Best Vst Guitar Amp Effect Modelling Plugins

Best Vst Guitar Amp Effect Modelling Plugins Average ratng: 7,7/10 5121 reviews

IK Multimedia Amplitube MAX. In my opinion, the daddy of guitar amp modelling plugins. Over 300 different pieces of virtual gear, including both amps and effects, and the new Custom Shop feature from IK Multimedia means you can buy individual new amps and effects units from their website, “like visiting a real guitar store”. Dec 11, 2020 The sheer amount of effects, amps, cabs and other customisation options make Guitar Rig one of the best plugins for guitarists! In the early days, Guitar Rig offered three tube amplifier emulations, and more than 20 effects including: Models of well-known hardware pedals; Studio-style effects such as: Delay; Reverb; EQ. Oct 12, 2019 Top 7 Free Amp Sims Best virtual guitar amplifier plug-ins Source: gearnews.com Previous Next Although guitar simulation plug-ins, or amp sims, have been around for a while, it seems like only recently that they have gotten to the point where you want them printed to the final tracks on your record – and not just used for demo tracks. My Review: One of the oldest players in the VST game, Waves has been at the fore-front of DSP technology, and their guitar simulation plugin called GTR3 is well-known for its solid performance and frugal CPU usage. Their other alternative comes from the signature Chris Lord Alge line of DSP plugins, called CLA guitars.

Top 10 Most Playable Guitar Plugins 2019

Every professional composer or producer has been in a situation where they need to add some cool guitar parts to their production. Even though guitars and guitar gear are at their peak at the moment with high-quality stuff that can be found for everyone’s pocket, let’s face it – sometimes owning a whole ton of pedals, amps and cabs is just not so convenient when you are on a deadline and crunching hours of work.

And honestly, most of us in the industry are always on some deadline. So setting up a rig, saving your setup, mic positions, etc. just doesn’t cut it and it’s too slow. That is where plugins and software solutions come in handy and that’s our topic for this post, so let’s dig in. This is our top 10 list of the most playable and usable guitar plugins of 2019 in no particular order.

1. IK Multimedia – AmpliTube 4

AmpliTube has been present for quite some time and it seems that the guys from IK Multimedia are investing more and more resources to upgrade it with each new iteration. The currently popular one is AmpliTube 4 and you can get yourself a lite version for free and then buy additional amps, cabs, speakers and pedals from their custom shop, which is like going to an actual guitar shop, only virtual.

Top 4 Best Free Ableton VST Plugins of 2020 Updated Ableton Live is a digital audio workstation, which is also known as a digital audio workstation (aka DAW). This workstation allows the musicians to create and to mix music tracks by using various tools and sounds. The Cortex Amp Stack is a combination of two VST-plugins by Matthias Becker: the Cortex Guitar Amp and the OldCab (an amp cabinet simulator). The original VST's have long been out of development, in fact the creators website no longer exists, but now the VST plugins are back with an unrivalled sound quality and a modern and slick looking GUI. With the most recent release, Guitar Rig 5 offers 17 amps, 27 cabinets and 54 effects. Their award-winning Dynamic Tube Response Technology puts legendary tones at your fingertips in seconds, Native Instruments also offers a free version of Guitar Rig called Guitar Rig 5 Player with a single amp model, 17 cab emulations and 13 effects.

You can truly create your own custom tone in a matter of seconds and you can place your cab in a room of your choice. There are tons of simulations ranging from licensed stuff by Fender, MESA Engineering, Orange, ENGL and Ampeg and some unlicensed stuff, but you can easily recognise there is also Marshall, Vox, Peavey and other stuff as well. Multiple mic positions to really capture the tone you want and all sorts of stuff.

One interesting thing here is the option to actually change the speaker models in your cab so you can have a Mesa Boogie Mark 4 head connected to an Orange 4×12 cab. But you can replace the speakers from Orange’s default to something like a Celestion Vintage 30 or Bluebacks or whatever you like. The options are truly limitless. There are also tons of pedal models ranging from overdrives, distortions, fuzz, boost, delay, reverb, chorus, you name it.

2. Positive Grid – BIAS lineup

Positive Grid is maybe the youngest player on the market of amp simulations, but they sure are very innovative and the fact that many top guitar players are endorsing them speaks very highly of their products. Their product range includes BIAS Amp 2, BIAS FX 2, and BIAS pedal. These lines of products are for more tech savvy players out there.

Bias Amp 2 features amps and cabs ranging from boutique clean combos over to insanely high gain heads. Compared to other guitar amp simulations out there, here you can really dig into amp electronics and change the types of preamp section tubes, power amp sections, transformers, gain staging and tone section so you can start with a classic amp model and end up with something fully customised to your needs. I am yet to see other developers doing this with their products.

The top selling point of Bias Amp 2 is amp matching. If you have an actual hardware amp in your studio and you really like the tone of it, you can capture the impulse response of your guitar amp into BIAS Amp 2 and use it in a digital domain, save it as a preset and you’re good to go.

BIAS Pedal is a product that enables you to create your own drive, modulation or delay pedal by tinkering with various components and then save it as your custom creation to use with BIAS Amp 2.

BIAS FX 2 is sort of a combination of the previous two products mentioned. Basically it is a comprehensive collection of guitar amps, cabs and pedals so you can create your own custom guitar rig for any purpose. You can also load your own creations from BIAS Amp 2 and BIAS Pedal and use them inside BIAS FX 2.

There is also the option of Tone Cloud where you can upload your presets and share them with the community and I have to say that there are some amazing products there.

One great option that the BIAS lineup offers is Guitar Match. What it does is that it enables you to completely re-shape the tone of your actual instrument before the amp. So for example you have a single coil Strat but you need some beef of a humbucker Les Paul. No problem, just follow the instructions on the screen and you’ll have it. Les Paul into a Telecaster? Sure thing! Telecaster into a metal shredding speed machine? They have you covered.

3. Emissary – Ignite Amps

This one’s a freebie but don’t think just because it’s free it’s mediocre. From personal experience I can tell you that this one is a true gem and we mentioned it in our top 10 free plugins post. Emissary is truly engineered for the mosh pit because this is a fully high-gain metal machine. The guys at Ignite amps really know their stuff because they actually build hardware amp heads and Emissary is their best-seller. So they wanted to create a software version that does justice to the real thing.

One drawback (sort of) of this amp is that it only simulates the head with its preamp and power amp sections. But this is where the guys from Ignite Amps have joined forces with STL Tones so you can have their NadIR plugin for cab impulse responses bundled with Emissary also FOR FREE! They’ve got you covered with that and NadIR comes with some really good IRs but you’re not limited to only those because you can load many others that are available online, either as freeware or you can buy some really excellent collections. Give it a shot, you can’t lose!

4. Fortin Nameless Suite – Neural DSP

Mike Fortin is the mastermind behind some of the most aggressive sounding amplifiers in recent history and his precisely engineered brutality has become a staple to some of the industry’s most legendary names. His uncompromisingly built tube amplifiers are coveted by some of the most notoriously aggressive players on the planet. If you’re looking for a mean hard-rock or metal machine then look no further.

Along with the amplifier and cab simulations you get Fortin Amplification’s Grind, Hexdrive and ZUUL pedals to enhance that high gain tone. Cab sim module of the suite can also load third party IRs next to the already featured ones with 6 mic positions.

5. Parallax – Neural DSP

What Fortin Nameless is to metal guitar players, Parallax is to bass players. Parallel bass processing has been used for decades. Dual rigs or multiple plugins are configured to distort treble for clarity and aggression and compress lows for a massive foundation. This is why Parallax provides everything you need to design the ultimate bass tone. It also features a cab sim section for creating that real low-end thump to your bass guitar. This one is brand-new so give it a go.

There are tons of starting presets from some of the most respected bass players and music producers to give you world-class bass tones in a matter of seconds. If you are a gigging musician and you don’t want to drag all of your expensive gear on the road, Parallax (just like Fortin Nameless) comes as a standalone software, not just a plugin, so you can plug into your laptop and you’re ready to rock.

6. PRS SuperModels – Waves

You are all familiar with Waves being one of the best mixing plugin developers out there and guitar players among you know who Paul Reed Smith is and how much of an impact he has as a guitar designer with his PRS models. But maybe you didn’t know that Paul Reed Smith also designs some really beautiful guitar amps and Waves engineers have joined forces with him in order to bring you a really amazing suite of guitar amp and cab simulations.

There are three models in the collection, Dallas, V9 and Archon. Dallas gives you that nice Americana clean boutique and light overdrive sound. V9 is more classical with sounds ranging from clean, to standard rock, whilst the Archon covers all of your needs for high-gain sounds. Each amp comes with a cab sim section but you can also load your own IRs for more customised tones. This is the only collection out there officially licensed by Paul Reed Smith and the only one out there that actually features PRS amps. If they’re good enough for Alex Skolnick and Devin Townsend, they’re good enough for the rest of us.

7. Guitar Rig 5 Pro – Native Instruments

Guitar Rig was my first entry into the world of guitar amp simulations back when I was starting out 10 years ago and I have fond memories of it. It basically gives you almost the same options as the other products on this list, with many amps, cabs and FX to choose from. There is also a free version which you can utilise for some clean and standard drive tones but real fun starts with the full version of course.

If you own Native Instruments Komplete bundle, chances are that you already have Guitar Rig 5 in your collection. Maybe this post reminds you that you can utilise it from time to time and that you can get some really great tones from it if you don’t want to hunt down other products from this list.

8. Helix Native – Line 6

Line 6 are well-known for their top-notch products for guitar players and bass players alike and many of their products are on pedalboards of a lot of A-listers out there.

Helix is their latest iteration in guitar amp modeling which builds and enhances on the legacy of the fan-favourite POD series. If you don’t own a Helix hardware unit, fear not because Helix Native is a 1 to 1 recreation of the actual unit because this is an actual DSP software that’s built into the hardware version. The only difference is that you’re using your computer CPU and you have it as a plugin.

It comes packed with tons of different amp and cab simulations, effects and a never-ending list of presets to get you started. It will give you tons of inspiration and make your guitar sessions a whole lot easier. It doesn’t look as fancy and inspiring as others on this list, but it does give you a great tone.

9. ReValver 4 – Peavey

ReValver is sort of the underdog on this list because I am yet to meet a composer or guitar player who actively uses it, but don’t let it discourage you from trying. ReValver is actually a rock-solid collection of amplifiers licensed by Peavey, ranging from Americana clean amps like Peavey Classic 30 over to high-gain 6505+ destruction. There are also some unique discontinued models like Peavey XXX and JSX endorsed by Joe Satriani. The focal point of this collection is the Peavey amps of course but you can buy additional models based on Marshall, Fender, Orange, Vox and others with tons of pedals and FX from their Amp Store.

ReValver was actually the first plugin to feature an actual instrument modelling with their ACT technology which enables you to totally change your instrument’s sound. There are models ranging from Peavey’s original creations such as Van Halen’s first Wolfgang, many classical guitar models like Strats, Teles and Les Pauls over to metal shredding guitars with active pickups, acoustic guitars, and bass guitars of course.

You can really create some amazing sounds with this collection and for the tech-savvy you can really dig into the schematic of the amplifiers to change tubes (or valves if you’re in the UK), transformers, gain staging, preamp and power-amp sections, you name it. You can also load your own cab IRs if you don’t want to use Peavey’s bundled cabs.

10. Brainworx – Lineup Of Guitar Amp Models

We all know Brainworx as one of the top-dogs when it comes to mixing plugin development but they have made some AMAZING guitar amp model plugins over the years, both for UAD platform and native users. Each amp is modelled to sound as realistic as their hardware counterparts and some of those amps include models supported and licensed by Friedman, Suhr, Diezel, Fuchs, Ampeg, ENGL, Chandler Limited and many other models not licensed but well recognisable like MESA Boogie and Marshall.

If you are a UAD user and own an Apollo interface you will highly benefit from your Unison high impedance input because it models the actual input circuit of a real guitar amp which acts as if you are plugging your guitar into an actual thing. But for those of you who don’t use the UAD platform, fear not because Brainworx has started re-modelling their UAD amps for native users as well and more models are coming every month! By the way, their Rockrack guitar modelling software comes in a free version to get you started!

Now, what are you waiting for? START ROCKING!

Related Articles

  • Top 10 Granulizer Plugins 2019

    Top 10 Granulizer Plugins 2019 Granulizers seem to be getting popular these days so it is only natural that we start looking for what’s cool & trendy for this year, but first WHAT IS A GRANULIZER? Granulizers and Granular synthesis in general works by taking an audio sample and dividing…

  • Top 10 Simple But Amazing Plugins 2019

    Top 10 Simple But Amazing Plugins 2019 Simplicity is the mother of virtuosity and sometimes less IS more. That is the case when it comes to audio plugins. We all love them and we all need them but sometimes their GUIs and options are too much to comprehend. This is…

  • Top 10 Weirdest VST Plugins 2019

    Top 10 Weirdest VST Plugins 2019 Each family as well as each group of friends has that one weird guy doing some rather ubiquitous things which are straight up weird and that’s the case with plugin developers. We all have that one plugin that we load up when we’re in…

Ableton Live is a digital audio workstation, which is also known as a digital audio workstation (aka DAW).

This workstation allows the musicians to create and to mix music tracks by using various tools and sounds.

It has been around since 2001, and Ableton has used revolutionary interfaces to help and manage the audio workflow, unlike other DAW applications.

What Are Ableton Plugins?

Plugins are additional software components and help to enhance or add to the functionality of the application.

When it comes to Ableton, the plugins help to add instrumentation or effects.

Do You Need Plugins For Ableton?

Ableton has quite a lot of useful features for your music projects.

This fact may make you wonder, then, whether you need plugins in the first place.

It all depends on what types of music projects you are working on and what sounds work for you.

Ableton is already packed with plenty of features and has sound generating tools, for example, wavetable, echo, and drum bass.

Digital musicians can use these for creating perfecting sounds for music projects.

4 Best Free Ableton Plugins

If you are still looking to improve the features of the Ableton which you are currently using, or add to its functionality, then you can undoubtedly go for plugins.

The best way to start is to go for free Ableton plugins, and that way, you can know whether you want to spend money and buy a plugin for it or not.

There are some great free Ableton plugins available which you can choose from, as mentioned below.

Guitar Rig 5

This product is an instrumental VSY from Native Instruments.

It's great for guitar studio and is suitable for all kinds of sounds such as metal, jazz, rock, and more.

There are two versions of this plugin; the Guitar Rig 5 is the free one while the Guitar Rig Pro is the full, paid version.

Check it out here.

Digital Suburban Dexed

This product is a freeware FM synthesizer that mirrors the classic Yamaha DX7, and it puts all the legendary functions and sounds of the original synthesizer in one deal.

It makes the traditional six operators FM synthesis easier for understanding and for programming more than it was ever with the hardware.

How to install vst plugins in audition. This feature is ideal for percussive sounds like mallets and ties and has a great free synth VST and is suitable for aggressive, distortedbasses.

Check it out here.

DiscoDSP OB-Xd

The Oberheim OB-X is one of the most popular instruments in analog synth history.

It’s entirely free and allows the user to access the brilliant sound of the OB-Xd right in your DAW.

It is a great new addition for your plugin folder for enveloping analog pads and for searing leads and deep basses.

Check it out here.

TAL Noisemaker

This noisemaker synth proves that VSTs do not need to be complicated to work well on a track.

It is quite a straightforward synth and has a sturdy, compact, and sound, along with a lightweight interface.

It T5is equipped with a visual editor, which are unique and handy onboard effects, which also includes TAL's and bit crushers‘ emulation of the Juno chorus effect.

Check it out here.

Free Vst Guitar Amp

Conclusion

Best Vst Guitar Amp Effect Modelling Plugins Plugin

There is no need to get pricey gear for making a track, which sounds good.

With plenty of these synth plugins, it proves that there are a lot of tools, which are capable of producing brilliant music, which looks great even on a tight budget.

Best Vst Guitar Amp Effect Modelling Plugins Plugin

Everything is available, whether you want deep sound design tools or classic vintage tones.

Best Vst Guitar Amp Effect Modelling Plugins Tutorial

All you need is to choose an excellent synth to get started, and the list above should inspire you and help you!