Big Fish Audio RiG: Urban Workstation
This 26GB Kontakt 4-powered virtual instrument includes 17 workstation-style categories, with over 1200 patches covering everything from beats, drums, bass and guitars to strings, synths, vocals and brass.
The interface includes up to five tabbed pages: effects, step (ie, automated) effects, amplitude envelope, legato and microtuning. It's here that you'll also find the arpeggiator.
"56 orchestral hit patches is fine for a specific old-school vibe."
At times, RiG feels totally on the money, and both the step effects and the sliced patches (loops, drums and percussion) with per-slice options for volume, pitch, reverse, attack, decay, cutoff and resonance allow quick creative control.
However, sometimes it really misses the mark, such as with the 56 orchestral hit patches, each featuring one sample mapped across the full key range - that's fine for a specific old-school vibe, but we missed some decent multi-samples.
MusicRadar Rating
Pros
Step effects. Sliced patches enable quick creative control. Over 1200 patches.
Cons
No decent multi-samples. Onboard effects could be incorporated better. Not a lot of 'urban' sounds.
Verdict
Overall, we feel that the patches could incorporate the onboard effects better, and with the exception of the drum sounds and synth patches, there's little here that's explicitly 'urban'. Even so, the underlying sample set is pretty good.
Review Policy
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Specification
Description
Virtual instrument for urban music sounds
Additional Requirements
RiG is powered by the Kontakt 4 engine. It's compatible with VST, AudioUnit and RTAS (Pro Tools 8 & 9) plug-in formats, allowing it to work seamlessly within any major sequencer or on its own
Min Processor Speed (GHz)
1.66
OS Requirements
Apple Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later Microsoft Windows XP or later
Platform
PC or Mac
Processor Type Required
AMD 64-Class Athlon Intel Core Duo Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent
RAM Recommended (GB)
2
Required Hard Disk Space (MB)
15
