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Line 6 BackTrack portable recorders

October 4th, 2008
Line 6 BackTrack
Backtrack price check
Line 6 BackTrack With Microphone
BackTrack+MIC price check

Line 6 are releasing a new portable handheld recording device. There are two variations, with or without a built-in microphone. They are expected to start shipping on October 10, 2008. Here are some links to all the relevant information: See the details

Book Review: The Business of Audio Engineering

August 24th, 2008

The Business of Audio Engineering
price check
Recommended for you if you are starting out in or considering a career in the audio industry.

Alternate title: War Stories - How NOT to get caught in the crossfire.

Length: 205 pages split into 15 bite sized chapters and an appendix

Read the full review

Mix Recipes: Tom EQ and compression

August 11th, 2008

A great drum track is at the core of most modern popular music. Other mix recipes have covered the snare drum and kick drum, and now it is time to talk about toms. The toms can be used to add texture to particular drum fills and section transitions or they can drive an entire song. No matter which role they are filling in your track, it is important to get a sound that will allow them to cut through the mix and be noticed. Here are some helpful mix recipes to get you started with EQ and compression on your tom tracks. Get mix recipes for toms

Home recording studio on a budget

July 27th, 2008

Computers have made building an advanced home recording studio a reality for many of us. It has also caused a flooding of the market by dozens of products (and more) that all basically do the same thing. The sea of marketing created in this environment has left quite a few home recording enthusiasts scratching their heads in confusion. Below you will find some basic recommendations on the key equipment needed to start your own home recording studio. Find out more

DEAL: AKG Perception 200 condenser OVER

July 21st, 2008

This deal is OVER, and the mic is back to its regular price.

The Stupid Deal of the Day is for an AKG Perception 200 condenser microphone. This is a great mic to have in your home recording studio. After an SM57 or three, a decent large diaphragm condenser is the next mic purchase I recommend for the small recording studio operator and this mic will fill the role marvelously.


Musician's Friend Stupid Deal of the Day

Normal street price on this baby is $160 but click the Stupid Deal picture to get it at about 40% off. Today only!

POD X3 flash memory 1.15

July 1st, 2008

Line 6 released a new flash memory for POD X3. The version is 1.15 and it fixes a few of the outstanding issues with POD X3. Tell me more

FX Tips - Delay: Extra wide stereo

June 28th, 2008

Here is another stereo mixing trick to go along with the Haas, cross, and panned delay tricks. This technique creates a stereo sound that fills the room and appears to come from all sides of the listener’s head at the same time. The basic idea is to start with a mono track panned dead center and invert the phase one one of the channels. Your digital home recording setup is quite likely already equipped to perform this trick. Show me how to set it up

Line 6: POD X3 Pro and other new products

June 22nd, 2008

It is now possible to preorder three of these new products with expected shipping dates revealed.

Line 6 POD X3 Pro Guitar Multi Effects Processor Line 6 POD X3 Pro price check
Estimated shipping date: October 27, 2008.
Ben’s best guess street price: $700
Line 6 M13 Guitar Multi Effects Pedal Line 6 M13 price check
Estimated shipping date: July 25, 2008 Shipping
Ben’s best guess street price: $500
Line 6 JM4 Looper Guitar Effects Pedal Silver Line 6 JM4 price check
Estimated shipping date: July 9, 2008 Shipping
Ben’s best guess street price: $325.

More information and pictures

Spotlight: Digitech’s “The Weapon”

June 19th, 2008

DigiTech Artist Series Dan Donegan The Weapon Guitar Multi Effects Pedal

price check

It is no secret that I’m a big fan of the Line 6 tones and method of doing things. Back before POD XT had the Metal Shop amp pack, there weren’t really any outright, crushingly good metal tones on that unit. I experimented with integrated The Weapon into my setup to fill this gap. Though a bit focused in the type of metal tones it offers, this pedal sounds fantastic. I did eventually sell the pedal but I have regretted it ever since. Check out this sound sample of me playing through all the settings of The Weapon straight into my computer.

Be sure to pay special attention to the sitar sound around 2:30 of the clip.

POD Patches - Guitar World (June 2008)

June 15th, 2008

I have been way behind on cooking up some tasty guitar sounds to go along with the June 2008 issue of Guitar World. So in the interest of actually getting these posted there are no sound samples this month. As always, these guitar tones can be directly loaded into any Line 6 product that uses Gearbox as its editor. This includes POD XT, POD X3, all the TonePorts, and even the Gearbox Plugin. A few of the patches this month are dual tone pairs so you will only be able to use one part of the patch at a time if your device does not support dual tones. If you don’t have Line 6 gear you can still try dialing these settings in on your amp to see how close you can get.

Included this month:

  • Children of Bodom - Lake Bodom
  • Dethklok - Thunderhorse
  • Avenged Sevenfold - Almost Easy
  • Foghat - Slow Ride
  • Heart - Barracuda

Get these great guitar sounds