Customer Reviews

Line 6 UX1 Tone Port Music Computer Interface ( Windows / Macintosh )

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

 

 

The Line6 UX1 is a great product for me and others like me. I live in a small apartment, which means I have to do most of my guitar tracking on headphones, and I have always struggled to find good tone. I have to run right out of my amp into my Tascam Portastudio for guitar and bass stuff, so I often find my tone to be somewhat lifeless.

Not anymore.

Within 15 minutes of having the UX1 out of the box, I had the software installed, no problems from my firewall or anti-virus ware, and was plugging in my ol' Flying V. I loaded up some impressive crunchy guitar tones and messed around with some Motorbreath-esque riffing. Then, on a whim, I checked out the metronome, which is really more of a bare-bones drum machine. So, after some simple programming of a basic rock beat in 4/4, I fired up my recording deck and had a Demo rendered to a .wav file in 5 minutes.

Then I did some exploring of clean tones, monkeyed around with the tremolo modeling, recorded three more demo tracks, and decided it best to stop before I got too involved and lost the rest of my night to exploring all the different ways I could tweak my tone.

The next day, I plugged in my Gibson Ripper Bass and had pretty much the same experience.

The device itself is a bit lightweight, so be mindful if you have cats or curious children. It sits easily on my desk, but I have had to shoo away our Merlin a few times.

Also, while I understand that Line6 is in this to make money, the idea of having to pay to get more amp and cab models rubs me the wrong way. Regardless, what they offer for standard presets is so flexible and adjustable, I don't see myself needing to buy any additional downloads. The $89.00 I paid at Cascio Interstate Music will do me well for years to come.

On a side note, some friends of mine recorded an entire record using UX1's to render .wav's of their separate tracks, which were then compiled and mixed. None of them lived in the same city, none of them were in the same room together at the same time, and yet the record turned out wonderful. Check 'em out at [...]

I use this to record guitar and bass with GarageBand. Installing the new drivers was a bit confusing at first but I eventually got it up and running. I find when recording guitar I prefer to not have the GearBox program running as I get better sounds and more flexibility using GB effects and settings. For Bass, however, GearBox works well to boost the signal. The Mic input gain is kinda lame, as it really only kicks in at the end of the nob turn. After giving up on the piece of S !@*% M-audio Fast Track, it was nice to finally get my instruments recording.

I bought this for some simple recordings of both guitar and vocal tracks. It's worked fantastically so far. Sounds like a mic'd amp, but totally simplified the recording process. Definitely worth the price.

When I installed the UX1 tone port software it failed to install.

The spyware software objected to all the start up and internet modifications it wastrying to do on my computer. The line6 monkey (support utility) would not recogize the device so it didn't allow me to connect to the proper support site. Then when I finally got an update for the monkey and it allowed me to update my tone port software, the USB connection process seemed to blow through the "install anyway"

screen and I was left not knowing whether the drivers installed or not. No sound out the speakers, no sound

out of the mixer, no sound out of the line6 supplied mixer. I get on support , register my product, and create

an account. I filled out all the support request info and tried to "submit" a support request only to be directed to the create an account screen on the Web site.

48 hour responses!

I had no idea whether the support request went through or not. So I try the software mixer I've been using for years

to try to diagnose the situation (no sound). What would you guess was wrong the old software or the new

hardware you just installed. After much screwing around, reviewing FAQ's, forums, and tech support website

I get sound out of the port. They suggest I disable and reenable my sound card everytime I want to use the

tone port, like that's reasonable. No where on the box does it say it replaces your existing sound card or that

you may have to disable your sound card to make it work. I brought up the gearbox software and listened to the presets

for "heavy guitar", it's a long list but they all sound so similar it's a joke, most are "JCM 800" with the

dials twisted differently. I ended up buying an addon module "Classic" just to get a suitable sound at an additional

$50. You can't tell from the box that the supplied amps are just "bait" and you'll need to "switch" to the

Power Pack, Heavy, Classic, or FunkFx to get what you need for line6 sounds.

In all, this product has been

very frustrating, it didn't install, didn't do what was expected, and was not supported. It provides very little

value for the dollar.