Native Instruments Guitar Rig Mobile review

The latest in the Guitar Rig line is a tiny package that packs a huge punch. It comprises the nifty Mobile I/O USB-powered audio interface and the cutdown Guitar Rig 3 LE software. Suffice to say that it's a great suite that puts some of the most universally useful gear from the full Guitar Rig 3 at your disposal.

The hardware can run at up to 24-bit/192kHz, and using it with an Intel Core 2 Duo laptop, we found an overall latency of 9ms to be suitable for running GR3 LE standalone without glitching (at 44.1kHz), although we had to raise the latency a touch for the HQ mode.

There's a 1/4-inch guitar input and a 1/4-inch stereo out to drive headphones or a line out - the guitar preamp is clean, if a touch on the bright side, and the output kicks out some solid bass. There are dials for the levels, and the Input LED turns red if you clip the signal.

This is a great package for anyone who's after an affordable 'way in' to the world of software amp modelling. And even if you eventually outgrow it (perhaps you'll invest in the full Guitar Rig 3 setup), you'd be wise to hang on to the pocket-sized Mobile I/O, for those mobile moments.