Gjalla vs TH-U

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.

TH-U is a guitar and bass amp simulation plug-in that combines amp modeling, captured rig playback, and Fluid IR processing. TH-U Premium includes 89 guitar amplifiers, four bass amplifiers, 50 guitar cabinets, two bass cabinets, 18 microphone models, and more than 1,000 factory presets. Its Rig Player provides access to more than 32,000 captured rigs. Premium includes SuperCabinet with 1,728 Fluid IRs; users can export a cabinet as a WAV impulse response or load conventional IRs for processing. TH-U also provides a MIDI-controllable polyphonic transposer and MIDI controls that can be learned from the interface. Desktop versions are available as AudioUnit, VST, and AAX64 plug-ins or as a standalone app, with listed support for Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Cubase, Ableton Live, Studio One, and REAPER. Desktop compatibility is macOS 10.14 or later and Windows 10 or later. TH-U iOS is a standalone and AUv3 app for iOS 13 or later. A 15-day trial is available; TH-U Premium is listed at €269, paid once, with separate upgrade prices for eligible owners.