Native Instruments Guitar Rig VST PC

Playing 8 years, making music for 4 years.
I Play piano,guitar.
Guitar Rig 3
Logic,Garageband
Recording Demo's
Any type of music
Intel MacBook Pro
B.C Rich Beast

The interface was okay. No problems installing. One of my cheap pedals would work better than this. Some ease, since I had to install it.(Sarcastic) Very hard to get a good sound. Was never able to get an even decent sound.

The sound is absolutely horrible. I can't believe people would pay to use this. There is not one sound in this software that works good. Even with noise reduction there is a horrible hissing sound. My friends amp from the 60's works better. It does NOT create every tone imaginable. Certainly not a "dream" for a guitarist. Horrible tone, unrealistic. No sound I found on there provides something crisp. I would be impressed if this came out 10 years ago.

I hope people will think twice. Waste of money,time, and save your ears, its not worth it. The demo's sound perfect. the actual sounds are unbelievably junk. I would compare it to a children's band comprised of 4 year olds. I am completely disappointed in Native Instruments. I love nothing about it, the only thing even considerably good would be the "clean tone" you get when there is no distortion or anything. I wish it would have been made better than one of my standalone pedals. A Rocktron is even better than this. Only good to play around with. Should never be used to record a guitar or even vocals for that matter.

Playing & writing music for 24 years
Toured the U.S.A.
Music Degree.
Studio owner

Intel dual core 2.4 GHZ, 4gb RAM
Nuendo 2.0, RME Multiface
API, Avalon, Neve preamps
AKG, Shure, ADK, Blue mics
Mesa Boogie, Bogner, Fender amps
Gibson, Brian Moore, Parker, Ibanez guitars

This is easy if you are familiar with computer audio

Not completely useless, but not even close to great. If you have real amps and real mics and real mic pres and know how to mic a 4x12 - this software will not compare. It's ok to use it as a "pre-production demo" but for real air-moving TONE, sorry, no score. Modeling always sounds small if you A/B it to a well-recorded amp. No exceptions. You will not see any of the big boys trading in their prized amp collections for Guitar Rig, no matter what the salesman at GC tells you.

It works. If you have a nice sound card that is properly configured, the latency is not noticeable.

I play the guitar since 1987.

Pretty intuitive interface.

Effects sound is very nice.
Plenty of effects and cabnets/mike emulation.
Problems to deal with built-in soundcards (must have external sound interface to avoid feedback). Maybe NI could put some feedback supressor algorithm to fix it.

Just one important missing effect: an intelligent pitch shifter and/or intelligent harmonizer.
A polyphonic pitch-to-midi converter would be very useful to control vst synths with the gutar, too.

Been playing guitar and recording for 25 years.
I have worked in music shops and owned just about every top valve amp possible
currently own Diezil vh4 ,Mesa boogie triaxis and 2-90 power amp
Vox ac30 ac10 Fender twin ,deluxe, 64 black face etc etc
Not trying to blow any trumpets but from the above i hope you can tell i think i know what a good valve amp should sound like

Easy rack drag and drop usage

Sounds great directly a/b models and the real deals
and by the time the the real deals have been eq.d and compresed
there's not alot in it.
New 2ms latency on fast computer improves feel
totally usable

Worth every penny once you trust in what your hearing

I've been playing guitar since 1996 and recording since 2000. I use the version 2 software and it really kicks ass! I use it as a plug-in for cubase sx 3.1 and the standalone version. I make several kinds of music funkrock, jazz and metal. I use Windows and i own a e-mu 1820m soundsystem.

This software is very easy to use just click on your mouse and you got what you like. Both the standalone as the plug-in version.

I tried recordings with line 6 (podxt) and miking my fender amp but this sounds a million times better. It's really great and i don't really like plug-ins but this is uncompromised software.

It was worth every euro i spend on it. There is no plug-in for guitar better than this. I compare it with many software but this is a class on his own. I own a great pc so it does not kill the cpu.

I have played guitar for over 15 years. I have owned and played out with a lot of different tube amps (Marshall JCM 900, Mesa Boogie Dual Rec, Mesa Mark II, Fender Twin, Fender Princeton, Fender Deville, etc) and done some recording using a guitar POD.
I currently have a demo version of Guitar Rig 2 and do a lot of recording with ACID - basically use loops to lay drum tracks and record tracks over it live. I also use Guitar Rig in small sessions at my house through a cheap EMU 0404 and a home built 1.2Gig AMD computer with about 1.5 gigs RAM.

Very easy - the presets are not my favorite but to me, serve as a starting point of the features and interface. I have a value pro-sumer sound card I got under 100 bucks and have had no problems. I sometimes need to re-boot to get rid of clicks but that is due to my set-up and not the software.

The tone I can get out this is simply amazing. I would never have thought that I could get digital to sound good live. I use the guitar pod to boost the signal to compensate for the low input of my sound card. I borrowed a good pre-amp and was very happy with that (better than the pod).

I think that software is over priced and that is why I have not bought it. But this is the real deal and worth it if you really think that you want digital recording of guitar tracks.

I've been using Computer and outboard DSP solution since around 1990. I play, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, etc. I intended to use this unit for live performance in Jazz and Rock trios and quartets. My intended computer is a p4 2.66 512 meg HP Pavillion running XP home edition sp2. I mostly use Mackie HR-824s abd Genesis monitors and mackie mixers.

I really like this interface. The install is clean, but you can not get any support until you register the install with NI. This makes it tough to try to find the optimal computer based on trial and error. The manual is just OK but fine for the main functions.

Basic sounds are fine but the glitch noises are really a problem. As mentioned above I am trying to use this application and the GR II floorboard/interface for live performance. My computer is a p4 2.66 512 meg HP Pavillion running XP home edition sp2. No other applicatins running. Nice sounds but constant fear of a crack or crunch at any time, but especially with reverbs and echos.

Very cool, but not usable and not recommended for anything other than a toy. I will install it next on my 2 - 1.25 gig processor 1 gig Mac G4. It's the one where I run Protools and Waves GTR (TDM) flawlessly. My guess is that NI GR II will sound and work fine there. But, I can't haul that rig around with me and the Waves GTR works fine. So, having i work well on my Mac does not do me any good. Ultimately I am going to have to authorize the GR II on the HP so I can get some support. Maybe a gig of memory will solve the glitch problem. Stay tuned ...

Rock producer, 15 years.

The interface is pretty good, drag and drop with well thought out control interface.

Same vile copy protection that persecutes the honest, and doesn't do anything to stop crackers.
Don't count on an easy re-install.

Just used the Guitar rig on a session for a week.
I tried most of the modules bit only spent time with a few, so this is a selective review.
Guitar was recorded into a summit valve pre, into appogee converters. Amek desk, Adam and dynaudio monitors.

Modelling or ("dynamic") convolution seems to provoke resonances that do not occur in real-life amp use, the response of a modeller being a snapshot of an amp/cab under specific circumstances. low notes can boom or lose body as the natural non-linear mechanisms which damp these resonances/notches are absent.

Touch sensitivity is important to me, and whilst the guitar rigs dynamics are ok for hi preamp gain sounds, which compress/clip the hell out of the signal, the power-amp drive feel is fairly flat, Maybe better than the pod2, but still firmly in the "modelling" bracket.

My favourite amp is represented here, though I havn't yet heard a single modeller come close, I still havn't: The Plexi is flabby in the low end, and the brightness is fizzy and unfocussed. When it's tight, it's cold, and when it's warmer, it's woofy.
This is actually one of the worst Plexi models I've heard.

The twin is quite good, the attack of the notes is quite bouncy and the compression convincing, on higher gain settings, it can lose a little authenticity, I get the feeling that the gain structures in all the models here suffer from the same underlying fizz.

Forget the fuzz. The whole deal with a fuzzface is that it will react to the volume knob of the guitar, offering sounds from highly dynamic, shimmeringly clean right through to fat even-harmonic squish. This box only does a woolly squish.

The closed-cabs didn't have the woodiness and complex comb filtered effect I look for when recording. Getting that 4*12 thump is tough too, though the ability to select and shift around multiple mic selections goes *some* way to setting up the classic roomy, slightly phased sounds. I've been doing the same with my own cab impulse responses.
I fear whoever collected the impulses of the cabs doesn't know some of the production mic/preamp tricks to use on each individual cab type.

Overall I thought the guitar rig was disapointing. Some nice interface ideas, but with the same flat lack of liveliness that is inherent in so many models.
Still, models are selling, and while they sell, there's no need to make them better - well, maybe for the upgrade.(!?)

NOTE : THIS is for Guitar RIG 2.

I have been making music for 15 years or so. You can listen at soundclick.com Michael Angel. Most of the songs were recorded using Line 6 xt or guitarport. I am writing the review for Guitar Rig 2.
I downloaded the demo and am using through Behringer "the Truth" monitors (an AWESOME set of powered monitors, by the way). I plugged into my guitarport and the software automatically recognized by guitar and I was off and playing with guitar rig.

The interface is Incredible ! It is drag and drop easy (in any order !)
Any combination of any effects, amps (can have more than 1 running on same or different channels -- The sansamp and the Mesa together is heaviest sound on planet. You can just drag the effects around in different orders which blew me away. The Sound is PHENOMENAL. When I plugged in my les paul it sounded better than any modeler I've tried or used. The Crunch and distorted sounds allowed for the full chords to be heard. The line 6 you really have to tweak to get the best sounds. EVERY Sound I tried sounded Great w/out tweaking anything.

I WILL purchase one of these bad boys w/in the week. Think of it, $500 gives you 8 amps, hundreds of choices of wah pedals, overdrives, phasers, harmonizers, pitch shifters, choruses , reverbs that sound dead on. The foot controller is completely programmable w/ any parameter and it is simply drag & Click.

AWESOME --- TRY IT !!
NO tweaking neeeded for awesome sounds.
EVERY processor I have tried seems artificial and doesn't seem to have a
"true" amp sound. This does.
The ability to have two amps running simultaneosly is Way cool. I had multiple phasers panning left and right in clean while my leads were soaring. It's got loopers and even a freakin' built in dat machines for recording and importing music !! My live setup is going to be a laptop and the footcontroller period. You can save over 1 million programs if you want (only limited by HD space.) Secondly, I'll have another laptop w/ same settings as a backup. So, for live use I walk in w/ two laptops and a footcontroller. Setup time 10 minutes max.

I feel like I'm stealing this for only $500. I need to go to work for
Native since I so much believe in this product. It is by far and away
the best thing out since I've been playing guitar (and , I have tried a TON of stuff.)

Ok.Hago musica hace 15 a?os aproximadamente, como guitarrista. Estoy usando la demo de Guitar Rig 2.0. Lo estoy probando standalone y como plugin en Sonar 3. Como guitarrista me interesa todo software que emule hardware de efectos y amplificadores. Grabo mi musica en Pc, utilizo tarjeta Delta 44 y monitores profesionales.Mi musica va desde baladas a rock pesado, como banda y trabajos comerciales en tv y radio.

El interface es claro aunque muy lleno, pero con un poco de dedicacion es comprensible. La instalacion no da problemas.

Bueno. lo importante tiene que ver con el audio, y este programa lo hace bastante bien. Todos los programas que emulan amplis y efectos hasta la fecha, no han podido resolver el problema de la dinamica de la interpretacion, y Guitar Rig no es la excepcion. La latencia sigue siendo un problema a superar y si no tienes una tarjeta pro con buenos drivers asio, no se aprovecharan sus cualidades. Pero lo positivo de esto es que Guitar Rig es un gui?o al futuro para los guitarristas con poco dinero, y para practicar y grabar ideas es perfecto. En lo que se refiere a grabacion es preferible (por el momento), usar un ampli de calidad y unos buenos pedales, o, un procesador hardware que contenga todos ellos.

Con respecto a su precio,es decision de cada cual.Si te mueves en circuitos electronicos en donde no debas cargar equipo,es ideal (si posees un pc rapido y una buena interface de audio),para lograr ambientes especiales,ya que a veces los efectos software tienden a la caricatura. Si vas por la vertiente mas blues y rock,creo que no es recomendable y por el mismo precio puedes conseguir pedales.
Si posees un estudio, peque?o o grande, puede ser una gran herramienta.

I have played guitar for about 15 years. I have owned several amps and currently own a boss VF1 and Pod 2. Guitar Rig absolutely massacres both of these. I also cleans up any other software, Amplitube, Simulanalog guitar suite, Rock amp legends, Revalver, etc.
In all fairness, the most impressive 2nd place software would be Sumulanalog because it sounds quite good and is free. Amplitube and Rock Amp Legends are only toys. They may sound like an amp to someone who has never played guitar but certainly don't sound real to anyone who listens to guitar based music. Guitar Rig responds dynamically to a guitar player very similary to an amp. It seems to have a touch of high end sibilance but so does an SM 57 at the grill. With a bit of EQ and distortion tweaking it can be brought into line with any tone you're looking for. I think the reason for some of the poor reviews on various forums is due to people not optimizing or matching the impedance on their input to Guitar Rig. I first tried it as a DX plugin on a high vol DI guitar track though a tube preamp. I was not impressed. It sounded sloppy and severly overdriven. I finally set up my Sound card for a latency of 2 ms and played right into G. Rig. The sound is amazing. If G Rig is 90% of the sound of a well recorded real amp then POD 2 is 60%
That would put Amplitube at about 45%, Revalver at 50 % and Simulanalog at about 80%

Soy un joven musico, he realizado musica para comerciales y videos. Aparte de producir 2 albumes de mi banda alternativa-electronica. Cuando adquiri guitar rig (version 1.2), yo utilizaba pedales multiefectos y unos cuantos analogicos. Lo he utilizado para hacer musica de todo tipo: rock, electronica, grunge, punk, etc. Lo utilizo como stand alone, y en varias ocasiones como vst en FL producer edition y en SONAR 4. El sonido es excelente. Las cajas y los moduladores trabajan perfectamente. Lo que mas me agrada es el ahorro de tiempo (ya no tengo que conectar/desconectar mis pedales independientes, microfonos y cajas). Guitar rig lo hace todo.

La interfaz grafica es super bakan. Facil de usar. El orden de la cadena de efectos es super facil de editar. Solo hay que arrastrar y soltar. Puedes crear combinaciones y seteos limpios, o utilizar el canal saturado de varias cajas. Es totalmente profesional la calidad del sonido. Ademas, el rig kontrol (pedal controlador) te ayuda a cambiar de bancos utilizando cualquiera de los footswitches, ademas de un pedal wah (que tambien puedes usar como pedal de volumen, whammy, etc).

El sonido es impresionante. Limpio y cristalino. Saturado y distorsionado. En cualquiera de los casos, es excelente!!!
La entrada de mi tarjeta de sonido (audigy 2 ZS platinum pro) es monoaural. Pero el guitar rig reproducen la se?al en stereo.
Nada mas que decir. Lo recomiendo si quieres grabar rapido, sin estudio y sin muchos cables y conexiones que te quitan tiempo valioso.

El precio me parecio justo. "Pagas por lo que obtienes", esa es la regla general. Cuando lo he utilizado como standalone, no he tenido ningun problema. Pero al usarlo como VST, se me ha caido un par de veces el programa host (FL studio).

I've been making music for about nine years. I play mostly keyboards and that's what I often run through Guitar Rig. I might hook up a guitar every now and then. I use a very good interface, the Delta 1010, to put audio into my computer. I make pop, rock, and hip-hop types of music. My primary host is Ableton Live. I monitor with some cheap Roland monitors.

Registration is easy. Installation is easy. The manual is useful if you need it.

The interface is definately easy. Not all of the components, (speaker cabinets, amp heads, effects) sound very convincing on their own. But when combined together they can be used to create warm and usable tones.

I believe the reason some people are saying that the program hisses and has artifacts is because they have a cheap crap soundcard with cheap crap pre-amps and what you put in you get out. If you put a clean, loud signal into guitar rig, you are going to get an even better and warmer sound out. As for the sounds, this program covers all areas and is better in some areas than others. The clean tones are warm and sparkly and the distorted tones can be usable, but this software, in my opinion, is better at less distorted sounds. This plugin sounds great in a mix, unlike other amp modelers.

I know this plugin is expensive but it has the ability to do it all. If you need good nu-metal tones, Steinberg Warp VST is better for that. But for what it does when you put a loud clean signal in, you will get a warmer and more realistic sound out than any other software amp modeler or hardware modeler. Try the demo version for yourself. Like other reviewers have touched on, the ability to instantly and easily add the sound of guitar rig to your productions after your guitar has been recorded, that is a big plus. You can have a dry original track, then one affected by Guitar Rig. Then you can mix those two tracks to create an ultimate guitar tone. Luckily, my CPU can handle many instances of Guitar Rig without a hitch. As I stated before, download the demo and see how well it performs on your computer.

I've been making music for around 15 years now, playing guitar, bass and piano. I've been playing in bands an mixing other bands stuff, but not on a professional level. I not fixed to any musical genres - but I'm mainly playing blues, rock, metal and some jazzy stuff.

I was using the Guitar Rig 1.2 Demo as standalone version and VST-plugin on a Windows XP Home laptop system with an ESI QuataFire 610. So far I did not have the opportunity of testing GR through anything else but my AKG K141 Monitor Headphones, which I'm quite used to though.

The installation and setup of GR is no problem at all. The authorisation-stuff is annoying, but very straight-forward - and you basically have to go through this for any software anyway.
Concerning the easiness of getting a sound out of there, well just install, plug the guitar in and it works.

What can I say - can an interface be more intuitive? Everything works perfectly and logically. Of course, GR is more difficult to use than e.g. Amplitube due to it's higher degree of flexiblitiy and complexity.
However, even if you're using a very simple setup (e.g. just an amp+speaker-simulation) it takes some time to get the right sound - Amplitube is much faster.

Well, and a 4-Band-Parametric-EQ would be much nicer than alway having to throw in two of these strange 2-Band things.

It sounds great. The only mistake you shouldn't make is rely on the presets - most of them suck like they do in most amp-simulations (too much FX). But as the probability that the programmer used the same guitar with the same settings and the same playing style is extremely low you have to do it yourself anyway.

The sounds are very real - even the marshall sounds as shitty as old marshalls sound like, and they sound great when using a booster or OD pedal. Especially the different mics and cabinets are great. It's definitely unavoidable to play around with it a bit, but the results are worth it!

Well, it's definitely worth its price, especially when considering that it's a modular system, which can easily be updated (which already happened at least once) and that it comes with that pedal. I'm almost sure that I'll buy it.

I've tried a lot of free or demo versions of other amp-plugins as well, and besides Amplitube and GR everything just sucked. As I'm currently not at home I could not compare it to other amps or hardware-simulations, but the comparison of recordings of these through the same headphones makes more sense anyway.

So far, GR didn't crash, but it eats a lot of CPU-Power when you're building big setups. But the cool thing about all Plugins is, that you can change the sound after recording.

Finally, I must say that GR is the best simultaion I heard so far! Just hope that NI will include some more amp-models in the future (which isn't a problem due to the cool modular system). Some special feature for Bass (e.g. synth) would be nice as well....

10 Years making music
I play a lot of instruments, mainly guitars
I use the plug-in with cubase SX 2.0
I am mainly addicted to Neil Young stuff
My computer is a 2Ghz with 1024 RAM - Running XP SP1
My monitors are AKG hedphones, cant recall type.

The interface is 100%
The installation is straight forward
Havent used the automation function yet, I supose that it should be no problem
It is a good looking user interface, but it is really hard to get good overdrivem sounds out of this software. The clean sound is OK, but I havent found anything usable for at serious project.

The sound could be manipulated by using a row of modelled amps in a row. 2 voxes and 3 fenders in one channel sounds quite OK
The stereo splits are cool.. this is really a toy..

Very easy. The virtual devices (amps, cabs, effects) are displayed and you can use their knobs and switches like of a real device.

I don't give a rating, because I only used it with headphones. Clean sounds are very good. Special FX sounds are amazing. I'm a bit disappointed concerning crunch and lead sounds. My old Johnson J-Station is a lot better in this category.

I'm really p***ed because the guitar rig stand alone application (and I think the rest of the programm, too) doesn't run on a AMD Athlon 1400 GHz. It does run on a Intel Celeron 1.5 GHz witch is significantly slower! The AMD CPU doesn't have a strange thing called altivec or something like that. It is needed by the programm. So make shure, that your pc fullfills the requirements of the guitar rig.

The quality of the sounds are professional, but the price is too high. Also, the presets aren't too good.

Use on Powerbook with Logic Express

Very Easy

Unfortunately the sounds are on Par with a POD II, useful but swamped in DDL and chorus etc. to hide the real sound.

Because of the price (very expensive) I couldn't give it more than 5. You can buy a POD 2 for 130 in the UK or even better buy a tech 21 TRIAC and add FX on your DAW.

At this price it is too much for something that will not retain it's value. Buy Modelling pedals instead!

I'm playing the guitar for many years now, had a lot of gear, touring and recorded with tons of (tube-)amps, effects and guitars. Right now I'm 'retired', just doing Homerecordings, based on a Win-XP PC with a RME audio-interface and DSP-Cards.

Guitar-Rig needs a fast Computer! Modern PC or MAC hardware is required for a smooth, stressless working. A audio-interface with less latency is also required.

Guitar Rig 1.2 is a great piece of software! It's a Guitar-Studio by it's own and you don't have to struggle with those tons of hardware to get great realistic sounding Guitar-Tracks. You can't compare to the real things (Tubeamps & Cabs recorded with Microphones), but Guitar Rig as a Modeller comes very, very close to it, if you are willing and able to tweak the presets depending to the guitar you are using.

With it's two Tapedecks you can record dry or processed audiofiles in Tapedeck one, while playing/jamming with drumloops (Tapedeck two) or the metronome for exact synchronized tracks. These feature is fantastic and haven't mentioned out here yet. And it's even remotecontrolable with the Rig-Control. You can import your tracks to your Host-Sequencer later on, recorded in Guitar Rig's standalone-version (e.g. with a Laptop) first.

Guitar-Rig is easy to understand, even for those who are not practiced in Sequencers like Cubase, Sonar, Logic... or other audio applications. It's absolutely easy to install and you just need to read the Manual, if you want some special informations like e.g. using the EQ's the best way or how to do the Registration process.

Guitar-Rig sounds great!

If you are doing (Home-)Recordings and want realistic sounding Guitartracks, Guitar-Rig is the closest to the real thing. Clean, Crunch and Punk sounds fantastic. You can hear the difference (comparing with other Guitaramp-Modellers) in the mix - you can tweak it very 'threedimensional', because of the air and distance settings. The Amps are modelled very accurate and they react like they have to. The Speakersimulation is gorgeous!

The greatest thing of all is, how the four Amps are playable: they play and feel (react) like Tubeamps (wich can be a struggle for someone... ;-) You can hear a Filtertron-Pickup, if you play a Gretsch, a '50s Strat Pickup on a Alder-Body, a Swampash Tele-Twang, a Rickenbacker... all these special characteristics and individuality in Guitars tones keeps Guitar-Rig software alive as only a real Tubeamp can.

For Hard & Heavy 'Highspeed-Fiddlers' (Metal) Guitar-Rig is still missing something at Version 1.2

Well, it would be 100% worth the price, if Native Instruments updates this software for free again, plus adding some new components! Guitar-Rig needs some more amps and other components to get perfect, Imho. Rig-Control hardware with it's inbuild Preamp (a preamp is a must for Guitar-Rig) is included.

How long have you been making music? What instruments do you play?
20 years, all kinds of guitars/string instruments

What is the software version number of the plug-in? 1.2

What application(s) do you use the plug-in with? Logic 5.3, Standalone and Ableton Live 4.14

What are you using the plug-ins for? What kind of music do you make? Making Demos or complete recordings for my Folkpunk-Band and other kinds of guitar driven music

What kind of computer and what operating system are you using? windows XP on a Sony Vaio 1.6 GHz Notebook

What is your primary listening equipment? (soundcard to headphones, digital monitors, etc.)
guitar to bypassed digitech preamp, phonic 8-channel mixing desk, RME Hammerfall, computer, RME Hammerfall, Denon (Solid State) Hifi amp, Quadral Hifi boxes

Do you find the interface intuitive?
absolute easy

Did you have any problems installing the plug-in? never ever

Copy protection to deal with? no problem

Is automation supported? yes

Is there any MIDI controller implementation,etc.? yes

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it? very easy

How is the manual (if there is one)? never needed one

How does it sound? How does a Marshall sound if you put your ear to the middle of a speaker? Painful.
In a mix? That's its point! It's sits very well in the mix! You get a Marshall simulation and it's painful as the original. And you can hear you guitar even though the singer sings and the drummer plays crash cymbals constantly! Other emulations as well

Any tricks to make it better? More preamps.

Do you find the presets adequate, or do you find yourself needing to tweak every time?
I always tweak the presets, I don't expect that the programmer has the same guitars as me. I enjoy it, it's my job as a guitar player.

If the plug-in is an instrument, is it expressive? Absolute yes.

Was it worth the price tag? Absolute worth.

What made you choose this over another plug-in? IK Multimedia amplitube sucked, no alternative at this time, no alternative yet.

What did you compare it to? Marshall DSL 2000 Head, IK Multimedia amplitube

But: It's a CPU hog! Always bouncing or freezing.

Never crashed

It is the best software 2004 and made homerecording (when you have no studio) really possible.

Been playing for 30 years. See my other reviews around here, for history. Applcaitons used, Cubase SX. I make all kinds of music. Library music, film music. Blues, jazz and rock. Experimental avant garde. New age, ambient and electronica.

using Tannoy reveal monitors, Music XPC with XP Intel 3,2 ghz CPU 1GB RAM. Soundcard M-audio Firewire Audiophile. Monitors are ACTIVE so they connects DIRECTLY to the outputs of the soundcard and not through a mixer first.

Quite easy but could be much better. I had problems installing the software, because on my authorizsation card was stated TWO different serial numbers (!??!?!) And in the manual it said I could register for authroization code by sending mail from another computer. However, when doing this is sent the wrong system ID number from the computer I was not using GR with, and thus got a wrong authorization code. Took me a weekend and a half before they bothered to send me right information. The PC that I am using for music will not EVER be hooked up to the internet at all.

Also, their mail policy, set up and authorsiation does not simplify for the users at all. Especially not since you have to send SYSTEM ID information of your computer. If I change mailadress then? If I change computer or hardware then? This is true to all Native Instruments.

So the manual states very ambiguos information.

The UI input rack has some confusing things. On the Rig Control pedal board and on my soundcard, all inputs are labeled 1 and 2. But on the UI input rack the inputs states L & R. Left and Right, yeah, but which of the 1 or 2 are L & R? You can easily swap them and get the annoying control signal buzzing loud in your speakers. They should change the display to 1 & 2 to instead, so one didn't have to guess.

Automation is supported but only to a certain exent. I haven't found out any way - YET - to use MIDI controller pedals instead of the RIG kontrol. It's very easy to accidentally overwrite patches. And, I agree with others here. It should be resizable. It's either too tiny, or too big.

It excels all other models just in certain areas, and those are

1. Half cranked Fender Twin Reverbs. half distorted sound that has responsivness to your pick attack, and volume on guitar changes. Excellent.

2. You can actually hear much more difference between single coils and humbuckers AND difference between neck/bridge pickups. Unique among software modellers.

3. Clean sounds, and special FX sounds.

4. Since no amp brand name are favored, future plugs can hold ANY amp /effect out there. This item is "brand" neutral. Others, like Vox Tonelab seems to hype or plug their own brand name "vox", and are limting themselves somewhat.

All other areas, it's just, well decent, and adequate.
It seems that distorton and modelling of old pedals still makes it too much of a chore for anyone out there. Full tilt mega distortion for nu metal isn't this plugs forte. And I seriously doubt that the Marshall amp modeling has been made from a healthy amp! The Vox ToneLeb makes a better Marshall sound.

Tweaking is needed on all of the presets. User groups and libraries on the internet, can prove quite useful. The sounds - overall - cuts through a dense mix of music. One can hear low notes pop out through a mix. This is very rare. Vox ToneLab does this too though.

Depending on your soundcard and resolution, this plugin can get a little fatiguing after a while, due to it's digital haziness, BUT less so than Amplitube and all other modellers. The Rig Kontrol pedal board, makes this worthwhile. You can assign anything to anything without any USB,FW, or MIDI cable. Soundwise: It's not the be all end all plug for every guitar sound there is.

I like small things like metronome, tuner and the tape decks, actually. Extremely convenient. And you can SYNC delays, modulations to the tempo of a track, or do a tap on the pedals, and play along to echoes and things.

A 10 for this category is only given in 10 years. I mean that a 10 rating could only be given again in 10 years time, and it has not been surpassed by anything else. A real Fender Twin hasn't been surpassed yet, or easily replaced by anything else that tops it. I doubt this Guitar Rig will stand the same longevity...as with any other pedal or modelling software as well.

One of the few things - in spite of it all - that I actually thought was worthwhile buying brand new. The registration and installation things discovered, makes that part NOT worthwhile. If I'd knew this in advance, well... let's put it this way: Little wonder there's so much piracy and illegal copying going around! I'd hesitate to buy it, until they changed installation and registration process.

I love the graphic UI and the racks. I would love to see actual settings on all knobs, and not just displaying them when just browsing the mouse over any button. I would love to be able to nail in a 320 ms delay setting without turning the knob with the mouse all of the time. The knob values seems to be a bit too coarse.

It has crashed a couple of times, as well. Alas, here's no advantage to having bought all software for real and using real license and having a clean conscience. They bug out as well as any other cracked software.

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...