Line 6 TonePort GX

Very difficult. I'm a proffesiional web designer but couldn't get this thing to work. The manual is worthless, as is the customer suport. My PC with Windows Vista didn't recognice the unit. A nightmare...

The sound quality is good actually. As long as it works. Everytime I want to run this unit, I get asked for the drivers, which have to be intalled again (and again, and again, and again...). This is not just a problem with my computer system because I heard from others with the same problem. What a pile of ****!

No, no, no. This thing is a no go for me. If you get it to run, it is fine. But beware: You'll never know what happens next time you power up your system. This is totally unreliable.

There is no customer support from these guys. I live in Europe (continent) and had to call the head quarter in England. They couldn't help me either and gave me a number for technical support in Belgium. They were aware of the bugs already and gave me some advice to keep it running until next time. When I talked to this guy the second time we started a little conversation and he said he used M-Audio and Gitar Rig at home!

Sorry folks, but this thing is full of bugs, which is a shame, because it could be a smart product. I gave it back and got me a Guitar Rig and that worked without a problem right from the start.

Can't say; in spite of Line6's claim that it works with the Mac it really does not.

Can't rate sound quality of something that makes no sound.

You can depend on it not to work with your Mac, in spite of Line6's claim that it does.
They even go so far as to claim it works fine with GarageBand! What a rip off...

The company's support is HORRIBLE! They have no real way to talk to anyone, just a sorry web interface they call a "knowledge base". After running the included CD, following all the software update prompts (which required like *four* reboots), and then still getting no results at all in trying to get the Mac to recognize the device I clicked "support", which sent me to a web site where I was finally able to determine that many other Mac users who bought the Line6 TonePort GX had the exact same problem I had, and that no-one at Line6 is even bothering to address them. Oh, there's a "troubleshooting procedure" to follow, but it doesn't make this thing work. It's completely worthless. To be precise, the error message I encountered on the Mac was: "System extension cannot be used. The system extension '/System/Library/Extensions/Line6Audio.kxt' was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product's vendor for an update." And of course this was *after* the update. GRRRR!
Also, their own software shows that the Line6 USB firmware does not work. Great job, geniuses!
Oh, and my Mac does fall well within the "system requirements" published by Line6 -- eMac G4, 1.25GHz, 1GB RAM, USB 2.0, OS X 10.4.11 -- so they are just basically lying when they say the TonePort GX works in OS X -- it most certainly does not. I ordered this online through amazon.com -- but sadly, not from them directly, so now I have to do a phone dance tomorrow to see if the seller will deign to allow me to return it. I paid with Visa, so either way I will get refunded my money. But not the eight days I waited for this piece of crap nor for the three hours I spent trying in vain to get the thing to work! No, that is time Line6 screwed me out of, and I can never get back. I really hate that crooks like Line6 can just screw people like this.

Anyway, no need to take my word for it, check out the relevant page at the Line6 "support site" here (assuming they don't "sanitize" it periodically):
http://line6.com/support/entry.jspa?externalID=4297&categoryID=38

Sure wish I'd seen that myself before I made my decision to buy...

Maybe for those poor souls stuck using windows, this thing might be awesome.
But I wouldn't risk it, seeing as how Line6 doesn't hesitate to outright lie (at least to Mac users) about what this box can and cannot do. I will never buy another Line6 product. They got their one shot at me. Congratulations, Line6! A single deceptive sale has lost you a lifetime of potential business from this buyer.

1) easy to get a good sound - the only way to edit the tone is with the gearbox software which is one of the friendliest GUIs ive ever seen - if you point the mouse at something an explanation (and a useful one!) appears at the bottom of the screen. TO make it work you plug it into the usb port on your computer and plug your headphones or speakers into the toneport - et voila!
2) editing is easy again because the software is well conceived and ergonomically designed.
3) manual is largely pdf and online and covers most other line 6 devices aswell as this one but its all there - some of the more esoteric aspects of the tonedirect monitoring isnt clear but on the whole well above average.

The sound quality is proven as it is the sound of the line 6 POD XT range (not the newer X3 range) for modelling its good enough and then some. I use it with a variax as a recording interface for my laptop as i needed something external that would do the job.

there's only one moving part (the volume knob) apart form the USB cable and sockets there's not much else that can fail.

As i said i bought this as a recording interface for my laptop. With laptops USB or firewaire is the only real option - but if i but a firewire device id still need something to actually generate tones - either onboard software like amplitube that could take up my cpu and ram and is pretty expensive or an external device like a pod that would make my mobile studio not so mobile.. the GX is the perfect balance of both - i just need my laptop my guitar and the toneport - nuff said! only issue is on other versions of the toneport (ive owned the UX1 before) you can use the USB cahnnels more effectively (say sending one processed signal and one unprocessed signal for reamping later) and this isnt the case on the GX. But you really cannot sniff at a high quality USB recording interface with built in line 6 quality tones for ??37!!! really its quite amazing! excellent for laptops too as they often have problems with CPU/RAM/latency - with the tone direct monitoring you can record with stupidly high buffers but suffer little or no latency = impressive! There isnt much of a down side on this thing - its a little bit bigger than a cigarette pakcet im simply amazed by it to be honest.

It was a bit difficult to get a good sound out of it initially, and the preset it came with really sucked. The manual wasn't very helpful either. After I got through the learning curve though holy hell this thing is awesome!.

I'm using it through a 30$ set of pc speakers with a subwoofer. My main guitar is the Ibanez RG120. Basically with the line 6 toneport you can get really damn close to *any* sound, but usually never quite there. The distortion amp models that came with the device were just alright, the cleans were very very good and customizable. When I purchased the metalshop addon I was amazed and overwhelmed by the huge range of awesome new tones, all of which sounded completely badass and fairly close to their real world counterparts. The Peavey 5150 and ENGL powerball models were pretty much spot on. The Marshall and Mesa Boogie models weren't so spot on, but still sounded very good. With the line 6 big bottom model I was able to pretty much perfectly replicate the guitar tone on Decapitated's The Negation album. Using various amp models and the reverb effects I was able to get reverbed cleans which sounded even better than those on any of the Evoken albums. The toneport doesn't sound great through headphones, but still alright. Through a good set of pc speakers or stereo speakers it's just complete heaven, loud as balls for the distortions and crystal clear even at high volumes for the cleans. The crunch type sounds weren't great but those are a bit more difficult to replicate. The tones in generally are highly compressed, and the distorted tones are often accused of having "too much" gain, is there even such a thing?

I've had it for over 6 months now, nothing's happened. It would be rather difficult to gig with, but it has a counterpart called the Line 6 pod which is designed for live sound. The toneport is more geared toward home practice or home recording.

Haven't dealt with them.

I play doom metal, death metal, ambient music, and post rock. This device could be tailored perfectly to any of them. The Peavey 5150 model had a perfect bonecrunching bass and shrieking trebles just right for death metal. The Line 6 Big Bottom, Mesa Boogie Triple rectifier, and Soldano models all had nice smooth but high gain distortions perfect for doom metal or post rock. Pretty much any of the amp models could be tailored for a perfect clean sound by simply turning the drive to 0, and were also perfect for post rock and ambient. Overall I would highly recommend this device in the place of a first amp or a small practice amp, so far it's blown away literally every solid state amp I've ever tried, and a couple of the low range tube ones as well. When you add that all in with it's very attractive price tag, and extra features like vocals and bass capability, and a perfect tuner, you have pretty much the best thing ever. Hell, a tuner as accurate and easy to use as this one might run you 30-40 bucks, this has that AND a plethora of effects and amp models for you. I'm amazed anyone would even buy a solid state combo with this thing on the market. Oh, did I mention you can record with it?!

This unit is so easy to use. The software is a breeze to understand. I loaded the software onto my HP laptop and it fired up right away. My laptop doesn't have the required minimum components but it loaded without a hitch and works great. Editing the guitar amps is a breeze and when you point the mouse over a specific knob, at the bottom of the screen you find an explanation of what the control does. This helps a lot. The sounds are awesome for recording and I found out if you have powered speakers for your computer, you can hook up a 4X12 cabinet to it and get some great tones.

Some of the tones sound a little digitized but it kind of adds to the ambiance of the tone, almost Megadeth like. It is great having access to all the preset tones and the artist tones. You can then take and tweek them to your liking.

Love the sound quality of the different amps. It's great having different cabinets to assign to the heads. They really make a difference in the overall tone.

This could be used for a gig if you used a laptop hooked up to a poweramp and then running either into a board or into a cabinet.

I play mainly death metal and old school metal and get some great thrash tones. I have saved my own Sacred Reich and Megadeth tones and they sound great.

I would like to know if there is a way to use some type of midi pedal with this so I could change patches on the fly while recording.

This unit and software helps a guitarist create and it is a lot of fun to use. Almost endless possibilities with the combination of amps and pedals.

I bought this on a whim not knowing anything about Line 6 other than the Pod which was used by a former bandmate of mine and he wasn't too happy about it. I followed the instructions included and although the Line 6 Monkey said my RAM wasn't quite enough, I didn't have a problem with installation and haven't had any since. Once you get used to it, editing patches and making adjustments are easy.

While I'm sure that any sound recreated on the Gearbox will never be as good as the real things, I'm still very pleased especially with all the options available. There are model packs for sale, but with all that is available with the GX, I have way more than I need.

Installed the GX and have been recording with it since August of this year. No problems. I doubt I could use it at a live event.

My inquiries to customer support were answered pretty quickly. No complaints there.

I have been playing Christian contemporary music for several years and this has opened up a world of new advantages and opportunities for me with not only guitar amp models but bass, keyboard and vocal preamp selections that really take a lot of the guesswork out of trying to get a good sound. I am a relative newcomer to PC recording and I use Kristal Recording Software. This works just fine with it. If I lost it or it got stolen, I'd definitely get another one or perhaps upgrade to a UX1 or UX2.

It's pretty self intuitive, although i did have issues getting it to work with my laptop to record. I had to disable my laptop soundcard so that it allowed the toneport GX to be the default soundcard. It wouldn't let me simply switch between the two in the recording options. I used cool edit pro to record and it's a charm. Gearbox is self intuitive too and editing your own patches is a breeze.

I was able to get your standard maiden and metallica sounds from tinkering about with it. The marshall sound is very well modelled although i found it hard to compare the dual rectifier (scratchplate model) with my mates Mesa Boogie nomad. There's too many parameters to mess about with, but thats the beauty and flexibilty of this product. You get what you pay for and it delivers bang for your buck.

I use it on my laptop for recording with cool edit and hasn't let me down. Using this allows me to play into the night without disturbing my flatmate or the neighbours downstairs! I very much doubt i'd be using it for any other purpose other than jamming and recording since i would need my laptop with me at all time. The case seems sturdy despite being plastic although the main knob feels light but has good motion.

I play mostly 3 chord punk stuff so all i needed was "the sound" of marshalls and mesa boogies. For heavier stuff like metal, it delivers the sustain, but i can't help but feel that its a bit "artificial". I wish i could create/replicate a good acoustic patch for it (don't have net currently at home so i haven't been able to go onto line6's site for presets).

It's a shame that you have to plug your speakers into the output jack of the unit and that it cant play through your PC's own soundcard, but i can live with that. For 45 quid (got a 5 quid discount), i scored a bargain, much better than getting a cheapo 15W amp from ebay for the same price. I can jam along with my senheisser 202 earphones and enjoy the sound quality.

Pretty easy. I didn't read the instructions before attempting to use it. It took me a few minutes to realize that the guitar sound would not, by default, come through my computer headphones. You need to connect to the headphone jack on the TonePort box. Otherwise, it was very easy to use. I haven't tried recording yet, though. Getting patches from Line6's site is easy and done through the software. It takes a while to navigate through all the various windows to create your own tone, but you can't do much about that. Using "factory" presets is a breeze.

One complaint: The system requirements detector didn't work well on my computer. I have a Pentium M, which it took for a Pentium 4 and complained about the speed being too slow. Pentium M is *much* better than Pentium 4, so this may mislead some folks.

For $68 US, the sound is great (I bought in Oregon, too, so no sales tax)! I got this for a new Traveler Speedster I purchased at the same time. You get 18 Guitar, 5 Bass, and 6 Pre-Amp models. More models are available as "Model Packs," but Line 6 wants a good amount of cash for the extras. You also get a noise gate, volume pedal, wah, stomp (distortion), compressor, EQ, Modulation, Delay, and Reverb "pedals." The pedals have all the basics, and you can purchase more effects online, too. There are also a ton of speaker cab models. All the effects sound good. I haven't tweaked them myself yet, but the presets show them off pretty well. If you like heavy sounds, you won't be disappointed. I would like some more good clean and crunchy presets. I have some good sounds on my V-AMP that I would like to replicate, but not sure if I can with the limited model selection.

I tried out my new guitar with a Pandora effects box. I think this sounds almost as good, but costs much less. (Of course, you need a computer.) The box also supports 24/96, so, overall, you get a lot for the money. I haven't noticed any hiss or other noise yet. There is also a hiss reducer that you can train to your guitar setup. Haven't tried it, but it looks interesting. Also, there was no latency between my playing and the sound in my ears.

It also has a tuner. :)

Box seems pretty sturdy. This is computer software, so not sure I can trust Windows not to crash, but it will work great for my purposes, which is having something to jam with when I travel. I'll use it at home, too, to record some song ideas and jam to mp3 and iTunes.

Haven't dealt with Line6 in person, but they do have a lot of information on their web site. They have also given a way a lot of software for free! I built a patch converter for POD to V-AMP, so I appreciated their openness with software and docs. :) I give it a 6 mostly because I have little experience with Line 6's people.

Overall, I love this. It works well on my laptop, and makes a perfect travel rig. It's much cheaper than anything else of similar quality one might use for travel (Pandora, etc). Competing software in similar price ranges (Behringer and M-Audio) have very limited modeling offerings. I considered the new mini POD, but at $129, it seemed to do the same things, but couldn't record, etc. TonePort GX seems like a much better deal. Although the models are limited, the tones are excellent, and you can find other artist/band presets online directly through the user-interface.

The biggest let-down for me is the expensive amp/effects packs. I really only want a few more amps and effects to get the sounds I want. However, you have to pay $99+ for the packages. I wish they would break out of the cable company pricing model and let me buy the few models I want for a few bucks instead of too much for things I don't want.