While having an amp or effect VST open may help you find a nice tone, there's nothing stopping you going rogue and finding your own 'Another Brick in the Wall' moment. You should take note, however, that some of history's most iconic guitar tones have been created by running straight into a desk with no amps, effects or anything else clouding the signal.

Can I get a good guitar tone without a VST? It's also because we think that finding a good amp sound to support your guitar ideas when recording or jamming is crucial – something which is as true of software as it is with physical gear. This is essentially down to the fact that changing effects sounds is quite easy and can actually be done affordably in the real world with real effects, whereas having many different amps at your disposal is a very different (and much more expensive) tale. When we talk about the best guitar VSTs, amps are generally the most often discussed subject. Can I only recreate amp sounds with a guitar VST? This means that they'll work in many different DAWs and across Mac and PC – whereas AAXs only work with Pro Tools and AUs will only work with GarageBand or Logic Pro X. The best guitar VSTs are slightly different to regular plugins, as they work across multiple formats.

Which format you choose will be largely influenced by which operating or recording system you are using, due to the fact that plugins that are designed to be used inside a DAW will be based on a few different formats: Steinberg's 'Virtual Studio Technology' (VST), Apple's proprietary 'Audio Unit' (AU) format or Avid's 'Avid Audio eXtension' (AAX). You can trust Guitar World Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing guitar products so you can choose the best for you.

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