Thermal

Thermal is Output's take on distortion, and it treats saturation as a sound-design playground rather than a single knob. At its core sit two independent distortion stages, each drawing from more than thirty algorithms that span gentle tube warmth, aggressive waveshaping, bitcrushing, and fully destructive digital mangling. You route those stages in series or parallel, sandwich filters and dynamics between them, and blend the wet signal against dry. That architecture is where Thermal earns its keep: it excels at building distortion tones that evolve, breathe, and move rather than just adding grit.

The real differentiator is the interactive interface and the modulation engine underneath it. Multiple LFOs, envelopes, and assignable macros can drive nearly any parameter, and Output's drag-to-modulate visuals make patching movement feel obvious instead of buried in menus. For bass design, risers, drops, and rhythmic texture work, it is genuinely inspiring, and the preset library is a fast on-ramp for producers who prefer to start from a sound and dial it back.

The trade-offs are honest ones. All that depth costs CPU, and stacking active stages with heavy modulation can weigh on a busy session. The whole aesthetic — presets, factory tones, marketing — leans toward EDM and bass-forward electronic music, so it feels like overkill if you just want subtle console warmth or transparent tape drive. There is also a learning curve; casual users may never touch half of it.

At $75 (or bundled in the Output One subscription), it sits in fair territory for what it offers. Against its alternatives it is a different animal: EchoBoy is a character delay, Nectar 4 a vocal chain, and RX 11 a restoration suite — Thermal is the creative distortion specialist none of them replace. Choose it if you want distortion as an instrument for design work. Look elsewhere if you mainly need clean, understated saturation for mixing.