Biggest bargain I ever lucked into?

[duhvoodooman***]

Almost a year ago, MF ran a "Stupid Deal of the Day" on the Line 6 Gearbox Plug-in Silver Bundle (including a TonePort DI USB interface box) for $99. It looked like an interesting product and a great price (I think it listed for $400 at the time), and I bought one, even though I had no defined want or need for it. "Impulse buy", as they say.

Well, it's turned out to be a C-note well spent! I've had hours of fun experimenting with the various amp, cabinet and effect simulations the Line 6 software offers. The sound quality is excellent--nothing cheesy or processed-sounding about the vast majority of the output. And a few weeks back, the deal got even better....

When I bought it, I registered the software online so that I could get updates. Up until recently, this seemed to be just stuff like driver updates, bug fixes, etc. Then, back on Nov. 9, I got an e-mail advising me that, as a TonePort/Gearbox Plug-in owner, I was entitled to a free upgrade to their new "POD Farm" plug-in software platform . So I downloaded the updates, installed them and--SISTER MARY FRANCIS!--I have now got more amp & effect simulation software than you can shake a drumstick at! The original Silver Bundle had a pretty good range of amps & cabs to choose from (18 amps, 24 speaker cabs and 29 effects), but this upgrade added dozens more, as well as a slick new GUI to load & run them. And each amp and effect model has a complete set of on-screen controls to let you tweak to your heart's content.

Half of the effects I've never even heard of, and the amp models range from the expected classics from Fender, Vox and Marshall through the somewhat newer brands, like Mesa Boogie, Orange and Matchless, and on to a number of high gain modern models from names like Bogner, Diezel and ENGL. Plus there are a whole bunch of Line 6-created "synthetic" amp, cabs & effects, too. There are tons of "preset" combinations to emulate certain types of tones or even individual songs. And naturally, when you piece together a combination that you really like (or tweak a preset to your own tatses), you can save it under whatever name you want and retrieve it at any time. BTW, there are also bass amp, cab and effect simulations, as well as mic preamps included in the software. I checked the Line 6 site, and what I got for free was the POD Farm Platinum bundle, normally selling for $300!! Incredible!!

And like the late-night TV ads say, "And that's not all!!" Also included for no charge was their new Riffworks 2.0 recording software, selling for $100! I haven't even touched that yet, using the analog output of the TonePort into my sound card's line-in jack and recording with Audacity. But I'll get around to trying the RiffWorks software pretty soon, I'm sure.

Anyway, for an initial $100 invetsment, I'm now up to about $800 worth of really cool guitar-playing software! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

[Robert****]

Lucky you! I bet that's lots of fun. I only have a few guitar sounds I really like in my Gearbox.

I looked at SweetWater and it is indeed $299, which I find a little too pricey.

[Spudman***]

Tht's a GREAT deal! Now you'll be baffled for ages by which amp to use. Don't cha hate it?

[hubberjub***]

It is a great deal. I bought the Gearbox Gold a few months ago when MF was selling it for $99. It's great for demos. You can't find a better modeler at three times the price.

[duhvoodooman***]

....I only have a few guitar sounds I really like in my Gearbox.

Well, I certainly don't care for all of them, either. For example, there are several of the ultra-high gain amps that just aren't my cup of tea. But I've also found many that did nothing for me on the initial preset, but came alive when I started fooling with the settings. A lot of the more esoteric effects are very cool to play around with, also. The biggest problem I have with this stuff is the number of hours that can mysteriously evaporate while you experiment!

[jasongins]

I love my toneport as well. Mine is just the GX, and the podfarm standalone was provided as a free upgrade (I just don't have as many amps and effects as would come with the platinum bundle). Podfarm sounds better to me, but people say all that has really changed is the GUI.

But hey Voodoo, I caught the following in your original post and it has me scratching my head a bit:

... using the analog output of the TonePort into my sound card's line-in jack and recording with Audacity. But I'll get around to trying the RiffWorks software pretty soon...

Why are you routing the analog-out of the toneport DI back in to your soundcard's line-in jack? The toneport effectively becomes a USB soundcard, so you should not need to do that. If you set your computer and DAW to use the toneport DI as the soundcard, you should get better latency and I imagine better sound quality in your recordings.

[duhvoodooman***]

IWhy are you routing the analog-out of the toneport DI back in to your soundcard's line-in jack? The toneport effectively becomes a USB soundcard, so you should not need to do that. If you set your computer and DAW to use the toneport DI as the soundcard, you should get better latency and I imagine better sound quality in your recordings.

The Gearbox Plug-in won't work properly with the DAW I've been using, which is Audacity (yes, the VST dll file is in the right folder). So this method is the only way I can get the processed signal into Audacity. When I have a chance to fool around with RiffWorks, that should no longer be necessary. However, even using this method with Audacity, the sound quality is good and latency isn't a problem.

[hubberjub***]

Yep. I have to use the Gearbox output and back into my interface with ProTools.

[Lev]

Wow, I got one of those pod farm email offers a while back but ignored it. I must dig it up and install it.

[duhvoodooman***]

Here's a link to a short clip I recorded while fooling around the other day with various Gearbox plug-in amp/cab/effects combos. As described above, it's recorded by running the TonePort DI analog output into my PC sound card input and using Audacity for the capture. It's an old Peter Green riff played on my new Xaviere XV-820 Tele through the bridge pickup. The amp model is a '58 Bassman through a 4x10 Bassman cab, and effect emulations used include a Tube Screamer, phaser, compressor and some slapback analog delay.

http://www.box.net/shared/qipn1t4ipa

[Robert****]

Sounds cool, Vood! :

I love having not to mess with real amp setup and microphone placing, etc. With the Toneport, it's plug in and pick a favorite amp model and, SHUT UP AND PLAY YER GUITAR! hehe
:

[Jimi75]

Sounds darn good, very organic. The effects in that software sound so real! The gearbox software is great and I do all preproduction recording with that software.

[sunvalleylaw]

Cool DVM! I am glad to hear the tele, and the '58 Bassman is my favorite amph setting in my Gearbox stuff. I have a Tubescreamer set up too, but like hearing your tweaks with compression, phaser, slapback, etc. Very nice!

[Jimi75]

Cool DVM! I am glad to hear the tele, and the '58 Bassman is my favorite amph setting in my Gearbox stuff. I have a Tubescreamer set up too, but like hearing your tweaks with compression, phaser, slapback, etc. Very nice!

I use the Gear Box Bassman 95% of the time.

[sunvalleylaw]

Heh, heh, I love it!

[duhvoodooman***]

I use the Gear Box Bassman 95% of the time.

It's certainly easy to understand why the early Marshalls were designed using the Bassman as a starting point. Just a great circuit--50 years young & going strong!

Cool DVM! I am glad to hear the tele...

Well, mostly you heard layers of Gearbox emulations over the original signal. I really need to do some "clean" recording of the XV-820 so you can hear it's true character.