Opinions on TonePort?
I've come to realize that I don't get as much recording done because I can't record silently. If the wife is asleep or not feeling well, I have to be quiet. So, even though I much prefer to use a cab and mic it, I'm thinking about getting one of these Line6 TonePort UX2's
Your thoughts, oh bassy ones? I remember that at least a few of you use these and like them.
Wheat
Wheat man, yer the boss
Wheat man, yer the boss here. Look up the thread about the TP that went on when (ahhh hell, who was that? ) bought one. I will see if I can find it before I type a shyte load again.
Hazz
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Here ya go Wheat Thread by
Here ya go Wheat Thread by Thor
I could add to it but if ya want just ask away and I will answer.
Hazz
p.s. Speaking of which, anyone know how Thor been? Have not heard much from the guy. Even over at AB unless I am just blind. ;)
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"Carburetors man!! That's what life is all about."
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Hazz, Thanks for the link to
Hazz,
Thanks for the link to that thread. This looks like exactly what I need. I'm going to order one.
Wheat
bassplaying.com
Yeah, it works pretty good
Yeah, it works pretty good but the one thing that took me a bit to catch on to (I am not much for looking at the manual) is channels 1&2 have a processed tone and 3&4 have a more natural, unprocessed tone so depending on which you want just make sure you change the "input" in Ableton to the correct outputs of the TP. Also, if you use just channel 3 or 4 (or 1&2) be sure to turn the ones not being used off in GearBox.
I also found that if I want any effects it is better to use my POD or a pedal before the TP, hook up to the "Left/right Line Inputs" and set the "Amp" and "Cab" selections to None.
Hazz
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Musicians Collaboration Studio / a place for musicians to get together and create music on-line
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"Carburetors man!! That's what life is all about."
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Thanks for the Ableton Live
Thanks for the Ableton Live tips. That's what I'll be using it with. I'm curious to hear what it sounds like, though the real reason I'm ordering it is so I can record at midnight. the GearBox amp/cab simulation software is just icing on the cake (though I always dig playing with new software).
I'll be reporting back looking for more tips once it gets here.
Wheat
bassplaying.com
Thor will be back. He takes
Thor will be back. He takes long breaks from posting but will then dive in and post a lot. He's like that on AB, too.
Wheat
bassplaying.com
Hey Wheat! I have a TonePort
Hey Wheat!
I have a TonePort UX2 sitting on my desk right next to my laptop. I've had it for a while now, and I'm really liking it. IMO it offers some great value for money. Great software and usable tones for a small price. As a practice tool it works great. Line 6 keeps the software updates coming, so new stuff is added to the software all the time. Money well spent if you ask me.
On a side note:
I haven't posted a lot lately mainly because of three things.
1. The weather is outstanding at the moment. I go on hikes and spend a lot of time in the great outdoors.
2. Forza Motorsport 2, my favorite driving game for the Xbox360, has been released here in Europe. 'nuff said.
3. I just bought my first digital SLR, a Sony A100. I used to own an old nikon SLR (with 35mm film if anyone can remember what that is) years ago, and now I've taken the jump to digital SLR.
As for AB, I've stopped posting there completely. I don't even know any of the new people over there. I check my inbox now and then, but that's it. This place is a much better hangout anyway.
Thor
Hi Thor. With that new
Hi Thor. With that new digital SLR we should be seeing some great bass pics soon right? hahahaha
Funny you should mention
Funny you should mention that, Paul. I was thinking about trying out some bass photography. Maybe I'll give it a go this weekend.
Thor
I remember the 35mm film. I
I remember the 35mm film. I went from a '81 Pentex that I had to use a light meter for every shot to my Olympus E10. It is great being able to take 200 to 300 pics and then just delete what ya do not want and not have to buy/replace the film all the time.
Good to hear from ya Thor.
Hazz
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Musicians Collaboration Studio / a place for musicians to get together and create music on-line
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"Carburetors man!! That's what life is all about."
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I'm glad you're enjoying the
I'm glad you're enjoying the outdoors and your new camera. Thanks for the tips on the TonePort.
Wheat
bassplaying.com
I simply must get me some
I simply must get me some type of audio interface. My cousin's company got one for him to record music for radio spots. I had the opportunity to hear my T40 through that thing last weekend and it was fantastic. His cost about $500, but it is a pro-level AI. I want an inexpensive one.
Let us know how you like it, Wheat.
Bo
You don't love me, you just love my FINGERSTYLE!
Bo
You don't love me, you just love my FINGERSTYLE!
Peavey T40; SX/Squier P-bass; Spector Legend 5
Roland Bass 30 Cube
I ordered it. I found a
I ordered it. I found a good price on it here. I haven't ordered from these guys before. They deal mostly in software at educational discounts (I qualify as a full-time staffer at a college). But this price isn't an educational discount and didn't require any authentication (usually, just a scan of your student or staff ID).
It gets here next week. I let everybody know how it goes. I really appreciate the detailed opinions by Thor and Hazz. It really helps to know some people who have used it. I think it's going to help me out. I really need something so I can record silently. Ther are a lot of times I'd like to record but can't mic a cab because I need to be quiet.
I may have to up the RAM in my lappy, though. I have 512MB, which is minimum for Gearbox (the TonePort software) along with a DAW, according to Line6. But if performance is crap, I'll see what it costs to drop 1GB into it. I don't want to spend much on this lappy, as I intend to replace it soon. Crucial has 1GB for mine for $97. Mine has 2x256 in it, so I'd actually have 1GB + 256MB, which would be fine, I think. And it would help all my apps run better.
Wheat
bassplaying.com
Two points I shall
Two points I shall address.
If you have a decent processor then the TP and GearBox work just fine with 512. I ran it on a machine with 512 for a while and never had an issue. Well, occasionally (ohhh once maybe twice a month if I and a highly processed sound) while recording you would get a "Dropout" and the recording would stop.
As to mic'ing the cabs or going direct through the TP, If you want to get the tone as close to what you hear from the cabs then you may want to use the DI from your amp to one of the mic inputs on the TP and set Gear Box up with no amp or cab and do not use any of the effects except for maybe the EQ.
If you can't use the DI from the amp then you will need to start off with no amp or cab, select an amp then change the cab to "no cab" and play with the settings to get your tone. If that does not work then add a cab and try again.
Out of the box you will get 4 bass amp models and I believe 6 or 8 bass cab models. You can use any of the amps (guitar or bass) with any of the cabs (guitar or bass). The only time you do not get to choose a cab is if you use the "Pre-Amp" models which again, you will want to tweak to get the tone you want.
I guess that was a "Dags" way of saying, "using the TP direct gives a much different tone then mic'ing the cabs."
Speaking of which, anyone heard from the old geezer?
Hazz
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Musicians Collaboration Studio / a place for musicians to get together and create music on-line
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"Carburetors man!! That's what life is all about."
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Haven't heard a peep from
Haven't heard a peep from the old boy here or "there".
Bo
You don't love me, you just love my FINGERSTYLE!
Bo
You don't love me, you just love my FINGERSTYLE!
Peavey T40; SX/Squier P-bass; Spector Legend 5
Roland Bass 30 Cube
2.8Ghz Pentium 4. Do you
2.8Ghz Pentium 4. Do you think that's enough juice? (I'm not being a smart ass. It's an honest question).
Thanks again for the tips. You could write a lesson on using the TonePort. Seems like you've really worked with it quite a bit and found a good workflow for dialing it in.
Can't wait to get the thing and try it out. If I dig the modeling, maybe I'll fork some extra for the expansion packs that include even more of the POD presets.
Wheat
bassplaying.com
I do not know Wheat, it is a
I do not know Wheat, it is a Pentium and not an AMD. ;) It should work fine.
I bought my TonePort the day after they came out so I have had it a while. there are no tricks to using the TP and you can set it up to work without GearBox as well.
As for expansion packs, the only thing I really would want to get are the bass amp models. Most of the POD presets are ok but usually need tweaking so I just prefer to load and amp and mess with the setting until I get what I want.
Hazz
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Musicians Collaboration Studio / a place for musicians to get together and create music on-line
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"Carburetors man!! That's what life is all about."
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It came in the mail
It came in the mail yesterday, Hazz. I goofed with it for about two hours last night. Man, what fun. I could get seriously lost in this thing. I haven't explored it fully yet. But I'm already feeling like this is just the thing I needed. I'm really digging GearBox, which I didn't expect to care about. I went all the bass amps and some of the guitar amps and then messed with cabs a bit. I found that its Ampeg SVT clone ("Rock Classic") coupled with their GK 8x10 clone gives you, more or less, what I think of as "my sound." I liked being able to pick different mics while modeling the tone. The effects are a lot of fun, too. And things like the compressor, noise gate, and the hum eliminator really make it pretty easy to get a workable tone that sounds, for all the world, liked a real amp with a mic in front of it. I've only scratched the surface, but I'm really enjoying it.
Once I downloaded and installed all the software updates and played around with sounds, I decided to try recording something with it in Ableton Live 6 (the full version, not the Lite version that comes with it). And I was able to do a simple two-track thing that recorded very nicely against the click. I'm getting some occasional audio hiccups, but I've had those before with this lappy. It just means I'll have to spend some time dialing in the ASIO driver settings and finding any superfluous WinXP services that might still be running in the background, eating up processor. While I was waiting on the thing to arrive, I bookmarked some threads discussing performance related issues and Gearbox. So I'll go through those and make sure everything is clean.
So far, performance hasn't been an issue. I've been running Gearbox right alongside Live without trouble. Granted, my testing has been limited. But I expected Gearbox to be a processor-heavy app and, so far, that hasn't been my experience. I'll play with both some more tonight and post back with my experiences. Thanks to you and Thor for all the advice on this one. I'm feeling really good about my purchase so far. Hell, with this thing, I don't need an amp. I left my bass plugged into it. I want to force myself to practice with GearBox + Live + a click or drum track, so I put myself in a good position to record anything I happen upon that I like. Instead of recording being some big event I sit down to do, I want it to be a natural part of my typical practice session.
Wheat
bassplaying.com
Sounds good Wheat. I had
Sounds good Wheat.
I had something else to say but I need to get going. Hopefully I will remember later.
Hazz
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Musicians Collaboration Studio / a place for musicians to get together and create music on-line
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"Carburetors man!! That's what life is all about."
Musicians Collaboration Studio
I hope you will. It was
I hope you will. It was probably important. :)
I spent my second evening of goofing with it. This time, I plugged in the Tele and went through all the guitar amp mods and the preamps. I found a few I liked, tweaked a bit and saved 'em. Then I plugged in the bass and messed with driver settings to get rid of the stutters I was having. To test the latency, I put down a drum track with Impulse (Ableton Live's drum module) and recorded several line of straight patterns to make sure I was lining up with the click.
I also discovered that Ableton has a Live Pack (i.e. tutorial + demo files) for setting up the TonePort. It's also a quickly intro to the "Lite" version of Live that comes with the TonePort. I skimmed it and picked up a few useful tricks. I also worked through some of the help tutorials in Live 6 about setting up audio and dealing with latency. But, even though there are still things to tweak, I was lining up pretty good. I'm trying to work all this out so it won't frustrate me when I record "real" things. But I also want to move beyond tweaking and actually record things! Truthfully, I recorded two little snippets last night.
Tonight I'm going to set up my mic and try recording some percussion and acoustic guitar. Live makes it easy to sample things and assign them as drum sounds in Impulse. I have a lot of percussion instruments that I never use, so I'm going to sample a few of them and put together some drum kits using them.
Besides the crappy sound card in my lappy (I have got to get rid of this thing), it also only has two USB2 ports. And I already have two things (my external hard drive and the TonePort) that require--or at least really like--a direct (i.e. hubless) connection. This makes my MIDI keyboard the odd man out, which is crappy, because it's great fun. I might try to find a powered hub that will work with my drive or with the TonePort. I have an odd 4-port PCMCIA USB2 hub, but the company that makes it seems to be out of business and I don't have drivers for it (and I'm not sure they ever made any WinXP drivers for it, as I bought it for my older laptop, which ran Win2000 and didn't have any USB2 ports).
Anyway. The fun never stops! I'll be geeking on this thing (and posting crap about it) for weeks.
Wheat
bassplaying.com
Re: I hope you will. It was
[quote=wheat]...Tonight I'm going to set up my mic and try recording some percussion and acoustic guitar...
Wheat[/quote]
Do not forget the TonePort also supplies th Phantom power you need to run a mic and remember to to press the +48V button next to the mic inputs. When I first set up my mic with it i forgot about that little button and it drove me nuts trying to figure out why the mic was not working. ;)
Hazz
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"Carburetors man!! That's what life is all about."
Musicians Collaboration Studio
No worries there, I don't
No worries there, I don't have any mics that use phantom power. But that was a selling point of the UX2, as the cheaper options in the TonePort series don't have phantom power. I figure I'll buy a condenser mic at some point (most of those require it).
Wheat
bassplaying.com
Just remembered, not really
Just remembered, not really important but most threads you will find that discuss GearBox will be comparing it to Line6 Edit which is used to edit the settings on POD's. It is one of them stupid arguments mainly from the "Edit" users who say you need to do to many things to modify a patch because they want it more like pedals where all the setting are right there in front of you.
So, not important. The best place for info on it is over at the Line6 forums.
Hazz
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Musicians Collaboration Studio / a place for musicians to get together and create music on-line
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"Carburetors man!! That's what life is all about."
Musicians Collaboration Studio
You can use GearBox with the
You can use GearBox with the POD too, though, right? So it's just a preference to use Edit? Thanks for the heads up. It's always good to know what "holy war" topics there are before you go sticking your foot in a new forum. But I'm such a noob I'll just keep bothering you and Thor with questions. :)
BTW, there is also some discussion of TonePort over at the Ableton forums. I should probably spend some time on both of them.
Wheat
bassplaying.com
Yeah, you can use it with a
Yeah, you can use it with a POD and those are the folks who argue about it. The guys that play live and are used to having the pedals right in front of them like Edit but want a few more functions added and those who are home artists like GearBox but could go either way. It is one of those deals where the minority is the loudest voice. Well it was a few months ago. I have not check out the forum in a while.
Hazz
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Musicians Collaboration Studio / a place for musicians to get together and create music on-line
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"Carburetors man!! That's what life is all about."
Musicians Collaboration Studio
Re: I ordered it. I found a
[quote=wheat]
I may have to up the RAM in my lappy, though. I have 512MB, which is minimum for Gearbox (the TonePort software) along with a DAW, according to Line6. But if performance is crap, I'll see what it costs to drop 1GB into it. I don't want to spend much on this lappy, as I intend to replace it soon. Crucial has 1GB for mine for $97. Mine has 2x256 in it, so I'd actually have 1GB + 256MB, which would be fine, I think. And it would help all my apps run better.
Wheat[/quote]
A decent amount of RAM is good for all your apps, not just the DAW, so adding a GB sounds like a good idea. Another point to consider since you plan on using your laptop, is HD speed. Your laptop probably has a 4200 RPM or 5400 RPM disk with just a few MB's of cache. That might not cut it if you plan on recording more than one track at a time. Adding a fast (7200 RPM, 8MB cache) external USB 2.0 disk might be a good idea.
Thor
I may well do the RAM
I may well do the RAM upgrade, just to get a little more life out of this Dell lappy (which I hope to replace with a nice iMac this fall). I'll check the drive speed on the lappy, but I record to an external USB2 drive from LaCie. On your advice, I looked it up and was happy to discover that it is indeed 7200 RPM with an 8MB cache. I know from experience that it makes a world of difference recording to it rather than the internal HD, which is mostly full anyway. I've been really happy with this drive.
I look forward to not having to use the lappy for recording, but I'll have to get by with it a bit longer.
Wheat
bassplaying.com
Great to hear that you enjoy
Great to hear that you enjoy your TonePort!
If you really want to breathe some life into your old Dell, and you have a spare PCMCIA slot, I highly recommend sound card. I had one of these babies two laptops ago, and the improvment in sound over the built-in card is huge. It's a little on the expensive side, but as long as you have a laptop with a PCMCIA slot, you'll be set for years to come. Like an idiot, I sold my card along with the laptop. Doh! Check eBay, you might find one at a decent price.
Thor
Thanks for the tip, Thor. I
Thanks for the tip, Thor. I remember seeing those back when I was getting really frustrated with Sony Acid and looking for a solution. I do have a PCMCIA port, but I'm probably just going to let this laptop die and replace it with a nice desktop machine. Then I'll wipe the laptop and just put use it for web surfing and other casual stuff.
Wheat
bassplaying.com