Free Guitar Amp Software For Windows Archives

Guitar Rig is ideal for musicians working on a budget that need a solid all-in-one guitar management application.

Guitar Rig allows you to connect your guitar to your computer so that you can amplify and manage your guitar sound as if you were in a professional studio . The soundcard routes the signal to your speakers and Guitar Rig simulates a series of classic amps, cabinets, mics and effects via a drag and drop interface.

Of course, the effect is not as good as using a professional studio but most users report that reproduction is very good for a simple computer application. The interface of Guitar Rig is extremely well laid out and even for those new to amps and guitar effects, it doesn't take long to navigate your way around. If you intend to use Guitar Rig for live performances, a convenient Live View displays the most essential readouts and level monitors to keep your eye on.

It's not exactly a professional music studio but Guitar Rig is an impressive effort.

Adds the "Cool Plex" amp and the new Master Effects section.

Top 7 Free Amp Sims Best virtual guitar amplifier plug-ins  ·  Source: gearnews.com

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.

It used to take a lot of tweaking and fine-tuning to get tracks involving amp sims to sit right in a mix, and even then you might still have had reservations on whether or not it was good enough to make the final cut. But the technology has progressed in fantastic ways thanks to companies like the ones on this list, but also the ones that are innovating digital guitar sounds on the live market like the ever-popular Kemper, Line 6, Headrush and Fractal Audio brands.

It was tough to narrow this list down. There are so many spectacular amp sims out now as freeware, offering every guitarist access to some legendary sounds without budget getting in the way. Here are seven freeware amp sims that sound as good as the real thing.

Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5 Player

Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5 Player

It’s a stripped down version of the paid one, but includes all of the sound quality, just with fewer options of cabinets, pedals, etc. The interface is a simple to navigate, intuitive GUI.

You get one amp and one cabinet choice with the free version, as well as access to a few guitar pedals. The guitar pedal options are pretty robust, with a Tubescreamer, a few delays, and other gain-related options like noise gating, compression, and a number of ways to shape your sound with EQ.

NI has provided a solid simulation starter pack, hoping to get you hooked enough to buy the full version. It might just work.

IK Multimedia Amplitube

IK Multimedia Amplitube

Amplitube was one of the first guitar sims to really push the boundaries of what you can do without a real amp, and IK Multimedia has vastly expanded the platform since then. It’s why we’ve often written about Amplitube on Gearnews. Included in the free version of Amplitube is Cab Room, a virtual recording space where you can swap out different cabinets and microphones. You also get four amps, a host of different pedals, three mics, among a few other goodies.

It’s a little gimmicky, but for good reason: IK Multimedia provides you with a bunch of solid options in the hopes that you’ll like the tones so much that you’ll want to pay for more.

LePou Plug-in Suite

LePou Plug-in Suite

No matter what flavor of amp you’re looking for, LePou has it. They built their legacy on HyBrit – their Marshall emulation – and branched out with free variations of Soldano, Mesa Boogie, 5150, and more as they have been one of the foremost innovators in the freeware amp sim market for years.

Their site is no longer active, but the downloadable files can be found through a simple search. It might take some digging to get them all, but for their sound quality it’s highly worth it.

All of their creations can be run in mono or stereo and feature various ways to shape and control your tone on each head. They work with any type of impulse/cabinet loader so the ways that you can mix and match your tones are virtually endless.

Ignite Amps

The only company on this list that offers software and hardware, Ignite’s amp simulation lineup features a number of different styles of amplifiers designed specifically for heavier styles.

Anvil might be their most infamous offering, as it is a full featured 3-channel (clean, rhythm, and lead) head that just rips with high gain sounds. It can do a great scooped metal sound, reminiscent of some of the most beloved tube amps in the heavy music world.

Emissary is a next-gen type of amp sim, sonically and graphically resembling a real tube stack in a way that is so realistic it’s scary. It models EL34, 6L6, and KT88 tubes with selectable power tubes and mono or stereo output.

The NRR-1 is based on a “famous boutique amplifier” from 1988 – my guess is it’s Ignite’s recreation of the Soldano SLO100 – which at that time was a boutique amp (widely available in the meantime). It also features 3 channels of clean, rhythm, and lead mayhem coming loaded with all of the appointments of the other amps.

Though their lineup is obviously meant to cater to the heaviest of the heavy, the simulations also feature sparkling clean and drive channels that can find a home on recordings of any genre. All amps feature mono or stereo support, 64-bit floating bit depth, and up to 8x oversampling capability. Their software suite also includes a number of impulse responses and cab loaders, as well as guitar pedals.

Their plug-ins are available for Windows and Mac formats.

Kuassa Ampilfikation Lite

Kuassa Ampilfikation Lite

Kuassa offers simulations of some of the most classic amps of all time. Their freebie is their Lite model, an amp whose tone sits somewhere between a Marshall and a Peavey. It provides great gain for harder rock styles, but also cleans up nicely. It really shines in its articulation and response, and when you’re playing it you almost forget that it’s digital, as it nails the late 70s early 80s thing so well.

Shattered Glass Audio Ace

Shattered Glass Audio Ace

A standalone vintage amp sim, the Ace is a digital recreation of the venerable all-tube 50’s tweed amp. Based on the late 1950’s Fender Tweed Champ, an amp that attained a legendary status on some of the greatest recordings of all time.

There are added controls to adjust the amount of feedback, a common mod to the Champ in the amp world. The digital recreation also includes the mod to the real circuit that includes grip stopper resistors.

It comes packaged with an impulse response so you don’t have to use a separate IR loader, but it is defeatable and you can use the digital head with whatever type of cabinet responses you like.  The plug-in can also be oversampled up to 8x, and the onboard cabinet emulation offers mono or stereo output.

Voxengo Boogex

Voxengo Boogex

Boogex is Voxengo’s take on amp simulation, and just like their host of other freeware offerings, it checks all the right boxes. It is built for low and medium-gain sounds, which sets it apart from some of the other options on this list. While it can do higher-gain sounds it gets pretty fizzy and compressed, which might just be exactly what you’re looking for!

It comes with a plethora of on-board impulse responses, and it can be used with 3^rd party response loaders. With such a solid selection of amps, cabinets, and microphones it’s hard to beat this much value in a freeware guitar amp processor.

This article lists free guitar amp VST plugins. For more music software, return to Free VST Plugins.

Whether you’re a guitar player or not, it can be useful to have a good guitar amp emulator or two in your plugins folder. Must like a good saturator, guitar amps can color a sound, adding anything from subtle warmth to full-on distortion. If you’re a guitar player without access to a sound-proof studio, these kinds of VSTs are essential for bringing DI’ed signals to life. However, they can work well on synthesizers, drum machines, samples—pretty much anything that needs an injection of saturation.

This list focuses on guitar amplifier sims. While some may contain cabs (speakers or cabinets), many are just the head. Many offer multiple amp types and are capable of providing several different kinds of tones. If you’re new to the world of guitar amps, it can be useful to experiment and see what works best for your type of music.

AmpliTube 4 Free by IK Multimedia

AmpliTube 4 Free is, as you would expect, a free version of software giant IK Multimedia’s comprehensive guitar sim package, AmpliTube 4. The free version on offer here includes nine stompboxes, four amps, five cabs, three mics, two rack effects, and a chromatic tuner, which should be more than enough to get you started. If you wish to expand your kit, unlock additional amp models via in-app purchases.

Download:AmpliTube Custom Shop

Blue Cat’s Free Amp by Blue Cat

Blue Cat’s Free Amp is a guitar amp emulator based on Blue Cat’s premium Destructor and Axiom plugins. With three different models (Classic Clean, Classic Drive, and Modern Drive) and matching cabinet emulation for each virtual amp type, there’s plenty to work with here. The tone ranges from clean to crunchy, with a useful sweet spot that favors a clean sound, something of a rarity for guitar amp VSTs.

Download:Blue Cat’s Free Amp

Boogex by Voxengo

At its heart, Boogex is a guitar amp simulator, able to impart tone ranging from distorted to clean and jazzy. It can load speaker cabinet impulse responses (some are included) and can also be used as a plain stereo convolution processor when its amp stage is turned off. It also has a reverb module taken from the company’s excellent OldSkoolVerb reverb.

Download:Boogex

Amped Roots Free by ML Sound Lab

Amped Roots Free is the free edition of ML Sound Lab’s software bundle, which was made with the help of guitarist Ryan “Fluff” Bruce. Amped Roots Free includes an amp designed for a metal with a built-in cabinet simulator and two effects pedals.

Download:Amped Roots Free

Amplifikation Lite by Kuassa

Based on one of the amps featured in Kuassa’s Amplifikation One guitar processing software, Amplifikation Lite has three channels (clean, rhythm, and lead) and a built-in cabinet impulse response loader. The cabinet loader is useful for when you want more than just an amp head.

Download:Amplifikation Lite

Cypress TT-15 by Black Rooster Audio

German effects company Black Rooster Audio offers Cypress TT-15, a component-based circuit simulation of the Orange TT15 Tiny Terror amp head. Orange amps are famous for their tone, and this emulation has a similar sound and identical control layout. It also has a 2×12 cabinet simulation that can be bypassed should you wish to use an alternate cab impulse response.

Download:Cypress TT-15

NRR-1 by Ignite Amps

Back in 1999, Ignite Amps built the NRR-1 tube preamplifier for Fleshgod Apocalypse guitarist Cristiano Trionfera. The software version is a digital emulation of that same preamp that features Ignite Amps’ third-generation triode modeling engine and three channels: clean, rhythm, and lead. It’s particularly suited to metal and other heavy genres.

Download:NRR-1

Crunck V2 by Nembrini Audio

Nembrini Audio’s relatively new Crunck V2 plugin is a high-quality guitar amp sim designed for rock and pop genres. With its easy-to-understand layout, it’s particularly suited to beginners. It also includes an IR-based cabinet simulator with 30 built-in cabinet impulse responses.

Download:Crunck V2

Ace by Shattered Glass Audio

Ace by Shattered Glass Audio is an emulation of a Fender tube guitar amp. With its clean tones, it’s great for indie rock, pop, and other genres that don’t require a high-gain guitar sound like metal. This amp, which is light on CPU, also features a built-in cabinet simulation and two different circuit models.

Download:Ace

L12X Solid State Amplifier by Audiority

Audiority’s free L12X Solid State Amplifier is based on the Marshall Lead 12 head of the late ‘80s, which is renowned for its ability to get very loud. This emulation has two channels (clean and boost), a contour knob for a more scooped tone, and an additional boost overdrive stage.

Download:L12X Solid State Amplifier

bx_rockrack V3 Player by Plugin Alliance

bx_rockrack V3 Player is the freeware virtual guitar amp plugin by Brainworx. It features a limited collection of amp models and presets from the full version of the software. There are 26 presets in total, based on eight different guitar amplifier models.

The plugin sounds very good. However, the options for customizing the included presets are very limited. That said, bx_rockrack V3 Player can be useful if you’re only looking for a great sounding virtual amp to jam on.

Download:bx_rockrack V3 Player

Guitar Rig 5 Player by Native Instruments

Like AmpliTube 4, Native Instruments’ freely downloadable Guitar Rig 5  plugin is a fully-featured all-in-one guitar solution, with amps, cabs, effects, and more. It’s great for everything from subtle warmth to full-on effects madness, and it sounds lovely on synths. Guitar Rig 5 Player is a free, cut-down version of Guitar Rig 5 Pro and includes a British-style tube amp plus a matched cabinet, as well as 13 effects and sound modifiers. Note that Guitar Rig 5 Player comes as part of Komplete Start, a bundle of free instruments and effects.

Download:Komplete Start (includes Guitar Rig 5 Player)

For more freeware plugins and instruments, return to our Free VST Plugins page.