If you can stand / afford the pain it sounds a good option to go for the Boss as you can use it anywhere (well, where there's power) and you don't have to get a computer to co-operate. It pains me to say this a bit as I'm a bit of a Vox fan, but hey ho.

Bear in mind I'm just an old technophone - I used to enjoy playing around getting computers to work, but now ......      

Also I've used neither of them so I can't make a judgement call on user friendliness - the idea of intuitive equipment seems low down on manufacturers priorities now. In my day ...

I understand that there is also a bit of kit .. software I think called..............
"Band in a Box 2010 ".(sounds fun) seems more orientated to Jazz rather than blues .but its certainly a backing track creator .

I just don't know if you can record into it as well ....................nor how 'idiot' operable it is .......any experiences ??

I rather dismissed 'Guitar Rig' in my first post ...but I don't really know enough about it to write it off ....again anyone vouch for it ??

As long as I can apply the 'Kiss' principle ( Keep it Sweet and Simple) .I will consider most things

Great vid Majortom ! Tks ...and good to hear somone else wants something simple to "plug and play" along with

This Guy is pretty amazing, Loop Soup indeed  .............seems like his whole house is one large studio !! .somone has some money to burn here ( or a v. rich dad !!always helps one budding musical career .although if you read most solid music 'stars'  biops they usually started with a  guitar worth about 30 bob and only 3 or 4 strings ... ..-That is about £1.50 uk in todays money or about $2.34  )

Does anyone on here use Guitar rig I wonder ??

Jamvox ??

Boss eBand JS-8 ??

Strummer07 wrote:

I've looked at the Home recording bit on here and if I'm reading it right

One needs a Guitar Port ................Line 6 UX1 recommended ( discontinued in the UK I think ) or a UX2 .anything else worth considering please ????

and as the software that comes with Line 6 for recording is apparently a bit naff or does not work with Vista (???? read it on here I think )
the concensus seems to be to down load the free Audacity software

Do I need anything else ??


So in a nutshell .......is it easy to get backing tracks onto Audacity and Jam along using the Line 6 Toneport ??   

is there anything else worth looking at ??

or should i start going around car boot sales and trying to find an old clockwork tape recorder ?????

I wish there was a simple answer, but the older I get the less simple anything on a computer is!!

I'm not going to be much practical help here I think. I haven't used audacity for recording instruments, only for some very basic editing.

I used a Line 6 UX1 for quite a while though. I had to struggle a bit at the installation stage. Line 6 monkey, which needs to be installed to supervise everything, seemed to want to be updated more often than it should, but eventually I installed and updated everything enough times that it did work. On XP (not Vista), and with a good ASIO friendly soundcard. The "not Vista" is quite probably my fault though, but I can't climb all these learning curves anymore and Vista just annoys the hell out of me.

The recording quality was good and it wasn't, as far as I remember, difficult to use with other recording software (Guitar Tracks Pro and Samplitude Music Studio), but I found I was forever fiddling around with the settings trying to get the tone I liked and there were so many setting to fiddle with. Ended up so wound up by not getting it where I wanted that I couldn't then get a recording done at the end of it.

This is why I settled on the Vox Tonelab ST. All the setting are done using solid bits of hardware before the computer kicks in and it can be used into amps or away from a computer and amps with headphones. But I'm lucky that the tone is the sort I usually use, and I've meaybe been lucky that installation was painless (again only on XP - I've given up on Vista for guitar work).

Good luck with the quest.

Thanks VB and gt


VB...I'm afraid that your experiences with the Line 6 toneport are very much what i fear .....way too much in terms of gobbledegook instructions and stuff that needs installing and then un installing and twaeking and initialising etc etc ..........to get it to work .......lots of effort for fairly little return. 

I can just see it ending up in the back garden somewhere !!
quote

I had to struggle a bit at the installation stage.
Line 6 monkey, needs to be installed to supervise everything, seemed to want to be updated more often than it should
I installed and updated everything ( eventually) enough times that it did work.
On XP (not Vista), and with a good ASIO friendly soundcard.
The "not Vista" is quite probably my fault though, but I can't climb all these learning curves anymore and Vista just annoys the hell out of me
unquote

VB .. I felt worn out just reading that lot !!!     I wonder how blind boy is getting on with his ??  bb are you there ??

I have to say that Band in a Box seems to look pretty good, the 2010 version even uses real musicians clips .. so it all sounds real  ..however I am I right in thinking that this is really just a great tool for creating backing tracks ??

I'm unsure about wether its also something to jam and record onto ???

does anyone actually have it / use it on here ??

and even then one still needs some form of interface with the pc to plug a guiatr into !!! 

So i still need some insights on
a) guitar /pc interface .easy to use  ...this months Guitarist reviews the  "Steinberg C12 Advanced Integration USB Studio" ( blimey even the name gives me the shivers) .. but its supposed to be an entry level 'plug in and play'  audio recording and production system ??? Guitarist rates it and gives it 4 + stars

Question ..............is that better than the Line 6 toneport UX2 option ??????

b) a software prog to play backing tracks mp3s and record my own noodlings onto


this 'quest' is begining to feel like I am searching for the holy grail ??..........and I fear I am in danger of getting lost !!

Is it asking too much to have something simple, easy to use &  fit for purpose....................purpose being  a bit of kit to play a guitar with a record the proceedings ...easily !

tks VB

I hope HBl gets a peek at this thread

Actually i can't seem to find a 'personal message'  facility on here so you can just contact the person direct ( you can if they've posted an e-mail address) but not many posters sem to do that.

The weekends arte usually quiet on here so I'll wait for the weekend (and Valentines day) to pass.


I definately need some more info on interfaces before I do anything.