If you’re searching for the ideal electric guitar vst, there are plenty of options to choose from. The key is finding one that meets both your musical production requirements and budget.
These guitar plugins provide excellent amp simulation and other useful tools, making them a great alternative to real guitars. Whether you need some light Stratocaster chords or make a heavy metal track, these electric guitar vsts have got you covered.
Helix Native
Helix Native is a VST plug-in inspired by Line 6’s Helix multi-effects processor and compatible with most popular DAWs. Available in AAX, AU and VST3 formats, Helix Native can be run on both Macs and Windows computers alike.
Helix Native brings the power and tonal authenticity of Helix hardware’s award-winning HXTM Modeling technology to a plug-in designed for both beginners and experts alike. It accurately recreates vintage and modern amps, speaker cabinets, microphones and effects with extensive signal routing capabilities and an intuitive user interface perfect for guitarists, producers and engineers, sound designers, film/TV/game composers electronic musicians – or anyone looking to create new sounds and special effects.
In the 3.50 update, its IR-based speaker cabinet engine was completely overhauled, providing 20 guitar and four bass cabs, 12 microphones, as well as fully adjustable angles, distances and positions. This allows users to quickly create realistic mic’d-up and spot-on placements without any technical difficulties.
Another fantastic feature is Helix Native’s ability to load third-party impulse responses, giving you even more options for creating a realistic mic’d up sound. Not only do you find many popular reverbs, delays and modulation effects here in Helix Native but it also has an array of boutique effects as well as some lesser known ones.
Helix Native boasts some intriguing features, such as a splice parameter that simulates tape splices for an echo-y effect and bucket brigade delay that sounds incredible. Plus, Helix Native is one of the few amp sims that allows automation of feedback, noise and delay time parameters – giving you more granular control than most competitors offer.
Helix Native is an ideal way to quickly and easily apply effects to your DAW tracks, with compatibility for any combination of computer host and audio interface. Get right to work on a song with no delays – or create and save custom presets that fit perfectly for each project!
The Helix Native GUI is very similar to that found in the Helix hardware editor, featuring a preset list and IR manager on the left, along with a flow diagram showing your tone’s signal route selected from menus below. While not as advanced as some more complex modeling software, this UI is still user-friendly and works well on compatible computer hosts/audio interfaces.
BIAS Amp 2
BIAS Amp 2 is an advanced amp emulator that faithfully recreates the tone and feel of tube amplifiers. It comes in three editions – Standard, Pro and Elite – all capable of running independently or within Positive Grid’s flagship BIAS FX application.
With BIAS Amp 2 you can build the ideal amplifier by replacing tubes, preamp, transformer, tone stack, power amp and speaker cabinet sections to create your custom model. It’s an invaluable tool for creating unique tones without needing expensive hardware upgrades. Unlike most other sims, BIAS Amp allows you to customize its internals so the sound feels authentic to your playing style.
Its user interface is straightforward to operate and navigate, featuring a horizontal line where components can be dragged for active or bypassed operation. Once selected, an in-depth graphic appears for fine tuning.
One of the standout features in BIAS Amp 2 is its built-in reverb. Offering nine types of reverb, from halls and small rooms to full scale reverberation, users have extensive control over size, character and filtering parameters.
In addition to reverb, you have plenty of ways to enhance your amp’s sound by adding effects such as overdrive, delay and chorus. BIAS Amp 2 also has a “scenario” feature which enables you to quickly switch between multiple pedalboard setups with distinct EQ settings, reverb settings and other parameters.
Another outstanding feature of BIAS Amp 2 is its “Amp Match” function, which lets you duplicate the tone of a mic’d reference amp or audio file. This makes dialing in your amp’s circuit much quicker than manual adjustment and works even better if you don’t know much about its operation.
With BIAS Amp 2, creating your own matched amp models is simple. Just mic up your own tube amplifier or import audio files and let the Amp Match feature analyze and replicate it digitally. This is an ideal way to get started quickly with BIAS Amp 2. Additionally, connecting to Positive Grid ToneCloud gives you access to 100 custom Amp Match presets from artists and guitarists around the world, plus Blues and Bass packs too!
Shreddage 3 Stratus
Are you searching for a virtual electric guitar vst that can handle everything from metal and hard rock to blues and jazz, then Impact Soundworks’ Shreddage 3 series has got what you need. This library boasts an expansive feature set developed from scratch using over 6 years of experience as well as user feedback – giving users the ultimate in virtual guitar realism.
Shreddage 3 series begins with Stratus, featuring a six string guitar with three pickups and classic American sound. Plus it boasts the brand-new KONTAKT PLAYER engine (compatible with nearly all DAWs), along with a fully modular mixer, FX rack, and pedalboard.
The Stratus can be utilized in a range of genres due to its extensive articulations, such as sustains, palm mutes, chokes and release noises. Furthermore, the Stratus offers multiple fretting/string selection algorithms and the new STRUM engine which allows customizing strummed parts and harmonies.
The Stratus offers over 24 samples per note and all dynamics, round robins and up/down strokes for fast tempos and rhythms. It’s an incredibly versatile instrument that can accommodate various playing styles with just a few clicks of the mouse to produce different tones and effects.
In addition to an expansive library of articulations, Stratus also boasts a number of useful features that make it even more powerful. For instance, Poly Input Latency control allows you to introduce variable latency into your performance so the engine can anticipate what action you will take next and produce more realistic voicings.
Another essential feature is the TACT (Total Articulation Control Technology) tab, which gives you comprehensive control over each articulation’s workings and triggers. This includes controlling triggers with a sustain pedal, selecting minimum/maximum volume at which they activate, altering key range of an articulation and changing velocity scaling.
Stratus is one of the most impressive sample libraries for creating electric guitar tones. With its extensive library of articulations, fully-modular mixer, 30 unique effects modules with dozens of custom IRs – this library should not be overlooked by any serious guitar composer.
TH-U Full
Guitar vst plugins offer guitarists the perfect solution to capture their own music with top-tier amps and effects without spending thousands of dollars on hardware. These virtual software instruments duplicate the sound of large amps, speakers, and stomp boxes to make recording guitars much simpler than ever before.
One of the top electric guitar vst plugins available is TH-U Full. It provides an impressive selection of amps and cabinets, along with rack and pedal effects. Furthermore, TH-U Full includes practical tools for signal routing and mixing that can be beneficial in many projects.
TH-U has over 100 modeled pieces, such as 32 amps, 39 cabinets and 31 effects pedals and modules. You can quickly switch between patches using its intuitive switch feature, plus move TH-U’s mics around your virtual cab to precisely shape its tone using meticulous impulse response modeling.
Another fantastic feature of TH-U is its capacity to perform different guitar parts, like strums and arpeggios, in various styles. This can be especially helpful when writing songs as the built-in browser helps identify relevant patterns based on musical criteria.
You can use TH-U to craft guitar arrangements, including lead and rhythm parts. Its Chords mode enables programming/performing strums using key switches; bass’n’chord and bass’n’pick modes let you write bass lines separately from rhythms.
Finally, you can humanize the guitar sound and performance – timing, velocity, stroking errors, pitch – in each mode for added realism. This is an effective way to add another level of detail into your compositions so that they sound even more authentic.
For optimal sound, it’s best to connect your guitar to a USB cable that eliminates latency – the time between playing a note and it registering with the computer. Direct 1/4″ jack guitar cables often suffer from this issue, making playing along with drums or metronomes distracting if you’re trying to achieve an organic feel.
Ample Sound has created some of the most comprehensive virtual guitar vst plugins available today. Their AGSC plugin, for instance, boasts features that let you craft everything from classic clean riffs to dirty trap melodies with ease. Furthermore, its EQ, compressor and convolution reverb are top-notch.