When recording guitar, it's easy to become overwhelmed by the number of available plugins for guitarists. These plugins will usually come as VST or VST3 files, and offer a huge increase in creative potential over the stock plugins in a DAW (digital audio workstation). Sure, using just the stock plugins in a DAW you can record a professional quality record. However, for guitar-specific sounds, or that extra sprinkling of magic, a third-party plugin is often a revelation. That's where this guide to the best guitar VSTs comes in.
Maybe you're not looking to record, and just want to play without bothering housemates? While there are other headphone options available, a compact interface, DAW and VST combination is a practical solution. Doubly so as you're all set to record your guitar down the line if you decide to.
Either way, we've got you covered with this guide to the best guitar VSTs. Here we'll take your through our top picks, as well as what to look for when considering a new VST.
Best guitar VSTs: Guitar World’s Choice
In terms of guitar amp VSTs, it's hard to choose. All the options we cover here will be indistinguishable from the real thing. For us though, the Elite version of Positive Grid's BIAS Amp has the edge, perhaps just due to our familiarity with it. For some heavier tones, we've become big fans of Amped from ML Sound Lab as well. While the AmpliTube 5 suite from IK Multimedia remains the benchmark, we slightly prefer the interface in BIAS and Amped.
For effects, there's nothing that can touch the Valhalla Supermassive. It's one of the most mind-bending, creative and inspirational delay/reverbs available, and it's totally free. Such is its flexibility and range that you could use it on guitar, synths and vocals on the same song and nobody would notice. If you're making guitar-based music on a computer, it's a must-have. Oh, and it's free!
Best guitar VSTs: Product guide
AmpliTube 5 is the benchmark by which all other plugin amp sims should be measured. Some of the amps, like Orange, Fender and Mesa are officially licensed too, so that should mean that they're the best emulations on the market.
Like many of its competitors, there's a rich signal chain builder interface that allows you to combine amps and stompbox models. These models cover not only major brands, but also boutique builders as well, and there's the ability to run multiple cabs and IRs too to build complex, nearly 'impossible' rigs.
Although the Max version isn't cheap, there's a range of tiers available, including a free version with 41 models for you to experiment with.
With Bias Amp 2 Elite you can load your own IRs, or get Celestion ones with the Elite package. Multi-mic placement allows for tight control of the recorded tone. Apart from that, as the name suggests, there's the ability to switch valves, transformers and re-bias the amps themselves.
Finally, if you have a favourite real amp, you can use Amp Match to create a model of it to use on-the-go or in a time pinch.
Read the full Positive Grid Bias Amp 2 review
Valhalla Supermassive would be one of the top plugins available on the market, even if it wasn't free. The fact that it is just makes it all the more remarkable.
It's got controls for stereo width, warp and rich modulation options for every preset. The preset delays and reverbs go from if not traditional, then at least, adjacent to traditional, all the way to deep space transmissions.
It tops our list of the best free plugins for guitarists, too.
Wider is an incredibly simple free plugin. However, once you've got it, you'll find it sneaking onto every track or mix you do.
All it does is allow you to spread a mono source into stereo, without introducing phase issues. This won't replace techniques like double-tracking for rhythm parts or heavier music, but it will mean that you can find space for mono guitars in a busy mix, or indeed just make the stereo image of your guitars more interesting.
While there are a lot of different tape delay plugins – including ones that ship with amp and effects modeling plugins – we rate this standalone sim.
The Pulsar has an intuitive user-interface and a range of options, including controls for stereo drift, tape age, and tone. Crucially, there's an input drive and output trim that make the Pulsar a pretty good standalone overdrive plugin for guitar. It's often this we use the Pulsar for, as much as a delay.
Being a plugin, there's also the possibility to add repeats and delay lengths that would be physically impossible with the real unit, making it a useful sound-design tool too.
The Amped collection leans towards the heavier end of the spectrum, with models of the 5150, Diezel VH4, Mesa Mark V and Dual Rectifier all present and correct. The lowest gain amp in their line-up is their JCM800, although the clean channels of all these classic amps are faithfully replicated.
There are fewer bells and whistles to the Amped series, but a lot of care has been taken over the core sounds and useful additional features like noise gates - crucial with some of the higher-gain models.
Some of the stand-alone models like bass and ML800 are very affordable if you only need a couple of amps. YouTubers Ryan 'Fluff' Bruce and Stevie T also both have excellent-sounding signatures available for free download. If you can have only one, Fluff's EVH 5150 III is the one to pick.
It may not solely be a guitar plugin, but the Eventide Blackhole is probably the single best reverb plugin available. Based on the preset from the Eventide Space – recently broken out into a pedal of its own – the Blackhole sound is legendary for a reason.
This plugin simply takes that preset and makes it available in your DAW. It sounds equally as good on piano, synths and guitar, although, as the name implies, it's best used for cinematic and ambient sound design.
At full price it's pretty expensive compared to its pedal equivalents, but for much of the year it will be on sale somewhere, and it's not uncommon to find it for a quarter of list price.
One of the most common reasons that an amp and cab sim combination sounds lifeless is that it's not placed within a realistic sounding space. Within the context of recording or playing music with a computer, that means the reverb used.
The Sunset Sound plugin is a faithful reproduction of the studio of the same name, warts and all. The result is a sometimes subtle, sometimes transformative room reverb plugin that can bring to life guitar parts wholly constructed 'in the box'.
Like the Echorec, it's also excellent for gluing together a bus of multiple guitar tracks into a coherent whole.
Though Neural's Quad Cortex has been grabbing all the headlines of late, it's the company's Archetype series of amp models that put them on the map. There's some emulations of specific amps, like the Soldano SLO-100, but they're mainly known for their signature series.
These partnerships, with players like Tosin Abasi, John Petrucci, Tim Henson, Cory Wong, and Nolly, offer tones as serious as the caliber of the players involved.
Not only are the sounds excellent, but the user interface is playful and modern, with a range of additional features, depending on the artist. All have different pre-effects and EQ, while some have time effects, doublers and pitch shifters.
The Helix Native may not be the sexiest guitar plugin on this list, but it's one of the most fully-featured. Essentially the core engine of the powerhouse Helix floorboard and modeller in plugin form, the Helix Native allows for complex routing, with a huge array of amps and effects aimed at being ergonomic to guitar players.
Should you own a piece of Helix hardware, the presets are compatible, but it's doubtful you would be interested in dropping the cash on both, even if Helix Native is discounted by 75% for Helix owners.
Best guitar VSTs: Buying advice
What you need to know about guitar VSTs
Generally, plugins are distributed as VST or VST3s, although some Mac OSX plugins will be Audio Units, or AUs. Though VST – Virtual Studio Technology – was originally a Steinberg-only format, plugin wrapping technology makes it easier for plugin makers to distribute multiple formats. These days, VST is the most common, even on OSX.
When discussing plugins for guitarists, naturally amps and effects are the most exciting subject. Not only are they designed to work with a guitar input signal, but they're already familiar to us as players.
We've mainly focussed on amp plugins in this guide, as the huge spread of options and ease of switching tones is one of the best things about working with guitar tones in software. Finding a good amp to support your guitar ideas when recording or jamming is crucial, and that's true of software just as it is with physical gear.
Even so, remember that sometimes breaking the rules can be even more creatively fulfilling. Many classic studio guitar tones have been created by running direct into the desk, and although we don't cover console preamps in this guide, remember that working 'in the box' means you can experiment with any amp you like... or even no amp at all.
There are lots of stompbox modellers – many DAWs even ship with a pedalboard VST. However, we're not going to cover many in this guide, instead focussing on effects not available in pedal format. While these plugins are usually designed with multiple sound sources in mind, not just guitar, most will work well on electric guitar with a bit of EQ adjustment.
Finally, we've also covered a couple of wild-card entries. After all, your holistic goal by working in the box is two-fold. First, to be inspired, and second, to achieve the sound in your head. Getting across that second threshold will require some utility plugins. While we're not going to go down the rabbit hole of EQ or compression, we have suggested a couple of unconventional utility plugins that will change the way you mix guitar.
