Question anyone use a laptop for their guitar rig?

[Gio_Force_One]

I saw a band the other night and no one had any amps just laptops they plugged their guitars in and then the laptops tothe PA. I was told that this was the new thing to do. I personally like having an amp and my effects pedals , but now my singer is trying to get everyone in the band to go the laptop route saying its the new thing and its the way everyones going , he also wants to start sequencing keyboard parts and buy a vocal harmonizer and it all seems just too much too me. So are the days of people singing harmonies and doing their own keyboard parts and carrying around amps on its way out? I still like the old ways of doing things , what do you guys think?

 

[DrKev]

And we all thought analog and tubes was still the way to go. Crazy kids today. And they can get off my lawn!

 

[peterd79]

i've tried using laptops... mind you i was on the at the beginning of the fad experimenting (as a lot of Christian artist did this live) and found that the laptop tended to lag a bit in my experience and could only imagine it causing issues if the laptops were used in any sense other than just for "AMPS" because you get into the whole issues of having virus problems and what not... and then what happens if your laptop doesn't want to start or if youre playing live (and with mac or pc) and you connect to a wireless signal and it decided to update in the middle of your set and forces a reboot...

I just see problems with it all the way around- give me my lil combo amp and call it good

Although i am having fun with my iPhone and the iRig... that's some tasty practice tone right there and my neighbors now thank me

 

[Sweat]

Sad actually very sad, I am nothing but an amatuer hack only playing a few years late in life but I grew up in the golden era of rock and modern music, it has always been a part of my life.

I have been saying to myself, friends, wife etc. for years that music is dead or dying quickly, not much true new stuff out there worth a damn and well using a PC as your tone and prerecorded crap well not much true skill there.

So Gio with you BS!!! Old school on this rules give me an tube amp, a nice effects processor ( OK some stuff is cool ) and skill and heart.

 

[Astrofreq]

Ahhhh.....time to rant......

Anytime I see a computer as part of a music rig, I already know the band will not rock. I saw a band once with no bass player and a laptop covered the bass parts. The band sounded very stiff. As for using a laptop for guitar tone, if people want to get their sound from a laptop, go for it. It just isn't for me. I can't imagine liking a tone enough...to gig with it. I have similar feelings about protools and digital recording. I LOVE the pristeen recording quality and infinite tracks, but it seems fewer plays anymore. People record a few measures and just cut and paste songs together. Just makes me nausceous.

 

[metalmarty]

I played in a project that used a laptop for clicktracks, MIDI-changes for everything (patches, lighting, etc) and samples. It worked like a charm. It took some getting used to my patches being changed without stepping on a pedal, but I loved it. Sound wasn't so much generated though (except the samples) but it was more from an automation viewpoint. Excellent. We were tight as hell. Very nice to record every gig as well. Never had a crash mid-gig fortunately. If you do it you better get one beast of a laptop.

You get more control over your own sound when you work in the way you witnessed. More stable from gig to gig. I've played countless gigs where the soundguy was a complete tool, had crappy microphones or deliberately tried to mess up the sound. This way you can take things like that out of the equation. Amps turned up to loud is a problem too. You're gonna need a backup though, just like you would in an analogue world.

I can totally see your point too, btw. It takes away a certain charm. I love a cranked tube amp as much as anyone. Digital can sound pretty sweet these days though. I like my VG-99. I love the axefx. Never heared GuitarRig, so can't comment on that one.

EDIT: btw, next year a Two Rock Classic Reverb with a TC2290 are inbound, so I'm returning to full on major tube-mojo with just a nice delay and I'll be happy. Extremely!

 

[ksandvik]

As with anything else, you need to discuss the reasoning behind using laptops. Just using them does not make things modern sounding. If you need a huge set of guitar sounds across a wide range of styles, yes a software rig would work well, provided you have decent monitoring or in-ear monitors. If you have a fixed range of sounds, it does not really make a difference. More fun playing with a low-wattage tube amp cranked to the max, anyway.

 

[metalmarty]

More fun playing with a low-wattage tube amp cranked to the max, anyway.

With my metal-hat on I can't stand cooking powertubes

 

[Gio_Force_One]

Plus for me not sure if I have the patience to deal with a laptop for my sound , i remember when i tried a multi effects processor and just got fed up and brought it right back too the store.all the options and the parameters and just too much for me. 2 two things I have been using my whole life is a tube screamer and a tube amp. and thats what i really like. I know its a pain to carry a bunch of stuff gig after gig but if it sounds good its worth it to me.
to each their own I guess but it all ends up coming around , then you'll see the kids wanting to go with tube amps and pedals and around it will go.

 

[DTJPPR]

I've used MainStage 2(part of Logic Studio) and it rules for live performances. I wouldn't do this for a straight ahead rock show, but for the more ethereal, spacey kinds of things I'm doing these days, it makes things a million times easier, being able to have all the effects I want, and have them change for each song. No, it doesn't sound as good as a tube amp, but it does help combat the issues caused by the ****ty Engineer's Mic placement techniques, gain staging, and general ****ty mixing abilities. <--I say this because I am a Live Sound Engineer and I can tell you that 90% of engineers care about your overall mix LEAST of all. I don't know why, but that's just how it goes.

 

[slukather]

A mate of mine uses guitar rig on his laptop, but only for home playing, he loves it, i didn't, l don't know, call me a snob, l love the sound of a tube amp, give me my tube amp, tube screamer, delay unit, my ebmm guitars and l'm a happy man.

As far as the whole backing track thing, i went and saw a band play a couple of months back, and they were defiantly using a backing track, but only for the backing vocals, as there where like 5 or more people singing and 2 people singing back ups, but l did find out later that it was a fact, but this kind of thing seems to be the norm now days, i can understand if you are a cover band and you need trumpet, triangle or whatever and don't want to get a trumpet player to play on one song. My band has trumpet on one of our tunes, but live we don't worry about it, it sounds just as good without it.

The singer in my band wanted to get a vocal harmonizer, i don't know what for, there are 4 of us there, i do back up vocals, the drummer, the other guys in the band just need to do some homework and practice there backing vocals.

Someone mentioned Protools on here, no offense, but it all comes down to the player/producer, if the player wants they can cut and paste their parts, but you don't have to, when l record i don't cut and paste, but that's just me, you can use autotune if you want, but you don't have to, or any of the million of plugins that are available, just because they are there, it doesn't mean people are using them, but plugins are being used far too much, but i live by the following rule, if you can't play/sing it, practice until you can.

Sorry for the long post.

Scottie.

 

[richb]

I only use it for the axe edit for my Axe Fx Ultra
Richb

 

[Jack FFR1846]

I've used my laptop in Christian band performances. I restarted my guitar performing maybe 3 years ago now. My last ones were plugging my 69 Guild archtop into my Thunder One amp and we'd start with a head nod. (back in the 70's) Anyways, I skipped the pedal phase and program my Digitech RP250 to simulate the signal chain of amps to cabs to pedals and even swapping my humbuckers that are into the guitar to single coils. I use the laptop during rehersal to fine tune my sounds, which are then saved in the effects pedal so I can sequence through them. If there are either difficult parts or parts that I think I'm going to forget, I'll have the laptop onstage with a set of headphones where I can play the next song to myself during the parts of a song that I'm out of. If I've got the set down pat, I won't bring the laptop. I do run the guitar wireless and have an aviom setup to a wireless in-ear monitor. From my effects pedal, I'm going to the sound board, to racks, to amps, to speakers.

I don't go from guitar directly into the laptop......it is going into the pedal with a usb connection coming to the laptop. There is no delay. I do find that occationally, the connection goes flakey or the sounds scrambled with the pedal connected to the laptop, so I never have a connection during performances. At rehersals, though, I have the added benefit of having all the songs available for the band to hear....and I usually Audacity them to the key we're playing it in.

 

[jakedawgwhite88]

I enjoy my laptop for recording new ideas quickly and I really enjoy my vox tonlab se for quick gigs that need direct sounds and I use my full rig for all our shows and we've played some small venues. Even in the small venues my mark III (which is tough to set stage volume) produces enough tone (thanks to the graphic eq) that the mic is able to get it to my monitor which doesn't blow everyone out .... i've been tempted to get a blanket and put in front of it (regularly mic'd of course) so I could turn it up and get that cranked amp tone .... or attenuator ... blanket it cheaper ... or an isolated cab thingy. back on topic I don't know if I could ever get used to a laptop on stage... and for me I can't see being able to quickly change something on the amp in the middle of a song like an amp... .02 cents contributed

 

[ThatsAgood1jay]

I like having the guitar go through an actual amplifier. Call me old school, it just adds to the tone I think.

 

[walleye]

I saw a band the other night and no one had any amps just laptops they plugged their guitars in and then the laptops tothe PA. I was told that this was the new thing to do. I personally like having an amp and my effects pedals , but now my singer is trying to get everyone in the band to go the laptop route saying its the new thing and its the way everyones going , he also wants to start sequencing keyboard parts and buy a vocal harmonizer and it all seems just too much too me. So are the days of people singing harmonies and doing their own keyboard parts and carrying around amps on its way out? I still like the old ways of doing things , what do you guys think?

i have a bit of a pet peeve about vocal harmonizers/backing tracks with vocal harmonies. this is coming from someone who is putting in a lot of effort into my singing so that i can do live harmonies for my band.

regarding laptops: only use it if you see an obvious advantage to it, i would advise not to do it just because its hip

 

[RobW]

IMO the computer has it's cool and very practical applications, but for guitar in a live setting it's nothing but real amps here, preferably good ol' tube ones pushing real speakers in real cabinets.

 

[denny99]

could only imagine it causing issues if the laptops were used in any sense other than just for "AMPS" because you get into the whole issues of having virus problems and what not...

I would only use a Mac. Not even considering Windows

and then what happens if your laptop doesn't want to start or if youre playing live (and with mac or pc) and you connect to a wireless signal and it decided to update in the middle of your set and forces a reboot...

You DON'T connect to a wireless and/or any networking/bluetooth device if you use the laptop as amp... That would be risky! You basically switch off any wireless feature.

By the way, what happens if your combo blow a fuse or a power tube? Or just won't sound through the speaker? As much as you bring some spare parts and possibly a smaller backup rig, you should bring a backup laptop up and running ready to takeover.

I like playing at home with Guitar Rig; that said I still definitely prefer my combo, too for live situations