Do you want to add some heavy electric guitar into your music productions, but don’t play guitar yourself?
Good news, there are are a great number of electric guitar VST plugins and sample libraries out there you can use.
I have made a top list of the best ones based on my own experience, and fellow music producers
Top 7 Electric Guitar VSTs & Sample Libraries
- Ample Metal Eclipse
- Ample Metal Hellrazer
- Ample Guitar VC
- Shreddage 3 Hydra
- Shreddage 3 Jupiter
- Shreddage 3 Stratus
- Vir2 Electri6ity
How to choose an Electric Guitar VST?
The first and most important aspect is of course the sound. Do you like the tone, the character, the sound quality of the instrument? Does it give you flexibility in the sound design and tone control department? Does it come with built in effects, amps, cabinets etc. or do you need to buy those plugins extra?
The next aspect I recommend is to focus on the playability and programmability, how many articulations and guitar techniques are included, how many dynamics (velocity layers) and round robins are there and so on. Can you control the palm muting level, and do repeated notes sound organic and varied without the dreaded “machine-gun effect”?
I personally prefer instruments that perform well by playing and recording as much as possible directly with my MIDI keyboard (including using the MOD-wheel and faders if necessary). It will reduce time programming and editing, which saves time. That is, if you are good enough on the keyboard to be able to play parts well.
Finally, you should of course make sure you have the computer and software specifications to use the plugin or sample library.