Guitar Effect Plugins Vst

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Time to update your producer toolkit.

There’s no shortage of innovative VST plugins out there right now. The hardest part is picking from the thousands of available ones.

Let’s take a look at some of the best guitar VST plugins you can try in 2020. What is the best guitar VST you need to try? As a guitar-specific tool, IK Multimedia’s Amplitube 4 is the one to beat. While Positive Grid’s BIAS AMP 2 arguably wins out purely on sound quality, the added effects and other tools make Amplitube 4 the full package. Meet the Mercuriall Tube Screamer 808 – your new overdrive VST effect plugin. It’s modeled after the holy grail of tube screamers: the Ibanez TS-808 pedal. Make your guitar sounds grungier.

Don’t worry, we got your back. We’ve hand-picked a selection of plugins to make it easier for you. Oh, and they’re free!

The theme of this selection is effects – they’ll give your mix that extra crunch, oomph or whah.

Here are 10 free VST effects plugins that’ll add flavour to your sound:

1. Best free echo VST: Valhalla Freq Echo

The Freq Echo is a frequency shifter with analog echo emulation. My personal favourite.

It adds chorus, phasing and flanger effects. Go ahead and create some wild glissandos and runaway echos.

It’s great for dub and psychedelic effects. Use it for beefing up basslines.

If you’re a fan of electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire you’ll love it.

Compatible with Mac OS and Windows (VST/AU in 32 and 64-bit, AAX 64-bit, RTAS).

Download it here.

2. Best free fuzz VST: FuzzPlus3

Here’s the updated FuzzPlus distortion VST pedal emulation from Audio Damage.

The central knob is the fuzz distortion. There’s also a Korg MS-20 style low-pass filter. And you can feedback the signal for some extra juice.

Amazing on synths and drums for meaty, distorted effects.

Use the presets or save your own.

Compatible with Mac OS and Windows (VST/VST3/AU 32 and 64-bit).

Download it here.

3. Best free EQ VST: MH Thump

MH Thump adds low end to your track. It recreates that nice thump you get on a vintage TR-808 drum machine.

It’s an audio processor that analyzes an audio input – say your drum track. Then it synthesizes a low frequency signal to add some body.


There are two independent oscillators and many knobs for fine-tuned control.

Go ahead and beef up those beats!

Compatible with Mac OS and Windows (VST/AU/AAX 32 and 64-bit)

Download it here.

4. Best free bitcrusher VST: Krush

Krush is a very interesting bit crusher VST.

It creates that crunchy digital bit reduction effect. But it can also imitate a warmer analog effect with the drive and resonant filter.

If there can be such a thing: the Krush is a very elegant bit crusher.

The Dry and Wet faders allow you to play with how much of original signal and the effect you want.

Best free nylon guitar vst. The modulations can be free form or synced to a rate of your choice. Save and recall presets easily.

Compatible with Mac OS and Windows (VST/AU/AAX 32 and 64-bit)

Download it here.

5. Best free overdrive VST: Mercuriall Tube Screamer 808

Meet the Mercuriall Tube Screamer 808 – your new overdrive VST effect plugin.

It’s modeled after the holy grail of tube screamers: the Ibanez TS-808 pedal.

Make your guitar sounds grungier. Flip between the TS-808 and MOD modes with the metal switch.

MOD will give you a slightly darker sound.

Compatible with Mac OS and Windows (VST/AU/AAX 32 and 64-bit).

Download it here.

6. Best free tremolo VST: Pecheneg Tremolo

The Pecheneg is a tremolo VST effect. It gives you the power to create rhythmic modulations with your sound.

The Tempo section allows you to play the frequency either by selecting a Note or a Frequency.

Just like when you use LFOs, the Pecheneg Tremolo allows you to change the wave shape.

This effect will improve the groove of your track. It’ll give life to your synth or bassline.

Compatible with Mac OS and Windows (VST/AU 32 and 64-bit)

Download it here.

7. Best free chorus VST: TAL Chorus -LX

TAL‘s stereo Chorus-LX is inspired by the Roland Juno-60 chorus. It’s a simple but powerful chorus VST.

It has two different modes (I and II) that you can use separately or together.

Select how much of the effect you want with the Wet/Dry knob.

Use it to give some grit and body to your bass or synth line.

Compatible with Mac OS and Windows (VST/AU/AAX 32 and 64-bit).

Download it here.

8. Best free EQ VST: TDR Nova

The TDR Nova is a four-band dynamic Equalizer (EQ). A true workhorse.

It allows you to make a drum track crisper or boost certain frequencies as needed.

Any producer needs a bread and butter EQ VST. This is the one.

It has a built-in spectrum analyzer for precise EQing.

It’s also got a preset manager, A/B comparison, undo/redo functions and more.

Compatible with Mac OS and Windows (VST/AU/AAX 32 and 64-bit).

Download it here.

9. Best free reverb VST: Protoverb 1.0

The Protoverb 1.0 by U-He is a different kind of reverb VST.

The coolest thing about the Protoverb is that you can generate random settings and save the ones you like.

The spirit of this plugin is trial and error – we like that. It encourages users to share their favourite settings from a button on the plugin.

Compatible with Mac OS, Windows and Linux (VST/VST2/AU/AAX 32 and 64-bit).

Download it here.

10. Best free panning VST: PanCake 2

Last but not least: the most flexible panning VST effect you’ll ever find.

PanCake 2 lets you manually draw the curves of your panning modulation. You can also generate one randomly.

It’s easy to use and very visual. The LFO in the PanCake 2 can be synced to your DAW.

Pan your sounds sharply for dramatic effects. Pan them smoothly for subtle variations.

Compatible with Mac OS or Windows (VST/AU in 32 and 64-bit).

Download it here.

Spice up your mix

A mix can go from bland to grand with the right effects.

The good news is that you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars for that.

We’ve selected 10 VST effects plugin that we know you’ll love.

Grab all ten and try them out. Tell us what you think of them in the comment section!

And check out other VST plugins we recommend:

VST Plugins are the studio world equivalent of guitar effects pedals. If you’ve set up your own home studio or you’ve spent any time recording in a professional studio, the recorded material can be processed in two ways, hardware or digital.

Hardware processing takes the form of the commonly seen rack mounted units in high end studios such as compressors, reverbs and limiters. Your signal is run via these analoge units and they impart their own sound and effects on the audio.

Digital processing takes place in the DAW of the computer, and is often referred to as “in the box” processing. This is done with a set of software items called VST Plugins.

VST stands for Virtual Studio Technology. VST is a software interface that facilitates digital synthesizers and effects to be used in a digital recording environment.

Best Guitar Vst Plugins 2020

Guitar Effect Plugins Vst

In this article we will look at some of the best VST plugins for processing electric guitar that you can use in your own productions. Some of these are effects and some are instrument emulation based.

Once you’ve recorded your track, you can use VST plugins to craft the sound to the finished product. It doesn’t matter if you’re working in a full professional studio, or at home on a laptop. Great plugins can help you get a polished sound no matter where you record.

Contents

FabFilter Pro-Q

Pro-Q by FabFilter is an EQ plugin which on the surface is quite easy to not get overly excited about. After all, who gets excited about EQ? But, let’s look at why this is so exciting. Pro-Q allows the user to EQ in every way imaginable.

From regular EQ to linear phase. It has zero latency and allows you to even cut and boost frequencies only on the mid/side bands. For those new to EQ’s, mid/side processing is processing only the wider stereo image and not what you hear up the center. This is very useful for wide stereo instruments like drum overheads and hard panned guitars.

Pro-Q even runs with a spectrum analyzer behind it so you can see the visualisation of your EQ changes in real time as you make them.

One feature that is very useful for people new to mixing is the EQ Match option. This allows you to match the EQ of another source, either another instance of the plugin in the project or from an audio file you choose. If you’re trying to get your guitar EQ like your favourite track, look no further.

Pro-Q is also very CPU light to run meaning even a project with many instances of the same plugin won’t struggle to keep up.

Get Fab Filter Pro-Q: https://www.fabfilter.com/products/pro-q-3-equalizer-plug-in

Slate Digital Virtual Mix Rack

The Virtual Mix Rack from Slate Digital is not just a single plug in, but a collection of high end processors ready to turn your computer into a complete audio workstation. The plugin takes the form of a modular rack style system where you can put up to 6 modules of your choice from the available collection.

Included we have compressors, EQ’s, mixing desk emulations, compressors, preamps, gates and channel strips. This is a lot of plugins, and I can hear you thinking, I bet that this costs a lot. Slate offer an amazing subscription package from as little as $15USD per month you can have access to everything here.

The Slate Digital plugins are modeled meticulously on real, analogue studio gear. This allows you to make your mixes sound like they are done on a $45,000USD SSL Mixing Desk. It’s pro studio results at a bedroom studio price.

This plugin set is great for guitar players who record at home. It will allow you to get that big studio shine on your guitar tracks even if they are humbly recorded in your bedroom. Just because you have a small set up it doesn’t mean you have to compromise on tone.

Get Slate Virtual Mix Rack: https://slatedigital.com/

If you go into a large, professional studio you will see lots of analog rack gear for processing sound. Many plugins, such as Slate’s Virtual Mix Rack can recreate these legendary rack units in the digital world for you to use anywhere.

iZotope Ozone

Ozone is a one stop shop for mastering your mixes. It’s an intelligent piece of software that has AI assisted machine learning. It can listen to your track and suggest mastering settings based on the overall track dynamics and style which is perfect for anyone learning how to master music.

I’d never suggest letting the AI do the work for you, but using it as a starting point to tweak from is a great learning tool. It’s like learning from an experienced engineer.

Inside Ozone you have compressors, limiters, EQs, tape simulators and maximizers along with their new low end focus and master rebalance tools that allow you to really shape the final master of your track.

Guitar Effect Plugins Vst Plugin

Ozone allows you to upload reference tracks as MP3s where it will analyze the frequency spectrum across the whole song and you can EQ match your song to any reference track of your choosing.

While Ozone is designed as a mastering plugin for use on completed mixes, it can be a really powerful tool for shaping your guitar tone. The compression and EQ algorithms in Ozone are extremely powerful and would allow you to fine tune your tone from every angle.

Buy iZotope Ozone: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/ozone/features.html

Waves SSL-E Channel

The SSL mixing desk is seen in the biggest and best studios around the world. They cost multiple tens of thousands of dollars with prices starting at around $45,000USD and going up depending on the size of the desk. These are the toys of the professional mixers and artists at the top of their game.

What hope do us home studio hobbyists have of getting that polished studio sound? Not much right? Wrong.

Waves SSL-E Channel is a clinical reproduction of the real deal. Known for its smooth top end and its ability to add punch to a mix the SSL-E Channel will transport your home studio straight into LA’s top studio rooms.

It has a built in compressor and limiter as well as a gate section for cleaning up those mics with spill from other sources. The compressor section can be placed pre or post EQ just like the real desk.

It even comes bundled with a huge range of pre-sets from SSL user Chris Lord-Alge who has mixed countless hit rock records from Nickelback to Shinedown. See how he uses the plugin and what settings he uses to achieve his huge sounds.

The Waves offering of this console is a standalone plugin, similar to the one found inside of the Slate bundle. As a guitar shaping tool, a console emulation plugin can be priceless. Many home focused guitar recording preamps and interfaces don’t have the same sonic characteristics as an analogue mixing desk, but that doesn’t mean you should miss out.

The Waves SSL-E Channel will put your guitar tone in the biggest studios from around the world.

Buy Waves SSL-E: https://www.waves.com/plugins/ssl-e-channel

Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5

Imagine having a huge selection of the worlds most desired guitar amps, pedals, cabinets and microphones in your studio, except you don’t need the space to store it all, or the budget! NI’s Guitar Rig is the answer to the guitarists gear problems.

This VST amp simulator is jam packed with guitar amps from all the biggest companies in the world. They aren’t named exactly the same as the real deal for copyright reasons, but you won’t have to work hard to figure out what they are meant to be.

We’ve got a Marshall Plexi, a Peavey 5150, a Soldano SLO100, a Fender Tweed, a Vox AC30, a Roland JC-120, a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, a Fender Twin Reverb and that’s only the start. You will find something here to cover all your tonal needs. Once you’ve picked an amp you can select from a range of matched or custom cabinets and blend and pan signals from 16 industry standard microphones.

Guitar Effect Plugins Vst Plugins

Need some pedals? No problem. There are over 50 meticulously modeled stomp boxes and rack mount units included from overdrive and fuzz units to spacious reverbs, synths, filters and anything else you can possibly imagine.

It’s also got a tuner, metronome and a built in tape deck where you can record ideas and also import MP3s to slow down for learning purposes. Guitar Rig 5 is a comprehensive guitar players toolkit.

Get Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/guitar/guitar-rig-5-pro/

Digital modelling has now allowed some of the worlds most desired and expensive guitar amplifiers to be recreated and used by musicians all over the world. You don’t need to own the real deal anymore. You can get any tone you can dream of.

IK Multimedia Amplitube

Amplitube from IK Multimedia is a digital amp emulation plugin that claims to offer hyper realistic tone. IK have meticulously modelled some of the worlds best known and loved amps and their Amplitube plugin pack is expandable with many optional extras.

Best Guitar Vst Plugins

IK have created what they call the Cab Room. This includes the most advanced models of well known cabinets and speakers, placed in a digital room that sounds the real deal. In this room, you can switch cabinets, individual speakers and microphones. You can also dual mic cabs and set the mics at exactly the position you want them to be.

There are a number of room types available, each with their own characteristics. You get a Big Live Room which is airy and spacious, a Booth which is dry, a venue, a garage and other studio emulation rooms. There is enough here to satisfy even the most fussy cab recorder.

Best Guitar Plugins

Being able to change individual speakers in a cabinet allows for realistic flexibility as many guitar players mix and match speakers in real studio applications.

The amps on hand include classics such as the Marshall Plexi, Silver Jubilee, JCM 800, JCM 900 and JMP Rackmount Preamp. With Amplitube custom shop you get access to amps from Fender, Mesa Boogie, Peavey, Ampeg, Jet City, Orange, Trace Elliot and so many more. There are even artist packs that include amp models from Jimi Hendrix, Brian May and Dimebag Darrell.

The Brian May rig is particularly interesting for any Queen lovers. The AC30s in this pack are spec’d to Brian’s real rig and were co-designed by his guitar tech. This is a very detailed re-creation which shows you how much time they put into making these amps sound great.

You also get more effects and stomp box models than I could possibly list here. This could be the one stop shop for all guitarists. Go look for yourself, you’ll love it!

Buy Amplitube: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/amplitube4/

Starting Your VST Plugin Library

This article covers just a small snippet of what is available in the VST plugin world. If you can imagine it, then it probably exists as a plugin. Everything from signal processors like compressors and EQ’s, through to digital recreations of legendary guitar and bass amps.

You can even get plugins that make your laptop sound like a high end mixing console. There is no limit. Aside from the great ones listed here, have a think about what tools you’d like in your studio and make a list.

Many companies offer trial version so you can test them out in your own mixes before you commit to buying. There are also a large volume of websites offering free, open source VST plugins that their own users have coded. Check some of these out and if you like what it’s doing, look at how to get hold of a professional version of the same plugin for the best results.