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Native Instruments Guitar Rig 4 Pro
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Native Instruments Guitar Rig 4 Pro
julian_r7 julian_r7

« A must-have »

Published on 09/19/14 at 08:10
I first approached Guitar Rig when I was taking my first steps in mixing and mastering, and even then it was quite easy for me to load the plugin and get it to work on Nuendo or as a Standalone. I've tried it in a good number of PCs with no compatibility issues. The only problem that may arise, as with every software of the kind, is compatibility issues between your sound card, and the ASIO drivers.

The graphic nature of Guitar Rig makes the manual almost useless, in my opinion. The fact that the pedals and boxes are stacked as in a visible traditional guitar rack helps to easily put order to long chains of effects. As for the software itself if doesn't have much options or menus to deal with, so you'll find yourself mastering Guitar Rig in a short time without ever resorting to the manual.

You can work with presets or build a whole set of FX from scratch. Most of the times, for practicing, quick demo recordings, etc, the presets will be more than enough (there are a good deal and they are quite the first thing you get access to).


SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

Performance is amazing. I've only found issues with Guitar Rig when I've really overloaded my computer. That being said, it puts a strain on any DAW to run more than a couple of GR instances, or running instances with tons of effects. I've been using Guitar Rig since GR3, and the quality of the software improved dramatically with the fourth version, as did the sound and the available effects.

I've never gotten the Rig Control (the pedal that was made particularly for this piece of software) but I understand you can replace it with any MIDI pedal. In any case, the Rig Control was especially designed for this, so it should work best.

OVERALL OPINION

The sound is nice and some of the presets are really well crafted. The ironic titles give away the kind of sound that they should recreate, and I was surprised to see how many actually nailed it. I think that Guitar Rig is an amazing tool because of its simplicity. I've tried other guitar software before, but I've only stuck with GR and Amplitube.

I actually work with a combination of Guitar Rig and Amplitube: after the initial surprise at the sheer amount of effect GR offers wears down, you'll find that some of them sound a kind of plastic. It is essential to be willing to tweak the knobs a little bit if you are willing to get something near to a professional sound. It is also essential to understand that, while GR may excel when it comes to quick recordings and such, you will need to use it in combination with other software in order to get a high standard sound.