Features include manual or auto release, manual makeup gain and a dedicated gain reduction meter. The remaining plug-in is Solid Bus Compressor, which models the ever-popular SSL-style VCA mix bus compressor, and features individual ratio, attack, release and threshold settings. The Guitar Rig shell enables you to put them in the signal order you wish, although other flexibilities from a real SSL channel strip such as putting the filters on the input input or EQing the sidechain are less easy to replicate. Solid Dynamics and Solid EQ effectively provide you with most of the important sound-shaping elements of an SSL channel strip. As ever, the method by which you access sidechain functionality will be specific to your DAW. The foldaway Expert tab once again includes a few presets, as well as input boost (+10dB), stereo linking, wet and dry level faders and a sidechain switch. Rounding things off are a pair of gain reduction meters. The compressor always operates with automatic makeup gain.įor the gate, there's a fast attack option (100 rather than 1.5ms) and you can switch between gate and expander ratios. Each is a simple three-knob design with threshold, release and ratio (compressor) or range (gate).Ĭompression options include soft or hard knee, slow or fast attack (30ms or 3ms) and linear or logarithmic release curve. Solid Dynamics combines a compressor and a gate/expander. The filters are hidden in the foldaway tab at the bottom, along with preset management and factory presets. You can switch between the E- and G-type EQ curves, and you get +/- 20dB gain on the four main bands (a couple more dB than a real SSL). Solid EQ is a six-band design with two fully parametric midrange bands, high and low shelves with individual bell shape option, and high- and low-pass filters. The Guitar Rig shell can run as a VST, AU or RTAS plug-in, and even standalone. Like NI's other studio effects, they have to be used within either the free Guitar Rig 5 Player or Guitar Rig 5 Pro, if you own it. NI's plug-ins are Solid Dynamics, Solid EQ and Solid Bus Compressor, and they're available singly (€99 each) or in the more competitively priced bundle that we're reviewing here. Understandably, the G EQ is viewed as more musical, while the E EQ is better suited to surgical tasks. In contrast, the G Series bandwidth is affected by gain, having the same sharp width as the E Series at the maximum, but becoming gradually broader as gain reduces. For a selected Q setting, the E Series has a constant bandwidth at all gains, so it can be quite precise at low gain.

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