Line 6 amps - the reason why they were removed?

[Riverman]

When Line 6 first announced they were providing access to a portion of their tone library, they also offered two ways to expand the selection of patches (which included guitar, bass, synth and vocal tones): If you used a Line 6 audio interface, you would have all of the licensed Pod Farm patches available (natively) in Reason, or you could run Pod Farm in standalone mode and Reason would create an audio track (mono or stereo), which provides you the ability to use dual tone patches in Reason. When this feature was first introduced, not many computers could handle Pod Farm and Reason without suffering a performance hit, but hardware has advanced enough that many laptops can easily handle running Pod Farm and Reason concurrently. True, its sad that Propellerhead/Line 6 terminated their relationship, which has left a lot of people wondering how do they preserve all their past work. I will say it again: what's wrong with repurposing an older system to run as an Instrument Effects Processor? You could throw all of your guitar sims on that one laptop and run it as a line in to your audio interface. Just a thought.

Major hassle.
I currently do this with Cubase.
I used to have to keep a laptop with OS9 on it just to open old Cubase VST/32 files.
Now I have to have a laptop with Tiger on it, so I can import Cubase VST/32 files into Cubase SX, save it, and then open the SX file in my current version of Cubase.
Backwards compatibility has always been a huge draw of Reason, that you can open an R1 file in the latest Reason.
Bummer that the amps got kicked.

[avasopht]

I think the people who lose out the most are those who purchased PodFarm.

[platzangst]

I think the people who lose out the most are those who purchased PodFarm.

Eh, I guess it depends on how you look at it. I've got Pod Farm in a kind of sideways fashion - a sort of semi-free version came to me by virtue of having the Pod hardware. (The limitation was that it would not work as a standalone program, you had to host it as a VST plug-in for you to get any sound out of it.) At some point they updated it past their willingness to extend my hardware-based license, and I upgraded to having the software for "real", more or less.

So I've paid to get a Pod X3, secondhand, used - and I've paid for upgrading Pod Farm. My primary reason was to keep all the amps and cabs open in the Reason Line 6 amps, and with Reason 9, that's all moot. So that money I paid no longer benefits me as far as Reason is concerned.

But, I still have a Line 6 Pod X3 and Pod Farm, which can be used in Reaper or some other DAW. My primary reason doesn't have to be my only reason. I can make use of these things, if I wish, just as I can make use of other instruments and devices not currently available in Reason. The backwards compatibility issues hurt, true, but they aren't fatal. I've left Reason 8 installed, for If I should need access to those Line 6 amps, and there's a variety of other workarounds that could be made.

By contrast, I recently uncovered an old project folder on a CD-Rom from a computer or two back; some Reaper tracks that use VSTs that did not make it in the transition from one computer to the next. I can no longer find any record of the licenses, possibly because they were made with now-defunct email addresses. Some were made with quirky free VSTs whose home pages no longer exist. In a practical sense, the only thing I can do with these projects is either rebuild them mostly from scratch or work with short renders of loops I made back then.

But I guess that's beside the point, which is that I'd only really "lose" out if I just absolutely refused to use Pod Farm as anything but the key that unlocks the Line 6 amps in Reason...

[normen]

The Line6 device in Reason was never really well suited to edit all the parameters of all the plugins you get with Pod Farm anyway. I have a Line6 UX-8 interface which I still use with my Reason PC and it contained the full monty of Line6 Pod Farm devices. Honestly, I never really used them inside Reason because tweaking was a nightmare. I do use them as live FX during recording with the interface software though, which gives nice access to all features and editors. Plus the UX-8 actually has a DSP chip so you have almost zero CPU use when using live FX - the latency is still around 8ms though, which I never really understood..

[WillyOD]

I've been on a holiday, first in two+ years. Burnout is burning away day by day... I'll chip in on this topic next week about the some basic features that I think Reason should have. I know they've added new Players and other some other features (simple things like reversing a MIDI clip which is great, but why did it take X years to add?) These are the kinda things I'm missing; easy to implement (from developer point of view) but very useful, simple functions that most DAWs have. I'm sure some of these things have been on the feature request list for years.

Line6 implementation requiring hardware and making your presets in an external Line 6 software was: BAD, but they had some good, useful amp emulations, and it would be nice to have an RE version with all of their amps, I wouldn't mind paying 69-99 euros for a package like that.

[twitchy_one]

I've been thinking about getting back into guitar and was looking at the Line 6 Pod Studio UX2. I noticed it came with Cubase LE, but when I researched the device on YouTube, I saw probably hundreds, if not thousands, of videos pointing to Line 6 and Reason. The Reason product looks really good & I could see myself using it.

However, if I get a Pod Studio and Reason 9 on the same PC, how do you get the sound played through Pod Farm into Reason? Is it no longer possible? I haven't seen anyone mention how it would work, if at all. Also of note: I've never used Reason and only understand a little bit about it having an effects rack system, a live recording track system (reminds me of Sony's Acid Pro...I'm sure it's better), and that mixing system it has.

The demos they had for Pod Studio and Reason on YouTube made a very convincing argument about using Reason. And it did look very seamless & intuitive.

[QVprod]

I've been thinking about getting back into guitar and was looking at the Line 6 Pod Studio UX2. I noticed it came with Cubase LE, but when I researched the device on YouTube, I saw probably hundreds, if not thousands, of videos pointing to Line 6 and Reason. The Reason product looks really good & I could see myself using it.

However, if I get a Pod Studio and Reason 9 on the same PC, how do you get the sound played through Pod Farm into Reason? Is it no longer possible? I haven't seen anyone mention how it would work, if at all. Also of note: I've never used Reason and only understand a little bit about it having an effects rack system, a live recording track system (reminds me of Sony's Acid Pro...I'm sure it's better), and that mixing system it has.

The demos they had for Pod Studio and Reason on YouTube made a very convincing argument about using Reason. And it did look very seamless & intuitive.

Sadly the only way now that the Line 6 devices are no longer in Reason are to use one of the methods listed in this thread viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7253903&p=1861&hili ... rial#p1861

[jfrichards]

...
The demos they had for Pod Studio and Reason on YouTube made a very convincing argument about using Reason. And it did look very seamless & intuitive.

That phase of Reason is over. It is no longer seamless and intuitive. The seamless and intuitive guitar amps and effects are either the Softube and RV7000 ones built in to Reason 9 or the additional devices for guitar, such as from Kuassa or Sononics or Jiggery. For most guitar players, the new alternatives are better than the discontinued Line6but there are a set of Line6 sounds that have not been reproduced yet.

[twitchy_one]

Thanks QVprod. Those are some pretty useful links. If I end up getting Podcast Farm and Reason, maybe I'll setup a how to video. I also have an NI Absynth. It would be useful to try & get that to work as well, but integration seems a bit of a pain. So far, it seems Reason is a very closed system...although that's probably a strength too. I guess all the systems are closed. I suppose the NI DAW doesn't work with outside components that well either.

Thanks jfrichards. Maybe when building a song, I can use Softube and then just redo the tracks in Line6/Cubase LE, save the resulting tracks to audio & paste those audio tracks into Reason. Probably a hassle since it can't be toyed with live.