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Just like everyone else, I wanted my guitars to be as huge as Randy Staub’s. This plugin does all that and more.
The WOW Thing is magic on your tracks
Make it big, make it better, make it RAWK.
The original WOW Thing was a $20 plastic box that made cheap computer speakers sound better. A famous recording engineer bought one as an experiment, used it on a heavy metal album that was a massive hit, and it became THE 90s heavy guitar secret sauce.
We love it for big guitars, but it also works great for general purpose stereo widening, reinforcing the low end of things. It will wind up somewhere on virtually every mix you do, making something bigger, lower, or plain old more interesting.
$19.99
- Windows, Mac and Linux Compatible
- VST3, AU, AAX, LV2
- Proprietary licensing system
- Licenses include all future upgrades—you purchase once, forever.
- Get iconic 90s guitar tones with a precise digital model of the hardware WOW Thing.
- Add width and space to room mics, reverb returns, pads—anything stereo can WOW.
- Dial in great kick and bass sounds with TrueBass enhancements.
- Add flavor and dimension to spice up flat, dull loops or keyboard patches.
WOW. What does this thing do?
The original hardware was designed to make little computer speakers sound big. Now it’s the industry secret that makes guitar tracks sound huge.
Wider with WOW
Lower with TrueBass
Using a combination of timing changes and equalization, WOW increases the width of your signal beyond the span of your speakers.
TrueBass adds a low end enhancement. You can select different center frequencies to best suit the low end content of your track.
WOW + TrueBass = HUGE
WOW and TrueBass work together to add widening and a “smiley face” EQ curve. This is the WOW Thing secret for huge guitar sounds, the sounds you’ve heard on tons of albums, including Dan Korneff’s.
Beyond WOW, beyond the hardware
We added a compressor, because we’re Korneff Audio. We’ve also added more controls and adjustments, because the WOW works magic all over your mix.
Low end processing is all-important in modern production, so we added dynamic processing to TrueBass, so you can fine tune the bottom and even squeeze out a little more punch.
- Selectable TrueBass frequencies help you layer out the lows for definition and clarity.
- Mono low end processing adds tightness and reduces mud.
- Choose the original WOW Type 1 algorithm or switch to Type 2 for the more refined sound found on rare WOW rack mount units.
Pros talking about the The Wow Thing
The WOW Thing is a powerful tone box. Its uncanny ability to create space in a mix while retaining punch and character is fantastic, just like my favorite analog gear.
Dan’s plugins give me a totally different flavor than anything else out there. They sound great, are super easy and fun to use, and give you that “wow” factor that can turn a dull sound into something super exciting the second you instantiate them.
The The Wow Thing works with all DAWs
Real customer reviews The Wow Thing
The Wow Thing is incredible when used on guitars, bass, and vocals. I like using it on a track because it can make things sound larger, wider, more three-dimensional and more present without simply making it louder. I really love old hardware and getting this in plugin format is so great. Keep the products coming.
This thing is an absolute monster for getting your sounds to punch though small speakers. It has enough flexibility to solve a majority of mix issues (sometimes I don’t need to reach for another eq or compressor plugin when I slap this in an fx slot). Most importantly this can get things to sound loud without actually redlining your meters.
It’s a cool effect, but frankly I struggle to find a place for it. I’ve found good use on guitar a few times, especially mono guitar that needs a little depth. I like it well enough to keep trying, it will click one of these days.
Strange plugin in a good way I guess.
Great Enhancer, Low Booster.
I’ve been using the Korneff Wow utility plugin across my projects, and it has officially earned a permanent spot on every single song I produce. The way it introduces subtle, organic movement and that classic tape-style character is unmatched. This Wow plugin can provide a gentle, subtle warmth to glue a mix together.
Amazing plugin for guitars , it gives them a lot of body, just be careful with the mix knob.
Very unique approach for a broad stereo image.
Use this ALL THE TIME on guitar busses and love it. Especially once I started going under the hood to adjust precense etc. Versatile super awesome sounding tool!!
I really like Wow thing for bringing out more beater on the kick – need to try it on other things to Wow!
Gamechanger! I can get my guitars to sound clearer thanks to this. Highly recommend!
The WOW thing has landed on almost every acoustic guitar track since I installed it. I have no clue what it does but it always sounds like I know what I’m doing. Kudos!
Still in the honeymoon phase with it. It’s such a nice little utility to have in the toolkit for shifting an element around in the mix while bringing both clarity and punch. Worth every penny and more.
Rad little “box”. Unique spreader for sure – find myself going to it on FX busses and cranking the TrueBass at 300/400. V COOL
Nice little quirky plugin, it can really go wild, but if used properly it sounds good especially on guitars.
Sounds great on guitars and bass.
Really nifty spatial effect. Used it on some sub mix busses to get a little more width.
Unquestionably does what it claims to do. It’s not my go-to for basic stereo widening, but it’s always worth throwing it on to see what it does, on keys as well as guitars. And hey, it looks cool and it’s crazy cheap!
give me one knob!
I actually had a Wow Thing. In fact, I was cleaning out a drawer and found it tucked away and remembered my fond days of channeling my Creative Labs mp3 player through it to my headphones. Ah, the good ol’ days.
So, I searched for a replacement and realized I wanted a digital one, which is actually how I found Korneff Audio.
How does Wow Thing sound? It sounds like pre-9/11 America and sneaking mp3s until you felt guilty enough to buy the CD. I sounds like downsampling your CD rips to fit more music on your device and then making it sound sweet and phat with the Wow Thing to balance out.
It sounds like dual income (first jobs), no kids, and a starter home.
And Korneff did a great job of replicating that.
Sounds great – thicken up your guitars, but handle with care. Use it in nearly every mix
It’s really amazing what this plugin can do in the stereo field. I’d give it 5 stars if it allowed more control over the parameters.
great plugin!! this thing lives on my stereo guitar bus all the time. no other plugin can do this.
Amazing tool for creating space in dense heavy mixes. Moves guitars to the side in a brilliant way and gives super-mono synths some stereo love
I’ve tried this on a send/return, I’ve tried it across a group insert and I’m not quite understanding how to dial it in well. I’m getting width sure but its not exactly size to me, its just a little too wide, until its not, can’t really find the sweet spot. The low boost is helpful since it (the wow thing) seems to add some upper mids/top/clarity/etc so that low boost is nice to balance that increased presence. I guess I’ve never been a fan of way outside of mono compatibility when it comes to a stereo source. I *love* width from different sources (parts crafted on different parts of the groove, call and response, etc.) but as far as making the one source wide, I don’t really go for the super duper out of phase thing unless its a momentary special effect. Anyway, there have been occasions where this plug has worked for me, but it usually just makes it too wide and too bright. I’m sure its operator error and that I’m using it not as intended. Would love to learn how to use it better.
Great tool to really take your production to the next level and provide some depth…a little goes a long way
I was both suprised and intrigued by this plugin. The backstory is unbelievable so I had to try the demo. To my suprise it wasn’t just a gimmick but it actually works! I like this plugin better than the famous vintage multicolour-buttoned exciter most people use.
I love this thing 😉 And i love that Korneff made an emulation of it, totally unique.
This didn’t stay installed for me. Korneff make great plugins so I have no doubt this is probably very close to the original hardware but it didn’t really fit into my workflow. So if you need what this does, I’m sure it’s perfect but for me it’s a three.
Still experimenting w/ this hence the 4 stars but w/ some tweaking I got a hard L/R dirty guitar buss outside the speakers. And that’s pretty rad!
-D
WOW thing has become a permanent fixture on my heavy guitar buss. It gives my tracks that extra but of sauce that they’d be missing otherwise. The static/ dynamic eq function is a really nice feature when you click on the Korneff Audio logo and it helps clear up boominess on extended range guitars! Essential tool for guitars!!!
Great plugin, I love it for guitar! It just adds a bit more grit and oomph.
The Wow Thing lives on my rhythm guitar bus for literally every session I am a part of. The girth and width it adds are unparalleled.
The name of this thing says it all! Whenever I need a little something extra to spice up my mix, this is my go-to one, because the result always leaves me saying it: WOW! It’s an enhancer in the very best sense of the word.
But The WOW Thing can do much more than I initially thought. The fact that I can use it to create a space that essentially sounds like a convolution reverb takes it to the next level on the WOW scale. This thing was born to try out even the craziest things and it’s all good.
I love this plugin.
Somehow, it finds it’s way into almost every mix I do.
This has been on on my guitar buss since I got it. A little goes a long way. I don’t see myself taking it out of my guitar chain anytime soon.
Awesome plug! I use it sparingly tho. I used it on a horn section, but only kicking it for the last 8 bars of the tune. I was worried that it would throw the mix out of phase but it did not. It’s similar to using an ‘exciter’. Also similar treatment on BG vocals on the group bus. I really want SITRAL now! Just saving up.
Pretty cool little plugin. It’s one of those that I just play with the knobs without thinking too much about numbers or thresholds. Just play around until it sounds the way you want it to sound. I have used it only on distorted guitars so far and it works great. CPU usage is negligible. Recommended!
It’s what acoustics crave.
Awesome! Definitely enhances my guitar tracks!!!
Taking old tricks and applying them within a modern context is a sure-fire way to spice up any production nowadays. And in the case of The WOW Thing, Korneff Audio have gone above and beyond to provide us with this exact, 1:1 emulation of such a quirky, little device from a bygone era that absolutely can serve a plethora of uses for adding spatialization and enhancing the bass on guitars, synths, drums, and more.
This is a great nothing-else-is-quite-like-it effect! A little goes a long way. Gets me that “extra 5%” of goodness with guitars. Have used it on just about every session since buying it.
Sounds amazing on double tracked guitars. Occasionally find use for it on synth pads as well. The coolest sounding stereo widener plugin I’ve tried.
I’m a big fan of widening the space of any mix and Wow Thing does just that. I’ve had keys that were sort of muddy and lacked space and Wow just fixed the glitch in the material. The best thing is being able to control where the mid cut happens to fit just right and to fix issues not only in space, but in the frequencies as well.
This thing is awesome! It adds that final touch of width and depth on my guitar buss. 11/10
This is a must have on my rhythm guitar bus and background vocals!
Great plugin when I’m looking for some bite from full guitar tracks. Also works on vocals as well!
Korneff Plugin Licensing
Software Based
Korneff Audio uses a software-based licensing system. No USB or hardware dongles, no special drivers are needed.
Four Activations
Our plugins can be activated on up to four (4) machines at the same time.
Connections
An internet connection is required to activate our software. Internet connection required for all demos.
Software Requirements The Wow Thing
Current Version: 1.0.8
Minimum System
Requirements
- Intel, AMD or Apple Silicon i5 quad core processor
- 4GB of RAM
- Mac OSX 10.14 or later
- Windows 7 & Above
- Linux minimum: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or equivalent (x86-64)
- Linux recommended: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or later, Debian 11+, Fedora 36+, or any modern distribution using glibc ≥ 2.28
- Screen res: 1024 x 768 or higher
Supported Plugin
Formats
- Mac 64bit: VST3, AU, AAX
- Windows 64bit: VST3, AAX
- Linux 64bit: VST3, LV2
Real customer reviews The Wow Thing
The Wow Thing is incredible when used on guitars, bass, and vocals. I like using it on a track because it can make things sound larger, wider, more three-dimensional and more present without simply making it louder. I really love old hardware and getting this in plugin format is so great. Keep the products coming.
This thing is an absolute monster for getting your sounds to punch though small speakers. It has enough flexibility to solve a majority of mix issues (sometimes I don’t need to reach for another eq or compressor plugin when I slap this in an fx slot). Most importantly this can get things to sound loud without actually redlining your meters.
It’s a cool effect, but frankly I struggle to find a place for it. I’ve found good use on guitar a few times, especially mono guitar that needs a little depth. I like it well enough to keep trying, it will click one of these days.
Strange plugin in a good way I guess.
Great Enhancer, Low Booster.
I’ve been using the Korneff Wow utility plugin across my projects, and it has officially earned a permanent spot on every single song I produce. The way it introduces subtle, organic movement and that classic tape-style character is unmatched. This Wow plugin can provide a gentle, subtle warmth to glue a mix together.
Amazing plugin for guitars , it gives them a lot of body, just be careful with the mix knob.
Very unique approach for a broad stereo image.
Use this ALL THE TIME on guitar busses and love it. Especially once I started going under the hood to adjust precense etc. Versatile super awesome sounding tool!!
I really like Wow thing for bringing out more beater on the kick – need to try it on other things to Wow!
Gamechanger! I can get my guitars to sound clearer thanks to this. Highly recommend!
The WOW thing has landed on almost every acoustic guitar track since I installed it. I have no clue what it does but it always sounds like I know what I’m doing. Kudos!
Still in the honeymoon phase with it. It’s such a nice little utility to have in the toolkit for shifting an element around in the mix while bringing both clarity and punch. Worth every penny and more.
Rad little “box”. Unique spreader for sure – find myself going to it on FX busses and cranking the TrueBass at 300/400. V COOL
Nice little quirky plugin, it can really go wild, but if used properly it sounds good especially on guitars.
Sounds great on guitars and bass.
Really nifty spatial effect. Used it on some sub mix busses to get a little more width.
Unquestionably does what it claims to do. It’s not my go-to for basic stereo widening, but it’s always worth throwing it on to see what it does, on keys as well as guitars. And hey, it looks cool and it’s crazy cheap!
give me one knob!
I actually had a Wow Thing. In fact, I was cleaning out a drawer and found it tucked away and remembered my fond days of channeling my Creative Labs mp3 player through it to my headphones. Ah, the good ol’ days.
So, I searched for a replacement and realized I wanted a digital one, which is actually how I found Korneff Audio.
How does Wow Thing sound? It sounds like pre-9/11 America and sneaking mp3s until you felt guilty enough to buy the CD. I sounds like downsampling your CD rips to fit more music on your device and then making it sound sweet and phat with the Wow Thing to balance out.
It sounds like dual income (first jobs), no kids, and a starter home.
And Korneff did a great job of replicating that.
Sounds great – thicken up your guitars, but handle with care. Use it in nearly every mix
It’s really amazing what this plugin can do in the stereo field. I’d give it 5 stars if it allowed more control over the parameters.
great plugin!! this thing lives on my stereo guitar bus all the time. no other plugin can do this.
Amazing tool for creating space in dense heavy mixes. Moves guitars to the side in a brilliant way and gives super-mono synths some stereo love
I’ve tried this on a send/return, I’ve tried it across a group insert and I’m not quite understanding how to dial it in well. I’m getting width sure but its not exactly size to me, its just a little too wide, until its not, can’t really find the sweet spot. The low boost is helpful since it (the wow thing) seems to add some upper mids/top/clarity/etc so that low boost is nice to balance that increased presence. I guess I’ve never been a fan of way outside of mono compatibility when it comes to a stereo source. I *love* width from different sources (parts crafted on different parts of the groove, call and response, etc.) but as far as making the one source wide, I don’t really go for the super duper out of phase thing unless its a momentary special effect. Anyway, there have been occasions where this plug has worked for me, but it usually just makes it too wide and too bright. I’m sure its operator error and that I’m using it not as intended. Would love to learn how to use it better.
Great tool to really take your production to the next level and provide some depth…a little goes a long way
I was both suprised and intrigued by this plugin. The backstory is unbelievable so I had to try the demo. To my suprise it wasn’t just a gimmick but it actually works! I like this plugin better than the famous vintage multicolour-buttoned exciter most people use.
I love this thing 😉 And i love that Korneff made an emulation of it, totally unique.
This didn’t stay installed for me. Korneff make great plugins so I have no doubt this is probably very close to the original hardware but it didn’t really fit into my workflow. So if you need what this does, I’m sure it’s perfect but for me it’s a three.
Still experimenting w/ this hence the 4 stars but w/ some tweaking I got a hard L/R dirty guitar buss outside the speakers. And that’s pretty rad!
-D
WOW thing has become a permanent fixture on my heavy guitar buss. It gives my tracks that extra but of sauce that they’d be missing otherwise. The static/ dynamic eq function is a really nice feature when you click on the Korneff Audio logo and it helps clear up boominess on extended range guitars! Essential tool for guitars!!!
Great plugin, I love it for guitar! It just adds a bit more grit and oomph.
The Wow Thing lives on my rhythm guitar bus for literally every session I am a part of. The girth and width it adds are unparalleled.
The name of this thing says it all! Whenever I need a little something extra to spice up my mix, this is my go-to one, because the result always leaves me saying it: WOW! It’s an enhancer in the very best sense of the word.
But The WOW Thing can do much more than I initially thought. The fact that I can use it to create a space that essentially sounds like a convolution reverb takes it to the next level on the WOW scale. This thing was born to try out even the craziest things and it’s all good.
I love this plugin.
Somehow, it finds it’s way into almost every mix I do.
This has been on on my guitar buss since I got it. A little goes a long way. I don’t see myself taking it out of my guitar chain anytime soon.
Awesome plug! I use it sparingly tho. I used it on a horn section, but only kicking it for the last 8 bars of the tune. I was worried that it would throw the mix out of phase but it did not. It’s similar to using an ‘exciter’. Also similar treatment on BG vocals on the group bus. I really want SITRAL now! Just saving up.
Pretty cool little plugin. It’s one of those that I just play with the knobs without thinking too much about numbers or thresholds. Just play around until it sounds the way you want it to sound. I have used it only on distorted guitars so far and it works great. CPU usage is negligible. Recommended!
It’s what acoustics crave.
Awesome! Definitely enhances my guitar tracks!!!
Taking old tricks and applying them within a modern context is a sure-fire way to spice up any production nowadays. And in the case of The WOW Thing, Korneff Audio have gone above and beyond to provide us with this exact, 1:1 emulation of such a quirky, little device from a bygone era that absolutely can serve a plethora of uses for adding spatialization and enhancing the bass on guitars, synths, drums, and more.
This is a great nothing-else-is-quite-like-it effect! A little goes a long way. Gets me that “extra 5%” of goodness with guitars. Have used it on just about every session since buying it.
Sounds amazing on double tracked guitars. Occasionally find use for it on synth pads as well. The coolest sounding stereo widener plugin I’ve tried.
I’m a big fan of widening the space of any mix and Wow Thing does just that. I’ve had keys that were sort of muddy and lacked space and Wow just fixed the glitch in the material. The best thing is being able to control where the mid cut happens to fit just right and to fix issues not only in space, but in the frequencies as well.
This thing is awesome! It adds that final touch of width and depth on my guitar buss. 11/10
This is a must have on my rhythm guitar bus and background vocals!
Great plugin when I’m looking for some bite from full guitar tracks. Also works on vocals as well!