Line 6 POD Studio GX USB Computer Recording Interface

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Bring 18 of rock's most legendary amps to your next guitar session with this interface and its accompanying POD Farm plug-ins.

The Line 6 POD Studio GX combines the stunning sound of POD Farm plug-in with a rock-solid and powerful USB interface. Essential to the success of countless platinum-selling albums, these immortal Line 6 guitar, bass and effects tones are now available for recording guitarists.

In 1998, Line 6 released Amp Farm(R) amp modeling plug-in and forever changed the way guitarists record. Ten years and dozens of groundbreaking creations later, Line 6 continues the recording revolution with POD Farm.

POD Farm, The Premium Tone Plug-in
From dark and smoky American combos to blazing, gain-crazed English stacks, the sounds of hundreds of fully adjustable amps and cabs, plus studio-standard effects, stompboxes and preamps, are here for you to define your music and cement your place in history.

POD Farm plug-in features the sounds of the sought-after vintage essentials and must-have modern monsters necessary for a pro-sounding recording. It includes 18 immortal guitar amps (modeled after* Fender(R) Deluxe Reverb(R), Marshall(R) JCM-800, Vox(R) AC-30 Top Boost, Mesa/Boogie(R) Dual Rectifier(R), and more), 24 guitar cabs, 5 bass amps and 5 bass cabs, 29 essential stompbox and studio effects (modeled after* EP-1 Tube Echoplex, Ibanez(R) Tube Screamer(R), MXR(R) Phase 90, LA-2A(R) studio compression, and more) and 6 crucial mic preamps (modeled after* Neve(R) 1073, Avalon Vt737, API(R) 512c, and more).

Drag and drop any model into the signal flow, pre or post amplifier. The carousel-style read more gear browser, displaying each and every coveted model, provides an experience that's a dream come true. Creating classic tones or imaginative hybrids is incredibly fast and easy.

Fully adjustable, each model offers total tweak capability. Also, with hundreds of presets available, classic gear combinations can be chosen to provide timeless tones in an instant.

POD Farm is Mac AU/RTAS/VST and Windows RTAS/VST compatible for seamless integration with all major recording software applications.

*All product names used herein are trademarks of their respective owners, which are in no way associated or affiliated with Line 6. These trademarks of other manufacturers are used solely to identify the products of those manufacturers whose tones and sounds were studied during Line 6's sound model development. Fender and Deluxe Reverb are registered trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments Corp. Marshall is a registered trademark of Marshall Amplification Plc. Vox is a registered trademark of Vox R&D Limited. Mesa/Boogie and Rectifier are registered trademarks of Mesa/Boogie Ltd. Ibanez is a registered trademark of Hoshino, Inc. Tube Screamer is a registered trademark of Hoshino Gakki Co. Ltd. MXR is a registered trademark of Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc. LA-2A is a registered trademark of Universal Audio Inc. Neve is a registered trademark of AMS Neve Limited. API is a registered trademark of API Innovation, Inc.

GX, the Lowest Noise for the Clearest Recordings
GX boasts the lowest noise for recording guitar, 12dB more dynamic range than similar interfaces, for clear and dynamic recordings. Plus, exclusive Line 6 ToneDirect monitoring virtually eliminates latency allowing you to record with amp and effect modeling and without sacrificing tone or feel.

Compact and powerful, GX features a 1/4-inch guitar input that allows for an immediate and no-nonsense recording experience.

Public Service Announcement: Latency Kills.
Recording with latency is like driving with your eyes closed. Exclusive to Line 6, ToneDirect monitoring allows you to record and monitor a fully processed tone while virtually eliminating latency and taking all the guesswork out of recording great-sounding tracks.

What's latency? Latency is the delay caused by the time it takes your guitar signal to travel all the way through your hardware interface, through your computer's processor, through your plug-in software, back through your hardware interface and out of your speakers or headphones. This delay is heard in your monitoring signal and makes recording almost impossible. With a POD Studio GX interface, latency is something you'll never have to deal with.

Start Recording Right Out of the Box
POD Studio GX includes POD Farm plug-in and Ableton Live Lite 8-track recording software, an ideal platform for guitarists. This collection of studio-standard hardware and software provides instant pro recording, right out of the box.
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512MB RAM minimum (1GB or more recommended)

1GB free HD space minimum (10GB or more recommended for recording)

Drive speed 5400rpm minimum (7200rpm or faster recommended)

CD-ROM drive

Internet connection for activation and online features

One free USB 1.1- or 2.0-compatible port on computer (USB hubs are not supported)

Mac AU/RTAS/VST and Windows RTAS/VST

Mac:
G4 800MHz or better

OS X 10.4.6 or better

Windows:
Pentium IV 1.2GHZ or better

Windows XP (SP2) or Windows XP x64, Vista 32-bit and 64-bit

Reviewers gave this product an overall rating of 5 out of 5 stars. (17 ratings)
Submitted June 1, 2011 by a customer from hotmail.com

"Best entry-level guitar audio interface and effects package on the market. I've not found anything better in 3 years!"

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
It's done me well for three years, and this product has definitely been a worthwhile investment and has got me more interested in recording.. It was a real difficulty before, and pc headsets didnt record guitar that well! I really love the effects, so I'll probably get a spider amp or other modelled amp solution so I can keep them.. And maybe even use them live at some point. I'm heading to more of a studio setup now, with multi-channel recording. I wish I'd known some of the limitations when I'd bought it ie, no simultaneous vocal and guitar, and then I might have shelled out more money for the UX.

Sound
Theres a lot of variety with the supplied pod farm which lets me experiment with different sounds.. I've decided I like the British Metal for heavy stuff and Put your lights on for solos, and probably achtung tone (really grinding metal sound) to add some real power to my acoustic. The feeling I get when I strum a chord with the British Metal is intense. I only use this product for recording in riffworks, which I upgraded from the free version. The passthrough through the pc was too quiet to use it live coming out the speakers, our vocalist can drown me out! but I suppose I would go down the spider amp route for that.

Features
I love the product, but I think I was under the impression that I could stick a xlr mic into it as well as guitar, which wasn't the case when I got it home. I wish I'd bought the UX1 or 2 rather read more than the GX, but it is still awesome with guitar. I think the most useful part of the package was the software bundle with riffworks though I initially had a misapprehension it was a full version, rather than the T4 version that anyone can download from sonama.com anyway.

Ease of Use
It worked fine... I had a bit of confusion understanding that the headphone socket on the back was for monitoring, rather than recording. Also, the windows 7 "listen to this device" adds latency, which was a sticking point for about 6 months, whereas editing the hidden volume control didn't. This was a windows issue, rather than Line6. The low latency monitoring truly is.. You can even monitor it through ASIO4ALL if you want to. It's dead easy to plug guitar in and mess around.. As long as pod farm is open. I found it difficult for amplifying vocals because pod farm hides the modelled preamp settings for the vocal model in panel view, rather than gear view, so it was a little obscure.

Quality
It's been working flawlessly for the past 3+ years.. and still looks as good as the day I bought it. The big metal dial is still shiny, though its a little confusing which way to turn it. Only last week, I plugged a headphone splitter into the back to put the output into an additional set of speakers, and the headphone socket on the back of the box stopped working.. I was devastated, though ASIO monitoring still works ok and I've recorded 2 songs since.

Value
This product was totally worth the money I paid for it. I kind of wished I'd bought a UX straight away though, since I thought I was getting simultaneous microphone and guitar capabilities at the time. I remember having a massive grin on my face and thinking I'd robbed the store since it had so many extras with it.

Manufacturer Support
I contacted support when I didn't understand the monitoring correctly, and this was partly because of windows 7's messy "listen to this device" red herring which made me whine about latency issues. I dont think the response fixed my question, but I remember it was a prompt reply at the time.

The Wow Factor
I think the gx is a valuable part of my setup.. It helps me play things I couldn't have before.. I had a 10W amp and everything sounded really muddy.. Plus I couldnt get even that sound into my pc. Now I can record and it sounds incredible. Riffworks has also helped me play in time with drummers. Compared to the rest of the line, the box was a little low-key on the website and the muddy picture in the monkey application. It really does sparkle a little more in real life with the chrome knob, but not quite like the UX or the glorious leds of the spider amp series.

Musical Background:
10 year recording hobbyist and composer.

Musical Style:
Rock, Alternative, Fingerstyle, Acoustic.
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