Customer Reviews

Line 6 GuitarPort Riff Tracker

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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!

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 :-)

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.

If you are a guitar player who wants to record but not be an engineer this is the stuff! I've used this for a couple years and it could not be simpler. The tones from the GuitarPort are great and RiffWorks is as easy as it gets for recording...just plug in, record your riffs, tweak the knobs on the instant drummer, organize the riffs into a song and you're there! I haven't found an easier or quicker way to get ideas down into songs. Heck you can even set tempos and start recording without taking your hands off the guitar with the "junt" feature, very cool!

There's a whole "RiffWorld" that comes with it too. The ability to have a page in the RiffWorld website with your info and songs (that you can post right from the program), and RiffLink is absolutely excellent for collaborating in what feels like real time with others. The program itself comes with some great effects and is simple to get great results out of.

When you read the other reviews preceding this one, you might think, finally, I can record my own music simply and inexpensively. This is not the case.

I have worked with two other hardware/ digital recording programs and this is by far the worse. Our Mac got fried, so we bought a PC. For Xmas, I received this present, which came highly recommended from internet peer review. As the saying goes, if it's too good to be true, it probably is.

First of all, the software is garbage. I have Rift-works 6 Edition. The program is not intuitive. Not many feature come with the initial purchase and you have hidden fees to get sufficient product to actually rival other recording software. Many common sense features are missing as compared to Garage Band, and the update system is total rubbish. Today, I recorded a song on the program only to discover that the darn thing had been running in demo mode the entire session because an update was not installed. I could not save the song and had to scrap it in order to update the program. Total, unbelievable garbage. Not only is this product vastly inferior than its competitors in both tools available and the asinine complexity of the program design, but its a waste of time to use.

Please, if you are thinking about getting this product, just do yourself a favor: save up some money and get actual name-brand software. This kind of product should last a long time and be fun; however, if you have a crap program, the process is time consuming and ultimately frustrating.

DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT! If I could have given this darn thing a negative star, I would have. TOTAL RIP OFF!

This Software is amazing... After recieving the package in the mail I was able to just plugin the guitar port install the software and go. I had no problems registering the software. This is by far the easiest guitar recording software I've ever used.

I've always been a writer, but Sonoma's Riffworks has allowed me ease of sketching out musical ideas as well as being to complete demo worthy compositions so I can market my ideas. It has been well worth the investment and continues to be a tool I use on almost a daily basis.

unlike peter anderson i have not been able to get the guitar port and rifftracker to work together , i am sure its something simple , but since i can get no support from line 6 or its forums . i feel i was gyped on riffworks . the guitar port works fine . i would recommand it . but do not waste your time and money on riff works .

you can hook it up to your guitar amp , go to radio shack , explain what you want to do and the have the connectors .