Virtual Guitar/Bass Amp Shootout

Over the past few years I've collected quite a few vst guitar amp sims, not to mention bass amp sims which nobody seems to discuss. Sometimes these plugins can get complex and difficult to understand for people who are trying to make the switch from analog to digital, let alone choose one.

Here you'll find pros and cons along with highlighted features and my personal opinion of each. The hope is that this will help you make a decision you'll be happy with for your own needs.

If you want to skip the reading and go straight to the comparison video, it's below.

Some notes before we get into it.

• Just because something has a million options, add-ons, settings, doesn't mean you have to use them all.
• Presets in these things are a great place to start, many people pick a favorite and make it their go-to guitar or bass tone.
• A lot of times there are online communities of users for software like this and people will share their own presets, this is a great way to get an awesome sound without spending loads of time learning every in and out.
• Many of these will come in multiple formats. vst, which is for windows daws, stand alone which allows you to to run the plugin without a host, rtas which is for pro tools, aax and others. So you can generally find a version that will work with whatever operating system you have. For this blog, I primarily use vst and vst3.

Without further adieu...the plugins!

Guitar Amp Simulation Plugins

Amplitube 4

This is a very popular amp sim, and rightfully so. It's extremely versatile, has loads effect pedals, amp heads, cabinets, microphone types and combos, presets. Also, the "Custom Shop" makes it easy to grab new pedals and things for it if you want more functionality. The one thing that would stop me from purchasing it is that the original purchase doesn't include everything it's got to offer. Every pedal, head, cabinet you add on, costs you more money. It's like a never ending stream of things to buy, sort of like a real amp!

Rating 8/10

Cost: $149.00

Pros:

• Sounds great
• Versatile
• Quick and light

Cons:

• An unending money pit (like physical amps)

Bias Amp

Bias Amp is something I hear the pros talk about all the time, well at least in positive grid videos :-) Personally I don't know anyone who uses it, but according to them, it is the pros choice for guitar amp modeling. Not to knock it because it has all the same pros that others have. Sounds great and authentic, versatile, expandable, lots of effects, heads, and things to play with. Great sounding presets too. The one thing I do not like about it is it is extremely heavy on the computer. Starting the interface lags and seems to take 10 times longer than any other plugin I have tested. An action as simple as turning a knob or changing presets has a lag about it that makes this plugin unusable for me. I suppose if I knew what preset I wanted every time i ran it, it wouldn't be as big of an issue, but I like to adjust and mess with software.

Rating 5/10

Cost: Starts at $399.00

Pros:

• Sounds great
• Versatile
• Nice looking

Cons:

• Extremely heavy, lag when using it
• Expensive

Guitar Rig 5

This one is pretty awesome and I know quite a few people who have/use it. I wasn't extremely impressed by earlier versions of Guitar Rig, but version 5 has nailed it. There are options galore, add-ons, heads, mics, cabinets, effects like distortion, delay, reverb, eq, filters, pitch shifting and more,  but laid out clearly making it easy to learn and use. Scrolling through presets provides hours of fun and if you don't find one that you like, you weren't paying attention. Guitar Rig 5 loads quickly with no lag and is surely becoming one of my favorites.

Rating 10/10

Cost: $199.00

Pros:

• Sounds great
• Loads of options
• Looks great
• Lightweight
• Price is right

Cons: na

Peavey Revalver

I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that Peavey was releasing this amp sim plugin. It has some great preset tones and some celebrity named presets which I assume were created either by or to emulate said celeb. musician. This one is lower priced than some others and does include enough to get some great sounds with the initial purchase. It does however, use the online store for extra content, method. The nice thing about it is the content is inexpensive. For example, a pedal cost $3.99.

Revalver loads up extremely fast, no lag at all. Components are nicely drawn and sound great. Naturally the Peavey 5150 simulation is top notch ;-)

Rating 7/10

Cost: $99.00

Pros:

• Very lightweight
• Great sound
• Inexpensive add-ons

Cons:

• Not as many components as some of the others

S-Gear

A customer introduced me to S-Gear a few years ago, he said it's the greatest metal guitar amp sim on earth. So I tried it and yeah it rocks, especially for the metal tones. I've also noticed that it's clean tone presets are better than most others. I definitely load up S-Gear when doing anything that calls for a metal crunchy, chunky tone. It's pretty limited on components though, there are a few heads, a few effect components like delay, reverb, etc. and then a load of presets. The low cost of this one puts it at the top of my recommendation list when talking to someone who's looking.

Rating 7/10

Cost: $129.00

Pros:

• Inexpensive
• Great sound
• Lightweight

Cons:

• Limited components and add-ons

Shred

Shred comes with Mixcraft Recording Studio and Mixcraft Pro Studio, and was made by a company called Acme Bargig which has since went defunct. You can find shred for free from some archive download sites, but generally it's best to buy Mixcraft and be assured you get the latest version. The link above takes you to a download site which is hosting v1.06 at the time of this writing.

Shred sounds great, it's lightweight and has tons of presets to play with. It doesn't have as many components as some, which is the only con I can find.

Rating: 7/10

Cost: Free

Pros:

• Free
• Sound great
• Looks great
• Lightweight

Cons:

• Limited components
• Hard to find outside of Mixcraft

Bass Amp Simulation Plugins

ATK Bass Preamp

I found this one in a forum, a guy had said how great it was so I tried it. I personally do not see anything great about this plugin. The only thing I can get it to do is make my bass louder. The eq seems to do nothing and beyond that, there's only a gain, a volume (which both seem to do the same thing) and a wet/dry mix.

Rating 1/10

Cost: Free

Pros: na

Cons:

• Doesn't do anything

Bass Amp Room

This one is made by a reputable company called Softube, who make lots of other great products. The plugin looks kind of odd since it's more of a picture of an amplifier sitting on green carpet rather than an actual sim of what the amp looks like. This is kind of off-putting to me, I like to feel like like I am using a component, not looking at a picture of an amp on a floor. Outside of that, the sound is pretty good on a couple presets, and there are some cool things like the ability to move the microphone around, switch between three different cabinets and change eq settings. Not the most versatile amp I've used.

Rating: 5/10

Cost: $149.00

Pros:

• Sounds good
• Lightweight

Cons:

• Very few components to play with
• Very few presets
• Expensive for what it is

Cerberus Bass Amp

Now here's a great bass amp plugin! There's only one head and cabinet to use but the versatility of the two is amazing. Just like your physical bass rig, you can make this sound any way you want by adjusting equalizers (Parametric 3 band with sweeps, and 7 band graphic), compression, contour, low and high boost, gain and more. It's also got different microphones to use and position. I've used this for metal, country, funk and other types of music.

Rating: 10/10

Cost: $49.00

Pros:

• Inexpensive
• Sounds great
• Versatile
• Looks great

Cons:

• Limited components

Studio Devil VBA Pro

This is my go-to bass rig when recording. I've even modeled my physical bass amp sound after it. The tones you can get are versatile but it shines with gritty, heavily compressed, tough rock and metal tones. VBA Pro only has one head, no pictures of cabinets, no mics, no bells and no whistles. What it does have is sound and that is what's important, right? The 12 band graphic eq is very sensitive and works great for bass tones. It's got built in reverb and chorus for extra versatility. The compression it offers is very aggressive and works great for bass guitar.

Rating 9/10

Cost: $99.00

Pros:

• Sound great
• Very tough tones
• Highly responsive
• Inexpensive

Cons:

• No pretty cabinets to look at ;-)

Conclusion

Watch the video at the top to hear what these plugins sound like.

I hope I've helped you to decide which is right for you, a lot of them have trial versions as well so don't forget to take advantage of that and try them for yourself.

Peace!