POSITIVE GRID: RIFF Guitar Interface and App

POSITIVE GRID EARNED a ton of well-deserved attention in 2020 with Spark, its groundbreaking guitar practice amp and app. The compact, 40-watt combo not only delivers a range of great amp emulations and effects powered by Positive Grid's BIAS Tone engine but also helps players practice, jam and learn with a variety of applications and features.

- CHRISTOPHER SCAPELLITI

Now the company brings its trailblazing innovations to RIFF, a compact and portable USB audio interface for computers and mobile devices that's optimized for electric, acoustic and bass guitars. To that end, RIFF features high-resolution audio (24-bit/96kHz) and a Tone mode with three preamp and overdrive emulations that let you add warmth, analog boost or cranked-up midrange-enhanced overdrive.

But what makes RIFF especially great for guitarists is how it integrates with Positive Grid's BIAS FX 2 amp and effects software, giving you thousands of tonal options, along with customizable functions from RIFF's large central control knob. Should you not own BIAS, you'll be glad to take advantage of the free BIAS FX 2 LE software included with RIFF. The device also comes with PreSonus Studio One Prime recording software and USB cables for interfacing with computers and iOS devices. There's a lot going on under the hood here, so let's jump in.

As audio interfaces go, RIFF is among the most compact I've seen. The sleek metal box was small enough to sit unobtrusively on my crowded studio desktop and be neatly stowed away in my laptop bag when I went traveling on weekends. My model had a sleek black exterior, but RIFF is also available in striking red, green and blue finishes. Connections include (on the lower end panel) a 1/4-inch mono instrument input and a 1/8-inch stereo headphone jack for monitoring your guitar and DAW signals; and (on the top end panel) a 1/4-inch stereo line output for mixers and monitors (same signal as the headphone jack) and the USB connection for computers and devices.