How would you sell guitar amp and effects software? In the fall, we watched IK Multimedia resort to the usual, sexist approach: hire a supermodel and make some pun on amp “modeling.”


Native Instruments is taking a different approach, showing different ways conventional amps can kill you. Not since the Spinal Tap drummers has on-screen rocker mortality been this high. I suppose that’s one way to deal with people’s fear of computers for music: remind them why they should be scared of everything else.


Oh, in other news, Guitar Rig 2 is hitting stores right now. (See past coverage. Rival AmpliTube 2 is due in stores in February. Waves GTR, the new entry from a respected plug-in developer, and Line6 TonePort, are also out. So if you’ve been waiting to pick up a computer guitar interface with amp models and effects, now could be the time, since the competition is thicker than ever. And now that you see what might happen to you if you don’t.