In-depth Feature:
Line 6 Gearbox Gold Plugin
Line 6 Gearbox Plugin
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A virtual truck-load of amps, effects and mics with no repair bills.
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Dave Rocks with Line 6
Digital models of guitar stuff just don't cut it. That's what I've heard from purist valve heads and collectors of lovely vintage gear. And sure, you'd expect them to say that coz they have a major investment in their gear.
Line 6 have really chucked the cat amongst the virtual pidgeons by modeling amps, effects, preamps and even guitars over the last ten years - that's right, it's 10 years since they first released the Pod (I wonder if Apple are after them for using that word -Ed).
The new GearBox Plug-in has taken pretty much all of the available Line 6 models and put them together in one (Gold) bundle. Each instance of the Gold plugin has:
* 78 guitar amps, 24 guitar cabs
* 28 bass amps, 22 bass cabs
* 6 mic preamps
* 80 plus stompbox and studio effects
There is a lower priced Silver bundle too which offers a 'mere'
* 18 guitar amps, 24 guitar cabinets
* 5 bass amps, 5 bass cabinets
* 6 mic preamps
* 29 stompbox and studio effects
The plug-in comes with the Guitar Direct USB audio interface which acts like a dongle for the software (although you can run it with any TonePort hardware attached). This USB device doubles as a soundcard and gives you the extremely low-latency ToneDirect monitoring although you can incorporate it directly into another audio interface - MBox in Dave's case. Dave said he had an issue as it need to be on it's own dedicated USB port with enough power to drive it. But once he'd figured it all out, it was just fine.
You can run the software as standalone, RTAS, VST or Audio Units, so that covers pretty much all the DAW setups out there. We took the box of tricks to our guitar guy David Carlyon, who to be honest is a bit of a Line 6 sceptic, to see what he made of it.
and.....
Apart from minor niggles; including a torturous RTAS registration and download (Line say there was a slight blip in the website during this time) and the fernickity USB power for the Guitar Direct box (needs a dedicated usb port with sufficient power), Dave was pretty impressed, the sheer tonal flexibility available meant he was able to experiment with all sorts of electronics (albeit virtual) that he would never get his hands on.
Check the video..
Pricing
GearBox Gold Bundle $699 / £421 list. Seen for $299/ £327.99
GearBox Silver Bundle $419/ £230 list. Seen for $199/ £188
If you already own some Line 6 Tone Port hardware, you can download the software only for $124.99 with additional bundles to add more models also available from Line 6 website.
As Dave points out, when you consider what you might end up paying for a single use plugin for RTAS or AU, this represents amazing value for money.
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