Update: Guitar Rig 6.3.0

[ALC]

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/53/official-update-status-guitar-rig-6-current-version-6-2-4#latest

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6.3.0 - 2022-02-14

ADDED New ICM component: Red Fuzz, a distortion component that has 3 fuzz modes modelled from classic analog gear

ADDED AAX Apple Silicon support

ADDED 8 new rack presets

IMPROVED Parameter changes are now undoable and redoable

IMPROVED Rack now automatically scrolls to inserted component if out of view

IMPROVED Rack now automatically scrolls to enabled fixed component if out of view

IMPROVED Container and Macro assignment sliders can now be controlled by the mouse wheel

IMPROVED Container and Macro assignment sliders now have numeric value displays

IMPROVED Files can be on loaded onto the Tapedecks by dragging and dropping

IMPROVED LFO waveforms can now be selected directly via a menu in the LFO modifier component

IMPROVED Display CPU architecture in about box

IMPROVED Default modulation range was 75% but is now 100%

FIXED Twin Delay did not sound correct when using maximum predelay/delay times

FIXED Delay time parameter display value was wrong in Sync Mode on some components

FIXED Undoing removal of Reflektor inside a Container had no IR loaded

FIXED Undoing removal of Little Reflektor component could crash

FIXED Undoing component preset load did not restore preset name

FIXED Undoing Macro assignment would not update Macro UI and could cause crash if interacted with

FIXED The rack preset menu now correctly loads the next/previous preset after performing an undo

FIXED The component preset menu now correctly loads the next/previous preset after performing an undo

FIXED Preset Volume and Metronome parameters now revert when undoing rack preset load

FIXED Some Dirt parameters were not modulatable

FIXED RC24/RC48 input and output level parameters were not modulatable

FIXED LFO waveform, amplitude offset and phase offset parameters were not modulatable

FIXED Tapedeck volume parameters were not modulatable or controllable with macros

FIXED PresetVolume dry/wet and volume parameters were not modulatable or controllable with macros

FIXED Using the “Clear Rack” button in the rack Toolbar would not update the Macro assignments

FIXED When a Macro knob was assigned to a button, assignment ranges were not taken into account

FIXED Bite no longer silences right channel in stereo mode when left channel is silent

FIXED Guitar Rig now runs again on x64 processors that only support SSE3 and below

KNOWN ISSUE Dragging files from the OS into Guitar Rig causes slowdown

 

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/10415/new-release-meet-red-fuzz-guitar-rigs-new-component-other-improvements

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GUITAR RIG 6.3.0 arrived today with a brand new component: RED FUZZ.

That classic fuzz sound

RED FUZZ models the sound of a distortion pedal that is designed to produce the classic fuzz sound, originally achieved by using broken circuits or speakers.

Using Native Instruments's ICM (Intelligent Circuit Modeling) technology that employs machine learning to reproduce the behavior of hardware devices, this component has been given a new level of depth and realism to analog emulations.

8 new presets come with this component: Blues Fuzz, Desert Fuzz, Dynamic Fuzz, Fuzzy Echoes, Red Acid, Red Gravity, Tight Fuzz Bass, and Warm Fuzz.

A host of improvements

A host of improvements, from a native M1 support for an AAX version to updates to parameter changes and macro assignments, are now available as a free update in your Native Access. See the complete changelog here.

 

I'm glad to see a new component (available only in Guitar Rig Pro).

Edited February 16, 2023 by ALC

[Fleer]

Fuzzzzy!

[aidan o driscoll]

Though I have 6, i still steer toward 5 .. WHY? Because 5 loads far faster for me anyway and can load across a number of instances w/o cpu issues ( Core i5, 16GB Ram, SSD )

Nice GUIs are one thing, but I prefer performance

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by aidan o driscoll

[locrian]

5 hours ago, aidan o driscoll said:

Though I have 6, i still steer toward 5 .. WHY? Because 5 loads far faster for me anyway and can load across a number of instances w/o cpu issues ( Core i5, 16GB Ram, SSD )

Nice GUIs are one thing, but I prefer performance

Same here.

The CPU load on most of their plugins has increased significantly over the last few years.  And my usage of these plugins has decreased significantly as a result.

[Magic Russ]

I think the usage issues have less to do with the GUI and more to do with GR6 running in HQ mode by default and that the new cabinets are all IR.

[locrian]

21 minutes ago, Magic Russ said:

I think the usage issues have less to do with the GUI and more to do with GR6 running in HQ mode by default and that the new cabinets are all IR.

And unfortunately HQ mode cannot be switched off according to the info I found here.

[Magic Russ]

Fuzz Faces are not my favorite fuzz, but I think they did a reasonably good job with this.  

[Tezza]

On 2/16/2023 at 8:23 PM, aidan o driscoll said:

Though I have 6, i still steer toward 5 .. WHY? Because 5 loads far faster for me anyway and can load across a number of instances w/o cpu issues ( Core i5, 16GB Ram, SSD )

Nice GUIs are one thing, but I prefer performance

 

 

On 2/17/2023 at 1:53 AM, locrian said:

Same here.

The CPU load on most of their plugins has increased significantly over the last few years.  And my usage of these plugins has decreased significantly as a result.

 

This is what forced me to upgrade the computer in the end. I had an i5 3rd gen with 8 gig of ram. Komplete ultimate 10 ran ok with it, gr5 etc although I could never get latency really acceptable with amp sims and instead, ran through pedals with direct monitoring. It was almost there, but on fast guitar parts, the timing just wasn't right. Same thing with VST keyboards and pianos etc, although i could "get by" with these. But when i put KU 13 on everything ran slow, like really slow, sometimes taking 1 minute or more just to open GR6 or the new massive etc. It was bad.

Then i got a new computer, an 11th gen i7 with 32gig ram. Basically, all of these problems just went away. Latency is a non issue and running the KU13 instruments and GR6 etc is fine. Also, the VST pianos etc are all great now, i can play really fast parts without timing issues. The only annoyance with the new computer, is the noise it makes, not too bad on cool days but turns into a revving motorcycle on hot days. My previous computer was dead silent, all the time.

In terms of guitar though, i swapped out the mexican Strat for a player series double humbucker Tele (with push/pull pots for single coil function) and this change really helped with the overall sound. I've got more of a respect for the amp sims now. My previous Strat was too harsh and grainy for the computer but the Tele sounds warm and fat, with all the harshness gone, much better for direct recording with the computer, even when i switch to the single coils. The Strat sounded great through an amp, just not with direct in to a computer, I thought it was the interface DI, but it was the guitar. So in terms of getting a better guitar sound using amp sims, changing software = meh!, changing guitars= MEGA! and upgrading the computer = SUPER MEGA!

The only thing left to change now, is the interface. The UR44 has been good but it is old and i don't think i'm getting the best sound from it. Also, I've only ever used 1 input at a time really, occasionally 2. For an even better amp sim guitar sound, I think i might switch to an Audient id4 mkii or id14 mkii. Maybe, this will upgrade my sound to SUPER DUPER MEGA!

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Tezza

[locrian]

10 hours ago, Tezza said:

Then i got a new computer, an 11th gen i7 with 32gig ram. Basically, all of these problems just went away.

This is what I'm planning to do as well but am not sure whether to stick with Intel (given their self‐inflicted woes) or switch to AMD (which is potentially risky since I know so little about their products and don't want to spend a lot of time, money, and effort to build a system and then have to deal with problems arising from them just recently having stolen the 'crown' from Intel).

10 hours ago, Tezza said:

The only annoyance with the new computer, is the noise it makes, not too bad on cool days but turns into a revving motorcycle on hot days. My previous computer was dead silent, all the time.

And this^ is my other concern given that my stopgap solution has been to use my laptop to run my DAW and, like you, I have constant, very distracting and annoying fan noise on hot days which caused me to work early in the mornings, late at nights, and to shift plugin-heavy projects to the winter months.

Edited February 19, 2023 by locrian

[Tezza]

1 hour ago, locrian said:

This is what I'm planning to do as well but am not sure whether to stick with Intel (given their self‐inflicted woes) or switch to AMD (which is potentially risky since I know so little about their products and don't want to spend a lot of time, money, and effort to build a system and then have to deal with problems arising from them just recently having stolen the 'crown' from Intel).

And this^ is my other concern given that my stopgap solution has been to use my laptop to run my DAW and, like you, I have constant, very distracting and annoying fan noise on hot days which caused me to work early in the mornings, late at nights, and to shift plugin-heavy projects to the winter months.

People probably have different opinions about AMD or Intel, I've always used intel because years ago when i ran a video editing business, it was well known that intel had less compatibility problems with third party hardware and software/drivers etc. That may not be the case today, i wouldn't know, I just stick with intel out of habit now really. The fan noise problem is really, REALLY, annoying. Everything i do on the computer causes it to rev, load a song?...rev, edit some video?....rev, windows updates itself?...rev. It's constantly going up and down, all the time i use it.

My laptop is more of a constant noise, it turns on for a while, then dies down or turns off but i only use it for internet and website building. I can address the noise issue with the laptop by downgrading to a 6 or 7th gen i5, which will still be enough power for what i do with it. As far as the PC is concerned,  i don't know what to do with it at the moment, I'll need to research it. But, yeh, the noise is a massive issue as far as I'm concerned.

[abacab]

50 minutes ago, Tezza said:

The fan noise problem is really, REALLY, annoying. Everything i do on the computer causes it to rev, load a song?...rev, edit some video?....rev, windows updates itself?...rev. It's constantly going up and down, all the time i use it.

The fan noise on my last DIY build was the same way. I finally figured out the graphical fan control (RPM vs. temp) in my ASUS Z390 UEFI BIOS. You can set your own fan speed profile MANUALLY by temperature for the each of the fans, CPU, case #1, case #2 etc. Turns out that my CPU fan by default was revving up with the slightest heat increase with anything that I was doing on the PC. Sounded like a maniacal leaf blower operator! Rev, rev, rev... LOL!!!

So I went a bit further out on the CPU temperature curve, but well below the danger zone, and now the CPU fan only revs when my CPU is running at nearly 100%. I also boosted up my 2 reasonably quiet case fans (front intake/rear exhaust) to a higher base speed to improve the cross ventilation flow.

http://www.davidapps.net/ArcGISpc/Hardware/help/q_fan_control.htm#

But my 6-core 9th Gen i5 is strong enough at 4+ GHz that I never get to 100% unless I am running a stress test. So now it normally remains quiet as at idle, even with a moderate workload.

If your BIOS doesn't support this, I have read that a common solution is to use a 3rd party utility called "SpeedFan", but I have never tried it.

https://www.wikihow.com/Control-Fan-Speed-on-a-Windows-10-Laptop

Edited February 19, 2023 by abacab

[antler]

2 hours ago, locrian said:

This is what I'm planning to do as well but am not sure whether to stick with Intel (given their self‐inflicted woes) or switch to AMD (which is potentially risky since I know so little about their products and don't want to spend a lot of time, money, and effort to build a system and then have to deal with problems arising from them just recently having stolen the 'crown' from Intel).

Don't know if the situation is still the same, but I seem to remember @Jim Roseberry saying that AMDs can be faster, but only for parallel processing, e.g. rendering video. Intel still rules for more single threaded uses like pushing audio through with low latencies. I also seem to remember Jim saying that Intel chips were easier to keep cool, compared to a similar model from AMD.

[Jim Roseberry]

1 hour ago, antler said:

Don't know if the situation is still the same, but I seem to remember @Jim Roseberry saying that AMDs can be faster, but only for parallel processing, e.g. rendering video. Intel still rules for more single threaded uses like pushing audio through with low latencies. I also seem to remember Jim saying that Intel chips were easier to keep cool, compared to a similar model from AMD.

The last couple of generations, AMD and Intel have been leap-frogging each other (performance wise).

ie:  When the 7950x was released, it leap-frogged the 12900k/s (performance wise).  Then, Intel released the 13900k/s... which is faster than the 7950x.

 

With the Ryzen 5xxx series, AMD finally got their ultra low latency audio performance together.

Prior Threadripper and Ryzen CPUs were not a good choice for ultra low latency DAW applications.

 

Flash forward to current generation:

• AMD 7950x
• Intel i9-13900k/s

I've extensively tested both the 7950x and 13900k/s.

Both are excellent ultra low latency performers.

Both run on the hotter side... requiring top-tier liquid cooling (to keep CPU cool/quiet).

13900k/s is currently the fastest DAW CPU.  (Scores over 40k in Cinebench R23 multi-core test)

7950x and 13900k can both run IK's ToneX plugin (similar to Kemper) at 96k using a 16-sample ASIO buffer size.  That's 0.5ms total round-trip latency!

In real-world use, there's not a huge difference between the two.

Top-tier motherboards for both (X670e and Z790) offer similar features (including Thunderbolt-4).

Edited February 19, 2023 by Jim Roseberry

[locrian]

42 minutes ago, Jim Roseberry said:

13900k/s is currently the fastest DAW CPU. 

Have you encountered any issues with the E-cores / P-cores architecture?  Specifically that slower E-cores could create a bottleneck and/or degrade core load balancing, or result in lower performance due to their lower thread count?  And what about the 13900's lower total thread count vs that of the 7950x?

I've read several posts about these types of issues and so am a bit hesitant to stay with Intel at this point.

[locrian]

And apologies to the OP for going off-topic.

[marcL]

16 hours ago, Tezza said:

 

 

This is what forced me to upgrade the computer in the end. I had an i5 3rd gen with 8 gig of ram. Komplete ultimate 10 ran ok with it, gr5 etc although I could never get latency really acceptable with amp sims and instead, ran through pedals with direct monitoring. It was almost there, but on fast guitar parts, the timing just wasn't right. Same thing with VST keyboards and pianos etc, although i could "get by" with these. But when i put KU 13 on everything ran slow, like really slow, sometimes taking 1 minute or more just to open GR6 or the new massive etc. It was bad.

Then i got a new computer, an 11th gen i7 with 32gig ram. Basically, all of these problems just went away. Latency is a non issue and running the KU13 instruments and GR6 etc is fine. Also, the VST pianos etc are all great now, i can play really fast parts without timing issues. The only annoyance with the new computer, is the noise it makes, not too bad on cool days but turns into a revving motorcycle on hot days. My previous computer was dead silent, all the time.

In terms of guitar though, i swapped out the mexican Strat for a player series double humbucker Tele (with push/pull pots for single coil function) and this change really helped with the overall sound. I've got more of a respect for the amp sims now. My previous Strat was too harsh and grainy for the computer but the Tele sounds warm and fat, with all the harshness gone, much better for direct recording with the computer, even when i switch to the single coils. The Strat sounded great through an amp, just not with direct in to a computer, I thought it was the interface DI, but it was the guitar. So in terms of getting a better guitar sound using amp sims, changing software = meh!, changing guitars= MEGA! and upgrading the computer = SUPER MEGA!

The only thing left to change now, is the interface. The UR44 has been good but it is old and i don't think i'm getting the best sound from it. Also, I've only ever used 1 input at a time really, occasionally 2. For an even better amp sim guitar sound, I think i might switch to an Audient id4 mkii or id14 mkii. Maybe, this will upgrade my sound to SUPER DUPER MEGA!

 

This is exactly the problem, such plugin developers like NI eat up a lot of the hardware progress! We all have to upgrade and upgrade the hardware that in the end we can just run the new versions of the same plugins! This is the future!

Recently I compared the cpu consumption of a lot of plugins of the same kinds and I was really surprised of the differences between various producers. I did it on my laptop, cos it is quite weak and thus you can see the differences better. Some vendors' plugins ran quite fine against my expectations (e.g. Softube, older bx stuff, Boz Digital, ...) and others shocked me about their consumption! NI's Guitar Rig 5 was quite good in comparison, but GR6 is very bad. In general all newer NI plugins are very heavy!

[abacab]

I assume NI believes that "latest and greatest" (including fancy graphics) sells more software products.  But that means it runs better on the "latest and greatest" hardware.

It's like an arms race...

[marcL]

34 minutes ago, abacab said:

I assume NI believes that "latest and greatest" (including fancy graphics) sells more software products.  But that means it runs better on the "latest and greatest" hardware.

It's like an arms race...

Believe me, it is possible to program the same product with the same fancy graphics using even less cpu than Guitar Rig 5! Often it has a lot to do how a software is constructed and what kind of tools are used to program it. This can easily make a difference of 1:10 in the resulting resource consumption!

This was also the thing that surprised me in my plugin comparison (described above) that some products that look old and simple are real resource hogs and others that look modern with cool resizable graphics are light. So it seems to be possible! 😉

[Tezza]

7 hours ago, abacab said:

You can set your own fan speed profile MANUALLY by temperature for the each of the fans, CPU, case #1, case #2 etc. Turns out that my CPU fan by default was revving up with the slightest heat increase with anything that I was doing on the PC. Sounded like a maniacal leaf blower operator! Rev, rev, rev... LOL!!!

 

Thanks for all that info, from memory, i set the BIOS setting to "silent mode", I think there were 3 settings. Well if this is silent mode I hate to think what noisy mode is! I'll definitely take another look in the BIOS see if anything can be done manually. Thanks for the links.

 

3 hours ago, marled said:

This is exactly the problem, such plugin developers like NI eat up a lot of the hardware progress! We all have to upgrade and upgrade the hardware that in the end we can just run the new versions of the same plugins! This is the future!

Recently I compared the cpu consumption of a lot of plugins of the same kinds and I was really surprised of the differences between various producers. I did it on my laptop, cos it is quite weak and thus you can see the differences better. Some vendors' plugins ran quite fine against my expectations (e.g. Softube, older bx stuff, Boz Digital, ...) and others shocked me about their consumption! NI's Guitar Rig 5 was quite good in comparison, but GR6 is very bad. In general all newer NI plugins are very heavy!

Yes, GR6 is definitely more CPU heavy than GR5. I tend to use S-Gear mostly, simply because it's easier to use, I like the format of just having an amp sitting there, where you can twiddle the knobs, without all the confusion of a multi windowed leviathan. It's also good if you have a single monitor, if you want to change anything while your mixing, it's a smaller box that pops up, together with the other windows. Where i find GR6 is great, is when you want to create a unique sound for the guitar, sometimes to the point where it might not even sound like a guitar. I've got other amp sims as well, but i just don't use them, mainly because of the bulky and confusing GUI.

I think this is the future, namely, if you want to use modern VST instruments, synths or amp sims, then you have to have a modern computer to run them, big CPU with lots of RAM. Otherwise, you'll have a better experience running older software with an older computer.

I should add, I've only recently got the new guitar, so I'm retesting all the amp sims I have, it is definitely a very different experience with the new guitar and computer.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Tezza

[abacab]

14 minutes ago, Tezza said:

Thanks for all that info, from memory, i set the BIOS setting to "silent mode", I think there were 3 settings. Well if this is silent mode I hate to think what noisy mode is! I'll definitely take another look in the BIOS see if anything can be done manually. Thanks for the links.

Silent mode in BIOS is autopilot. Like trusting a plugin AI to give you a perfect mix, LOL!

Manual mode gives you control of WHEN the fan revs up, based on CPU temperature. You need to open a task Manager window and observe and listen at the same time.

If you see your CPU usage increase slightly with a small increase in workload, but your CPU fan spins WAY up, then you should look at taming that manually... if you lock your fan down until the CPU temperature reaches a much higher level, you will enjoy a quieter machine!

Edited February 19, 2023 by abacab