If you've been reading here for a while, you know that my previous guitar recording interface, the Lightsnake, had some serious limitations and generally left me pretty unhappy with the results. I can say now that the Lightsnake has been retired, and has been replaced with a Line 6 POD Studio UX1. After playing with it for about a week, I think I've seen enough to give it a proper review.
The Hardware
To kick things off, let's look at the box itself. The UX1 connects via USB, and all power is handled through the USB cable - no additional power supply needed. On the front of the box, there are 3 ports; one XLR jack, one 1/4" unbalanced instrument input, and a 1/4" headphone jack. On top of the box are a power light and 2 knobs: Mic Gain and Output. No big surprises in the function of each of those items. The back of the unit has jacks for two 1/4" analog outputs, two 1/4" Line Inputs, one 1/4" Stereo Monitor line in, as well as the USB socket.
As you might imagine, you can record from any of the inputs, except the Stereo Monitor line in - that acts as a pass-through for anything you want to show up in the mix but not be part of the "recordable" input.
Sound Card
Oh, did I mention it functions as a complete sound interface, including output? That's right. It comes with its own ASIO driver which you can easily tap into with most any audio software that supports ASIO. When I connected REAPER to the "ASIO UX1", then ALL of my audio output from REAPER was directed at the UX1. I have read where this can be confusing if you don't think about what you're doing, but it's a good thing. In my case, I have a moderately cheap sound card in my PC. With this, I don't really have to worry about upgrading that card, since I'm bypassing it for my audio work.
Latency? We Don't Need No Steenking Latency...
One admirable trait of the UX1 is that it is able to pass through the input audio to the output WITHOUT waiting for the PC to handle it directly. This gives you effectively zero latency in the monitors, even if you have a relatively high latency setting in the ASIO driver itself.
From my testing on an existing project, I have reduced the slips and stutters in my system from being a frequent occurrence to flawless audio by incorporating the UX1 into my setup.
Is It Clean?
If you read my review of the Lightsnake, you'll know it was a dirty, dirty interface, with odd pulses of interference and general noise. The UX1 suffers from NONE of those problems. Line 6 boasts a greater than 100 dB signal to noise ratio, and I believe it. Running the same spectrographs on the signal from the UX1 yielded a much cleaner signal, with a slight noise level in the lowest extremes of the graph, but nothing audible and it was a steady baseline, so it essentially vanishes when you record.
Bundled Software
The POD Studio UX1 comes bundled with 3 programs: Riffworks T4, Ableton Live Lite 7 Line 6 Edition, and POD Farm. I haven't played with Riffworks yet, and I already know that Ableton is a very cut-down version of that program, supposedly tailored to the hardware bundled with it. Considering this is stripped even further than the LE version, I'm not too interested in it. POD Farm is where the real second stage fun comes in.
POD Farm
POD Farm replaces the former Gearbox software that used to be bundled with Line 6 interfaces. The idea and many of the features are the same, but POD Farm has a much slicker interface. POD Farm includes a stunning array of software models of amps, effects, and cabinets that you plug together in a very obvious signal chain on screen. These are mostly based on real gear, including Marshall's JCM-800, Fender's Deluxe Reverb, and even the Orange AD30TC. They give cute names in the program, but they are very forthcoming on what the sounds are modeled after on their web site. Anyway, you have pretty much the gauntlet of gear to work with - certainly more than the home studio could ever hold much less afford - and there are additional model packs available to buy from Line 6 in case you are craving more gear. While more options are always better, I'm sure what I have will more than meet my tonal needs for quite some time to come. POD Farm also allows you to break your signal into dual signal chains, so you can get some really powerful and wild sounds going.
Playing Standalone
POD Farm works great as a standalone program. It gives you some nice options - like sending not only the fully processed signal out (to your DAW), but also sending the unprocessed/raw signal out (to your DAW) at the same time. So you can record the completely dry signal at the same time you record it fully effected, and also be pushing the signal out to your studio monitors via the 1/4" outputs in back. I'm loving it!
Playing As A Plug-in
Pod Farm as a plug-in needs a little work at this point. As of this writing, POD Farm 1.02 is the current version, and it has a problem in about half of the major DAWs on the market. Apparently, if your DAW has a 64-bit plug-in host (and no 32-bit host as a fall-back), then POD Farm will crash. Yes, REAPER is one of those affected. The workaround to this is to use a VST Wrapper to act as a middle-man between REAPER and POD Farm. I've been using ACON's EffectChainer, and it works OK, but you are left with the inability to use any Automation ("knob twiddling") on anything inside POD Farm, since the DAW can only see the EffectChainer, not POD Farm itself. Line 6 has posted in their forums that this issue has been logged and is on the "to do" list. Hopefully this problem is resolved soon, since "knob twiddling" is often needed.
Standalone and Plug-in Together
I like to use both versions together. I record through the standalone version into REAPER (monitoring the processed signal and recording the dry signal) and having a plugin on the recorded track with the plug-in version of POD Farm replicating what I was doing with the standalone version. This gives me the flexibility to change the sound after recording, but not having to rely on just hearing the dry tone while playing. In this fashion I can also record the wet signal at the same time, so it gives you a lot of configuration possibilities.
Tone Port vs. POD Studio
If you've looked around, there is a TonePort UX1 as well as a POD Studio UX1. The hardware is exactly the same, except the TonePort has a red faceplace and the POD Studio has a black faceplate. The only real difference is in the bundled software. If you have a TonePort, it comes bundled with the standalone version of GearBox, you can upgrade for free to the standalone version of POD Farm, but you'll have to buy the plug-in version of POD Farm. Both versions (standalone and plug-in) of POD Farm come bundled with the POD Studio. To save yourself time, I'd suggest the POD Studio UX1 over the TonePort UX1, not only because it will save you some time, but also because the black faceplate looks much cooler than the red.
Bottom Line
The bottom line is that you owe it to yourself to buy a POD Studio UX1 (or the big brothers UX2 and UX8). The Line 6 POD Studio UX1 is a simple box with a simple purpose - which is does amazingly well. It sells new for around $149.99 at most shops, and it is fabulous. The hardware is solid and very clean, and the software so thoroughly exceeds my expectations that I am becoming inspired by the wide variety of tonal possibilities. The only difficulty I've found at this point is that POD Farm offers so many options, I'm spending more time fiddling with new sounds and not enough actual work on recording. If you need to record audio, you need one of these. Trust me.
10 comments:
How does the Line 6 compare with the CEntrance AxePort Pro?
http://www.centrance.com/products/ap/index.shtml
I haven't used the AxePort personally. The two main differences I can see is that the AxePort is pretty much limited to recording in from the one 1/4" jack. The UX1 also includes an XLR jack and stereo 1/4" line in feeds.
In addition, the AxePort doesn't appear to contain any modeling software. The UX1 comes with POD Farm, which is solid enough it could easily be sold as a standalone modeler.
Let me know if you get an AxePort - I'd be interested to know how well it works.
If I have a PodXt should I buy a UX 1, can I use the XT modeling with the UX1 for recording purposes ? ....what are the differences or do they complement each other..
thanks,
ac
ac -
I don't have a PodXT, so I'm not 100% sure if I'm missing something, but here's my best assessment.
The PodXT already lets you record directly to the computer via USB. The PodXT does not appear to function as a sound card, where the UX1 can be your soundcard.
The UX1 does have a few extra inputs, but if guitar is all you're concerned about, the extra UX1 ports don't matter much.
The other main difference is the Pod Farm plugin to allow you to use your tones in a DAW. The PodXT does allow you to upgrade to the Pod Farm plugin (For $49.00, I believe), which will let you use all your PodXT tones in your DAW, rather than having to record the processed signal. And from there, you can buy the additional model packs for Pod Farm to get even more tonal possibilities.
I'd say if you want more inputs, the UX1 (or UX2) would be good for you. If you are only cconcerned about working with recording a single guitar at a time, I'd suggest upgrading to the Pod Farm plugin instead of buying the UX1.
Enjoy!
I have a PodXT and used it for a year as an interface. The PodXT functions the same as the line6 usb interfaces when it comes to "using it as a soundcard." It doesn't process anything but the incoming signal and then a digital to analog conversion of your project coming out of the device into headphones or monitors or a can on a string. A sound card like the e-mu 1212m($150USD) has PREMIUM digital to analog converters, same ones as the Digidesign(protools) HD192, which costs a few grand. It has a dsp chip that processes plugins, so why make your CPU do ALL the work at HIGH latency with crappy sounding audio converters? You just don't. You forget about Line6, because they make toys, not TOOLS. If you have headphones plugged in when you record with a pod, it automatically sets a bad sounding EQ imprint on your audio, so even if you did happen to like the model sounds, you can't get that sound to disk because of that useless imprint. Another thing about Line6, their cab models suck big time. They are a reverb technology called Impulse Reverb. You can find -guitar cab impulses-(free, just google that exact phrase) and load them into FREE impulse plugins like Voxengo's Boogex and do the same thing, except it's FREE and SOUNDS A MILLION TIMES BETTER!!! I spent hours and hours fiddling with the PodXT stock sounds, never happy, ever. Best thing you can do for a good direct tone, in my opinion, is turn your master volume all the way down(this is safe on tube amps as well, my 120 watter is juuuussst fine), run a cable from your FX loop output to a decent audio interface(not usb and not firewire, there are major quality sacrifices made on these devices to accomplish "convenience."). Use boogex or another impulse reverb that can load impulses and do it that way. You will want to kick Line6 in the nuts if you have bought a Pod or a UXwhatever. I sold my PodXT for $50 on Craigslist 2 days after I received my E-mu soundcard. Just wanted that ugly(in many ways) bastard off of my desk.
Ryan - I haven't had the opportunity to use an E-mu card yet, so I can't agree or deny your post. In my situation, I only have a small practice amp, and can't really afford a good traditional guitar amp, so recording it directly isn't an option. I also wanted some level of portability, which is why I wanted an external box.
I also happen to like the POD Farm "sound". Yes, it is different from traditional rigs, but I've been happy with the sound I get from it.
I will take a look at the impulse plugins you mentioned and give them a spin, when I have some time. I'm all about using free gear when I can.
Thanks for the feedback!
I'm just starting to shop around for recording gear. Is this simple to use for beginners just starting recording?
I would absolutely say that the Line6 UX-1 (and presumably the others in the series) are easy for beginners to get up & running. The most effort I had in getting it set up and working in my studio was having to get converters for the 1/4" output jacks so I could output the audio to my monitors.
Let's put it another way - mine was set up and installed so fast I don't actually recall much of the process. Easy, and not painful at all.
hows M-Audio Fast Track MKII usb 2.0 compared to Pod Studio UX1? I am planning to buy one. It would be very helpful if you provide some inputs
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