Stealth Plug?

[claudel]

Anybody use one of these little gizmos?

(link removed)

Looks kinda nifty and comes with a version of Amplitube for a mere $99 or so...

 

[ibobunot]

Anybody use one of these little gizmos?

Looks kinda nifty and comes with a version of Amplitube for a mere $99 or so...

It also comes with "Mackie Tracktion 2.1" the full version not a crippled lite version.

 

[claudel]

That looks pretty cool as well.

I'm wondering if the Stealth Plug has latency or fidelity issues.

For $99 with all the bundled SW it almost seems too good to be true,
and we know how that usually works out...

 

[ibobunot]

USB is good for for recording two tracks.

With a 48Khz sampling rate I don't think you'll have any problems with the USB bus overloading.

 

[claudel]

For a hundred bucks, I'll probably give it a go.

I'm mainly looking for a cheap, but not too cheesy way to get my guitar & bass into Garage Band, but I'll probably give Tracktion a whirl too.

 

[Brian blaut]

There are a lot of interesting ways to go here. It depends on what your ultimate goal is. I'm guessing you want to get your guitar into the computer and the Amplitube software is a great bonus. I checked into the Stealth at one point. I was interested because the software sounded great. I don't expect any latency issues from the product itself. As mentioned above, I found that USB itself is just fine for up to two channels of recording. Latency can still come into play if your running too many plugins and/or your computer is having trouble keeping up. But in my search to get an external soundcard for guitar recording,I found other options as well:


This Edirol unit was recommended to me. I almost went for it. Its many times more usefull than the stealth could ever be with its its and outs :guitar AND microphone input, and phantom power and Midi. I think it comes with a limited version of Sonar (which I don't believe works on a mac). But usually the software isn't worth much in these type of deals anyways. This may just be the lowest price I've seen on a device with all these inputs, at $150
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UA4FX/


Behringer makes its own version of the Stealth for only $40. It includes ONE (your choice) of the Guitar Combos from Guitar Rig. A little more limiting software wise, but this is a real bargain and bonus for getting guitar into the computer on the cheap.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Behringer-Guitar-Link-UCG102?sku=241228

Line6Toneport. (what I ended up buying)
This is a pretty cool little machine. For around $130 for the UX1, you get your guitar and micorphone inputs. You get the gearbox software which is pretty cool. Its much more robust than the limited version of Amplitube. And as an addition, you also get some cool mic preamp models and bass amp models. So if the light version of amplitube turns you on, be sure and check this one out. I sprung for the UX2 version ($200) which added an addition guitar input, additional mic imput, plus phantom power. The drawback here is that it bakes the processed amp and effects into the signal, before it hits your recording software. The gearbox software runs infront of your recording software, not along side it. So you can't go back and change your amp settings or reverb settings after you've recorded the track. And not being a plug in, you can't use the software with other recorded tracks or anything not recorded with the toneport. But what it does give you by doing this is completely unnoticable latency. It does its computing FAST and is not bogged down with applying the effects and process from within your recording program, which I'm assuming makes it more efficient because I notice no latency whatsoever. And its has stereo line in jacks, so you can use it to record from other devices, just as you would a normal soundcard. Just bypass the amp and effects models, and it'll send your signal through dry as a bone. If you need to get the guitar in your computer and like the idea of some great software to go with it, this is the most robust deal out there IMO. I'm still in the honeymoon phase, so I haven't written a review yet, but for what its worth I love it. Alghough the models and effects are on par or better than what I've experienced form Amplitube or Guitar Rig, but they seem to lack the dynamics of my Vox Tonelab. They feel more processed and recorded and my tonelab feels more alive and more touch sensitive. But I can always record my tonelab through the line6 device. Plus the line6 offers the mic preamp models, which is a really cool feature. Don't get me wrong I think the models sound great. Surprisingly great. But my vox's are noticeably better, more alive. But I've always thought that in comparison to Guitar Rig and Amplitube as well. But the line6 offers some different models, some really great effects and hooks up in seconds and is a LOT of fun. And it makes movies and music sound better too when used as the soundcard. Definitely the best choice for my guitar/computer recording needs. AND, with the mic inputs, at the end of the day, you can always just record your real amp, recording it dry or using the toneport for delay and reverb or other post effects. Its the perfect marriage of the usefulness of the general recording hardware products, the simplicity of the guitar specific recording products and all the fun of the software modeling products.

-Oh, it comes with Albetin live or some sort of limited recording program that I haven't bothered with, so I can't say anything plus or negative about that. -but those are usually just meant to give you taste of what the real program can do, and not that great on their own. You can always download the free Audacity, which everyone seems to like, or go for the Stealth if you need a full recording program and don't want to spend more on that.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/TonePortUX1/
(link removed)

-Brian

 

[claudel]

I just sold my desktop ToneLab and bought the new Tonelab LE so I decided to take a pass on the stealth plug.

I'm probably going to get some sort of firewire device like the Presonus Firebox.
I think they might have an updated version out that will work for me.

I really only need 2 channels at a time for stereo in.

PS, The TLLE is a great little gizmo.

The original was enough to get me to sell off all my old amps,

The LE has a bunch of cool effects that the original didn't, and it
seems to sound even better too.

 

[Brian blaut]

You, my friend, have made a great choice. And I've never heard anything but great stuff from the Firebox. Those are some solid solutions. Does the newer tonelab have a USB out for recording? If not, they NEED to do that. The Pod has it for cryin' out loud. The desktop version really should have come with that.

Yes, the tonelab never ceases to amaze me.

 

[claudel]

No USB or firewire out on the TLLE.

You'd think they would have included one or both of those.

It couldn't have added that much to the development or parts cost.

It does have SP/DIF though.

I still need to spend a bit more time with it, but I'm glad I upgraded.