Line 6 TonePort UX-8

Rackmount
Assignable Meters
Clip Indicators
Metal Casing (would travel with enclosed rackmount)
Master Volume and dual headphone volume controls

I like the dual headphones being independant of the master volume although headphone 1 outputs the same signal as the master.

USB 2.0

I run Vista home premium and have had zero problems since day 1. I track 8 channels at once and have done so at 24/96 with a 256 buffer with no issues.

No opinion,

I don't use anything but the mic pre's for drums and vox and the intrument jacks for guitars and bass. For the analog home recording engineer it is perfect.

AC powered
Phantom power on all channels in 2 banks of 4.

24\96
Asio is what I use
Direct monitoring is flawless. The Tone Direct monitoring for modeled instruments\preamps is perfect imo.

Gearbox is great, I never tried the tracking software as I use Audition.
Driver interface is stable and simple to use, surround sound mixing possible.

For me it is perfect as I can do everything I want in one room with a computer, a drumset, my guitars and a vocal mic. I could care less about midi and love the fact that in my space concious world I don't have to fill my office with amps or have a seperate room for guitars (mic bleed). Couple decent pairs of semi-isolating earphones and you are tracking songs in the same room and able to maintain the critical eye contact with your band mates.

I would reccomend it to musicians\engineers who are limited on space or don't have $1000 pre's lying around. If 8 channels at once is enough input for you (I use 6 (3-8) on drums and the instruments (1&2) for Guitar and Bass) and you are not looking to break the bank I think this is worth it. I think it would be a great starter setup for the recording newb also.

Would I buy it again, yes, unless at the time I could afford something like the Onyx 1200F\1640. I would still get a UX2 along with it for doing scratch guitar\bass as I still only have one room.

I wish it could process all 8 channels seperately, but until we have ocho-core PC's this aint gonna happen. The only other option would be cram 8 pods that have their own processing engine into an interface, that would not be $500 though.

The UX8 is a 2 rackspace USB2.0 recording platform.

-Compatability-
Mac:
Intel?? or Power PC?? based G4 1.5GHz or better (G4 1.67 or better recommended)
OS X 10.4 or better
Host application that supports RTAS or Audio Unit (AU) Plug-ins
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 required for activation (once activated, Internet connection is not required)

Windows:
Pentium?? 4 1.2GHz or better (2.5Ghz or more recommended)
Windows?? Vista and Windows?? XP (with SP2 only)
Host application that supports RTAS or VST Plug-ins
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 required for activation (once activated, Internet connection is not required)

USB 2.0 and Limited MIDI

-Input/Output-
Mic:
- 8x XLR rear panel balanced inputs with mic preamps
- 8x front panel trim knobs
- 8x 75 Hz low-cut filter switches
- 8x -20 dB pad switches
- +48 V phantom power
- Impedance: 1.3 k???
Instrument:
- 2x 1/4-inch front panel High-Z inputs
- 2x -10dB pad switches
- Impedance: 1 M???
Line:
- 8x 1/4-inch rear panel unbalanced line level inputs
- Impedance: 10 k???

Analog Output:
- 8x 1/4-inch rear panel balanced +4 dBu line outputs
- Analog main volume knob and mute switch
- Impedance: 600 ???
- Max Output Level: 19 dBu
- Frequency Response: 20 Hz to 20 kHz -0.35 dB
- THD+N: 0.005%

Headphone Output:
- 2x 1/4-inch stereo headphone outputs
- 2x front panel trim knobs
- Impedance: 50 ???

Digital Input/Output:
- S/PDIF stereo I/O
- RCA type connectors
- 24 bit operation, up to 96 kHz

AC powered

Phantom to XLR linked in 2, 4 line, banks.

AD Conversion:

16 bit and 24 bit

44.1, 48, 88.2 and 96 kHz

Measurements:

Max Input Level: 18.5 dBu

Dynamic Range: 110 dB (A-weighted)

Frequency Response: 20 Hz to 40 kHz +/-0.5 dB

EIN: -125 dB A-weighted

Software:

GearBox virtual studio rig

GearBox Plug-In (AU, VST, RTAS) provides the same function as the GearBox application an an inline effect.

How has this product performed for you in the real world?

It has performed well but not amazingly. It is great for a guitarist that needs a virtual environmen but is very finicky wih its interaction with other hardware. I run Vista and the drivers have been a bit flaky. It has an audible click when the driver is initiated however it does not appear in rendered audio.

Would you recommend it to other musicians?
I'm kind of torn on this. The recording quality is more than adiquate for a home studio. The effects and amp models are very good. I would recomend it but, Line6 support is deplorable. They advertise 24-7 support but, it isn't true. There idea of 24-7 support is a forum where you submit a question and if another user of the product doesn't respond in a day they will respond. When they respond they do very little in the way of troubleshooting or data gathering for your scenario. They usually tell you its your problem and that you should solve it and then quote a FAQ. In one peticular case of mine they only responded twice in 4 days. Seeing that I was getting no where with them and, being a software developer myself, I ran a debugger on their driver to sus out the issue I was having. Its a shame, the company would be hard to touch by competitors if they just improved their support.

If it was destroyed or stolen, would you buy it again or get something else?
Due to the experiance I've had with Line6 support I probably will not buy any more computer hardware from them. There are a lot of competetors and I feel my money might be better spent with them.

Anything you wish it had?
Better drivers and support.