Zak Sound Offers Free Sapphire Guitar Virtual Instrument

Zak Sound released Sapphire Guitar, a freeware virtual guitar instrument in VST and AU plugin formats for Windows and macOS.

The guitar is making a comeback, and as a result, virtual guitar plugins are increasing in popularity.

This plugin features an aesthetically pleasing, user-friendly interface and includes 18 different stringed instruments created from actual recordings of guitars.

The company says that they recorded various guitars such as “acoustic, electro-acoustic, electric, folk, and classical.”

Adding to the tonal variety, Zak Sound mentions that each recording was played differently, with “techniques like palm-muted, open strings, fretboard notes, harmonics, and short notes.”

These intricacies add up to create a dynamic plugin that’s useful for all producers.

Once an instrument is selected, users can then dive into selecting modifiers such as an LPF, HPF, and ADSR. There is also a reverb and width control to further expand the sound.

In addition to these basic tonal controls, five knobs add a unique ambient texture.

Each knob adds a specific vibe to the selected guitar sound and adds a lot of presence- especially useful to create sounds that stand out in the mix!

I found these ambient texture knobs added a lot of creative variety to this plugin. I was able to add little bits of grit to enhance the presence or add a lot of texture and create an almost lo-fi-sounding guitar.

The plugin also includes a built-in LFO with speed, waveform, and depth controls for those looking for even tonal control.

ZAK Sound provided some additional information for our article: 

“We created Sapphire Guitar not with the idea of making a conventional guitar plugin, but of creating something out of guitars. That’s why we recorded a lot of guitars with different techniques using condenser microphones and line recordings. Then we process all the samples in our studio to create the virtual instruments. To the final result, we added five ambient and atmospheric textures that can be controlled independently.”

There is such a high prevalence of virtual guitar hooks in top 40 songs these days, and producers could easily use Sapphire Guitar to write their next hip-hop hit!

To download this plugin, follow the link to the Zak Sound website and click “Get it for free.” Fill out your shipping information, “Place order,” and you’ll receive the download and installation instructions.

Sapphire Guitar is compatible with Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, or macOS El Capitan to Monterey. It works with 64-bit hosts and DAWs that support VST3 and AU plugin formats.

Download: Sapphire Guitar (1.3 GB download, 64-bit VST3/AU plugin format for Windows & macOS)

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