Where is Rig Kontrol now?

I recently purchased Komplete, coming from a more hardware based background. As my first instrument is guitar, I enjoy Guitar Rig very much. What a nice workflow to have all these sounds in the computer, and be able to get rid of a large amount of tangled cable spaghetti, just plug in and go.

So... now convinced that the way ahead for recording is to record dry and add all effects in the box using Guitar Rig, I nonetheless decided I needed Rig Kontrol, to play with the wahs in particular.

I found the price a bit steep for the specification quite frankly, with no mic preamps and not a lot of I/O (I mean, compare that to some Focusrite interfaces that have two preamps and ADAT etc). But it is unique in having the expression pedal and being fully integrated with Guitar Rig.

But NI have discontinued it!

Has anyone heard of a replacement?

This sucks. I guess there has to be a replacement in the pipeline, but investing in Komplete and not being able to add the accessory hardware so that Guitar Rig really makes sense, is a massive disappointment.

Come on NI gives us some hints please! It's perfectly normal for products to have a life cycle and get replaced. But where is the replacement? The software does not quite make sense without it... I mean... most of it is still usable, but how do I move that wah pedal with my touchpad while playing guitar???

 

Exactly, without the Rig Kontrol how are we supposed to use the volume pedal and the wah effects? what about the live view? is there any point to have it if we don't have its hardware counterpart? At least please let us know that there will be a new Rig Kontrol so that we don't invest money in a generic midi controller.

 

In all honesty it's probably a lot more flexible if one uses a generic MIDI controller.

 

But I don't want to use a generic MIDI controller. I have a Mackie Control, an SSL Nucleus, but I want a handy little pedally thing to leave under the desk and use on my travels with a Macbook, and there is this little icon in Guitar Rig that represents the Rig Kontrol, I want to see how that works. Ok... I also do tech support for pro audio, and I don't want to waste time setting up controllers when it's my turn to make music.

Logically, the next move for NI would be a controller that uses ethernet MIDI, but they should show us some hints. Don't want to get a second hand RK3 and regret it when they launch a replacement... if they do.

 

Sure you can wait. But you can also buy a used Rig Kontrol off Ebay, I got mine for $89.00 about a year ago. Even if NI comes out with a new model it will be fairly pricey, if it has features you want get one. But I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for NI to come out with anythig soon.

I just recently bought a used FCB1010 midi foot controller and installed the UNO chip so I can use the top row of pedals as stomp boxes. It was a little bit of a pain to set up but once I got it configured it works great. There are tons of resources the FCB1010 Yahoo forum on
how to set it up

I use both the FCB1010 and Rig Kontrol together. I use the FCB1010 to control banks, presets, Wah and Volume pedals. I use the Kontrol Rig as my audio interface and to turn on the loop machine and tape decks. I love it. I can control everthing without taking my hands off my guitar.

 

Thanks Gunner and all.

Finally... I did exactly that, got a Rig Kontrol 3 off eBay. Should be here on Monday. It took a while to get one that didn't look battered and was on BuyItNow, and it was £170. The software is said to be included, should mean I get the license, might be able to sell that as I have one already as part of Komplete.

Now I hope it agrees with the temperamental USB on my Mac.

 

Weird, Thomann is advertising "Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5 Pro Kontrol", meaning the software WITH the controller, and specifying "shipment due to arrive on 21.03.2014".

When I phoned NI I was told it was discontinued... so apparently there was stock.

Or perhaps Thomann held on to it, thinking rarity will make it sell easily?

Price is EUR 298, GBP 244.67 which seems fair.

All correct at time of posting:
http://www.thomann.de/gb/native_instruments_guitar_rig_5_kontrol.htm

 

Thanks for letting know about this

 

Several months late to this conversation but as the NI Foot Kontroller appears to have disappeared I'm looking at using a generic midi midle as you suggest. I looked at the Behringer FCB1010 and a few others but they appear to only have midi cable connections, not USB. How do I connect it to my laptop? Do I need an additional inteface?

 

There are cheap MIDI-to-USB cables that will do the job just fine, see eBay.

 

EvilDragon is correct. I picked up a cheap USB to midi cable for 5 bucks off Amazon, works great. Tip: If it doesn't appear to work, try reversing the midi in and midi out cables. I marked mine with tape so I can tell which is which. I would highly recommend buying FCB1010 Midi editing software like FCB Control Center or IFCB. It makes it easy to program. Otherwise you are doing a "river dance" to program the thing. I would also recommend upgrading your FCB1010 with the UNO Chip. With the stomp box feature you really don't need the Kontrol Rig. As long as you have a USB audio interface you can connect your Guitar to your PC. I use the FCB upper row to control effects in a patch and the bottom row to change between patches. I mainly use my Kontrol Rig foot switches to turn on the looper and playback.

 

Thanks for the heads up guys. Appreciate the quick repsonse. Looks like I'm off to ebay.

 

this is all very unfortunate, i was just really starting to build musical projects in the past two years with important tasks all mapped to the rig kontrol. so ok if it is FCB1010 - what do i do if commonly use / have lots of patches set up with three pedals and one extra on/off switch? (the one on the rig kontrol plus two on the expression pedal inputs, the swith in the midi-in). does not look like the behringer has enough inputs for extra controllers! THX everyone for your advice...

 

There's also ones with usb ports like Logidy UMI3: http://www.amazon.com/Logidy-UMI3-MIDI-over-Controller/dp/B002YL81RW and Icon G-Board: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...oard_black_g_board_mini_usb.html/prm/alsVwDtl

 

line 6 fbv mkii is what I use, check out my utube channel to set it up

 

It sucks that Rig Kontrol is discontinued. Seems to me as a big mistake

 

i feel frustrated, yet at the same time also naive to have trusted NI that this is a long term solution, with updates, improvements etc.

A NEW PRODUCT IS...

1. introduced as state of the art, future of sound, specially priced etc.

2. continued as long as the sales curve is ok and as long as some expert in a monthly meeting maintains that a product line is worth of keeping and updating

3. simply discontinued once market & technological changes would demand investment under with a dropping sales curve

this was the first time i put everything on one card in terms of digital tech. in the future i will take special care to observe how continuos a manufacturer is supporting their gear and software. in particular, i caught myself wondering whether it would not have been much better to find solutions for my work with logic...

 

I absolutely agree with you in everything that you've said.
The best product on the market for the demanded need that got forgotten.
This just became a classic example of bad marketing.

I'm adding that there are (were) many alternative ways/updates which could make the product demanded again. You just have to follow the market and see what kinds of problems different kinds of people have with alternatives to Rig Kontrol and why they don't like them, and then what do alternatives have but Rig doesn't, also, see what people would expect out of Rig Kontrol for their money, etc. Simple qualitative or quantitative consumer and market research does 90% of the marketing job. Professional research, research, research... And then quality control, user feedback, community management..

Here's some user feedback. Since, I liked NI so far as until now when I found out that they removed Rig Kontrol.
I love the Rig Kontrol, I love the way it works with Guitar Rig. I don't need an additional entry level sound card. I can hook it up on any computer (I don't have to worry about the quality of the sound processor on the computer if it's too much for me to carry my computer). It's attachable to any laptop, say a friends, if he/she is bringing it to a gig or a session. I get the sound I want whenever and wherever I want.
The trouble is that Guitar Rig is not cloud based, so installing it on another computer and setting up my presets takes time (hint: make Guitar Rig install and personal presets cloud based, that way Rig Kontrol gets to be really movable; this is a usefull idea for all NI products; you get the products protected from piracy and you get rid of HDD's for Komplete, in other words you get more money earned and higher budgets for development). It works with any DAW or OS (message is: don't lose that all around OS support).

For me Rig Kontrol is the best thing, and far better than having a processor from any of the competitors (competitors are too slow with software and their software is lower quality than Guitar Rig, Guitar Rig has better interface, with Rig Kontrol it's a perfect match etc.) and it's definitely better than having a 100+ stomp boxes (a waste of time for setting up; this way i plug myself and i can focus on playing, composing, producing instead of wasting hours on configuring everything, I can configure it once and forget about it).

Small/cheap USB to Guitar solutions are just low quality with all sorts of driver issues.
Midi adapters and pedals. Don't want to waste time setting up those. +I don't like having millions of cables. I want my stuff easily moveable (e.g. if you are a musician with a kid in the house, you'd appreciate this; 'for a professional musician in a family'). Make Rig Kontrol completely wireless? No one has a cableless solution on the market for this segment..

At least, don't forget your customers - do not drop the support for Rig Kontrol in the future Guitar Rig releases. I'd definitely stop buying anything from NI ever if they'd burn me this way.

NI, make us proud to be your customers.
Cheers to all the guitarists and guitar lovers!

 

Guitar Wing is a great addition to Guitar Rig, you can do wireless control easily!

http://lividinstruments.com/products/guitar-wing/

 

This looks fantastic, haven't seen this before, tnx!