While lining up all your boutique amplifiers in your studio, tweaking the knobs until they sound just right, busting out your best mics, and getting everything set up in a great sounding room might be the best way to get exquisite guitar tone…
The truth is you can bypass a lot of the cost and trouble by taking advantage of guitar amp simulators, which deliver the recorded tone of a guitar in spades. Amp sims also tend to be more versatile than their hardware counterparts.
In this guide, we look at the best guitar amp simulators.
MTurboAmp by MeldaProduction – Best Overall
What is MeldaProduction’s MTurboAmp? It’s a collection of guitar amps and distortion pedals where tweaking and endless customization is encouraged. Honestly, it’s the name of the game.
MTurboAmp comes with nearly 30 amp heads and dozens of distortion pedals. You can change the settings of any parameter by accessing the insides of the amp.
You can even create your own amps and distortion pedals. The only limit here is your own imagination in coming up with unique and original creations. You can take advantage of two 10-band dynamic EQs (for in and out) along with hi-pass and low-pass filters to fine-tune your tones.
This entry via MeldaProduction is a surprise. Most people who talk about guitar amp sims probably wouldn’t even bring up MTurboAmp. But some guitarists / producers think it may well be one of the best amp sims available.
It is a bit of a one trick pony in that it’s primarily for the amp stage of the tone chain, but as you will see in the video below, it sounds great.
In terms of sound quality and tone, it seems to trump some higher priced options listed below, so it’s well suited to our best overall pick.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
BIAS FX 2 Elite by Positive Grid – Best Premium Option
The legendary BIAS FX 2 Elite comes with a completely re-engineered DSP engine, Guitar Match, new amps, pedals, and racks, as well as advanced modelers (like fuzz, time, and harmonizer modelers).
BIAS FX comes with loads of analog like pedal effects out of the box, but you can expand your options by downloading from ToneCloud, Positive Grid’s own social network. You can even hot rod your pedals using the built-in BIAS Pedal software.
The Guitar Match technology lets you transform your guitar into just about any guitar – with a focus on pickups, body type, and body thickness. You don’t need a special pickup setup to make your guitar sound like a Les Paul (if you aren’t already playing a Les Paul), or a Stratocaster (if you aren’t already playing a Strat).
There are eight brand-new studio rack processors including Tri-Chorus, Tube Compress, Spring Reverb, Echo Tape Delay, Wah, and others.
If we were to talk about every new feature, though, we’d be here all day. So, we’ll summarize as follows:
BIAS FX 2 Elite comes with 100 new amplifiers, 100 new effects, 200 new factory presets, Guitar Match (18 guitars), eight new HD racks, new modelers (fuzz, time, and harmonizer), BIAS pedal distortion, delay, and modulation, ToneCloud, custom artist presets, and 100 “Rock Song” presets on ToneCloud.
Also – new MIDI / automation, dedicated IR loader, new DSP engine, looper / recorder, dual signal path with multiple splitters, MIDI function, preset migration, and much, much more.
I’ve used BIAS FX 2 myself, and love what’s on offer. It gives me access to a lot of great tones I wouldn’t otherwise be able to achieve at the same quality (at least not with my current gear).
Watch the video below and you’ll see for yourself – customizing and achieving great tones with BIAS FX is easy and efficient, and that’s one of the best things about it.
BIAS FX 2 is what you want if you’re a pro, and with more options than any other VST plugin on this list, it’s a shoo-in for our best premium pick.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
AmpKnob RevC by Bogren Digital – Best Budget Option
So, there are more than a few guitar amp sim VST plugins out there that offer near endless customization. Hundreds of amps, cabs, pedals, racks, and more… But what if all that complexity just clutters up your workflow and doesn’t add any value to you?
In such an instance, I rarely hesitate to recommend Bogren Digital’s AmpKnob RevC (obviously emulating a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier). Now, don’t get me wrong – the idea is completely bonkers. One knob? That’s it?! Just trust the developers with the rest?
Okay, so obviously, it depends on the type of tone you’re going for. But AmpKnob RevC sounds legitimately good for heavy music, regardless of the setting.
If you don’t like the cab, hey, no problem, use the built-in “Cab-Off” button and load in your favorite impulse responses instead. There’s your customization.
AmpKnob RevC also features a built-in tuner.
While there are some more affordable options in this guide (not by much), we can’t help but feel the simplicity and great tone of AmpKnob RevC is hard to match. That makes it our best budget pick.
Check out the plugin in action in the video below (and don’t write it off if you haven’t heard it yet).
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
Amp Room by Softube
Softube’s Amp Room was designed specifically for the producer, to help them achieve perfect record-ready guitar and bass tones. Amp Room even lets you load in studio FX from Softube, Tube-Tech, and Trident, as well as amps and cabs from Marshall, and a great deal more.
Complex patches are easy to create using this baby, as you can mix and match modules to your heart’s content.
The whole idea behind Amp Room is to replicate the experience of being in a professional studio loaded with vintage gear, including Marshall amps, legendary EQs and compressors, cabinets, pedals, mics, and more.
Amp Room even lets you process sound sources other than guitar, including vocals, drums, and synths.
In total, Amp Room comes with multistates (for quick comparisons between different sound settings), dragbox selection (for easy copy and paste), Tape Echoes and TSAR-1R, and redesigned solo / mute with colorized lanes.
The nine included amps were component modeled, and there are three new ones too – American Mainstayer 100W, Dual Tremolo 100W Silver, and Bass Standard V8.
You’ve also got 16 cabinets with multiple mic options, 15 effects pedals (including five new – Softube Tinnerö Tremolo, Softube Lion Head Vibrato, Softube Wahstena Auto Wah, Kleen 22, and KRAFT), three studio effects, eight utility modules, and 260 presets serving a variety of genres and styles.
To my ear, Amp Room delivers some solid “raw” tones, and it’s highly customizable too. But in my opinion, it’s got a way to go to get to better tonal results. It’s lacking a little polish, but if you’re a skilled producer, you can probably find a way to add that in yourself.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
CLA Guitars by Waves
I suppose the argument could be made that Waves’ CLA Guitars is more of an instant gratification guitar button than strictly an amp sim. For that very reason, though, there are bound to be those who would gravitate toward it.
As with many Waves plugins, CLA Guitars was created in collaboration with Grammy award winning mixing engineer Chris Lord-Alge. From Green Day to Daughtry, some of your favorite guitar sounds from the songs you love are right at the ready with this plugin.
With clean, crunch, and heavy modes, there’s also DI and re-amping options for each.
Producer, DJ, songwriter KSHMR said “nothing compares” to CLA Guitars, songwriters / producers TMS thought it was incredible, and producer YoungTN loved the presets.
CLA Guitars is a very simple plugin. Simply choose from clean, crunch, or heavy, and adjust your bass, treble, compress, reverb, delay, and pitch faders to fine-tune your tone.
While it may not be the most versatile plugin ever created, it certainly is great for some instant gratification.
Learn more: Waves
Blue Cat’s Re-Guitar by Blue Cat Audio
Whether acoustic or electric, if you’re looking to emulate various guitar tones using just one guitar (or whatever guitars you have in your collection), Blue Cat’s Re-Guitar might just be what you’ve been waiting for.
Guitar tone manipulation is accomplished through the built-in pickup simulator as well body simulator. You can further fine-tune with the volume and tone pots or automate them throughout your performance.
Blue Cat’s Re-Guitar comes with:
- A tone modeler (with electric pickups, acoustic guitars, and hollow body emulations)
- Built-in single coil pickups, including vintage, modern, single hot, active, tele, neck+mid, bridge+mid, P90, and P90J
- Built-in humbucker pickups, including vintage, modern, classic, ricky, rails, bright, wide wide(jazz), and jazz box
- Built-in piezo and acoustic guitars – acoustic sim pedals, modern & vintage dreadnought, solid body piezo, jumbo, mini jumbo, 000, and small
- Custom electric and acoustic models
- Hollow body thickness and amount
- Brightness and gain
- Virtual volume and tone-pots
- Latency-free operation
If you don’t have a ton of guitars with different pickup settings in your arsenal, you’re going to love Blue Cat’s Re-Guitar, because switching pickups is as simple as the click of a mouse, and unlike inferior guitar sims, each pickup setting does sound completely unique.
Additionally, even though the sound quality isn’t totally up to par, it’s powerful, versatile, and convenient. The asking price is more than reasonable too.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
Electrum by United Plugins
United Plugins’ Electrum promises to be your minimalistic and easy-to-use one-screen guitar amp and pedalboard. Whether jazz or modern metal, rhythm guitar or solo, Electrum will deliver exactly the tones you need for the projects you’re working on.
Electrum comes with a smart input setting, so it will automatically analyze your input level and match your signal strength. It’s a simple thing, but it’s the first step to achieving perfect tone.
EQ Matching gives you easy access to your heroes’ tones. All you need to do is load in your favorite performances and Electrum will automatically analyze them for you. Have Electrum analyze your guitar as well, and the plugin will do the rest of the work.
Electrum includes five guitar amps with various levels of gain and distortion – the developer meticulously analyzed the best amps on the market to come up with a few of their own. But you can also create your own amp using the built-in tools.
The built-in guitar cab simulation offers 16 cabinet simulations, 21 alterations, and 300+ models. You can further tweak resonance and ambience to suit your needs.
Electrum also comes with three distortion pedals, a built-in double-tracking function, reverb (18 algorithms), PolyTuner, modulation section (chorus, flanger, tremolo, phaser, sweeper), double-tap delay (with sync, modulation, saturation), seven-band EQ pedal with HP and LP filters, a ton of presets, and much more.
Tone is ultimately a matter of preference. Electrum can deliver all types of tones. Will these appeal to you? You’ll need to check out some of the demos and reviews to find out.
From what I’ve heard so far, most of the Electrum tones are only so-so. That said, this will still be a great option for some. Have a listen for yourself.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
Amplifikation Vermilion by Kuassa
Kuassa’s Amplifikation Vermilion is bar none their best-selling guitar amp sim. High gain amps are often easier to emulate than the rich, deep cleans of vintage and boutique amps. But Kuassa wades into oceans most developers aren’t even willing to dip their toes into, offering superb classic guitar combo amp modeling.
All the vintage amp essentials are here – jangly cleans, biting tube saturation, springy reverb, and a wobbly tremolo – making it a great amp for country, funk, soul, blues, indie-pop, and of course, surf.
There’s also a lead channel that will give you competent rock sounds.
Altogether, Amplifikation Vermilion comes with three amp types, two amp channels (clean and lead), built-in FX (tremolo with BPM sync and analog spring reverb), five types of matching cabinets and four mic types, adjustable dual-miking with mono / stereo, noise gate, limiter, IR loader with resample, and A/B switches.
Amplifikation Vermilion is compatible with Windows and Mac, and most popular DAWs.
To my ears, Vermilion sounds great and is well worth adding to your collection if vintage tones are your thing. Amazingly, though, this VST plugin can also deliver some modern sounding heavy tones as well. You just never know unless you try.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
Amplifikation Creme by Kuassa
For metal lovers, there’s Amplifikation Crème. This baby features a digitally engineered head and matching cabinet, and built-in overdrive sections to deliver heavy, dark, full tones for all the heavy music you plan to make.
All in all, Amplifikation Crème features a built-in overdrive section (with three selectable types), three amp types (Sharp FMV, Full Midtone Baxandall, Big Heavy), three selectable channels (Clean, Lead I, Lead II), five 4×12 cabinet types with four mics, dual-miking configurations, noise gate, limiter, IR loader, and A/B switch.
Well, they aren’t lying when they say this baby can deliver modern, heavy tones. Whether enhanced mids, scooped mids, a blend of the two, indie / alternative, punk, or even blues and jazz, you might just be surprised by the versatility of this amp.
Best of all, as with all Amplifikation VSTs, Crème is quite affordable.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
Amplifikation Matchlock by Kuassa
Amplifikation Matchlock was inspired by the richness and depth of Fender combo amps. It comes with a tube simulation engine to offer dynamic, natural, realistic sounding tones.
Matchlock features three amp types (Twin Reverb, Super Reverb, Custom Virbolux Reverb), two channels for each amp (clean and boosted), power amp Sag and Bias feature, five cabinets, as well as high pass and low pass filters.
Also – seven mics (Shure SM57, Sennhesier MD421, Shure KSM313, Sennheiser MD411, Royer R121, AKG C414, and Neumann TLM103), dual-miking, mono / stereo, noise gate, limiter, and up to 8x oversampling.
If you watch the demo below, I think you’ll agree – this thing sounds great! Whether blues, R&B, funk, country, or even rock, if you know how to dial in tones, you’ll be able to access a wide and colorful guitar tonal palette that’s pleasing to your eardrums.
It’s affordable, so if you think it might be down your alley, chances are there isn’t much to lose!
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
Amplifikation Caliburn by Kuassa
Well, it certainly doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure out what Amplifikation Caliburn is supposed to be emulating. Marshall is a legend in the domain of guitar amps, with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, Jeff Beck, Tom Morello, Slash, and countless other guitar icons owing a great deal to the British amp maker.
With Amplifikation Caliburn, you get three Marshall inspired amp types (JTM 45, JCM800, JCM900 master volume), two channels for each amp (clean, lead), power amp Bias and Sag, five cabinets with Celestion speakers (G12T, Vintage 30, Greenback), and seven mics (Shure SM57, Sennhesier MD441, Sennheiser MD421, C&T Naked Eye, Royer 121, AKG C414, Neumann TLM103).
You also get high and low pass filters, adjustable dual-miking with mono / stereo, built-in noise gate and limiter, and up to 8x oversampling.
So, does it sound like a Marshall? Yes. Not just that, but it seems to do it with flying colors. Whether you’re after AC/DC like crunch or Iron Maiden thump, this amp seems to nail most of what you throw at it. If you love Marshalls, given the asking price, it’s hard to fail with this one.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
Amplifikation Clarent by Kuassa
Again, there’s little mystery here what Kuassa is trying to emulate. Amplifikation Clarent takes after Orange amps, used lovingly by the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Oasis, The Black Crowes, Orianthi, Deftones, and many others.
Amplifikation Clarent comes with six distinct tones, powered by the developer’s proprietary circuit-matching technology.
Overall, Clarent comes with three amp types (A – clean, B – crunch, and C – high gain), two channels each (low gain, high gain), Sag and Bias, low and high pass filters, and five cabs with impulse responses from Orange cabs.
It also features seven mics (Shure SM57, C&T Naked Eye, Royer 121, AKG C414, Neumann TLM103, Sennheiser MD421 and MD441), dual-miking with mono / stereo, noise gate, limiter, and up to 8x oversampling.
What else is there to say except “Kuassa has done it again?” Amplifikation Clarent sounds like an Orange. To what degree is up for you to decide, but in the absence of an expensive Orange stack, this is probably your best bet.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
Amplifikation Rectifor by Kuassa
What do we have here? Why, of course a Mesa Boogie Rectifier emulation!
Naturally, it is known best for the heavy sound it delivers – one of the things that made it a fast favorite of hard rockers and metal-heads alike.
But it’s one of those unique amps with more than one “sweet spot,” at least depending on who you ask. It handles warm and jazzy cleans, classic rock crunch, high-gain mayhem, and more.
The Rectifier is well loved by Tool, Soundgarden, Incubus, Linkin Park, System of a Down, and many others.
Amplifikation Rectifor features three channels (raw, vintage, modern), three types (clean, raw, aggressive), high-res resizable UI, Sag and Bias, low and high pass filters, five cabinet types taken from Mesa Boogie cabs, seven mics, dual-miking with mono and stereo, noise gate, limiter, and up to 8x oversampling.
Just as you would expect, Rectifor sounds mean and heavy, and is poised to add aggression to heavy music of all genres.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
Amplifikation Lancaster by Kuassa
Another quality entry via Kuassa, Amplifikation Lancaster was inspired by Vox Amplifiers – the same amps used by the likes of The Beatles, Queen, The Who, U2, Radiohead, and others.
Lancaster comes with a Rangemaster style treble booster, parallel signal path for normal channel and top boost channel (like a “jumpered” Vox AC30), three amp types (different era AC30s – late 2000s, 1990s limited edition, and modified 1970s), and Sag and Bias feature.
You also get low and high pass filters, five cabs, seven mics, dual-miking, noise gate, limiter, and up to 8x oversampling.
Lots of great tones coming out of this module, just as you would expect, and the price of admission is more than fair.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
EFEKTOR OD3603 Overdrive by Kuassa
If you’re into the Kuassa range of amp sims (or even if you’re not), you might want to try pairing up your amp sims with this – the EFEKTOR OD3603. You may have even noticed that in many of the Kuassa video demos, the guitarists were using this baby to enhance their tone.
The long and short of it is that with this digital overdrive pedal, you can add gain or saturation, tighten up your tones, or push the heaviness of your tones to their very limits.
EFEKTOR OD3603 comes with six settings – Blues Overdrive, Boutique Overdrive, Mad Overdrive, Modern Overdrive, and Pro Overdrive.
You also get controls for gain, tone, and output volume, bypass, dry-wet control, and up to 8x oversampling.
Amazingly, EFEKTOR OD3603 can sound quite good on its own, and it’s well worth trying without any amp sims.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
Solidus VS8100 by Audiority
Audoirity’s Solidus VS8100 is an analog Marshall Valvestate 8100 guitar amp sim. It includes a normal channel as well as a boost channel, along with a noise gate, EQ / booster, post-amp five-band EQ, and a cab loader.
Altogether, the no-nonsense plugin comes with two channels, boost channel modes (OD1, OD2), noise gate, clean boost (10-band EQ), post-amp five band EQ, integrated cabinet simulator, and a resizable interface.
In the video below, the Audiority VS8100 is compared to the real hardware – the Marshall Valvestate 8100. And, you know what? It’s hard to differentiate between the two. You’re obviously going to get something with the hardware you’re just not going to get with the software, but Audiority has done an impeccable job here.
This is the very definition of a one trick pony, but it’s forgivable given the accuracy of the emulation, and it is priced fairly too.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
Lunchbox Amp Sim by Kiive Audio
Taking after one of the most popular and notable British amps of the 1960s (and perhaps all time – Vox AC30), Kiive Audio’s Lunchbox Amp Sim delivers tube-like characteristics along with three factory cab impulse responses. Drive, delay, and reverb pedals have been included so that you can further tweak your tones.
Whether clean or distorted, you will be able to draw a variety of usable tones for your projects out of the Lunchbox Amp Sim.
In total, Lunchbox Amp Sim features an amp / pedals page switch, mono to stereo support, cab bypass, three stomp box emulations, a resizable GUI, and oversampling.
The video demos for this plugin are a little limited, so we’re not 100% sure how good this thing sounds. The reviews are solid, though, so we think it likely that it’s more capable than most demos let on.
Lunchbox Amp Sim works with Windows and Mac.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
What Should I Look For In A Guitar Amp Simulator?
If you’re substituting real amps, cabinets, pedals, and microphones with amp sims expecting that you’re going to get the clarity, depth, warmth, aggression, bite, and thump of the real thing, you may well be disappointed.
If, on the other hand, the idea of quickly dialing in 80 to 95% of the results appeals to you, if added customizability and versatility float your boat, and saving time and money are a priority, you’re going to love what guitar amp sims can offer you.
It’s quite stunning what guitar amp sims can do nowadays. Even if they can’t quite outdo real amps, they can keep pace with most digital gear, if not outclass it completely.
There are a few things to think about when buying guitar amp sims though, mostly in the domains of:
- Sound quality
- Features
- Budget
Let’s look at each of these criteria, as it will assist you on your buying journey.
Sound Quality
Modern guitar amp sims all tend to sound great. Some are certainly better than others, but at the end of the day, most value judgments you can make will ultimately be qualitative and subjective.
This isn’t to say there’s no objective measurement at all. Depending on the technology used to emulate and model the amplifiers, as well as the resolution of the plugin itself, some amp sims will inevitably have a truer to life sound than others.
The subjective part is mainly tone. Tone is largely a matter of individual preference. I’ve shared a little bit about what I use, as well as what I like / don’t like throughout this guide, but it’s safe to say not everyone is going to agree with me.
Sometimes, a less “realistic” tone is better. Sometimes, a brutal, cutting tone is perfect for a track. There truly are no rules, and it has more to do with serving the project than it has to do with serving the guitarist.
So, it’s important that you land on a solution that makes sense for you. If you like a specific amp sim’s tone and features, then don’t let me or anyone else stop you from buying and using it. You know how it’s going to be used, in what sort of project and genre contexts. I don’t have that information, so I will not be the best judge of that.
Sound quality is easily one of the most important considerations, and there’s a lot to think about, depending on how technical you want to get. The landing place for most, though, will be what sounds good to them. If I were to sum it up, that would be it – what sounds good to you?
Features
There are no plugins on this guide that can quite compare to BIAS FX in terms of the sheer number of features – amps, cabs, effects, and racks – available. Some come close, some are versatile in other ways, but it’s fair to say a plugin’s feature set is a point of interest for any buyer.
Guitarists know that one tone generally isn’t enough. Arguably, players like Eric Johnson and Allan Holdsworth perfected the idea of generating a few ideal tones within the limitations of their rig, but even they, on occasion, can be seen playing different guitars or swapping out pedals.
The point being even guitarists who stick with one amp – like Tom Morello – often own multiple guitars, or use different pedals, or find other ways of coloring and altering their tones.
More features are better when you know you’re going to be working on a variety of projects, whether as a producer or a guitarist. This gives you reason to purchase a versatile VST like BIAS FX, MTurboAmp, Amp Room, Electrum, or Blue Cat’s Re-Guitar.
On the other hand, simpler options like AmpKnob RevC, most of Kuassa’s offerings, Solidus VS8100, or Lunchbox Amp Sim are great for specialists who generally stick to a few signature tones and rarely venture outside.
So, whether it’s amps, cabs, mics, effects, racks, or anything else, the included features are well worth exploring and should factor into your buying decision depending on the degree of versatility you require.
Budget
You can get a solid guitar amp sim for $40 to $300 – not bad when you consider that you could easily spend thousands on pedals alone!
Of course, we know how fun and tempting plugins are, and the cost can add up fast when you’re buying multiple.
So, please avoid going into debt for any purchases. That way, you can fully enjoy your new plugins.
Do I Need Impulse Responses (IRs) To Use Guitar Amp Sims?
Impulse Responses (or IRs) are basically amp states captured in compact file form. You can load them into your DAW using an IR loader like Ignite Amps’ NadIR.
As every guitarist knows, cabinets (especially speakers) have a big impact on their tone, and having an IR library is like having dozens, hundreds, or thousands (depending on the size of your collection) of cab, speaker, and microphone combinations at your fingertips.
Most guitar amp sims do not require IRs to work. Some of the legacy, free options out there (some are quite good, like Ignite Amps or LePou plugins) should be used in tandem with IRs for best results. This is because they are basically amp head emulations, not amp and cab emulations. They need some help in the cab department.
If you’ve ever plugged your amp head directly into a mixing board or audio interface and tested the sound, then you know that what you generally get (unless your amp has an emulated line out) are very fizzy, fuzzy, unusable tones. That’s basically what it’s like to use early guitar amp sims without IRs.
The latest guitar amp sims, though, tend to be comprehensive solutions with built-in speaker cabinets (which are sometimes better than mere IRs).
That said, there is nothing preventing you from using your favorite IRs alongside a guitar amp sim of your choice (some of them even come with IR loaders). This can produce stunning results.
There are both free and paid IR packs out there, and most are quite good. Building out your collection is fun, and generally low cost.
So, you don’t necessarily need IRs for modern guitar amp sims to work, but it can’t hurt to keep a few on hand, and experiment with them as the spirit moves.
Top Guitar Amp Simulators, Final Thoughts
The pursuit of the perfect tone will perhaps never come to an end for the most genius, innovative guitarists out there.
For 95% of guitarists, though, guitar amp sims will deliver everything they’ve been looking for, and possibly a little more. I can honestly say I’ve never been happier with the options available.
So, enjoy your new plugins and get to work!