Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3 VST PC

Finally got around to writing this long overdue review.
I've been playing guitar for about 10 years and just sold my last tube amp thanks to GR3. I use this either as a standalone or with Sonar when I'm recording. My PC is a Dell 4550 Pentium 4 2Ghz processor with 1 Gig of ram. I use the Rig Kontrol 3 hardware foot controller/audio interface for my soundcard and I have a KRK rokit RP8, M-audio Studio Pro 3's, and Behringer HPS500 Headphones for monitoring. Guitar is an Epiphone '66 custom shop SG.

Best UI in the BIZ! Amplitube, GTR 3, Vintage Amp Room, Revalver, none are even close to the workflow of GR3. That being said, to truly get the most out of this software takes extensive knowledge and time. It took me a good 6 months before I was totally happy with the results. The GR2 manual was much better than GR3's but NI is working on a new manual to be included with the 3.1 update.
GR3's manual is ok but no where near as comprehensive as the previous versions manual was.
Full midi and automation support is available with this soft but I jsut use the RK3 hands off control.

The sounds available from this software are nothing short of amazing. Most of these amp/effect models are VERY close to the real thing. That being said,some of the older models really show their age when played alongside the new v3 amps and don't quite respond to picking dynamics as well as the newer amps. The new amp models are simply breathtaking.
This software is vast. I don't mean "vast" as in Roseanne's pantry, I mean Atlantic Ocean type vastitity. The soundscapes that can be accomplished with GR are nearly endless. If your not careful you'll be so busy assigning envelop modifiers and analog sequencers to create different effects and textures that you won't get any actual playing done at all.
Always make sure that you have a good set of monitors before trying to judge GR3 objectively. I used my cheapo M-audio Monitors/desktop speakers for a long time and was never satisfied with my tone. It wasn't until I upgraded to the KRK's that I decided to sell my tube rig and go for a pure GR3 rig.

GR3 is well worth the money spent. NI is a great company that really listens to their customers. Shortly after purchasing GR2 in October of 2006 I started to request that they include my favorite amp of all time, a vintage Orange, in a future version of the update. The new Oranges are more popular than the vintage ones are nowadays and hardly anyone knows the differences between the old and new models. Other people on the NI forums seconded the desire for an Orange model but few if any were specific concerning what model should be copied. A short year later I got the announcement in my e-mail that NI has modeled the Orange OD120 in the new Version 3. Given the popularity of new Orange models such as the Rockerverb and AD140, I can't help but feel like NI answered my wishes specifically by adding this rarely known gem of tube amps into the newest version of GR3. Now that's customer support!
The only other time that I've had to deal with NI support was right after GR3 had been released. A rep for NI posted a message on their forum stating that the original plan to ship a hardware/software upgrade including both the new Rig Kontrol 3 and the GR3 software upgrade had been rejected and no such upgrade would be offered in it's place. On this knowledge I purchased the software only update from NI's site. Shorlty afterwards I noticed that some distributors were offering the Hardware/Software upgrade for a much better price than the purchase of the two seperately (apparently some had been shipped prior to the decision to kill this version of the upgrade). Needless to say, I was enraged. I contaced the NI sales department in Germany and they immediately gave me a full refund and an apology. Good folks.

Been playing guitar for about 6 years. I bought the latest upgrade software to upgrade from version 2, which I was really pleased with. I use Guitar Rig 3 with Mackie Tracktion 2, and play mostly Heavy Metal/Heavy Rock.

Although the interface works well enough and it is straightforward in use, the real problem is in the dire customer support when things go wrong. I tried to move the software to a specially built pc to be used only for guitar playing/recording, but had to give up and revert to my older pc. The new pc had 2 GB Ram, and an AMD Dual Core processor, and easily exceeded the recommended minimum requirements, but keeps going wrong and crashing. All other software on it works fine, and Line 6 Toneport works on the new pc with no problems whatsoever. Customer Support ignored most of my emails, or replied over 2 weeks later with one sentence replies stating nothing more than what was the next obvious thing to try and which I'd tried already!!! Would never buy Native Instruments software again.

Sound quality is excellent and I don't agree with some Tube amp fans that software can sound awful. I have mostly tube amps which include the Cornell Plexi head, Marshall DSL401, Orange AD30, AD5 and Tiny Terror, & Matamp Mini-mat, so I have a good selection of various tube amps, but there is definitely a place in that setup for the excellent sounds that can be obtained from Guitar 3 (if it works!!)

The interface is much better than Line 6 Toneport, and the sound quality is very slightly better on most amps. However, the customer support is rubbish, and the software is temperamental compared to Toneport, which seems to work on any reasonable computer and with any other software. For example, Guitar Rig 3 wouldn't work with Acoustica Mixcraft, but Toneport did without any problems.

I won't risk any further updates because of the problems I've experienced trying to get the software to work on my new computer. It works on the old computer so I now use it on that, but because it doesn't work on the new one I can no longer use it with my preferred recording software, and I now just use Guitar Rig 3 for guitar practice.

Playing guitar for 35 years. Been trying every gadget and product I could get my hands on all the while. Current chain Ibanez JS 1000>
Guitar Rig 3 Kontrol ed. footboard> Dell Inspiron 6000 (Pentium 4, single core, 1.50 GHz, Upgraded to two 1GB Kingstons=1.99 GB ram, Running windows XP SP2). Soundcard is Sigma Tel C-Major Audio.
>Guitar rig 3 (Upgraded to 3.1.04 I believe)> footboard> Sennheiser HD 280 Pro 64 ohm headphones. Use stand alone or as plugin (effects) in Cubase (NI Pro 52 vs.2.2) My music ends up sounding like I've most influenced by Pink Floyd.

Reading all the reviews for this product is what prompted me to draft this. This is for all the " Jeez this sounds like crap" reviewers and as a reinforcement for the readers who are seriously contemplating purchasing this and come here, as I do, for the feedback. Hey man, there is a quite serious, very real and pertinent learning curve to get ahead of to go from basically useless, sounds HORRIBLE, (Where I was stuck for many MANY days) to "Well heck, this thing sounds pretty good, I can justify spending almost 600 bucks" ( Where I waded around in the shallows for the next several weeks, Spending literally days on end learning the sound engineering aspect of it all and reading any review and forum post I could find. etc.) To where I'm at now. Plug and play and IT IS TRULY STUNNING!!!!!! So I'm giving category a "5"
1 says 'what a pain' which it really was, good productive pain but pain none the less, and 10 says 'totally straightforward' which once setup correctly, ON A COMPUTER THAT CAN RUN IT, It is an absolutely straightforward , MUCH easier to use than all the %$#*& gear, and sounds EVEN BETTER

TOP DRAWER!!

Tricks, No tricks. Ya got to buckle down and study the engineering , theory behind the actual function. If you aren't running at least the specs on a windows machine I am, Forget ever writing a review like this one. I must share that you need to learn the difference between windows and Mac as an OS. Windows "thinks ahead" which makes it the poor choice of the two for processing "LIVE" audio . You have to turn off or disable All unnecessary stuff so it can focus on signal processing. Best tool for me was Tune-up utilities 2007 scan/set for performance it'll tell you what to do. read the help, the forums etc. NI Got RIGHT back to me re. any questions. If you aint got it yet, go download DPC Latency Checker v1.1.0 it's free , you'll see, it'll tell you too.
Is my guitar expressive with this?? Oh boy !!!!

Wouldn't sell it for 5 grand it she were the last one.
Compared to starting out with a Tommy Sholtz Rockman with phones about 15 or so years ago to damned near everything in between including 'Amplitube 2" Line 6 POD. etc. etc.
Love so much about it. Check the features, they ALL work as advertised.
Granted some of the "Stock" distortions as I've read so many complain about need tweaked but this is FULLY doable. Again, learn the engineering, at least the basics. This is signal processing, You can do just about ANYTHING with the signal within these programs or simply run you pedals as normal before the rig. Would like to give it an 11. Truly a magnificent works. I look at the program as a gift because what I've learned about my own computer has been worth every penny. Hell my flight sim that I considered glitchy and cheesy came to life too as a result. Please don't email me unless you have done your homework, I will know and block. More than welcome any new friends that understand what I'm saying here for mutual brain picking.