Overview

The Metal Amp of Legends

In 1994, unimpressed with and tired of the tones available in other amps, Peter Diezel set out to create his perfect sound by building his own amp, the Diezel VH4. Once the word got out, the VH4 quickly established itself as a serious guitarist’s must have amp, making its way to the rigs of such legends as Metallica, Tool, Journey and many others. At the time the VH4 was released, it was a truly revolutionary design that offered a ton of flexibility and user-friendly features. To this day, the Diezel VH4 lives in a league of its own.

At the heart of the VH4 is a 100 watt output section coupled with four distinct preamp channels that provide everything from ultra clean tones to massively distorted madness. The four channels (Clean; Crunch; Mega and Lead) are packed with unparalleled tonality, definition and superb clarity. At lower gain settings, you can easily play with the now-classic Diezel sparkly sheen. But kick the gain up a notch and you'll take the Clean channel into the more aggressive Townshend/Hiwatt zone.

The Difference Is In The Channels

Channel 1 (Clean)

This channel was created to offer pristine clean sounds, rich with harmonics and power. Setting the gain control somewhere in the upper third range will yield a mild and warm tone. While dialing in the gain at lower settings will produce more percussive and penetrating clean sounds. This tonality is reminiscent of a cross between a Fender Twin and a Hiwatt 100, yet with a smoother dynamic response.

Channel 2 (Crunch)

A true companion for anyone who enjoys playing the blues. You can really hear this channel shine in the lower frequency range. Here you can get everything from clean to distorted and due to the different voicing, the 2nd channel can sound a bit softer than Channel 1 in clean mode while also get close to Channel 3’s tone in higher gain mode. It is here where you can access the musical raw power of the VH4.

Channel 3 (Distortion)

A Heavy Metal player’s dream, this channel is all about a tight rhythm section. With added compression, the tone in this channel becomes more limited in dynamic range, especially in the lower frequencies. This small loss is compensated for by a negative feedback loop which adds a thick low end without dirtying up the mid range. You can use the ‘Deep’ knob in the master section to have a more precise control of the lows. The gain structure in Channel 3 was built to deliver an outstanding distorted sound even with guitars that have a rather low output. You can start out with the gain at 12 o’clock and go from there while shaping your tone.

Channel 4 (Ultra High Gain)

With more mids than Channel 3, use Channel 4 to get a beautiful lead tone. This channel can really help you cut through the band and carve out your own sonic space. Feel free to set the gain around 1 o’clock to get a roaring high gain distortion that can truly soar. Using the volume control here can be really helpful to match the other channel volumes.

Extra Digital Power

Taking things a step further, Brainworx added an FX rack that contains a Noise Gate, switchable high and low-pass filters, and a Power Soak circuit that provides an easy way to tweak the overdrive, without having to boost the output gain. Another great feature that you can only harness from the plugin version of the amp is the 100+ recording chains (Impulse Responses) that were derived from a number of well known cabinets and recorded through Brainworx’ vintage Neve console with a huge selection of vintage microphones and outboard gear, all amounting to the ‘record ready’ tones instantly.

Don’t sleep on this beast of an amp and try it out in your DAW today!

Features

  • Exacting emulation of the original Diezel VH4 Tube Guitar Amp Plugin fully approved by Peter Diezel and Peter Stapfer
  • Sonically flexible amp head with iconic high-gain tones
  • 4 completely independent channels cover a massive range of tones
  • Global Presence and Depth controls
  • 100 watts of KT77 tube tone
  • 120 Brainworx’ Recording Chains (advanced impulse responses) included
  • FX Rack include host-syncable lo-fi delay, noise gate, tight and smooth filters, power soak, pre and power amp bypass

Audio Examples

Industry Reviews

  • Shaun Lopez

    Shaun Lopez

    Deftones, Crosses, The Revolution Smile

    As an owner of a Diezel hardware amp, this is somewhat scary. The plugin version sounds really amazing. This will be my go to for in the box dirty guitars.

  • Audio Militia Studios

    Audio Militia Studios

    I love that Plugin Alliance spent so much time crafting the Factory Presets. This means no more wasting endless hours tweaking your sound. Choose a preset, tweak slightly according to your… Read More

  • Peter Diezel

    Peter Diezel

    Founder Diezel Amplification

    Brainworx did an amazing job. This plugin sounds so good!

Customer Reviews

  • Huge, convincing sound

    ★★★★★
    by Industrial Strength Disco
    Goodbye hardware amps. And, maybe, just maybe, goodbye third-party IR packs. I am currently running both standard and baritone guitars through this, and I'm left wanting nothing more. Tip: use a… Read More
  • My favourite metal amp

    ★★★★★
    by Carl
    As a metal recording artist and producer, I want that hi-gain sound that would be too much for any other genre. This plugin really delivers the goods. Incredibly heavy sound.
  • VH4

    ★★★★☆
    by Cheesecutter
    Lots of good tones to be had across the four channels of this amp . You can cover a lot of ground with this sim.
  • Insane

    ★★★★★
    by Fabian
    Insane o_O
  • thumbs up from an anti-amp sim guy

    ★★★★★
    by Keating
    I have no clue if this sounds like an actual VH4, because I will probably never be able to afford one. But this amp sim is super sick. The thing can get comically heavy tones out of it.

Specifications

Supported Plugin Formats
AAX Native, AU, AAX AudioSuite, VST2, VST3

Supported Operating Systems
macOS 14 down to macOS 11
Windows 11 down to Windows 10

Mac
Intel, or Apple Silicon

PC
x64-compatible CPU

System Requirements
Display resolution: 1440 × 900px or 1280 × 960px or higher
Memory: 2 GB RAM

Downloads

With the Installation Manager you can select, download & install all the Plugin Alliance products. Select any and all formats you need for your system! Mac & PC.

ChangeLog

VH4

Diezel VH4 - Changelog

Version 1.5.1 (Oct 9, 2023)
- General: fixed CPU spikes on Mac OS

Version 1.5.0 (Aug 15, 2023)
- General: added native Apple Silicon compatibility for AAX
- General: added macOS Ventura support
- General: improved plugin loading time in the DAW
- General: fixed issue causing Logic to crash when closing the plugin UI
- General: improved font drawing behavior

Version 1.4 (Mar 15, 2022)
- General: added native Apple Silicon compatibility for VST3, VST2 and AU
- General: added macOS Monterey support
- General: added Windows 11 and Windows 10 21H1 support
- General: discontinued Windows 7 support
- General: discontinued macOS 10.9 and 10.11 support
- General: fixed metering behavior in block sizes of 2048 samples and higher

Version 1.3 (Mar 22, 2021)
- General: Compatibility with Logic on Apple Silicon devices via the Rosetta-2 layer
- General: Fixed possible artefacts when freezing or bouncing tracks in Pro Tools
- General: Fixed automation highlighting disappearing in Studio One
- General: Improved license dialog visibility in dark mode

Version 1.2 (May 27, 2020)
- General: Qualified for use with the Windows 10 May 2020 Update
- General: VST3: Fixed potential hangs in a DAW upon loading
- General: Fixed logical issues in undo / redo behavior
- General: Fixed UI resizing issues in Ableton Live on Windows
- General: Fixed audio processing initialization issues on amp and delay products
- Enhanced factory presets

Version 1.1 (Nov 06, 2019)
- General: Qualified for use with macOS 10.15 Catalina
- General: Qualified for use with Windows 10 November 2019 Update
- General: Fixed plugin validation in Logic under macOS Catalina
- General: Fixed preset name restore in Logic when reopening a session
- General: Fixed opening authorization dialog triggering automation
- General: Improved instantiation times for plugins
- General: Improved license functionality and branding for subscription
- General: Removed 32-bit support on macOS and Windows

Version 1.0 (Nov 16, 2019)