What's new in RigSculpt 1.03

RigSculpt 1.03b: many RigSculpt tracks in one DAW

RigSculpt 1.03b (RigSculpt Artificer 0.110.207, for Windows, macOS and Linux) is a small update for sessions that run many RigSculpt tracks at once. It changes how the plug-in shares the processor with your DAW; it changes no sound. Every factory preset renders bit for bit as in 1.03, and RigSculpt Workshop is unchanged (1.03, build 1.1.201).

The convolution reverb no longer drops out. CONV renders its tail on a helper thread one step ahead of the audio. When a DAW renders many tracks ahead of playback, that helper could fall behind; the reverb then went silent for a moment and played late until the next reset. Now, when the helper has not finished a block in time, the audio thread finishes that block itself, so the reverb is never silent and never late. A late helper is counted on the reverb status line ("worker late 12 times, covered") and in the bug report.

Amp B no longer waits for a helper that could not start. In a stereo rig, amp B runs on a helper thread beside amp A. If that helper has not started by the time amp A is done, the audio thread runs amp B itself instead of waiting for it.

The track you play keeps the real-time places. Windows allows a process a limited number of real-time audio threads. RigSculpt used to claim a place for every helper thread as soon as it started, including threads that stay parked, so in a session with many tracks the threads that mattered lost their places. Now each RigSculpt instance tells whether your DAW plays it live or renders it ahead of playback, from the project position the DAW gives it: an instance more than a few blocks ahead of the track that trails the others is being rendered ahead. The helper threads of an instance rendered ahead give their places back and run at an ordinary high priority; the helper threads of the track you play keep theirs, and take them again within seconds if they ever could not. A change of decision is confirmed over a few seconds, so a loop point or a jump in the timeline does not unsettle the track you play. In a DAW that renders nothing ahead, every instance counts as live, as before. The ARTIFICER helper threads, when chosen, follow the same rule. On macOS and Linux there are no such places to share: a helper thread takes a high scheduling class at its start (on Linux, where your limits allow it), and each instance tells a track rendered ahead from the track you play in the same way.

MULTI-CORE. AUTO, the default, lets each RigSculpt instance use its helper threads for the stereo pair and for NAM oversampling. OFF runs both on your DAW audio thread. The sound is the same either way. The choice is remembered on this computer and applies to every RigSculpt instance in the DAW.

NAM OVERSAMPLING, per instance or shared. The NAM oversampling factor and its anti-alias filter have always been a setting of each RigSculpt instance; a new instance starts from your last choice. With NAM OVERSAMPLING set to SHARED, a change in any instance reaches every RigSculpt instance in the DAW at once, with the same short dip in the sound of the amp that a direct change has, so one move sets every track. PER INSTANCE, the default, keeps the setting of each instance. The choice is remembered on this computer.

A reloaded project or a duplicated track plays again in every DAW. After a project was saved and reloaded, or a track with RigSculpt was duplicated, some DAWs heard only the unprocessed signal and no control had any effect until the instance was replaced. The plug-in reported the end of its saved state a little short, and the bytes after that point read as a bypass switch set to on; a DAW that writes the parameter list back after loading then bypassed the plug-in. The saved state now reports its true end, and the bypass switch is read only from a plain on or off. Projects saved by earlier versions load correctly.

Fewer idle threads. Each instance keeps eight threads for its Workshop connection instead of one for every processor thread, and a reverb held ready in the cache holds no thread.

Report a bug carries one more line: the instances in the DAW and how many of them the DAW renders ahead, their helper threads, the work those threads ran and how long the audio thread waited for them, the late-helper counts of the reverbs, the real-time places that could not be taken and the NAM OVERSAMPLING choice.

Find it: The MULTI-CORE row sits under ARTIFICER THREADING on the Settings > Performance page, with NAM OVERSAMPLING (PER INSTANCE or SHARED) beside it. The reverb status line shows the late-helper count.

What was measured. On a twelve-core computer with twenty stereo NAM tracks, each with a convolution reverb, a test host that renders tracks ahead the way a DAW does showed the reverb dropping out in every track on 1.03 and in none on 1.03b. In PERFORMANCE the track played live ended 0 to 5 of 22,500 blocks late on 1.03b against 1 and 213 on 1.03. In STUDIO with no oversampling, 1.03 ended between 136 and 232 blocks a whole block late in three runs out of five, which a DAW plays as dropouts; 1.03b never ended a block a whole block late in any run. With 8x oversampling and four such tracks, 47 late blocks against 124. The live track kept its real-time places whatever the order the tracks were created in, and the shared oversampling setting was tried across three instances in the same host. Sessions far beyond the machine, such as sixteen tracks at 8x on that computer, stay beyond it on every version. On a ten-core Apple Silicon laptop, the same test with twelve and with twenty such tracks rendered the live track byte for byte as it renders alone, with no block a whole buffer late, and the factory presets render bit for bit as the macOS 1.03.

Play a real cabinet with more body and response

I wanted a sound I enjoyed through headphones to feel as satisfying through my power amp and real cabinet. Before blaming the NAM, I checked my reamp chain against the real amp and repeated the comparison with the real amp feeding a load box, then the solid-state power amp and cabinet. I heard the same stiffness without a NAM involved. Power Amp Conditioner grew from listening to what I missed in that setup and trying to bring some of that body and response back.

POWER AMP CONDITIONER adds a broad low-end lift around 110 Hz with a gentle reduction through the mids and top. As the amp signal rises toward its level reference, the whole shape eases back toward flat. Softer passages receive more body; louder passages receive less added weight. This is a musical voicing chosen by playing and comparison, not a measurement of your power amp or cabinet. It adds no second power stage, sag model or top-end boost.

Find it: The sidebar has a separate conditioner ON/OFF switch. Click the small power-amp picture or its name to open TUNE. The CABINET SEND button below Master, also reached from OUT on the signal strip, brings the cabinet feed and conditioner output choices together.

Start with ON and the recommended sound. In TUNE, AMOUNT reduces the strength of the recommended sound; 100% gives the full effect. TRIM helps match ON and OFF by ear. Optional LEARN LEVEL listens to three seconds of your loudest normal playing and then holds that reference. It adjusts where the response eases back, rather than changing your volume or measuring the hardware. With two amps it reads the louder one. The factory reference is ready to use without learning.

USE RECOMMENDED SETTING returns AMOUNT to 100% and TRIM to 0 dB when those values have changed. It keeps your learned reference, output selections and ON/OFF choice. Select only the outputs you want to condition: MAIN and SEND 1 in the plug-in, or MAIN and SEND 1 through SEND 4 in the standalone. Selecting an output does not enable a send or assign its device channels.

CABINET SEND 1 supplies the fixed rig without cabinet IR processing, while MAIN keeps the cabinet sound for headphones or recording. Send level is independent of Master. Choose MONO for a single cabinet feed with its own mono effects after the amp, and assign SEND 1 to the desired hardware output in the standalone audio settings or your DAW. The format switch alone does not select that output. Both the send and conditioner start OFF in a fresh setup; send format starts STEREO.

In FLEX, use its own SEND blocks. COPY FIXED brings an enabled cabinet send across with its level and format. Place a cabinet feed before CAB IR, choose AT OUT, and leave CAB IR out of THE SEND HEARS. The fixed cabinet shortcut is inactive in FLEX. The shared looper stays on MAIN, and the separate post-amp effects for a cabinet feed need additional processing.

By default, both utilities stay with your setup while you browse presets and snapshots. In Settings > Workflow > RECALL, CABINET SEND and CONDITIONER have separate KEEP WITH SETUP / FOLLOW PRESETS choices. Saved projects and standalone sessions still restore their own settings. FLEX SEND blocks belong to the saved board.

Leave cabinet IRs out of a route feeding a real cabinet; keep them for headphones or full-range speakers. Compare the conditioner at similar loudness and leave output headroom. It shapes the finished output, including tails, without adding reported latency, and is not an output limiter.

Set up the cabinet feed and conditioner

Give two amps a little space around one performance

I wanted the separation of two amps without a constant chorus wobble on held notes. DOUBLE TRACK keeps amp A in place and plays the finished sound from B a little behind it. VOICE B changes what enters the second amp before it distorts, so the two sides can break up differently as well as sit apart in time. It is still one performance, not a second recorded take.

Find it: Open DOUBLE TRACK on the amp page, or with its button in CHAIN VIEW, where the drawer opens under the button. With one amp, turning it on in the fixed rig makes a matching second NAM or Artificer amp. An existing stereo pair keeps both chosen amps. Keep STEREO IN off. The drawer explains when the rig cannot use it.

If Double Track made a second amp for you, switching it off in the panel returns to one amp when the route can be restored safely. An existing stereo pair stays stereo, and so does a pair once you load your own NAM into amp B. Choose MAKE STEREO in CHAIN VIEW to keep a new pair intentionally. The fixed rig keeps B available; FLEX offers UNDO if you want the removed pair back.

• POCKET sets B's delay from 8 to 24 ms. Start at 12 ms.
• VOICE B makes B's input fuller or brighter. This can change how that amp distorts, not just its final EQ.
• WIDTH moves the pans apart or together around their existing midpoint. Hold MONO CHECK to hear the live main output folded to mono.
• VARY can change the spacing between picked notes. AUTO TIGHT can bring B closer during faster picking. Both start off; neither continuously sweeps the delay like a chorus.

In the fixed rig, VARY and AUTO TIGHT look for suitable moments between picked notes to change the spacing. AUTO TIGHT can bring B closer during faster picking. When the signal leaves too little room, the timing stays put. A ringing high-gain sound may leave these options little to do, especially with a short POCKET. Start with fixed timing, then try each option separately.

In FLEX, open DOUBLE TRACK and switch it on to make a compatible pair, or use COPY FIXED to bring one across. POCKET, VOICE B, WIDTH and MONO CHECK share one panel, without separate timing and input-shaping cards. FLEX uses fixed timing; VARY and AUTO TIGHT remain in the fixed rig. Copied pairs, older saved pairs and pairs with added routing stay stereo when Double Track is off. Its MIDI targets are marked (fixed rig) and act on the fixed rig. The fixed rig and FLEX share NAM slot B: when it holds a different NAM, Double Track and MAKE STEREO leave it in place and say how to pair instead. The guide explains these cases and the NAM slot requirements.

CHAIN VIEW also has MAKE STEREO for a matching second NAM or Artificer amp, independent of Double Track. BUILD STEREO remains the measured NAM-partner search. RIG FIT is available in CHAIN too. In FLEX it adjusts eligible delay tone, ducking and mix, plus reverb mix, decay, predelay and filters, from the NAMs actually feeding them. It then offers MAIN level setting while you play. It leaves DRIVE, compression, delay timing and feedback, amp settings and unsupported routes alone. Read its report for what changed.

Set up Double Track and check the mono balance

Let your playing shape the movement

I wanted more to play with than the speed of a repeating sweep. Siren is a phaser that sweeps notches through the tone; Maelstrom is a flanger that blends your sound with a short moving delay. Both let the accents in your picking move them. Try a held chord, then compare even picking with stronger accents.

Find it: Open PHASER or FLANGER on the signal strip for the MOTION page.

• SIREN: Vocal sweeps two notches across up to five octaves, Wide sweeps four, and Cross moves two groups of notches in opposite directions. Keep RATE and MIX the same while changing voices to hear the different shapes of movement.
• MAELSTROM: It blends the original sound with a very short moving delay, for a sweeping comb of evenly spaced notches. Glass is clean and wide, Hollow reaches longer delays with a darker tone, and Metal is short, with a metallic ring as RESONANCE rises. THRU-ZERO lets the moving copy pass the original in time, as two tape machines do; Inv reverses the moving copy for a deeper dip as they cross.
• TOUCH: Each pick can move either pedal alongside the regular sweep, and an accent moves it further than even picking. Positive values push the sweep up and negative values pull it down. Set DEPTH to zero for movement from your playing alone. TOUCH listens to your guitar wherever the pedal sits, so a driven amp does not soften its response.
• SHAPE: Sine lingers at the top and bottom of the sweep, Tri sweeps evenly and turns sharply, and Glide is Tri with softer turns. To compare the shapes, keep RATE, DEPTH and MIX the same and listen through several whole sweeps. A slow rate and a broad sweep make the turns easier to hear. A new Siren starts on Sine and a new Maelstrom on Tri.
• Sync: While your DAW plays, the sweep stays on the bar, one sweep per division, and follows within about 20 ms when you move the playhead. Stopped, it runs free at the tempo.

New fixed rigs and the bundled factory presets start with both pedals off. Newly added FLEX blocks are enabled. New pedals start at 0.20 Hz, 70% DEPTH, 30% TOUCH, 30% MIX and 60% SPREAD. SPREAD offsets the left and right movement in stereo and has no effect when the pedal processes mono. Folding stereo down to mono can still change the tone.

While THRU-ZERO is on, Maelstrom delays its dry sound by 1 ms so the moving copy can pass it. RigSculpt reports that 1 ms to your DAW, the LATENCY readout lists it under MAELSTROM, and on a FLEX board the other lanes wait for it. Switching THRU-ZERO fades the pedal out and back in.

Drag VIBE, CHORUS, PHASER and FLANGER on the signal strip to change their order. Drag across AMP to move a pedal between Preamp and FX Loop. A running Siren or Maelstrom fades out and back in when its order or placement changes. Before the amp, the effect changes what drives the distortion; FX Loop shapes the sound after the cabinet. In FLEX, add independent instances wherever the rig needs them; COPY FIXED carries the fixed modulation order and settings across.

SPREAD is unavailable and marked Spread (mono) when the pedal processes mono; its saved value returns in stereo. In FLEX, MIDI can switch each Siren or Maelstrom block on or off, move its seven knobs and switch Sync. Targets marked (fixed rig) address the pedals in RIG VIEW and the fixed chain, including SHAPE and THRU-ZERO.

Try the voices, placement and touch response

See which frequencies are standing out

When a note rings sharply or a chord feels crowded, the EQ curve alone cannot show where that energy is. PARAMETRIC EQ now draws a live spectrum behind the bands, so you can relate what you hear to a frequency before changing it.

The display follows the EQ you are editing: RIG, AMP A, AMP B or the selected FLEX EQ block. It shows the signal after that EQ, not the final output of the entire rig. RIG is after the amp mix and before the cabinets. The EQ curve uses the left gain scale; the signal has its own right-hand dBFS scale.

SPECTRUM switches the display on or off. HOLD freezes the picture while you keep hearing the live sound. Hover to inspect a frequency and use the peak readout as a starting point for listening. A tall peak can be the note you meant to play; the display does not decide what needs cutting. These display controls leave the audio and saved EQ settings alone.

Read the spectrum and shape an EQ band

Keep the useful controls in reach and make the amp your own

This update includes interface improvements across the rig and more consistency between RIG, FIXED and FLEX views.

I want the rig to be easy to recognize at a glance, with room to make it feel like yours. The pickup families now have individual illustrations in the sidebar, alongside their source and target names. Switch the revoicer ON or OFF there; click either pickup to open its full controls. In FLEX, a missing PICKUP block is shown as NOT IN FLEX, so the sidebar does not imply that it is processing your guitar.

The sidebar groups input tools, output controls and SYNERGIZE information. Cabinet send and conditioner each have their own entry. Settings > Workflow now has four groups: BROWSING & PREFERENCES, MODEL & EFFECT BEHAVIOR, RECALL and MIDI & TAILS. The two recall controls use matching KEEP WITH SETUP / FOLLOW PRESETS buttons.

The amp heads, cabinet enclosures, handles, knobs, switches, faders and effect housings share a more consistent physical finish, while the individual amp artwork stays. RIG VIEW places the head on its cabinet; CHAIN VIEW uses matching head and cabinet inspectors. The cabinet fronts have larger, closely spaced speakers. These pictures describe the rig visually; they do not change a cabinet IR or the amp sound.

Neural and Artificer cabinets have new grille artwork, with charcoal, tobacco and silver finishes for Artificer and a refreshed CAB LAYERS grille.

In DESIGNER > APPEARANCE > FINISH & KNOBS > KNOBS, six shapes join the existing choices: SKIRTED BLACK, FLUTED IVORY, DOMED NICKEL, TOP HAT AMBER, FACETED GRAPHITE and DISH PEWTER. All thirteen knob bodies have revised materials and lighting. Your choice follows the saved amp design and leaves the sound unchanged.

The CHAIN symbols have also been reviewed for what each block does. Revised noise-control, compressor, modulation and pitch symbols share a consistent drawing style, helping you tell neighboring blocks apart without adding detail to a small button.

Explore an amp and its appearance choices

Leave more processing room for the rest of your rig

The Artificer amps need less processor time. At FULL quality, which 0.99.2 called Studio, the measured reduction was 30 to 50 percent on the test computer, with ARTIFICER THREADING off. Your result depends on your system.

This work keeps the existing amp sound, apart from the fixes below. With threading off, the Artificer comparisons match 0.99.2 within the last bits of the arithmetic. NAM amps are unchanged apart from those fixes.

Choose quality and performance settings for your computer

Change Artificer quality without reopening the plug-in

Find it: Settings > Performance > ARTIFICER.

Choose BALANCED, FULL or ULTRA while you play. The amp briefly dips and returns at the new quality. The caption shows what is playing and when a change is waiting for audio to run. FLEX Artificer blocks follow the choice too.

BALANCED is the default, with 4x oversampling at 44.1 and 48 kHz. FULL doubles that, and ULTRA doubles it again. Higher steps use more processor time and may change the tone a little. The factors fall at higher session sample rates; the caption shows the factor in use.

Your saved choice keeps its sound: Performance is now called BALANCED and Studio is FULL. The window stays responsive while the next quality is prepared, although a FLEX board can still pause briefly while its amps change.

Read about the quality choices

Choose how the Artificer amps use your processor

Find it: Settings > Performance > ARTIFICER THREADING. OFF is the default.

• OFF adds no threading delay.
• PIPELINED shares each amp's work with another processor thread and adds 16 samples, about a third of a millisecond at 48 kHz.
• OFFLOADED moves the AMP page's amps to another thread and adds one buffer, from 64 to 512 samples. FLEX Artificer blocks stay on the audio thread in this mode.

Your DAW compensates for the added delay on playback. It remains part of the delay you hear while playing live. These choices can lower the DAW's plug-in meter, but the work moved to another thread still uses your processor.

At PIPELINED, Pinnacle, Sterling, Lancer, Obsidian and Scorch produce the same output as OFF, 16 samples later. The other amps can differ at very low levels. This is a setting for your computer, shared by its RigSculpt instances, rather than a preset setting.

Read the threading choices and their tradeoffs

See the delay in your rig and restart playback sooner

Find it: Settings > Setup & display > LATENCY, or click PDC below the maker logo.

The readout shows the delay reported to your DAW, in samples and milliseconds, and the parts of the rig that contribute. In FLEX, it follows the lane that sets the board's delay. PDC turns amber when that total exceeds one audio buffer.

Latency reporting is corrected for several oversampling, model sample-rate and graphics-card fallback cases. This helps your DAW align tracks and keeps parallel FLEX paths in time. Intentional effects such as echoes, flanging and Double Track keep their musical timing. Maelstrom with THRU-ZERO on is the exception: it delays its dry sound by 1 ms, which is reported and listed in the readout.

Playback also gets ready sooner when a DAW stops and restarts audio. On the test computer, preparation for a stereo NAM instance fell from about a tenth of a second to about 10 ms. The restart comparisons are sample-identical. Some less common NAM types still take the earlier preparation path.

Find the latency readout

A rig starts and stops cleanly, and other fixes

• With GAIN at 0, Scorch, Obsidian and Lancer with RECOVERY on FOLLOWER could add a faint crackle over quiet passages as a note died away. The same cause made a rare, quieter tick at other GAIN settings. Both are gone. The crackle had been there since those stages were first modelled.
• When you open a project, a rig with an Artificer amp now starts at its saved settings from the first sample. Before, the dry guitar could be mixed into the first 60 ms, and the amp could ease in from its default settings over a fraction of a second, sometimes louder than it should be.
• An Artificer block in FLEX starts at its saved design in the same way.
• In a stereo rig with Artificer amps, amp B starts at full level when a project opens. Before, it faded in over its first 40 ms.
• The Output EQ's loudness hold, TAME, and SYNERGIZE's drive trims and loudness compensation no longer change the level or tone of an Artificer amp; they shape NAM amps only, and they come back when you switch to NAM amps. A stereo pair of Artificer amps with SYNERGIZE on now plays as it does with SYNERGIZE off, so it may sit at a different balance than before.
• After you stop and start playback, the cab, the noise gates, the graphic EQ and the output stage start clean, so nothing from before the stop carries into the restart. The noise filter keeps its learned profile.
• Some DAWs, on some settings, hand the plug-in a larger block of audio than they announced. A rig with a NAM amp could crash the DAW then. RigSculpt now plays such a block in parts.
• RELIQUARY in CONV mode could, by chance, start its reverb about 5 ms early when it came on, after a stop or when you switched it on, and keep that offset until it next came on. An export right after a stop and a reload could carry the offset all the way through. It now starts at the same moment every time, live and in an export.
• A board made with COPY FIXED now plays at the fixed rig's level. Before, it could play 2 to 3 dB louder: a switched-off delay or reverb that holds the rig's level was left behind, and so were an Artificer pair's output levels.
• In FLEX, loading a second NAM to make a pair now switches the rig to stereo, as it does in the fixed rig, so SYNERGIZE works on that board. Before, its switch turned on and did nothing.
• A project that opens with RigSculpt's window closed now sounds the same as with the window open. Before, a NAM rig with a shaped Output EQ could play up to about 1.7 dB louder or quieter, with a small change of tone, until you opened the window, and an export made without opening it kept that difference. The same holds for the ASCENT and SOLACE reverbs, which take part of their voicing from the NAM in amp A. The Drifting Ambient Wash Artificer preset also recalls its reverb the same way with the window open or closed.
• Switching AMP STEREO on or off now lays out the page for the new mode at once, and it no longer resets the Ø keys of both cabs.
• In the standalone app, a routed SEND now stays silent until you confirm your audio devices and follows the mute command. Before, on Windows and macOS, it could play before the confirmation and keep playing after you muted the output.
• The confirmation in the standalone app now names the channels in use, including SEND and RETURN routes, so moving a route asks again; if you use routes, it asks once after you update. A different device stays muted until you close the audio settings and confirm it. On Windows, changing only the buffer size or sample rate brings the sound back with a short fade while the settings stay open, and the title bar says when the output is held.
• With Output 1 and Output 2 on the same channel, the standalone now plays both sides there instead of only the right side. On Linux, Mute output now fades instead of cutting off at once. If an audio interface stops responding, RigSculpt stops waiting for the final audio callback after two seconds and proceeds to close it.

A mouse move as a popup menu closed could crash the host. That path is fixed, and saved states with unreadable version information are refused cleanly.

Finding files and getting help.

• Windows hover help now stays with the control you pause over. Passing across a button no longer leaves a delayed tip in empty space.
• NAM LIBRARY search now uses available maker, model, author and pack details, plus the original filename and source-folder text, even without Workshop analysis.
• NAM LIBRARY gains a FOLDERS view beside ATTRIBUTES: it groups your NAMs by the folders they live in, so a library kept in your own folder layout browses the way you filed it, and the copies the Workshop owns are told apart from the files on your drive. The explorer remembers the view you chose. A folder containing only duplicates of NAMs already in the library or factory set adds no group of its own.
• When sorting NAMs by brightness, models without a usable brightness measurement follow the measured models.
• CAB LIBRARY now explains the separate Analyze and Embed steps for missing Workshop measurements. Cabinet, speaker and mic labels are separate details; supplied labels are marked provided rather than verified.
• Report a bug in About or Settings > Credits & info opens an email draft or lets you copy the report template or email address. The template includes the RigSculpt versions, platform and plug-in or standalone format. Nothing is sent automatically.
• Settings > Credits & info now identifies RigSculpt and Artificer without the Test Build label.
• In About > Tutorial, the cards for the NAM library, the parametric EQ and amp stereo now also explain the FOLDERS view, the live spectrum and DOUBLE TRACK.

Find NAMs in your collection, bring cabinet measurements into Artificer, or report a problem

A fix for Mixcraft freezing at close

The 0.99.2 notes reported Mixcraft 9 freezing as it closes with RigSculpt loaded. The plug-in let go of its connection to the graphics card at the moment the DAW unloaded it, and on some computers that step never finished. RigSculpt now keeps the connection until the DAW has closed, so unloading it takes a fraction of a second.

This could happen with NAM GPU off: an export with a NAM amp, or a look at Settings > Performance, also opens the connection. The freeze was reproduced and fixed on a test computer, and it still needs confirming on the computer it was reported on. If Mixcraft still freezes for you, send me the log at %LOCALAPPDATA%\RigSculpt\rigsculpt.log and the crash report Mixcraft offers.

Windows, macOS and Linux

RigSculpt 1.03 is available for Windows, macOS and Linux. Choose the package for your platform from the official Ko-fi download when you are ready to install.

Artificer packages. Choose the plug-in alone or the package that also includes the standalone app on Windows and macOS. The Linux archive includes the plug-in and standalone app.

• Windows, plug-in and standalone: RigSculpt-1.03b-Setup-with-Standalone.exe
• Windows, plug-in only: RigSculpt-1.03b-Setup.exe
• macOS, plug-ins only: RigSculpt-1.03b-mac.pkg
• macOS, plug-ins and standalone: RigSculpt-1.03b-mac-with-Standalone.pkg
• Linux: RigSculpt-1.03b-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

The two Artificer macOS packages are signed and notarized, require macOS 12 or later, and contain universal builds for Apple Silicon and Intel.

Workshop packages. Workshop 1.03 is build 1.1.201.

• Windows: RigSculpt_Workshop_Setup.exe
• macOS: RigSculpt-Workshop-1.03-macOS-arm64.dmg
• Linux: RigSculpt-Workshop-1.1.201-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

The Workshop macOS disk image is signed and notarized. It requires Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or later; it does not contain an Intel build.

Using Artificer on macOS. The Size menu greys out steps that would not fit the screen. On a 13-inch MacBook at the default resolution, the available steps stop at 125 percent. After choosing a size from this menu, tooltips stay hidden until the window is resized another way, such as a double-click on the corner resizer. This existing macOS behaviour remains in this release; the hover-help fix above applies to Windows.

The standalone menu bar contains RigSculpt, File and Window. File > Mute output shows a check mark while muted. The About page holds the support links; there is no Help menu. Report a bug opens the mail client with a draft, or lets you copy the report template or address. Nothing is sent on its own.

In the NAM library FOLDERS view, a folder whose files duplicate NAMs already in the library or the factory set adds no group of its own.

What stays the same

• Your DAW still finds the same plug-in. Existing presets, snapshots, saved amps, MIDI assignments and FLEX boards remain usable.
• Older rigs without settings for Double Track, Siren or Maelstrom load those features off, unless you keep the Siren or Maelstrom switch with Keep FX on/off across recalls. A project saved with 0.99.2 opens with Double Track, Siren, Maelstrom, CABINET SEND 1 and Power Amp Conditioner off.
• The factory presets are the same 17 as in 0.99.2, in the same order, so MIDI Program Change recalls them as before.
• Settings you share with 0.99.2 keep working there, including the switches you keep with Keep FX on/off across recalls.
• The sound remains as before apart from the specific corrections above. The guide explains the optional quality and threading tradeoffs.
• Artificer quality and threading are computer settings. The new pedal settings and modulation order belong to the preset or project.
• RigSculpt Workshop 1.03 (build 1.1.201) measures as before and fixes three things: it tells you which IR files could not take their embedded analytics, a folder import only offers the files inside that folder, and for a NAM it does not manage it refuses edits it cannot keep (author, pack, calibration) instead of reporting them saved.

Where to start

1. Try one motion pedal. Open PHASER, switch Siren on, and compare gentle picking with a stronger attack. Set DEPTH to zero to hear TOUCH on its own. Then compare Maelstrom's three voices, then switch its THRU-ZERO on.
2. Try a doubled pair. Start with Double Track's POCKET at 12 ms and VOICE B at the centre. Check the stereo and mono sound before adding timing variation.
3. Check the processing options. Play your usual rig at BALANCED, then try FULL. Leave threading off unless you want to compare its benefits and added live delay.
4. Open a familiar project. Check its start, stop, saved levels and export. Tell me about anything that behaves differently from what you expect.