Native Instruments - Knowledge Base

1. Minimum Requirements

2. Installation

2.1 How to check if the driver is installed correctly?

2.2 USB 2.0 required

2.3 Try another USB cable

2.4 Using a powered USB 2.0 hub

2.5 Disable USB energy saving mode

3. Configure Guitar Rig3 and Rig Kontrol3

3.1 Driver Settings

3.1.1 Rig Kontrol 3 as Audio Interface

3.1.2 Using another Audio Interface

3.2 Hardware Configuration

3.2.1 Calibrating the Rig Kontrol 3 within Guitar Rig 3

3.2.2 Connecting the Rig Kontrol 3 to your audio equipment

3.2.3 Ground Loops

3.2.4 Humming

3.2.5 Tip for eliminating noise

3.2.6 No sound output

4 Guitar Rig 3/Rig Kontrol 3 running on Notebooks

4.1 Adjustments on PC

4.1.1 Notebook Check

4.1.2 Disable devices

This guide explains how to properly setup and configure your Guitar Rig 3 hardware and software. It also contains troubleshooting information that will help you to fix or avoid common problems.

Updates
Whenever you encounter problems with Guitar Rig 3 the first thing to do is to make sure that you have installed the latest update. The version number of your software is displayed on the first page of the About dialog (found by clicking the Guitar Rig logo in the upper-left-hand corner of the software interface).

Note that there might be separate updates available for the Guitar Rig 3 software and for the Rig Kontrol 3 driver. Updates are released regularly to fix known problems and to constantly improve the software and are available via the Service Center or the Update Manager on the Native Instruments website.

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1. Minimum Requirements for Guitar Rig 3

Please make sure that your system fulfils the following minimum requirements, since otherwise Guitar Rig 3 might not be able to run at all.

Windows
Windows XP SP 2 or higher or Windows Vista (32-bit)
Note (XP only): If you do not have Service Pack 2 installed, you will most likely get an error message when trying to install or use the Rig Kontrol 3 driver.
Pentium III 1 GHz, Athlon XP 1.4 GHz
512 MB RAM

USB 2.0 port
A USB 2.0 port is required for the Rig Kontrol 3. If your Rig Kontrol 3 is not properly recognized on your system, it may be because your computer does not have USB 2.0 ports available.

To determine if your PC has USB 2.0 ports, go to Start>Run and type ‘devmgmt.msc’ to go to the Device Manager, then look down to the section labelled ‘USB’ to see the list of all USB ports on your machine.
If your computer has one or more USB 2.0 ports, you will see ‘USB Enhanced Host Controller’ listed here. If you do not see at least one ENHANCED Host Controller listed here, then your PC does not have USB2.0.

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2. Installation

2.1 How to check if the driver is installed correctly?
In the Windows Start Menu there should be a new entry called “Native Instruments Rig Kontrol 3 Driver”. There you will find the helper applications “Audio Statistics” and “Control Panel”. Make sure that Rig Kontrol 3 is connected to the computer and open the Control Panel. If all the drop-down menus are greyed out (i.e., there are no presets in the preset drop-down list, no sample rate and bit rate values) there must be something wrong with the connection. If the “Native Instruments Rig Kontrol 3 Driver” entry in the Start Menu is missing, the driver is most probably not installed at all.

Control Panel  – Rig Kontrol 3 NOT connected


Control Panel  – Rig Kontrol 3 connected

If the Controller is not recognized, here are a few things you should check:

2.2 USB 2.0 required
The Rig Kontrol 3 is a USB 2.0 interface and will not work at all on a USB 1.0/1.1 port.
In addition, although the minimum power specified for a USB 2.0 port is 500 mA, we have seen a few cases where the USB 2.0 ports on a particular computer do not fulfil the minimum requirements and therefore do not meet the official USB 2.0 specification. In this case you may see a message saying that there is not enough power available to operate your device. In this case the Rig Kontrol 3 might produce crackles or might not even work at all. Please read paragraph 2.4 for advice.

2.3 Try another USB cable
A bad USB cable can be responsible for audio dropouts and other connectivity problems. It is highly recommended that you try using a different cable if you are experiencing difficulties; make sure to use a cable bearing the official USB logo.

Cable with USB icon

Make sure your cable doesn’t exceed the length of 5 meters; the maximum recommended size is 3 meters and it is not recommended to use an extension cable.

2.4 Using a powered USB 2.0 hub
It is best to connect the Rig Kontrol 3 DIRECTLY to a USB 2.0 port on your computer. However, in certain situations a powered USB hub can also be a solution if you are having problems connecting your Rig Kontrol 3 to an onboard USB port, especially if your USB 2 port does not meet the official USB 2.0 requirements as explained in paragraph 2.2. Furthermore you should avoid connecting other devices to the hub if you can, as they will take away from the total amount of power available.

2.5 Disable USB energy saving mode
If you're having problems with Guitar Rig 3 crashing, performing bad or even experiencing white noise from the input signal or no input at all on a Windows machine, the first thing to do is to disable power management to the USB hubs. Windows turns this on by default. Go to device manager (Control Panel/system/hardware) and right click a USB hub to bring up properties. On the power management page, uncheck all boxes. Repeat for each hub and reboot.


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3. Configure Guitar Rig 3 and Rig Kontrol 3  

Now that you have installed Guitar Rig 3, you will need to adjust some settings in order to get the best performance. Here is some information about setting up and configuring Guitar Rig 3 on your system.

3.1 Driver Settings
When using Guitar Rig 3 you can use the Rig Kontrol 3 as your audio interface for input and output, OR you can use any audio interface you may already have installed on your computer. However, you must choose only one of these and make sure you are using the SAME interface for both input and output.

In all cases, whether you are using the Rig Kontrol 3 as your audio interface or not, it will always work as a controller pedal board for the Guitar Rig 3 software. You don’t need to select the Rig Kontrol 3 in the software, as the software will automatically detect the Rig Kontrol 3.

3.1.1 Rig Kontrol 3 as Audio Interface
Once you have installed the Windows driver, the Rig Kontrol 3 can be selected as the audio interface in the Guitar Rig 3 “Audio and MIDI Settings” or in any other audio software that supports ASIO, DirectSound or MME drivers. If your application supports ASIO, we highly recommend using the ASIO driver as it will give the best performance.
In the Guitar Rig 3 standalone application follow these steps to setup the Rig Kontrol 3 as your audio interface.

- Choose File>Audio and MIDI Settings…

- Make sure that you are on the “SoundCard” tab

- Select “ASIO” under “Interface”

- Select “NI Rig Kontrol 3” under “Output Device”

Click on the “ASIO Config” button to open the Rig Kontrol 3 Control Panel. The settings in the Rig Kontrol 3 Control Panel can be adjusted for optimal performance on your computer. These settings allow you to make tradeoffs between the CPU performance and the latency and to find the best balance for your setup. Here are some hints for choosing the most suitable driver settings:

The audio driver setup box has several presets for the most common situations. Try out the presets and see which gives you the best performance. Start with minimal latency.

Important: The USB latency parameter has a very strong affect on the CPU usage of the system. The resulting CPU usage differs greatly between different computers, so it makes sense to try out several USB latency settings in the Rig Kontrol 3 driver setup.

We recommend trying the first three latency presets first. If you have dropouts with the preset “minimal latency”, try the “low latency” or “standard latency” settings. The higher you set the audio buffersize, the smaller is the probability of audio dropouts.

The USB latency also has a direct impact on the audio buffer, as the audio buffer must be at least twice the USB latency. If you observe a high CPU usage on your computer when using a 1 ms USB buffer, you should also try a latency preset with a 2 ms USB latency (e.g. “medium latency” or “user defined settings”).

3.1.2 Using another Audio Interface
In case you want to use another audio interface, you need to choose this interface in the Audio Setup menu of Guitar Rig 3. Please do the following:


Note that you can not use the preamp of the Rig Kontrol 3 to boost the signal coming from your guitar when you chose to use another audio interface than the Rig Kontrol 3. You only can use the Rig Kontrol 3 as a hardware controller in this case.
If you are using another soundcard, you should plug the guitar into that soundcard (instrument input) instead and make sure that the outputs of that card are routed to your mixer/speakers.

3.2 Hardware Configuration

3.2.1 Calibrating the Rig Kontrol 3 within Guitar Rig 3
The first time you plug in your Rig Kontrol 3 a calibration dialog will open up. In case you cancelled it early or you experience any problems with the pedal calibration, go to the Options tab and Sub-tab Preferences and click on “Reset” to Reset Pedal Calibration. Follow the instructions that will pop-up.

The Controller switches and the pedal can now be assigned as explained in the manual.

3.2.2 Connecting the Rig Kontrol 3 to your audio equipment
Always use balanced cables whenever possible to connect the Rig Kontrol 3 to your external audio gear (hardware mixer, amplifier, etc.). This will avoid problems with ground loops/noise (see below).

3.2.3 Ground Loops (see as well Related Article Section below for more information on Ground Loops)
Ground loops are a common problem within any environment where multiple electrical devices are connected to the same power circuit. In complex setups the cause of the noise can be difficult to find. Ground loops are perceived usually as a hum or buzz in your audio signal, but this can also transmit and amplify other sounds from the devices connected to the circuit. For example, one very common problem is that you hear internal clicking sounds created by your computer.

The cause of the noise is usually the computer and its internal devices, or devices connected to the computer like external hard drives. (Note that even if the power supply of your laptop computer is not connected, your setup may still be vulnerable to ground noise from an external device with its own power supply.) The cause can also be any other device (such as a television) connected to the same mixer.
Furthermore guitar setups often include external equipment that comes in a metal box, e.g. effect pedals. Metal boxes are known to breed and amplify ground loops to a greater extent than external equipment that comes in a plastic box.

The reason why this noise is present at the monitor speakers input has to do with a loop in the setup of electrical and audio cable connections in your studio. Most likely this loop occurs through the ground of one or more of these cables. With this in mind, the following points should help to eliminate the ground loop:

Try to eliminate the loop
Assuming that you have connected the Rig Kontrol 3 to a mixer, a first troubleshooting step is to disconnect all devices from your mixer which you are not using currently. This applies also to other peripheral devices you may have connected to your computer (external data storage, CD burners).

Use balanced cables
Always use balanced audio cables if possible to connect the Rig Kontrol 3 to your mixer. As Rig Kontrol 3 serves as a DI Box, make sure that you only use balanced cables in the signal chain after the Rig Kontrol 3. As external equipment like effect pedals mostly use unbalanced in/outputs, please insert them prior to the Rig Kontrol 3 Inputs. If your mixer provides both, unbalanced and balanced inputs, avoid using the unbalanced inputs.

Break the loop (if necessary) with a DI box
If you cannot fix the ground noise problem by disconnecting equipment and using balanced cables, you still have the possibility of using a DI (direct input) box between the Rig Kontrol3 outputs and the mixer inputs. (This is the same kind of box that is used to connect a line-level instrument like a guitar). Most of these boxes have a ground lift switch on them, this can be used to break the ground loop and eliminate the noise.

A DI box is especially recommended if your mixer has unbalanced inputs only.

3.2.4 Humming
In case you experience a strong hum when using the guitar might have several reasons.


3.2.5 Tip for eliminating noise
By activating and adjusting the noise reduction function on the right side of the input component you might prevent noises that have their origin earlier in the chain (e.g. interferences with the guitars pick-up) from accumulating in Guitar Rig 3. The accumulation might happen in presets that use a lot of gain, distortion, delays and reverbs.

Furthermore some presets are made for certain types of pickups. Humbuckers e.g. have a higher output level than single-coil pickups. If you play a preset made for Humbucker equipped guitars with a guitar equipped with a single-coil pickup, you might leave room for noises to come along with your guitar signal. Change the presets settings, so that your guitar is amplified sufficiently.

3.2.6 No sound output
When you don’t get any sound output with Guitar Rig 3, please check the following:

- Make sure, that the Guitar Rig Audio Engine is not turned off. If you see CPU activity in the meter, then the engine is on. In case it indicates 0%, then you should activate the Guitar Rig engine by clicking on the CPU button at the top right corner of the interface.


- In case you use the Rig Kontrol 3 as your audio interface, please check if you chose the correct input in the interface input modul at the top of the rack. If you connect your guitar into Rig Kontrol 3 input 1, then you should press L. If you use input 2, then you should press R.
    
- Check for disconnected or broken cables

- A good overall check is to see if the tapedeck module produces output. Load an audio file into one of the Tapedecks and press play.

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4 Guitar Rig 3/Rig Kontrol 3 running on Notebooks

In general it is not recommended to use Notebooks with shared-memory graphic cards. A Shared-memory graphic card accesses to the same memory as the CPU. Other Graphic Cards have their own memory, so that the main memory is reserved to the processing of audio. You want memory and processing power available for your audio project.

4.1 Adjustments
It is not recommended to run the notebook on battery, as the clock rate of the CPU might be slowed down by the computer.

4.1.1 Notebook Check
First you should check if your computer is suited to handle real-time audio processing without occurrence of drop-outs. Drop-outs might be brought on by certain components of your computer. Please download a tool that scans your computer regarding suitability for audio processing: www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml
There is no Software installation required, just launch the tool after downloading.
With Rig Kontrol 3 disconnected the tool will report if your Notebook can handle real-time audio-streaming without drop-outs.

In case your Computer might not be able to handle glitch free audio processing, the tool will show you red latency bars and report you so in the box on the bottom. Run it with both settings – Rig Kontrol 3 disconnected and connected - to find out about your computers capacities. In case you receive a negative report, please try following (4.1.2) advices to improve your computer performance concerning audio processing.

4.1.2 Disable devices
Notebooks often are equipped with built-in devices that disturb audio processing, e.g. a wirelessLan card. In case you experience serious drop-outs, you might need to disable these devices while running Rig Kontrol 3.

To do so, please go to the device manager (Start>Run and type ‘devmgmt.msc’). You can disable a device, let’s say the network adapter, by clicking on network-adapter, then double click on the device to bring up the properties dialog. On the bottom of this pane you can disable the device via the Scroll-Down menu. Please deactivate it and hit “OK”.  You should see a red cross over the device, which means that it is deactivated.

Common built-in devices are: network adapter, wirelessLan cards, bluetooth ports, infrared ports, printer ports etc.. Try to disable the network adapter and wirelessLan card first, as they are the most common devices causing problems in audio processing. Make sure that you don’t disable devices that are indispensable for your notebook to work properly. Here is a list of devices that you should not deactivate: System timer, Keyboard ,System CMOS/real time clock, Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System, Numeric data processor, Primary IDE Channel, Secondary IDE Channel, Graphics Controller, Ultra ATA Storage Controllers.


Please check the Related Articles Section below for further help and information.