Native Instruments Guitar Rig VST PC

I've been making music for 40 years, 15 years as a working professional.
I am using version 1.2 as a stand alone and in Sonar 3.1PE.
I write rock songs. Verse, Chorus, Bridge --> you get the picture.
Running on a Dell 9300 laptop with a 2GHz Centrino chip, 1GB ram, 60GB 7200rpm internal hard drive, 250GB external firewire hard drive.
Mackie 24 channel mixer, Mackie 824 monitors.

The interface is extremely simple to navigate. If you use pedals, then you know how to get this thing up and running without the manual.
The Rig Kontrol is a bit quirky. Works flawlessly in stand alone mode, not so in Sonar.
The manual could use a rewrite, especially with all the techincal difficulties you run into with the Rig Kontrol. If it weren't for RK, I would give this a 10. Even a death metalhead can figure this one out.

You can get hypnotized by the psychodelic delay, but don't. Most of the presets have too much of the effects in the mix. Turn them down.

The cool thing is that your humbuckers and single coil pickups will not lose their personality in GR. So a homemade preset for a Warren Haynes 335 set up with a humbucker guitar will sound weak on a Strat or Tele. Conversely, a chiming Star preset will lose much of its clarity when you run a Les Paul into it. Fortunately, you can set up a bank for each of your guitars with 127 presets in each.

I just invented this cool Bill Frisell meets David Gilmour sound by combining my Digitech rack unit with Guitar Rig.

You should hear what it can do with keyboards.

This is certainly geared toward clean to hard rock. I have not found it too be intuitive with metal sounds. But it works great for music.

Was this worth it? Come on. This blows the doors off of anything I've tried for computer use. It is most beneficial when you are laying down guitar parts as textures. Say your first rhythm part, which sounded so full and round when you first recorded it, now sounds too muddy with other guitar parts of top of it. No problem! Now only can you re-EQ it, you can completely change the sound. Remember, GR lays down a dry track that can always be tweaked.

I find it worthwhile to keep the dry track and then bounce it to a track with the GR effects. I then turn off the dry track and save it in case of emergencies.

GR has an issue with latency. As a stand alone, I can run at a 2ms latency. Not even Paul Gilbert is going to feel that delay, but in Sonar with more than one instance of Guitar Rig, you can be over 10ms. That would even mess with Bob Dylan's head.

I am into brutal music - thrash, death and stuff.
I needed a good quality guitar amp simulator. I aimed at a POD product but evrybody claimed that Guitar Rig can produce unlimited number of brutal sounds, so I thought that it was my thing.
I was wrong.

You can figure out this plugin's interface only after you've played with it for at least an hour or so.
It's not intuitive at all - for example the noise gate module is in the "Volume" section, not in "Filters" as one would suppose.
The interface screen is too big for a 15'' monitor.
And you can't do sh*t to resize it - it's just big and that's the way it is. If you still use your old 15'' monitor, Guitar Rig is just pain in the ass.

The sounds are either too muddy, either too fuzzy and never warm - everything sounds so damn digital that you can almost hear Robocop's voice hidden in the mix. The sound SUCKS!
And here comes the winner - i fyou try some settings for brutal genres like death metal, a huge amount of noise, whining and screaming appears. This thing howls as a werewolf. If you try to clean things up using the noise gate you get a ridiculous amount of artifacts because the noise is so huge that it is almost equal to the positive signal and the noise gate can't do sh*t to fix things.
It's awful.
You cannot use this thing for high gain/drive sound. it's useless for making metal.

This plugin sucks so much. It simply sucks.
If you use it as a host, you will experience a huge latency in processing. It starts working with a tolerable latency only if used within a normal VST host.

Buy a POD or even a damn Behringer - they both have fantastic products at half the Guitar Sh*t's price.
What a damn piece of junk!

Been playing about 15 yrs. I have owned most of the different modelers that have come out (digitech, korg ect). Currently I own: Guitar Rig, guitar port (2.5 with model packs),Vox Tonelab SE, Adrenalinn 2,Korg Pandora Px4, Vamp 2, and a recently accquired Genz Benz El Diablo 60c tube combo amp (great sounding and loud). Usually I play my Parker nitefly M or a Ibanez 7 string through these. From the guitars you can tell I favor instrumental/hard rock/heavy metal type of music.

I give ease of use a 7. This is where I think Guitar Rig loses people.First off to try the demo you need some kind of preamp going into your sound card (guitar port works), then I suggest turning the sound quality up to 48000 (41000 does not sound good to me). Next the latency can be a issue for some (mines 2 ms so I've never had that problem, my computer=AMD 64 3200, 1gb ram).The sheer number of options is staggering. The sounds I finally became happy with took some time tweaking to get(distortion sounds). The clean sounds were great right from the start but the preset distortion ones were not what I like.

The sounds I get are great. I've dialed in my hot plexi from satriani/vai to 80's Ratt/Lynch like sounds. The Recto covers the Metallica to Prong/Pantera (with the Dime distortion in front)like sounds.The hallmark of quality for modelers to me is the single note. Any modeler can sound good playing power chords, but playing single notes gives it away for what it is. When you play a single note on a tube amp there's a fullness to it digital modelers dont have, with the exception of Guitar Rig and the Vox valvetronix series. I really like the Vox but to me the Guitar rig sounds better-not to mention you cant really get heavy recto tones with the vox-I've tried.The clean sounds on the Guitar Rig are excellent also. Want five different delays, a plexi and recto. amp split going into a triple stack of 4x12s? With this you can. The amount of mixing and matching/tweaking can provide some really cool/ weird sounds. My favorite plexi sound starts with a tube compressor and wah-wah (triggered on with the foot controller) split into two stomp boxes (pro co rat and big fuzz) mixed into a plexi amp into a noise gate into a rect 4x12 and a orange 4x12 with both cabs enlarged 2.8% into a delay into reverb. Sweet. Add to that two tape decks, a fully customizable wah-wah ( I have four differnt ones I've come up with) and on and on.

This is my favorite piece of gear and absolutely worth every penny. People might get fustrated with it at first but with a little tweaking I think find excellent sounds. The biggest negative I can think of is the need to buy a sound card with L/R inputs ($100 E-MU) for the foot controller,also the learning curve is longer than others. I broke down and bought a 60 watt tube amp (el diablo) to see what the fuss was about with tubes and I must say it sounds excellent-at very high volumes (even with a hot plate). I think for those on a budget guitar port is a no-brainer (cheap and sounds good). For portability I'd go with the Vox Valvetronix series, or if you have somewhere to play it a low-wattage tube amp. For those who play at home most of the time I think the Guitar Rig cant be beat,the number of options to tweak your sound is staggering (new updates/amps/effects coming) and having two tapedecks for jamming or learning a song is icing on the cake. If you try the 1.2 demo make sure you use a preamp (like guitar port) before you go into the sound card- thats how this was made to be used (the foot controller does this).

I have been recording,composing, and playing music for more than 5 years. I use Cubase SX, Sibelius3.I make rock music and I have a commercial studio in the UK.

Everything is visual so you won't get trouble to use the software.Everything was clear, at least for me.

The sound is not excellent but it is a revolutionary. It is really simulating the recording of amps, even the ones you will ever dream of. Loads of sounds to make.But it is actually good for recording if you are not a pro sound-engineer. I don't know how people write reviews as they have only tried the demo version.PLEASE DO NOT WRITE REVIEWS BEFORE YOU HAD A GEAR FOR A YEAR.The pedal is good. The negative side is the price: I think too much.

Price is a bit high.Its better than amplitube which I have bought it.I love some great classical tones from vintage amps. You have to get a speedy CPU with a good soundcard otherwise you will get crappy sound out of your speakers.

I also have posted before but I agree with the previous post about the extreme importance of a quality mic-pre. For convenience, I dont use the included NI Controller blue pedal/direct box. Instead I use a digidesign M-Box ($400) which has a piar of excellent Focus-right mic-pre's.

Sure teh Mbox makes everything I plug in sound much better. So I A/Bed Guitar Rig with and without the Mbox. There is a big difference. Guitar Rig sounds just ok when plugged into direct to a sounds card. HOWEVER, when used with the MBOX, this far and away the best emulated Fender Blackface sound I ever heard. In fact, I dont think anyone can tell the difference between a real 66 Fender Twin and what I played thrui Guitar Rig.

So what does all this mean? NI knows this and thats why they bundled in the Guitar Rig controller.

I would like to see a hardware version of Guitar Rig just for the blackface emulation...

I have already posted a review, so I will not go into details. I just wanted to react to some hardly understandable negative reviews.

It must be clear that the interfacing of a guitar pickup with an electronic device is a determinating factor in sound, be it for harware or software solutions. The preamp in a good guitar amp is extremely important, as everyone is supposed to know. Impedance matching is of utmost importance, as well as a certain number of other factors.

You cannot just plugin a guitar into a soundcard's line input and expect great results. The guitar needs a dedicated interface, specially designed for this purpose. The Rig control does provide this kind of DI. If you try the demo you MUST use a good DI box, designed for guitars. This can be a usual guitar preamp with a line output, but DI's designed for acoustic guitars are OK as well (like LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI). Some soundcards provide dedicated guitar inputs as well. So please, remember this when trying out and/or reviewing this kind of software. Reviews like "I plugged in my guitar into my soundblaster and the sound sucks so this software is worth nothing" should be read as "I don't understand how to get this to work properly, so I shouldn't have written this review".

I'm not affiliated with NI, or whatever other guitar emulation software editor. Just wanted to re-establish some of the truth.

Dirk

Been playing for three years. I used the 1.2 demo stand-along and with Cubase SX. I play mainly rock and alternative and have done a lot of digital recording. I used the software under Windows XP through a Digidesign Mbox.

Ease of use could go either way. I am really into Reason, so I found the interface pretty slick albeit not as advanced as Reason. Someone not familiar with this type of interface might be confused by it. It simulates a rack, so theoretically if you can use real hardware you can use this program. In practice I don't really think that's the case. I hate the fact that the pedals don't look like pedals (like Line-6 did with GuitarPort) they are rack mounted. Ok, the orange distortion rack is the DS-1 and the yellow is the SD-1, got it but, um, not very cool.

Someone wanting to use it only has to get their inputs set up and load a preset. Should be easy enough.

Ok, here's the bad part. The sound sucks. Sorry, NI, but for the price I expected better. Especially considering one could get a POD XT or Vox ToneLab for the same buck. Everything sounds dull, muddy, and lifeless no matter what I tried. The presets are just wanky attempts to show off the effects and for the most part they all suck. Come on, using a Rectfier for the Beatles sound? Every preset is just a half-dozen effects slapped together to make a really wanky sound.

The 1.2 version comes with a ProCo Rat model which I did like, though it sounds nothing like the real deal. That's the thing; you get all these amp and effects models but none of them sound close to the real hardware.

I settled on the Vox 30 model clean with the Rat and a little reverb. It sounded okay, not great. Considering I can get a better sound with the SimulAnalog FREE Guitar Suite (the SD-1 VST against the JCM900 model is awesome) there's no way I would pay for this product.

Not worth the price. Not worth half the price. Being it's still sub-2.0 if you pay full price for this software you are going to have to cough up an upgrade fee next year. If your heart is REALLY set on this I would wait until 2.0 ships and hopefully it will be drastically improved. Amplitube 2.0 is shipping soon as well and I would wait to see that too.

But seriously, just get the POD XT if you like high gain/hard rock or the ToneLab if you are into low gain/classic. You will get real hardware and much better sound. The only plus GR has over them is the ease of mobile recording on a notebook, but you still would have to haul an Mbox or other line-in device around anyway.

I just like clean sound and quality in music and my instruments

I asked for an amp simulator over the internet and I found native instruments site where the whole situation starded. I downloaded the win xp demo application and i saw a wonderful and well designed interface; everything is similar to the real ones except the names. You'll find your way through presest easily but this depends on how much you are experienced with pcs. I find it 9 :)

Well for first time you'll probably find the application very unstable producing lot of hiss and hum, lag between program and guitar but that's NOT true. I was dissapointed cause the program had great capabilities on simulating amps and i found it really cool ignoring all bad things... So i starded searching on how to make it better! And i downloaded asio 4 all drivers so i fixed the latency to 5 ms with a yamaha avance ac97 ! The application became very stable and the latency between me and sound was negligible even from an experienced "ear". Well hum and hiss? Hey, your pc becomes a powerfull amplifier and it needs a very very clean input that the sound card can't offer. Try connecting a simple amplifier between guitar and sound card (a battery one to avoid 50 hz or 60 hz noise - di box or something). Then lower the volume to the minimum so you won't get an extra distortion. Press the learn button in guitar rig and you are ready for smashing and giging. Don't ask your neighbours if they like the new sound, they'll lie. After this correction the sound plays on 10 :)

Not just another amp emulator, this is the amp emulator

I make experimental pop music. I also use Reason and work with synths and electronic beats. For my main instruments I play guitar and sing, but I use other tools/software during production. I have been using Guitar Rig 1.2 now for about a month. I use it in the studio on a Mac dual-800 computer and an M-audio soundcard. I also use DP4. Right now I am playing Guitar Rig through my Yamaha P.A. but I have Behringer Truth's coming in a few days. For equipment (because the database asked) I have 2 other mac G3's, which I use for soft-synths mostly, a Mackie sr24-4 VLZ Pro, Korg Trinity, 2 compressors, Alesis Midiverb, midi-router, Pearl Electronic drum set, Yamaha Keyboard, Alesis Sound Module, Alesis Air-FX, Tube Screamer, gigadelay, Intelliphase and a really old organ.

Super easy. Only having trouble in a couple areas but that is not the programs fault. I'm quite proficient with computers and am still having trouble building my own banks. I'll figure it out soon enough but it could be a bit easier. Seamless operation in DP4, even with Rig Kontrol. Surprisingly, I actually like the foot pedal; sturdy, cool design, little small but it works for me. I don't recommend using bare feet with it, but with shoes on its fine.

I love the sound. I'm not a vintage guitar afficianado, but I can hear. Its awesome! I am more of a sound artist, though; I'm not looking for perfect emulation and wouldn't know it even if it was perfect. I just love the sounds this program makes. The hiss from the amps (which some people love because of the realness factor) I could live without at times. The psychedelay is beautiful and the clean tones as well as the distorted ones work great for what I'm doing. I am definitely using this program in a live setting. I run it through a gigadelay and do a lot of layering/looping. I find guitar synthesis very appealing and this program does that with style.

Totally worth the price. Although, I got a good deal on it because a friend of mine is a dealer. I'm a non-traditional guitarist. I only play with 5 strings, to begin with. I like to paint with sound and this program allows me to do that without the hassle of a gazzilion pedals and cables and heavy amps. For recording its great and 6 months from now I'll probably say the same about it for live gigging, which I plan on doing soon with it. Even though I'm not an guitar amp afficianado, I don't believe the reviews saying the sound of this software sucks. It doesn't. It's actually sounds simply wonderful and I've heard responses others who do know guitars/amps that agree. It is processor intensive and I think now is the time for me to get a G5. Should everyone use it? No. Just like all gear, it works for some, for others it doesn't. Hope this review helps.

How long have you been making music? What instruments do you play? 30_ yrs
What is the software version number of the plug-in? 1.2
What application(s) do you use the plug-in with? Pro Tools LE 6.7 & MBOX
What are you using the plug-ins for? What kind of music do you make? Recording Guitars at home studio.
What kind of computer and what operating system are you using? imac G5, 1 gig ram
What is your primary listening equipment? (soundcard to headphones, digital monitors, etc. Mbox with Bose headphones

See Below

How does it sound? In a mix? Any tricks to make it better?

This is a brilliantly designed accurate amp modeler. In particular, the Fender Blackface amp is the most accurate I have ever heard. Nearly as good as the real thing because of the control you have over the sound. 4 x 10's or 1x 12 spkr cabinet etc.

While the user interface is very intuitive in concept, it does take a 20 min read thru the manual to get a full operational understanding. That said, you can use existing presets instantly. Plus Native Instruments now has users posting custom patches. Like Stevie Ray Vaughn, Santana, Jimi, etc.

While I appreciate the other negative posts, I just don?t understand them. I have used Amp Farm, Amplitude Nigel from UAD-1. They do a poor job in comparison to Guitar Rig. .Plus I don?t use the Controller footswitch. I am using a Digidesign Mbox which has a pair of Focusrite pre-amps. This provides similar functionality to the controller's Direct BOx features. And I like the focusrite sound better. Perhaps this adds to my positive the experience? Who knows. Anyway I love this product.

This is a excellent product

-This is a pricey plug-in no doubt. But still excellent.

I have used Amp Farm, Amplitude Nigel from UAD-1. They do a poor job in comparison to Guitar Rig. .