The utterly amazing Guitar Rig 3 by Native Instruments

10 Feb 2009

I am going to pre-warn my readers that this might be the most overly indulgent, completely butt kissing, over the top glowing review I have ever written. Recently I purchased Guitar Rig 3: Software Edition (*more on why that was a mistake later) and I have to admit to being completely and totally smitten by this little jewel of a software tool.

First what it does. Either standalone, or as a plug-in to your favorite Digital Audio Workstation software, Guitar Rig 3 is your complete bag of tricks as far as tone goes. I have built some of the most incredible amp monstrosities playing with it and have come to believe that there are very few sounds that you just can’t achieve with it. Your basic setup is an input and output module. In between these two modules, you can place a nearly infinite number of components. You have 12 amps with matching cabinets, mostly for guitar but a few for bass. You have a range of “Personal Guitar Assistants” including a tuner, metronome, loop recorder, splitters, mergers, and more. Finally you have a massive collection of stomp box and rack effects for pretty much any shredtastic need you might have.

Of course you can modify these sounds with a wide array of mics, adjust their placements and even tweak the room a bit. The big question you are probably asking is “How does it sound??” That my friends, is simply amazing. The models are dead on, the tone is sweet or biting, you have total control. The emulations of classic amps and stomboxes are truly faithful. This software is just simply fun.

So why do I suggest not getting the Software Edition? Well, the hardware edition comes with a foot controller/audio interface for a trite $100 more, and the control itself is $300 if you want to add it later. Easy decision as if you want wah or volume control, not to mention preset switching, it’s a no brainer, I regret buying the version I did, but not the software itself.

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