Teknoise: computing, music, computer music

Teknoise’s Toneport UX2 Review: Part I, an overview

The Line 6 UX2 is one of the five members of Line 6’s Toneport family.  The Toneports are Mac and Windows compatible USB 2.0 audio interfaces that come bundled with Line 6’s Gearbox software, an amp, preamp and stompbox simulator.  The UX2 retails for approximately 140 USD, and features two mic preamps with +48v phantom power, buffered and unbuffered instrument inputs, and two line ins, in addition to a headphone and monitor outs, and a S/PDIF out.  The UX2’s two phantom powered pre amps, its buffered instrument input (for guitars or amps with active onboard controls), and its illuminated level meters are the main features which set it apart from its cheaper counterpart, the Toneport UX1.

The Toneport’s basic functionality is as a soundcard, and given the Gearbox software it comes bundled with, the UX2 is competitive in its price range.  It supports AISO drivers and is a low latency interface that can record at 16 and 24 bit depth, at 44.1, 48, and 96 kHz.

The Gearbox software is the Toneport line’s main selling point, as it offers a way to record your guitar (or bass, or vocals) direct to the computer, without sacrificing the character an amplifier, pedal, or preamp can add to your sound.  Your signal goes through the Toneport, into the Gearbox software, through the settings you have devised, and then finally into an audio track of your DAW.

In order to use the Gearbox software as a plugin in your DAW, you must purchase this functionality separately from Line 6, for 100$ (it was 200$ when the reviewer considered purchasing it in November 2007). Without this additional expense, the UX2 is somewhat crippled in its functionality, as once you commit to a tone and record your part using it, there is no going back unless you want to rerecord.  Because part of the appeal of software like Guitar Rig is its flexibility–you can quickly record a part and then tweak it until it fits the track–I feel that this is a major drawback of the UX2, as for true flexibility you have to spend more than half of what you paid for the Toneport.  By that point you might be better off buying the UX8 if you’re serious about recording, as it includes an incredible variety of routing options, multiple headphone outs, is rackmounted, comes with the Gearbox VST, and retails for 450$ in some places.

Despite these drawbacks, Line 6’s Gearbox is rather competitive with other amp simulators on the market at its new price point (Native Instruments’s Guitar Rig 3 and IK Multimedia’s Amplitube 2 retail for 300$ and 329$, respectively).  The Gearbox features other minor limitations and irritations: it limits you to using one effect of each type (you cannot run a phaser into a chorus, for example), does not allow you to emulate multiple amplifiers at once, and provides you with rather limited and conventional effects.   Line 6 offers other effect and amplifier packs for Gearbox that you can purchase for varying prices which add more unique effects and amps, but this limitation is a still sticking point for effects junkies everywhere–effects chains with multiple delays or distortions are not options, no matter how many virtual stompboxes you might own.

Tomorrow, this review will tackle the real question–how does it sound?

Also to come, a discussion of its technical issues.