Big Fish Audio RiG: Urban Workstation review

By Computer Music
published
Urban music sounds on one virtual instrument

MusicRadar 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.

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.

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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.

Computer Music
Computer Music

Computer Music magazine is the world’s best selling publication dedicated solely to making great music with your Mac or PC computer. Each issue it brings its lucky readers the best in cutting-edge tutorials, need-to-know, expert software reviews and even all the tools you actually need to make great music today, courtesy of our legendary CM Plugin Suite.