Guitar Rig 3 Opinions

[Whatnobeer]

Who has it and do you like it? I'm looking into purchasing it and would like to some opinions (good or bad)
and is it worth the money? Please be specific. I'm not worried about the PC processing end of it as I have
or can build a rig fast enough to run it. Just looking for opinions on the EFX and amp modeling and if they
are good sounding for the price. If you have recommendations for other software or other quirks in the GR3
software please speak up. Thank you in advance for any input.

[orb451]

Hey man I'm running GR3 on a Dell laptop, dual core 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, 7200RPM HDD. So far I haven't run into any *major*
slow downs or anything. I've played pretty much tube amps for the entire time I've been playing (16 years of carvin or mesa). Currently
I play a Carvin V3 2x12 Combo.
I play rock / metal / whatever comes to mind. GR3 is the first real amp modeling software I've used. I found Amplitube and FreeAMP to
be decent, but too laggy on my rig (which I'm stuck with for the moment) whereas GR3 works fine with minimal lag / latency.

As far as its ability to model amp sounds, I'd say it does a decent job. It's overwhelming though, there are sooooooooo many options
for amps, cabs & fx that it can be tough to dial in sounds from scratch. It just takes a while thats all, like everything in this world
the more time you invest in it, the greater the rewards. Most of the presets sound good, probably good enough to fool most non-musicians.
A purist or music snob would easily tell though. Setting up lush, dreamy clean sounds is easiest. Getting a solid, tight distortion takes
time and experimentation. Studio reverb sounds alright, as does the Quad Delay and the Hendrixy Electric Lady Delay (not to be confused with
the Electric Lady Chorus/Flanger). Distortion stomp boxes sound good.

I think the trick with GR3 is gain staging properly. Putting the right amount of crunch on your signal BEFORE it gets to your amp head,
then dialing THAT in properly, and so on down the chain (all within GR3 I mean).

Hope that heps and let me know if you any more questions

orb.

[Whatnobeer]

Thanks for the input. I play mostly metal/80's Hair type music so I know what you're talking about.
Sounds like it's a good program. I might check around with some friends to see if they have a copy
I can borrow to try out. My dual core Toshiba will run it fine (AMD TurionX2 64) with 4 GB's. I like
your way of thinking on how to chain EFX. Both of my Crate heads have Effects Loops but I
don't like the sound they give so I chain them into the input instead. I get a little more "umph" for
lack of a better term. Thanks once again.

[orb451]

You're welcome, lemme know how it works out for you or if you run into any good settings on it!

[chrisofoz]

In the studio i work at, we have revalver, guitar rig 3, and GTR. I have used all of them as im also the lead guitarist of our studio band.

The first question id pose to you, is what type of axe do you have and its quality?

I used these programs with several different axes. They were great on some, and not so great on the others.

What ive found though, is that if you have a high end guitar, you will end up degrading your sound using these as amps.

I will not run my Blade or Fender Strat through these, as they absolutely kill the tone of the things. However, if you have a midrange or
low end guitar, these things will do amazing things in perking that up.

I myself was a big fan of revalver, however, i built several amps in this from schematic, and found that tube amps even in revalver are
still lacking the bell like third harmonic that you get on the real amp. This was on a Bassman 100 and an Acoustic G60t. Which in my opinion
are both excellent tube amps. I also found that these programs dont get the sound "cutting" through the mix like a real tube amp.

Cheers,

Chris

[octave06]

first of all are you using for studio use or live performances? you said it before that pc power is not a problem right? well good for you, because i know guitar rig 3 eats up a lot of processing power if used as a plugin, and can resort to lots of dropouts in recording, which can get very frustrating. i tried it on a 1.6ghz dual core w/ 1.5 ram not that fast but it can get by, and the pc is already crawling after 3-4 guitar rig plugins.

using it on live performances though, i would recommend just getting the line 6 pod xt or x3, which is about the same price range with the guitar rig . for me i think it would just be too much hassle bringing a laptop and audio interface to gigs and setting it up. plus you have to buy a midi footswitch as well just to control w/ your foot.

the guitar rig 3 is awesome with regards to their sound though.. the ultrasonic just sounds really angry, lots of other effects as well.. but personally, i would just get the pod x3, since it also has recording capabilities with it.

[BeeG]

I personally use guitar rig 3 for everything and it sounds pretty good in my opinion. I'm not a professional or anything but it does the job and does it well FOR ME

[galileoslastdays]

I was having the same issues as octave06 when I use it as a plugin. Is there a threshold (PC speed, etc.) where this stops being an issue? I really like the software, but it's difficult to justify spending the money if it's going to be useless after 3 tracks.

[Tom H]

I have ReValver and GR3, as well as Logic's Guitar Amp Pro (but that shouldn't figure into this, it is terrible with distortion.)

Both Revalver and Guitar Rig have good distortion, especially for metal. Even the less-distorted rock sounds work as well. The cleans are also decent; however, I wouldn't advise them for jazz, really, or anything where your guitar's natural tone should play a huge part in the sound. With distortion, you can get a rich distortion that sounds fine even with a substandard tone.

However, these don't match up to a real, decent tube amp. However, if you don't have the means to record a good amp through a good guitar well, these programs can do better.

Depending on your CPU and RAM, you should be able to have it enabled on probably up to 5 or 6 tracks; I typically have it on 3.

To save RAM, what I do is bus the rhythm guitar (with GR3 enabled) to two aux tracks, and make the original have no output. Then, I make the buses pan L&R, so I get the typical left and right rhythm guitar without having to make 2 tracks for it. You can do little tricks like this to cut down on the amount of Guitar Rig tracks you have. I also like to automate and bypass the effect especially if its specifically for a solo; bypass it for most of the song, then enable it for just the solo.



Tom