Line 6 Introduces Toneport UX8

[Vettavillenl]

Calabasas, CA - September 21, 2007 - Line 6, Inc., maker of the legendary POD® and industry leader in guitar amplifier and multi-effects modelling technology, is proud to unveil TonePort™ UX8, the first of Line 6’s acclaimed TonePort™ family of audio interfaces to feature recording for eight simultaneous channels of 24-bit/96 kHz audio in a sturdy and professional rack-mountable design.
Bundled with Line 6’s acclaimed GearBox™ modelling software and the Line 6 GearBox Plug-In, TonePort UX8 is the ideal solution for project and pro studios that demand multiple ins and outs for more advanced recording applications. TonePort UX8 provides the discerning producer with eight XLR inputs, eight ¼-inch line inputs, two ¼-inch front panel instrument jacks, eight ¼-inch balanced line output jacks, two stereo headphone jacks as well as stereo RCA S/PDIF input and output.

complete pressrelease and picture
http://www.vettaville.nl/vvlatestnewsnl.htm#653

[Vettavillenl]

and Line 6 opened up the UX8 websitepart
http://line6.com/toneportux8/

[Dulouz]

Any idea how much one of these will cost?

[elambo]

So it's an audio interface made by a company that makes software that emulates guitar hardware?

Call me crazy, but I don't have high expectations.

[RMcFarland]

8 channels simultaneously @ 24bit over USB?

[drolling]

Would't use one if ya paid me...

Didn't think I'd ever get to use that expression, but my experiences w/their stuff were so brutal (even moreso live!).. there's just no way, for me.

One the other hand, I've heard so many great players get great sounds out of 'em..(?Hey, where'd the *puzzlement emoticon* go?)

Just took a look at Oz Noy's board; he's got THREE DL-4s squashed on there!!!

gotta get that record..

[igloo0213]

8 channels simultaneously @ 24bit over USB?

That's exactly what I was thinking. Not to mention at 96k. Something fishy is going on here. I'll pass

[Vettavillenl]

Any idea how much one of these will cost?

Only have a listprice for Holland so far, incl 19% tax
Euro 641.41

[Dulouz]

8 channels simultaneously @ 24bit over USB?


I was wondering the same thing. Doesn't that usually require a FireWire connection?

If the price is right, I'll look into getting one. I've had great experiences with Line 6 gear.

[jzucker]

I was wondering the same thing. Doesn't that usually require a FireWire connection?

If the price is right, I'll look into getting one. I've had great experiences with Line 6 gear.

usb2 is actually faster than firewire in theory. There's no reason you couldn't get that performance out of USB2 . The issue you would have would be latency in real time monitoring. In terms of raw throughput for recording (not monitoring), it'd be easy to achieve....

[Orren]

usb2 is actually faster than firewire in theory. There's no reason you couldn't get that performance out of USB2

You're absolutely right about the speed part: USB2 can achieve a maximum transfer rate of 480Mbps and FW400 tops out at 400Mbps.

The thing is, the USB protocol is far more "packetized" and not nearly as conducive to realtime streaming than FireWire. Remember, USB was engineered by Intel for human interface devices, printers, scanners, and other non-realtime devices. Sony and Apple developed FireWire specifically for streaming media. So while USB2's 480Mbps is wonderful for hard drives, which can benefit from the speed, and are themselves sending data in packets, USB2 interfaces tend to not be nearly as reliable for streaming as their FW400 counterparts.

That said, the Line 6 engineers have gotten into computer recording in a big way with the UX series, and it's possible that they will deliver some pretty killer drivers, perhaps limiting the number of streams to maximize realtime streaming reliability, etc.

Orren

[jzucker]

again, it's the monitoring that's the issue. THere's plenty of bandwidth for the actual recording. Packeting or not...

[Maxer]

You're absolutely right about the speed part: USB2 can achieve a maximum transfer rate of 480Mbps and FW400 tops out at 400Mbps.

The thing is, the USB protocol is far more "packetized" and not nearly as conducive to realtime streaming than FireWire. Remember, USB was engineered by Intel for human interface devices, printers, scanners, and other non-realtime devices. Sony and Apple developed FireWire specifically for streaming media. So while USB2's 480Mbps is wonderful for hard drives, which can benefit from the speed, and are themselves sending data in packets, USB2 interfaces tend to not be nearly as reliable for streaming as their FW400 counterparts.

Orren

Plus there's FireWire 800 out there, too. I don't know how many audio interfaces sport it as yet but I have a couple of LaCie drives which have both FW 400 and 800 ports... the higher standard has been out for years now.

If I had to buy a new audio-in box, I'd be going with FW.