The market for software that emulates guitar amplifiers is pretty crowded these days, but Native Instruments have found a new angle with a modular program that comes with a dedicated hardware controller and interface.
Available for both Mac and PC, Guitar Rig takes the now-familiar concept of amplifier and effect modelling and delivers it in the form of a hybrid hardware/software package, where the hardware acts as preamp/impedance matcher and floor controller, while the software provides the necessary modelling and graphical user interface. PC users will need at least a 700MHz Pentium or a 1.33GHz Athlon XP machine to run Guitar Rig under Windows XP, while Mac users can run it under OS 9 or OS X on anything faster than a G3 800MHz machine.
Guitar Rig can run as a stand-alone application, which conjures up visions of a tatooed biker metal guitarist with an iBook perched on top of his stack, or it can work as a plug-in within host software that supports DXi, VST 2.0, AU or RTAS. Authorisation is via a challenge and response code handled by the NI web site or by mail, and the software will run for 30 days prior to authorisation. When used as a plug-in, Guitar Rig is inserted into the signal path as an effect, not as a software instrument, and obviously you need to adjust your audio driver settings for minimum latency in order to be able to play guitar parts comfortably. Though Guitar Rig will work with MME drivers, it is not recommended due to the high latencies these introduce. ASIO or Core Audio are much safer bets.
Ni Native Instruments Guitar Rig Kontrol 3 In Thüringen
The software amp modelling element of Guitar Rig is similar to many existing products except that the designers have tried to make it more user-friendly by using a drag-and-drop virtual rack interface that looks not unlike a guitar player's version of Reason. Essentially you pick the amps, speaker cabinets and effects you want to use and then drop them into the rack, where the signal always flows from the top unit to the bottom. Those who like to create stereo effects will find split modules for parallel signal routing and there are also two virtual tape decks, one optimised for playing audio that you might want to play along to, such as backing tracks, while the second allows you to record your playing and also to overdub additional parts. The rack includes a very accurate guitar tuner and a metronome that can lock to MIDI Clock or the host sequencer tempo.
As you might imagine, the processing modules include emulations of classic and modern amplifiers, cabinets, microphones and effects, with the promise of more to be added in future revisions. The initial version of Guitar Rig offered three tube amplifier emulations plus more than 20 effects including models of some well-known hardware pedals plus studio-style effects such as delay, reverb and EQ. The Cabinets and Mics part of the program has 14 speaker types, including the wonderful B4 Rotary Speaker taken from NI's very popular tonewheel organ plug-in. These are modelled as though they had been miked up using a choice of five microphone types, each with four different positions, and more flexiblity is offered by the ability to feed your virtual amps into up to eight miked speaker cabs at the same time. Apparently the modelling also takes into account the electrical reaction between the power amp and the speaker, though when multiple speaker cabinets are added, this is based on the first cabinet in the rack.
The Split module allows parallel signal processing, where different amplifiers, cabinets and effects can be included in the two arms of the chain, which allows for the creation of very dramatic stereo effects and layers. In fact this is a concept that many sequencer designers would do well to include in their plug-in management sections. Further Splits can be dragged in to create multiple parallel signal paths and the output of each chain can be panned independently. Just before I completed this review, a pre-release software update was sent to me which added an AC30-inspired amp to the existing roster, as well as a treble booster and a psychedelic delay that can produce reverse delay effects as well as more conventional echo treatments.
Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3 Update (including Rig Kontrol 3)
The package ships with a large number of presets in various styles so that you can experience instant gratification before going on to create your own custom patches, and be warned that the designers haven't imposed many limitations on what you can string together, so you have full freedom to create outrageous patches as well as sensible ones. You can also tweak the factory patches and save as many versions as you'd like.
While most of the elements of Guitar Rig will be fairly familiar to anyone who has used either software or hardware amp modelling devices before, the tape decks deserve a little more explanation. Deck number one can play back audio files and time-stretch them or change their pitch without changing speed, whilst files or sections thereof can be looped and recordings can be made using the New button, though you can't use loop and record at the same time. It accepts any audio files in WAV, AIF, AIFF or MP3 formats, though for some reason it has problems handling 24-bit WAV files so these are currently limited to 16-bit. This is a known 'issue' and will be resolved in a forthcoming update. All recording is limited to 16-bit at the moment, but that doesn't seem to cause any quality issues.
Tape deck two is more geared towards overdubbing so you can create riffs to play over, and because it comes at the end of the signal path, it records all the amp modelling and effects that you've applied in glorious stereo. The time and pitch features of deck one are missing but otherwise the idea is generally the same. Overdubbing is of the very simple 'sound on sound' type (using the phrase in its traditional lower-case meaning), which allows you to play something in deck one while playing along and then recording the results to deck two. There are no multiple tracks or means of changing anything after recording, but if you simply want to get musical ideas down and you don't have a sequencer, it's fine.
Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5 Kontrol
The hardware foot controller bundled with Guitar Rig is called Rig Kontrol and has four footswitches and a pedal. Unusually, it outputs its control signals not as MIDI, but in the form of a modulated audio tone that registers all the switch and pedal moves, which is recorded on the other half of a stereo sequencer track. The obvious advantage of this control system is that no MIDI interface is needed to use Guitar Rig. The only influence Rig Kontrol has over the guitar signal itself is that it provides a high-impedance, low-noise input and so saves the user having to find a suitable DI box, though having said that, I thought I got a better sound using Rig Kontrol than when I tried the software with a conventional active DI box. The guitar connects to the line input on the Rig Kontrol foot controller and the two line out jacks on Rig Kontrol connect to the line ins of your audio interface. Alternatively, there's also a two-channel mode where the two inputs can be used to process two different guitars, which could come in handy for jamming or recording with a colleague, though the Rig Kontrol pedal/switch functions don't work in dual-channel mode as both audio channels are taken up with guitar signals.
Physically, Rig Kontrol is built into a tough metal case, and can operate from almost any AC or DC power adaptor that will physically fit into the socket. It can also run from batteries, and the current consumption is very low so they should last a reasonably length of time. As you'd expect, Rig Kontrol includes the necessary high-impedance input circuitry to match the output of a typical guitar fitted with passive pickups, and it is equally happy with active guitars and basses. The functions of the pedal depends on how you set up your patch: it is typically used to control volume or wah-wah, though it is also useful when assigned to operate the crossfader in the software's Split module (see box), allowing you to crossfade between two signal paths during performance. Patch and Bank switching is handled by the footswitches.There's no MIDI on the Rig Kontrol: instead, it puts out a stereo audio signal with your guitar on one channel and control data on the other.
The Guitar Rig screen is divided into two main sections, with the virtual rack below the Kontrol Centre on the right of the window. Kontrol Centre takes the form of a toolbar to access key functions such as the tuner, metronome, patch naming, tape decks and so on, while the rack part is where you place your virtual modules to build presets. To the left of the window are three more sections that deal with bank and patch management,
Native Instruments Guitar Rig Kontrol
The hardware foot controller bundled with Guitar Rig is called Rig Kontrol and has four footswitches and a pedal. Unusually, it outputs its control signals not as MIDI, but in the form of a modulated audio tone that registers all the switch and pedal moves, which is recorded on the other half of a stereo sequencer track. The obvious advantage of this control system is that no MIDI interface is needed to use Guitar Rig. The only influence Rig Kontrol has over the guitar signal itself is that it provides a high-impedance, low-noise input and so saves the user having to find a suitable DI box, though having said that, I thought I got a better sound using Rig Kontrol than when I tried the software with a conventional active DI box. The guitar connects to the line input on the Rig Kontrol foot controller and the two line out jacks on Rig Kontrol connect to the line ins of your audio interface. Alternatively, there's also a two-channel mode where the two inputs can be used to process two different guitars, which could come in handy for jamming or recording with a colleague, though the Rig Kontrol pedal/switch functions don't work in dual-channel mode as both audio channels are taken up with guitar signals.
Physically, Rig Kontrol is built into a tough metal case, and can operate from almost any AC or DC power adaptor that will physically fit into the socket. It can also run from batteries, and the current consumption is very low so they should last a reasonably length of time. As you'd expect, Rig Kontrol includes the necessary high-impedance input circuitry to match the output of a typical guitar fitted with passive pickups, and it is equally happy with active guitars and basses. The functions of the pedal depends on how you set up your patch: it is typically used to control volume or wah-wah, though it is also useful when assigned to operate the crossfader in the software's Split module (see box), allowing you to crossfade between two signal paths during performance. Patch and Bank switching is handled by the footswitches.There's no MIDI on the Rig Kontrol: instead, it puts out a stereo audio signal with your guitar on one channel and control data on the other.
The Guitar Rig screen is divided into two main sections, with the virtual rack below the Kontrol Centre on the right of the window. Kontrol Centre takes the form of a toolbar to access key functions such as the tuner, metronome, patch naming, tape decks and so on, while the rack part is where you place your virtual modules to build presets. To the left of the window are three more sections that deal with bank and patch management,
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