Line 6 Gearbox VST

* How long have you been making music?
25 Years

*What instruments do you play?
Guitar

* What is the software version number of the plug-in?
Latest Version as of Feb-08, I'm using the RTAS version, doesn't matter whether it's Audio Unit VST or RTAS, they all work the same and there's no difference in functionality or sound.

* What application(s) do you use the plug-in with?
Pro Tools v.7.3

* What are you using the plug-ins for?
lead guitar solos, rythym

*What kind of music do you make?
Metal

* What kind of computer and what operating system are you using?
Mac G4 + G5 OSX 10.2 - 10.4 and Windows XP and Vista

* What is your primary listening equipment?
Digi003, AKG headphones, Soundcraft Spirit Board, Tannoy monitors

* Do you find the interface intuitive?
Easy compared to other plugs.

* Did you have any problems installing the plug-in?
No

Copy protection to deal with?
No
* Is automation supported?
Yes

*Is there any MIDI controller implementation,etc.?
Yes

* How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?
It COULD NOT BE ANY EASIER...Instantly easy just like any REAL amplifier with effects. Folks, you need to understand what it means to have a POD inside Pro Tools. Google any major recording studio, [ones that have Billboard hit credits] and chance are very good that you will find a POD in their list of equipment.

* How is the manual ?
Clear as any. But you don't really need it, it has a logical work flow, all you need is common sense.

* How does it sound?
Real

*In a mix?
Fat

*Any tricks to make it better?
Tricks are built-in to the chips from Line6

* Do you find the presets adequate,
More than adequate

* If the plug-in is an instrument, is it expressive?
This thing is exactly like real world analogue gear, I tried amplitube and found it to have mainly one fuzzy sound that seems to be slightly different for each amp model whereas Gearbox really did emulate the amps I actually play with the same responsiveness and inspiring sound, Gearbox makes you want to keep playing like a real amp with effects. It sounds absolutely HUGE and WIDE.

* Is operation mono or stereo?
Either.

*Any bit-depths or sample rates not supported?
All bits supported

* Was it worth the price tag?
Worth more that it cost, I believe it is hands down the best sounding amp software available and I've tried them all, including Digidesign's Eleven which sounds nice, but it doesn't ROCK like the Line6 stuff which is basically the POD in Pro Tools so, in my opinion all other just take a backseat.

* What made you choose this over another plug-in?
I own a POD and nothing beats it in hardware,sonow I own it in software. Anyone serious about real guitar sound needs to at demo this thing before making their decision.

What did you compare it to?
Every other amp plug Mac and PC.

* What do you love about it?
First how it sounds, second how it integrates into Pro Tools.

What do you hate?
Nothing.

What is your favorite feature?
The WAH WAH.

* If it's a native plug-in, does it hog the CPU?
No.

* Has it ever crashed on you?
No

* Anything you wish it had?
It is complete. All you need to do is summon its spirit.

I play mostly Guitars but Gearbox works fantastics with Basses or Mics

The Interface is some like the Amplitube choise of presets but with more amps sims cabs mics, etc

Hi guys at Harmony Central....well here are some news regarding the Gearbox VST Gold, as you can see on many websites the prices drops from $600 to $150 for the Gold Edition so i could be able to get one in short time...i have to say, comparing all of the new VST virtual Amps (Amplitube 2, Guitar Rig 3, or whatsoever Revalver III) it is and i mean it, it is the best VST Plugin for Guitarrist who want to uses it as stand alone to jam or simply find endless of tones (toneport) or get monthly subscripcion of what i called "Better than Guitar Pro 5" for learning licks and whole songs of your favorite Artists. And the sound....o well.....you wont believe me till you own it....i have had comparisons using all VST Amps available from years back, i`ve found the best one uses to be Amplitube and Revalver into the high gain tones, and Guitar Rig for Clean and Crunchy tones....well....my search for the best Amp Sim has finally ended since i bought this puppy.

Not only gives you endless tones and posibilities (more than the 20.000 tons that amplitube claim they can reach) i mean, you guys tell me how many Amps models have Amplitube (count them with your fingers) and Gearbox Gold came with all the model packs for the price. i Am talking about more than 80 amp sims, 24 cab sims, Bass Amps and cabs. Vocals Amps and cabs so hey....what are you guys waiting for...i mean it....go for the line6. I asure you wont find best sounds in other plugins to date (i personally am waiting for the Amplitube Metal and the Soundspectral VST) but i know for sure they cant beat a POD sound in VST format.

In my short experience with the Gearbox, and here is where everyone is confused, my Gold edition came with the TONEPORT DI....Many guys here are waiting for this one to be cracked because they claim that the Toneport is only acting like a dondgle to use of the Gearbox Plugins. Why i dont understand is why they never ask further of why its has to be connected to use of the Gearbox at is best. Well....i had to say that the sounds gets that well because it uses the toneport DI (not only to connect your Guitar or Bass optimized Input) but the DSP is done by the Toneport DI and not the CPU so i am afraid to say it never will be cracked...believe me on this one

I have now 3 Audio Interfaces on my computer, one is my Audigy 2 ZS Platinum, second my Zoom G9.2tt who i can use as and audio interface aswell and third my Tone Port DI Gold....and yes, you can input your guitar through any of this 3 audio interfaces and use the Gearbox Gold....but you have to connect always your Toneport DI in order to use the Gearbox (wonder why?)

Final thoughts....this is the best so far i`ve heard, the clean tones are more real and the heavy stuff is amazing more dinamics and better feel and responsive...i found myself being a better guitarrist shortly because of the Line6 Gearbox. Now i can finally say Way to Go Line6.

if you want to know more about my gearbox gold edition Plugin and my toneport DI just send me a PM or write me at "gothmessiah" in hotmail And no....i am not in anyway afiliatted to Line6 (whish i could) my opinion here are only based in my own experience using VST Amp Sims.

Have a nice life,....found a better one buying your next virtual Rig.

Regards,

Aristides Sierra.

For 150 dollars, come on, what are you waiting for??? get it for free?? it cant be cracked for christ sake.

Gearbox came with my Toneport, and you get free updates (the latest one is a big difference!)
- Been playing 2.5 years, all types of music, but I 80s metal and melodic rock best.
- I use this with the line6 Toneport UX1, and Riffworks recording software
- I use the outputs to connect it to my home theater stereo, and it sounds great; I also use it with Riffworks to record snippets.
- I use it with an HP laptop, bought in 2006, a good one.

The interface is awesome - it's like you have all the stompboxes right in front of you, and you can cliack each one and change the settings quickly. The presets cover a HUGE range of styles and tones. These presets are basically a combination of amp, cabinet, effects/stompboxes, and tonal settings for all of those. So you choose, "Blizzard" for instance, and the tone is very Randy Rhodes Crazy Train kinda tone. The ability to conect it (the Toneport) to my home theater receiver and play through those speakers is what I originally wanted it for, and it works perfect - use the analog outs and connect to the CD or Tape inputs on my receiver. Sounds great!

These guitar sounds are fantastic! I've had two combo amps that absolutely suck a$$ compared to this. It is truly a different league of tone. Very clearly the best value and comprehensiveness I have seen in my limited time playing guitar and meesing with all this stuff. I bought the Fender GDEC 30 bc I wanted the backing tracks that already had a preset sound associated. I am disappointed, and now use my Toneport and Gearbox exclusively. The latest Gearbox has a very good drum loop/metronome setup, very customizable, that sounds way better than the backings on the GDEC (although they don't cover as wide a range of styles). But, Riffwors has fantastic drum sessions that blow away the ones with the GDEC. So, with Gearbox, a Toneport, and Riffworks, you can have everything you will ever need - you won't need to ever shop for an amp or effect boxes ever unless you play live shows.

I rate Gearbox a 10. Especially in combination with the Toneport and Riffworks. Really, like I said above, you can truly forget about amps and effects. The purists will think I'm an idiot, but I say all of you with five different amp, bunches of cables, and stompboxes laying all over your houses are the true idiots. This rocks!!

I've been recording with computers for 12 years. Have stuck with Steinberg DAW's and mainly record guitar oriented music. I also use various VSTi's with the goal of creating something sounding like a commercial release.

Installation was simple, I don't have my music PC connected to the internet because I've had to rebuild too many times after various virus's, so I was chuffed when I could install and activate on a different PC and then simply copy the .AET file from that PC to my music PC, plug in the USB device and it worked first time.
I'm a little disappointed in the UI design though. I've been using Guitar Rig 2 for a while and find that soooooo easy to use. Gearbox not only looks less professional, but it's actually much less functional too. In GR2 the presets are listed all together on the left and switching between them is a breeze (one click), but in Gearbox it takes three clicks to switch patches - e.g. PRESETS, HEAVY, NEW PATCH. This isn't soo bad if you know exactly what patch you want, but it's tiresome when you first get the software and want to audition all the sounds. Also a result of the UI design is that there are less possible sonic variations because you can't choose the order theat the various effects appear in the chain - which is really odd. In GR2 you can add what ever effect where ever you like in the chain, you have total control of this and can go really crazy if you so chose. GBG forces you to have a more standard setup rig. Also GR2 has all the rig shown in one scrolling window that allows you to tweak really quickly as where GBG requires more clicks to switch between the various elements. So, the UI could look and function a lot better - GBG costs nearly twice as much as GR2 !

Where Gearbox Gold wins it over Guitar Rig 2 is the quality of the sounds. And at the end of the day that what it's all about. Even if the UI is a little clunky, I guess it's what ends up being recorded that really counts. So although GR2 is more fun to play with, I guess I would have to go with GBG if I had to chose one. The shear number of amps (78) and cabs and FX makes for a huge range of possible sounds and the quality is the best of heard from a Amp Sim plug in. It's quite amazing how some of the patches just sound like real amps in real spaces, and in this are GBG certainly wins over GR2.
I also really like the PUBLIC TONE EXCHANGE website (http://line6.com/customtone/library/) where you can download other peoples patches (including new ones by Line6 staff), it's a great starting point, and a good way to learn how to build the tone that your looking for.

Is it worth twice what I paid for GR2? If you're serious about getting the best possible, most realistic sounding electric guitar sounds recorded then yes. If you're just looking for a wide range of great sounding effects, that will inspire creativity then I say GR2 is better value for money.

I??m using the Gearbox new VST through Sonor 4 Producer. My machine is a dedicated audio computer with no internet connection, completely streamlined for audio production only. Intel Prescott P4 3.0 800mhz FSB, 1 GB DDR 400 on an ASUS P4P800 MB. My audio interface is an Audiophile 2496 and I monitor through Roland DM-10??s micro monitors (not bad for bedroom studios).

I guess there is nothing new with the interface. A little colorful and childlike in my opinion, the Line 6 edit program is much more intuitive and easier to navigate and adjust. Toneport users use gearbox, although without VST capability. From what I understand the new gearbox VST and the non-VST used by Toneport are exactly the same.
Easy to install but a major pain in the ass because I need to keep my PODxt plugged in the USB port as a masive dongle in order to use the plugin. I have all the PODxt model packs and I simply couldn??t wait to buy the VST and start reampling with PODxt sounds. If you have VST experience, this is no different than any other plugin.

Sounds: I??m a metal player so take this into account while you read.

Oh Boy.... I did as much research as I could on the line 6 forums, asked a few questions and did lot??s of searching in the Toneport/Gearbox and POD forums. I wanted to be sure the VST sounded EXACTLY like a PODxt. From what I read there and on the harmony central toneport reviews, the VST sounded the same. In my opinion it does not sound the same at all.....

I think the hardware version (PODxt) sounds phenomenal. I love it to death even after owning it for almost two years. I??ve owned a V-amp2 and used GR1 and GR2...none of these come close the the PODxt.
That being said, after a few moments of using the gearbox VST I noticed that it didn??t have the oomph of the PODxt. The VST models sounded one dimensional compared to the xt sounds. I??d say gearbox is one step ahead as far as high gain goes compared to GR2 but only a tiny step mind you. I decided to compare my own patches on both the VST and POD and I noticed a definite difference. I decided research further and use the PODxt USB reamping capability to get the proper input levels into the gearbox VST and compare them with regular reamped PODxt sounds. A little better but still there was something missing in Gearbox.
I popped in a pre-eq plugin before gearbox and did some tweaking and found a little more improvement but still no chunky xt sounds.
I switched the plugin eq for my GE-7 (guitar-> GE-7-> PODxt) and still no dice. I chucked my xt patches and started making patches from scratch. Ok, here I noticed an improvement. Making patches in Gearbox is the way to go, POD patches in gearbox don??t sound the same to me, I started to look at gearbox as a seperate animal from the POD. I found that using a little room reverb and A.I.R with the patches worked well at masking and smoothing out the harsh typical guitar VST sounds. A little less gain also helped too. Layered and panned tracks began to sound much better too. Palm mutes are where I hear the biggest difference betewwn Gearbox and PODxt, Gearbox has the bassy growel of POD but the higher frequencies are fuzzy and undefined.

I know how hard it is to get a hang of the PODxt, you??ve got to love tweaking! It took my several months to start getting the sounds I liked out of the POD. I started by studying some very good patches I downloaded and learned some the techniques to get bigger sounds. Since then I??ve made all my own patches. That??s why Customtone is almost useless unless you??re starting with a Line 6 product because every guitar and pick and pickup and is different. A downloaded tone is only a stating point to making a great patch work for you. I hope to be able to replicate the sound of the MS Big Bottom, Bomber Uber and Criminal amp from the PODxt in a VST, I want them to sound exactly the same.... I??ll keep trying.

To sum it up I??d say out of the box, Gearbox sounds about 70% like to PODxt. With tweaking maybe 80%.... I??m going for 100%

Not worth $199.00 if you already own a POD. Toneport users are really pissed with the VST pricing and I don??t blame them. I??m going to keep Gearbox and tweak the hell out of it until I decide at the end of the month if I want to keep it or not.

Like I mentioned above, a short comparion with GR2 gave a small advantage to Gearbox for Hi gain sounds.

Not really a CPU hog, my system is audio only. I have no firewall or anti virus and other hidden useless resources wasting processing power. I had six instances of gearbox open with 10 Sonitus EQ??s and 5 Lexicon reverbs running with 26 audio tracks before getting dropouts.
Not bad but I??d trade a prefectly replicated Big Bottom amp sound over CPU load any day.

It hasn??t crashed yet but I??ve had a few stutters even on high latency settings on my Audiphile 2496, a minor nuisance really.