Amp ONE vs Guitarix

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.

Guitarix is free software that acts as a virtual guitar amplifier on Linux through the JACK Audio Connection Kit. Mono sound-card input passes through a main amplifier and rack section, which can be routed separately for stereo output via JACK. The rack contains more than 25 effect modules, including noise gate, flanger, phaser, and auto-wah. LADSPA and LV2 plugins can be added, and Guitarix is also available as an LV2 plugin suite for loading amps and plugins in a digital audio workstation. The project names Ardour and supports connection to Rackarrack or another JACK-aware host. It can process synths and other sound generators as well as guitar. The maker says a properly configured Linux system can process signals in no more than 10 ms. Guitarix is standalone software with an IR loader, licensed under GNU GPL version 2. It is listed for Linux and macOS; source can be built for BSD and MacOSX.