review
Guitar Rig 4 Pro & Rig Kontrol 3
The great thing about guitar amplifier and effects modeling software is it allows you to create and try out just about any combination of effects and amps you can think of without having to spend countless hours in an extremely well stocked (and accommodating) music store. Or spending a fortune on gear. It is also ideal for recording. You can carry the sonic equivalent a high end studio worth of gear around on your laptop. It can also be used live when used with a compatible controller. There are now several companies offering guitar amp and effects modeling software, hardware, or combinations of both. How does Guitar Rig stack up in this growingly crowded field? Let’s take a look.
Guitar Rig is, essentially, a software collection of guitar amplifier, cabinet, and effects models that you can combine in a virtual rack to create any number of guitar “rigs.” It has been around for a number of years and is currently at version 4. There are currently both “Pro” and “Essentials” versions, with the Essentials version offering a limited selection of features from the Pro version at a lower price. Hardware/software bundle options include the “Rig Kontrol” edition which combines the Pro software with a hardware controller/audio interface, and the “Mobile” edition which combines the Essentials software with a compact audio interface. Guitar Rig 4 software runs as either a DAW host plugin or as a stand-alone application.
The Rig Kontrol edition controller is the same unit that shipped with Guitar Rig 3. Since I already own the Rig Kontrol 3 controller, all I needed was an upgrade of the software or be current. I will be focusing my review on Guitar Rig 4 Pro software and the Rig Kontrol 3 controller.
What’s New
One of the coolest new features in Guitar Rig 4 Pro is called Control Room. Control Room is a module that allows you to access 8 convolution modeled high-end recording studio cabinet/microphone/pre-amp/EQ setups. Native Instruments worked with leading German studio guitarist and recording expert Peter Weihe to model the complete signal chain of eight classic microphones placed in the sweet spot on popular speaker cabinets. The microphones are phase aligned and EQ tweaked, then each one is placed on a single fader in the Control Room module. You can then select a cabinet and mix any combination of the microphones (or choose a preset) to quickly get studio quality sound.
There aren’t many new amp or effects models, just three Marshall Plexi amp variations, two new delays, and two new reverbs. I am guessing this because the Guitar Rig 4 Pro software has been made ready to accept future expansion packs — which I imagine will be the path for obtaining new amp and effects models in the future.
The preset browser has been re-designed and includes 250 new presets. I will talk more about this in the “In Use” section of my review. MIDI controller capability has been added for the Rig Kontrol 3 controller allowing you to use it to control other software packages or hardware effects racks.
Components (amps, effects, control room) now have their own presets also. Which is a great time saver when you use the same component in multiple rig presets. You can now easily pull up that same great chorus or delay setting in any rig preset.
The Amp Models
Modeling software has only gotten better over the years. I own not only Guitar Rig but also AmpliTube and the amp/effects models included in Apple Logic. When comparing them, I find that each company offers slightly different flavors of the same amp models, plus each package has different included models. But it safe to say that they all provide lots of very good sounding (and dynamic) models, and the choice between them really boils down to a matter of taste, interface, budget, and package features.
Guitar Rig 4 comes with 15 amp models that cover a wide variety of tones. The best way to judge them is to download the demo, but since this is a review, I will give you a brief overview of my take of the models. I tested each with a Fender Strat and a Gibson Les Paul Custom.
Ultrasonic is a modern, high gain boutique amp. With the variac turned up it offered a crushing tone with the gain set at 4. Higher gain settings added more fizz and sounded thinner or more compressed. The clean tone is bland. This is best suited as a metal/shredder amp.
Gratifier is four channel Mesa/Boogie clone. This is by far the most versatile single amp in the collection and all the channels sound good. The clean channel has nice, bright tone. The Raw channel is tough sounding, providing edge of break-up to crunch to massive metal. Vintage is similar to raw with more fizz and treble. It also has more gain but the tone is thinner. Modern is a molten, monster, metal gain machine.
There are five Marshall models. Lead 800 provides the classic crunch and lead tones we all know. Jump adds a low and high gain switch for tones ranging from Hendrix clean to metal. Plex (new) gives you that nasally, British tone of a Plexi. Cool Plex (new) is a colder sounding version of Plex. Hot Plex (new) is higher gain, grittier sounding Plex that, to me, sounds like an overdrive pedal running through a normal Plexi.
Citrus is an Orange amp model. It is very present with a thick crunchy tone that will take you almost to metal. The distinctive crunch is great sounding but the amp doesn’t really do clean tones.
AC Box is a Vox model. It provides that classic British Vox crunch.
There are three Fender models. Tweedman is a Bassman model. Play a Strat through this and you get that classic Fender crunch. It also does a nice warm (darker) clean tone. Tweed Delight is a Fender Champ (I think) model. It has somewhat muffled (lo-fi) clean and crunch tone. Twang Reverb is Twin Reverb model. It has that classic bright, clean Fender tone with included reverb and tremolo effects. You have to crank it all the way up to get even a little crunch.
Jazz Amp is a Roland Jazz Chorus model. This is the lone solid state amp model and includes chorus and reverb. It has a nice, glassy chorus effect.
High White is a Hiwatt model. It gives you that classic 60’s clean and crunch. It has a very distinctive and appealing tone. One of my favorites.
Bass Pro is a bass amp model with a graphic EQ. I don’t own or play bass so I cannot honestly comment on its tone.
Effects
Guitar Rig 4 now includes true stereo processing of effects. I won’t go into detail on all the effects, but there are lots of great sounding units here to choose from. However, I wish there were more choices in the modulation effects. You only get one or two of each effect type (chorus, phaser, etc.) Still there are plenty of effects, and some of the amps also have reverb, tremolo, and chorus effects built in.
The new effects include Grain Delay, which includes pitch and delay effects. It is capable of some spacey, synth/sequencer like effects. Twin Delay provides parallel delays for ping-pong delay effects. Octaverb is a basic, bright reverb effect. Iceverb is a spring-like reverb with a filter. It can create interesting, icy, shimmering effects.
Additional Features
In addition to the models, Guitar Rig 4 includes a number of useful tools. There are two Tape Decks that allow you to play along with any audio file on your computer, and to record the results. These are great for learning, songwriting, practicing, etc. Of course there is also a metronome and a tuner. A basic looper component is also included and can be added to any rack.
Rig Kontrol 3
The Guitar Rig Kontrol edition comes with the Rig Kontrol 3, a controller and audio interface that puts control of the Guitar Rig 4 Pro software at your feet — where guitarist like it. The Rig Kontrol 3 is solid, housed in a sleek black aluminum case with 8 assignable metal switches and an expression pedal. The audio interface is high quality featuring up to 192 kHz sampling rate at 16 or 24 bits using Cirrus Logic converters. It also features MIDI in and out, a headphone jack, two additional controller pedal jacks, and audio out jacks for speakers or to send your signal to a PA, mixer, amp, etc. All the input and output jacks are well marked on the face of the unit.
One thing I didn’t like about the Rig Kontrol 3 is the loud click the metal switches make. This can get annoying when switching through several presets, and could be noticeable when playing live in a quiet setting. The click is mechanical only, it doesn’t affect the signal and is not recorded so it won’t affect your recordings.
Assigning functions to the switches and expression pedal is a snap thanks to the virtual Rig Kontrol display. To assign a function you simply ctrl-click (Mac, right-click on Windows) on a switch or pedal and choose a function from the popup menu. Or your can drag and drop functions from the virtual Rig Kontrol to the modules in the rack, which makes setting up the pedal for any preset pretty painless.
I found Rig Kontrol 3 to have many uses. In the studio it makes a great controller allowing you to use your feet to select amps and effects just like you would with real gear. For the home recordist, the included audio interface is a great bonus. It also makes for great portable laptop recording rig. For live use it is really indispensable since you can’t be mousing around while you play.
In Use
While strictly a personal preference, I prefer the “rack” layout of Guitar Rig 4 over the pages layout of AmpliTube. You can quickly see everything in the rack by scrolling instead of switching to separate amp and effect screens in AmpliTube. The “sidekick” browser gives you access to everything you need and you can drag and drop models into your rack.
The new preset browser includes 250 very useable presets and a new searching, tagging, and rating system. This helps keep presets more organized and easier to find, however there are a few things that could still use improving. For example, the left column on the Browser shows you the included collections (banks) of presets. But there is no way (that I cold find) to change the order of the collections in the browser. If you create your own collections they always end up at the end of the list of collections. I would like to be able to place my presets at the top of the list. It may seem like a small quibble, but in a live setting it would be a time saver to have the current gig collection at the top of the list.
Any modern computer should have no problem running Guitar Rig 4, but check the requirements if you have an older computer. I tested Guitar Rig 4 on a 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Mac PowerBook with 4GB of RAM and had no issues with audio clicks, and as able to get very low latency, basically making it a non-issue.
Guitar Rig 4 can run as a plugin in your DAW or work as a standalone application. When used as a plugin you assign it to an effects send in your DAW mixer and you can then can then tweak your guitar tone even after you have recorded it. Standalone mode works best when you want to practice, or jam, or use Guitar Rig 4 to play live.
Using Guitar Rig 4 and Rig Kontrol 3 Live
I have always been leery of using a laptop in a live setting. However, my church recently installed Aviom personal monitor mixing systems on the stage where I frequently play for the youth group. Since church is usually a safe environment and I was going to have to use earphones anyway, I decided to try going the direct route using a laptop and Rig Kontrol 3.
This was big jump for me, I have always preferred getting my tone from an amp which I also use to hear myself. And I hate wearing headphones live. So with some apprehension, I loaded my laptop, the Rig Kontrol, a few cables, and some new earphones in a laptop bag, grabbed my Les Paul and headed out.
Of course, I had to do some prep work before hand. This was short Sunday morning set and I only had to play four songs. The day before I created a collection of four presets, one for each of the songs we were doing. This allowed me to tailor the presets for each song with the proper amp and effects. One song needed a wah, so I set the expression pedal for wah on that song. I set it for volume on two other presets. One song was a slow, quiet ballad so I modified one of the included Guitar Rig 4 presets which had pitch and delay effects that produced a synth pad like effect when you rocked the expression pedal. This worked great because I could keep the expression pedal heel down for most of the song and then bring in the synth effect when desired by going to the toe up position.
If you have fairly consistent set list, you could make presets for every song and then just step through them in order. However, if you don’t know exactly what you will need, you can create generic amp and effects presets (rigs) and then turn the effects on and off with the controller switches. One feature I really missed that is common on most multi-effects pedals is a bank up and down selector. The Rig Kontrol can only move from one preset to the next, forward or back. To switch collections (banks) of presets you have to use the computer. So you have to be more organized and put all the presets you need for a gig in one collection, since you can’t easily switch between banks of presets during the gig. You can’t fast scroll through presets either, you have to click through each one in the list.
Guitar Rig 4 software has a “Live” view which only shows the presets in a collection and the functions of the Rig Kontrol 3 switches and expression pedal. This makes it easy to see what preset you are currently using and what the controller switches control.
Back to the gig. I found a black stacking chair, that almost disappear on the black carpeted stage, and set it next to the monitor mixer and placed my laptop on it. I felt better doing this than leaving the laptop on the floor. And it made it easy to see the laptop screen. I plugged everything in, set my monitor mix and stepped through the presets for the four songs. It all went off without a hitch, except I found when I pushed down on the expression pedal to engage the wah or volume pedal switch, I got a boost in volume beyond the normal toe down position.
Of course playing direct with earphones is a different experience than playing through real gear and monitor wedges, but it sure was a lot easier setting up and packing up after the gig. For short gigs, I would definitely do it again.
Final Thoughts
For recording, Guitar Rig 4 is a great way to get a whole professional studio worth of guitar amp and effect tones for a fraction of what a single good real rig would cost. And Control Room is a easy way for home recordist to get studio quality guitar sound. The amount of amps and effects included makes it a tweaker’s delight. Add the Rig Kontrol 3 unit and you are ready to take the studio to the stage. While the Rig Kontrol does have some limitations, such as no bank switching or fast scrolling, its tight integration with the software make it a great live rig in many situations — and a good studio controller. Its included audio interface also makes it a valuable as a portable recording rig. If you’ve never tried Guitar Rig, you owe it to yourself to download the demo and give it a try.
Reader Comments
Better Guitar encourages your input. Agree with this review? Think I’m crazy? If you have used Guitar Rig 4, email me your comments and I’ll post them below. The more opinions we have available, the better our buying decisions will be.
Tyler
OK, so I have played and gigged with this thing. I run it as a loop effect through my 5150. So basically all of the crunch I get from my amp and all my effects from Guitar Rig. One good thing about using Guitar Rig this way is that all the effects blend with the amps natural tone. This thing is an essential part of my rig and sound, and I don't think I would record or play without it.
Walt
First wanted to say thanks for the review of Guitar rig 4. It's a big program and you managed to provide a good synopsis of it. One thing that I have tried to do and don't think you can do involves the loop function in Guitar Rig. I use Guitar rig 3 as a plug-in with Logic 8. I would like to be able to work on a loop and record that loop in logic. The only way you seem to be able to do it is to make a recording of it within Guitar Rig, save it as a file and then paste it into a Logic track.
In a live setting jamming with other musicians this really doesn't work. I'd love to create a loop play over top of it and record the whole thing simultaneously as a track in Logic. Maybe I'm missing something here, if so please let me know. I know that Logic 9 now provides a looping feature and wondered if it would that with Guitar Rig Kontol to create loops. I'm thinking of getting Guitar Rig 4 and wondered if the addition of MIDI control would be the answer to this. Thanks - Walt
If you are using Guitar Rig 4 as a stand alone application, it has a looper "tool" that can be controlled by Rig Kontrol 3 (live if you like). You can also use the "tape decks" in Guitar Rig 4 to record the whole process (looping and adding to the loop) and then you could import the audio file into Logic later for editing.
If you are running Guitar Rig 4 as a plug-in in Logic, Logic should (I haven't tested this) be able to record the whole looping process as an audio track while you you are creating it. Logic 9 also has a looping function in the MainStage 2 feature. But you really need a MIDI foot controller to use it live. Rig Kontrol 3 now has MIDI support but I haven't tested it. If it works well with Logic, it should do what you want. However, if you like the amps and effects in Logic 9 you wouldn't need Guitar Rig at all, you would just need a MIDI foot controller and Logic 9. You can read my review of Logic 9 here. - Mark
stats
- • 15 guitar and bass amp models
- • Brand new Control Room module offers carefully tweaked professional mikings for studio tones.
- • New Matched Cabinets (version 4) offers a harmonized speaker setup for every single amp
- • 48 modelled guitar effects including distortions, flangers, choruses, tremolos, wah-wahs, pitch shifting, delays and reverbs plus premium features like the loop machine and powerful modifiers.
- • New Master Effect section retains reverberation and delays while changing presets
- • Improved preset browser with extensive search functions and KORE 2 format compatibility
- • More than 250 brand new presets for all genres
- • True stereo processing for all components
- • Cabinets & mics module with 17 guitar and six bass cabinets, four rotary speakers and nine microphones
- • Integrated tuner, metronome and two tapedeck modules for easy recording
- • Dedicated "Live View" for performing on stage
- • All Guitar Rig 4 software versions are fully expandable with upcoming Guitar Rig Expansion Packs
Positives
- Huge number of tonal possibilities; Solid, well-built Rig Kontrol makes recording and controlling the software easy; great sounding audio input; easy setup of Rig Kontrol; includes tape decks and loop machines for capturing ideas; can be used live; fun.
Negatives
- Rig Kontrol 3 foot switches make loud mechanical click when used; Rig Kontrol 3 can only scroll through one collection (bank) of presets. Changing collections requires using computer; Can't re-order preset collections (banks) in the Browser; Limited choice of modulation effects models.
Rating
- Performance: 9
- Software Models: 9
- Sound Quality: 9
- User Interface: 9
- Overall: 9.0
Ratings Key
- 0 = Worthless
- 10 = Excellent
Approximate Street Price
- Kontrol Edition: $399
- Software Edition: $199
Available At Guitar Center
-
Native Instruments Guitar Rig 4 KONTROL Edition - Software/Hardware Combo Standard
Company
- Native Instruments
- Demo Available
- Audio Examples
System Requirements
- Mac OS X 10.5 or higher, Intel Core Duo 1.66 GHz, 1 GB RAM
- Windows XP (SP2, 32bit) / Vista (32/64 Bit), Windows 7 (32/64 Bit), Pentium or Athlon XP 1.4 GHz, 1 GB RAM