Guitar Rig 6 stands out from its peers by offering more than just amp tones – you’ll enjoy exploring all its effects ranging from lush reverb washes to atmospheric pads controlled directly from your guitar! From lush reverb washes to atmospheric pads controlled via your fretboard, this powerful amp simulator provides endless creative potential for exploration!
Sweetwater’s Lindsay has amassed an extensive pedalboard of drive, modulation, and delay effects to craft her country sound. These include her go-to equipment: Wampler Ego compressor and Klon Centaur clones.
Amps
Guitar Rig 6 features digital replicas of real amps used by some of your favourite guitarists, along with an extensive selection of pedals designed to work well together. Their purpose is to produce an authentic wall of sound which would otherwise be difficult to replicate in reality; to get maximum mileage out of them it’s recommended that you build your rig with different effects to see which combinations sound best to you.
Pro guitarists generally prefer real amps for initial tracking; however, when mixing time arrives they may not always have them available. An advantage of using Guitar Rig as a VST is that any component such as tube screamers in front of an amplifier and controlling wet/dry signal proportion can completely transform tone without needing to record again.
To achieve this, simply drag a component to its desired location in your rig and click it to bring up various options that allow you to tailor the sound to your liking. These features include being able to adjust things such as EQ knobs as well as adding time-based effects like reverb and delay. Furthermore, pedals may also be routed into either the pre-amp or FX loop for tonal adjustment while time-based effects like delays or reverbs that move audio back and forth in frequency can also be added –
For greater flexibility, the VST allows you to load in custom cabinet impulse responses (IRs). National Instruments have also recently added several new amplifiers to the lineup including the ACS1 (a compact reinterpretation of Walrus Audio Mako direct solutions that fits an entire rig in a pedal no larger than your average Tube Screamer); Fullerton – Fender-y clean amp; Dartford (AC30 bite); and London (Marshall roar).
Pedals
Pedals add a range of effects to your sound. From shimmering reverb to gruff fuzz and even filter effects that give your guitar tone its signature psychedelic tone, finding the right pedal can take your playing to another level. However, the order in which they’re connected may have an effect as well; be sure to confirm whether each pedal fits with what’s already there before plugging any in.
Guitar pedals can be powered either with batteries or AC adapters, with either option offering reliable results. When choosing an adapter, ensure it matches the current type (AC or DC), polarity, and amperage of your pedal – otherwise it could damage it permanently.
Some pedals are designed to simulate the sound of specific instruments or amps, enabling you to play through an amp without actually carrying one around with you. Many modeling pedals offer multiple sound settings so you can tailor them according to your musical preferences.
Other pedals can add various effects to your tone, such as chorus and octave pedals, which double your notes an octave up or down for a fuller sound. Flanger and phaser effects allow for additional control by rotating through bass, mid, and treble frequencies on your guitar sound.
Sustain pedals are another common type of pedal used by musicians. By pressing this pedal down and depressing it, it stops your strings from vibrating until the pedal is released – great for keeping time while practicing songs or creating structure, as well as being invaluable when performing live.
Finally, there are pedals designed to simply increase volume. While these may appear straightforward at first glance, each pedal may present its own distinct sonic signature – some try to preserve your guitar tone while increasing volume; others can alter tone significantly while still offering basic volume increases.
No matter which pedals you own, it is crucial that they are used properly in order to achieve positive results. Over-pedaling can result in an unintelligible sound; lift pedals slightly when shifting chords or harmony changes to avoid this pitfall. Also note that late pedal release could result in dissonance or clashing harmonies which ultimately leads to poor results.
Effects
Your pedal choices can have a dramatic impact on the tone you can achieve. Pedals are foot pedal-based effects that enable you to manipulate the sound of your guitar in various ways; there are different categories such as modeling and multi-effect pedals that provide more customization of sound than others.
Modeling pedals mimic the circuitry of specific hardware units, like amplifiers. A distortion pedal may imitate certain aspects of an amp’s characteristics to allow you to use its effect without plugging your guitar directly into an active speaker system.
Multi-effects pedals are pedals with multiple effects such as delay, chorus, flanger and phase shift that allow users to create new sounds or add subtle variations to existing guitar tones. Many musicians utilize phase shift pedals in particular for creating shimmering tones on their instruments.
Reverb effects create an aura of space and distance in your sound; U2 guitarist The Edge famously relies on this effect for creating his signature sound; worship-music guitarists frequently employ it.
Modulation pedals can be truly magical effects, from the shimmer of a flanger or phaser to subtle multiples of a chorus. Placement prior, after, or around drive pedals will add extra dimension and shine to your soundscape.
Pitch shifting can create an original sound for your guitar while also being useful in creating basslines and chords.
Native Instruments has enhanced Guitar Rig 6 by including some new effects: Reflektor is an IR-based convolution reverb that provides musical depth on demand; Raum has three modes that let you customize its reverb sound to any setting or genre.
Modifiers provide another useful addition, enabling you to adjust any effect or amp in your rig. For instance, if you want to control how much gain a distortion pedal creates, simply add a modulation effect and set its parameter accordingly; save “color favorites” so you can quickly access them when needed.
Software
Native Instruments Guitar Rig 6 offers musicians everything they need for virtual pedalboard. Packed full of realistic real instrument amp modeller amps as well as premium effects from both NI and Softube, its impressive array of features – Intelligent Circuit Modelling technology, colour coded presets and personalisation options, multiple amp head support (Pro version only), colour coded presets – make Guitar Rig an indispensable software piece.
The user interface of the plugin is extremely clean and user-friendly, featuring studio rack-like components on the left side of the panel that can be clicked and dragged to build up rigs. Cabs and amplifiers have clearly labeled physical counterparts based on physical hardware (Citrus is inspired by Orange while Lead 800 emulates Marshall etc).
Outshone by traditional guitar amp models, the rigs also include effects such as delay, chorus distortion reverb noise gate. Cabs and amps can be combined in different ways to produce walls of sound to give your music the perfect tone. Studio rack-like tools on top of component display allow users to set macros, tuner metronome macros metronome tuners set tuners while pre and post tape recorders help users write songs or tweak presets and practice riffs and licks with precision.
Guitar Rig 6 brings with it some notable differences from its previous iterations, most noticeably through its new feature ‘Matched Cabinet’ which adds room response IRs for each amp head similar to BIAS AMP and allows users to combine these with virtual cabinets creatively. Driver filters have also been introduced as CV modulation sections similar to modular synths – these can be driven either from external plugins, the output from Guitar Rig (envelope or input signal), or directly by guitar itself.