Like every guitar player on the planet, I'm a tone hog. I like my signal path the same way I like my whiskey: straight, no chaser. Just a guitar, a wire, and a seriously beat-up tube amp turned up loud.

So why am I writing about software? Because I'm also a realist. Achieving that magic tone is never easy, and sometimes you need to dial up something pronto, whether onstage or in the studio. Enter Guitar Rig 2.

The Big Picture

Native Instruments (NI) struck gold with the first installment of the Guitar Rig software a few years back. The flexibility, ease of use, and sheer power won over legions of fans and charmed not a few reviewers. With Guitar Rig 2 (see Figure 1) the company has upped the ante by redesigning the Rig Kontrol foot controller.

What's the big news? How about a two-channel USB 2.0 audio interface that supports extreme sample rates and bit depths? Plug your guitar in one end, connect the other to the PA, fire up your laptop, and you have a serious arsenal of tones and tweaks at your fingertips. It's like lugging eight guitar and bass amps, 21 different cabinets, nine mics, rack after rack of effects, tape decks, looping tools, modulators, and even a couple of rotating organ speakers up and down the club stairs every night.

At least that's what the ads say. My job is to dig out the truth. So read on.

Figure 1. The Guitar Rig 2 software works as a stand-alone app or a plugin. It includes physical models of amps and effects, as well as recording tools. (Click to enlarge.)

The Waiting Game

I was stoked to receive the box from NI at the tail end of 2005. I tore it open, speed-read the instructions while the installer did its thing, and reached for my trusty Strat. Uh-oh: an installation screen informed me I had to complete an online registration process before I could check for any updates. No worries: I went to the website ... and found I needed to create an account with yet another password to remember. I finally downloaded the latest driver for the Rig Kontrol 2 (I always check the Web for updates before I fire up any new software) and settled in for a long afternoon of guitar fun.

Or so I thought. Playback through the Rig Kontrol 2 had so many crackles and pops that it hurt to listen to. I tried changing buffer settings, sample rates, you name it. According the Guitar Rig users' forum, I wasn't the only one experiencing these problems.

Finally, on January 20, NI posted new drivers and a software update so I could get down to work at last. Needless to say, I wasn't in a pleasant mood.

During the three weeks it took to get up and running, I had a lot of time to peruse the user forums. Granted, people are more likely to post complaints than praise, but from the looks of it, my experience is fairly typical. Furthermore, the initial tech support I got was not helpful; it took several rounds of email to learn that working drivers were on the way.

That's not cool, and anything good I say about the product—and there is a lot to like—is colored by the frustrations of simply getting it to work.

[Ed. Note: Native Instruments' Tobias Thon responds, "Guitar Rig 2 was released on November 30th in the US, and on December 20th in the rest of the world. The audio artifacts in question, unfortunate as they were, were not at all omnipresent but limited to a fraction of the Mac users. The first driver update that addressed this issue was released on December 21st, three weeks after the US launch and only one day after the worldwide launch. Considering how long it takes to develop and test a new driver version, this was a pretty fast reaction time. Unfortunately, it didn't totally eradicate the problem completely so a second driver update was released on January 19th that addressed the problem for good." Thon called the incident "quite unfortunate, and not up to the usual standard of our product releases in terms of reliability." He was also concerned about the tech support Mark received; Mark stands by his version.]

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The Virtual Guitar Studio

Figure 2. Guitar Rig comes with more than 1,700 presets, and it's easy to store your own as well. (Click to enlarge.)

The Guitar Rig 2 software is a hefty rig indeed. You get amplifier, speaker cabinet, and microphone modeling; multiple effects processors; and even a real-time looper to record your performance. Everything is editable, and you can save your edits to create custom banks. You get up to 14 banks of 128 presets each, for a whopping total of 1,792 unique guitar sounds (see Figure 2). That ought to be enough for any tone hog!

Right out of the box, you get beaucoup presets that show off what the rig can do, and users are encouraged to share their sounds online. Well-implemented search functions make it easy to locate just the sound you want. For instance, the keyword "weird" yielded six seriously warped patches.

To create a sound, you drag components from the left side of the interface to the virtual rack on the right. You aren't constrained to a particular effects order. And the designers thoughtfully included tools to run effects in parallel, cross-fade between them, or do just about anything your twisted little heart desires.

Figure 3. Routing effects in MOTU Digital Performer.

Naturally there's a tuner and a metronome, as well as two virtual tape decks for playing back prerecorded loops and overdubbing new tracks. I found these fun, but of limited use; a rudimentary audio sequencer would be far better. However, the looping tool is flat-out brilliant. I'll discuss it in a moment.

You can use the software on its own or as a plugin with your recording software; the VST, Direct X, RTAS, and Audio Units plugin formats are supported. Be sure to set up the host recording software to allow monitoring through the effects.

Note that some entry-level host programs don't let you monitor this way as you're recording. That means you can't hear how your guitar sounds until after it's been recorded. Yes, recording your guitar dry so you can add effects in the mix—called re-amping—is a time-honored recording technique. But it still helps to hear what you're doing.

One way to hear the effects is by placing the plugin in an aux track in front of an audio track (see Figure 3). Be careful though, as that will print (record) the effect.

Because the best way to describe the software is to show you how it works, I'll walk you through some examples. But first I want to talk about the Rig Kontrol 2.

Happy Little Feet

Guitar effects didn't get the name "stomp boxes" for nothing: we axe-slingers have heavy feet. So I'm happy to relate that the Rig Kontrol 2 foot pedal is designed for serious service. Housed in an attractive aluminum frame, it sports eight rugged switches and a sturdy rocker pedal. There's another switch under the pedal for tasks like turning off the wah. (See Figures 4 and 5.) Everything is customizable; your edits are stored with each preset. Alternately, you can assign some switches to global tasks such as stepping through presets and banks, engaging transport controls on the looper or tape-deck modules, and so on.

On the rear you'll find two independent Hi-Z inputs (handy for jamming with a pal), left/right stereo outs (balanced), a headphone out, two 1/4-inch ins for expression pedals, and the USB jack. Although the software features extensive MIDI control for automating effects and there are MIDI In and Out jacks on the Rig Kontrol, the pedal is not a MIDI controller. The pedal does send VST automation data, however, so you can record your moves into host programs that support that standard. Alternately, you can use any MIDI controller to overdub control-change data after the fact.

Figure 4. Computer mice make lousy stomp boxes, so NI thoughtfully included Rig Kontrol 2, a sturdy floor controller with a high-resolution USB audio interface.

Figure 5. The back panel of the Rig Kontrol 2 features balanced 1/4-inch inputs and outputs, a stereo headphone jack with volume knob, a USB 2.0 jack, MIDI I/O, and two additional pedal inputs. The button beside the output jacks is a high/low switch.

Great Big Noise

Until NI gets the audio "spitting" (their word) problem at lower latency settings under control in the Rig Kontrol 2, you might want to use a third-party audio interface. (Latency refers to the amount of time it takes the software to process the sound. Lower settings translate into better live "feel" but require more processor power; higher settings can add a noticeable delay to your playing.)

I'm happy to say that Guitar Rig 2 recognized both my Mackie Onyx FireWire and first-generation MOTU 828 audio interfaces without a hitch, and the audio anomalies disappeared. Finally I was able to dig in. One caveat, though: according to NI, having more than one audio interface connected to your computer may increase the chance of glitches with the Rig Kontrol 2.

The basic software rack consists of an input module and an output module; it's what goes between these that creates the fireworks. Amp models include most of the basics; for trademark reasons NI chose names like "Tweedman," "Plexi," "AC Box," and "BassVT" (nudge-nudge, wink-wink).

To give you an idea what the amp models sound like, I recorded a short snippet of un-effected guitar into my sequencer:

• Basic guitar, no effects (74KB MP3)

Though most guitar modeling effects pile on the distortion, I believe it's harder to get a convincing clean tone. So I dialed up a Fender Twin-style amp and cab. Not bad, not bad at all:

• Fender Twin model (100KB MP3)

I experimented with changing the virtual microphone—choices include models of the Shure SM57 and other well-loved mics—and moving it around to find the sweet spot. A quick mouse-click accessed a panel where I could adjust how the "tubes" behaved, simulating the effects of different voltages, rebiasing, and many more subtle tricks (see Figure 6). That's a lot of control.

Figure 6. Advanced controls let you dial in the sound you want.

Here's the same track processed through the other Fender-style combo, a recreation of the legendary 4 x 10 tweed Bassman amp. Add a bit of delay and surf's up, dude:

• Fender Tweed Bassman & delay (92KB MP3)

OK, maybe these clips won't pass the golden-ears test, but I'd say NI got it plenty close. I ran through several more amp and cab combinations, but with something like 120 basic rigs, not mention the possibility of multiple amps feeding multiple cabs, each with multiple microphone types and placement options, I quickly decided there was no way I could test them all. Suffice it to say there's a lot of variety. If you can't find an acceptable basic sound, you ain't trying.

I also tried some of the bass rigs using a hybrid Fender JP Bass and a Guild Ashbory. If anything, I like the bass sounds even better than the guitar patches. I wouldn't hesitate to use the Guitar Rig for bass in the studio. Acoustic guitarists haven't been overlooked, though I would have preferred some microphone-modeling algorithms or multiband parametric EQ to help tame the telltale piezo honk from an under-saddle pickup.

Special Effects

Figure 7. Here's a small selection of the effects you get with Guitar Rig 2. From the tongue-in-cheek names, you can guess which ones are modeled on real-world boxes. (Click to enlarge.)

Once you've dialed in a basic sound, you can go to town. Effects range from a simple spring reverb (with parameters to adjust the length and tension of the spring, for goodness' sake!) through delays, chorus, EQ, compression, gates, and all the way up to synth-style modulators. Of course, you get multiple ways to add and modify distortion. I had to try a preset with the intriguing name of "Bad Plexi Solo." Yep, they called that one right:

• FX-laden preset (128KB MP3)

All in all, I liked the variety of effects, and I applaud NI for not overloading the player with endless menus and parameters. The quality is generally quite high, and the inclusion of multiple variations of certain effects as well as synth-style modulators (see Figure 7) greatly enhances the creative potential. The following clip shows just how far you can take things:

• Really FX-laden preset (96KB MP3)

I do wish the parametric EQ had more than two bands, but loading multiple EQ modules proved an easy workaround.

Loop de Loop

I said it once, but it bears repeating: the looping tool is amazing (see Figure 8). You engage it by dragging the Loop Machine module to your rack. It's a good idea to select a metronome, too, as the loop's end point can be quantized easily. That keeps you from recording something that ends up in some weird fractional time signature. Once you get a basic groove going, switch off the metronome and add layer after layer. Of course, you can change your guitar and bass sounds between passes. Even better, you can easily expand on the basic loops to create longer arrangements, as you can hear below. And you can save the whole mess if you have to run off for a while.

• Looping (568KB MP3)

Here's the cool part: not only can you export the entire loop as a WAV file, you can also save each layer as a separate audio file. So if you capture something great, you can build a longer arrangement in your digital audio workstation. The loop module is so good that it made me forget the long wait to get the software up and running.

Figure 8. The Loop Machine is serious fun.

And, in the End

I guess the bottom line here is: how does it sound? To give you an idea, I recorded a short piece I call "WaddaWadda":

• "WaddaWadda" (912KB MP3)

First I took one of the short drum loops bundled with the program and ran it though a couple of different effect chains. Then I grabbed one of the audio clips from the first batch of tests. After that I kinda went nuts. Except for the bass lines, I played everything on my slab guitar, even the parts that sound like synth pads. This tiny taste gives you an idea of the vast amount of sound-shaping potential waiting for you in Guitar Rig 2 (see Figure 9).

Figure 9. Amazingly, this rack of doom doesn't even show Guitar Rig 2's amps. Click here to see the whole schmear.

All of this power comes at a price: you'll need a very fast computer. NI suggests at least 700MHz, but my 2.1GHz PowerMac G5 sometimes bogged down when I ran the software as a plugin in Digital Performer. Granted, I had some pretty huge effects running, but still.

Guitar Rig 2 is a solid contender for recording, particularly if you have an alternate way to get audio in and out of your computer. As I said earlier, if you can't find a satisfactory tone, you aren't trying. The interface is clean and easy to use, but huge amounts of tweakable control lurk just under the hood. I truly love the Loop Machine—rarely have I had so much fun testing software.

NI is committed to upgrading the product and has posted info on achieving the proper latency settings and system tune-ups that make a significant improvement in the audio behavior of the Rig Kontrol 2 interface. After following their tips, I was able to improve performance to where I might even consider using Guitar Rig 2 in a live situation. For an old tube dog, that's saying a lot. Download the demo and check it out.

Mark Nelson is both an acoustic musician and the author of Getting Started in Computer Music (Thomson Course Technology). He oscillates between Oregon and Hawaii, where he co-produces the Aloha Music Camp.

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