Line 6 filter pro review

[SoundFNR@aol.com]

The Line 6 Filter Pro 
Programmable filters and monophonic synths with MIDI sync

I've had this about a month now, and it's staying in the setup.

There's a selection of filters claiming to
duplicate some of the sounds of popular analog filters.
These are genuine stereo (unlike the FX they are based on), and sound 
pretty 
good.
How good the approximations are I couldn't say, not having
tried the originals

Tron Up & Tron Down are based on the Mu-Tron envelope
follower.  
Essentially the filter frequency is altered by the volume of the input.
So a kind of auto wah.
Very good for funk guitar & bass sounds.
... and very organic-synthy if you can add distortion between the guitar
and the filter.

Slow-Filter is based on a setting from an oberheim filter unit.
Each note triggers a sweep of the filter frequency.
You chose speed, top frequency of sweep (but not bottom)
resonance and whether sweep is up or down.
The usefulness is compromised by the fact that you can't 
alter the frequency at the bottom of the sweep.

Seeker  (from the Z-Vex seek wah)
A band pass filter with the frequency changed by a step
sequencer.
You get a choice of 64 different preset patterns, and can vary the no. of
steps from 2 to 9.
You get to chose the speed. 

Obi-wah (oberheim again) 
is similar to Seeker, but the Left and right sides are different
(even for mono input).
the sequence is random and you chose low/band/high pass.

Throbber (Filter Factory)
LFO controlled filter.
No control on LFO depth,(but all the other usual stuff)
Various LFO waveforms.
Remixers paradise.

Spin cycle (Craig Andertons Wah/AntiWah)
Double Auto-cycling wah, with opposite cycle left an right 
(or just  one wah in mono)

..and some other filters

Comet Tails
7 Parallel  resonant filters.
With autopan and cyclic sweep from LFO.
Sort of continuously evolving.
Input summed to mono.

Q-Filter
A very nice stereo midi controlled filter.
Control resonance , frequency and Lo/Band/Hi pass.
...and also Gain.
With an expression pedal this makes a fully 
tweakable wah-wah. The fact that you can program the gain
at each end of the pedal (as well as everthing else) makes
this the ultimate wah modeller.
Or just use as a lo-pass remix filter. 

V-tron and Voice-box 
are meant to simulate vowel sounds.
Not very exciting. Can only sweep from one vowel to 
another.
They should have looked at the Electro Harmonix Talker Pedal.
...a wah that swept through all 5 (western) vowels like a wah.


Then there's the mono-synths.
They take the frequency from the input.
You get to chose the output frequency, from an octave down
to an octave up.
Tracking is a bit variable, you need to play clean and
not let the note ring too long.
On guitar the low notes work better (but slightly more latency)
On my fender bass, every note worked apart from low E.
Pitching is a sometimes bit dubious on the higher notes, 
(but can be compensated by string bending) .
Also the Synth tone gets more "digital" sounding as the 
pitch goes up.

Synth-String (Roland G-700 Guitar Synth)
all the nastyness of those early guitar synths.
Even the latency.
Sounds OK with the dry guitar mixed in.  

Attack Synth( Korg X911 Guitar synth)
With a lot of tweaking, this one's very nice.
I got a rich synth sound with filter sweep on
the expression pedal.

Synth-O-Matic 
A whole bunch of claim to be emulations.
plus undocumented "PIPE" and "RING"
Basically these all need careful tweaking an 
careful choice of playing range to work.
...but "RING" is a fabulous ring modulator sound,
you get the sound, but can still get the note you expected.
...and as the unit loses track of your playing it
goes straight into "short wave radio"  sounds.
amazing.

Growler is "another G-700 sound put through the Mutron.
...disappointing.

Octisynth produces a synth tone with the 
frequency dependent on input volume.
(or can get a note related to input  by tweaking)
...guess they couldn't think of anything else ;-)
i got "that 70's disco syn-drum sound" out of it.
Could be exactly what your looking for though.


Overall the filters are good, and the Synths are,
well, usable if your willing to put a lot of time in.

The supplied presets show off the filters quite well,
but don't get anything special out of the synths.

Being able to MIDI sync (to EDP) is amazing, 
with the Seeker step filter running in time with the loop.
etc....etc...etc..

Manual is easy, but then its not a hard unit to operate.

Expression pedal really opens things up, use MIDI or
the "line 6 expression pedal".
I'd strongly criticise line 6 for not telling what pedal would
be usable, however luckily I'm able to reveal that its a 100k lin pot
connected to a mono jack. (100k log works OK)

I've managed to crash it 3 times, but don't think this will
happen often (wouldn't even respond to power off control)
this was while heavily tweakin the Synth-O-Matic.

Setting the expression pedal is easy, but can't do it when
MIDI syncing. 

When MIDI syncing you get to chose the note value for the
LFO rate, and you can re-trigger the LFO .
(this is the worst part of the user interface, have to cycle through
all the values to get to the one you want, and the display is poor;
hard to see, and invisable if you're above the unit) 

Things they missed out:-
You can't mix the input with the synth to pass through the filter.
Should have added a simple octave divider.


Not as good as the more expensive studio filters,
(Sherman, Mutator)

..but now being sold off at a reasonable price.

also check out :-
Electrix now getting cheaper
MAM Filters (quirky, very analog)
Behringer  Modulizer (incredibly cheap with good MIDI filter)
Behringer Virtualizer 2024 (filters sub oct and oddness)  

you could get two of the above for the same money.

Conclusion.

Try before you buy, but don't just try the presets.
Generally big sounds. 
(but good contrasts )

Decor up to RW standards (bright purple)


andy butler