Amp Locker vs Gjalla

Amp Locker is a guitar sound-shaping suite built around virtual amps, stompboxes, cabinets, and effects. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux as a standalone app or plug-in. The free download includes the Prestige 1950 amp, seven FX pedals, seven rack effects, and 11 three-dimensional cabinets with 11 microphones. Users can adjust pedals and rack effects and move microphones around the cabinets. Other listed tools include double tracking emulation, MIDI support, an IR loader, and the 3D Cab Impact algorithm. The stated plug-in formats are AU, VST3, RTAS, and AAX. More gear modules can be licensed individually inside the application, and optional extras include DSP and AI amp profile players. The $5 a month subscription covers Amp Locker and Mix Locker modules, but excludes 3D Cab add-on packs and signature amp sims such as Berry Amp. Cancelling the subscription deactivates the plug-in. The license limits installation to machines where the licensee is the sole user and bars machines that could redistribute plug-ins to other computers.

Gjalla is a free, open-source guitar amp simulator for black metal and other raw styles. Sognevo, a one-person project making dark-music audio plugins, provides it for Windows, macOS, and Linux as VST3, CLAP, and, on macOS, AU, plus a standalone application. The processing chain includes input trim, noise gate, pedal, preamp, tone stack, power section, presence, cabinet, frost, and output trim. Its pedal offers 90s distortion, HM-2-style chainsaw, and starved-transistor fuzz voicings. Three analytic cabinets are included; WAV or AIFF impulse responses up to two seconds can be loaded, or the cabinet can be disabled for an external loader. Six factory presets, meters, editable knob values, undo and redo, tooltips, and a resizable interface are provided. Host latency is reported as six samples, stated as 0.13 ms at 48 kHz. There is no packaged release yet, so users must build from source or follow GitHub releases. A build requires Git, CMake 3.22 or later, and a C++20 compiler. Gjalla is GPLv3-or-later and has no telemetry, network access, update checks, or accounts.