Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3 - Kontrol Version Review

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(More customer reviews)There's not much I can say that isn't already covered by professional testimonials, video reviews, and product demos.
In short, Guitar Rig 3 is an extremely versatile, powerful effects system. The hardware is extremely solid-- I've carried this thing around to live gigs, stuffed it in a backpack as carry-on for a plane ride, even spilled a little bit of beer on it (not recommended). The worst I've done is dinged it with a falling mic stand. It put a small scratch on it (similar to scratching the paint on a car door), but that's about it.
There's definitely a slight learning curve for the software itself, but you can download the demo from their website to see if it's too much for you to handle. All the help and tooltips are plenty to keep you moving along-- and spending more time playing music and less time twiddling knobs. However, the cool part is that if you like twiddling knobs and settings, you can spend countless hours dialing in all kinds of vintage, modern, or never-heard-before sounds. My friend, (a lead guitarist who owns an analog guitar pedal company), despite being a bit of a sound purist, was really impressed with the sheer number of tones I can emulate. Sometimes, the sounds have a tendency to be a little bit 'digital' sounding if you don't adjust them properly, but the software upgrade to Guitar Rig 4 supposedly improves some of this. (I haven't tried it yet myself). My solution was to add an analog pedal (Philosopher's Tone) to the front of my effects chain.
I use an Intel-based Macbook Pro and a Peavy KB3 amplifier.
PRO TIP: a keyboard amp is the way to go since they have a higher frequency range that allows you to get the full range of tones out of the software. If you go with a specific guitar amp, you may severely limit the variety of tones the software can produce. The software itself effectively mimics all kinds of vintage amps--more than most people could ever afford to own. This may seem unintuitive, but if you spend a little time on the Guitar Rig forums, you'll find this out from others' experience too.

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IK Multimedia AmpliTube 3 Amp & FX Tone Modeling Software Review

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(More customer reviews)A guitar/bass amp modeling software product with usable tones...? Seriously?
Yup.
I've used Line6, Studio Devil, and some other unmentionables over the past few years and I just could not accept them as serious tools. Useful for practicing quietly at home in the late night hours? Sure...but when it came to using them for recording, forget it. Everything seemed off, from overall tone to playing dynamics. It was always obvious that you were using software. So for a long time, I just steered clear of these tools, convinced that it would take some long-term research and development to solve the many issues.
But I'm pleased to say that products like Amplitube are giving me hope. I am very impressed with their version 3 and the newer Amplitube Fender release. Someone really has their act together at IK Multimedia and shows a great understanding of how guitar sound is produced overall. Plugging in and finding quite convincing tones ranging from the sweetness of a stereo chorus Roland JC120 to the onslaught of a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier with a distortion box out front always brings a smile. There are some less-than-inspiring presets, but these may suit some ears more than mine.
However, the real power is in Amplitube's flexibility. You can take any preset that's in the neighborhood of what you're looking for and then tweak it until you're happy. Everything from stomp boxes to the amp face dials to rack effects and microphone placement, it's all there. You can even tell it which mics (e.g., Shure SM57, etc...) to use, where to place them relative to the speaker, how far you want them from the front of the cabinet, and what type of room (e.g., small studio, hall, etc...) to use. The differences are sometimes subtle, but everything adds up to an overall sound. And once you have the whole configuration "just so", you can save the settings to your own preset folder and then call them up whenever. No need to write everything down and hope that you've accounted for each variable. The software takes care of it for you.
We're using Amplitube with our Mbox 2/Pro Tools LE 8 setup and it makes demo recording so much easier. Now the hardest part of recording is setting up the drums and vocals, as the two guitars and the bass are easy to configure and record. Not to mention that the direct in analog-to-digital recording is clean and free from ambient noise, so there's only minimal scrubbing required during mixdown.
I've read some reviewers out there speaking poorly of Amplitube and about modeling software in general. The central argument is always the same: poor tone and playing dynamics. I can understand this complaint and in the past, I'd be right there with them, chanting the Luddite opposition to digital anything. But not anymore. I'd recommend that the diehards out there demo the newest versions of these products and think again about how things are shaping up. I've been playing on and off for almost twenty years and in that time, I've owned and jammed on a lot of different amps, including a Fender Champ, Deluxe Reverb, and Twin Reverb, a Dr. Z Mazerati, Engl Powerball, two different Marshalls, and a couple Vox. I'm not a tone snob, but my ear is pretty good. To me, the new wave of modeling software is really starting to nail down the tone factor. Moreover, they're getting much better at rendering variables and dynamics such as pick placement and attack.
Is it perfect yet? Eh...maybe not. But things have come a long way and in my opinion, it's good enough for most recording efforts. Pros out there may not agree, but I'm speaking here to everyday folks like me who just enjoy writing and recording music and playing out live on occasion. Note that for live applications, you'll really want a way to access the presets more conveniently, like IK's StompIO floorboard, which is another considerable investment by itself.
Bottom line: give it a try and I really think that (unless you're a tone snob) you'll be impressed.

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eMedia Earmaster 5 Review

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(More customer reviews)Ear Master has two components that have sold me to the product. Besides the conventional ear-training excercises, there is an area dedicated to jazz ear training. For those of us who improvise, wish to improvise and just wish to improve...the excercises allow you to "hear changes". Also there is a section that allows you to isolate any area that is giving you problems (ex>sus 2 versus sus 4 chords harmonically) and constantly have excercises given to you to really learn and eventually HEAR the change. I highly recommend this to any musician.

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EarMaster is an effective ear-training program that will improve the way you hear play and compose music. Includes over 600 lessons!System Requirements:Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/ or later10 MB hard disk spaceSoundcard or other MIDI deviceSVGA monitor (800x600) 32k colorsFormat: WIN 98ME2000XPVISTA Genre:REFERENCE / LIFESTYLE UPC:746290120645 Manufacturer No:EM020614

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Frets on Fire - Guitar Game - Alternative to Guitar Hero Review

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(More customer reviews)As previous reviewer said, this is a free download from the guys who designed it. They even have the Guitar Hero songs available for it. I have not yet gotten it to work on Vista, only XP, and I did have a problem with it crashing or hanging sometimes, but that might have been my crappy old PC. It is, simply put, a way to play Guitar Hero if you don't own the game...or to decide if you want the game. Or, in my case, to practice at home before a tournament at work. ;) You use the keyboard, and can either pick it up to hold it, or redefine the keys to use the keyboard normally. I used A,S,D,F and [space] for the notes, and [Enter] to strum, and it worked pretty well.

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Guitar For Dummies Review

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(More customer reviews)Guitar for Dummies is a good place to start learning how to play. It's pretty straight forward in teaching chords and strumming techniques and I really enjoyed that it had the built in recorder, metronome and tuner. The only drawback is that with SOME lessons the teacher assumes you know certain things already. I've never picked up a guitar in my life before buying this and now I can at least play along to simple songs. It was worth it for the price.

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The eMedia Guitar for Dummies CD-ROM makes learning quick and easy with over 80 step-by-step lessons. Songs and exercises are accompanied by full-motion videos, live recorded audio and variable-speed MIDI tracks. The easy-to-follow lessons range from basics like stringing the guitar to playing chords and strumming techniques. Professional guitar instructor Kevin Garry, Ph.D., guides you with video demonstrations of techniques. The costs for the same number of private lessons and all of the accessories included in eMedia Guitar for Dummies would run well over a thousand dollars which is why this software is an excellent value!

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Native Instruments Guitar Rig 4 KONTROL Edition - Software/Hardware Combo Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been a guitar Rig user since Version 2 and have both positive and negative to say about the product. Guitar rig is a fantastic tool for creating arrangements quickly during the writing process especially if guitar isn't your first instrument. The sound quality is as good as I've heard from a plug in and the effects when chained like a real live setup would be perform with the same characteristics. Put a compressor where you normally would in a signal chain and it acts like a compressor. I cant say the same about it's competitors. I find most of the effects to be very nice especially the staples for guitarists such as overdrive and delay.
I gave this review 4 starts for two reasons. The first being the foot controller, it's not well made and Native Instruments has not had replacements available for several months. I believe this could be due to a vendor change or a full redesign. The floor controller is built very poorly and is very expensive for what you acquire upon purchase. The replacements are almost $300 US, twice the price of a Behringer FCB1010 which is made much superior. The second is the CPU usage. I think NI can do a better job in this area, the software can eat a lot of CPU and RAM.
Over All I really like Guitar Rig over other products I have tried and purchased. I do have concerns about future development of the product now that it's part of Komplete and no longer available stand alone without the hardware, but I think that could change too. Although I use a mic'd up cabinet once I have the arrangements finished I have kept many scratch guitar solos that I intended to re-record in projects that sounded great. Guitar Rig is a really good solid product and their website has fantastic customer service and software verification.
I do recommend this this product preferably without the hardware if you can find it that way. Less the Hardware I give Guitar Rig 5 stars.


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Band-in-a-Box 2009 Pro (Mac) Review

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(More customer reviews)As a musician, I have used all the main computer-assisted music programs, and nothing else came close to this product for ease of use. It is so nice, in fact, that when I decided to go from PC to Mac, I purchased another copy to use, even though Garageband came free on the Mac! Although a beginner can use this program, it is not a toy. It will produce as sophisticated a product as you want to write, or you can use the pre-sets to instantly make any type of music you prefer. Then it will print out the sheet music for you, if you desire.
Although you can buy the basic program, then add more selections of pre-programed music later, if you've used other products, I'd suggest just going ahead and getting the "Pro" version, because you'll quickly be wanting to use the full range of instrumentation available in the more costly product. Even though I'm retired now, I refuse to do without this product - it's just too much fun.

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eMedia GuitarPro 5.1 Win/Mac Review

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(More customer reviews)This review is written from the prospect of using Guitar Pro for Classical Guitar purposes. I have tried many notation programs for classical guitar. None are perfect. I've concluded that you need a high end music notation program for professional looking scores and another program for doing transcriptions for personal use or sharing.
On the high end, the choices are Finale, Sibelius, or Lilypond. I chose Finale for this purpose. You can do anything with it, but there is a steep price to pay. It is not intuitive at all, and it's expensive. The interface is a cluster of years of buildup. One wouldn't design a user interface like this from scratch. If I didn't already own Finale, I'd might go with Lilypond, or look more carefully into Musecore.
But I decided that I needed a notation program for simple transcriptions. Here are the ones that I tried in increasing order of my preference:
1) TablEdit - seen some decent scores for this one on the web. Deal breaker the UI is confusing. I'd just as well use Finale for everything.
2) Power Tab - interface OK, free, lots of features. Deal breaker most of the focus is on the tab representation, very little on standard notation.
3) Tux Guitar - nice interface, very similar to Guitar Pro, free. Deal breaker can't add fingerings. This program may eventually catch Guitar Pro.
4) Guitar Pro - nice interface, will do just about everything necessary easily. Can display/print standard notation only, tab notation, or both. Output is very good. ASCII import. Drawbacks for standard notation are that fingering are unconventional in location and labeling, bar can only be specified though text input, crescendo specified through volume control which is tied to a track(s).
In the end, the decision was an easy one. It just took a while to download all of the programs and try them out. Hopefully, I just saved you a little time.
Update 11-04-2010:
Since I wrote this review, I've switched from Finale to Lilypond. Even though I am a programmer, I was intimidated by Lilypond until I discovered using Frescobaldi (available on Linux only) as a front end. This system is just a pleasure to use and way easier than Finale. Lilypond doesn't do tab very well at the moment, so I'll likely continue using Guitar Pro when I need tab.

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Guitar Pro 5.1 has all the tools you need to improve, compose and accompany yourself on the guitar. It's got a multitrack tablature editor for guitar, banjo, bass and other stringed instruments. Scale tools and a chord diagram editor lets you create the perfect score and the guitar composition you've always wanted.

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