While it might not get the same attention as the latest tech in software synthesizers, the guitar is still very much a part of pop music consciousness.
There are many ways to incorporate it into your projects, whether it’s playing guitar yourself, hiring a session player, using a VST plugin and MIDI controller, or otherwise.
That said, sample packs and loops still have their place, especially in electronic music genres, whether it’s hip-hop, pop, trap, EDM, or otherwise. And even if you can play guitar, they can sometimes streamline and speed up your workflow.
So, in this guide, we’ll look at the best free guitar sample packs and loops.
Orchid by Cymatics.fm
More than a mere guitar sample pack, Orchid features more than 3 GB of samples for trap, pop, dancehall, RnB, and more.
In creating Orchid, Cymatics gave careful attention to the demands of the listener. One of the biggest things they realized in the process of listening more broadly to hit songs was how much listeners care about how music makes them feel.
What they created as result of their homework is a deep library of melodic samples that are full of emotion.
Orchid includes a total of 450 samples – 15 808s and basses, 15 drum loops, 55 drum one shots, 17 FX, six guitar loops, eight hihat loops, 20 melody loops, 13 one shots, 14 percussion loops, and eight vocal loops.
Download: Cymatics.fm
Infinity Beta Pack 2.0 by Cymatics.fm
The Infinity Beat Pack 2.0 comes with over 3 GB of melody loops, vocals, drums, guitar loops, and more.
Note that the Infinity Production Suite (which you can find on the same page) costs $297, and there are only a total of 2,000 licenses available. Make no mistake – the beta pack is what’s free. There’s a download link towards the top of the page.
The beta pack comes with a total of eight guitar loops for pop, RnB, trap, house, and dancehall. They all have a layered, fully formed sound to them, and they sound great to my ears.
Download: Cymatics.fm
“Vibrations” – Guitar Sample Pack by Cymatics.fm
The “Vibrations” sample pack comes with pop, hip-hop, chill, reggae, and metal guitar loops that cover a variety of key signatures and tempos. Basically, it comes with a bit of everything.
The pack includes chord loops for building catchy chord progressions, and melody loops, which you can modify and alter to your heart’s content.
I counted a total of 20 samples in Chill, 20 in Hip-Hop, 20 in Metal, 20 in Pop, and 20 in Reggae. That’s incredible value for a freebie!
Most if not all loops are short, but they should serve as good building blocks for your tracks.
Download: Cymatics.fm
Roses by Cymatics.fm
Roses comes with samples in several categories, including guitar, drums, melody, vocal chops, and MIDI.
Most of the guitar loops are clean guitar oriented and feature a staccato feel. Great for pop and RnB.
In total, Roses comes with six guitar loops, 21 drum loops, 28 drum one shots, 16 melody loops, 11 MIDI files, and seven vocal shops.
Download: Cymatics.fm
Amped Guitar Loops by Echo Sound Works
Amped Guitar Loops comes with 25 WAV guitar loops created with future bass, pop, and chill in mind. These loops were inspired by the likes of The Chainsmokers, Illenium, Lauv, Said The Sky, and others.
Amped Guitar Loops includes electric and acoustic loops that have been BPM and key labeled and organized into song ideas, all for your convenience.
Download: Echo Sound Works
Free Guitar Samples by Ghosthack
Not one to waste words on tooting their own horn, Ghosthack simply says Free Guitar Samples comes with 31 guitar one-shots and loops recorded in Berlin. All the files have been BPM and key labeled, though, so that’s nice to know.
How do they sound? You’ll just have to download them to find out!
Download: Ghosthack
Free Acoustic Guitar Loops + Ableton Live Rack by Abletunes
Abletunes made their way to the studio to record acoustic guitar loops that would be perfectly at home in deep, tech house, future bass, dubstep, and presumably, more.
Free Acoustic Guitar Loops comes with 20 free acoustic guitar loops. You can also check out their acoustic guitar processing Ableton Live rack for free, to make the process of dialing in your tones easier. It’s certainly cool that they’ve got their own plugin!
Download: Abletunes
Vintage Disco Guitars Freebie by Rob Aitken
Vintage Disco Guitars Freebie is 5 MB worth of 100% royalty free electric guitar samples, perfectly suited to 70s disco tunes.
This pack contains a total of 10 loops, in the keys of Em, Am, Gm, A, Am, Em, and Gm. Many are quite short, but they do sound quite good. Boogie on!
Download: Noiiz
World Guitars Freebie by Javier Barrios
With 19 MB of samples, World Guitars Freebie comes with a total of 10 samples comprised of strummed acoustic guitars, ukulele, nylon guitars, lutes, and more. Perfect for tapping into musical styles outside of the norm.
Download: Noiiz
Neo Soul & Funk Guitars Freebie by Cloudchord
Neo Soul & Funk Guitars Freebie probably doesn’t need a whole lot of explanation. This collection comes with 13 MB of content, and a total of 10 loops in Bm, F#m, Am, Em, Gb, Am, and Bb.
There are some great mellow sounds here.
Download: Noiiz
Blues and Southern Rock Guitars Freebie by Rob Aitken
This 12 MB collection of Blues and Southern Rock Guitars comes with multiple classic guitar loops and one shots. Various vintage guitars, like the Gibson SJ Deluxe, a Fender US Strat, PRS Guitars S2 Mira, and a Johnson dobro were used to create this pack.
The guitars were fed through pedals like the Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer and Marshall Bluesbreaker MK1 into a Fender Blues Junior amp and a Universal Audio 6176 tube channel strip.
There are riffs inspired by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, and others, that can be used for rock, blues, hip-hop, and even soundtracks.
Blues and Southern Rock Guitars Freebie comes with 10 samples in the keys of E, F, A, Bb, Cm, and Am.
Download: Noiiz
Juice WRLD Type Electric Guitars by MOSTRO
Juice WRLD Type Electric Guitars features 100% royalty free slow, emotive guitar loops full of nostalgia and a spacey vibe.
The collection comes with 12 loops recorded with real guitars, creative control layers (dry and wet), speed foundation files (bass and chords), as well as BPM and key information.
Download: MOSTRO
Pop Punk Distorted Electric Guitars by MOSTRO
Pop Punk Distorted Electric Guitars puts energy, simple rhythms, and catchy, distorted chords right at your fingertips. If a 2000s pop punk vibe (think Blink-182) is what you’re after, you’ll love this compact collection.
This sample pack features six royalty free loops recorded with real guitars, creative control layers (dry and wet), speed foundation files (bass and chords), MIDI bass and chords files or each loop, and BPM and key information.
Download: MOSTRO
Lo-Fi Electric Guitars by MOSTRO
The Lo-Fi Electric Guitars sample pack features happy, calming, relaxing sounds that are perfect to chill out to.
In total, it comes with six royalty free lo-fi electric guitar loops recorded with real guitars, creative control layers (dry and wet), speed foundation files (bass and chords), MIDI bass and chords files for each loop, and BPM and key information.
Download: MOSTRO
Juice WRLD / Kid Laroi Type Emotional Guitars by MOSTRO
If you like the vibey guitar sounds of Juice WRLD and Kid Laroi, you will obviously love this sample pack, featuring deep, emotional acoustic and electric guitar loops.
Overall, it comes with seven original royalty free acoustic and electric guitar loops recorded with real guitars, creative control layers (dry and wet), speed foundation files (bass and chords), and BPM and key information.
Download: MOSTRO
Acoustic Guitar Sample Pack by Biochron
This pack features acoustic guitar samples recorded with inexpensive hardware. The samples are quite dry, but that means you can create your own effects chain and enhance them in any way you wish.
Biochron’s Acoustic Guitar Sample Pack features 16 items total, but it’s very basic and mostly comprised of single- or double-note one shots.
Download: SoundPacks.com
Funk and Soul Guitar Freebie by SamplePhonics
SamplePhonics’ Funk and Soul Guitar Freebie features eight funky and soulful guitar samples.
Download: SoundShock
Distorted Guitars by Rhythm Lab
The Distorted Guitars collection was created using a cheap Chinese guitar, analog booster, and a TC Electronic VPD1 vintage pre-drive.
The guitar loops are certainly cheap sounding, and some are practically unusable given their frizzy, brittle, fuzziness. Not all are distorted though.
This could be a good one to use for a YouTube challenge maybe (e.g., “We tried making great songs with these crappy guitar loops”).
Download: SoundShock
Heavy Metal Guitar by SampleRadar
An astounding 400 royalty-free samples come with SampleRadar’s Heavy Metal Guitar. These have been organized into three folders with riffs, chugs, power chords, and other articulations.
The samples are 24-bit WAV files for ease of use.
Download: SoundShock
Acoustic Guitar Samples by SampleRadar
Acoustic Guitar Samples is another chunky and meaty collection, with 266 acoustic guitar samples in 24-bit WAV format.
The samples have been organized into folders based on tempo – 85 bpm and 120 bpm. You’ve got mixes of several guitars, effected loops, as well as single instrument loops in the collection.
For acoustic guitar lovers, it’s a must!
Download: SoundShock
Free Guitar and Piano Samples by Ghosthack
A creation by request, Free Guitar and Piano Samples features samples in a variety of keys and BPMs (and they have been labelled too!). The sounds were played and recorded by pros, and the one-shots can be used to create your own melodies.
The samples are 100% royalty free. Free Guitar and Piano Samples comes with a total of 35 acoustic guitar samples and one shots, and 35 grand piano samples and one shots.
Download: Ghosthack
Unison Beatmaker Guitar Pack (Free Teaser) by Unison
The Unison Beatmaker Guitar Pack (Free Teaser) comes with a total of 10 100% royalty free loops in different keys and at different tempos, with matching stems.
So, in total, the pack comes with 10 processed guitar loops, 10 dry guitar loops, 32 matching processed stems, 30 matching dry stems, and 40 matching MIDI stems.
For the most part, the samples are clean guitar oriented and would be a good fit for pop projects. But there are some distorted loops that could be good for indie rock, hip-hop, and so on.
Download: Unison
Guitar Gods (FREE DOWNLOAD) by Godlike Loops
This free acoustic and electric guitar sample pack via Godlike Loops features 10 loops inspired by the likes of Da Baby, Travis Scott, Lil Peep, Roddy Ricch, Pvlace, Cubeatz, 808 Mafia, Gunna, NBA Youngboy, Post Malone, Nick Mira, Schoolboy Q, and others.
Not sure if it’s really deserving of the name “Guitar Gods” with names like that…? Maybe Pop Gods? Pop Guitar Sensations at most.
Anyway, it’s worth a look if you like pop guitar loops.
Download: Godlike Loops
50 Best Free Guitar Samples by LANDR
LANDR is mostly known for their A.I.-powered mastering services, but they do have side projects like this one – 50 Best Free Guitar Samples.
Just as the name would suggest, there are 50 samples included, in a variety of keys and BPMs. You can listen to all of them on the LANDR website, and you can either download them one by one or in one convenient package.
I’m hearing some ambient chords, somber fingerpicking, heavily effected rhythmic wobbles, and much more. Many of them are perfect for chill, mellow, lo-fi music projects.
Download: LANDR
Key Signature? BPM?
While this is not a post about music theory, I’ll cover the basics, so you aren’t lost without any help.
In music, there are basically 12 key signatures, as represented by the circle of fifths. Why are there 12 keys? It’s quite simple – it’s because there are 12 notes in music.
Most music is built around diatonic scales, which means a seven-note scale. The key of C, for instance, is made up of the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. That means the chords in the key of C are C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, and Bdim.
We can’t necessarily get into all the specifics as to why that’s the case, but the takeaway is that every key signature has seven notes and seven chords belonging to it.
These seven notes and chords sound “in tune” with each other, regardless of the order in which they are played. The vii chord, or diminished chord, rarely appears in pop music though.
Basically, if a sample or loop was in the key of C, it means it would be complemented by bass lines, melodies, rhythmic parts, etc. that are also in the key of C. That goes for every key. If a loop is in the key of D, then the surrounding instrumentation should also be in the key of D.
You can use your own ears to figure out what sounds good to you, but it’s good to know that there is some theory behind all of it.
As for BPM, it’s an acronym for “beats per minute.”
A BPM of 1 to 80 is very slow to moderate, 80 to 120 is moderate to upbeat, 120+ is starting to get fast. This is a vast generalization, but it’s enough to take hold of the concept.
As with key signatures, a loop or sample that’s in 135 BPM, for example, would be complemented by instrumentation that’s also set to 135 BPM. If you sequence a drum groove for said sample, make sure it’s also at 135 BPM, because that would allow it to “lock in” with the groove.
Both settings should appear somewhere in your DAW. You can set the key signature and BPM to whatever you want. But it will not affect what you record direct. You’d need to make sure you were playing something in the specified key and play along to a metronome or drumbeat to make sure your performance matched your settings.
Best Free Guitar Sample Packs, Final Thoughts
With over 1,000 samples to utilize, there’s no way you can go wrong. Some are better than others, sure, but I’ve listened to a bunch of them, and it seems me like 90 to 95% are quality.
Whether for inspiration, melody, creating a hook, or even filling in some space in a mix, loops and samples are excellent tools to have at your disposal, and more choice is generally better.
Just be sure to keep your sample and loop library organized, or it will quickly become unmanageable!
With that, I’m signing off. Have fun with these!