[Crooner]

While there will never be a true substitute for the sound of a guitar plugged right into a great tube amp, with the leaps and bounds made in amp simulation software as well as digital recording systems in general, I've got my eye on a few different solutions that all allow for a good guitar to computer connection but also offer slightly different options as well. I'm curious to see if anyone has used any of these and has any opinions.

Vox JamVox:
This is Vox's all-in-one amp and FX simulation software and external speaker/practice tool. Along with the usual mix and match amp/effects/mic placement stuff, it boasts Vox's "GXT" extraction technology that claims to be able to center in on and remove a guitar track from a song, allowing you to play along and even record your performance. The included external speaker connects to your computer via USB and acts as the input interface. From the demos I've seen the system looks and sounds really good. I've heard mixed reviews regarding the GXT technology - mostly sentiments stating that it's hit or miss (it is adjustable, allowing for fine tuning).


IK Multimedia Stealth Plug with Amplitube 2 Live:
Of all the quick and easy guitar interfaces available, the USB to ¼" Stealth Plug seems to be the best bet as far as getting your guitar into your digital recording software with good sound and next to no latency. It comes with a slightly stripped down version of IK Multimedia's Amplitube 2 suite. Rather than try to explain the myriad of options this gives you, I recommend you check out their website as it's pretty amazing what sounds you can get. What's more, it's an extensible architecture that allows you to build on your existing gear with other Amplitube titles such as their newest addition which basically gives you every great Fender amp sound imaginable.


M-Audio Fast Track Pro:
While this does come with some software, what you're really getting is an excellent hardware interface for guitars, keyboards, and mics (it even supplies phantom power for condenser mics). Clearly designed to be used with recording software that you supply this particular piece of gear seems to have the advantage when looking forward as it will likely remain useful even as one upgrades their system around it.


So there you have it. Any insight and advice is most appreciated. In terms of priorities, ultimately I'd like to build some sort of system that will allow me to record basic but decent demos of new material but for the immediate future I'm slightly more concerned with getting my guitar skills back up to where they used to be.

[vjf1968]

What about the Line 6 Tone Port?

[Crooner]

Originally Posted by vjf1968

What about the Line 6 Tone Port?

I checked out their site and the only "Tone Port" product listed is a rack unit that doesn't quite do/does way more than what I want. Perhaps they changed some product line names?
They have the Guitar Port line, but I wasn't really impressed. Do you have a link to the gear you mean?

[araT]

I haven't used any of those unfortunately..

When I was in a similar situation a couple of years back I started looking at guitar-to-computer interfaces and couldn't really settle on any of them (there were fewer options with less features then, most were Line6, which I don't like) and I ended up with an Digidesign M-Box 2 mini, it works nicely as a simple interface, but it allows you to go further when you want to, too..

I got my fingers on GuitarRig for the software end of things (alongside Protools & Reason), which is highly acclaimed, and I generally love it, but I've never actually gotten around to using it to lay down any recordings..

I've since stuck an M-Audio Axiom Midi controller / keyboard onto the system, and collected a couple of nice mics, and I've put together a pretty decent budget home studio without having to upgrade my interface..

Just a different track of thought for you

[Crooner]

Tara,
I would love to go with a Digidesign M-Box/ProTools setup, but that's a bit outa my range right now. Still, what you describe is not that far off from what I'd like to build my way up to.
The M-Audio box would essentially take the place of the M-Box, giving me a solid input that I can work with as I upgrade different sections of my 'lil den of depravity around it. ProTools will work with both Digi and M-Audio, which is cool, despite the confusing different versions, so I'll have that as an option. There's also the Logic option, which I can still get for half price while I'm still technically an Apple employee (and will still be able to get even after, pretty much).

I agree with you that I've never been into the Line 6 stuff. The sound doesn't do it for me, either. My thinking right now is that I'll likely start off getting at least two of the three solutions listed above. Even though the IK and the Vox products overlap a bit, I think I'll use more of what they have to offer right out of the box whereas the M-Audio box will come in far more handy when I'm ready to take the next step in bumping up the capabilities of my little home studio project.

Of course, amidst all of these choices, there is a little voice in my head telling me to scrap the whole digital audio workstation thing and get a free standing multitrack recording unit and go "old school" to a certain extent. This would basically be a nice, modern version of the little 8-track studio I had many moons ago based around a Tascam 8-track reel to reel machine with a built-in sound board and lots of good ins and outs. I pretty much pushed that to its absolute limits and when I think about what I could have done if I had products available today way back then I want to cry. In the long run, however, I think I'll be better served by embracing the cutting-edge and learn my way around the truly digital recording world - what with the convenience and less expense involved, it's tough to deny that the future of recording has taken that path. Still, whenever I win that elusive lottery jackpot, I'll be going with 16 track 2 inch tape is the starting point. Just thinking about the sounds you can get with that makes me a little bit dizzy.

The biggest dilemma by far is the fact that there are just far too many great products and options available, all of which I want to buy NOW! Between guitars, basses, amps, recording gear, and all the other goodies that go along with these, I have absolutely no doubt that I could go through $1 million-$2 million in less than a week (and none of that takes into consideration the fact that I'll need a physical space to put all this stuff in). I really hate money. I wish some form of the old barter system still existed, you know, where if you were a musician who performed for someone and instead of paying you in currency, they gave you the fruits of their particular talents. Just the fact that this post has strayed so far from the original topic that I'm talking about the barter system shows that I haven't slept at all tonight and am now operating on fumes. The problem is I'm just not sleepy so my burnt out gray matter is still churning away, concocting scenarios about as likely as peace in the Middle East.

I think it may be time to settle down and watch the Jeff Beck at Ronnie Scott's show again.

[araT]

You can pick up an mbox 2 mini for $200-ish including protools 8 LE.. it's actually pretty reasonable considering most of the dedicated guitar-to-computer setups are $75-$150ish. you can get your fingers on any other software for free.. and from there anything you add (a mic, a midi controller, a DAW, whatever) is totally optional & not an immediate thing.. my setup to this point cost me about $2000 all inclusive (the PC too).

If you go decent oldskool analogue, you're looking at $10,000 for the bare minimums.. it's just not worth it unless you can make a business out of it too.. it's a nice dream (a recurring one for me) but it's just not feasible, especially with the reliability of that old 'vintage' gear.

I agree with you on the barter system, could be fun

Go rest your brain for a bit, you're clearly overloaded!

[troy6120]

I bought an M-Audio Firewire 1814 interface (out of production now, I think, but any M-Audio stuff seems to be good, and gets good reviews for the most part). I got Pro-Tools M-Powered 7.4. Now, on to your question.....

I got Amplitube and it's great! I recorded this with it:

http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=1252567&t=2040

This was my first experiment with Amplitube. It was an American 2x12 combo setting, with my Gretsch 6122-1959 Nashville Classic plugged directly into the interface. No hassle!

[Crooner]

Originally Posted by troy6120

I bought an M-Audio Firewire 1814 interface (out of production now, I think, but any M-Audio stuff seems to be good, and gets good reviews for the most part). I got Pro-Tools M-Powered 7.4. Now, on to your question.....

I got Amplitube and it's great! I recorded this with it:

http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=1252567&t=2040

This was my first experiment with Amplitube. It was an American 2x12 combo setting, with my Gretsch 6122-1959 Nashville Classic plugged directly into the interface. No hassle!

Troy,
that was FANTASTIC! Your playing and phrasing is just great. Also great is the tone you got. When I wasn't singing along to your track I was imagining how much time and hassle it would take to get that tone by mic'ing up an amp, getting the EQ right and then having to create some ambience to make up for the fact that most of us do not have access to truly great sounding rooms. You have solidified part of my decision: I'm definitely getting a Stealth Plug. Although it comes with Amplitube 2 Live, a full copy of Amplitube 2 sort of "fell in my lap" so I guess so I guess I'll just have to put that to use.

[troy6120]

Glad to be of help. It's hard to make these decisions, with all the products that are available.
I'm impressed with Amplitube, and on another note, I've been very impressed with EZ-Drummer.
I use Adobe Audition 3.0 for things I don't know how to do in ProTools yet, such as trimming the beginning/endings, fade-ins fade-outs of songs. Also, raising/lowering, and normalizing whole songs, etc.
I'm a novice at home recording, but it's fun learning!

[Renegade]

I have no personal experience with this product, but it is still on my short list and it looks like it might fit your requirements.
http://www.samsontech.com/products/p...1971&brandID=4.


editied to add:
The JamVox is another one on my short list.

[GreatGretsch]

Troy,
As usual, you music sounds great!!

[Rockabilly Pete]

I'm not sure if you saw this during your research, but Amplitube 2 offers a fully functional 10 day demo you can try out.

Here is the link to download it:

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/amplitube/download/

If you decide to go this route, please let us know your impressions. I'm also looking at computer solutions for amplification due to the fact that I live in an apartment and that pretty much negates getting the most out of a tube amp.

[vjf1968]

Originally Posted by Crooner

I checked out their site and the only "Tone Port" product listed is a rack unit that doesn't quite do/does way more than what I want. Perhaps they changed some product line names?
They have the Guitar Port line, but I wasn't really impressed. Do you have a link to the gear you mean?

I was referring to this:
http://www.line6.com/podstudioux2/

I have the old version. Easy to set up (15-20min) and I love it

[getbent]

I've used all of the devices listed (at my work) and the line6 toneport is the best device I've used yet for the purposes you are talking about. the 70.00 jobbie works just fine...

they are great tools.

the new ones are really cool.... (not affiliated just like cool stuff that works out of the box.)

[Crooner]

Brief update:
While my only interface is a lousy (with a capitol LOUSY) ¼" to ⅛" cable from radio shack I grabbed for $6.50, I did get my hands on a copy of Amplitube 2. The cable caused so much latency it was barely playable, and the tiny laptop speakers didn't handle things all that well, but even with these limitations, I can say that this software is amazing. As it's the most economical way to go, I'll grab the IK Stealth Plug when I can to take care of the latency problem, but the sounds you can get are pretty amazing in their realism. The flexibility it offers and the ease of use make it a real pleasure to mess with.
I highly recommend it.

[Otterbean]

Have you tried the Yamaha Audiogram3 USB Audio Interface? Its economical and works quite well. Roughly 120 bucks for the interface and bundled software.

[Crooner]

I picked up the IK Stealth Plug today along with some other goodies and will put it through some paces later.
I just gotta cleanup and re-string my fav black 6128-1962 Duo-Jet and then I'll record some samples to post.

One cool thing: I had a copy of Amplitube 2, so I got the version of the plug that comes with the Fender Studio software, giving me basically everything Fender ever released. I'm curious to hear how realistic this can get.

I'll post a review and samples in a few hours!

[Pappy]

Amplitube's new Fender and Stealth Plug combo is only a hundred bucks (and on my Christmas list). It doesn't have anywhere near the same amount of Fender stuff that the more expensive version does, but it does come with the interface and at a hundred bucks is a good gateway into this kind of thing IMO. I plan on getting it down the road and then if practice using it is paying off maybe I'll get the floor interface that looks like a wah so I can control volume swells and wah stuff, with my foot instead of with my hands.

[Crooner]

Pappy,
I still have a lot of signal to noise ratio stuff to configure with my system. While the speakers on my MacBook Pro are great for a laptop, using Amplitube has shown for certain that they are not the same as a pair of Celestions.

I'm gonna try using my Vox DA5 as the output and see how that sounds. Wish I had some good, flat monitors. Gotta add that to the list.

Still, in early fiddling, the software sounds amazing! All the basic amp settings in Amplitube 2 sound really sweet, but the fact that IKM worked so closely with Fender really shows. The Fender stuff sounds ridiculous. While it came with the crippled version of the Fender suite, as you said, I managed to get a hold of an "evaluation" copy of the full version and... uh... WOW! You name the Fender amp and it is there, in all its glory. Even the semi-crappy, far too saturated Supersonic amp patches sound just as harsh and overbearing as the real thing.
No kidding.
So far, the Twin Reverb sounds are blowing me away.

Gotta get some sleep now as I'm hallucinating a bit (may need the Hendrix series) but I shall persevere through to get plenty 'o samples up for ya'll.

Oddly, the guys at GC had no idea what I was talking about when I asked for it. Go figure. I ended up explaining the whole deal to them and they ended up getting excited about the idea.
The best part was telling a particular kid about what Gretsch guitars are really about. He had NO idea what the story was beyond "Even the little solid body jets look like super heavy Les Pauls, so why not just use that?" After explaining a bit to him, by the time I left, he was literally foaming at the mouth to close the store, grab a pro line Power Jet off the wall and plug it into the AC30 CC2X they had stashed in the glass display case room. I would have loved to have been there to see his face upon hearing that first power chord send his hair back.

I think the Stomp IO board you mentioned coupled with the full suite of Amplitube software could make for an insane rig - home, studio or live.

[johnnyguitar]

I've used several of the interface style guitar rigs and for ease of use(it sync's up with just about any recording program, no buffer issues, comes with amps, effects, even preamps for vocals)
The Line 6 UX2 toneport is the way to go.
2 xlr ins
2 inst ins
built in phantom power for condenser mics
you can record guitar and vocal at the same time
and the thing sounds incredibly good(try the 1958 tweed B man)
For around a hundred bucks it can't be beat