Have you ever wondered how to downsize the rig you use for your guitars? Are you sick of carrying around heavy amplifiers and pedal boards with a million wires? ... If yes, then guitar effect VST plugins are your best friend. A VST plugin can be used in conjunction with your audio production software. A guitar effect VST plugin emulates guitar amps, pedals and other outboard gear like compressors and equalizers. The beauty of the VST plugins is that they can be triggered with MIDI controls to shift between patches and tones. You can get a MIDI foot pedal and sync it to the software. This is great for live application.
Below are a list of VST plugins that have high quality amp emulations and other effects to add to your arsenal.
Bias fx is first on the list because its a well rounded plugin that's super versatile. It has a wide range of amplifiers and effects that are easily recognizable. It's also a well laid out interface that has a lot of click and drag functionality.
You can easily move things around and select different signal flow paths for all the gear that you have on screen. The tones are really good and high quality. The amp simulations are top notch.
The beauty of BIAS FX is that you can use them on your iphone or ipad. They can be used in conjunction with a mobile audio interface so you can jam out anywhere you like. This makes it really versatile for live shows and just jamming out with your electric at the park with your buddies.
Guitar rig is a go to choice for a solid sounding amp simulator with great effects. Native Instruments have designed a great piece of software that has long been one of the most solid guitar effects processing software out there.
Guitar rig has an extensive range of amps, cabinets, pedals, eqs, compressors, etc. It can be used as a standalone software or a plug in to your existing audio software too. The interface is pretty user friendly but can be a little daunting at first because of the plethora of options.
You have emulations of some really famous guitar amps and pedals that you would recognize easily by the visual representations of it in the software.The only con is that wiring and patching the signal flow can be a little complicated at points, unlike other pieces of software out there.
Overloud TH-U is one of the more boutique amp modeling and guitar effect software out there. It sounds amazing and comes with great quality amp and cabinet impulses. You have the option of buying effect packages specific for genres like rock/metal, hip-hop/rnb, etc.
The interface is beautifully laid out and very user friendly. You have a bunch of well designed presets to choose from or you can create your own tone from scratch by just clicking and dragging components around. It even has settings for different types of tubes you could use for vintage tube amp models. You can get real specific with the type of rig that you want.
Overloud TH-U comes with the Steven Slate bundle as a limited version with a few amps and effects. You can however pick and choose from around 89 amp simulators if you choose upgrade.
AmpliTube is one of the most comprehensive pieces of software out there for amp modelling and guitar effect simulation. It is one of the more popular choices out there. AmpliTube has a wide variety of customizations.
You can even pick emulations of the microphones used to record the amplifiers or cabinets, and even the room that they are recorded in. This gives you ultimate control over the tone you're going for.
The latest AmpliTube 5 comes with a great new interface that's very easy to use.
So the conclusion is that when it comes to guitar effect plugins you are really spoilt for choice out there. With a little research and trial you can find the one that works best for you best. The main thing to keep in mind is to not get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of choice and squeeze the best tone out of the one you pick, because they're all extremely capable.
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