NI Guitar Rig 7 Pro any good?

Secret_Sam

If I was less lazy, I suppose there's a demo.  But what is the collective opinion of the hive mind?

And how does it compare to stuff like Pod go, or Boss GX 100?

Secret_Sam

Oh, well.  I guess it's more aimed at producers than guitarists maybe.

I might have some work travelling to do this year.  If so, I'll put it on a laptop and see what happens.  Putting a Scarlett audio interface in my bag isn't much of an imposition. 

The YouTube reviews suggest that it doesn't respond as well as hardware, but the effects and routing offer a lot of creative scope.  

jasonbone75

I haven't tried Guitar Rig for years. I hated it. However, I have not tried the new versions with my latest hardware so that should be a caveat as far as sound quality goes. The layout and general approach I hate though.

I would bring up a far more important point though - the level of enjoyment/feel/response etc. will be directly related to the quality of your audio interface AND its drivers and to a lesser degree the luck of the draw on clicks and pops if you are on a Windows laptop.

I personally don't see Scarlett interfaces and drivers as good enough for real-time guitar whatever software is in use. I have been very spoilt though because I have an RME interface and can get to sub 1ms (reported) latency if required.

You will get plenty of players who swear by them and say the latency isn't a problem so if you can live with that you are golden.

Unless you are on super low latency on the software-based system the comparison with hardware modellers is not a fair one because the hardware will always feel better to play.

Another comment/flag wave from past fumbling - if the effects and routing offer lots of scope the tendency is to become a sound designer and not actually do any playing!

Vintage65

Like for like, Helix Native would be a better option IMO.

fnpt

There’s an Anderton’s demo which is worth watching. I think it’s aimed at more than just guitar, there’s lots of fx, comp, eq, etc which can be used for other purposes.
The sounds are ok from what I remember from version 3 but, as mentioned, the weakest link will be the interface in terms of latency.

Secret_Sam

jasonbone75 said:

I personally don't see Scarlett interfaces and drivers as good enough for real-time guitar whatever software is in use. I have been very spoilt though because I have an RME interface and can get to sub 1ms (reported) latency if required.

....

Another comment/flag wave from past fumbling - if the effects and routing offer lots of scope the tendency is to become a sound designer and not actually do any playing!

RME interfaces are great.  I'm pretty sure I can live with up to 6ms of latency though: that's the time it takes sound to travel about 2 metres.  My modest windows machine (11th gen i5 with 24GB ram) can run a very big DAW project and VSTs with a Scarlett at that level without popping. 

Your point about drifting from playing to sound design is very well made :- )