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Old 11-15-2018, 12:06 PM   #1
sightlessness
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Default Guitar Rig 5 Pro , for me great deal but can I get it cheaper?

99.5 bucks as of right now, I can buy it and will, but is there a way to get a lower price off it?

Been testing this along Amplitube Free, lol, and I like more GR5 (clean Amplitube sound amazing, my kind of tone, but as soon as I change to a Marshall amp... ewwww, so harsh).

Guitar Rig within itself (amps and cabs) sounds very very good I think (except the Jump one, weird, I don't like harsh tones, the Hot rod one sounds soooo good).

Ok, any tips to get it for even one less dollar would be nice, cheers.

PD: (Softube cabs (rooms) sound very very very good with the Amp clean tones).

All of this tested with a Gibby Studio.
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Old 11-15-2018, 01:49 PM   #2
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Guitar Rig can be had for significantly less when bought as part of Komplete, especially in the 50% off sales they have from time to time (could take until Summer 2019 or longer to see one of those - that might be too soon this time, given how recently 12 was released).
So it really depends on how much NI software you really want, and how soon...

Otherwise there are significantly newer models from other software houses, probably not the sheer volume of FX for the price you mention though.
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Old 11-15-2018, 02:36 PM   #3
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S-Gear is $129 and a MUCH better VST IMO. I'm just a user and in no way affiliated with Scuffham or any vendor. GRIG is all GUI with just so-so sound. Of course your mileage may vary but if you haven't checked out S-Gear yet you might want to try their demo before forking over your cash for GRig. For me it's not how many amps, stomps etc, it's about how it SOUNDS. And yes, I have GRig as well but haven't used it in forever because for me there was no comparison. BIAS sounds great also but is expensive and poorly coded. Besides those two, AXIOM is a unique take on guitar processing with good quality responsiveness - more expensive tho. For me GRig never "played" like an amp, and had very sterile sound in comparison. FWIW S-Gear and BIAS (positive Grid) both excel at the clean sounds as well as the "dirtier" ones. If it's metal you want there are a bunch of FREE vst's that do a decent job. Of course there are alot of factors that go into how an amp sim sounds. Gain staging is critical and not obvious as is input impedence, and of course your pickups. Happy picking! Now go crank it up!
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Old 11-15-2018, 02:54 PM   #4
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S-Gear is $129 and a MUCH better VST IMO. I'm just a user and in no way affiliated with Scuffham or any vendor. GRIG is all GUI with just so-so sound. Of course your mileage may vary but if you haven't checked out S-Gear yet you might want to try their demo before forking over your cash for GRig. For me it's not how many amps, stomps etc, it's about how it SOUNDS. And yes, I have GRig as well but haven't used it in forever because for me there was no comparison. BIAS sounds great also but is expensive and poorly coded. Besides those two, AXIOM is a unique take on guitar processing with good quality responsiveness - more expensive tho. For me GRig never "played" like an amp, and had very sterile sound in comparison. FWIW S-Gear and BIAS (positive Grid) both excel at the clean sounds as well as the "dirtier" ones. If it's metal you want there are a bunch of FREE vst's that do a decent job. Of course there are alot of factors that go into how an amp sim sounds. Gain staging is critical and not obvious as is input impedence, and of course your pickups. Happy picking! Now go crank it up!
I 2nd this. I don't yet have Scuffham S-Gear, but tried the demo and IMHO it utterly blows away GR5, or from anything else I've tried for that matter.

Disclaimer: I'm not a guitar player, but a piano player and use faux, virtual guitars only.

I'm aware that Scuffham has occasional sales, and am hoping they have one this holiday.
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Old 11-15-2018, 03:39 PM   #5
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My advice is to stay away from Guitar Rig, I've owned it for years and never use it, IMO it's a steaming pile, some nice FX though.

As for S-Gear2/Scuffham . . . I haven't fired it up in 2/3 years or more, IMO it is VERY over rated, pretty much anything other than clean sux, and the clean is nothing special.
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Old 11-15-2018, 04:03 PM   #6
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Thanks for the suggestions, and @jinotsuh if you don't like either, what would you recommend?
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Old 11-15-2018, 04:27 PM   #7
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A cheap option would be to use Amplitube free but bypass the speaker simulation and use impulse responses. The good thing about Amplitube is that you can just buy the amps you want from the custom shop.

With decent IR's you can mitigate a lot of that scratchy tone. A low pass filter after Amplitube can help a lot, too.

You've still got a couple of weeks of the NI sale, I think. Plenty of time to demo S-Gear and Kazrog amps (Recabinet by Kazrog brings a little extra dynamics to IR's).

My preferred IR's (there is a Marshall freebie): https://www.redwirez.com

These are very popular (formerly Rosen Digital): https://lancasteraudio.com

Some people find Redwirez option overload, but I like the choice.
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Old 11-15-2018, 05:23 PM   #8
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@Judders awesome thanks for the suggestions. Good to know I have time for the NI sale.
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Old 11-15-2018, 06:08 PM   #9
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Many like to dump on Guitar Rig 5 Pro and you can chase massive numbers of personal preferences.

Guitar Rig 5 Pro rocks. It has for long time and will for longer.
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Old 11-15-2018, 09:41 PM   #10
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I tend to cuss at the sound of amp sims in general, but the sound of Guitar Rig 5 is pretty much at the bottom of the heap to my ears.

It's hard to make an alternative recommendation for amp sims because they all have their sonic issues, but you could probably pick anything else and end up with something better than Guitar Rig 5.

I wasn't impressed by S-Gear either. Sounds sterile.

Amplitube is kind of the opposite, sounding too bright and hashy.

Revalver is kind of inbetween the above two.

It's like trying to make a suggestion for the best chicken finger (in place of roasted chicken), where Guitar Rig tastes like an opposum., S-Gear is pretty flavorless, Amplitube is way too salty, Revalver is kind of flavorless and kind of salty.
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Old 11-16-2018, 12:06 AM   #11
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@brainwreck I feel you're telling me to just mike my cab to record guitars for the "best" tone/sound :P . Yeah I understand what you're saying. Nevertheless, there was this guy at the Petrucci forum who had this amazing instrumental album (guitar)
and he used Guitar Rig (maybe 3 or 4 because of the era) and we all loved it, never
thought "he used Guitar Rig to make it". But I get you, I get you.
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Old 11-17-2018, 12:18 AM   #12
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Guitar Rig 5 is so old and outdated there's tons of stuff , cheaper and free, that matches or betters it. I wouldn't be spending money on it. I've used it a few times purely for effects as I have it with Komplete 8 but it rarely gets a look in.

If you've tested it and really like then I guess 99 bucks is ok for something you will use a lot.
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Old 11-17-2018, 03:22 AM   #13
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With regards to the general displeasure of amp sims there is something I learned the hard way. To properly evaluate an amp sim your entire signal chain must be looked at carefully. Care should be taken to make sure you have proper impedance matching on your input. Simply plugging a guitar into most DI boxes doesn't work well sometimes. I plug my guitar into a Presonus preamp before it gets into the A/D converter. It has a variable impedance control which makes a subtle but big difference in how the preamp/amp sim is driven. Amp sims are all math and expect a certain type of input range in order to output sound in the optimal range. You need to carefully check the level of signal all the way through your chain to make sure that the amp sim is driven properly.

And if you are using a crap guitar with crap pickups don't expect an amp sim to make up for it. Even if you have a good guitar proper set up can make a big difference. I have known a lot of guitar players that pay big bucks for guitars but never pay to have them truly set up correctly. To get sustain out of your guitar everything from the nut to the bridge to string height must be properly aligned. 95% of guitars sold today have never been set up properly.

And finally, many people do not understand the concept of sympathetic resonance. Some people think of this as controlled feedback which isn't quite the same thing. Your strings will respond to the sound pressure in the room. This is why guitar players like Satch often record at very high sound pressure levels. At low levels you will not get as much sustain. At higher levels string vibration is reinforced by the sympathetic vibration of the strings interacting with SPL. Many times DAW users utilizing amp sims don't have the SPL to get the same level of sympathetic vibration unless they turn up the volume of their playback (depending on how they are monitoring). Simply, put, louder is better.

I sometimes use a guitar amp cabinet in the room after the DAW. I don't mic it or record it, I just use it for monitoring while I track to get the SPL in the room up. For me, at least, I found it makes a difference.
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Old 11-17-2018, 06:09 AM   #14
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This sucks, that sucks, amp sims in general suck, stay away from this and that.
One person swears by a certain amp sim and later you see a person writing a comment saying it's the worst. All these opinions don't matter because it doesn't tell you how they use these plugins (if they even have used it at all) or how experienced they are, gear/signal chain/proper guitar set-up/playing skill/mixing skill etc.

It's really simple: when you're planning to spend that money once, then try as many demo's as possible. If I'm not mistaken BLACK FRIDAY is coming up. And 99.5 for GR5 is the black Friday pricing (they call it Thanksgiving sale). So no, it won't get cheaper I think.

Choose something that fits your playing and is easy to use. The guy on the Petrucci forum probably sounds good because of what I mentioned earlier. He'd probably nail it with a different amp sim too.

But I think GR5 is a good starting point because you have a reference and you're (what seems to me) inspired by this dudes achievements using it.

Other than that I can't say much about GR5, never used it. I use Overloud TH3 (Cakewalk edition) or my Marshall JCM800 4104 with a Shure sm57 into an Audient iD14. Mostly I use TH3 because it's easy and the obvious: volume.

Last edited by Tinus; 11-17-2018 at 06:16 AM.
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Old 11-17-2018, 07:08 AM   #15
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try here.

https://www.positivegrid.com/bias-fx/

$50 or $150
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Old 11-17-2018, 07:15 AM   #16
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Originally Posted by brainwreck View Post
It's like trying to make a suggestion for the best chicken finger (in place of roasted chicken), where Guitar Rig tastes like an opposum., S-Gear is pretty flavorless, Amplitube is way too salty, Revalver is kind of flavorless and kind of salty.
You've tasted a opposum?
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Old 11-17-2018, 07:31 AM   #17
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Discount ends in two days treat yourself.

https://www.positivegrid.com/demo/
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Old 11-17-2018, 08:07 AM   #18
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there is also

https://www.overloud.com/products/th3-full
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Old 11-17-2018, 08:34 AM   #19
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I love the sound of BIAS ... BUT... be forewarned the interface is a bit of a kludge. In an effort to simplify cross platform development (I guess) the developers are using a "web" interface front end that is just awful. The controls can be glitchy and non-responsive with noticeable lags and delay that can make tweaking frustrating. Again, the sound is great - very responsive to playing style - but try the demo first before pulling out your wallet.

Lately I've been using BIAS for bass amplification. It's really the only sim I've found that does a good job at that and I don't have to tweak the knobs on that much after initial dial-in as bass doesn't see much in the way of fx and tonal shift. Come to think of it, I never tested BIAS to see if automation lags the same way the GUI does.

Last edited by Steviebone; 11-17-2018 at 08:40 AM.
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Old 11-17-2018, 08:50 AM   #20
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So much input guys, thanks so much. Bow to ya all.
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Old 11-17-2018, 10:39 AM   #21
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So much input guys, thanks so much. Bow to ya all.
Ha ha !! That'll teach ya to step into sacred (amp /cab sim) territory !

I doubt there is a topic that generates more 'mine's bigger than yours' discussion.

As far as Guitar Rig 5 …. darn'd discriminatory criticism of opossum
Maybe just questionable chef's talent ?

OP _ btw, I'm pianist /keyboardist (not guitarist) and also have all of Kazrog LLC _ Thermionik /Recabinet goodies. Free demos too.
Not really viable resource here _ using everything Orange Tree Samples offers: Great guitar /bass VSTi(s).

Enjoy _ in peace !

Last edited by sostenuto; 11-17-2018 at 12:30 PM.
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Old 11-17-2018, 04:14 PM   #22
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While GR5 is not my first or second go-to, it does do some cool things. Like the guitar FX for Hank Marvin's Apache!

Here's a link to the Guitar Rig 5 preset.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/orvu8exz39...ache.ngrr?dl=0

Here's a video describing it (can skip to 3:54).

https://youtu.be/17pRIIYGGj8
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Old 11-19-2018, 05:20 AM   #23
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Many like to dump on Guitar Rig 5 Pro and you can chase massive numbers of personal preferences.

Guitar Rig 5 Pro rocks. It has for long time and will for longer.

Agreed.

Folks should just download the demo and find out for themselves.

It's a no brainer for the price in Komplete (and Komplete 50% off sales ) and at $99 alone if mainly a guitarist.
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Old 11-19-2018, 09:03 AM   #24
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My advice is to stay away from Guitar Rig, I've owned it for years and never use it, IMO it's a steaming pile, some nice FX though.

As for S-Gear2/Scuffham . . . I haven't fired it up in 2/3 years or more, IMO it is VERY over rated, pretty much anything other than clean sux, and the clean is nothing special.
Couldn't agree more. I tried and tried to make it work in a recording and just always sounded harsh (fine if you're into metal).

Buy the Axe FX or AX8.. a few pennies more ( )... but all your guitar recording dreams will come true forever more.
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Old 11-19-2018, 11:54 AM   #25
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more expensive now (I got it for $149 recently on sale so who knows if a sale may be coming) -

https://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_Axiom/

But IMHO blows everything away. I'm done looking for guitar sims now
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Old 11-19-2018, 12:10 PM   #26
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this https://kazrog.com/products/thermionik/ for $50 is a great buy.
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