Free Guitar Amp Simulator for Home Recording

Play music instrument was becomes one of my hobbies especially play guitar, not as great as 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 into learn of making music now day, it will goes into something digital and luckily we are the generation who live in this era that can make music from home using our computer and with a few gear like audio interface, mic for record your vocal, guitar, bass etc and you are ready to create music.

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

To record music from home, what you need is your computer desktop/laptop doesn’t matter Mac or Windows, an Audio interface, Speaker monitor or studios headphone for mixing and of course the instrument; guitar, bass, mic etc. And you are ready to rock n roll.

This time, i wanna make a list of free VST guitar amp sim that you can try in your mix, or just for jam and play along with your computers.

Some of these vst plugins i’ve try by myself, some I even use for my main guitar amp sim on my demo’s track. And yeah! These free plugins can sound killer too!

If you want to save budget because you already spent too much money just for buying premium  plugins this list may help ya to reduce the costs.

Here they are!

By LePou Plugins

#LeGion

LeGion is a high gain preamp simulator. This is an original design, it’s not based on any hardware gear. LePou goal here was to build a high gain sim that doesn’t need any booster in front in order to be tight.

Features:
– 2 channels, actually two completely different preamp circuit
– 2 modes on each channel, rhythm and lead
– 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

[Source from: lepouplugins ]

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.

You can download LeGion by Lepou Plugins HERE

If you wanna take your time how it sound like in my demo you can listening to my demo later here at soundcloud.com/esionfotra

#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. Each channels/modes share the same features. 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. [Source : lepouplugins.blogspot.com you can also download the plugin trough this link]

#LeXTAC

LeXTAC has been 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.

All channels have a 3 positions Pre EQ switch : Normal, Bright and Brighter. The higher you set the gain control, the less effect the Pre EQ will have on the sound. All channels also have a gain boost.

Channel 2 & 3 (Blue & Red) have two other switches to give the user different gain/tone :
· The Plexi channel is a lower gain channel than the normal Blue & Red ones. The plexi channel can be assigned to either Channel 2 or 3. Note: structure switch and Gain Boost switch are inactive in Plexi mode.

· The Structure switch is an overall gain reduction switch for Channels 2 & 3. When ON (high position), both channels 2 & 3 have less gain. Obviously, when OFF (down position), the preamp will more gain.

[Source : lepouplugins.blogspot.com you can also download the plugin trough this link]

#LecTo

LeCto is a guitar amp simulator inspired by an american modern high gain head. This 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

[Source : lepouplugins.blogspot.com you can also download the plugin trough this link]

You can find out more for plugins created by LePou in His blog.

By Nickcrow Plugins

#Nick Crow 8505 Lead v.1.2

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). When a project or the track is exported to a wave file (mixdown, bounce, render, freeze) oversampling is always automatically enabled regardless of the position of the button.
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.
After Nick_Crow_8505_Lead insert some guitar cabinet emulation.

Visit official nickcrowlab blog to download this awesome ampsim 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.
After Nick_Crow_7170_Lead insert some guitar cabinet emulation.

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 by plugging your guitar into your computer’s soundcard input. Get high-quality guitar tracks with a simple interface and non-obstructive workflow using Amplifikation Lite. Amplifikation Lite’s DSP engine is based on one of the amps featured in Kuassa Amplifikation One with a fixed tonestack 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 Kuassa Amplifikation softwares 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.

PS. 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 simulator need Impulse Response (IR) loader in order to use. You can use NadIR or keFir.

Download NadIR form kvraudio.com

Download keFir from VST Database

And you also need to find Cabinet iRS to 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 and don’t forget to add a comment bellow before you leave.

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

Thanks for read anyway! and hope this post is useful.

Cheers!