain and Master Volume controls for maximum flexibility between clean and crunchy sounds. Renowned for its uber dynamic clean tones while also offering more aggressive options, the full range of sounds of the DS-40 is indeed quite impressive: from blues to rock, country and everything in between. 

More on FX

Like with many of our other amps, inside this new native version you will have access to plugin only Brainworx developed features like the FX Rack with host syncable lo-fi delay, noise gate, tight and smooth filters, a power soak control and a power amp bypass. Together with the versatility and power of the amp’s legendary tone, the Friedman DS-40 offers a full range package when it comes to getting some seriously juicy guitar sounds.

Features

  • Exacting emulation of the original Friedman DS40 Tube Guitar Amp approved by David Friedman 
  • Presence, Bass, Middle & Treble controls
  • Extremely versatile, it is capable of producing many styles of music from blues to rock and country
  • Gain Control & Master Volume Control 
  • FX Rack include host-syncable lo-fi delay, noise gate, tight and smooth filters, power soak, pre and power amp bypass
  • 105 High-End Recording Chains
  • Scalable User Interface
  • Recording Chain ON / OFF Parameter
  • Recording Chain detailed Info

Audio Examples

Industry Reviews

  • Dave Friedman

    Dave Friedman

    CEO & Founder Friedman Amps

    Sounds just like the real thing.

  • Shaun Lopez

    Shaun Lopez

    Deftones, Crosses, The Revolution Smile

    Absolutely love this amp! The eq knobs are so responsive, one slight turn and you really hear it. The DS-40 is my go to when it comes to in the box clean to semi dirty guitar tones.

  • McRocklin

    McRocklin

    Guitarist, McRocklin & Hutch

    Just when I thought software amp sims have peaked, Plugin Alliance blew my mind with the release of the Friedman collection. From wonderful low gain vibes found in the DS-40, to blazing riff and… Read More

Customer Reviews

  • My favorite Friedman

    ★★★★★
    by Faydit
    I am not really a Friedman fan, to be honest, their interpretations of the Plexi theme for my taste usually sound a little too American, I usually miss this special British magic, which I experience… Read More
  • One of the best .

    ★★★★★
    by Laserpanther
    Now guitar sims usually suck . Give me an amp any day.
    With a 57 slapped on it . I own a bunch of great guitar pedals of amps like the doctor Robert & Rah there great . But the dirty Shirley… Read More
  • Friedman DS-40 Review and Cakewalk

    ★★★★★
    by CavernGuy
    I'm using the Friedman DS-40 plug-in with Bandlab's Cakewalk and it sounds incredible!
    I've used Cakewalk for a zillion years and Plugin Alliance is the first plug-in I've purchased. It was… Read More
  • Great amp simulation1

    ★★★★★
    by Withajay
    I was pleasantly surprised with all of Plugin-Alliance's amp simulations. I own a Line 6 Helix and the tones in these plugins are much better. They sound much more like an amp. Nice work!!!
  • Brilliant

    ★★★★★
    by B. van kaa
    Probably one of the most authentic amp sims. They way it react to your playing is outstanding. Really nice. They also did a good job emulating the volume break-ups. You can't go wrong, feels like… Read More

Specifications

Supported Plugin Formats
AAX DSP, AAX Native, AU, AAX AudioSuite, VST2, VST3

Supported Operating Systems
macOS 14 down to macOS 11
Windows 11 down to Windows 10

Mac
Intel, or Apple Silicon

PC
x64-compatible CPU

System Requirements
Display resolution: 1440 × 900px or 1280 × 960px or higher
Memory: 2 GB RAM

Downloads

With the Installation Manager you can select, download & install all the Plugin Alliance products. Select any and all formats you need for your system! Mac & PC.

ChangeLog

DS-40

Friedman DS-40 - Changelog

Version 1.4.1 (Oct 9, 2023)
- General: fixed CPU spikes on Mac OS

Version 1.4.0 (Aug 15, 2023)
- General: added native Apple Silicon compatibility for AAX
- General: added macOS Ventura support
- General: improved plugin loading time in the DAW
- General: fixed issue causing Logic to crash when closing the plugin UI
- General: improved font drawing behavior

Version 1.3 (Mar 15, 2022)
- General: added native Apple Silicon compatibility for VST3, VST2 and AU
- General: added macOS Monterey support
- General: added Windows 11 and Windows 10 21H1 support
- General: discontinued Windows 7 support
- General: discontinued macOS 10.9 and 10.11 support
- General: fixed metering behavior in block sizes of 2048 samples and higher

Version 1.2 (Mar 22, 2021)
- General: Compatibility with Logic on Apple Silicon devices via the Rosetta-2 layer
- General: Fixed possible artefacts when freezing or bouncing tracks in Pro Tools
- General: Fixed automation highlighting disappearing in Studio One
- General: Improved license dialog visibility in dark mode

Version 1.1 (May 27, 2020)
- General: Qualified for use with the Windows 10 May 2020 Update
- General: VST3: Fixed potential hangs in a DAW upon loading
- General: Fixed logical issues in undo / redo behavior
- General: Fixed UI resizing issues in Ableton Live on Windows
- General: Fixed audio processing initialization issues on amp and delay products

Version 1.0 (Feb 14, 2020)
- Release version