STL Tones Collection for Guitarists — AmpHub, ToneHub and ControlHub in One Toolkit

Every composer who has ever doubled an orchestral cue with electric guitar knows the problem: the part is written, the deadline is close, and the DI sitting in the session sounds like a rehearsal room, not a record. The STL Tones Guitar Bundle was assembled for exactly that distance between an unprocessed direct signal and a mix-ready tone. Developed by the Australian team at STL Tones, the collection does not force one working method on you. Instead it gathers several focused tools — AmpHub, ToneHub, ControlHub, Libra and Tonality: Howard Benson — so you can build a rig piece by piece when time allows, or load a complete captured sound when the cue has to ship tonight.

Two Ways to Build a Guitar Sound

AmpHub is the workshop. Stomp-boxes, amplifier heads, cabinets, microphones and effects are modelled at component level and assembled much as you would assemble real hardware, which suits players who rebuild a rig for every scene or song. ToneHub takes the opposite route. It supplies complete captured rigs voiced by working producers, so the amp, cabinet, microphone and room arrive as one inseparable snapshot and a usable sound is there before you touch a control. ControlHub carries the same philosophy of recall onto the mix bus, storing entire signal chains for instant reuse, and it can also capture your own outboard hardware so a signature chain travels from session to session. Libra works purely as a cabinet and microphone stage after any guitar or bass preamp, while Tonality: Howard Benson draws on the signature guitar sounds of the multi-platinum producer whose name it carries. Expansion material, including the Chris Lord-Alge Trilogy Preset Pack built with the five-time Grammy-winning mix engineer, extends the collection further.

Libra, Cabinets and the Scoring Session

The division between AmpHub and Libra deserves attention, because it mirrors how a real engineer works. AmpHub already contains its own cabinet section, yet Libra replaces that final stage with something far more granular: up to eight impulse responses blended simultaneously. That allows two microphones on the grille, a room pair and a direct blend to be balanced against each other, which is how depth is created on a scoring stage rather than with a single cabinet choice. Because Libra sits after any preamp, it is not locked to STL modelling and will happily follow a third-party amp plugin. In a film or game cue this matters practically. A rhythm part tracked quickly through ToneHub can be committed and forgotten, while a featured lead can be built slowly in AmpHub, its cabinet stage handed to Libra until it sits at the right distance behind strings, brass or a vocal. When a director asks for a revision months later, the chain reopens identically — something a miked cabinet, moved two centimetres between sessions, can never promise. The standalone build included with the suites also covers practice and live use away from the DAW.

Formats, Licensing and System Facts

Every STL plugin in the bundle ships in 64-bit VST2, VST3, AU and AAX, runs natively on Apple Silicon alongside Intel, and uses STL’s own licensing system rather than requiring an iLok account, with three activations per user. Windows 10 is the minimum, with Windows 11 the current supported release; macOS requirements vary by product, with AmpHub listing macOS 10.13 or later and ToneHub listing macOS 10.15 or later. ToneHub specifies at least 4 GB of RAM, with 8 GB or more recommended. AAX support means Pro Tools users are properly served, AU covers Logic Pro and GarageBand, and VST3 covers hosts such as Cubase, Ableton Live, Studio One, Reaper, FL Studio and Bitwig. For composers adding guitar as colour rather than as a headline, that breadth, the recall and the choice between modelling and captures make this bundle a practical, complete toolkit.