Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3 + Kontrol

[Kiwi]

Just wanted to put a word in for this bit of software.

Basically even if you have a Behringer Guitar Link or one of the cheap ripoffs from Hong Kong, it will allow you to turn your laptop into a high powered and super versatile effects unit. Not only that but if you have a clean and comfy set of earphones, you can play along to your MP3 tracks and the amp modelling and eq options will allow you studio quality sound. The bass amp options are very limited (basically an Ampeg clone) but there are loads of screamy, grindy, tappy, wowy, zorky, echoey types of things and...at last...the kind of intuitively easy, logical, graphical user interface that multi effects units have been crying out for since the 80's.

I wasn't that impressed with the Ampeg sim, but the Fender Tweed and Bassman type sims were OK with guitar. I found bass was best with no amp sim but using a compressor and the parametric eq yields extremely nice sounding results. Being able to boost down as low as 30Hz delivered really satisfying B string sounds.

So this bit of kit has been soley responsible for me getting back into practicing every night and it sounds amazing. My ears never get tired and there's plenty to muck about with in terms of modifiers and such if I get bored. Plus the Kontrol USB foot controller means all I technically would need to do is take the laptop, controller, and a pair of IEMs to a gig. Crazy!

I think I've seen the future

[dave_bass5]

Ive been using this set up for a while now as my practice set up at home. I have to do all my practising/learning songs etc in the living room while the family watch TV and it works really well. Just upgraded to GR4 but i cant see much of a difference.
I dont have the foot controller but then i woudnt use it anyway.
I find the strobe tuner is very handy for setting the bass up as well.

[Golchen]

I bought it for guitar a few year ago. Don't really get the rig kontrol out. To be honest I'm not really mad about it, guitar distortions are all horribly hissy with gain, and if you use the onboard tweaks it kills the tone and feel. After a few years of practicing with GR3 through headphones, I finally went out and bought a useable guitar amp and wow ...... I'd forgotten how much a guitar could sing! I just can't go back to practicing with GR now.

It has a use - I still need it for recording, but I'm not entirely sure that it's worth the money personally. Never been mad on the bass sounds either!

[Kiwi]

I use it with a Burman guitar combo for guitar and, ok its not going to sound exactly the same as a Rivera-era Fender Super Champ but the tone is close enough for some funky Nile Rodgers type stuff. Most of the distortions are nice and crisp although the Joe Satriani patch is a bit flaccid. However the hiss is easy to deal with using the noise gates and I agree the bass sounds are crap but the amp sim isn't really necessary anyway.

I've got my own patch which is amp and cabinet free and by using the optical compressor and the parametric eq to boost 30Hz and 4Khz the bass sounds fantastic. I just wish the parametric eq had more than two bands but in some ways its not important. I can put two parametrics in if I need 4 bands of boost.

Plus because there are virtually no limits on processing power, the sky is virtually the limit. I could set up an Akai unibass patch and then run the shifted signal through its own chain of delays.

[biro]

hey, here's just anexample of how you can use an iPhone to control various parameters within guitar rig. i hope it comes handy to someone!