Line 6 Guitar Port

Virtual Guitar Amp For PC

Published in SOS August 2002
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Reviews : Guitar Amplification

Line 6 revolutionised the recording of the electric guitar when they introduced the Pod. Now they want to get all technophobic guitarists on-line. Is the Guitar Port the next stage in the search for guitar tone Nirvana?

Whatever some guitar purists might think of it, the Line 6 Pod changed the way a significant proportion of musicians record the electric guitar. While there had been a number of very successful 'amp substitutes' well before the Pod reared its cute, kidney-bean-shaped head, it was the Line 6 unit that bought digital amp modelling to the masses. The reason for the success of this technology is not hard to see: it provides easy access to the tones available from a wide range of classic guitar amp and speaker combinations at a price almost anyone can afford. The sounds might not be exactly what could be achieved by a good engineer miking a good amplifier but they are frighteningly close, and the noise levels will not get you featured on Neighbours From Hell.

The Guitar Port is Line 6's latest take on the digital amplifier and is somewhat different. With USB connectivity, the Guitar Port acts as an audio in/out device and all the amp modelling is done in software within the host PC. In addition, the software provides a built-in browser window so users can, for a modest monthly subscription, connect to the Line 6 Guitar Port web site and get access to backing tracks, a 'tone' database, lessons and guitar-related news. The on-line features are obviously designed to appeal to those looking to enhance their own playing skills, but the functionality of the Guitar Port means it ought to have plenty to offer the recording musician.

In his February 1999 review of the original Pod, Paul White described its shape as resembling a Baywatch babe's bum print. Somehow, that image has always stuck with me (sad, I know!) but I've seen this same description used in a number of other reviews of the Pod. Without wishing to lower the tone too far, I do wonder if Line 6 have also taken this theme a little further given the vaguely triangular shape of the Guitar Port and the location of the jack socket (or perhaps I just need to take a cold shower more often?). The look of the Guitar Port is certainly 'retro' and the flanges at the top of the unit and the single large chicken-head knob would help it fit in perfectly on the set of the original Flash Gordon TV series.

As shown in the photographs of the unit, the hardware is a fairly simple affair. A single quarter-inch mono jack socket is located at the base for connecting up a guitar. Located at the top of the unit is the USB connector, a pair of RCA line out jacks which form the main stereo output, and two stereo jacks. One of the latter is the headphone output, while the other provides a stereo input that could, for example, be used to allow practice along to audio from a CD player.

The only other items included in the box are the installation CD and a standard USB cable. No manual is included either in printed or PDF form. While the help options within the software are comprehensive, perhaps a slim introductory manual would have been useful, particularly as the product will appeal to guitarists who may not have extensive computer experience?

This said, the installation utility explains how to get everything connected and ready to go. As indicated in the Hardware Requirements box, the Guitar Port requires fairly modest PC hardware. Once installed, the unit can be considered as a stereo-in/stereo-out USB audio interface. The current drivers support MME or DirectSound, although ASIO drivers (and XP support) are still in development.

The Guitar Port main screen. A Jimi Hendrix track has been downloaded from the Line 6 web site and information on the track is displayed in the browser section of the window.

The software display is split into five main areas. The top is dominated by a graphical representation of the currently selected amp model and immediately beneath this are four virtual 'foot pedals' offering compression, delay, modulation and reverb. To the right of these are a number of other controls including Master Volume, Noise Gate and Hum Reducer. The bottom half of the display consists of a series of tabs (Guitarport Online, Artists & Gear, and so on) and an area with controls for selecting and playing back backing tracks. The various tabs control what is displayed in the very bottom portion of the screen. This includes the excellent tuner function, the built-in help information and, when acting as a browser window, the on-line features that can be used with a suitable Internet connection. Access to the on-line material requires a subscription costing $7.99 a month (about £5) and this service can be tried for 10 days with the option to cancel without charge.

The on-line elements of the Guitar Port package are perhaps a little peripheral in a recording context but they are also one of the product's most innovative features, so they merit a few words here in passing. With a subscription, the user can access a library of backing tracks, tone settings intended to emulate those of particular well-known artists or songs, lessons or licks in a variety of styles, and news and information about guitar technology or particular artists. The backing tracks cover all styles but the 'classic' tracks, such as Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan numbers, are a real selling point. Some of these have been recreated with contributions from the original musicians (well, those still alive!). Each track is supplied with some background information on the original recording, settings to recreate the guitar tones used and some tablature/notation of key parts. Tracks can be downloaded to your hard drive but can only be played as long as your subscription stays active. The tone database is also very good, whether you want to sound like Angus Young, Jimmy Page or Steve Vai, although 'rawk' does tend to dominate! As a learning tool, these on-line features are excellent and a whole lot of fun; having changed the way lots of musicians record the electric guitar, Line 6 now seem to be trying to redefine how people learn the instrument.

Of course, all these on-line features would be only so much froth if the Guitar Port didn't sound the part. Fortunately, the amp and cabinet modelling is up to the very high standards set by the Pod, and the sounds certainly stand up well against those of my own Pod 2. The software provides 10 amp and 10 cabinet models (see the Model Statistics box for a full list) which are essentially a subset of those found on the Pod, including Fender, Vox, Marshall, Roland and Mesa Boogie models.

The built-in tuner works really well.

On the test PC, audio latency was not an issue as I was able to use the lowest setting available (about 6ms). This delay equates to standing about seven feet from an amp. The ability to easily flip between different combinations of amp and cabinet model gives a tremendous variety of tonal possibilities. As a different amp model is selected, the graphic display changes to reflect the appearance and controls available on the original amp. All the basic tonal areas can be covered, from jazzy clean through to slice-your-head-off thrash, and the bottom line is that it sounds great.

The effects are very good and the rather nice stomp-box-style graphics make the transition from real effects to virtual ones quite painless. One further interesting feature is the Hum Remover: considering that Guitar Port users are going to spend a lot of time with their guitars sat in front of the computer monitor, it makes a decent stab at reducing the interference generated between the screen and single-coil pickups, although it will affect the tone if overdone.

From an SOS perspective, how the Guitar Port works in a recording context is clearly important. There is some useful advice on this within the built-in help pages and also on the Line 6 web site (the latter includes a short PDF document detailing the exact steps involved when using Cakewalk Pro Audio or Sonar). For recording purposes, the Guitar Port and the audio recording software need to be run side-by-side, but this can actually be configured in a couple of ways. If the host PC already has dedicated audio in/out hardware, the Guitar Port output can simply be patched to the audio in of the other soundcard. Alternatively, providing the recording software is happy to work with either DirectSound or MME drivers, the Guitar Port can be selected as the input device within the audio application.

Latency can be adjusted to suit the specification of the host PC.

Testing both methods with Sonar and Acid produced very reliable results. While recording, the Guitar Port provides direct monitoring of the guitar part, so as long as the option exists to switch software monitoring on or off within the audio application, latency is not an issue. Results with Logic were not quite so encouraging. Feeding the output from the Guitar Port hardware to the input of the Echo Mia soundcard installed within the host PC (which was working under ASIO within Logic) worked an absolute treat. However, things were a little less convincing when I tried to use the Guitar Port as an MME or DirectSound input device within Logic, and the test PC system occasionally became unstable. This said, I'd much rather be working with ASIO drivers, so let's hope Line 6 have these available by the time you read this.

The Guitar Port sounds excellent and provides access to wide range of very professional guitar tones via a well-designed software interface. It works well as a basic audio in/out device in a recording context and this aspect is likely to be improved further when the ASIO drivers are released. When you add in the fact that it looks very cute and offers all the optional on-line features that can help you hone those chops, the Guitar Port is clearly very good value for money.

Of course, not many people are going to want to lug their PC to a gig, so those seeking some amp modelling for live use will need to look elsewhere. However, if you want one of the most innovative teaching ideas to appear for the guitar in a long time, which just happens to allow you to record some utterly convincing tones, then the Line 6 Guitar Port could be just what you are looking for. It's just a shame that the company still don't offer their modelling technology as a VST-format plug-in...

Model Statistics     Amp Models '53 Wide Panel 'Lux. '59 Tweed B-man Classic. '64 Black Panel 'Lux Reverb. '67 Brit Class A-30 Top Boost. '68 Brit 50 Watt Plexi. '83 Brit 100 Watt J-800. '87 Jazz 120. '94 California Rectified. Classic Fuzz. Line 6 Insane. Cabinet Models 1x12 '53 Wide Panel 'Lux. 1x12 '64 Black Panel 'Lux Reverb. 2x12 '67 Brit Class A-30 Top Boost. 2x12 '98 Line 6 Custom. 4x10 '59 Tweed B-man. 4x12 '68 Brit Basketweave. 4x12 '78 Brit G-75s. 4x12 '96 Brit V-30s. 2x12 '98 Line 6 Custom. No cabinet.

Test Spec     Guitar Port software v 1.00.10 Pentium 4 1.6GHz PC with 512MB RAM running Windows 98 SE. Tested with Echo Mia 24, Yamaha DSP Factory and Yamaha SW1000XG soundcards, Emagic Logic Audio Platinum 5.1.3, Cakewalk Sonar 2.0, Sonic Foundry Acid Pro 3.0.

information

£149 including VAT. Line 6 Europe +44 (0)1788 821600. +44 (0)1788 821601. Click here to email www.line6.com