What Is

• CPU Usage Meter
• Delay
• Device Manager (Windows)
• Effects
• Gate
• Hub
• Hum Reducer
• Info Bar
• Mod (Modulation)
• Preferred Audio Device
• Record Send
• Reverb (Verb)
• Rotary Speaker
• Tap Tempo
• Soundcard
• Stomp
• Tone
• Tremolo
• USB Hub
• Verb (Reverb)
• Vol
• Wah

What is the CPU Usage Meter?

The CPU Usage Meter at the bottom right corner of the GearBox window shows how much of your computer's CPU horsepower is being used to power GearBox and your TonePort. If you see the meter close to fully lit (as the meter shown above is), GearBox is putting a heavy load on your computer. When you bypass GearBox's tone processing engine by pressing the second button to the right of the Tone menu, you'll see the CPU Usage Meter's level drop.

Windows users can reduce the load GearBox and TonePort put on their CPU by selecting Hardware & Settings from GearBox's Help menu and increasing the setting used by ToneDirect™ monitoring. Click Driver & Recording to the left, and select the Windows Driver topic for more info about Windows TonePort driver settings.

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What is Delay?

Delay is one of GearBox's Effects and its Models are described in the Model Gallery.

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What is the Device Manager in Windows?

To learn about the Windows Device Manager and see how it can be used to view and adjust the settings for your computer's hardware, please see the TonePort online support section of the Line 6 web site.

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What are the Effects?

GearBox includes nine simultaneous Effects. When you load a Tone from GearBox's Tone Menu, the Effects will be set to the settings saved for that Tone. Saving a Tone will save all the effect settings with the Tone.


  • Clicking the arrow to the left of the Gate icon shows and hides the Effects control panel.
  • Click the Gate, Wah, Stomp, Delay, Mod, Comp, EQ, and Verb icons to turn them on (name shows in red, like the effects above) or off (shown outlined and grayed). The Volume, Amp/Mic/ER and Send 3-4 icons do not turn on/off.
  • Clicking an effect to turn it on will also cause its controls to be displayed in the Effects control panel.
  • You can also select a particular effect for display in the Control Panel by selecting it from the menu just below the Gate icon, or by right-clicking the effect (Windows) or control-clicking (Mac).
  • As you move your mouse over any effect control, you'll get a description and tips on using the control in the Info Bar at the bottom of the GearBox window.
  • Click switches in the Control Panel or turn any knobs to adjust the selected effect. Or double-click numerical values to type in values.
  • Some effects include a Model menu for selecting which Model you'd like to use for the effect.
  • The arrow running underneath the effects shows you GearBox's signal flow, from left to right.
  • The Vol, Mod, Delay and Reverb effects include a Pre/Post switch so they can run Pre (before the amp/cab/mic or Preamp processing) or Post (after the amp/cab/mic or Preamp). As you click the pre/post switches of these effects, you'll see all the icons re-ordered to show the new signal flow.
  • Many of the effects are modeled after classic gear described in the Model Gallery.
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What is Gate?

Gate is one of GearBox's Effects and is described in the Model Gallery.

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What is the Hum Reducer?

The Hum Reducer reduces the noise that your guitar (or bass guitar) puts out, including noise that is caused by electrical interference from your computer display and other sources that are picked up by your guitar's pickups. The Hum Reducer will not completely eliminate hum, but it is usually able to reduce it considerably. To use the Hum Reducer:
  • Click the Hum Reducer button to light it up red, then
  • Click the Learn button, then
  • Follow the other directions on-screen in the Hum Reducer window.
It's important to position yourself and your guitar in your normal playing position in relationship to your computer display, etc. when the Hum Reducer is learning the pattern of the noise that it will reduce. When you change positions relative to the monitor, change guitars or pickups, or add other possible sources of interference (turning on a nearby television, say), the character of the interference that your guitar is receiving and transmitting will change, and you should press the Learn button again to have the Hum Reducer relearn this new hum pattern.

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What is the Info Bar?



The Info Bar is the area at the very bottom of the GearBox window. Point your mouse (you don't have to click the mouse button) at something in the GearBox program and look at the Info Bar to see a description of the thing you're pointing at as well as brief instructions on how to use it. For some controls, the current setting of the control is shown (in parentheses) at the end of the Info Bar text.

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What is Mod?

Mod, an abbreviation for Modulation, is one of GearBox's Effects. The Modulation effect can use one several different Models, all described in the Model Gallery.

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What is a Preferred Audio Device?

Windows calls the device it uses to play system sounds the Preferred Audio Device. You can choose to make TonePort your preferred audio device, and then Windows will route all sounds that your computer makes through GearBox and to the TonePort hardware via the USB cable. TonePort is one of the best-sounding USB bus-powered devices in the world, so if you do use it as your preferred audio device, you'll get no-compromise sound quality.

However, on some systems you will lose some sound capabilities if TonePort is the preferred audio device:
  • If your soundcard provides surround sound via multiple speakers, this would also be a feature that you would lose by making TonePort your preferred audio device.
  • Some sound cards also have synthesizer chips onboard that feed audio directly out of the card without the computer "seeing" it, so these sounds might also not be available to you if you were using TonePort as the preferred audio device. If your soundcard has one of these, you could get around this by connecting the audio output from your computer to the Monitor In jack on the back of your TonePort.
  • Some computers have the audio output of their internal CD drive connected to the internal sound card via a direct analog connection, so the audio from the CD drive never is "seen" by the computer as the CD plays. If your computer is setup this way, making TonePort your preferred audio device would mean you could not use the computer's CD to play audio CDs via WinAmp or other programs. However, you do sometimes get an alternative to enable digital playback of the CD. This can be accessed on some Windows systems by right clicking on the "My Computer" icon on your desktop and choosing Properties. You will then see a tab named Device Manager. Select your CD here and navigate to an option to enable digital audio playback of the CD (if this option is provided), and you will now be able to playback audio from your computer's CD drive in any program, and hear it coming out of your TonePort. If your CD doesn't support digital playback, you could also get around this by connecting the audio output from your computer to the Monitor In jack on the back of your TonePort, using a 1/8-inch stereo (sometimes called "mini") to 1/4-inch stereo (sometimes called "TRS") cable.
The moral of the story is, if you want to use TonePort as your preferred audio device, give it a go and then check to see if all your audio devices are coming through to TonePort's outputs as expected. If a device like your CD player isn't coming through as expected, check the options in the Windows Device Manager or other software included with the device, and you may then be able to get everything going digitally. The TonePort online support section of the Line 6 web site provides additional information on Preferred Audio Device settings.

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What is a Rotary Speaker?

A Rotary Speaker is one of those things that makes you go, "Gee whiz!" when you first hear about it: a speaker is mounted on a rotating motor, and spun around as sound plays through it. A switch allows you to select slow or fast speed for the rotation, and one cool thing about a rotary is the gradual change in sound that you hear as the speaker speeds up or slows down to the new speed. The rotary speaker was originally developed for organ players, but guitar players soon put it to use as well. Stevie Ray Vaughn and The Beatles were both heavy users of rotary speaker effects for guitar. For details on each of the Rotary Speaker controls, move your mouse over the control and look in the Info Bar at the bottom of the GearBox window.

Check out the Model Gallery to learn about the classic rotary speaker gear that was modeled for GearBox.

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What is Tap Tempo?

All GearBox's Delay and Mod Effects (except for Rotary Drum + Horn) allow you to set their time/speed two ways. One way is to turn their speed or time knob. The other way is to choose a tempo.

You choose a tempo one of two ways. You can type into the TEMPO field shown for these effects. Or you can select a note value from the button to the left of their FX TEMPO display, then click a few times on the TAP button to set tempo to match the tempo of the music you're working on.

The most common use of tap tempo is to set the note value to a quarter note (as shown above), tap along with the song you're recording, and enjoy GearBox's Delay and/or Mod Effect as it pulses in quarter note time to match your song. You can also choose other notes values — U2's guitarist, The Edge, is fond of using dotted-eighth note delays.

GearBox uses one tempo for both the Mod and Delay effects, so when you set it with one, it will also be used by the other. Choose (OFF) from the button to the left of the tempo display if you'd like Delay or Mod to ignore the tempo. Mod and Delay can have different note values, so for instance your delays could be dotted-eighth notes while your tremolo pulses along in quarter note time.

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What is a soundcard?

The soundcard is the piece of hardware in your computer that plays back and receives sound into the computer for recording or other uses. TonePort operates as a soundcard. The TonePort online support section of the Line 6 web site provides information on setting up TonePort and GearBox, including info on using them with or disabling other soundcards.

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What is Stomp?

Stomp is one of the GearBox Effects. A selection of stomp box distortion, fuzz and compressor effects are available from its Effect Model menu. For details on each of the Stomp controls, move your mouse over the control and look in the Info Bar at the bottom of the GearBox window.

Some Stomp effects are modeled after classic gear. You can learn about that gear in the Model Gallery.

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What is a Tone?

A Tone is a saved setting for all controls that affect the processed sound applied to TonePort inputs.



Tones stored on your computer are accessed from the Tones menu at the top left of the GearBox window. Some Basic Tones and a folder of Preset Tones is available in this menu. The menu also has a User folder ready to store any new Tones that you save.

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What is Tremolo?

Tremolo is one kind of effect that can be run by GearBox's Mod (Modulation) Effect.

Tremolo produces a pulsing sound. It works by turning the volume of your input down and back up again repeatedly, at the speed set for the tremolo. For details on each of the Tremolo controls, move your mouse over the control and look in the Info Bar at the bottom of the GearBox window.
Check out the Model Gallery to learn about the classic tremolo that was modeled for GearBox.

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What is a USB hub?

USB hubs are computer add-ons that connect to a single USB port on your computer, and turn that one USB connection into multiple USB connections. The important things to know about USB hubs relative to TonePort are:
  • You should generally avoid connecting TonePort to a USB hub with other devices. Those other devices will use part of the USB bandwidth (remember, all the hub's connections are still being routed together into that one USB connection provided from the computer to the hub), and will compete with TonePort as it works to move all the audio you want to and from your computer.
  • If you have more USB devices than connections on your computer (not counting hub connections), try to connect TonePort directly to a USB port on the computer, and use a hub to connect other devices via another USB connection on the computer. For instance, if you have a printer, scanner or USB hard drive, connect those to a hub, and connect that hub to a different USB port on the computer than the one TonePort is connected to.
  • Any hub that TonePort connects to must have its own power supply. The hub can not get its power from the computer's USB port, because the hub will not then supply enough USB power to the TonePort. Get a powered USB hub, if you're going to connect TonePort to it.
  • You can't connect more than one USB audio device to a single USB port on your computer, even if you are using a hub to split that one USB connection to many. There won't be enough USB bandwidth for the multiple USB audio devices.
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What is a Record Send?

A Record Send is a signal that's intended for recording. GearBox provides four Record Sends that show up as inputs in your recording software. The first two of these Record Sends have controls in GearBox labeled Record Send 1-2. The second pair's controls are labeled Record Send 3-4. Click GearBox Basics to the left and check out the description of 1 Tone+Monitored Effects as well as 2 Tones to see how these Record Sends are used. Additional information is provided in the setup documents the TonePort online support section of the Line 6 web site.

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What is Verb (Reverb)?

Verb, an abbreviation for Reverb, is one of GearBox's Effects. Its Models are described in the Model Gallery.

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What is Vol?

Vol (Volume) is one of GearBox's Effects, and is described in detail in the Model Gallery.

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What is Wah?

Wah is one of GearBox's Effects. It simulates a classic wah pedal, and can be used to provide a "parked wah" sound, or can be controlled via MIDI for wah pedal effects.

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