Guitar Rig

Hmmm,
This product has amazing potential, but I'm a little concerned about a few glitches, the hardware, and the company's militant stance against their customers. (Even their voicemail (which I got during business hours Friday afternoon) sounds impatient and grouchy) For the $500 list price, you can get some pretty good dedicated hardware products that may be more usable/dependable in a live situation. If you already have a high speed computer, audio interface, some good monitors and use DAW software this is a purchase to consider... Time will tell if they make it worth it.
I'm once of those guys who owns several thousands of dollars worth of pro audio software, and I hate it when these companies make you jump through hoops to use the software you've bought. (My $600+ investment in Bitheadz Unity Session is now toast since they're out of business) On the other hand Mark of the Unicorn has made Digital Performer very reasonably simple to authorize and reinstall if needed.
When you buy Guitar Rig you have 30 days to try it out (which could be nice), but it ships with an old version of the software 1.0, and you can't download the update without registering... Once you register there's no going back... and it appears from the strong language on the CD that you can't even sell it if you ever want to....
Initial Observations: The Hardware Controller doesn't come with an A/C adapter which I think it short sighted for a $500 product. C'Mon, give the customer a $10? item with his investment. There is only one light on the controller (showing that your 9V battery is ok for now) There needs to be some kind of display showing the patch name and or number... (The 9V battery connector wires were too short and hooked through the battery holder which made getting the battery in near impossible)....
The controller itself is too little to be totally useful and while it seems to be indestructible, it's seems overkill making it really heavy. (Aren't we going for light and efficient here?) OK, so you get past these first few things and hook it up. (I personally think using audio for a control signal is a bit old fashioned)
Installation went well, but again, you can't even download the current version of the product without registering (see above)
Using it: Well the tone and the ability to edit it is nothing short of pretty amazing, and I think that's the saving grace of this product.
Using it live will be a challenge because there's a pause, glitch, or slow fade, when changing from 1 preset to another. Hope this gets fixed sometime soon. The lack of any display on the foot controller means you're going to be looking at your computer screen to see what sound you're selecting.
Yes, the sound and editing capabilities are amazing making this a nice addition to the studio, but what about live?