Line 6 GuitarPort Riff Tracker

by Line 6

Product Features

• Complete guitar-friendly recording rig, Includes hardware and software
• World-class, industry standard PODxt effects and amp tone
• Unique InstantDrummer for hassle-free, great sounding drum tracks, Online tone Library with thousands of signature songs
• Export to CD burning software or other recording programs
• 24-bit recording, 32-bit processing, REX file player, ASIO, ReWire, and more!

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 0.6 x 0.2 x 0.8 inches ; 1.1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000B6AGF2
• Item model number: 99-071-0105
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,996 in Musical Instruments (See Top 100 in Musical Instruments)

Product Description

Get the Line 6 Guitar Port Riff Tracker Audio Effects Software and record those killer riffs before they're gone forever.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Product - Worth Buying, November 20, 2006

By 

Peter Anderson (Levittown, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Line 6 GuitarPort Riff Tracker (Electronics)

What's shown here is the GuitarPort (a hardware device which acts as an interface between your guitar and computer) sold bundled with the excellent RiffTracker music recording software. The GuitarPort plugs into a USB port on your computer, and you plug your electric guitar into the GuitarPort, which enables your guitar to have many great sounds; then, the RiffTracker software enables you to do professional quality multitrack recording and mixing on your home computer. Read on to better understand all this.

I've owned the GuitarPort for over a year. It allows you to change the way your guitar sounds in the same way that a word processor allows you to choose different fonts. If you want your guitar to sound the way Jimmy Page's guitar sounds on the song "Heartbreaker", you change to a preset which is in fact, called "Heartbreaker". If you want your sound to be like John Fogerty's on "Rolling on the River", you change to the preset "Rollin'". And so on.

All the presets are organized by genre: metal, blues, classic rock, surf, jazz, etc. They also include preset bass guitar settings, so you can use the GuitarPort with a bass as well. It's great: you can sound like Sabbath, Cream, The Ramones, etc. By using this device, you can avoid the expense and complexity of utilizing hundreds to thousands of dollars worth of effects pedals, and/or the expense of purchasing several different types of guitars (hollow body guitar vs. solid body guitars) to obtain different sounds.

Also, you can tweak and customize the presets, and give them a name of your choosing, or start from scratch to create your own unique sound, that you can save and get back to quickly and easily. And let me tell you, this customization feature is actually very comprehensive and sophisticated: I've created settings that incorporate echo, delay, distortion and octaves (where you can add more distortion to certain frequencies of the sound and keep other frequencies cleaner), where the sound you get out of your guitar is unique and amazing! PLUS, I've run my electric violin through the guitar port, and it's worked great for creating a truly memorable audio experience!

Much of the time I plug my headphones into the unit, so I can play to my heart's content, without disturbing the family. For recording, the included RiffTracker software, which works quite well, allows a non-engineer to create complete recordings with guitar, bass, vocals and drums (using the drumbeats included with the software) with any number of overdubs. RiffTracker allows you to alter the volume level of each overdubbed track independent of the other tracks, so you can "mix" your final musical creation in the exact manner you desire. The vocals are recorded by simply plugging your microphone into the GuitarPort.

I e-mail MP3's of my recordings to my musically interested friends and they listen to them and give me feedback. Anyway, the GuitarPort is tons of fun and well worth it's affordable cost! I only give it four stars, because it's an electronic, computer product, and as such, it can be a pain to set up, with drivers to install, cables to set up just right, etc. I'm sure you've experienced the same type of trouble with setting up new printers or multifunction devices. So I had to struggle with it a little bit in the beginning, but overall, nothing was too difficult in getting it set up and configured.

Now, here are two other bonus features of this hardward/software package, which are excellent and noteworthy, but which force this review to be longer still, and maybe a little more complicated. The RiffTracker software enables you to upload your completed musical compositions to a website for RiffTracker users. At this website, you can listen to hundreds of songs created by other hobbyists using this same recording technique, and you can leave comments about their songs, and you can read comments left about any of the songs you've uploaded. Plus, you can read questions and answers posted by hobbyists about using this technology, and figuring everything out. This "bulletin board" finally enabled me to determine how to record vocals with the GuitarPort/RiffTracker. This website and service is free.

The second bonus feature is that Line 6 has hundreds of pages of guitar lessons available in conjunction with the GuitarPort, plus a very clever "guitar-aoke" feature. The "guitar-aoke" feature refers to thousands of songs they have available where you can listen to the song with or without the lead guitar. Of course, the version without the guitar is available so you can play the guitar part, while the rest of the band accompanies you; plus, tabs are included so you can figure out how to play the guitar part for each song. This feature, the guitar lessons with "guitar-aoke", is free for the first month you try it, but then costs seven bucks a month thereafter (if you want to continue with it.)

My goodness what a long review this has been, but I hope I've been able to make everything clear about what the GuitarPort with RiffTracker is, and what it can do for you. Thanks for reading all this!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Innovative songwriting tool with an amazing, easy-to-use interface!!!, February 22, 2008

By 

R. Harrison (Twin Cities, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Line 6 GuitarPort Riff Tracker (Electronics)

As a songwriting tool it's impossible to beat!! There is nothing on the market like this. I wish it had more features from traditional DAWs (like cut and paste editing and true VST support). For capturing ideas and assembling songs this is the first software I turn to. Then, I mix to a stereo .WAV file (if needed) and do mastering and other surgical edits in software like Reaper or Audacity. The more I learn to work with RiffWorks though I've found workarounds and am using other software less and less. I use RiffWorks almost every day.

The instant drummers sound amazing!! You can easily get quality recordings. Many people have recorded their CD straight from RiffWorks. The effects have some high points too. The delays are awesome! To actually hear how it sounds just listen to some of these contestants from the recent RiffRumble contest. Songs had to be posted or "Riffcast" from the software itself so you can be sure that you are hearing Riffworks in action here. [...]

If you play guitar or bass and write music (or just love to jam and create backing tracks) there is little doubt in my mind that you will WANT this software! The instant drummers are invaluable to me because I can find that perfect groove, set it and forget it. The drums take care of themselves playing appropriate breaks and fills and later if I want a different drum sound I can easily change it (in real time). Being able to control the drum's tempo and time signature is a dream for me. The loop based format and riff structure make recording ideas in the form of verses, breaks, chorus, etc. so easy it's like magic. The song timeline allows you to arrange and rearrange these riffs or loops at any time. It is so easy to just create music and not worry about navigating menus and a complex software learning curve. This is straightforward software that looks great, is stupid-simple to use, and really inspires you to create music :-)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding and Easy, February 22, 2008

By 

Dolan L. Trout - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Line 6 GuitarPort Riff Tracker (Electronics)

I have struggled with recording guitar with DAWs since the beginning. After spending too much time and money on software packages that just didn't work for me, my recording prayers have been answered with this. Plug in, tune up , start the Instant Drummer and you are recording. It doesn't get any easier. You not only get a great piece of software but you can become a member of a great musical society and there is no match for the Sonoma support team. I didn't even mention the ability to collaborate with some extremely talented people on-line "LIVE" and chat while you are working on a project. I am so excited about writing this, I'm off to do some recording. Keep the music flowing.