This Old Guitar Rig

I'm a big fan of plugging electric guitars into electric guitar amps (real ones!) and turning them up loud. That's when everything hits the sweet spot and the guitar becomes less about a particular sound and more about a physical force. You should feel it in your guts when you smack a chord, and you should be able to see your chinos fluttering when you stand in front of the speaker cabinet. Nothing is better than moving air. This doesn't just apply to rocking out at a show or in your mom's basement, it applies to recording as well. Microphones can tell the difference. If you really want THAT sound, you gotta get some air moving.

That being said, I will admit to being particularly fond of a lot of the modeling software and devices for guitar that are floating around these days. Some of these faux amps sound pretty damn good, and for practice or making kickass demos at home they're glorious. No need to let inspirado pass you by while you dick around setting up amps and mics and all that bidness, just plug the geetar into the 'puter and go to town. It's way easy and maximizes Time Spent Rocking vs. Time Spent Dicking Around.

In particular I really like the Native Instruments Guitar Rig version 1.2 . Its got some pretty happening tones in it. Some of them are better than others, and most of them take a bit of tweaking, but overall Guitar Rig is most impressive for a fake-ass guitar amplifier. The "AC Box" Vox model is my favorite by far. I think it sounds the most realistic of the bunch and it speaks to my love of El84 powered British (or Canadian) amplification. I use that model pretty exclusively when making demos and getting ideas down. I've also used it plenty of times on final master tracks when it sounded so good that it seemed like too much trouble to replace it with a real, live amplifier.

I also find that Guitar Rig responds really well to real guitar pedals. Putting my real pedalboard in front of it sounds a shit-ton better than using the Guitar Rig modeled OD and Fuzz options. For instance, my real ProCo Vintage Rat (see previous blog entry) easily trumps its digital doppelganger. No contest. It seems that one of the keys to Guitar Rig sounding nice is minimal use of the pre and post digital thingies. I pretty much just use the modeled amp and cab and keep all my overdrives, distortions, and fuzz boxes in the analog realm. Keep it real sucka, and watch your gain stages carefully to avoid any digital clippage.

On a non tone-related note, the other reason I really like Guitar Rig Version 1 as opposed to the later versions is that it's quite efficient and basic by comparison. It's not a CPU hog. I've tried the newer versions of Guitar Rig, as well as Amplitube and a few others, and they all suck computing juice like there's no tomorrow. Efficiency is key when you're jamming econo.



Currently Rocking Out To: The Minutemen - "King of The Hill"