Free Guitar Amp Simulator for Home Recording

Play music instrument was become one of my hobbies, especially playing the guitar. Not as great as a pro but at least I can play what I like to play LOL.

Not only just learn and play the instrument and developing the skill. I also learn how to make music. Composing, arrange and mixing.

Yeah! I know, Mixing is the hardest one to learn.

And when it comes t learning to make music nowadays. It will go into something digital.

Luckily we are the generation who live in this digital era that can make music from home using our computer.

Not like in the past or like in the big professional studios that everything’s was analog. And need a bunch of gear like compressor, Analog tape, Mixer board, etc to record a premium track.

Nowadays to record your music from home, what you need is your computer desktop/laptop. It doesn’t matter if you are Mac or Windows user.

You also will need an Audio interface, Speaker monitor or studios headphone for recording & mixing. And of course the instrument; Guitar, Bass, Mic. And you are ready to rock n roll.

In this post, I make a list of free VST guitar amp simulator that you can try on your mix. Or just for jam and play along with your computers.

Some of these VST plugins I’ve tried by myself. Some I even use for my main guitar amp sim on my project demos. And yeah! These free plugins sound killer too!

If you want to save the budget because you already spent too much money just for buying the premium plugins.

This list may help ya to reduce the costs. Here they are!

Free Guitar Amp Simulator By LePou Plugins

#LeGion

This plugin is my favorite ones and yeah! this is what I am talking about the plugin that I use for my demo. Believe me, with a match cab IR it will sound really really good.

If you wanna take your time how it sound like, you can listen on my demo using this amp sim below;

Features:
– Having two completely different preamp circuit
– 2 modes on each channel, rhythm /lead
– And 2 tonestacks assignable to any of the 2 channels
– the usual drive and tone controls

New version 1.01:
– more output volume
– less volume variations with coutour changes

You can download LeGion by Lepou Plugins HERE

#LE456

Still by LePou plugins, this a preamp sim roughly based on a famous German gear. It has 2 channels and 2 modes per channel.

Apart from the usual tone controls (drive, low, mid, high and contour), each channels/modes offer two different tone stacks that can be accessed via the focus switches. Bottom and bright switches can be used to boost the low and the high frequencies respectively.

On the low gain channel only (Clean/Crunch), the effectiveness of the bright switch decreases with the gain settings.

You can download LE456 Plugins HERE

#LeXTAC

LeXTAC was amp simulator inspired by a great Californian boutique amplifier.

Features:
· Ch 1 (Clean/Yellow): gain, bass, middle, treble, contour, power amp gain volume, 3 positions pre eq, gain boost.

· Ch 2 & Ch 3 (Blue & Red): gain, bass, middle, treble, contour, power amp gain, volume, 3 positions pre eq, gain-structure, gain boost and plexi mode.

For more info and to download the plugin click here.

#LecTo

LeCto is a guitar amp simulator inspired by an American modern high gain head (Mesa Boogie).

This amp simulator has 2 channels with 3 modes on each channel. It can go from crunch (raw mode) to modern high gain (modern mode).

Features :
-oversampling : determines the signal oversampling; up to 8x
-mono/stereo : determines the signal routing
-input : controls the magnitude of the input signal
-drive : controls the amount of gain
-low : controls the low frequency
-mid : controls the mid frequency
-high : controls the high frequency
-presence : presence control
-resonance* : controls the amount of resonance resulting from the interaction with the speaker cabinet

To find out more about LeCto amp sim and to download the plugin go here

By Nickcrow Plugins

#Nick Crow 8505 Lead v.1.2

Overall feature;

Controls:
POWER – Power ON/OFF. HQ – Oversampling ON / OFF. Use OFF to reduce CPU usage, use ON to get the quality sound without aliases (more CPU).

GAIN – Determines the amount of gain applied by the Pre Amp.
LOW, MID, SWEEP, HIGH – Tone Stack controls.
POWER AMP – Determines the amount of gain applied by the Power Amp.
VOLUME – Output level.

Visit official nickcrowlab blog to download this awesome amp sim nickcrowlab.blogspot.com

#Nick Crow 7170 Lead v.1.2

Controls:
POWER – Power ON/OFF.
DRIVE – Determines the amount of gain applied by the Pre Amp.
LOW, MID, SWEEP, HIGH – Tone Stack controls.
POW AMP – Determines the amount of gain applied by the Power Amp.
OUTPUT – Output level.

To download and looking for another plugins by Nickcrowlab go to nickcrowlab.blogspot.com

By Kuassa Amplifikation

#Amplifikation Lite

Amplifikation Lite allows you to create ultra-realistic sounding guitar sounds.

Simply plug your guitar into your computer’s soundcard input. And you’ll get high-quality guitar tracks with a simple interface.

Amplifikation Lite’s DSP engine is based on one of the amps featured in Kuassa Amplifikation One with a fixed tone stack and power amp output type.

This is a free version of  Kuassa Amplifikation plugins. If you want to download or find out more about other products of Kuassa Amplifikation software. You can go to their official website here kuassa.com

To download Amplifikation Lite here: https://www.kuassa.com/products/amplifikation-lite/

[Note! I am not affiliated with Kuassa Amplifikation]

Simulanalog Guitar Suite GUI by R E Q U I E T U S

If you love Marshall JCM900 sound, you will definitely love this plugin.

In this plugins bundle, you will get not only the amp sim but you will get the Tube Screamer and some pedals simulator and Fender Mustang amp sim too!

Check this out at requietus.blogspot.com for more info and to download the plugins.

P.S. Unfortunately this bundles only available for 32bit windows based system only. If your installed DAW is 64bit version use VST bridge to use this plugin.

Conclusion and tips

These amp simulators need Impulse Response (IR) loader in order to use. You can use NadIR, keFir or LeCab by LePou plugins.

Download NadIR from: http://www.vst4free.com/

Download keFir from: VST Database

Download LeCab (Windows only) here: http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?plugin=LeCab2&id=958

And you will also need to find Cabinet iRS. And load it into Cabinet IR loader. Just Google it! use this keyword to search: free download cabinet impulse response

You can also use Overdrive pedal simulator such as TSE 808 by TSE Audio inside your track signal chains in your DAW to boost the Amp sim.

Okay! that’s it! If you enjoy what you read you can share it with your friends.

If you are a pro audio engineering who read this post please share your advice with us here 🙂

Thanks for reading anyway! and hope this post is useful. Cheers!