line6 Gearbox gold plugin

Bob Martin · From: Madison Tn

Has anyone bought this little recording setup yet? It's very interesting and for the money it seems like a great deal. Most of the other guitar plugins are strictly for guitar but gearbox has set this plugin up for bass, vocals as well as guitar. A rocker named Lenny Kravitz recorded an old Guess Who song with it called american Woman and for a rock tune it sounds great. I'm not a rocker in any shape but I do appreciate good playing as well as good mixing and production and this song has it all.

So the other choices for software plugins for guitar are Amplitube, guitar rig and several others and all of them are at least 2 times higher priced. I have played with GR3 and Amplitube 2 or 3 whichever is the newest and one other and I loved them all with Amplitube sounding the most authentic, warm and generally easier to get around in.I just can't see spending 300.00 to 800.00 on a guitar plugin.

150.00 for every effect that line 6 makes along with a usb recording interface that records with no or very low latency sounds like a steal. The way they explain the latency work around it sounds very legit because of being able to monitor on the driver level before it goes thru all of the computer busing system. I can't stand much latency at all. Sometimes on Sonar I'll record with some of the included compressors and delay and verb and on my very fast machine I can get the latency down to 3.5 ms which it the very limit of my tolerance. I would rather no delay but can live with 3.5 pretty well.

It will take sometime for me to dig up the cash I'll probably have to sell something but I'm interested in trying it. Supposedly musicians friend will let you send it back if you don't like it even though it does have some software due to the fact that it doesn't come with any serial numbers you have to call in with a legit receipt or some number and they authorize you to use it on your computer hopefully that will keep the costs down and help fight piracy which is a whole other subject.

So if anyone has any knowledge on this please let me know what you think about it.

Thanks

Big Bob
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John Roche · From: England

Very interesting,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFXwDLwpNbs

Steinar Gregertsen · From: Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.

One of my students bought a Line6 Toneport with the GearBox and brought it along so I could help him figure it out. I played around with it for 30 minutes and really liked it, I'm tempted to get one of those myself..

Steinar
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Bob Martin · From: Madison Tn

Thanks for the link John don't you wish that they would show off some of the clean sounds on the unit Smile

Steiner thanks for the input. I think I'll probably pull the trigger on this as soon as I sell something. That means keep your eye out on amps and accessories for sale because I usually sell my stuff very reasonable. Although I'm not sure what I'll sell but I know I can't add anything without selling one LOL

I've owned a pod pro, xt and live so I'm familiar with the sounds but I suspect these sounds a a step up in quality due to the higher processing power available. You know they put processors in these hardware models that are just barely able to keep up. Chips are probably the most expensive part in the hardware units so to keep the cost down they don't over power them.
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Randy Phelps · From: California, USA

Lenny used amp farm on "american woman".

I have a toneport and gearbox and they work well together and sound very good.

Lots of stuff I've made for friends to play over are just the toneport and the models from it and using the gearbox stuff.... I've used it with my variax and unless I tell people only a few ask if it is real or modeling and I suspect that they just ask because the recording process is so fast and easy using those tools.

The deluxe sounds on the toneport are great if you ask me... My experience has been this---> modellers etc work great for recording but don't translate the nuances of sound in a larger context like live playing... they can sound okay in a pinch but just don't have the depth and complexity of say an actual tele through a good tube amp!

Bob Martin · From: Madison Tn

Hey Randy, it looks like the amp farm tdm plugin is pretty close to the gold plugin I'm looking at. Please correct me if I'm wrong Smile

Obviously there are some differences but it looks like its the equivalent. The gearbox gold plugin for 149.00 seems to have all the necessary equipment to replicate the Pod xt pro at a fraction of the price.

Due to Pro Tools proprietary nature they had to reprogram the software to interface with DXI ot VST plugins. So anyway I was very impressed with Lenny's version of American Woman I have always loved that song.

I look forward to hearing from someone that actually owns the same interface and version of gearbox.

Bob
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Randy Phelps · From: California, USA

First, I love the gearbox and would urge anyone interested to buy it. It is great.

Amp Farm is a pro tool and is higher quality, more flexible, the sampling is superior... it is, well, a better, but more expensive tool.

think of the difference between a 1K steel vs. a 2.5k steel. Now if Buddy Emmons is playing it isn't gonna matter... except to him!

A lot of Lenny's stuff is Lenny and a lot is Craig Ross... Lenny has a boatload of vintage gear too...

I have used amp farm extensively at work (where I use and test compatibility of devices etc with macs for folks to use) and just about all the other varieties and flavors of devices... for the money... the gearbox stuff is swingin! but, if you have disposable income... amp farm is that much better.

oh yeah, I just didn't want you to buy something thinking you'd be able to dial up the same exact sounds... they'll be a little different.

Bob Martin · From: Madison Tn

Thanks Randy I sure appreciate your postings and I think it will work great for me. As soon as I get my hands on it I'll post back and let everyone know how it sounds to me. The sound that we each want to get is so subjective that what one thinks is great the other one will pick it apart:-) (No pun intended) Smile

I am a big fan of computer effects and have many plugins that I use for recording in Sonar and really love them. I have also used all of the major contenders like Waves GTR-3, Amplitube 2, NI Guitar Rig 2 and 3 so I've got an idea what the competition sounds like and they all sound great and to me believable in the recording setting. I'm like you and a lot of others although you can use these plugins live with the right setup I think their usefulness lies in recording rather than playing live.

Thanks again for the advice Smile

Bob
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Randy Phelps · From: California, USA

Bob,

I can tell by your words that your expectations are in exactly the right spot.

I'm doing some recording tonight for a friend.. I'm gonna use my variax and toneport and it will sound just dandy... my purist friends get furious when I say this... but, half the time the backing tracks are for them and I never tell them and they never know.... other than telling me that they insist that I use 'real instruments'...

have fun! I'll look forward to hearing what you discover!

Bob Martin · From: Madison Tn

Well my Gearbox Gold Bundle will be here Friday the 21st so I'm excited about it. My Son found it on ebay for 99.00 and surprised me with an early birthday gift way early my birthday isn't until august 22 LOL.

I had been looking on ebay and the cheapest I could find it for was 129.00 but he found a retail store blowing them out for 129.00 with a make an offer sale and he offered 89.00 plus shipping and they came back with the 99.00 offer so he bought it. I can't believe that just a few months ago these were going for 599.00 retail and street price of some where less.

What you actually get with it it every effect that line 6 makes in the hardware boxes plus a lot of amp farm plugs and some vocal plugin models of different pres.

So I'm really looking forward to using this. Obviously Line 6 has a bunch of new modeler stuff ready to realease as soon as they get rid of all of these but I think these will work great for me.

I'm not crazy about having to have the toneport di plugged in whether you use it or not actually it's as much of a dongle as it is a direct box for the guitar and also it's a little convoluted in its setup for tone direct monitoring but I have the right setup to use it as intended. I have read many posts over on other forums where folks bought this not knowing exactly what it was and was very dissappointed but I've done enough research to realize all of its short comings and can live with them namely the dongle business Smile

I've never seen a company with more security measures put in place to protect their software as well as hardware from piracy. I understand the reason for this but still it sucks.

Well I'll report back when I get it all installed and running.

Big Bob
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Steinar Gregertsen · From: Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.

I've had the Toneport for a couple days and bought the GearBox plugin today after discovering that the regular GearBox that's bundled with the Toneport doesn't work as a plugin.

My first impression is very good, most of the presets are way over the top, as expected, but building a sound from the bottom can get some pretty impressive results.
However, the best results I've had so far is by recording through my pedalboard and old POD and only use the cabinets and mic (and placement) from the GearBox. It may just be that I'm too accustomed with the sound of my old setup but I believe it sounds a little more natural, especially when using the cabs/mics to give the tone some 'air' and character.

Steinar
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"Play to express, not to impress"
Website - YouTube

Bob Martin · From: Madison Tn

Thanks Steinar, which toneport did you get one of the ux models or one of the others there are so many? There does seem to be a great deal of confusion going on with the difference between the gearbox software and the gearbox plugin bundle.

Why in the world Line 6 would name 2 completely different products the same name baffles me unless they hoped to confuse buyers Smile

Supposedly the gearbox gold bundle I bought is just that a gearbox that will work as a standalone product as well as a plugin as long as the toneport DI is plugged in but I may be in for a surprise and have it all wrong but either way I'll enjoy using it even if I can only use in a realtime recording environment but as I understand it the version that I bought will do both as long as I have the toneport plugged in because all of the plugins are actually programmed into the toneport DI.

Have fun with your new plugins I'm wondering about it's usefulness as a preamp modeler for vocals. I'm not expecting to much but who knows.

Big Bob
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Steinar Gregertsen · From: Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.

Bob - mine is a UX1. It's the one I mentioned above that my guitar student had bought,- it wasn't really what he was looking for so I bought it from him for some free lessons..

The amps are really not as good as in the hardware PODs, one way to check that out is to put your favorite overdrive in front of the Toneport and hear if it sounds natural or goes "vzzz". I have always used my favorite overdrive pedal(s) in front of my POD with great results, but I have yet to come up with a setting in GearBox that doesn't go "vzzzzzz" with the overdrive in front.

But I still think it's well worth the money, the cabinets and different ways you can experiment with mics is worth the money alone, plus there's some very good bass amps/cabs and the effects are pretty good too (just not the overdrive/distortion boxes, they're about as 'digital' and harsh as they can get).

I believe the GearBox that's bundled with the UX1, that I activated as a plugin (for an additional $100 - arrgh!), is the same as the "Silver" model. I have considered buying the "Collector Classics" model pack, and probably would have if the amp models I already have had impressed me more.

Don't get me wrong, there are some very good amps there, but they're best at squeaky clean (the vintage amps) or heavy hi-gain distortion (Line6's own models). It's the "dirt" area in between that don't quite live up to the expectations IMHO, and that's where I prefer to play...

Steinar
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John Roche · From: England

A little off subject, Last night I went to my local bar to hear some music here in Spain, there was a one man act on , singing and playing electric guitar with backing tracks, He was getting some amazing sounds from his guitar, the acoustic guitar sound he got from the electric guitar was out of this world,
Long story short, In the break I spoke with him and asked about his guitar , he took me over to the stage and explained that there was no normal pick ups on the guitar. the guitar was a Line6.
Could this be transfered to the steel guitar, you could have any model steel you like in one. have a read..
http://line6.com/variax/

Bob Martin · From: Madison Tn

Hey John, there's no doubt that it could be developed for steel guitar but so far I don't think anyone has. There's probably not enough demand for it with steel guitar and most steel players are more particular than 6 stringers Smile

The technology behind the line 6 variax line is pretty much the same as the amps and cabs that we have been talking about here.

Its just adapted to guitar technology rather than amps and cabs. It's digital modeling as far as I can tell from what I read about it involves sampling the real instrument or cabs with a sampler and then in a very technical way extract all the audio paramaters of the sound and develop it into an algorhythm that can be read by a computer program and then turned into another sample that can be triggered by the instrument playing it so when your guitar signal passes thru the algorhythm it removes the normal audio frequencies and turns them into the new sample of the intended instrument or cab or amp.

Now that is a very very simplified lay persons understanding of the technology that is used but hopefully understandable :-)So I imagine that the biggest hurdle in developing it for steel would be demand for the product.

Probably in 10 years all of this modeling technology will be undetectable from the real instrument or amp or what ever they develop it for. Even right now some of it is fantastic and sounds very good.

Big Bob
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Randy Phelps · From: California, USA

Bob Martin · From: Madison Tn

Well as promised here's my opinion of the toneport DI and gearbox gold plugin bundle. I've had it for 4 days now and so far I am just tickled. It is every bit as good as the other apps I mentioned in the first post and probably better. There are even more amps and cabs and effects in it and absolutely no latency/delay while using the interface live.

The amps for the most part a pretty accurate some amps seem a little thin but that is probably just my strat and the way I have it setup. I have noticed the same with my other amp modelers such as the boss gt pro and the digitech rp 350 and others. Just a little 150 hz and below boost take care of that. The cabs have the actual thump if you want that along with the overdrive with the drive cranked up such as in the 64 deluxe or 65 twin reverb.

The effects are quite nice with great reverb better than most modelers. The interface lacks a little but still very slick. I think for the money it is a 9 compared to the closest being a 7 with waves gtr or possibly gtr rig 3 running a close 3rd keep in mind this is a very early observation as I live with it I'm hoping to go to a 10.

I do figure this route is dead with no more upgrade paths or at the very least minimal due to it going so cheap. I was wrong on the original retail price it was 699.00.

The only thing I might want to do is upgrade my DI usb interface to a UX2 when they come down a bit. As they are now they're a steel but I'm in no hurry to get the xlr, s/pdif and phantom power due to having a Roland 24 track digital board to use all of those features when needed which isn't to often.

The only drawback to this software/hardware bundle is that there is no free trial to check it out and I figure its because theres no way to check it out like it really needs to be checked out without their toneport di so people would be disappointed with the latency as were most folks with all the other modelers without their accompanying hardware di. Thats the main reason I have not already bought waves gtr 2 the latency without their di was atrocious unless used strictly as a plugin and that much money for a plugin was out of the question for me.

Well thanks for listening to my long post on this bundle Smile

Bob
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Bob Martin · From: Madison Tn

For those of you interested in this subject just a short update. If you decide to get any of these line 6 DI box interfaces and one of their packages bundles be aware that the interface or DI USB out is only USB 1.1 and can at time be a pain on slower machines or ones that have more than one USB port connected at the same time (they all share the same bandwidth and divide it up equally).

The only exception to this rule "afaik" is the UX-8 and it is USB-2. Why they used the older medium is beyond me but they did and you have to dig a bit to find this out Smile

Big Bob
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