Teknoise has recently published a reiview of 2562’s album Arial at beatportal.com. Check it out.

About ten years ago, I read about a Gameboy based synthesizer in a computer music magazine.  It seemed cool at the time, but 200$ was a completely prohibitive price for me then, and I forgot that it existed.  Recently though, I read more about using Gameboys for music and decided to explore the world of the emulated game boy sequencer/synths, the most famous of which is Little Sound DJ (LSD).  I’ve spent some time with soft synth NES emulators (mainly Jack Dark’s) and wanted to mess around with something close to the original.

What follows is a quick but hopefully through tutorial about setting up and using Little Sound DJ.  Hopefully you will find it useful in your lo-fi explorations.

1. Install The Gameboy Advance Emulator BGB

The BGB emulator was the only emulator I could find to download, fortunately it is very easy to use and seems stable.

BGB is an Gameboy Advance emulator.  if you’ve never used an emulator for a game system before, they are programs you install on your computer that can mimic the hardware and OS of a game platform.  This mimicry is emulation, and it allows you to run this game system’s games.

Once you’ve downloaded BGB, it’s on to step two.

2. Getting Little Sound DJ for Gameboy

LSD’s physical cartridges are no longer produced, but you can download a ROM of LSD at their website (see “How to Get it” for details).   They charge two dollars to download a fully working version of the ROM, but you can also download a demo that has its save feature disabled.

Once you’ve installed Little Sound DJ, you can open it with BGB.  To do this, just start up BGB and choose “Load ROM…” (see BGB’s included HTML manual for more on BGB’s controls).  You will see that LSD is a tracker with four channels (if you have ever used Renoise you will find LSD familiar) and it includes an arpeggiator, a synthesizer, and a drum machine with various Roland samples.

3. Glitch Away

I decided to record LSD’s output into Ableton Live in order to use it to make samples; to do this, I routed my headphone output into an instrument line in.  Little Sonic DJ produces a variety of glitchy sounds that can definitely be useful, and I think that it’s unorthodox interface might provide an interesting contrast to the familiarity and sterility of your usual VSTs.  LSD also has considerable depth if you are interested in learning more about it (LSD’s manuals are here).

Have fun with Little Sonic DJ–you might even end up making entire songs in it, like the Swedish electo pop duo Puss.

The Clips

I felt that the Gearbox, FreeAmp, and Amplitube clips were of a similar quality, with FreeAmp and Gearbox  sounding noticeably better than Amplitube.  They are warm and full sounding , while Amplitube is a more birttle and dry, but not bad overall.   Meanwhile, Guitar Rig sounds horrible–thin, tinny, and harsh.  These results are unbalanced by the degree that all of these amp models could use some tweaking in order to find their sweetspots and to bring out their best tonal qualities, but my goal with the amp shootout was to keep as many conditions the same across different pieces of software as I could.

I think that these results also support what seems to be a common consensus in the Guitar Rig v. Amplitube debate, that Guitar Rig is better for strange guitar tones and sound design applications, while Amplitube is the better choice for straightforward guitar applications.  I was honestly somewhat surprised by Gearbox’s results, and even more so by FreeAmp’s–its cleans are really good.

Other Issues and the Conclusion

One thing we haven’t discussed yet is arguably one of the Toneport’s selling points: the fact that it includes two phantom powered pre amps.   My experience with these pre amps (for recording acoustic guitar, vocals, and ambient noise) is that they are definitely decent given the package and features that they come with, however, the Gearbox does not sound like some “of the most sought after preamps in the recording world,” though this probably goes without saying.   When used on vocals, the pre amps have a definite harsh and metalic tinge to them (you can hear examples of this in Line 6’s UX2 clips), and this sound is not removed by the 1300$ microphone (a Groovetubes AM62) used for some of the vocal clips.  I’m not sure whether the same pre amps are used in the UX8 or not, if they are, this would be a definite mark against it.

However, the features that you get along with the pre amps and their flexible routing schemes (you can record with both pres at once, or with one pre and a guitar/bass/line in) make them a rather good deal.   You could definitely do much worse in terms of value–a XLR USB pre amp by itself can run at least 200$.  I personally had a much worse experience with M-Audio’s Audiophile USB card.

So, what is there to get out of all of this?  Mainly that the Toneport UX2 is a good deal and has some standout features for its price range.  In my experience, it is has been both a flexible and a dependable interface for close to a year now.

Its downsides are significant too, however.  It has a 90 day warranty–the possibility of spending 200$ and having it break after 100 days of use is there.  On the plus side though, I’ve used mine as my machine’s only soundcard for close to a year now;it has often been running ~12 hours a day and has been fine so far.   The other downside seems inevitable where the combination of computers and audio interfaces is concerned, but if you buy the Toneport, get ready to spend some time getting it set up.  It has a wide range of issues, which may or may not effect you depending on your computer set up.   Its install time is also a bit tedious, as you have to install the drivers for the Toneport, the Gearbox software, a series of updates to both of these, and then Line 6’s Monkey and updates for the Monkey.

If you keep the Toneport’s limitations in mind though, and are patient enough to deal with its setup and eccentricities, then you may find that it is an impressive combination of flexibility and affordability.

A Four Amp Shootout with the Toneport

So, with all of our introductory concerns out of the way, we can worry about how the Toneport actually sounds.

i decided the best way to approach this question was to compare it side by side with other amp emulators at equivalent settings.  It’s like shopping for an amp, only without the Guitar Center guy breathing down your neck, trying to sell you Distrubed’s guitarist’s all-in-one pedal.   I compared the Gearbox to two major players in amp sims–Amplitube 2 and Guitar Rig II.  I also compared it with Frettedsynth’s FreeAmp.

I used an American Standard Strat with Red, Silver and Blue lace sensors through one generic cable into the Gearbox’s unbuffered input for the test.

For the emulations themselves, I used approximations of Fender Amps.  The Gearbox is a Deluxe Reverb, and the Amplitube is through a squeaky clean setting on their American Tube II amp.  I used FreeAmp’s only available amp model on a clean setting.  For Guitar Rig II, I used their clone of a Fender Twin Reverb.   The EQs on all of these amps were set at 12 o’clock.

I recorded myself playing very loose and sloppy approximations of a chord progression and I did all of this recording in the same session of my audio program, on to 4 audio tracks with no effects or eqs.  All of these clips are using an emulated condenser microphone (if this option was available).  The tracks were normalized before output in my audio host.

You can download the clips in a .zip here. They are four very short, labeled .wavs.

You can also listen to the Toneport and the other amp sims here , as streaming .mp3s.

What do you think?  My opinion and conclusions in part III.

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.

Teknoise is a new blog that will consider the intersections between computers, music and computer based music.  In forthcoming updates, it will consider generative VSTs, comments on Windows and (or perhaps versus) audio, fun tricks with Ableton Live, and a review of the Line 6 Toneport UX2.  Also to come: the end of music, the horror that is NIN’s The Slip, and more.

For the record: this Teknoise has nothing to do with any other Teknoise on the internet.