Guitar Recording Software - great tones without the acoustic hassle

You can record guitar with any interface and audio recording software. When I talk about guitar recording software I'm actually talking about some of the great plugins and software available to guitarists wanting a great sound without the loudness of their amps.

Studio engineers are relying more and more on direct amp simulators instead of miking up guitar amplifiers. This gives them a greater degree of control over the final sound, since they don't have to commit to the sound in the recording stage, but rather are able to change it to something else entirely if the need arises.

By using these plugins as our guitar recording software instead of an amplifier, we take all the guesswork out of recording in a room and are left with a direct sound that we can mold at will. Since there are so many software plugins available to the guitarist and bassist today, almost any type of sound can be achieved by only using these guitar recording software plugins.

Some resources

Amplitube 2 is a great guitar and bass amp modeler you can use in your audio program of choice. It offers diverse amp simulators ranging from boutique clean sounds to raunchy rock.

Waves GTR3 is a plugin from Waves that includes all sorts of great guitar recording tools. Waves have some pretty amazing products, not just amp simulators but other great software plugins as well. Read more about waves plugins here.

Vox ToneLab

This little thing is absolutely amazing. I'm a big fan of Vox's Valvetronix products and this valve driven stomp-box is a great option when you want to have an all-in-one stompbox/amp modeller. Although it isn't a guitar recording software since it is a stomp-box, it sounds so good I've got to mention it. And it's even got a valve in it!

Line 6 GuitarPort XT

I've used the Line 6 Toneport which runs the same Gearbox software as the Guitarport. Gearbox has some very convincing sounds that you wouldn't think that came out of the computer. Everything from clean jazzy chords to high gain riffs, highly customizable and great sounding.

Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3

Guitar Rig is a widely used guitar plugin for home recording enthusiasts. This package is a software/hardware combo that you can use as a stand-alone midi controller as well. Just like many other plugins, Guitar Rig is fairly CPU intensive and unless you are using a very high end recording computer, you will get performance problems, since this plugin eats up your cpu power in no time.

You need great tones

Guitarists and bass players may have different needs than other home recordists. We tend to use our guitar or bass as our instrument of choice for laying down the body of a track before we start building on top. Thus, we need some great plugins to make our guitar sound amazing when we plug it into our audio interface.

Next time you are struggling with recording a good guitar track with your amplifier in your bedroom, consider investing in some great guitar recording solutions like these aforementioned products.

Go back to the vst plugins page

Need more than just a guitar recording software?

Need to mix your guitars? Check out the mixing page