Guitar Rig 3 set up, problems, etc.

[Incinerator Drone]

Hey, I already posted this to NI tech support and on the NI help forums but I have bad luck with actually getting help from help forums in general. It does seem to be a somewhat common problem so maybe someone here has gotten past it before or would have some ideas.

I'm trying to get Guitar Rig 3 set up and I'm not sure if what I'm experiencing is a set up problem or what, I didn't really understand the set up and was kind of winging it, and I'm pretty new to home recording / sound cards / etc. in general. Basically I am having two issues, not sure if they are related.

One is when trying to input guitars there is a constant sort of clipping sound going on.

The other is when I try to input there is a huge lag between what I play and when I hear it and it often cuts out entirely, not sure if this is an input or output lag.

Combined they make the program basically unusable in its current form.

I have a Sony Vaio with XP, 2 GB RAM, etc. there should be no problems there, and an M-Audio 410 firewire external sound card. The sound card works fine for recording guitar into other programs like Cool Edit, etc.

Any help with basic set up / these specific issues would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Kanthos]

Odds are good that you've got one or more of these things going on:

1) You aren't using ASIO drivers for your soundcard causing lag.

2) You have a lot of stuff loaded in the background that individually takes up little CPU time but combined is using a fair chunk of it. Your CPU can't catch up.

3) Your sound card's buffer size is too big (taking up more memory and making the CPU work harder to fill it) or too small (more data is being generated than the buffer can hold, causing crackles).

4) Guitar Rig 3, with all the effects you're trying to use, is just too powerful for your CPU.

Recording audio isn't terribly CPU-intensive. The problem is that you're processing the audio first and recording it at the same time. If you have a DAW (FL Studio, Cubase, Sonar, Logic, Garageband, Live, etc.), you might want to try recording a clean signal and sending it through Guitar Rig once it's recorded, although depending on your guitar skills, that might affect your playing.

Something else to check is whether or not you can play fine in Guitar Rig *without* recording. By that, I mean play your guitar and make sure you have Guitar Rig and your sound card configured so that you hear the processed audio output from Guitar Rig. (Apologies that I don't know how to do this myself; I use Guitar Rig within Cubase or Native Instruments Kore to add effects to other virtual instruments like Native Instruments Elektrik Pianos, so I don't know how th signal flow would work for playing with a live instrument). If you can't play without static when you're not recording, you certainly won't be able to when you are.

More than likely though, this is a problem with the way your sound card is configured. M-Audio soundcards usually have a Control Panel application that lets you set latency and buffer size; try playing around with the settings there and make sure you've updated to the latest sound card drivers (go to M-Audio's site to get them).

[Incinerator Drone]

Thanks for the help, I'll try some of this out.

I don't mind recording a clean signal then processing it afterwards, that is what I was doing before I got Guitar Rig, but I prefer hearing direct feedback for guitars so I'd like to try to get it working that way if possible.

Is there an ideal buffer size for the sound card or is that just something you have to mess around with and figure out on a case by case basis?

Odds are good that you've got one or more of these things going on:

1) You aren't using ASIO drivers for your soundcard causing lag.

2) You have a lot of stuff loaded in the background that individually takes up little CPU time but combined is using a fair chunk of it. Your CPU can't catch up.

3) Your sound card's buffer size is too big (taking up more memory and making the CPU work harder to fill it) or too small (more data is being generated than the buffer can hold, causing crackles).

4) Guitar Rig 3, with all the effects you're trying to use, is just too powerful for your CPU.

Recording audio isn't terribly CPU-intensive. The problem is that you're processing the audio first and recording it at the same time. If you have a DAW (FL Studio, Cubase, Sonar, Logic, Garageband, Live, etc.), you might want to try recording a clean signal and sending it through Guitar Rig once it's recorded, although depending on your guitar skills, that might affect your playing.

Something else to check is whether or not you can play fine in Guitar Rig *without* recording. By that, I mean play your guitar and make sure you have Guitar Rig and your sound card configured so that you hear the processed audio output from Guitar Rig. (Apologies that I don't know how to do this myself; I use Guitar Rig within Cubase or Native Instruments Kore to add effects to other virtual instruments like Native Instruments Elektrik Pianos, so I don't know how th signal flow would work for playing with a live instrument). If you can't play without static when you're not recording, you certainly won't be able to when you are.

More than likely though, this is a problem with the way your sound card is configured. M-Audio soundcards usually have a Control Panel application that lets you set latency and buffer size; try playing around with the settings there and make sure you've updated to the latest sound card drivers (go to M-Audio's site to get them).

[zircon]

Correction to what Kanthos said: smaller buffers make your computer work harder, not larger ones. Increasing your buffers SAVES CPU power.

[Kanthos]

Note to self: don't post technical information first thing in the morning. Wake up first.

zircon's right. Smaller buffers increase CPU load, and I think that larger buffers increase latency. You have to figure it out on a case-by-case basis for your CPU and sound card combination; you'll want to get the buffer as small as possible and the latency as low as possible without causing static because you're trying to play in real-time, and a large latency will likely throw you off. Any more than 10-15 milliseconds and I can't play along with anything pre-recorded.

[Incinerator Drone]

I think I got it working sweet now I CAN'T WAIT TO MAKE SOME KICKASS MUSIC.

[Lunahorum]

notice that guitar rig 3 has a HQ mode. Your should record the clean signal and only use live feedback through GR3. Then when you render, click HQ and make sure your clean signals are going through it.

Cheers