QuickSound Comment

Native Instruments have announced the release of Guitar Rig 3.2 Update. Most of the update is around 64bit compatibility for Vista users, but there are a few minor feature updates too, including a MIDI input filter. I’m hoping the latter might allow me to correct the expression pedal input when using the wah wah (I’m using a Boss EV-5), as at the moment it’s backwards. I actually just got Guitar Rig 3 a couple of weeks ago. It still has, to my ears, noticeable digital artifacts on some distortion sounds, but there’s a lot of power under the hood for tweaking and the range of effects on-tap is fantastic.  As ever, the presets don’t really do the software justice. For clean sounds I have no hesitation in using GR3 straight, but for more exposed dirtier sounds I’m currently experimenting with disabling the software speaker simulator stages and outputting the feed into the effects return of a Trace Elliot 2×10 combo, which is then mic’d up in the traditional manner. Initial results are encouraging - it’s one way of losing that subtle high-frequency fizz which is so often an amp-sim give-away, whilst still being able to take advantage of the great range of different amp flavours on offer. Oh yes, and you’ll definitely want to engage the ‘HiQ’ button whenever you use Guitar Rig 3 - the improvement in sound quality is noticeable.