The 8 Best Guitar Sample Libraries

Get the essence of a realistic guitar sound in your mix with these sample libraries.

Guitars often make up a central feature of diverse musical and audio projects. Fortunately, not having a physical guitar is no limitation to producing some great guitar sounds. Whether you're after quality classical, acoustic, electric, or bass guitar sounds, nowadays, you can transport the sound of a professional guitarist right into your computer and DAW.

We'll cover the best free guitar sounds around as well as the greatest guitar sample libraries money can buy.

More often than not, free guitar samples lessen the quality of your audio projects due to their clearly inauthentic sound. However, if you search well and effectively use the articulation (playing style) settings, free guitar sample libraries can generate the realistic guitar sound you're after.

Spitfire Audio LABS is one of the best free sample libraries available. It offers a wealth of instruments including a range of guitars you will want to try out. The Electric Guitar samples include a collection of classic guitars ranging from blues to indie, pop, and old school. You can also find in the LABs sample library a Peel Guitar, Moon Guitar, Bass Guitar, and Guitar Harmonics.

The simple and intuitive user interface makes it easy to mix the central effect dial and fine-tune your sound chosen from the vast library LABS offers. For more ways to improve your guitars, learn how to EQ your guitars.

Shreddage 3 Stratus Free is a lite version of its paid counterpart, yet still packs a great sonic punch. The free version lets you play across three octaves, includes 24 samples per note, and you can choose from a few different articulation settings. Within the UI, you can also activate some effects in the built-in mixer.

Both the free and paid version (discussed later on) run on Native Instruments' Kontakt 7 Player. Bear in mind that you will need the full version of Kontakt to use this guitar sample plugin for over 15 minutes.

Standard Guitar by Unreal Instruments contains over 2200 samples and represents a great starting point for those looking to write up some digital guitars. It operates via the free Sforzando player which you can download on Plogue's website.

Standard Guitar stands out for its extensive set of features on offer, including many articulation settings, additional guitar noises, and parameters to edit the fundamental guitar tone. It's worth noting that this guitar library should be combined with amp simulator plugins to get the full guitar sound you're after.

There are some impressive free and paid VST synthesizers if you're looking for great synth sounds.

Guitar M Lite by Ample Sounds represents one of the best free acoustic guitar sounds available on the digital market. This freeware guitar library lets you play a chord in almost 30 different ways, and contains 14 strum notes alongside various distinct articulation settings. These include legato, strumming, and combinations of both simultaneously.

Acoustic guitar lovers looking for a free guitar library should give this one a try.

It should be no surprise that the best paid guitar sample libraries often trick the listener into thinking an analog guitar recording must have taken place. Such high-quality guitar sounds come with, occasionally, considerable price tags, so make sure to check if the developers put their guitar samples libraries on sale.

Native Instruments' collection of Session Guitarist/Bassist sample libraries provides incredible quality and versatility, and will leave you pleasantly shocked.

The realism of these libraries is captured by the vast array of articulation styles that the Prime Bass, for example, includes open, muted, flageolet, and slap & pop for the Plectrum and Finger modes. Combine these rich playing styles with some of the best reverb techniques for guitars to draw out more of the qualities and potential of your guitars.

All in all, the nuances that a live guitar recording captures, such as diverse fingering and plucking styles, can all be reflected in these powerful, rich-sounding guitars. You need to look no further if you're after realism in your digital guitars. All of Native Instruments' guitar libraries run via Kontakt.

Sketch Nylon, another library running on the full version of Kontakt, delivers flawless classical guitar sounds. It offers 1968 chords, 4 types of guitar chords, 41 types of accompaniment, and 5 styles (Baiao, Bossa Nova, Choro, Frevo, and Samba) in its accompanying MIDI pack.

From soft and harsh plucking to muted hits and harmonics, this library emits beautiful classical sounds that can deliver all your classical guitar needs.

Shreddage 3 Stratus outstrips its lite version by offering a wealth of articulation styles, a built-in mixing console, three pickups, a modular FX rack, and more! All these features combine to provide a very high level of realism and versatility for guitar styles ranging from American classic sounds to metal and rock.

You should check out its darker cousin, Shreddage 3 Abyss, which offers over 10,000 excellent samples and all the features to reflect real-life performances. You may want to learn about the different types of audio distortion to further alter the character of your diverse guitar parts.

Ample Sounds specializes in guitar sample libraries and offers quite a selection to choose from. For some of the best electric guitars, try the following guitar sample libraries: Ample Guitar SC for an emulation of the Fender Stratocaster; Ample Guitar LP for an emulation of a Gibson Les Paul 1958 Reissue guitar; and Ample Guitar TC for an emulation of a Fender Telecaster.

With over nine articulation styles, hundreds of presets, and a collection of classic AMP models, cabinets, and mics, this guitar sample collection evokes all the magic of the best live performances. In all likelihood, you'll hesitate before choosing a live guitar recording given the excellent sounds of these guitar sample libraries.

To take the next step in creating a professional-sounding mix, you need to ensure your guitars sound realistic. For an easy-to-use free option, try the guitars in Spitfire Audio LABS, and use Standard Guitar for its versatility. Then, try out the freeware guitar libraries Shreddage 3 Stratus Free and Ample Guitar M Lite.

To go up another level in sonic quality, go for Native Instruments' Session Guitarist/Bassist guitar libraries or Ample Sounds' own guitar library collection. Use Sketch Nylon for an easy-to-use and brilliant classical guitar library, and Shreddage 3 Stratus for some incredible electric guitar sounds.

Bill has 14 years or so of experience as a professional musician playing a few stringed instruments. He has since branched into music production and composition for the last 6 years to play not only a few, but all the instruments. When he's not musicking or writing, you'll find Bill farming.