How to use guitar plugins
Plug your guitar into an audio interface (not the computer's headphone or mic jack), set the input to instrument/Hi-Z, put a tuner, pedals, amp and cab on the track in that order, and turn on input monitoring. For free tones, TONE3000 captures in the free NAM plugin. For a finished sound in one plugin, a two-knob effect like Drown or Adrift.
Guitar plugins replace a pedalboard and amp with software. The setup is simple once you have done it once, but there are three places almost everyone gets stuck: the wrong input, too much latency, and the chain in the wrong order. This guide covers all three, then where to get good tones for free.
I make Siesta Audio plugins and mention them where they fit, marked as mine. Everything else here is free or standard gear that works in any DAW.
| Stage | Free option | Paid, or mine | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Tuner | Cafecito (mine, free) or your DAW's tuner | Any tuner plugin | Tune before anything else; distortion hides tuning problems until it is too late. |
| 2. Drive and fuzz | Nembrini Big Stuff | Drown (mine) | Gain before the amp: overdrive, fuzz, boost. |
| 3. Amp | NAM + TONE3000 captures | Neural DSP, Helix Native | The core tone: clean, crunch or high gain. |
| 4. Cab / IR | TONE3000 IRs | Your amp sim's cab section | The speaker. Skipping it is the number one reason plugin guitar sounds fizzy. |
| 5. Delay and reverb | ValhallaSupermassive | Adrift (mine) | Time effects after the amp, so they stay clean and wide. |
1. Plug in the right way
Use an audio interface with an instrument input (labeled Hi-Z, INST or with a guitar icon). Plug the guitar straight in with a normal cable, and switch that input to instrument. Set the gain so your hardest strum peaks around the middle of the meter, never in the red.
2. Kill the latency
- Set the buffer size low while you play: 64 or 128 samples. Raise it again for mixing.
- Turn on input monitoring on the track so you hear the plugins as you play.
- Turn off direct monitoring on the interface, or you will hear the dry guitar on top of the processed one.
- Playing live? Many plugins (mine included) also run as a Standalone app, which skips the DAW entirely and is a simple way to gig with a laptop.
3. Build the chain in order
Tuner, then drive and fuzz, then amp, then cab, then delay and reverb. That mirrors a real rig. Reverb before fuzz is a valid creative choice, but it is a different sound; I wrote about when to flip it.
4. Get good tones for free
TONE3000 is the best free resource there is: a huge library of captures of real amps and pedals, plus cab IRs, that load in the free Neural Amp Modeler plugin. Start there before you spend anything. If you later want a full paid amp suite, see Neural DSP and its alternatives.
5. Or skip the rig-building
If you would rather play than scroll through cabs, a finished-sound plugin does the whole chain in one. That is why I make mine with two knobs and presets that are already done: Drown for doom, Adrift for shoegaze and ambient, La Bestia for bass. And if you want a band's sound specifically, start at how to sound like your favorite bands.
Quick answers
How do I use guitar plugins?
Plug your guitar into an audio interface's instrument input, create an audio track in your DAW with input monitoring on, and add a tuner, pedals, amp and cab plugins in that order.
Can I use guitar plugins live?
Yes. Set a low buffer size (64 or 128 samples) and use the plugin's Standalone app if it has one, which avoids running a whole DAW on stage.
Why does my plugin guitar sound fizzy?
Usually a missing cab or IR. An amp without a speaker simulation sounds harsh. Add a cab IR after the amp.
Where can I get free guitar tones?
TONE3000 has a huge free library of Neural Amp Modeler captures and impulse responses of real amps, pedals and cabs.