So with all the talk of the HD Pod Pro overheating, I got a little scared so I took a step back and have started re-considering an all digital setup. I haven't really investigated Guitar Rig at all since version 2 but yesterday I decided to upgrade to version 5 (latest). I have to say, the overall quality, performance, and sounds of the latest GR really knocked my socks off. My computer hardware setup isn't really conducive to playing outside my house at the moment but that is easily fixed.

So I know there are some folks floating around who've gone all digital. Any thoughts?

I briefly tried it years ago running directly through an audio interface into Guitar Rig 2. The whole latency thing made me feel a bit of a disconnect with the music and I just couldn't get into it. Yesterday when I revisited this, I opted to run into Main Stage instead and put GR instances on the individual tracks. I tweaked the latency settings and it seemed to perform really well. I ran through some different tones and really liked what I heard. Today I plan to run the output through my performance speaker instead of my studio monitors and I also plan to run my MIDI (GI-20) into a third MainStage track and see what I can do there.

I'm pretty enthused right now.

Thanks for keeping us informed on your experiments. Great information. Please continue!

I have both a POD HD500 and Guitar Rig 5, so I'll be interested to see which one I like better. (My Stick is still in production it seems...)

Hi Glenn,

Glad to hear that you're using Mainstage since it is so simple and good sounding! Regarding latency, make sure to not open any plugins that induce latency. Most of the native plugins (that are part of Mainstage/Logic) do all their work well inside the plugin buffer, causing no extra latency. Whenever you open a plugin on a track, check the area at the bottom of the channel strip for possible latency indication (in case a plugin causes latency the milliseconds figure is displayed). Even plugins with "natural acoustic latency", such as reverb, should be avoided in case they induce latency into the system because that will force Mainstage to delay all tracks to catch up with the slowest. So make sure you go all latency free plugins, then the only latency you will have is the AD/DA latency due to the hardware. I use a RME Fireface here and this gives a good performance at buffer setting 128 in Mainstage. Latency-wise it kind of equals standing two meters away from your speaker and to me that is a quite normal position.

But these days the laptop rig is my second choice after the Fractal Audio. The the Fractal is "all digital" as well. Both with OS X software only and with the Fractal I prefer full range speakers rather than taking out a signal through physical guitar cabs. But that's a matter of taste.

Thanks Per. I knew (and was hoping) you'd be chiming in this. The Fractal Audio looks really nice but after some soul searching, I'm thinking there is just no way I am going to spend the kind of money needed for a high end unit like that.

So yesterday was a bit of an epiphany day I think. So instead of experimenting through my studio setup and monitors, I moved the interface and computer over and ran them through my live speaker setup. This made a huge difference and made me feel more like I was just playing through my regular rig. I'm still feeling like I can hear the tiny latency but I think I'll get over that soon enough. The biggest thing for me right now is the gigantic array of effects and sounds at my fingertips via the computer that weren't there in my hardware rig. I even setup a bus track with Mobius plugged in to use in place of my Echoplex for loops.

The big "aha" moment came when I ran the GI-20 to the computer. Currently for what little MIDI I use, I have the GI-20 and XV-2020 twin rack setup. I hadn't really thought much about it but by running the GI-20 to the computer, instead of the limited sounds of the XV I suddenly had access to all the software synths on my machine (Absynth, GForce Mellotron, Arturia classic synths, etc). It was a little like being cut loose in a candy store.

I just remembered another good hint on using Mainstage:

In case you are using some MIDI pedalboard or other controller to change patches, play the virtual wha... or whatever, then you may want to turn off Mainstage's default repsons for old General MIDI ("GM") so only the MIDI events you assign to something will have an impact. Otherwise you may find that your mixer settings get messed up seemingly by random. The popular Behringer FCB 1010 for example leaks out random MIDI date that it is not programmed to send out.

You can do this in Mainstage at "Edit Window / Assignments & Mappings tab / Channel 1-16 Unassigned". It is the very last row at the bottom of the window. Select that row and unselect the tic box down in the "Screen Control Inspector". Tic box named "Send unassigned MIDI to all Channel Strips".

I guess the reason Apple ships with this activated is that when Mainstage is displayed in music shops they want mixer channels to immediately respond to Volume (CC#7), Pan (CC#10) and similar GM events sent out by all kinds of gear to make it look "more advanced" to less experienced customers.

Good to see you looking into using GR again Glenn! I believe that it became more useful when it moved to version 3....I seem to remember latency getting a lot better around then. I haven't upgraded from 4 yet...was waiting on the Komplete 9 update to start shipping.

I really like using the GI-20 along with GR processed Stick. I'm running on a Win 7 based laptop and use different apps to host GR and various synths. (Kore, Reaper, SAC, Live, Absynth, Z3TA+, etc...).Still a bit leery though about using the laptop live because of its frailty... Thought about looking into a Muse Research Receptor, but pricing can get a bit high on those as well.

Just an update for anyone interested.

I've been playing around using MainStage and Guitar Rig as my setup for a week or so and I'm pretty encouraged. I still have a lot to do before I could go live with this but the abundance of sounds and the overall quality seem really good.

The biggest rush for me so far has been the MIDI though. I have a GI-20 Roland to MIDI converter and was previously using it to drive a half rack XV-2020 sound module. Now I've unplugged from the hardware synth and am using my Stick to drive Absynth along with a few other plugins. Some incredible sounds happening right now. Tons of fun.

Can't wait to hear the results one of these days ... !

Hi all,

Well it's been over a year since I went all digital with the rig and I think I'm about to pull the plug and go back. The logistics of the all digital rig have been great. Literally every single piece of my old rig was replaced with software except the preamp and the GI-20. Everything was driven with my Rocktron MIDI foot controller. The effects possibilities of Guitar Rig are excellent and ditching my hardware synth and using software (Absynth, EX24, etc) has been the highlight of the whole exercise.

Here's the long and short of it though. When I want to play clean Stick, I just can't seem to make it sound right. Every time I plug my Stick into my little Fishman amp it seems to sound way better. Plugging my StepAbout direct into my powered speaker sounds way better. The sound going through the computer setup just seems to have no life when all is said and done.

I don't know if it's the latency or what. I don't really notice the latency but maybe it's a subconscious thing.

Time to pull a few old components out of their boxes