Line 6 TonePort UX1 User Reviews at zZounds

"Easy to use, near-zero latency" submitted December 15, 2006

By a customer from bellsouth.net

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Musical Background: occasional gigging

Music Style: Worship, Rock

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Sound: I'm going to split my assessment of "sound" into two parts: latency and signal processing. As far as latency issues, I really can't perceive any. The main reason I purchased this item was because of Line 6's claims of "near-zero" latency and tone direct monitoring. I'll have to say that I am very impressed. I run this on a Mac Mini Core Duo and the Ux1 performs very well. In this area I give it a 10. With respect to the Gearbox software, it does a decent job of emulating what you might get in a pod or podxt, but it is still a little lacking. Be ready to shell out some more cash for the model packs, as the toneport comes pretty "stripped" as far as modeling goes. In this area I give it an 8-9. Feature: I wish it had digital in. Other than that, its great. Does exactly what I need it to do. Ease of Use: Extraordinarily simple. The Line 6 Monkey software takes care of the updates very easiliy. FYI, my UX1 shipped with Gearbox 1.0...current version is 3.0 (Line 6...why aren't you shipping the most recent version?). I use this with GarageBand and the integration is seamless. Excellent user's guide. Although you must have Guitarport open in order to use the UX1 interface, you can click the "bypass" button in Gearbox if you prefer to run your "wet" signal into the UX1. I find this advantageous because I usually go into a Boss GT8. Also, you can deactivate the preamp section in Gearbox but still utilize the effects. This is good in situations where you are happy with your amp tone but want to add chorus, delay, etc. I do this with my Traynor tube amp...I run from the line out from the back of my amp into the UX1 and bypass the amp models. However, I can still add chorus, Leslie, delay, cabinet emulation, etc. Quality: Made of plastic...seems lightweight. However, its made to sit on a computer desk, so it really shouldn't have to stand up to a lot of abuse. Value: Forget Gearbox...the interface alone is worth the $130. You really do get near-zero (actually zero?!?) latency with the monitoring. The Gearbox software is a gradd "bonus", but might not suit all of your needs like a Podxt live would. Manufacturer Support: I e-mailed Line 6 support to get some questions about using the Toneport without running Gearbox (see above)...I had an answer back in about a day. I followed up with another question and the reply was the same day. I think that is pretty good. The Wow Factor: No sex appeal...unless you are into male and female jack connections. Its a plastic audio interface for crying out loud! Overall: I'll keep using this until I need to record more than two simulatenous tracks. Excellent product...I couldn't ask for more other than digital in. Otherwise I would give a "10".

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"Does what it advertises...Awsome sounds!" submitted September 16, 2006

By a customer from yahoo.com

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Musical Background: Hobbyist

Music Style: rock, Jazz,

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Sound: My objective was to do recording thru HP ZV6000 laptop on a limited budget, and this did the trick, and the tones are great, even though you have to pay more for addional sound upgrades, still worth it. Feature: The Toneport ux1 has a toy-ish look to it, but does not seem like it would break from a small drop, I like the GearBox software that runs this, If I had the Money, I would step up to the Podxt Pro Live ,it does all of this and more, for live performance, toneport is limited to your computer. Ease of Use: Once you plug in and start up Gearbox software , your up and running.....it comes with ableton recording software (demo) version, which means if you want full recording capabilities, you have to purchase a actvation key, and if you want additional drum loops, requires another actvation key.....but I use Cool Edit Pro for recording, and it does just fine, drum loops are done on my Yamaha DGX200, sounds o.k. Quality: it looks kind of cheap, but for $129.95, it does the job very well, its fairly durable, you could break it if you tried, and I would probably replace it with a new one. Value: for a cheap way to play guitar on my laptop and record, and being a non-professional, I'm happy line6 built a product like this for a player at my level, I see professionals using the more expensive versions of this sound equipment and performimg live and recording with it also, so that alone says something for the technolgy. I spent over $500 on other footswitches and don't come close to getting the sounds I get with the toneport....but do yourself a favor...If you want the option to play live (without computer) consider the line6 Podxt pro live first.....if I had extra change in my pocket, this would be my first choice. Manufacturer Support: Most questions are answered in the help section of thier website, this thing requires at least 512mb of ram or better, i'm running on 511mb ram and getting a low ram warning on monkey software, but still works flawless. have not had to call yet! The Wow Factor: I wish the design was a little different, I wish I could set the unit right under my laptop, but instead, It sets next to it, gets nocked over, gets in the way of my two year old eyeballing the cords. Overall: This serves its perpose for me, if I decide to start performing live, I will step up to the Podxt Pro Live unit and can transfer my user info to the new unit, I'm glad line6 is not selfish in that department, because that could get to be expensive re-purchasing all those cabs again.

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"this is for the one man band guy who does it all....have fun. " submitted November 3, 2007

By a customer from yahoo.com

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Sound: you have to pay extra for most model downloads from line6 to get a good selection of sounds....which is worth it, but some sounds are not available on this one that other line6 products have...but if your into generic recording...this will do. Feature: for as simple as this looks, there's alot you can accomplish with this, the gearbox software is the muscle behind this product. Ease of Use: not rocket science, but does take a little time to learn some features. Quality: seem's sturdy enough. Value: gotta say, for having a recording studio on your computer, you can't beat the price. Manufacturer Support: save your user name and password with line6 website and you'll be o.k. The Wow Factor: my curiosity got the best of me, i'm not sorry for purchasing. Overall: no complaints, all the initial software updates stink, but pretty fast with broadband speed.

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"Looking for a great audio interface on a budget, buy this one and you won't be sorry." submitted November 8, 2010

By a customer from aol.com

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Musical Background: hobbyist

Music Style: vocals

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Sound: I use this as an audio interface and shaping device for over the air transmissions. I use several pieces of software including the bundled stuff and this thing works great! There is virtually no latency and the two knobs on top make trimming the audio in and out a cinch. It took me under an hour to set up and had it running. My rack gear took days to get right, this thing worked super out of the box for vocal audio using just the Pod Farm software included with the unit.. Thanks LINE 6!! Feature: Come with Live, Pod Farm and the Monkey software. All of it is awesome and the unit updates itself on the web. The early drivers on the disk will be updated several times on the first install so be patient. Ease of Use: Very easy for this noob to use.. Quality: As other mentioned, its plastic and cheesy, but the beauty is on the INSIDE!! Value: Yes, it does vocals and instruments.. Great for what I need it for which is just the vocal end.. Works super! Manufacturer Support: So far so good and no need on my end to call them at all, the software updates it automatically which is good all around.. The Wow Factor: You probably would pass this up based on looks but for simple installations consider this unit based on price, ease of use and clever design.. Overall: I don't anticipate buying a more expensive unit, this does the job well enough for me and is working just fine.

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"Happy recording with UX1!" submitted February 26, 2007

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Sound: I have only used this for accoustic guitar and vocals, but the sound is great. I had a mid priced electric guitar multi-effects pedal a while ago, and this is equal to that for effect sounds. I have preprocessed the accoustic to sound like an electric, which sounds brilliant for solos. Then on top of that the sound that is recorded to PC is high. Not to mention you can hear the effects on your input (vocals for example), while hearing the earlier tracks without delay or issues. Feature: I'd give features 10, just due to the price. It has a pre-amp, microphone and electric guitar input, tonnes of effects and a few outputs too. Missing features might include more inputs or digital audio out, but neither of these are the slightest concern for me. If you are contemplating using for a bigger band later however, I'd buy the UX2. Ease of Use: Don't use the included CD, go straight to the Line6 website and grab the latest versions of Gearbox and Ableton Lite (if you plan to use Ableton) versions. Install them, then plug in the USB, then open Gearbox and you are done. The Gearbox interface couldn't be easier either. I was recording with the exact sounds I was hoping when I bought the product within 2 hours of opening the box, and all on a Vista laptop. Quality: I only put 8 because I haven't had it long enough to know. It's very light, but I see little reason why anything would break at this point. Value: Absolutely worth the money. Manufacturer Support: The downloads were all Vista ready, so I would give it a 10 if it wasn't for the lack of 64 bit support. That didn't effect me, but 64 bit chips are common place now, so I would think Line6 should consider people installing Vista 64 especially. The Wow Factor: It's not really all that pretty, but then I'm hardly likely to care what it looks like either. I would say the features make up most of the sez appeal. Overall: I was after a cheap and quick solution to my crappy onboard sound. I figured when I bought it that I wouldn't need to upgrade unless it didn't work properly, or I got a whole lot more serious about music, like getting paid a lot to write songs. I haven't been disappointed, this will last until I have completely different needs to what I have now. I'd suggest bands look at the UX2 only because it has more inputs, or of course a mixer with this model. I use a HP laptop with Vista Ultimate, 1.6Ghz Dual Core (bottom end), 1 GB RAM and 80 GB 5400 rpm HD. I turn off wireless, disable onboard sound, close all other programs and have had no problems, and don't expect any for what I do. I wouldn't hesitate in recommending it to anyone.

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"Almost Great Product...Great Price" submitted July 2, 2006

By a customer from aol.com

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Musical Background: Active Musician

Music Style: Electronica

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Sound: While the sound is not top of the line it's not bad. For the price you can't go wrong. When recording bass I get occasional pops in the recording. This does not happen with guitar or vocals. As far as a sound card it's great. No surface noise. Latency is not an issue. Feature: I was especially interested in the vocal settings and I was not dissapointed. Bass Amps are a plus but not that extensive. Still it's new. I expect the next version will be more varied. Ease of Use: The instructions for this left something to be desired. I would have prefered to have an actual user manual. I use several different programs and each one was different to set up. Now that that's done it works fine but clearer intructions would have helped me a great deal. Quality: This sits on my desk and won't move. I expect it will last a long time. Value: For this price it's fine. I wouldn't pay more for it though. Manufacturer Support: I have not had to use support so I will give them the benefit of the doubt. The Wow Factor: Not sexy in the least. A practical addition to my setup. Overall: Sooner or later I will upgrade my whole system. Untill then this will work fine. My main concerns were surface noise and latency issues. Tone Port works pretty well on both counts.

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"Maybe the best bang for bucks in audio recording ever." submitted February 17, 2009

By a customer from marcelodefacto.com

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Musical Background: Recording Engineer/ Producer

Music Style: Rock/Rap/Alternative

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Sound: This thing is a killer. Feature: Missing phantom, found on UX2, and MIDI. Ease of Use: Extremely easy to use. Quality: Plastic, cheap feel, but it works, no flaws... Value: It is worth ten times more, considering its usability. Manufacturer Support: No problems with that. Contacted them couple of times, fast response. The Wow Factor: I wanted it from the moment I saw it. I own UX2, bought UX1 as a present for my friend. Overall: I have recorded entire albums with this, bass, guitars... It's hard to imagine anything easier and better.

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Line 6 TonePort UX1 Customer Review submitted November 16, 2005

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SPOTLIGHT REVIEW

Sound: The amp models sound very good and realistic to me. It has a hum reducer which I have not used because it has not been a problem for me. For the money this thing sounds excellent! No noise, just cool tones! Feature: All your basic effects here. Loads of amp/cabinet models to choose from. Like the previous post says - Tweak away! It would have gotten a 10 from me if it had audio through the usb and not just the unit itself. This is a minor problem though. Quality: Mine works absolutely flawless. It was what I was expecting; however I must say that it has very little weight to it and I feel if I ever dropped it on a really hard surface, it might be a problem. Value: I don't see how you could do better for the money! Overall: I use it to record into Sony's Acid Pro 5, Sound Forge and Vegas. I'm pretty new to computer recording, but for me this thing is it! I previously tried an M-Audio Fastrack USB and it didn't like my laptop. The Toneport gets along with my laptop just fine and has loads more features to boot! I haven't actually used the lite version of Ableton that came with it, but I'm sure that would work fine too. If you want an inexpensive, no hassle way to record great sounding guitar into your project, you need to seriously take a look at this. Great modeling and great recording!

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"Not Ready for Primetime. Don't record with USB!" submitted January 5, 2006

By a customer from msn.com

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Musical Background: active musician on weekends

Music Style: 80's rock, and big band like Michael Bule and Harry Connick

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Sound: I'm currently using the UX1 with a Shure Beta 58. When I bought the thing, the sales rep said it had phantom power. It doesn't, so don't order this one if you need phantom power. This little unit has a lot of great sounds built in BUT! When I use it purely as a preamp for my mike into the computer, about every two minutes I hear a loud POP! Quite unnerving. I think the USB power is causing this problem. I never had this problem when I hook up an external self powered mixer into the computer. Feature: There are great tones in the Line6 Gearbox software that comes with the unit. Unfortunately, it pops so I couldn't use it for recording. It's easy to overdrive the preamp, and although there are different mixer preamp emulations, they all sounded too similar. Also, I didn't like that when you left an effect like, compression at a certain level, when you switched it on and off, it didn't go back to the factory default, so you never know when everything is at absolute zero.The unit itself seems pretty sturdy. Quality: This product seemed pretty sturdy. Nice model. They should make a unit like this that runs off of a power adapter so the usb power doesn't cause the recording to pop. Value: For $79 I can get a Behringer 10 channel mixer with fx built in. For another $99 I can get a great compressor. That would sound better than the Line6. Manufacturer Support: n/a it's going back. The Wow Factor: Pretty utilitarian Overall: This poor fella's going back. I'm getting a mixer and compressor instead. If line6 made an external mixer with the sounds built in like it has right now, I'd buy it. But I can't use something for recording that pops and has sound drop outs.

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"Great System, Great Sound, Easy Set-up" submitted April 2, 2006

By a customer from insightbb.com

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Musical Background: Hobbyist

Music Style: Rock

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Sound: Delivers great sound and each cab model is very easily distinguishable. The effects work great. No latency that I'm able to pick up. I routed the outputs to my stereo receiver using 1/4" to RCA cable and all sound comes out stereo speakers. Some persons mention humming but Gearbox comes with a hum reducer and it worked great. No popping from my system. Feature: chose the UX1 because will mostly just record single guitar input at one time. For the price this thing really is packed with enough features for any newbie to begin home recording. Probably will buy some Drum software to add that affect. Ease of Use: Within 30 minutes, Loaded the software, hooked up the cables, plugged in the guitar and experimented with the different cab models and effects in Gearbox. On line manuals provide extra support. Took a little longer to figure out the recording software, Ableton Live, after I gave up trying to wing it and finally worked through the tutorials. Quality: This unit is very light so I actually feel more comfortable that if it dropped nothing would happen. All knobs and input/output work fine. Value: Nothing out there beats it for the price! Manufacturer Support: Online documentation and tutorials are enough to fix most issues. The Wow Factor: For the price and what this baby can, the home hobbyist and any band on a budget will find this product appealing. I'm sure the more experienced and persons willing to spend more can always find a product that can do more. Overall: I bought this for my 17 yr old son who writes alot of songs on his guitar but has never recorded any. After hooking it up, he fell in love with it because now he doesn't have to save up his money for different pedal effects, etc. I was concerned that his computer would not be fast enough based on the recommended system but his 1GHZ Intel Celeron processor with 512MB RAM easliy handles the software and recording.

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"Pass on this" submitted January 21, 2008

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Sound: Has a lot of ugly and useless effects. Cannot get a nice clean tone, only does distortion. Even the so called clean presets are extremely crunchy. It buzzes when I line out an amp to it, even though the amp is usually silent. Feature: No good features. One input for guitar. Line inputs that I cant seem to make work, analog outs dont seem to work either. Im not stupid, I work with a lot of musical equipment but this thing doesnt want to respond. I have to plug my speakers through an adaptor into the headphone jack to get any output. Ease of Use: Yeah, its completely simple except half of it doesnt work. Quality: Seems put together fine. I wish I owned something else though. Value: It's the cheap route, thats for sure. I would say its worth it because it gets the job done, but after using it I wish I'd spent some extra money for a more capable piece of hardware. Manufacturer Support: cant say Ive tried to get support. but the instructions and help sections on the software suck. The Wow Factor: Never liked line 6 amps, now i dislike line 6 products in general. Overall: I'm not really satisfied, I use the box just to link my computer to my guitar, but I use garage band for effects and ignore everything this thing comes packaged with because its all crap. It's more of a burden in getting my sound right than anything else. I need to find something better.

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Line 6 TonePort UX1 USB Computer Recording Interface

User Ratings

"Easy to use, near-zero latency" submitted December 15, 2006

"Does what it advertises...Awsome sounds!" submitted September 16, 2006

"this is for the one man band guy who does it all....have fun. " submitted November 3, 2007

"Looking for a great audio interface on a budget, buy this one and you won't be sorry." submitted November 8, 2010

"Happy recording with UX1!" submitted February 26, 2007

"Almost Great Product...Great Price" submitted July 2, 2006

"Maybe the best bang for bucks in audio recording ever." submitted February 17, 2009

Line 6 TonePort UX1 Customer Review submitted November 16, 2005

"Not Ready for Primetime. Don't record with USB!" submitted January 5, 2006

"Great System, Great Sound, Easy Set-up" submitted April 2, 2006

"Pass on this" submitted January 21, 2008