Guitar Rig 4.

[csiscs]

First impressions, pretty good actually, didn't think much of three, fired it up tonight, only checked out a coupla presets.

So far the Angus Young Back n Black and Ramones presets sounds pretty damn good with only a little tweaking.

Anyone else using?

[willjrockstar]

Havent used it or heard it but my buddy wont shut up about it. He's inexperienced but loves it.

[fHumble fHingaz]

I've just got Guitar Rig 4 Pro bundled with my Sonar 8.5 upgrade, & I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed too. When it comes to guitar amps, I'm a pretty die-hard "cranked real tube amp" kinda guy. (I have a Mesa Boogie Lone Star Special & a THD Univalve - Previously had many Marshalls & a Fender as well). GR4 appears to have good basic sounds & plenty of options available if you want to get into wild effects. I also have a Pod X3 & Gearbox / Pod Farm & first impressions are that I like GR4 especially for some of the overdriven sounds (Marshalls etc) - they seem to sit well in the mix right away without much eq. Tried out an '80's compressed / chorussy-type preset on a whim last night & it was excellent too. It's a pretty deep program, & as yet I've only scratched the surface. One thing that's quite interesting is the "Control Room" option where you get to blend various different virtual mics (condenser, dynamic, ribbon) on your "cab"... Ahh, so many options, not enough time!

[homebuilderman]

Check out this dude and his videos.
He uses guitar rig only - no amps.
His tone is super bad ass.
Gustavo Guerra on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Videos

[Xplora]

I had a little play with this, I'm used to having a LOT more gain and muscle in my guitar sounds, but after playing with the Dimebag preset, I think the tones are available; I just haven't hit it with enough mustard and pickles yet.

The FX chain is fantastic, and the Control room feature is seriously awesome. You don't need to know exactly how the mikes sound, you just blend away. I'm a long way from replicating my sound from PODs etc. But I haven't tried that hard yet either.

The presets are very nice, just for giggles. I played around with the Yngwie preset and it sounds just like Rising Force. Hilarious stuff. I will say this - it's extremely responsive to your guitar sound. I use an Ibanez 7 string with Blaze pickups and all the "rock" presets are just too bassy to sound real. I bet that the country presets would sound a lot better with a Tele, the Angus Young presets would sound better with an SG. The Steve Vai preset sounded pretty good to me though

[Metaltyme]

Ok, I've had this for about a week or so. I got it with my Sonar 8.5 upgrade as well. I own Guitar Rig 3 and have used it for a couple demos and such, but it was never really mind-blowing without a good bit of tweaking and a with a tad bit of post-processing. I gotta say though that Guitar Rig 4 is an entirely new animal. Thankfully, it's waaay more responsive as far as dynamic response goes when you dig in, let-up, or roll on/off the pots of your guitar. That's impressive to me, as about every other modeler I've tried tends to lack in that area. Because of this, I'm finding that not only am I getting more control over my tone with Guitar Rig 4, but I'm also getting a hell of a lot more accurate "feel" like I do with my tube amps. That is a gem for me.

I've messed around a little this past week to check out what this application can do, and everyday, I'm consistently getting happier and happier with my tones. The deeper you dig, the more rewarding GR4 can be. I've messed around with some of the presets and the Yngwie one is absolutely rippin.' I like the AC/DC Black one too. I've used the FAT Blues one and really like what that just does (though I can't really explain it). Anyway, there's a shitload of room to tweak until your heart's content. It's the best standalone guitar-amp emulation software that I've used so far (definitely better than Guitar Rig 3 and even Peavey ReValver mkIII!)

For those that turn their nose up at plugins, try and give it a shot...at least for bedroom-level jams...you might actually start noticing the trend of real improvement during following months/years within the guitar-amp-sim market...I certainly have over the last couple years.

Now, I love playin' through my tube amps cranked up, but for recording at home when noise could ever be an issue (not much anymore for me though, as I've now acquired "home-owner status" and am working on a home studio that will soon allow me to CRANK!! 'til I drop). Regardless, I'll be using Guitar Rig 4 to see what kind of tones I'll be able to achieve with it...so that's an incrementally-improving journey that I'm enjoying 'quite.'

I'm a long way off from proper room treatment and such, so mic'ing amps at the moment wouldn't yield the most stellar results that I'm looking for this side of the mic. So, the bottom line for me? Well, let's just say that I've already surpassed what I was able to achieve with other plugins (and even hardware modelers) with Guitar Rig 4. To add, I'm still getting better, richer tone everyday. That's a first for me with these modelers. Before, I'd typically love a sound that I dial in, only to come back to it the next day thinking, "WTF!? Did someone change my patch when I wasn't looking!? This tone sucks!" ...then, it's back to the drawing board. This hasn't happened to me with Guitar Rig 4; how REFRESHING.

The best part of Guitar Rig 4 for me? I'm stammeringly tickled when I get home from work to be able to go into my dungeon, start tinkering away on my axe, and feeling like I'm reuniting with tones that I loved the day before. When that happens, you tend to play more than tweak. That's the whole point, right?

Guitar Rig 4... THE most ultimate guitar-amp-sim-solution-for-your-home on the planet today! Have you empowered your axe lately?

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[Ok...J/K ya'll. I'm NOT a wretched fanboy... .... ... ...as of yet anyway...I am still in the honeymoon stages. So, mind that. ]

Cheers people,

[garww]

"The best part of Guitar Rig 4 for me? I'm stammeringly tickled when I get home from work to be able to go into my dungeon, start tinkering away on my axe, and feeling like I'm reuniting with tones that I loved the day before. When that happens, you tend to play more than tweak. That's the whole point, right? "

I agree. I think NI is tops. I opted for the hardware Tonelab ST, though. As hardware, there are some noise issues that can be managed, and, I can use it without a computer. Just me, guitar, tonelab, and headphones.

[stratguy]

Are you 2 guys that say you got a full version of GTR 4 when you updated to sonar 8.5 sure is gtr 4? I just upgraded to sonar 8.5 and there was no gtr 4 edition at all as far as I could find. Now vs. 8 did come with gtr 3 LE but if you got a full version of gtr 4 please let me know how you got it. Now I did upgrade by the download version so I'm wondering that if you bought 8.5 without upgrading maybe that's how you got gtr 4????

I qualified for the free update to sonar 8.5 because I bought sonar 8 within the deadline time period.

So if you did get a full version of gtr 4 please let me know where to get it. Is it a separate download or did it come with your sonar 8.5 version. Thanks any infor would be appreciated :-)

strat

[fHumble fHingaz]

So if you did get a full version of gtr 4 please let me know where to get it. Is it a separate download or did it come with your sonar 8.5 version. Thanks any infor would be appreciated :-)

It doesn't come standard with Sonar 8.5. I got mine as part of an "Elite Guitar Upgrade" version of Sonar 8.5. That said, if you have Sonar 8.5, I think Cakewalk has a special for Guitar Rig 4 @ $99.

[stratguy]

Thanks a bunch I'll check into it and see if I can get the same deal. That's quite a good deal!

strat