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 downloads options, you can find the perfect instrument for your new song. In short, Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is an audio plug-in that uses digital signal processing to simulate traditional studio hardware. From recreations of vintage analogue channel strips, renditions of prized microphones, from classic guitar stompboxes to modern-day tube amp behemoths, and a smorgasbord synths, there is a VST to match.
Guitar sounds in music is essentially expected, even in most genres some wouldn’t expect it to hear them. That’s why we always recommend our music makers to collect at least a few guitar virtual instruments to make sure their toolbox has some versatility. We remember when we first entered the virtual instrument game, it was really difficult to find a guitar VST that was actually worth including in our music. Either it sounded super cheap and digitally, or we couldn’t find any type of loop to match up with what we were grooving. Lately however in the past 5 years or so, we’ve seen a lot of heavy hitters in the VST game create some amazing guitar VST. Of course, buying a real acoustic guitar or electric guitar can always be the option. However, what if we just want a few sounds to work with? What if we want to learn an entire guitar VST engine? We found some to share with you today.
The Best Guitar Plugins
Native Instruments Session Guitarist – Strummed Acoustic
Strummed Acoustic, Native Instruments’ Session Guitarist VST, is the result of repeated deep multi-sampling of the iconic Martin D-35 acoustic guitar that was more commonly used in the early 1970’s. From ease of use to solid quality sounds and heightened flexibility, there is no understating the range of features that make this one of the best guitar VST models available in the current market.
This 8 GB VST comes fully equipped with 102 patterns, all of which have been uniformly grouped into 31 songs that can easily be loaded into any of the plug-in’s 8 key-switched slots. Regarding navigation, pattern selection can be done using the ‘Pattern Browser’ that also includes sound play filters, rhythmic base filters, and a variety of pattern style selections. Another one of Strummed Acoustic‘s key features is its seamless chord changing which is made possible by the ‘Auto Chord’ mode that is easily operated by a single finger.
Music Lab Real Guitar
Real Guitar by Music Lab is a virtual instrument based on samples that take on a more innovative approach to modeling guitar sounds. As one of many masterful inventions by Music Lab, the Real Guitar allows users to bring to life live guitar performances from the comfort of their computers as it makes it possible to emulate guitar parts with expressions that are true-to-life. It comes in a package comprising of a 2-instrument combo, that is, the Real Guitar steel ring and the Real Guitar classic. The latter is made up of guitar models by Music Lab while the former entails 3 tuning selections and up to 5 patches all wrapped up in a single sample set.
More importantly, both instruments are built on a manageable user interface comprising of a virtual keyboard, a virtual fret board, and a setting panels. There are also a number of tabs used to control the plug-in’s song and performance modes, thus, allowing for added flexibility. Combined, these features make Real Guitar one of the best guitar virtual instruments of today in our opinion.
Amplesound Guitar
Ample Guitar by Amplesound is a realistic guitar VST emulation of the Martin D-41 guitar presented in an engine packed with numerous features. It allows for adjusting of numerous sound elements including release, velocity sensitivity, resonance, and release. On the other hand, it comes fully equipped with a rhombic sampling structure is designed to switch sample playbacks based on the note in a bid to humanize the entire sound. It has a 6GB library that includes a large variety of picked and fingered playing styles.
For a more realistic sound, these styles were recorded using two mono and another two stereo playback modes placed at two mic positions. Also, it features the Strummer — a built-in sequencer that makes it possible for users to develop their own strum patterns. In sum, Amplesound Guitar qualifies their series of VST as one of the best guitar virtual instruments in the game since they have so many options and how great it sounds.
Impact Soundworks Shreddage
Shreddag is the latest installment in Impact Soundworks series. It features an aesthetic user interface with expanded access for easy editing in addition to a strumming tab that is not available in its earlier versions. The ‘Poly Input’ is another addition only available in this series. It allows users to create lifelike chords for enhanced sound production.
There are also several string and fret voicing algorithms. Despite its being ranked among the best guitar VST plugins of today, the Shreddag 3 Series falls short of its considerable high minimum requirements which include 6 GB RAM, 9 GB hard disk space, and a 5.7 Kontakt platform or higher.
SONiVOX Bright Electric Guitar
SONiVOX Bright Electric Guitar offers a pretty good guitar sound that is guaranteed to cheer up your jams with a true-to-life emulation of some Strat guitars. It features multi-velocity tones and mutes; 3 velocity mutes and 3 velocity tones. Its major triads include up strum, picked strum, down strum and choked strum, in addition to the respective minor triads.
There are also Major and Minor bar chords, down strum hard and up strum hard including down strum light, and up strum light. As such, it also qualifies as one of the best guitar VST instruments out there.
Native Instruments Session Guitarist – Electric Sunburst
After Native Instrument released the Strummed Acoustic VI guitar virtual instrument in 2016, a lot of people said that NI will most certainly release another guitar VI based on a different theme but with identical an identical basal engine. These speculations were accurate as two years later NI released another guitar VI bad on the legendary Les-Paul style — the Electric Sunburst. But what makes this one of the best guitar VST models available today? The answer lies in its polished guitar performances that use a Kontakt front-end. It includes an extensive list of style-based patterns in addition to its high levels of flexibility that allow music fiends to play these patterns at all tempos.
Moreover, there are various chord types from which one can easily voice these patterns. From reggae vibes to Latin, rock, and mellow rhythms, these patterns cover all types of styles. This variety of Electric Sunburst added to the Swing Control makes for a solid guitar performance without an actual guitar!
Good Free Electric Guitar Vst
Music Lab RealEight
RealEight by Music Lab has been designed around the usual eight string guitar. It comes fully equipped with a very usable keyboard interface in addition to a switch system for key, velocity, or pedal tweaking. Its flexibility is what makes this one of the best guitar virtual instruments largely due to this switch system which allows music lovers to come up with as many distinct articulations as is humanly possible using an electric guitar. Examples include scrapping, pull-offs, bridge mute, harmonics, sliding, pinch harmonics, and mute, to name just but a few.
In addition to working as a Standalone plug-In, RealEight can also work on popular hosts including Pro Tools, Cubase, Sonar, Studio One, Digital Performer, and Logic. Noteworthy, its system requirements include a RAM of 2 GB, 5 GB hard disk space for its extensive library, Windows XP or higher, AAX support, and VST2 32 bit or higher. Generally, it is a solid choice in as far as guitar virtual instruments are concerned.
Native Instruments Scarbee Funk Guitarist
The “funk phenomenon” is what makes Scarbee Funk Guitarist one of the best guitar virtual instruments in the current market for us. Funk Guitarist‘s key funky features include 8 GB worth of tunes, a whopping 3411 chords, 80 preset maps, varied song templates, high-end editing, and instant playability. In fact, a lot of reviews describe the Scarbee Funk Guitarist as a breakthrough in guitar sampling largely due to it standout attention to details. It’s 3411 chords have been recorded in 11 articulations and various velocities with an aim of creating an authentic funky yet organic sound.
There are 152 samples for each chord, which makes it ideal for all kinds of pickup settings and playing positions. On the flipside, it is limited to Kontakt player version 5 or higher. It is also quite bulky with up to 14 GB when uncompressed, nevertheless a beautiful guitar VST to look into.
Electri6ity
A wise man once said, “always save the best for last” — Electri6ity is by far the best guitar VST in this list. It is basically made up of 8 classic guitars wrapped up in a single virtual instrument. It has been designed to meet all the needs of a modern electric guitar based on its intelligent and broad-gauge library. It contains at least 24,000 samples, all of which are 24-bit. Understandably so, it requires a huge chunk of hard disk space at 27 GB. Its primary playback engine is Kontakt 4 and its key switching controls can be used to manipulate all kinds of parameters. More importantly, its effect generators include a Screamer pedal that includes various modeling types such as British, Classic, and Metal.
The second effects generator of Electri6ity comprises of different variety effects including delayed algorithms, flanger, reverb, chorus, and phaser. Ideally, users get the chance to produce solid quality guitar sounds with undefeated realism due to its background scripting. However, it might take majority to get a hang of this guitar VST due to its grossly complicated user interface. In our opinion it’s well worth investing the time.
Concluding our Best Guitar VST Guide
Are you without a guitar but need to develop some quality guitar riffs? Worry not! Technology has made this possible by means of guitar VST plugins. You might find it odd to play a guitar from your computer/tablet but the sound quality produced by these software is more or less similar to that of an actual guitar. VST is an acronym for Virtual Studio Technology and refers to audio plug-ins that rely on digital signal processing to replicate traditional studio hardware. One could either use a standalone VST or alongside a DAW of his/her choice by simply loading up a GUI (Graphical User Interface) representation of the plugin in question. This way, you get to produce the required riffs and tinker with the settings as much as possible.
Free Metal Guitar Vst
Ever since the advent of guitar VSTs in the mid-1990s, manufacturers have come up with hundreds of versions that have in turn made this one of the most competitive markets today. However, guitar VSTs tend to be a more delicate affair. To produce high quality riffs, you need a beefy plugin with immense computer processing power. This will go a long way in minimizing latency and improving final sound quality. To this end, we hope this list of the best guitar VST models available in the current market has helped you all today!
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