GarageBand has loads of built in guitar tones that sound pretty good.
If you want to give your guitar sounds a more unique, less stock feel, you may want to broaden your sonic horizons with some third party amps and effects.
In the video below I’ll take a look at five guitar focussed music production Apps that not only sound great, but are also 100% free!
5 Free Music Production Apps Every iPad/iPhone Guitarist Needs featured in this video
ToneDeluxe2
Tone Deluxe 2 from Lost in 70s audio is a re-creation of the warm vintage tones created by the ECC83 and EL34 tube amp valves.
The Tone Deluxe 2 gives users two channels to work with, both with independent volume and gain control, you’d probably want to use one as a clean channel and one as a dirty channel. The distortion sounds on offer here are surprisingly good as they respond to the volume of your guitar giving you more fine control over how your crunchy tones sound.
The app comes with two reverb models for your to play with as well as 12 cabinet models and a switch that will either brighten or darken your tone.
Get Lost in 70s ToneDeluxe2 here
CrunkV2
Whereas ToneDeluxe2 serves a s more general use Guitar Amp sim, Crunk v2 is far better suited for dirty, driven rock and metal tones.
CrunkV2 is a one channel guitar amp sim that gives you a large number of gnarly tones to play with. Heavy, driven tones are the name of the game here, with Nembrini Audio packing this lightweight freebie with enough controls to provide users with multiple options when it comes to dialing in tones.
Crunk V2 comes with some presets to get you started and allows you to choose wheteher to colour your outgoing signal with a great sounding emulation of a 4X12 Vintage 30 cabinet, or to bypass it completely.
Get Nembrini Audio’s CrunkV2 here
AR Delay
The Analog rack delay plugin is the power of Nembrini Audio’s delay algorithms in a simple package! BPM sync, stereo spread cicuit and a very juicy sound! Good stuff.
It’s really easy to dial in some fantastic sounding delay sounds – you can keep things low key and subtle, or you can make things more dramatic by cranking things up a bit.
Analog rack Delay has a straightforward set of controls to work with. On the right here is an input meter. In the middle you’ll find Delay time, BPM sync, Offset, Feedback and Mix controls. And on the right is your Output meter.
You also have an analog toggle switch and power switch at the bottom here.
Nembrini Audio have added several presets here, which do a good job of demonstarting what this app can do.
Get Nembrini Audio’s AR Delay here
Big Stuff
Big Stuff is Nembrini’s take on the king of the fuzz pedals, EH’s Big Muff. They’ve accurately recreated that warm, fuzz sound here while wisely keeping things really simple. You have three controls to fiddle with. Volume, Tone and Sustain as well as a handful of presets to get you started.
There’s not really much more to say here honestly. If you’re looking for that Smashing Pumkins esque fuzz sound, this is an essential app to grab.
Get Nembrini Audio’s Big Stuff here
Chow Centaur
If you have more expensive taste in fuzz pedals but don’t want to shell out the literal thousands of dollar bucks for an authentic Klon-like Centaur pedal, Chowdry DSP have got you covered.
ChowCentaur is a digital emulation of the Klon Centaur guitar pedal. The plugin contains two modes. “Traditional” which uses traditional circuit modelling technicues, and “Neural” which uses a recurrent neural network to model the gain stage from the original Klon circuit.
So many people love the Klon Centaur for its transparent and natural-sounding overdrive. It overdrives your signal without coloring the tone in any noticeable way. Chow Centaur absolutely nails this. It does a great job adding gain and warmth without altering the natural tone of your guitars.
If you’re looking for a warmer, more controlled take on fuzz, then this app is for you!
Get Chowdry DSP’s Chow Centaur here
There you have it! 5 Free Music Production Apps Every iPad/iPhone Guitarist Needs! Let me know your thoughts on these freebies in the comments below!