Impressed with NI Guitar Rig 2

[enharmonic]

I just spent a few hours with NI Guitar Rig 2, and I have to say that I think it could be made to work. It'll take some tweaking...and probably rolling my own patches from scratch, but I bet that with enough time and experience, I'd be able to make patches that would fool most listeners.

I spent most of my time with the Twin model, but I'm looking forward to trying them all.

[spookybonus]

yeah i like it, ive been using it to record little ideas while i'm slacking off from work, ive made some nice patches with the tweed amp.

[elambo]

I think many of their presets would fool MOST listeners. Guitar fanatics would hear the differences. However, in a mix with other instruments you might be surprised at how much you'll be able to get away with.

[Monkey23]

I liked it as well, although I felt that it couldn't do a 'dirty-ish' slightly overdriven amp like the POD (and even then it's not great).

[enharmonic]

I will definitely take some tweaking to get some decent driven tones that sound right to my ears, but after about an hour of messing with it last night after my initial post, I had a sound dialed in that was spot on to Johnny Greenwood's into to the Radiohead song "Airbag" off of O.K. Computer

[jzucker]

been there, done that. Close but no cigar. IMO, Still not as good as the outboard vox tonelab device though it has better cleans.

It has no dumble type tone. The fender cleans are decent but not very good compared to mic'ing an amp.

[elambo]

Keep in mind that GR and GR2 have been very sensitive to the type of preamp you use to get your guitar's signal into the computer. Basic sound cards don't cut it. The affect of using these is thinner, cheesier, less realistic sound. A seperate preamp of decent quality steps up the game. I heard a comparison somewhere between a computer's built-in sound card and a Neve clone and the difference was drastic.

[AndrewSimon]

Try Amplitube2 and ReValver2 before making a final decision.

[jzucker]

Originally Posted by elambo

Keep in mind that GR and GR2 have been very sensitive to the type of preamp you use to get your guitar's signal into the computer. Basic sound cards don't cut it. The affect of using these is thinner, cheesier, less realistic sound. A seperate preamp of decent quality steps up the game. I heard a comparison somewhere between a computer's built-in sound card and a Neve clone and the difference was drastic.

I use the preamp that comes with GR1. If you use a tube preamp in front of GR, you're defeating the purpose. The whole point is to have a naked, uncolored tone that you are recording.

[Bassomatic]

Originally Posted by jzucker

I use the preamp that comes with GR1. If you use a tube preamp in front of GR, you're defeating the purpose. The whole point is to have a naked, uncolored tone that you are recording.

Methinks you missed e's point. Try reading it again. (P.S. - he knows whereof he speaks).

[jzucker]

Originally Posted by Bassomatic

Methinks you missed e's point. Try reading it again. (P.S. - he knows whereof he speaks).

no, i didn't miss the point.

[enharmonic]

Originally Posted by elambo

Keep in mind that GR and GR2 have been very sensitive to the type of preamp you use to get your guitar's signal into the computer. Basic sound cards don't cut it. The affect of using these is thinner, cheesier, less realistic sound. A seperate preamp of decent quality steps up the game. I heard a comparison somewhere between a computer's built-in sound card and a Neve clone and the difference was drastic.

I could come audio out of GR2 and go into the DI of my MP2NV. Do you think that would be an improvement over the USB into the G5?

Thanks for the tip. I've been thinking about adding a Brick for stuff like this. Bought GR2 for creating heavily effected/mangled/synth-like tones ITB. My objective is to make sounds and then fly them into Absynth for additional mangling/synthesis

[elambo]

Just to clear this up -- YES, using your MP2NV would make you happier. I bought the original GR with its preamp option and never cared for it. I immediately switched to a Demeter preamp (because it was already tied into my system) and the sound jumped up a bit in quality. Not drastic, but unquestionably better. Now when I use GR2, I use either a Neve 1272 pre or a Chandler Germanium, sometimes even an Ampeg SVP-CL or John Hardy. Any of these options make for a better overall tone than when using the GuitarRig preamp. There's "clean" as in what the GuitarRig preamp offers, then there's "clean" as in what a Demeter or John Hardy
can offer, but the last two offer a much more substantial sound than the thin and weak tone of the standard G.R. preamp.

[jzucker]

Of course that makes it better but then the modeling isn't generating the sound and if you decide to make a radical change to your tone, you then have to undo the preamp's tone.

I mean, I could record a solo using my Fuchs or Two Rock and then say that Guitar Rig was great because I used its tuner but then it ain't guitar rig anymore. :AOK

Originally Posted by elambo

Just to clear this up -- YES, using your MP2NV would make you happier. I bought the original GR with its preamp option and never cared for it. I immediately switched to a Demeter preamp (because it was already tied into my system) and the sound jumped up a bit in quality. Not drastic, but unquestionably better. Now when I use GR2, I use either a Neve 1272 pre or a Chandler Germanium, sometimes even an Ampeg SVP-CL or John Hardy. Any of these options make for a better overall tone than when using the GuitarRig preamp. There's "clean" as in what the GuitarRig preamp offers, then there's "clean" as in what a Demeter or John Hardy
can offer, but the last two offer a much more substantial sound than the thin and weak tone of the standard G.R. preamp.

[elambo]

Originally Posted by jzucker

I use the preamp that comes with GR1. If you use a tube preamp in front of GR, you're defeating the purpose. The whole point is to have a naked, uncolored tone that you are recording.

If a tube preamp is adding distortion that you find detrimental than you're overdriving the input, or using the wrong preamp. Even when I use a Germanium - one of the most colored of all preamps - I still get amazing clean sounds. I follow your logic about keeping the source guitar tone "clean," but I think you're missing the advantage of clean with girth and power. As I mentioned already, the preamp that ships with the GR package is weak and thin. If you doubt this, record the direct unprocessed signal from that preamp, then do the same with a Neve (which is NOT tube, btw) or another higher quality preamp. Listen just to the clean tones and tell me which you think would be a better starting place for use with GR or GR2. I've done this. The Native Instruments preamp sits somewhere in a box never to be used again.