So... Is Guitar Rig dead?

[vurt]

Well.....Even though I find other offerings a bit more realistic and detailed, lately I have been doing a lot of audio for video with a cover band and Guitar Rig provides quick and usable sounds that sit in the mix just fine. So for me it is not dead.

i like it for just noodling sometimes.
is it perfect? no, but for opening a rack of fx and an amp, all connected, saves me around a half hour at least sorting pedals and such.
but if ive got an hour to kill, not going to use half of it setting up.

for something recorded, i may take that extra time to get the pedals set up, but mainly because i have sounds that arent covered in gr5, but im happy with guitar rig for messing around, havent bothered with any of the other amp sims tbh.

[Halonmusic]

So...Is Guitar Rig Dead?

No, it just sounds dead.

I loaded up a demo of 6, excited to hear the new emulations... terrible. OK for clean stuff, but the high-gain stuff sounds especially bad. They should really license their guitar amp emulations from someone else, like they do their compressors. bx or Softube would be great. The effects still sound pretty, including the new stuff, but I was thinking about upgrading to the new Komplete to mostly get Guitar Rig 6, and after a half hour I thought, “nope.”

Did the previous versions also sound terrible?

[simon.a.billington]

Yeah I totally agree with you. I honestly don't know why more devs don't do this.

I'm a programmer and I've had conversations with plugin devs in the past. The one I recall, he just hadn't thought of storing the plugin version number in the session / preset, and applying the saved parameters based on that. He did see that it was better though than changing (say) a parameter's range and breaking old presets or DAW sessions (or having to create a whole new plugin id to avoid it).

I've also talked to the Pianoteq devs in the past, who at the time (may be different now) didn't appreciate that changing the sound engine a little without preserving the prior version for saved presets and sessions would make things sound different - not good for presets or pre-existing mixes, which should render identically without user changes.

To be fair, doing plugins is pretty darn complex, there's so much to think about (especially for smaller or one-person devs), so it's not surprising they can't think of every little thing or execute all areas perfectly. But hopefully that will evolve over time.

.. of course NI has plenty of experience .

Oh absolutely. Programming for compatibility would definitely harder than what it would seem. Especially if you're also trying to support multiple DAWs and OSes and are providing support for systems up to 5 years old. Multiply that by the amount of plugins they have. That's total insanity.

You can see why they have to charge for updates time to time. Man, you can even start to make sense of why Waves charges for every Version update. Its a huge pain and an inconvenience, but understandable.

[imrae]

...
Multiply that by the amount of plugins they have. That's total insanity.
...
Man, you can even start to make sense of why Waves charges for every Version update.

This isn't how software development works, you don't write compatibility code for every product using the same platform. Competent developers use abstraction layers and automated testing. The cost of compatibility-updating the framework is not multiplied by the number of products, unless every product has special requirements. (In which case said framework could use a redesign...)

[simon.a.billington]

...
Multiply that by the amount of plugins they have. That's total insanity.
...
Man, you can even start to make sense of why Waves charges for every Version update.

This isn't how software development works, you don't write compatibility code for every product using the same platform. Competent developers use abstraction layers and automated testing. The cost of compatibility-updating the framework is not multiplied by the number of products, unless every product has special requirements. (In which case said framework could use a redesign...)

Oh yes of course, thats why development is still largely done in C/C++ or using a framework like JUCE. But even with that abstraction everything still needs to be ported and tested and bugs fixed.

[LoveEnigma18]

FYI: A hefty 6.1.0 update is available for Guitar Rig 6 in Native Access.

6.1.0 — 2020-12-10
Please run the GUITAR RIG 6 standalone application after installation to ensure correct behavior. To choose your soundcard, select the audio tab in the preferences. The latest manual is available for download on the GUITAR RIG 6 webpages.
ADDED New components: Replika GR, Replika Shimmer, Driver
ADDED 144 new rack presets including artist presets
ADDED Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste to rack context menu
ADDED Maschine / Komplete Kontrol controller pages are now also mapped to macros for all factory library presets
ADDED Custom tags can be created via the Info Pane. Once created, a user tag will appear in the browser
ADDED User presets have a visual indicator in the Browser results list
ADDED User presets can be deleted from the Browser context menu
ADDED Hold mode to Macro controls
ADDED New and revised keyboard commands
ADDED “Show Preset in Finder/Explorer” added to Browser context menu
ADDED Pinning Component Tiles
ADDED Touchscreen Mode can now be activated in Preferences
FIXED Sound dropouts when using Rack Tools buttons
FIXED Factory presets contained macros assigned to fixed components
FIXED Guitar Rig would crash on shutdown if the browser was still scanning
FIXED Keyboard input would be ignored on startup of standalone until the main window was clicked
FIXED It was possible to paste the rack clipboard into text fields
FIXED It was not always possible to reset Macro names
FIXED Focus now follows the cursor when editing macro names
FIXED Various minor errors in Factory Presets
FIXED Rig Kontrol would not start correctly in MIDI mode
FIXED Deleted presets are now immediately removed from Browser after rescanning
FIXED Intermittent crash when saving a preset if multiple instances are running
FIXED Error message presented if presets cannot be loaded / silent failure avoided
FIXED Renaming a user created preset has immediate effect
FIXED Scroll position no longer reset after saving Component preset
FIXED Info Pane remains visible when adjusting height of plug-in window
FIXED Clicking pen icon in Info Pane now highlights title field for editing (user presets only)
FIXED Tapedeck playhead jumps ahead on start
FIXED Occasional crashes with Global FX and Container while loading component presets, adding new components and using undo and redo
FIXED Transport keyboard commands no longer blocked by plugin
FIXED Sledgehammer parameter TREBLE was mislabeled MID
FIXED Component Presets now have defined order
FIXED Convolution components causing audio crackles upon start up when being modulated without the ui open
IMPROVED Delay confirming User Preset renaming
IMPROVED Truncation of text entry in Info Pane
IMPROVED Now showing a preset scanning progress bar instead of the preset names
IMPROVED Smoother crossfading on Matched Cabinet Pro between cabinet and room IRs
KNOWN ISSUE Windows 10 VST/AAX only: HiDPI scaling does not work correctly which results in lower resolution graphics
KNOWN ISSUE Windows 10 standalone only: When using multiple screens with scaling of 150% or more the GUI may be drawn incorrectly or not at all
KNOWN ISSUE Dragging from a HiDPI screen to a non-HiDPI screen can result in lower quality graphics. Closing/reopening GUI on the same screen will fix this

[_gl]

thanks @LoveEnigma18 (isn't it though), some v. important stuff in there for me (touchscreen mode, which I've been talking to them about as the new NI UI stuff is uncontrollable with my graphics tablet), and Undo/Redo was a big omission.

[Magic Russ]

I like the new Replika effects, but haven't yet gotten good guitar sounds out of Driver.

[Lotuz2019]

I like the new Replika effects, but haven't yet gotten good guitar sounds out of Driver.

They're throwing in everything they've got, but Driver probably wasn't designed to use on guitar. None of the demo tracks feature guitars anyway.

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... ts/driver/

[mabian]

Well we should know that guitar rig has now crossed officially the bridge and it's far more than... A guitar rig now

- Mario

[cprompt]

Well we should know that guitar rig has now crossed officially the bridge and it's far more than... A guitar rig now

They'd have more success if they rebranded it as FX Rig or something. Calling it Guitar Rig pigeon-holes the product in to an area in which it was never very strong and continues to lag behind the competition in. Time to drop the aging misnomer and start afresh.

[SiliconDeath]

Mercuriall Spark and Euphoria are my go-to amps.

[_gl]

So far I've only played with the new Tube thingie (obviously not long enough to remember the name yet ) and I liked it. I hope they come through with new amps after the bugs are fixed.

I do miss the old advanced controls on the new amps though, there was so much scope for customising or just making it sound a little different each time (there should really be very subtle randomising going on on parameters like this).

[simon.a.billington]

I’m holding out until we see half price upgrades because I have a whole Komplete bundle I want to upgrade.

Those new updates suggest they are still progressively working on improving it, which is good news in my opinion.

[simon.a.billington]

I like the new Replika effects, but haven't yet gotten good guitar sounds out of Driver.

They're throwing in everything they've got, but Driver probably wasn't designed to use on guitar. None of the demo tracks feature guitars anyway.

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... ts/driver/

Worthwhile trying it on keyboards, along with some of GuitarRigs other effects.