Big Fish Audio | Music Tech Magazine | RiG: Urban Workstation Product Review
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RiG: Urban Workstation | Music Tech Magazine

Rating: 9/10 Stars Back to RiG: Urban Workstation product details

We can weary of urban samples packs because their quantity is high and quality often low. But our ears pricked up when we heard that Big Fish Audio had joined forces with Vir2 to create this massive 26GB library with a custom Kontakt interface.

Although RiG comes on two DVDs, the large amount of content is thankfully reduced to a manageable 15GB via Kontakt's own losstess file compression. tn total there are over 400 instruments, 1,200 patches and 700 loops, which cover every conceivable base that a producer of urban music could desire. There are acoustic basses, electric basses, synth basses, synth leads, pads and arpeggios, guitars, strings, organs, ethnic instruments, pianos, keys. percussion. horns, orchestral hits. vocals and FX.  And that's before you get to the huge library of drum hits and loops in pop, acoustic, hip hop and R&B styles.

The sound quality and production are excellent. with stacks of radio ready sounds that will easily slot into your mix. Particular mention should be made of the large amount of varied drum loops, the massive-sounding orchestral hits and the well-recorded and plentiful- if a little cliched - vocal hooks. One of the main things that makes RiG stand out is how the inner workings of Kontakt have been offered up in a way that's easy to understand and edit. The synth arps section gets its own arpeggiator controls that enable you to sequence different parameters with ease, while the drum. percussion and instrument loops have a custom loop editor for manipulating slices. Although such things will be familiar to anyone who has worked with Kontakt, it's nice to see them presented so well in a custom interface.

Whether you find RiG a useful purchase will largely depend on your current library of sounds. Many of the more standard instruments are good but not stunning. and you may already have patches that you are happy with.  However, the sheer number and quality of the loops and additional sounds mean you're almost certain to find material here to inspire.

MTM Verdict

A huge library of well-produced instruments, loops and hits with quick editing via a tasty custom Kontakt interface.

9/10 stars

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