List Of the best free VST Plugins for guitar available to download.
From amp simulation to distortion, overdrive, modulation, reverb and delay.
If guitar is your thing then the following free effects listed below will do what you need them to do.
If your just looking for distortion or modulating effects that can be used on drums or synths then it’s always been common practice to run those types of instruments through guitar effects.
All these effects have been listed previously on this site, I decided to club them all together in a list I can update.
At the moment the list stands at 17 plugins, I’ve tried all of them. Some of them have quite a large CPU usage as you would expect with anything as complicated as using delays, amp simulation and distortion in a combined effect.
Anyway give them a try. They’re listed in no paricular order and as I stated previously this list will be updated as new ones come to light.
Free VST plugin from Voxengo – Tube Amp Guitar FX
Free guitar plug-in can be used to add a tube-like warmness to any audio material.
<———————————————————>
Voxengo Boogex free guitar fx VST Plugin
Boogex is a guitar amplifier plug-in with a variety of sound shaping features. With Boogex it is possible to get heavy distorted sound as well as slight distortion sound. Boogex is also able to apply any speaker cabinet impulse response (selection of built-in impulses is available). Processing latency is very modest – 96 samples (2.1 ms at 44.1kHz). Boogex comes with several example factory presets.
<———————————————————>
Download British Valve Custom
FREE Guitar Amp Tube Modeling Plug-In for VST, Audio Units, and ProTools RTAS
British Valve Custom is based on the gain structure of popular British Valve (Tube) Rock amplifiers (like the infamous Marshall tube heads) with some subtle modifications to give it slightly more gain. This amplifier model has considerable bite and attack making it perfect for classic rock and hard rock sounds. It also works great with neck pickups for blues, rock, and even metal guitar solos. This is a very versatile amp that satisfies most playing styles, which is why we chose it to demonstrate Studio Devil’s tube modeling technology. We wanted to make sure you got something you could actually USE!
<———————————————————>
FreeAmp3 Updated to v3.5 02-18-08
Excellent sounding guitar effects – nice looking gui although it can be a bit of a CPU hog
FreeAmp2 Updated to version 2.5 4-23-09
<———————————————————>
Camel Crusher Distortion effect vst plugin,
CamelCrusher is a free ‘colouring’ multi-effect plugin. It offers two characteristically different distortion sounds which can be blended together to create a wide variety of tones and textures. Great for guitars, drums and plenty more!
There’s also a warm, smooth analogue-style low-pass filter with buckets of resonance. Assign a MIDI controller and start tweaking!
Finally, let’s not forget the easiest-to-use compressor you’ll find anywhere. It can ‘phatten’ up your sound as quickly as you can turn up the ‘Amount’ knob! Find out more in the manual.
Best of all, CamelCrusher is available free of charge!
Feature highlights:
- Two different distortion types.
- Warm, analogue-modelled resonant low-pass filter.
- High quality, easy-to-use compressor, with ‘Phat’ mode.
- Powerful ‘MIDI Learn’ function.
- A collection of useful Preset patches to get you started.
- Randomize for instant inspiration.
- System requirements:PC Pentium III, Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, VST host.
Mac Intel or G4 (Universal Binary), Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, Audio Units/VST host.
<———————————————————>
Juicy 77 High Gain Electric Guitar Amplifier
Inspired from its legendary role model which has set the industry standard for high gain amplifiers, Juicy 77 aims to become the definitive benchmark for crystal clear articulation, solid punch and singing sustain in the digital domain.
With separate preamplifier and power amplifier sections and a loudspeaker cabinet simulator section that includes seven classical cabinet types, Juicy77 modestly delivers instant gratification to musicians who are looking for the ultimate high gain experience.
<———————————————————>
Spotted this while noodling around looking for more guitar fx, will be downloading later and trying out…
Dig 2.0 Free VST Guitar effect plugin.
New DIG 2.0 features matched only by high priced proprietary rivals. Never before have you been given this much flexibility in tone and gain control at a price impossible to beast. Its free!
When we set out to give the Guitarists of the world a Free Amp, we stopped at nothing, after all, just because it’s free doesn’t mean that it isn’t held to the same standards our commercial products are held to. It still carries our name. We didn’t skimp on the features either. DIG 2.0 has more features and capabilities than most other amps free or not It really is an amp that we are proud carries our name and has become a valuable member of our product family
<———————————————————>
JCM900 Amp Simulation,
This VST is in fact a GUI fronted version of the superb emulator of JCM900 made by Simulanalog.
My french is not good but this is a pretty cool vst amp simulator. You can download here.
Or you can go to the source and grab some free guitar fx from Simulanalog.
What is SimulAnalog Guitar suite?
It is a suite of vst plugin with amplifiers and analog processors for guitarists, actually containing the simulation* of:
– Boss DS-1 (Distortion stompbox)
– Boss SD-1 (Super Overdrive stompbox)
– Tube Screamer (Overdrive stompbox)
– Oberheim PS-1 (Phaser stompbox)
– Univox Univibe (Modulations stompbox)
– Fender Twin 1969 (Guitar amplifier)
– Marshall JCM900 Dual Reverb (Guitar amplifier)
<———————————————————>
Audio Damage Fuzz Plus Guitar VST effect,
FuzzPlus2.2 is the current version of our popular free Fuzz+ plug-in. The basis of the plug-in is a transform model of a famous vintage fuzz pedal. There are four controls:
Fuzz knob: This controls, as you might imagine, exactly how much fuzz is applied to the signal.
Tone knob: This controls the brightness of the distorted signal.
Output knob: This is the output volume of the device, when it is active.
Bypass button: This works just like the switch on a stomp box. When the orange light is lit, you’re money. When it’s not, the input is passed directly to the output. This can be automated for a slightly different vibe than automating the effect bypass of your host.
FuzzPlus2.2 is available as a VST effect for Windows, and an AU or VST for OSX. The OSX versions are Universal Binaries, and require OSX
10.3.9 or later for PPC Macs or 10.4.4u or later for Intel Macs.
<———————————————————>
I’ve used the Crunch Dude Free guitar effect vst plugin, with reaper on my small cheap as chips budget laptop studio and it works quite well.
It’s got a nice boost and if played with gives some quite nice results.
Check it out…
The Heeb CrunchDude 0.1 is a very simple, yet effective guitar amplifier emulation VST plug-in. As the name implies, its strength lies not only in clean or over-the-top lead sounds, but especially in the excellent crunch sounds it can produce (certainly a weak point in many similar devices, virtual or otherwise). Its use is not limited to the electric guitar however. It can also be extremely useful in processing e.g. bass guitar, synthesizers, etc. Let your imagination run wild, and let your ears be the judge!
<———————————————————>
Free Vst Plugin – Substantial Amp – Amplifier Simulator Effect,
Pretty nasty sounding guitar effect from RunBeerRun
‘Substantial Amp is an amplifier simulator for the guitar. The point here is screaming riffs. This is done by filters that feedback into themself for resonance, a harmonic eq which is pretty powerful, and a cabinet circuit consisting of 3 delays that feedback into themself, in series, as in one feeds the next.
There’s 4 distortion presets and one clean.
Top left side, volume in, if you’re using distortion turn it down some.
I know it’s hard to read because of the color scheme. Cutoff/res relates to high pass filters, there’s 2 of these on there. And a feedback knob next to that. I’ve set the limits on these controls so there’s hardly any chance of overload.
The 1st filter then goes into a single short-timed delay cabinet. (cab size and feedback controls). Then into distortion, there’s an on/off switch.
Then into bitcrush, on/off switch again. Then into filter2, then into the Harmonic eq(bottom left). There’s a “fundamental” knob that relates to the eq. It’s a cool eq.
Then it goes into the 3-delay cabinet thing, right side. They go in series, this creates resonance which is what this plugin is about. I mean being in series like that, creates a lot of resonance.
Then into a limiter.‘
<———————————————————>
Acme bar Gigs – Canadian Metal Pack Guitar FX – Free VST Plugins.
Excellent sounding VST guitar fx combined into one pack for free download from www.acmebargig.com
Featuring:
Acmebargigs – Red Shift Overdrive.
Acmebargigs – Preampus Distortus – Heavy Metal Style Distortion.
Acmebargigs – Scar Unlimited RC1 – Tube Distortion Effect.
Le Poulins – Solo C Full Stack v1_05 – Amp Simulation
Le Poulins – Solo C Head V2 – Amp Simulator
and finally,
Le Poulins – Solo C Preamp V2 – Amp Simulation
All these guitar fx are as with most guitar fx pretty heavy on the old CPU but damn they sound good.
Each one has a characteristic of it’s own and can be used as effects on instruments other than guitar.
It’s pretty cool that these guitar fx are being offered up as a free download, please support them in any way you can.
Check em out…
<———————————————————>
A-150 Amp Simulator
An updated version of the A-110 the A-150 is,
‘Intended to enrich your sounds by blending both dry and wet signals, the A-150 includes a dry channel as
well as a tube-simulated channel with a compressor, 9-Band EQ & five-mode filter (three different lowpass settings, highpass and bandpass). Designed for everything from drums to guitar, bass, monosynths and electric organs / piano, the A-150 serves as an aggressive, versatile amplifier.’
‘Included are 10 presets — some for electric guitar and electric bass guitar. As these instruments can vary in tone considerably, I thought it best to mention the instruments that I used to create them:
Guitar presets… Cort MGM-1 6 String (humbuckers, both pickups)
Bass presets… Epiphone Thunderbird IV.’
<———————————————————>
Totally cool looking Free tube guitar amp VST plug-in from Nick Crow,
Looking for another guitar effects plugin to add to your collection?
Well take a look at the 8505 Lead Guitar Amp designed by Nick Crow.
I found this purely by accident, not tested it yet but will do in the next few days.
Meanwhile back in the jungle…
<———————————————————>
Free vst guitar tube amp effect from Voxengo – excellent on guitars – and works well as harmonic enhancer in your mix.
Tube Amp is an audio effect plug-in that applies asymmetric tube triode overdrive usually found in single-tube microphone pre-amp boxes. The sound this plug-in produces varies from a mild “warm” overdrive to a fuzzy distortion. Beside that, Tube Amp includes a -6 dB/oct low-pass filter that is built-in into plug-in’s valve modeling equation, and can be used to imitate a lower-quality tube triode.
Tube Amp also features all standard advanced Voxengo plug-in features like full multi-channel operation and built-in oversampling.
<———————————————————>
AcmeBarGigs ‘Preampus Brain’ – Free VST Guitar Plugin,
‘Not wanting to leave you waiting for too long, AcmeBarGig are proud to follow up the Canadian Metal Mega Pack by releasing Preampus BRAIN, drawing influence from classic amps, this is a first from AcmeBarGig as we’re usually focused on creating entire new sounding plugs. This isn’t a bog-standard clone though! While the sound is rooted in the classic amps it draws it’s influence from, BRAIN is capable of a number of very different tones, making it another exceptionally versatile amp that we’re sure you’ll enjoy tweaking and hearing!’ – AcmeBarGig
Free download here
Tribe Clean Amp – Free VST Guitar plugin,
‘Tribe is our all new clean amp, and is designed to give you pure, crystal clear clean tones, providing you with the perfect blank canvas to further sculpt your tone. Using technologies borrowed from Whisper and RedShift and with the option of loading an Impulse Response file of your choice, Tribe is designed to give out a smooth stream of constant clean tone.
Whether you’re tired of your current amp sim’s clean tones or are just looking for a blank canvas to experiment with, give Tribe a shot and we’re sure you won’t be disappointed!
Tribe came to be as a means of acoustic modeling. The original idea was to place an IR in front of a clean amp and see what we could get. Well, that didn’t quite work out. However, what Tribe represents is a means for you to experiment with this concept. ‘- AcmeBarGig
Download for free here
<———————————————————>
Untidy Musics first Free VST Plugin ‘BroKENpeDalZ‘ is a distortion/tremelo/modulation guitar effect created using synthedit.
This was after some experimenting the first effect created by untidymusic and is offered as a free download.
As it’s our first attempt at a guitar effect we’re not exactly sure what it is really.
It was created on the fly, as a guitarist I tested it using a few guitars, tinkering until I got something I like.
Anyway try it out and see what you think.
If you like it please link back to us.
<———————————————————>
Auraplugs Freetortion vst guitar fx
Including:
‘The Red Skull plug-in is an aggressive high-gain distortion pedal simulator with unbelievably chunky metal tones for playing Nu Metal, Grind Core, Hard Core, Trash Metal or any genre that requires crushing sound. The tone section gives you complete control over Bass, Midrange, and Treble to get the ultimate chunk for your virtual rig’
‘Fuzz-Stone is the second plugin in Freetortion Series. The Fuzz-Stone is a ’60’s styled guitar fuzz tone pedal which simulates the Legendary Stones’ Satisfaction guitar tone. Try it now, it’s FREE!’
‘Fuzz-Stone[Ge] is the 3rd plugin in Freetortion Series. The Fuzz-Stone[Ge] is a great Fuzz style Germanium transistor distortion simulator.’
‘Whamdrive is a VST plug-in to shift the pitch of an incoming audio signal. It allows you to pitch an incoming audio stream in realtime with an external MIDI foot controller or with the GUI controls. Whamdrive features 14 different pitch modes. The harmony note and the input signal are mixed together as if two guitars were playing simultaneously in the first nine modes. Whamdrive works like a classic pitch shifter in the last five modes. The effect also includes a distortion unit with cabinet simulation. It has a special equalization method (uses only one knob) which gives you wider, stronger EQ control. Enjoy this little baby.’
‘The California Sun is a classic guitar combo amplifier simulator with two channels (Clean and Dirty).’
<———————————————————>
Aradaz Free VST Guitar FX plugins.
There are four FX available and all seem to have a small lean on CPU usage.
And the OUR
Cabinet Simulator VST plugin, which has no GUI just parameter controls in your VST Host or DAW.
Download them all from here at ARADAZ
<———————————————————>
Tube Baby: Free Tube Amp Simulation VST Plugin
‘TubeBaby is a digital simulation of a tube guitar amplifier. As such it features the standard controls found on a real amplifier, namely gain, bass, mid, treble, presence, master and a switch for activating the high gain mode of the preamp stage. The latest version also features a menu that lets you choose between three amplifier types, five cabinet emulations and the amount of high frequency passing through the power amp section.’
Download for free here