Line 6 POD Studio UX2

Won't go into details, if you're looking at this you have probably already researched it enough. USB interface for recording.....

USB 1.1 or 2.0. Does not have the USB Hi-Speed symbol though, so doubt it is actually usb 2.0 hi-speed. Does seem to perfrom very well regardless. I had an M-Audio Fast Track USB which had horrible latency, a Fast Track Pro, which was marginally better. I switched to a Firewire Solo, which works great, but HATES when the computer goes into hibernation. I was constantly restarting my PC to get it to work. I will use it for "real" recordings, but I needed somthing that will turn on and off with the computer without freaking out. The Line 6 seems to be doing the trick so far.

The preamps are usable, not quite as good as the M-audio Firewire, but usable for getting tracks down. They are actually pretty good when you consider the price. There are 2 XLR's a guitar and padded guitar input. Also line inputs on the rear using 1/4 phone plugs. there are gain controls for the mic inputs as well as a direct monitor and headphone volume. 2 VU meters on the front monitor the signal from the mic and guitar inputs. There is also phanthom power for condensor mics if you don't have a mixer to use.

It's actually a nice layout, if not a tad big. They could have used a metal casing though, the plastic makes if feel cheap.

One issue I do have with it though, is the POD Farm software has to be opened to input sound. A little annoying since everything needs to be turned off in POD Farm if you want to record vocals or acoustic guitar.

The unit is bus powered and thats cool because Windows can turn it on and off with the PC, but external power should be an option on these type interfaces IMHO. And also, why is there never a power button? Even newer USB hard drives have on/off buttons and they can loose data. No data is stored in the interface that I know of, so why not be able to turn it on and off?

Any way, it is bus powered, but does not support power through a powered USB hub, so you have to have a free USB port on your PC.

There is phantom power for mics.

Supposedly runs at 24/96, but I usually record at CD bit rates. It just makes everything easier to pass around with band members. If we want to record "for real", we will rent studio time or use our MOTU setup at our jam pad.

I really like the ability to monitot the dry signal. I use a couple different modellers pre-system and it's nice to be able to monitor what is going in through the unit to see if there are any colorations it imparts. With POD Farm having to be active, I am leary, but time will tell.

It comes with POD Farm, Reason, Riffworks and Ableton Lite. The only thing I loaded though was the POD Farm. It has the drivers and such to run the thing, and since I use Sonar 7XL, I only need the interface. I will probably sample Riffworks though, it may be something I can use.

I actually like the POD interface. It is a much more highly developed mixer interface then I've seen with most of the devices on the market. It is a very well laid out GUI that looks and works well.

So far so good, but I am leary because of the complaints I've read online about units just stop working. That would be a bummer, because so far of the ones I've used and seen, this has been the easiest to use and smoothest to install. All the others I've tried or researched required jumping through hoops to get working on a Vista machine. This unit I had up and running in 5 mins. and that was just waiting for the software to load. No updates required and the Monkey program from Line 6 will keep it up to date if you install it.

Portable.(all plastic!!)....VU meter....powerful mic-amp(usb powered!!!)....best soft plugin (even guitar,Bass,Mic)....big size knobs.....Aux stereo in.....great direct monitor.....user friendly.... lowest price!!

stable USB

on-board mic-amp can drive up my AT4050. (even Mbox2 pro cannot)

i cannot believe but it done all well.

All things do with your computer CPU though USB cable.
24-48 2 channel (soft oversampling for 88.1k\96k)
Mac & windows
fastest monitoring with soft-plug.(I've test pass on my netbook..Atom N270)

no midi. no turntable preamp. no Ground lift switch, no stand-alone.

I am a home-studio musician\sound designer.
it's Perfect for me. (I've used m-audio solo, Emu 0404 usb, edirol ua25, digi-design Mbox2 pro, 002 rack, Tacscam 1604, ESI DuaFire, motu 828,....)
i recommend it to all vocal\Bass\guitarist, home-studio fans.
If it was destroyed or stolen, I MUST buy it again.
I wish AUX input is 2 RCA plug (not 1 stereo phone), and a optical in for my CD player.

A two-channel desktop USB recording interface. VU meters, clip indicators, gain and volume knobs. Actual recording volume/mixing/etc handled in POD Farm software. Plastic case. Two balanced mic inputs w/ preamps and one instrument input (and a "pad" instrument input - but it's the same channel) on the front, two line inputs on the back. There's footswitch, SPIDIF, monitor in, analog out on the back as well but I haven't played with those.

The device itself is laid out nicely. I would have preferred the mic inputs be on the back, it's nice to not have your desk cluttered with cables.

USB 2.0. I should mention that Line 6 has worked some magic to "virtually" eliminate latency. There is no latency that I can detect.

The preamps work great. It's a very clean signal, certainly adequate for home recording. The instrument input works great too, but for bass I sometimes have trouble getting enough monitor volume. Would be nice if there was a gain control for the instrument.

USB bus powered, phantom power. I haven't measured the 48V but it works fine.

My computer's USB bus is weakly powered. A previous recording interface would introduce snaps and crackles when recording. My guess is some ADC's weren't getting enough juice. With the UX2 I hear a single click once in 20 minutes or so. Probably the same issue and probably has nothing to do with the device, just my PC. Still, would be nice to have an external power option.

Supposedly this can do 88.2/96 kHz but I think I read that it's upsampling to do that. 44.1 kHz is fine for me.

The monitoring works great, even though it's software based.

Line 6 provides Windows and OS X drivers. I've only used this on Windows so far. The Line 6 Monkey update program let's you update your driver, POD Farm, and other SW. It works well and is very obvious to use (though it does take ~10 minutes to update everything).

Here's my one complaint. Without POD Farm running you can't record anything. For recording this is fine, if I don't want a processed signal I just set POD Farm to output a dry signal. But I'd like to use the UX2 as my main sound interface. I can't use the mic with Skype without starting POD Farm first. It would be nice if by default the device output a dry signal.

POD Farm is very easy to use and the presets are fun to play with. It's good for clean guitar sounds and the delay/reverb effects are convincing. I haven't gotten a convincing dirty guitar sound so far. But that's what tube amps are for. For recording a quick idea or playing around with how things might sound it's fine though.

It's great for bass, I'm kind of a bass noob but it sounds convincing to me. I also run a cello into it, add a little reverb, and that works fantastically.

Bundled software... it came with Ableton Live LE. This program is a total hoot. It's basically a big loop pedal. There's also a bundled version of Reason which I haven't gotten around to.

Works great, VERY easy to use, painless to set up. I'd say it's a fair price for a recording interface. When you add in the software toys (POD Farm and the bundled stuff) it's a good deal in my opinion.