Amp ONE vs Gjalla
Amp ONE
mercuriall.comGjalla
sognevo.comSide by side
| Figure | Amp ONE | Gjalla |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Guitar Amp Software | 8.4 (#3) | 7.6 (#12) |
| Integrations | The maker lists AudioBus and Inter-App Audio support. | Gjalla can be loaded in a DAW as VST3, CLAP, and, on macOS, AU; it also has a standalone version. |
| Privacy | Apple's listing says the developer has not provided details about the app's privacy practices and data handling. | The maker states that Gjalla has no telemetry, network access, update checks, or accounts. |
Plans
In their own words
Amp ONE
Amp ONE is a free iPad application for real-time guitar preamp and cabinet simulation with effects. It turns an iPad into a modeled tube-preamp and cabinet setup, using pretrained artificial neural network models for circuit simulation. Listed preamps include Marshall JCM800, Cornford Harlequin, Engl E530, Krank models, an American hi-gain amp, EVH 5150 III and Fender Blues Junior III. Cabinet power-amplifier behavior is modeled through convolution. Effects include an adjustable noise gate, swell-capable fade timing, four stereo chorus models, delay and reverb. Snapshot and preset functions can save all settings or selected sections. Amp ONE supports AudioBus and Inter-App Audio. The stated requirements are an Apple iPad 2 or later and iOS 7.1 or later; an external audio interface is required to connect a guitar. The App Store listing says it is designed for iPad and is not verified for macOS. Apple’s listing provides no developer privacy details.
Gjalla
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.