Hey guys, in this video, we’re going to go over 3 sets of free guitar amp simulator
VST plugins.
These plugins can be used with a digital audio workstation, such as Reaper in this case,
to make it sound like you’re playing an electric guitar through an amp and recording
with a microphone.
This allows for quiet recording, and makes it a lot easier to replicate guitar sounds
without having to setup an amp and microphone in the exact same way.
You can also create professional guitar recordings very cheap, since all you’ll need is a small
audio interface and an instrument input, and the software to apply VST effects while mixing,
instead of having to purchase a good quality amp, microphones, and preamps to achieve a
similar result.
When recording the electric guitar track and using amp simulation, there are three things
we need to do.
First, use a direct box to record a good clean signal into your audio interface.
Next, select an amp simulator.
Some of these are based on real guitar amps and others are just their own thing.
Finally, we need to use a cabinet simulator.
On their own, these plugins only simulate a guitar amp, and they sound terrible.
From there, we use an impulse pack that determines what type of cabinet and microphone is used
to modify our tone.
Number 3, SimulAnalog Guitar Suite.
This package contains multiple guitar amps and stompboxes, but has a poor interface.
It only uses generic sliders from the digital audio workstation instead of nice clean images
like a lot of the other amp simulators do.
The two amps included are the Fender Twin 1969 and the Marshall JCM900 Dual Reverb.
The Fender amp sim has decent clean tones and has a bright switch, along with volume,
low, mid, and high knobs.
It also includes a tremolo effect with speed and intensity controls.
The Marshall JCM900 has A and B channels with low mid and high EQ, along with presence,
volume, and reverb.
The reverb and gain controls can be adjusted separately for each channel.
Both of these amp simulators sound good, but there are others with a much more polished
look.
The next amp simulator plugin on our list is The Anvil by Ignite Amps.
This guitar plugin has a clean, rhythm, and lead channel.
It’s only a guitar preamp, but Ignite Amps also has a power amp and cabinet simulator
plugin available.
Each channel on the amp has separate gain, volume, bass, mid, and treble controls as
well as a bright switch.
The clean channel sounds nice and is fairly dark, but that’s also partially dependent
on the impulse you choose for the cabinet simulation.
The rhythm channel has a bit of bite to it with the distortion and the lead channel sounds
similar to the rhythm channel but with an upper mid frequency boost.
Here’s a quick demo of these sounds.
Some of the best electric guitar simulation plugins available for free are the LePou amp
suite.
Once again, these are preamps that require cabinet simulation, but there is also the
impulse loader available from the same developer.
This plugin suite has 5 different amp simulations within it.
The first amp simulator is called Hybrit.
Hybrit is based on both the Marshall JCM800 and Plexi Super Lead 100.
They can be switched between with a switch on the plugin interface.
This gives a good replication of a classic Marshall tone on both channels.
The next amp simulator is called LE456.
This is based on the Engl Powerball amp.
It has 2 channels, one distorted and the other clean.
The distorted channel has a high and low gain.
The clean channel has a clean and crunch switch, which provides some breakup, but maintains
a lot of the clarity in the playing.
The Lecto amp is based on the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier.
To me, this plugin sounds best on the vintage channel, with the modern channel having a
little too much fuzz to it.
There’s a lot of low end, and it leaves it with a well-balance tone.
Next we have the Legion amp, which isn’t based on anything.
This is a very bright, crisp amp with a lot of high end that can cut through a mix.
There isn’t a lot of low end, but that can be helpful for clean separation between the
guitar track and bass without the need for too much mixing.
The last amp simulator is the Lextac amp, based on the Bogner Ecstasy amp.
This is a very capable rock amp simulation, but I particularly like the smooth clean channel
on this amp.
Thanks for checking out this video on free guitar vst plugins to recreate guitar amp
sounds from direct recording.
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