Lots of hiss/fuzz when using Guitar Rig 4 pro as a VST

I've been trying to record guitar rig with reaper, but I'm getting a ton of hissing and fuzz even when I'm not playing my guitar. I can open GR4 in standalone mode and I don't have the problem, but when I insert it as a VST in Reaper, the hiss ensues. It can be muted by holding my strings, or using a noise reduction component in my rig, but that kills my sound, and removes a little distortion as well. Also, this is less related to reaper, but my guitar rig sounds come out like mud. There's just no punch at all. Any tips from other GR4 users would be greatly appreciated.

What kind of guitar are you using?? I'm guessing that your guitar might have a 'ground' problem (since it stops when you put your hand on the strings). Single coil pickups are more susceptible to noise than humbuckers. I'm not sure why it doesn't do this in 'stand-alone' mode. If you use a noise gate... set it at the lowest level that removes the noise. :cool:

If we're talking about electrical interferance then there are a few things you can do. Firstly, if you have any Flourescent lights nearby, turn them off; they flicker at 50-60Hz and cause a lot of interferance - even at distance. Secondly, your monitor for your computer may be causing it, try to angle yourself away from the screen when playing. Or even turn it off and see if that helps. Next, check your leads. You don't need to buy super expensive leads with shielding, simply move them away from any electrical current - especially socket boards. Also, don't write off the noise gate too early. Yes, a noise gate can destroy your tone if overused, but you can adjust the threshold to get a happy medium. Lastly, do an isolation test. Something in your house is causing the interferance, so switch everything off if you can and go through them one by one until you find the culprit. One more thing to note is the amount of gain you use on your sound. Guitars are layered when recording and modern metal tones don't use that much gain as it loses tonality and sounds weak. And, as you have experienced, high gain raises the noise floor of the signal. So maybe try experiment with a lower gain signal and see how you go.