1. Free Electric Guitar Vst
2. Electric Guitar Volume Gate Vst Free Download
3. Free Acoustic Guitar Plugin Vst
4. Electric Guitar Volume Gate Vst Free Full

If you’re a guitarist, you’ve probably had the common problem of wanting to make professional music from the comfort of your home but not having the right setup to do it. Your recording will end up sounding less than stellar if you aren’t able to create a good setup with your amps. This is where an amp simulator could step in to save the day.

There are multiple reasons why an amp simulator might be preferable over a standard guitar amp. One major reason is the neighbors. If you live in close proximity to anyone who doesn’t have a tolerance for loud noises, the guitar amp isn’t going to be ideal. Others aren’t well versed in the fine art of professional recording. Then there are those who don’t have the money right now to buy the equipment that will give them a professional sounding result.

No matter what your reason is for considering an amp simulator, there is a wide variety of options currently available for all styles of guitarists. We’re going to go over some of the best electric guitar VST’s today so that you can narrow down which one will work for you.

Top 13 Electric Guitar VST Instruments

1. Softube Metal Amp Room

The Softube Metal Amp Room is a bit of an upgrade from the Softube Vintage Room. It was developed with Patrick Jensen, better known as the guitarist for the Swedish metal band The Haunted. It features a variety of brutal and aggressive guitar tones right out of your DAW. One unique feature is that it can be run in mono if you want to tighten your sound, or run it in stereo to let it fill up the stereo spectrum.

1. Download Haunted Guitar LiteVirtual Instrument “Haunted Guitar Lite is a Free VST/VST3/AU instrument created with a multi-sampled Fender Stratocaster Plus Deluxe Electric Guitar, each preset contains 28.
2. With the free version, you have access to a tuner, amplifier, cabinet, two delay pedals, one tube screamer, compressor, noise reduction, two equalizers, one pro filter, reverb, a limiter, and a noise gate, volume pedal, and more.

10 (Realistic) Best Free Electric, Metal, & Acoustic Guitar VST Plugins Ever Written by Cameron Mayo Adding music to your tracks was once pretty difficult, but thanks to guitar VST plugins and the many free. Features and download: – 10 Electric guitars models – Amp. Envelope, finetune & portamento – 5 band equalizer – 4 Effects: Flanger, Delay, Distortion & Chorus –. DSK Guitars Steel (VST / Windows / 32 bit) Spicy Guitar (VST / Standalone / Windows, Mac / 32 bit + 64 bit) Big Cat Instruments General Midi Soundset (has a guitar section / Kontakt) Free Electric Guitar Plugins. Now, let’s talk about electric guitars. Spitfire Labs: Peel Guitar. Format: VST2, VST3, AAX, AU; 32 bit + 64 bi t OS: Windows, Mac. Who says you need expensive amps and microphones to record guitar? Who says you need costly multi-effects units or pedalboards to capture an awesome tone? These days, all you need is a killer VST plugin along with some impulses to achieve stellar results. In some cases, you don’t even need impulses. If that wasn’t awesome enough, you can even get some great sounding VSTs for free.

It comes with the same continuous mic placement as the Vintage Amp Room, and they have added on adjustable stereo panning and twin microphones. To get heavy palm-muting in, you can use the high-quality gate. It has a super fast opening, more so than any hardware gate. You can play as fast or as slow as you want, as the gate is program dependent.

The cabs were measured by Tue Madsen in the Flames Studio. He created a wide variety of presets, each meticulously designed to give you the best metal tones possible.

Pros

• Exciting collection of aggressive guitar tones ideal for metal
• Super user-friendly
• Uses continuous mic placement

Cons

• Lacks versatility

2. Heavyocity Scoring Guitars 2: Gravity Pack 05

Heavyocity has been developing VSTs that are worthy of the big screen for many years now. Scoring Guitars 2 will give you 5GB of high-quality content that can be utilized for a wide range of cinematic productions. You’ll be able to develop some truly atmospheric tracks with tools like driving pulses, complex pads, cinematic phrases, and ambient guitar beds. With this VST Heavyocity strays from its mainstream guitar roots to explore some edgier sounds.

You’ll have the opportunity to experiment with a great selection of guitar tones, including chunky rhythm pedals and a multi-sampled semi-hollow body. There’s also a new set of keys to play with, including D and G, which can take your sound to a different dimension. These sounds come from high-end guitars like the 335, Stratocaster, and others. The sounds are boosted with the help of a collection of American and British amps and cabs and the other pro outboard gear utilized by Heavyocity. You’ll be impressed by the amazing depth and warmth that we’ve come to expect from analog equipment.

If you are at all interested in scoring, this is an absolutely must-have VST. It’s also great for those who want to explore some edgier guitar sounds with some versatile guitar software.

Pros

• An abundance of presets to choose from
• Super detailed samples and effects
• User-friendly keyswitches

Cons

• Melodic phrases are quite ambiguous

3. Audified Audified Live Guitar and Bass Bundle

The Audified Live Guitar and Bass Bundle is a great value for everything that’s included. Audified gives you just about everything you could ask for, including seven power amps, eight microphones, thirty effects, twelve speakers, and nine top-notch guitar preamps. With all these pieces to work with, the possibilities for guitar tones are almost endless. You can easily utilize it in your DAW. You also have the option to use it as a standalone application whenever you are playing live in rehearsal or on stage.

The Gallien-Krueger amps and speaker setups were designed with bass players in mind. Audified faithfully replicates the features that were originally found on the amplifiers like all the filters and the bi-amp design. The bundle includes the InTone 2, which is perfect for adapting your preferred plugins to live performances. It’s essentially a multi-in and multi-out product mixer that has the capability of playing digital instruments.

We don’t want to overlook the bundle of pedals that is also included. The selection of pedals is sourced from a release Audified made over 10 years ago. This release just so happened to mark Audified as the first to introduce professional guitar software. If you don’t want any limits when you are exploring guitar sounds, the Audified Bundle is highly recommended.

Pros

• The sound is incredible
• Impressive collection of awesome presets
• Beautiful interface

Cons

• Requires great effort to find the best tone

4. Softube Vintage Amp Room

If retro tones are your thing, you will definitely want to check out the Vintage Amp Room bundle from Softube. The amps you’ll find in this guitar plugin emulate vintage amplifiers from incredible names like Vox, Marshall, and Fender. You can authentically replicate tones that sound like they are straight from hits of the 60s and 70s. Softube has built a strong reputation based on their impressive sound applications, and this VST does not disappoint.

There are three amp emulations included in the Vintage Amp Room. If you like the sound of the Fender Twin, check out the Brown Amp. The Green Amp emulates the Vox AC30. And if you’re a fan of Marshall, the White Amp replicates the famous Marshall JCM800. With these three awesome amps, you can pretty much dial in any classic sound you can think of. With the simulated studio setup, you’ll also get speaker cabinets and a flexible microphone setup.

This VST works great for live performances, and it can be used to re-amp guitars that need a little more power. The Softube Vintage Amp Room gives you all the tools you need to bring authentic vintage sounds to your guitar recordings.

Pros

• Super user-friendly
• Impressive amplifier simulations
• Incredibly authentic mic positioning

Free Electric Guitar Vst

Cons

• A lot of money for only three amps

5. Audiority Tube Modulator

You can achieve a completely new vibe simply by adding some vibrato or tremolo to your guitar sounds. If you’re interested in exploring this idea yourself, check out the Audiority Tube Modulator. It offers a great selection of tremolo, vibrato, and spatial position effects circuits. You’ll find everything from 50s-style tube bias tremolo effects to psychedelic vibe pedals from the 60s.

The spatial effects in this VST include a wide stereo “wow and flutter” simulator for fans of tape, a user-friendly panner to create space for your guitar in the mix, and a rotary speaker. The XY scope will help you understand the spatial position, and it will show your current amplitude. It gives your original signal that classic warmth that you can only get from a tube.

The Tube Modulator gives you amazing vintage effects along with an incredibly impressive interface. The GUI looks super realistic. Just a warning, the interface is so distractingly beautiful that you might forget the project at hand.

Pros

• High quality stereo treatments
• Cool leslie-style effects
• Stunning, realistic interface

Cons

• If you’re looking for modern parameters, you might be disappointed

6. vir2 Electri6ity

Maybe you’re not a guitarist but you still have a need for some high-gain, shred-style guitar for your tracks. In this case, you’ll need to enlist the help of a VST like the vir2 Electri6ity. On the Electri6ity you’ll find eight of the most popular guitar tones that have ever been played. Vir2 accomplished this by combining more than 24,000 24-bit samples of each guitar. The guitars are more versatile than you would expect. Each one has three separate pickup options and plays a range of articulations to give you realistic guitar sounds.

A few of the available articulations are pull-offs, hammer-ons, harmonics, upstrokes, downstrokes, releases, ghost notes, slides, and mutes. The interface keeps things simple, but you have the option of crossing over to the more complicated side if you want to go a little further. On the performance page you’ll find the most essential playback settings like vibrato, strum behavior, and overall volume.

If you want to explore the settings page, you’ll discover incredible control capabilities. You can tweak every little detail of the guitar sound if you so desire. You can go even further with the effects page if you truly want to take your sound to a higher plane. You have your choice from a variety of stompboxes, and you also have your standard delay and reverb units. However, if you don’t want to get into the trenches with shaping the sound, this VST will also essentially take care of everything for you.

Pros

• Amazing selection of tones and styles to choose from
• Unbelievably detailed performance capabilities
• Nuances are super authentic

Cons

• Mastering it will take time and effort
• Requires a lot of RAM

7. Line 6 Helix Native

Line 6 has a reputation for creating modeling amps that are among the best in the industry. Line 6 amps are a great starting point for those just starting out because they don’t cost too much and offer an expansive library of sounds to work with. The Helix Native captures all of the great qualities of Line 6 in software form. If power and versatility are high on your list of priorities, the Helix Native has you covered.

This VST gives you an overwhelming amount of guitar emulation options, including 37 cabinets, 72 amplifiers, 16 microphones, and 72 amplifiers. You have everything you need to let your creativity run wild. The intuitive interface makes the whole process much more natural and efficient.

The Helix Native also supports third party impulse responses, which gives you some more flexibility when it comes to tone. If you’re already a customer of Helix hardware, you’ll find that the integration is tight. It’s also super easy to transfer your presets from your home to the stage. Line 6 checks all the boxes if you’re looking for a realistic electric guitar VST that comes from meticulous component and behavioral modeling.

Pros

• Amazing selection of effects and presets
• Impressive automation capabilities
• Great live hardware integration

Cons

• Quite expensive
• Adding your own impulse responses can be challenging

8. Native Instruments Guitar Rig Pro 5

The Native Instruments Guitar Rig Pro 5 provides incredible versatility and functionality. The first version of the Guitar Rig software was introduced in 2004 with just three tube amp simulations. That doesn’t compare at all with this impressive VST that gives you control of a range of virtual cabinets, amplifiers, rooms, and effects. Vst tubescreamer plugin. Specifically, you’ll have 27 virtual cabinets, 17 amplifiers, and no less than 54 effects pedals.

The Guitar Rig Pro 5 utilizes Dynamic Tube Response technology to offer a legendary collection of guitar tones. Unlike many of its competitors, this VST is set up to look like a virtual rack configuration instead of a pedalboard, cab, and amp configuration. This works well because it makes it easier to view all of the elements at once.

From humble beginnings, the Guitar Rig Pro has become one of the most powerful amp simulators in the game. Any guitarist will benefit from having this comprehensive guitar software in their collection.

Pros

• Thorough list of presets
• Very versatile
• Control Room Pro works well for developing customized tones

Cons

• Can take up too much CPU
• An abundance of amateur-sounding models as well

9. AmpleSounds Plugins

AmpleSounds has a notable selection of playable electric guitars and amps. They also have multiple guitar emulations that could easily be included in this article. But we’re going to look specifically at their Metal and Electric guitar plugins. The Metal Series includes the Stingray Classic Bass emulation and the Metal Eclipse ESP emulation. The Electric Series has the LP Gibson Les Paul, the SC Fender Telecaster, SJ Gibson SJ-200, and others.

Each one of these guitars offers various sounds for diverse playing styles like fingered and picked. The guitars on the plugin were recorded with two adjustable mic positions, and they were also recorded in both stereo and mono playback modes. You have complete control over these sounds with customizable fret noise, resonance, velocity sensitivity, and more.

This VST utilizes automatic doubling with spacing control. There’s also a range of effects for you to play with, including EQ, phaser, reverb, overdrive, chorus, delay, and others. The key switches feature enables you to switch between some different articulations like palm muting, hammer-ons, and popping and sustain, among others. Another feature is the Strummer, which is a sequencer that will allow you to move between chord progressions. AmplSounds Guitars is an awesome option if you want a comprehensive guitar VST with authentic progressions.

Pros

• Customizable interface
• Extensive library of sounds
• Very realistic guitar VST

Cons

• Not very intuitive

10. IK AmpliTube 4

AmpliTube was first introduced in 2002, and it has since evolved to become one of the most comprehensive guitar amp VSTs that money can buy. There are lots of pieces to work with, including 33 stompboxes, 25 amplifiers, 15 rack effect units, 29 cabinets, and more. There’s a good selection of AmpliTube gear designs in addition to emulations from other big names in the amplifier realm like Marshall, Fender, Vox, Mesa/Boogie, and Roland.

Its cab room emulator lets you choose from a variety of cabs, and you can also go further in adjusting the mic positions, speakers, rooms, and other factors. The user even has the option to mix in everything, which simulates a professional recording environment. You will get almost every tool you could hope for to help you shape the best guitar tone for your mix.

IK has outdone themselves with this latest version of AmpliTube with tons of features, expansive control options, and authentic emulations of electric guitar and bass sounds. It’s definitely worth checking out.

Pros

• Stunning sound quality
• Fantastic cabinet and room options
• A great selection of extra models that can be purchased and downloaded

Cons

• Purchasing extra models can add up
• Most presets will need to be adjusted to get a good sound

11. Positive Grid BIAS lineup

Positive Grid BIAS might not be near the top of many people’s guitar VST lists, but it probably should be. As one of the most sophisticated modelers currently available, it’s a seriously underrated piece of software. The BIAS will allow you to build your own amplifier with a number of customization options, including transformers, preamps, power amps, tone stacks, and tubes. There’s also various microphones to choose from and the option of closed or open back cabinets. BIAS makes the amp of your dreams a virtual reality. With all of these possibilities, you could literally spend all day tweaking.

The BIAS utilizes a dynamic tube engine with a touch response that almost perfectly simulates that of a tube amplifier. The reformulated speaker module puts dynamic tone control in your hands. Amazing guitar sounds can be created for any genre—classic rock, metal, blues, acoustic, jazz, and any other.

What BIAS users love is the extensive online community of fellow users on the ToneCloud website. While there you can find, share, and download custom amplifier settings contributed by some of the best guitarists and artists in the industry. Oh, and we can’t forget to mention the BIAS FX plugin, which is included in your purchase. You can use it to add rack and pedal effects to your amp to elevate your sound even higher.

Pros

• Super responsive tones
• Editing options for days
• Top notch Impulse Response software

Cons

• It’s going to cost a lot of money to get the whole experience

12. Overloud TH-U Full

TH-U Full is an innovative product by Overloud that promises to take amps and FX to new realms. This is the most expansive guitar software that you can buy right now with an incredible 239 models to pick from. On this one VST you’ll find 50 guitar cabs, 4 bass amplifiers, 89 guitar amplifiers, 2 bass cabs, and 77 effects in both pedal and rack form. And that’s still not everything. You’ll also have your choice of 1,000 presets in various styles, including metal, rock, blues, jazz, and more. Not to mention the 18 pro microphones you can utilize with as many as four microphones on each cabinet.

Overload gives you some of the best authorized models in this collection like THD, Randall, DVmark, and Brunetti. One of the most notable features is the Amp Tweak technology, which gives you the ultimate control over customizing the power amps, pre amps, and more. The Rig Player feature also allows you to simulate real setups with your choice of 20 factory rigs.

ReSPiRe 2 technology is utilized to ensure all of the emulations from the cab IRS to the advanced cabinets are on point. The sound chain makes it possible to apply effects directly to your signal or use parallel processing to integrate them in the mix. TH3 users have the bonus of their software being compatible with TH-U. This guitar software can help you achieve all your guitar sound goals with a truly impressive library of sounds.

Pros

• Very realistic amp tones
• Incredible versatility
• Expansive selection of presets

Cons

• Can be a bit overwhelming

13. Waves GTR3 Amps

If you love Waves as much as we do, the GTR3 is an essential tool to have in your collection. You will be amazed at how much versatility you get for the cost. You’ll have access to an exciting library of vintage and modern amp tones from names like Fender, Marshall, Vox, Mesa/Boogie, and many others. Their professional sampling technology stands toe to toe with the more advanced modeling methods that are used by many of their competitors.

Users will love that this VST is ultra-low latency, which makes it ideal for use in live performances. There’s plenty of options to pick from, including 30 cabinets, 25 stompboxes, and 30 guitar amplifiers. Awesome news for rock guitarists—25 of these are focused on high-gain sounds. One feature that we particularly like is that you can play through two separate cabinets at the same time. This gives you even greater freedom to diversify your tone.

You’ll be impressed by the top-notch selection of stompboxes, including phaser, reverb, flanger, chorus, delay, and pretty much any other stompbox that you can think of. The MIDI controller makes it super easy to adjust their settings or bypass them completely. It’s definitely not the best option in terms of authenticity, but it’ll work well for demo projects that require guitar sounds.

Pros

• Huge library of guitar tones to choose from
• Interface is consistent across all amps
• Ideal for use in the live realm

Cons

• MIDI setup is a little confusing
• Lacks floorboard integration

Guitar Tones Go Digital

The electric guitar VSTs that we’ve just mentioned virtually eliminate the need to lug cumbersome rigs around to various gigs or mic up amplifiers in the studio. Now you can create almost any guitar tone imaginable with just your computer and some software. No, it’s not the same as standing in front of actual tubes and speakers, but it’s incredible how close these guitar plugins come to emulating that experience.

If you’ve been producing music for a while, you probably know that a lot of the commercial guitar VSTs or libraries out there are pretty expensive and not always easy to use. Although I own a few commercial guitar libraries, I also wanted to see what free guitar VSTs and sample libraries are available these days. I have to admit I was surprised by the number of interesting instruments I found. So, I’ve put together this list to talk about the best ones.

For this article, I looked at both acoustic and electric guitars but left out guitar amps and other effect plugins (I will cover these in an upcoming article).

Free Acoustic Guitar Plugins

Ample Sound: Ample Guitar M II Lite

Format: AU, VST, AAX, RTAS / 32 bit + 62 bit
OS: Mac, Windows

Audio examples:

Ample Sound is a Beijing-based company that has been creating guitar and bass VSTs since 2011. The Ample Guitar M II series aims “to bring the Martin D-41 Acoustic Guitar sound to your studio.” Luckily for us, the company also released a free lite version of the instrument, which comes with a reduced sample rate, fewer articulations and features and a lower sample count than the original (by now, version III has been released already).

This doesn’t prevent Ample Guitar M II Lite from being the best sounding (non-Kontakt) acoustic guitar in this list, though. The samples sound full and lively and can be triggered directly through MIDI (or your DAW) as well as through a built-in sequencer, the “strummer.”

The strummer makes it super easy to build patterns out of single notes, up and down strokes and mutes. Additionally, there are a bunch of effects and features available to change the tone. One of my favorite features is the doubling switch, which adds width to the instrument in an instant.

Another particular useful feature of Ample Guitar M II Lite is that it shows you which string corresponds to the note you’re playing. This quickly helped me create more realistic arpeggios.

If you also use Guitar Pro Tab, you can even import your tabs into Ample Guitar M II Lite. Note that you are limited to the first four frets of each string when you’re using the lite version.

There are so many fully functioning knobs and switches in this free plugin that I didn’t manage to get to all of them in my 45 minutes of playing around with it. What more can you ask for in a free guitar?

You can get Ample Guitar M II Lite on the Ample Sound website.

This is a quick introduction to the instrument:

DSK Music: Dynamic Guitars

Electric Guitar Volume Gate Vst Free Download

Format: AU, VST / 32 bit + 64 bit
OS: Mac, Windows

Audio examples:

This guitar VST has gotten a lot of attention lately, especially since the release of LifeStyleDidIt’s video “I FOUND THE BEST FREE GUITAR VST” (see below). DSK Music is a project by a Spaniard named Víctor who has been making hundreds of free virtual instruments since 2002.

DynamicGuitars contains three different instruments: an acoustic guitar, a nylonguitar and a steel guitar. It also offers control over the envelope of thesamples as well as the dynamic range and the voice mode (poly, mono, legato). All the included guitars feel smooth, warm andthick but could use a little EQ action for clarity.

In this video, you can see the plugin in use:

You can download DSK Dynamic Guitars here.

Pettinhouse Free Acoustic Guitars

Pettinhouse is a project by Andrea Pettinao. The company sells a wide variety of guitars and also offers a handful of free guitar sample libraries. Let’s take a look at them!

FreeAcousticGuitar

Format: Kontakt 3 and higher (full version required!)

Audio examples:

Free AcousticGuitar is a simple but well-recorded and programmed acoustic guitar Kontakt library. The samples are loaded as a multi and are separated into attack+ sustain, releases and fret noise sounds and come in different velocities. The samples are well mixed and sound wonderfully natural.

FreeClassicGuitar

Format: Kontakt 5 and higher (full version required!)

Audio examples:

When you open the free version of Pettinhouse’s Classic Guitar, you’re getting a multi consisting of two instruments: classic guitar and noises. These work well together and offer a realistic and nice warm sound.

Yummy Beats: Modest Guitar

Format: Kontakt 5 and higher (full version required!)

Audio examples:

Yummy Beats is a platform for drums, loops and Kontakt instruments. You can also find a few free instruments on this site, including the free Modest Guitar. This Kontakt library delivers a present sound with round robin and three articulations: acoustic guitar, flageolets and fx guitar. Unfortunately, I found that the fx guitar produced noticeable crackle sounds (might have been my setup!). However, my favorite part is the flageolets with their well-rounded tone, anyway.

I found the steps to get Modest Guitar a little complicated. You have to open a Yummy Beats account, go to this page and enter the unlock code that you find here. If you’re looking for a free, quality flageolet sound, this is a good instrument to try out, though.

Here’s an example of a song that uses Modest Guitar (from the Yummy Beats YouTube channel):

Alternatives

Didn’t find what you were looking for? Here are some more acoustic guitar libraries:

• DSK AkoustiK GuitarZ (VST / Windows / 32 bit)
• DSK Guitars Nylon (VST / Windows / 32 bit)
• DSK Guitars Acoustic (VST / Windows / 32 bit)
• DSK Guitars Steel (VST / Windows / 32 bit)
• Spicy Guitar (VST / Standalone / Windows, Mac / 32 bit + 64 bit)
• Big Cat Instruments General Midi Soundset (has a guitar section / Kontakt)

Free Electric Guitar Plugins

Now, let’s talk about electric guitars.

Spitfire Labs: Peel Guitar

Format: VST2, VST3, AAX, AU; 32 bit + 64 bi t
OS: Windows, Mac

Audio examples:

Looking for a smooth moody guitar that fits into an ambient track or your next film score? Peel Guitar might be it! Originally, the guitar was sampled by Christian Henson in 2006 and, according to him, was used all over his scores. The instrument consists of three presets that differ slightly in guitar tone. Each guitar feels soft and comes with a long release, which adds to the atmosphere of the instrument. The minimalist interface offers control over the volume, velocity, reverb and “tightness” of the sound. To get Peel Guitar, you will need to install Spitfire Labs first (also free).

Iridium Iris: Lethality

Format: VST, 32 bit + 64 bit
OS: Windows

Audio examples:

The following examples were created with Lethality and Guitar Rig 5:

Lethality was released in 2014 by Iridium Iris. The developer’s website has been down for a while, so it’s not clear if they’re still working on new instruments. However, Lethality is one of their products that you can still come across today.

I wasactually quite surprised to see how many functions are built into Lethality.Besides “regular” single notes, the plugin also has open string and mutedstring articulations. Additionally, you can switch on hammer-ons, pull-offs andportamento articulations, which can be triggered by playing legato notes.

To find theright articulation on your MIDI keyboard, you can take a look in the manualthat comes with the instrument. When you’re as used to Kontakt as I am, it’s alittle inconvenient that the keyboard layout (including articulation zones andkeyswitches) is not displayed visually in the plugin. This means that you’llhave to remember the keyswitches and articulations you’ll need when playing.

If you’renot sure how to program your guitar, you can use the built-in riff patterns.They can be activated directly from the plugin or exported as MIDI clips intoyour DAW of choice. Truthfully, though, it makes more sense to program your ownMIDI clips, if only to create a more dynamic guitar part.

Although Lethality offers a distortion function, to get a good sound you will most likely want to use an external amp simulation or other effects on this instrument.

As the official developer website is down, you can get Lethality here.

Impact Soundworks Shreddage Stratus Free

Format: Kontakt 5.7 or higher (full version required!)

Audio examples:

The Shreddage series by Impact Soundworks has been the go-to place for affordable guitar sample libraries for years. Recently, the company made a very generous gift to composers when it released a free version of its Shreddage 3 Stratus guitar. Compared to the commercial version, the free version only offers neck pickup (instead of neck, middle and bridge), 12 frets (instead of 24), a reduced range and fewer articulations. However, this shouldn’t stop you from creating great, realistic electric guitar parts with this library. Up to 24 samples per note, including sustain, palm mute and choke articulations make this an amazingly usable library that will fit into many productions.

Amazingly,the free version of Shreddage 3 Stratus also comes with full mix consolefunctionality. In the mix console you can add effects, whether that’s pedals,amps, cabinets or EQ. The included presets (called “snapshots” by ImpactSoundworks) sound instantly great and are compatible with other Shreddageinstruments (as long as they use the same console). This is definitely the bestand most versatile free electric guitar on the market right now – so if youhave a full version of Kontakt, don’t miss out on this one.

Check outthe following video for an overview on how to use Stratus Free:

Get Impact Soundworks Stratus Free here (you will need to get a free account to download the instrument).

Pettinhouse Free Electric Guitars

Just as Pettinhouseoffers a few great acoustic guitar libraries, it has also released a fewinteresting electric guitars:

FreeDirectGuitar

Format: Kontakt 5 and higher (full version required!)

Audio examples:

Free Acoustic Guitar Plugin Vst

The following examples were created with DirectGuitar and Guitar Rig 5:

Using this direct guitar library by Pettinhouse gives you maximum flexibility for sculpting your own tone. It comes with a range of four octaves and also includes a few effects (open the “strum” and “layers” instruments to find out where they are located on the keyboard). Amp and effects are not part of the instrument, so you will need to add one yourself. I used Guitar Rig 5 for the audio examples.

Electric Guitar Volume Gate Vst Free Full

FreeMute&Slap

Format: Kontakt 3 and higher (full version required!)

Audio examples:

Mute&Slap is a very specialized instrument: The articulations range from mute tones in the lower velocities to slap notes in the higher velocities and are great for adding some funky notes to your beats and songs. While Free Mute&Slap also contains a couple of effects and amp choices, it might be worthwhile trying out a few different amp simulations with this to have more control over the tone.

Here’s avideo review for Mute&Slap:

FreeFunkyGuitar

Format: Kontakt 3 and higher (full version required!)

Audio examples:

Need more funk in your music? Check out Pettinhouse’s Free FunkyGuitar. Besides regular plucked string sounds, this library also contains strum loops and muted strum loops. These are especially convenient (programming funk guitar rhythms manually is hell) and can be tempo-synced to the host or adjusted manually (in a range of 85 bpm – 130 bpm). The library comes with a built-in reverb, delay and phaser and a selection of amps. The guide tab will help you find your way around this instrument quickly.

FreeWarmJazz

Format: Kontakt 3 and higher (full version required!)

Audio examples:

When I was researching for this article and came across WarmJazz, a realization hit me: There are barely any jazz guitar sample libraries on the market. Apart from the occasional funk library, most current guitar libraries and VSTs are oriented towards rock, metal and blues. If you’re looking for a jazzier sound, though, you should check out WarmJazz by Pettinhouse. In its free version, it comes with seven presets and a range of effects (chorus, reverb, delay, compressor). The quality of the sound is indeed warm and jazzy and hard to re-create with any other library.

KaroryferSamples Cute Emily Guitar

Format: SFZ, Kontakt 5 and higher (full version required!)

The next three examples use Guitar Rig 5:

Cute Emily Guitar is originally a project by Karoryfer Samples and was first published in 2014. To quote the creator:

“There area lot of guitar samples out there intended for lots of styles of musicguitarists like, from Latin jazz to metalcore, but this library is for musicguitarists really hate, from hip-hop to EDM. It’s designed to be easy to usefor producers who don’t necessarily know a lot about guitars and don’t need awhole lot of different articulations, control over left-hand position, note offgroups, etc. Instead of all that you get a fat, percussive sound that’s greatfor crisp rhythms.”

Indeed, the instrument, which is a sampled Epiphone Emily the Strange, has a very pronounced, percussive attack. As the samples were recorded directly, it makes sense to run them through an amp simulator of some sort (I used Guitar Rig 5 for my tests).

You have the choice between two versions of this instrument: The original Karoryfer Samples version in SFZ soundfont format or a Kontakt version by Bigcat Instruments. The Kontakt version includes various effects, such as a phaser, chorus, reverb, delay, compressor, distortion and EQ. You can also add tremolo and adjust the velocity curve, as well as the attack and release.

Alternatives

Looking formore options? Check out the following instruments:

• Greggjazz Suburban Guitarist (VST / Windows / 32 bit)
• Krakli Strat-A-Various (VST / Windows / 32 bit)
• SuperRiff: SuperRiff Guitar (VST / Windows / 32 bit)

Over to you…

Do you have any other favorites that you didn’t see included on this page? Let us know in the comments!