Virtual Guitar Processors: POD Farm vs Guitar Rig

Not all people are owners of a large living space - to keep the amplifier and a large number of effect pedals, everyone can not. But everyone, who plays guitar, want a good sound. Virtual processors can help here. I compared two popular virtual processors and today I'll tell you about results.

POD Farm from Line 6

Manufacturer of guitar equipment has now entered the virtual space. For comparison, version 2.59.0 (build from February 14, 2017) is taken.

Advantages:

• Very high-quality emulators with very little CPU resources.
• Very simple setup: you choose the elements and play.
• It's impossible to make a mistake. You just choose the elements of your sound and play.
• Emulator cabinet contains an emulator of 4 microphones (can be used only separately), as well as a simple tool to adjust room size.
• Can be divided into two channels and used separately or together. For example, this can be useful for rhythm (emphasizing low frequencies, more gain) and for solos (high-frequency underscores, less gain).
• Can be used as a vocal processor.
• It's not necessary to connect via a professional audio interface. To connect the built-in audio card on your computer.

Disadvantages:

• Quality is lower compared to the next.
• There is no possibility of recording. It's possible to make friends with sequencer, but for this you need to copy *.dll files to folder "vst plugins".
• A lot of similar elements of the tone block. I never saw the difference between the "modern" and "vintage" delays.

Guitar Rig from Native Instrument

When it comes to Native Instrument, comments are always superfluous. For comparison, version 5.1.0 (build from March 22, 2012) is taken.

Advantages:

• "Made in Germany" and "Quality" are synonyms. And this product is no exception.
• A very convenient CPU usage monitor. At the time of exceeding 100% the program is automatically turned off.
• You can switch between low and high quality.
• You can very fine tune your tone. Immediately is a huge number of well-known instruments for forming a tone.
• There are very rare and specific effects. For example, UFO effect - this sound can not be described.
• A lot of extra tools. For example, you can export your result as wav file. Or import the previously recorded riffs and see how it will sound.
• Also there is a very convenient metronome, in which you can even test your sense of rhythm. So convenient that I decided to highlight this as a separate item.
• For each amp, there is a separate cabinet emulator and two separate microphone emulators (condenser or dynamic). But the company's emulator cabinet contains emulators of 8 different microphones, which can be used both together, as well as separately.
• Compressors / limiters are just fantastic.
• Opportunity to divide into two channels. There are three types of separation: from side and in middle, from below and from above and also the classical division into two channels.
• Volume pedal can be controlled by any external device. I did it for this purpose to customize the gamepad for PS2.

Disadvantages:

• This is not a toy for beginners. It's very difficult to learn and adjust.
• It's very easy to make a mistake. Elements are from top to bottom.
• It behaves inadequately when connected through the built-in sound card on computer / laptop.
• Realism is good, but only up to a certain point. If guitar is not connected to computer, then all the time you hear a rattle and crackling.
• It's impossible to make friends with sequencer. However, this is compensated by the possibility of recording.
• It requires a lot of CPU resources. That is, if CPU has less than 4 cores and the clock frequency is less than 2.0 (Intel), then forget about it.
• Divide into two channels is possible, but this requires a very long time to set up. And it's not always what I wanted.
• Only one amp for bass, and bass sound is tuned in a very specific way.

I think choice is obvious.