recording interface konnekt or Line 6 UX-8

[Damo]

Hi everyone, I need some help. What would be your choice between a toneport UX-8 or the TC electronics Konnekt 8 ?

The line 6 offers a great software package in Gearbox, it has 8 ins but runs via USB2

The Konnekt 8 comes across as the more serious unit and connects via firewire. I don’t think it has any software.

My basic need is to be able to record more than one source at one time to individual tracks. Likely is 3 or 4 at the most. I like the toneport and gearbox option because I was also looking at getting a bass pod or something similar.

By the way the simpler to get it working the better.

My equipment is
guitars and bass, Korg trinity 88 pro-x, a boss drum machine and a number of microphones some using phantom power and a Boss gt6 and a korg ax10b

My amp is a THD univalve which I use with a cabtone speaker sim or the 2x12.
I also have a lexicon reverb and a tc helicon voiceworks and a tapco 6 input mixer

I am using cakewalk guitar tracks pro 3.

And my computer spec is a dell pent 4 2.53 ghz, with 1.5 g RDRam (not ddr) and it has both USB2 and firewire

Any thoughts on this would be helpful, thanks
Damian

 

[blueprintstudios]

would you know if the line6 UX8 has 8 ins but is it stereo.wav or 8 individual recorded tracks??

UX8 is a new product, haven't seen/tried/asked about it.. so can't help you much here. but if it doesn't record 8 individual tracks, you're wasting your time, you might as well get a line6 podxt (I remember seeing someone selling it in the classifieds) then grab some presonus firepod that comes bundled with softwares or somethin.

 

[Damo]

hi blueprintstudios

" would you know if the line6 UX8 has 8 ins but is it stereo.wav or 8 individual recorded tracks?"

I would say this is yes by the statement off their web site unless I have missunderstood

http://line6.com/toneportux8/

"TonePort UX8 is the only USB audio interface that delivers the powerful tone-shaping mojo of Line 6’s acclaimed GearBox™ software—the same tone engine used by POD® —with recording inputs and outputs for eight simultaneous channels of studio-quality 24-bit/96 kHz audio".

 

[blueprintstudios]

someone in SOFT forum ever mentioned Line6 XLR mic preamps suck. i'm not sure myself. even if I support presonus firepod, another someone said firepod suck too. so what's good? haha

well the last I heard, the pro audio shop called Resolution is selling presonus firepod for around $650 I think. so have you called any local line6 dealers (like city music) asking how much the UX8 is? otherwise might not be worth it since it's a new product and it may cost a bomb. this one you gotta do your own research and comparison heheh.

 

[soft]

Hi Damo

The Line6 UX8 is quite new. Dont know if any user on SOFT has gotten one yet. Hee..hee maybe you will be the first?

Stated in City Music's year end sale catalog that it is going for $655.

Looking at the features, the Line6 does have more stuff like the amp simulator, mic simulator and loads of POD efx.

The Konnekt 8 can only accept 2 microphones at 1 time.

 

[blueprintstudios]

the man has spoken hahah. damn. $650 is tempting.

 

[Damo]

thanks for the input guys but here is the question.

From what you can see, is the UX-8 a toy or should it deliver good quality? I suspect it is more feature than quality driven
or
do you think that the Konnekt will be significantly better, in terms of audio quality ?
Which if i buy it I hope so, as the line 6 has the feature software advantage

and just to show my ignorance will either of these units replace my current sound card or will it run as a selected soundcard in my audio applications.

I appreciate you taking the time to help me out on this

 

[blueprintstudios]

well damian, your best shot is still to go down and try it out. like what james (soft) mentioned about konnekt 8 limitation of 2 mics only. you might as well stick with a line6 toneport UX2!

 

[Damo]

the winner is ..... "The Konnekt 8". I am still working through the best set up but I think / hope it was a good decision. I would have loved the next model up (24D), but there is around $300 difference.

A big thanks to Jacquline at Hung brothers and Team 108 for bending over backwards to make this happen.

 

[cheekyfart]

the winner is ..... "The Konnekt 8". I am still working through the best set up but I think / hope it was a good decision. I would have loved the next model up (24D), but there is around $300 difference.

A big thanks to Jacquline at Hung brothers and Team 108 for bending over backwards to make this happen.

I read your post with great interest. How was the "test" carried out? I too am seriously considering a FireWire interface for "mobile" recording.

And I've just skimmed through TC Electronic Audio Interface page and compared the konnekt 24D with the konnekt 8. The basic difference is that there are 4 x 1/4" TRS output verses 2 x 1/4" TRS for 24D verses the 8. And konnekt 8 do not have the 8 channels of Adat via the optical I/O that the 24D is sporting (I think the number reflects the total number of I/Os).

It seems fine for me as I only have a pair of speakers for stereo monitoring. Anyone here still into Quadraphonic sound? And is Adat still "mainstream"? I dunno man but personally I think that Adat is good to have but not necessary. Unless you are into Pro-Audio, and if so what is $300 compared to your $10,000 gear...get it?

So, if all things considered equal (which is not I know so don't go there...please...) perhaps I'll save me some money and go for the Konnect 8. Cannot wait for my bonus man!

 

[Damo]

cheekyfart wrote "How was the "test" carried out?"

Well there was no test, so I went on the comments from users on other forums and whatever else I could read. Which was pretty much nothing for the line 6 UX-8 and some on the konnekt 8. I went with a percieved quality difference, and got the konnekt8.

I would have prefered a konnekt 24d or better but I went to japan and picked up a nice guitar in November so the dollars only stretch so far.

If it had been 6 months latter and there was more opinion about the UX-8 maybe I would have gone another way. But for now I have the konnekt 8 and I am feeling better about my decision every day

 

[headcharge]

Actually the big difference between a Konnekt 8 and 24D would be ONBOARD DSP PROCESSING(Reverb,compressor and something I forgot). This would mean that you could apply these effect to a track(as an insert or send/return) without any CPU overhead.

 

[cheekyfart]

Thanks for the heads up. Went to check the official website and downloaded the demo videos. I must say that the MINT™ technology looks really good to me.

Now I hate you for making me want to buy it even more! $^!$^&@$%&@#*

 

[osXsan]

Line6 vs Konnekt

Good choice Damo. It would not have been too difficult to choose looking at the origin of these 2 company product history. Most important factor for me would have been the A/D - D/A converters for signal capture. TC has been a huge player with M5000 and the Finalizer and this is due to superior chips used in the AD conversions. The same tech is used in the Konnekt box for both 8 and 24. I would have bit the bullet and get the 24 for that price diff. Reverb FX and ADAT expension option (fm the K24) could easily cost hundreds more (if not thousands) when the need comes. But again, the positive thing with the K8 is that its expandable since its also with FW option. Bus Powered sweetness.

TCE has always been the heart of most studio signal routings. Line6 in my opinion are guitarists hardwares meant mainly for G-FX processings. And a good one at that too.

 

[cheekyfart]

http://soft.com.sg/forum/showthread.php?t=50390

Check out this thread, it is discussing a clever and cost effective method to expend the number of channels for those audio interfaces that comes with ADAT option.

Perhaps osXsan has a point to "bite the bullet and get the 24". Also I've heard that Focusrite is known to have really good microphone pre-amps. Anyone care to comment?