This virtual guitar amp provides a full signal chain within your browser. You can click and drag mouse on the knobs to interact with the application. You can also use your computer keyboard to play sounds and change settings without moving your hand off the desk. Instantly you can see and hear the changes as they occur.
Pick a sound. There are buttons marked with Play riff, Blues shuffle, Chug and Chord stab. These will play various guitar textural sound. Hit the Riff button and it’ll loop an E minor melody where you can get a feel for what gain does to sustain. For more of a crunch tone, try the blues shuffle; this has a rhythmic pattern that responds niceley. To check amount of reverb in your mix, hit the Chord stab button, which fires a fully-strummed E minor chord. Finally, there’s the chug button, playing a tight muted low E string that’s great for trying out high-gain metal tone. Note that each of these sounds runs through the same amp model, so whatever you tweak on one will affect all of them.
How to Use the Virtual Guitar Amp
To fire off these sounds at a moment’s notice, there are also keyboard shortcuts. Use these keys to play the chug (G), the riff (R), the shuffle (S) and the chord stab (C). Hit the same key again and it’ll turn that sound off. To change the amp channel, press 1 for Clean, 2 for Crunch or 3 for Lead. This puts all the knobs into that preset so you have a starting point for various style. When you’re ready to hear your raw guitar signal with no processing, hit the B button to put it into bypass mode.
The readout area in the middle of the panel will show what you’ve got going on, such as the sound playing or the channel selected. Seven knobs on the faceplate emulate an old school tube amplifier. Each knob has a zero to ten value that you can drag up or down with your finger. To make changes in smaller amounts, press the Tab key to highlight a knob and use the arrow keys to increase/decrease its value.
The first knob (Gain) is the one used to control the preamp drive. Increase this knob and it will add both compression and distortion. This can take a clean tone and push it into a fuzzy roar. Next are the Bass, Mid, and Treble knobs that shape the frequency response. Increasing the Bass knob add warmth and body to the sound. Increasing the Treble knob adds attack and brightness. The Mid knob is used to control the cut. Very important when trying to make a guitar stand out in a mix. Above the treble range is where the Presence knob add some high-frequency sparkle. The Reverb knob provides a spring-like echo effect. And finally, the Master knob control the overall output volume of the amp section.
One thing to remember is that the system volume for this instrument exists separately from your phone or computer’s volume. You’ll want to set it via the slider at the bottom right-hand corner of the widget so that you can have your speakers turned down comfortabley but still run the amp simulation at a nice, loud virtual level.
When the amp is powered on, a red light appear in the right-hand side of the faceplate, alerting you that the audio engine has started. When you’ve got the riff going try moving the Gain knob around. It’ll sweep from a clean articulating sound into a rich singing lead. For more of a moddern metal sound, crank the Gain and Treble, but scoop the Mid knob down close to zero. On the other end of things, lower the Gain and bump up the Mids and you have a classic rock sound with plenty of cut.
And as always, you can switch the help panel on and off by pressing the question mark key or the How to play button. The Fullscreen button (or F if your browser supports it) will open the widget in a full window. It’s meant to be easy to use for sound design and experimenting with. There are no drivers to install or samples to load. Open the page and go to town on the knobs. Everything changes in real time and the visual feedback lets you know exactly what’s going on at all times. A simple way of exploring tonal possibilities without having to deal with a digital audio workstation.
Go ahead and spend some time finding what works best for you. Make some mental notes about which combination you like best for various types of music. When the mood hits, come back and mess around with it, the widget’s waiting for you anytime. Begin by using the Clean channel as a starting point and gradually introduce drive to hear how the character change. Have fun shaping your sound.