Line 6 Toneport opinions???

Hewy80

Hewy80

www.vitriolic1.com
Jul 5, 2003
103
1
18
Sydney
www.vitriolic1.com
Hi all,

I just moved into a unit and need something a bit quieter than my dual recto and quad to record. I was thinking about the POD xt pro so I can reamp later on down the track but I happened to notice the toneport and am a little curious...

Does anyone have any experience/opinions on it? This is the first time I have heard of it (perhaps I'm a bit behind the times?).
 
Dont feel too weird, it just came out a few months ago.

I have the UX2.

For the money, I think it's a very solid value. $199 for a USB audio interface that does 96khz, has 2 mic pres with phantom power, has a normal and padded guitar input, models bass, mic pres, and guitar, can be expanded with model packs, has a dedicated studio monitor volume knob as well as dedicated headphone knob, you really get a lot in one package. Also has SPDIF i/o as well as stereo line inputs and 2 TRS jacks for footswitches that can control your DAW start/stop etc.

Bear in mind that it is 100% reliant on your CPU to do all processing, there is no internal brain whatsoever. So... you do need quite a beefy PC and must have XP with SP2 for your OS if you are a PC user.

If you are not expecting the world of the thing, and know in advance that you will have to tweak the shit out of it with various plugins to get guitars sounding 80% or so satisfactory, the I say go for it.

The other option is to buy a podxt, and an interface. $300 for XT and $200 for basic firewire/usb interface, so...

Again, I think it is a really freaking great value for the money, but the tones are nothing to write home about. That's not to say that it sounds BAD, it sounds like a POD. It is more than enough to do home demo work, and it works very well for me with 15 or so tracks in Sonar5 at 96khz/24bit with 5ms latency.

The direct monitoring is also zero latency, and its nice to be able to track leads that print dry but you can monitor wet (lil' verb n delay for some shreddy vibe).

I like mine... It's not PRO, but its not meant to be. For all that it does, and for what it costs, it is a no brainer.
 
yeah the ux2 is great - line 6 are getting very very close with their modelling technology - the 5150 attempt although not as versitile as the original is a good stab - i know all these things are available on the xt but just having the gear box software really adds a tangability to the whole set up - it's like having a desk in front of you when using software - it helps you get the best out of the software - i've found it runs great using both inputs whilst tracking demos in pro tools no problems - but it is very dependant on your cpu and ram power. still it's damn cheap, and the closest most of us will ever get to being in a room with a diezel, 5150, bognor and mesa all at once! when they figure out how to get the feel/sound of air moving they would have done it - i reckon by 2008 they will have nailed it.
 
Question for people with Toneports: does setting the TonePort to an internal sampling rate of 96k improve the quality of the tone in any significant way? I don't mean the sort of "increased resolution" you'd get from recording at a higher sampling rate, I'm curious if the actual signal is of a higher quality. I notice certain VST EQs, softsynths, and things like Guitar Rig sound dramatically better if they are working at 96k, even if they're processing a sound that's been recorded at 44.1k. Since the TonePort does its processing on the PC, I'm wondering if it has the same effect, and possibly better than Pod's fixed 48k.
 
The toneport control panel has an anomaly in that there IS no selection for 96Khz. There is a "force" checkbox where you can select between 44.1 or 48khz. If you leave it set to auto, it will get SR from host so that is what I do and just set Sonar to 96Khz/24bit and can get latency as low as 1.3ms but I never keep it that low because you start to get snap crackle pop after 4 tracks or so. Sadly, it does not do 88.2khz.

L6 sucks the huge ball bag on customer support though - they truly do blow. You have to know that as well.

This is how I sum the thing up.

Value: 100%
Features: 100%
Sound Quality: 40%
Sound Quality When Tweaked To The Ballz With Plugins And Such: 85%
Cust Support/Compassion/Care/Response: .010%

If you are a nerd like me who still practices technique/boring ass exercises incessantly, the soldano sim into greenback cab is perfect for playing to 4/4 MIDI drum beat and working on alt picking/legato/sweep/etc. It's completely fine for that, and is better than playing unplugged, or trying to mic up my fucking krank at whisper volumes at 3AM.

All in all, i like this thing and plan on keeping it because it does exactly what i need it to do, just don't expect any preset to sound good, because they all sound like ass. You have to tweak the shit out of the thing to start getting any semblance of good sound.

rant.
 
Have you done Vocal tones as well Ether? I had to do tons of tweaking with Line6's Guitar Port to get a good metal sound for guitar, but after lots of tweaking I finally got something great for demo work.

Just from playing with the presets on vocals though for the TonePort, none of them are doing too much for me so I imagine I'll have to play around with those as well.
 
It is of my opinion that the vocal/mic preamps suck ball bag. They also suck the ball bag for micing... anything.

The bass stuff is not too awful though, even though you have to compress the nadz out of it to get it hot enough.

I have yet to buy the Metal Shop addon pack... Still on the fence about that. Spinal Puppet seems to work fairly well after post tweaking, but I probably should get the metal pack.
 
Seriously Ether, the Metal Shop pack is really worth it. I was like you before too. I thought that the quality of the models would be exactly the same as the stock ones so I didn't see the justification in spending $50 for another set of almost unusable tones for anything other than scratch stuff. But, I finally got around to getting so curious and hearing so much rave about them that I just bought it. I was very happy man. There are three models on there that in my opinion are worth the $50 price by themself. They are all very usable. With much less tweaking than the stock patches. I love the model packs, I don't even know there are other models other than the MS ones on my POD anymore, :p. I don't know how many people have already practically begged you to get the MS pack, but chalk up another one, hehe. Just tryin' to help you out. If I could, I would let you use mine, but Line6 made it very hard to do that.

~006
 
OK OK OK. I'll do it. =) Twist my arm, why don't ya.

The main reason being that all of the great pod clips I have heard on this forum have all been from Metal Shop.

I've yet to see a "check out my spinal puppet tone" post. =)

Gonna order the pack after I get back from seeing Hostel.
 
EtherForBreakfast said:
OK OK OK. I'll do it. =) Twist my arm, why don't ya.

The main reason being that all of the great pod clips I have heard on this forum have all been from Metal Shop.

I've yet to see a "check out my spinal puppet tone" post. =)

Gonna order the pack after I get back from seeing Hostel.
Click to expand...

Did you do your Krank clips with the Toneport?

Yours were the ones that got me to pull the trigger on my Revolution.
 
Nope - sure didn't. I just got the UX2 very recently. The mic preamps in it suck - period. I bought it for direct recording/USB interface - cant complain about that (plus I got it for $125 thanks to a sweet GayTar Smegma hookup).

My mic setup is very simple. Krank Revo head -> Boogie 1x12 recto cab w/ V30 -> Audix i5 -> Studio Projects VTB1 mic pre -> EMU 1820M -> Sonar4.

That requires very little post tweaking (pretty much C4 and a low pass).

With this Pod stuff, I'm having to just go ape with plugins to get them sounding decent. The BBE sonic max. plugin is almost a necessity. I also have to be really careful around 6.5khz to 7khz which is where most of the famous Line6 Fizz lives.

Perhaps the model packs will change that, and I'm really hoping that is the case.

Sadly, I will be moving to a new place soon where micing will pretty much be out of the question entirely - which is why I got the Toneport.

Potential future spam but I might have some gear for sale, all very much metal approved. (Maxon OD808, MXR Smart Gate, Audix i5, Boogie 1x12, VTB1 Preamp, and some high quality Monster studio/patch/xlr cables, etc).

Off to see Hostel... I hope it does not ruin my fragile little mind. =)

\m/
 
Btw Ether, I'll start the bidding on the Krank at $1.

Including shipping.

Think about it.

~006
 
Nice thread and all.. but Ether, you gotta give me, and the other movie fans a review of how hostel was!! :D
 
Bob, hehe. I must be sick in the head because I'm going to see it again today with a diff. group of buddies.

I do not want to give anything away. It does take a little while to "build up". The beginning can drag a bit, but its just them partying, LOTTA nice titties, setting up the characters, etc etc.

THEN... I'm not going to give anything. It was NOT as gory as you'd think and I'm glad for that. Its not buckets of fucking blood everywhere, gorefest bullshit thing. Rather, its like REALISTIC horror set in a VERY dark setting... made even fuckin' spookier because every single frame is completely and totally believable. Not some 3 headed monster with tentacles spitting acid on people, but humans working on humans. Drill scene was ... great. =)

If you are effed in the head and thought Saw was a disney movie - see it. thats all i can say. i enjoyed it very much!!

I'm actually excited for NC-17 or unrated DVD. I can only imagine how much stuff he had to take out to get a rating. =(
 
My last post regarding the movie, cause i dont want to hijack the thread here, but yeah.. saw was like a disney film to me.. thought it was pretty weak actually.. so i cant wait for this one to come over here in europe! i hope it's intense as hell! been a long time since a movie scared me or grossed me out..

Thanks for the mini review.. loved the eye scene? ;)
 
Thanks for the replies.

I think I will go for a POD xt pro. I already have an interface and I think the reamp feature in the xt pro is necessary for me then I can mic up my mesa later.

thanks again for the replies
 
Good choice..

I am still bummed i did not buy the XT pro version right from the start.. i now have the normal XT, it's cool for what it's worth, but no reamping abillities as far as i know.. pro does though..
 
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