Feature:
Guitarport can do more to your your guitar sound ("tones" as line-6 calls them) than piles of pedals and racks of very expensive effects processors. Albeit, it needs your expensive computer, which you probably don't want to lug to gigs or rehersals, do you?
It integrated perfectly into my PC, leaving the soundcard and other peripherals unaffected, and they are all happily working together. Note: I jacked up the guitar-port quality (there is a simple control panel), the USB signal, and reduced the latency. This is supposed to make it sound all the better. I couldn't notice a difference in sound, but my machine (2.6Ghz, 512Mb SDRAM) is barely sweating the guitar-port's max system load (it's always between 10%-15%).
If you have a PC already, this thing is great and works better than you might imagine and BETTER than advertised. If you don't have a guitar-port (and have a newish computer) you are a self-righteous snob living in a tube-amp fairy-tale, or are really poor and need to get a better job. It's only $99!
Quality:
Well, it's not perfect, in fact it's fake. Sometimes you can actually tell, most of the time you can't, unless you are the tube-amp-fairy.
It's really good fake. Everyone should get one. If you really, really want a "real tone" only play acoustic. Honest purists wouldn't play an electric guitar at all. Ancient amplified guitars, vintage vibrato and spring reverb are just as fake as guitar port. In fact they sound worse. You purist loosers must flee before my acoustical logic!
Put it this way boys: if you see a girl looking just the way you like, but you think parts might be fake, do you stop looking? Would you forgive her if she confesses to you? If it's good, it's good!
Value:
This is the best thing I have seen in music at all, and will be for years to come. It helps the open-minded guitarist select and listen to himself playing through almost every conceivable tone. You can learn what sounds (I mean "tones") you want and like, and guitar port delivers them in a VERY simple and flexible package. It can help a true artist find their "voice" in the privacy of their own room, without mockery from tube-amp purists OR complaints from upstairs neighbors (yes, there is a built-in headphone jack).
Desirability:
The actual Guitar Port box is wierd looking and keeps getting underfoot if it is on the floor, and falling off the amp or table. Bad physical design. Plus: candy apple red is sooo wanna be cool.
It really good as a device, but a flop as a fashion accessory. SO WHAT!
Sound:
This thing sounds great, and it does a very close imitation of everything I have tried to make it do, but don't be fooled, it is not a 100% replacement for a tube amp sound. It is a 98% replacement, and a 100% effects-processor. I will comment at various times on the tube-amp sound in the following.
Sadly, it does not do a "real acoustic" sound (as far as I can tell) unlike the other "variax" line-6 products, which sound pretty darned good. :(
Support:
You must pay for the guitar-port "online" experience. This REQUIRES a credit-card. Most teens don't have one, thus the "online" crap is a greedy way to make steady cash ($8/month or $96/ year) for line-6. Most of all, I have heard that it is near-impossible to cancel the service once you start paying for it. The actual guitar-port tool is great, why do they mess it up with a crooked online business?
A little hint: just buy the thing, ignore the online pay - BUT go the the "wrong" section : the one for pod-xt "tone" downloads. These work fine on my guitarport. You are going to need to tweak the sounds once you get them, anyways.
There are 1000's of online guitar tabs and tips online to help you learn, so ignore the lessons, unless you like getting trapped in a credit-card loop and paying $100/year forever.
Overall:
A little more work from line-6 and I will order this thing for my friends and family to play on. If line-6 keeps upgrading the software, it will be new and useful for years. Easily the best $100 I have spent on anything musical ever. No kidding.
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