So... Is Guitar Rig dead?

[Magic Russ]

Lately I've been using a lot of pedals from Amplitube in front of S-Gear for guitar sounds.

[ghettosynth]

...

[martinjuenke]

I deleted all of their stuff because it was too intrusive/heavyweight/underwhelming.

Me too!

[WatchTheGuitar]

It's a shame Guitar Rig development has stalled, they had the nascent Guitar VST market in the palm of their hands and then just let it slip through their fingers like sand.

I personally liked the GR5 GUI and found it easier/quicker to remember units I wanted to use by sight than name. Also found it pretty easy to use Guitar Rig with footpedals. That's the advantage for me of having one host VST for all your guitar chores - reliably setting up MIDI CC routing. Can do similar in AmpliTube, but I've never got on with it to the same extent. It's weird, but it feels limiting in some way to have fixed pedal slots rather than the seemingly limitless drag-and-drop vertical world of GR. Obviously there are eventually CPU limits.

Nowadays I use Line 6's Helix Native a lot more with impulse response libraries.

[gaf_thit]

I think I am noticing that some "newer" electronic music does not need or want that old electric guitar sound. There seems a move or push towards lofi in some newer electronic music and I think that GR 5 "not quite real amp sound" actually fits quite well in that regards. All depends what music you are making I guess.

Depends on mixing skills too. In my porridge, no one can hear or care if the amp sim is authentic or goo .

I wish I liked Guitar Rig as much as Amplitube, given that I own it with Komplete since forever, and I really like the interface. Cool assortment of pedals too but it's been quite some time since I've used it for actual Guitar Amp simulation.

Using the fx in GR5, in front of another amp sim of choice, is a possiblr solution.

[bill45]

GR5 is more cpu intensive for me than some newer stuff, like Kuassa.
I like GR 5. GR5 5 used here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f2QFbxZYns

[electro]

with so many AMP Sim option available on the market, I'm not sure GR needs to continue.

[telecode]

with so many AMP Sim option available on the market, I'm not sure GR needs to continue.

I think GR 5 has and holds its own place in the space..it's a bit like saying, with so many newer and modern drum machines why bother making another retro analog one. Why not?

[jinotsuh]

Is GR dead? well personally for me it was pretty much still born, as far as I am concerned it pretty much sounds like crap. I've had it since the beginning, foolishly upgrading (but never using apart from a look) in the hope it would one day get it together, but that day never came. To me personally it just sounds like crap, sure clean is ok, but clean is clean is clean, anything other than that . . . forget it. It has some nice fx, but nothing you can't get elsewhere. IMO, Amplitube blows it out of the water, but again that's just me, and for full disclosure Amplitube isn't my fav or my goto. I own pretty much all amp sims in the software domain, and I'd put GR in the 'Never gets used' right down the bottom category along with the likes of AmpLion Pro, S-Gear 2(very, very over rated, and again anything other than clean .. .ewe) Thermionik, Vandal etc etc. Again this is just my personal opinion, formed from comparison to other products I have and ACTUALLY USE over the years, also whether something sounds/feels good is a very personal thing, one mans great is another mans garbage, and who really cares anyway as long as you are happy with what you use.

[dblock]

It's dead to me. I don't like the sound. I bought it from GR1 to GR5 and to my ears the sound never got better. I pretty much quit using it even when there were fewer options out there.I just kept upgrading hoping at some point the sound quality itself would be the major draw instead of just adding this and that feature. Now with the other options I have, I can't imagine ever using it again.I pretty much quit messing with amp sims that are more about having 100's of amp models than high end sound. They are just a waste creative time for me.

[Unaspected]

Amplitube put me off early on as I wasn't keen on the sound and now they have this shop thing going on... meh.

Guitar Rig only tends to get use because of Reflektor. I'm not crazy about the stomp box emulations. Though, whilst the "CAT" doesn't sound like a "RAT", it has additional controls that can make some pretty cool sounds for industrial mixes.

Indeed, using presets with GR is the way to go for guitar sounds. The control signal modulators are also great for DAWs that don't allow for wrapping instrument and effect chains in wrappers with native modulators. Or, indeed, DAWs with very basic envelope followers.

However, it has been left in the dust by Kazrog, Kuassa and Mercuriall. Never sure how many Ls, because their website uses both "Mercurial" and "Mercuriall" Mind you, a lot of audio websites have terribly written copy, with more than spelling errors. Pretty bad when it's the company name but their products sound great.

Anyway. I agree with what has been said. NI missed a trick by not developing Guitar Rig quicker. They could still claw it back. Maybe they are set to wow us? Still. Guitar Rig isn't dead - though it does sound flat - it is available to buy and receives maintenance updates.

[reggie1979]

Nah, I think they've moved on.

[Dirtgrain]

They still list it as a selling point for their package deals.

If they did make a new version of it, what should it include, where should it go?

[ifinallysignedup]

I've found Guitar Rigs' Looper to be the only one that I can use.
I run an instance of Guitar Rig after my amp sim/fx just for this.

[reggie1979]

They still list it as a selling point for their package deals.

If they did make a new version of it, what should it include, where should it go?

A complete overhaul of the sound engine and the ability to do your own IR's would be a good start.