Guitar Rig

[Dirk Diggler]

I just wanted to give a bit of a review of the new NI Guitar Rig. And yeah it's great on guitar but on bass it is truly amazing. I just got chance to try it today and am very tempted to lose my rack of sacred old school goodies. I know there was a thread here a while ago that raised lot's of concerns and angst amungst members here. Well allow me break the wound open again.

Let me preface this by saying I'm not talking about using this rig for regular bar gigs doing cover tunes. Allthough you could pretty much cover any effect you might need. I use effects a lot and am in an original Prog/Fusion band so I have a little more flexibility as to what I can do. So without further a do.

The tube emulations are so nice and warm sounding, unlike the POD or Sansamp. You have 4 heads to choose from, and many cabinet and micing configurations. The effects are tremendous and will be replacing my most favored Eventide harmonizer. There is a great Tube compressor, and the psych delay has pitch and reverse, very cool. The chorus and tremolo are very clean and nice. EQ's as many as you want. Verbs smooth and sweet.

I know a lot of people will poo poo the very thought of using a computer as an FX and preamp. But compared to lugging around an 80lb rack of FX, I think a laptop and footpedal seems like a better choice. As far as reliability goes my old gear occasionally has it's hiccups, and my laptop has been dead solid for quite a while.

In any case if you get a chance to try it, do it, I think you'd be in for a pleasant surprise.
I'd be happy to discuss this more if anybody has any questions or comments.

I provide this review as my own opinion, I'm not affiliated with anybody and am just trying to help enlighten the community to an interesting alternative to old school/tech hardware.
Dirk

 

[Brendan]

My only concern:

Heads and pedals pedals don't crash. Sure, they screw up from time to time, but computer crash more often than heads blow, certainly.

However, if you maintained a backup, then there's no real issue.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Hello Brendan,
Yeah that is always a concern, but a properly maintained and setup laptop takes a lot of the questionable operation out of it. That is unless your used to a Mac in which case I can understand your concern.
Sorry I couldn't resist the jab, sorry Mac folks out there.

The most processor use in any of the setups I tried was only using at max 23% of the CPU, so that's not really taxing the system much at all.

Cheers,
Dirk

 

[Passinwind]

Hey Dirk,

We all know you're just gonna carry the old school rack, plus the laptop now, right?

Does it do loops? Got a link to more info on the system?

Speaking as someone who repairs amps, effects, and computers, I'd say a laptop is not necessarily a huge worry, especially if you carry a backup and proper power conditioning hardware. I routinely see DJs and keyboard players who depend on them, not to mention huge sound and light companies. Plus, if your EFX crash, so what? Prolly it'll sound really cool as it dies, and then you carry on like you meant to do that.

But there's one big problem with the laptop. See my current sig...

 

[hyperlitem]

link? where can i buy this?

 

[Brendan]

Invalid Link Removed

Pretty neat concept, though I'd need to see the execution before I passed judgement.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Hey Passin Wind me Ol' friend!
You have plenty of knobs in the rig, they're just virtual.
Or if you have enough CC pedals, you can twiddle in real time with no issues. As far as looping goes, you can get some short loops going, but nothing that would make me sell my EDP. But they are adding stuff all the time, and it couldn't be that tough to do. My EDP maxxed out has 64mb of ram, which is 198 seconds of mono looptime, and my laptop has 1gig, seems there should be plenty of room there. LOL

And thanks for posting the link Brenden, I wasn't sure if that was allowed.
I saw a store on the Bay selling them for $444, man if I sell 1 or 2 of my spare preamps, I can cover that easily and not get rid of the cooler old effects.
Cheers,
Dirk

 

[Passinwind]

Hey Passin Wind me Ol' friend!
You have plenty of knobs in the rig, they're just virtual.
Or if you have enough CC pedals, you can twiddle in real time with no issues.

I gots a Peavey Studio Mix widget, with MIDI-assignable motorized faders. Oh joy, I can look even geekier on stage!

As far as looping goes, you can get some short loops going, but nothing that would make me sell my EDP. But they are adding stuff all the time, and it couldn't be that tough to do. My EDP maxxed out has 64mb of ram, which is 198 seconds of mono looptime, and my laptop has 1gig, seems there should be plenty of room there. LOL

So, soon I'll be able to just pre-record the whole show in RAM, and play a few licks in real time whenever I feel like it? KeWl,

love,
Britney Wind

PS: for what you and I like to do, this seems like a great solution, really. But I haven't fired up any EFX in a couple of months. The jazzbos would look at me funny, I think.

 

[suicas]

One thing that's always worried me about using a laptop live would be magnetic shielding.

Most large speakers come with warnings about placing them well away from things such as hard drives, not sure if I'd feel to comfortable sticking a laptop on top of a large cab.

Dave