Line 6 Toneport UX1 - Home Recording
By Hugo Rb on
Hello!
This is a review for the Line 6 Toneport UX1 home recording "box".
To keep it simple, the UX1 has a front and back panel. The front panel features and line in for your guitar or bass, and a microphone XLR input, with a headphone jack in case your not using an external speaker. On the top of the device are two knobs. From the picture in the review, the knob on the right controls overall output volume of the device, and the knob on the left controls the gain/volume when using the microphone.
On the back of the box are two line inputs, two anolog outs, a monitor input (for stereo sound on your speakers or monitors). and a usb port that connects the device to your computer
The software that comes with the Toneport is Gearbox from line6. This is a program that offers effects, amp and cabinet modelling among other things. As an example, I can plug my guitar into the box, and open up gearbox, and set it to the 'Modern Jazz' preset. This gives me the 'jazz clean' amp and cabinet models, as well as a bit of reverb, delay, and chorus effects. While in Gearbox, you can select the guitar input, microphone input, or one of the two line inputs. There are presets in Gearbox for vocal sounds, guitar and electric guitar sounds, and bass sounds, among a few others. All of the presets range from clean, to crunch, to heavy sounds.
I've had my Line 6 for just over two years now, and it hasn't shown much sign of degrading in sound quality or of general use. It is a very sturdy piece of hardware, and has withstood maybe one too many falls, but still works just fine. As a final note, if you are planning on using the headphone jack, make sure your have a 1/4 inch adapter for your headphones so that you can use it.
Overall the line 6 is a good starting point for those dabbling in home recording, and has a large set of features for its price, perfect for anyone from tone enthusiasts to effects junkies.
Line 6 offers expansion packs on their website, that further enhance your choicesof effects, amp and cabinet models, among other things.
This seems to be a rather inexpensive way to see if you are really interested in recording music. I think finding out with a smaller investment first is a great idea. Glad it was a winner for you.
Sounds like you get a lot of features for a very reasonable price.