AlesisAudioLink Series GuitarLink Plus Audio Interface

The GuitarLink is a great entry to digital recording... if you already know what you're doing. I have never done any DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) recording before, and there is very little literature out on the web which specifically discusses the GuitarLink with VST plug-ins and recording software. After doing loads of homework, the fruits of my labor paid off. It IS a plug-and-play device as advertised, but there is little documentation about it... that's my sole beef. Think of it as a high-impedance guitar cable with a sound card built in. I use it with my bass and a slew of effects. Great for rocking out without disturbing the neighbors.

I wanted to be able to plug my guitar into my laptop and jam with GuitarRig4 while on vacation. In order to actually play guitar, you have to have pretty much zero latency [your brain will explode if you play a riff with your fingers and 300ms later hear it with your ears], which means you are going to have to install and setup Asio4all. Be prepared. I got this to work in my particular setup, but for me it was about 6 hrs techno-labor. Some people report plug and play. Lucky them. If I had this to do over, I would have sprung the extra bucks and purchased the Line 6 POD Studio GX which comes with the Pod amp simulators and effects [cool], and a mini studio [which I don't need because I am running Sonar X1 Producer]. Of course, the Pod is triple the price ... so ... lesson being ... you get what you pay for [duh].

Any review should probably start out with a disclaimer specifying that product review results for something such as a USB peripheral like this cable may vary from hardware set up to set up.This cable is currently being used with a 2011 15" MBP, 2.2Ghz i7, 8 GB RAM and GarageBand 6.0.2. It was previously used with a 2009 15" MBP 2.4Ghz C2D, 4 GB RAM with virtually the same results. I won't vouch for the performance of this cable on earlier Mac hardware or pre-2010 versions of GarageBand.First off in regards to the negative reviews: there is no perceptible latency when properly set up.On the default settings with the original C2D MBP I used this cable with, there was a significant amount. Key word: default. After making the appropriate preference adjustments within GarageBand, there was none.On the default settings with the i7 MBP, no adjustments needed to be made at all upon launching GarageBand. 100% plug and play. The program automatically recognized the USB link as the default input source and no adjustments were necessary to start recording. The monitor is off by default; clicking it on within GarageBand is the equivalent of flipping the power on a guitar amp if you want to use external speakers, or clicking on the headphone icon if you want to use headphones.These are issues with GarageBand, not the cable. Any negative reviews based upon lack of basic user knowledge of how to use GarageBand (Apple's software) should be disregarded.Granted, there was no documentation on how to use Alesis' product with GarageBand (which is Apple's software, not theirs) within the plastic bubble package the product ships in, I didn't personally have to download any of the PDF documentation available on their product support site to make the adjustments and start recording.In short, with some hardware set ups, this cable may not be one step plug and play simple, but it does work exactly as engineered and without the latency quoted by any negative reviews.On current Macs with the most recent version of GarageBand and OS updates, it works flawlessly without any set up and is essentially now an idiot-proof product.

Like others here, the latency was just too great for me to be able to use it.I'm running a Macbook with Garage Band '09. Just as a solo or with a loop, delay was about a 1/4 second, which is ALMOST liveable, and you can get used to it somewhat after playing for a while. But when I imported a play along track into Garage Band, the delay increased to a second, making it completely impossible to play in time with the track.The tone quality is improved using the guitarlink vs. just running straight through the line-in channel. (The line-in basically elminates the latency, but it impairs the tone and adds some unwanted distortion.) Nevertheless, latency issues trump tone quality, rendering the item unuseable.From reading other reviews here and elsewhere online, some Mac users have not had the latency issue, even using the exact same setup I have. Go figure. So, for those who DO want to risk it, know that it really isn't just "plug and play." There are four simple but important steps to take before using it that are not included as documentation nor found on Alesis's support page. They are absolutely necessary to be able to hear other tracks and the guitar as you're recording. And they will save you hours of frustration trying to figure it out.1. Make sure the Input is set to the guitarlink (arbitrarily called C-Media USB Audio Device). System Preferences->Sound->Input->C-Media USB Audio Device. This step that tells the computer that you want the incoming signal to come from the guitarlink.2. Make sure the Output is set to the computer's internal speakers. System Preferences->Sound->Output->Built-in. This step tells the computer that you want the computer's internal speaker to playback what you're recording.3. In Garage Band's Preferences (NOT System Preferences) located in the upper left hand corner of the screen, do the following: GarageBand->Preferences->Audio/Midi->Audio Output:Built-in Output & Audio Input: C-Media USB Audio Device. It will ask you if you want to change the settings. Click yes. This will allow you to hear loops or other tracks.4. Monitoring must be turned on to hear your guitar as you're playing. To do this, click on Guitar Track (near the upper right of the screen), then click Edit (next to the listing of amp simulators). Then make sure the Monitor is set to On.I'm going to visit some more boards and see if I can't find a way to eliminate the latency. If I can, I'll add it to this review. If not, the thing is going back. :-(

Ich habe eine möglichst einfach Lösung zum Gitarre-Üben gesucht. Der Computer (Lenovo-Notebook aus der T-Serie, 6 Monate alt) sollte MP3 als Begleitung wiedergeben, dazu hätte ich einen Amp-Simulator gebraucht, um eine passable Verzerrung hinzubekommen; vielleicht noch ein bischen Hall. Der Aktenlage nach wäre Alesis GuitarLink Plus, welches zusammen mit mit Native Instruments' Guitar Rig 4 LE vertrieben wird, genau richtig. Leider hatte ich so viele Probleme damit, dass ich es umgehend zurückschicken musste. Meine Schwierigkeiten im Einzelnen:* Die Latenz ist viel zu hoch zum Live-Spielen, auch wenn man die beiliegenden ASIO-Treiber installiert und dort die Latenz auf das Minimum einstellt. Sogar direkt im Sound-Applet der Windows-Systemsteuerung (Win7, 64-bit), d.h. ohne irgendwelche nachgelagerte Software, ist eine viel zu hohe Latenz zu hören. Ich kann sie nicht messen, gefühlt ist es aber bestimmt eine Viertelsekunde.* Aus irgendeinem Grund ist das Einganssignal ruck-zuck verzerrt, sobald man die Gitarre ein bisschen fester spielt. Erstaunlicherweise lies sich das nicht einmal mit dem Herunterstellen des Eingangspegels auf 1% (!) beseitigen. Ich habe eine ganz normale Gitarre mit Single-Coil Pickups, also nichts Exotisches oder gar aktive Pickups.* Das beiliegende Guitar Rig 4 LE ließ sich nicht aktivieren. Als Fehlermeldung kam, dass die Seriennummer bereits für einen anderen Benutzer registriert sei. Meine Anfrage bei Native Instruments wurde damit beantwortet, dass diese Fehlermeldung korrekt sei; ich hätte die Software wohl Second Hand erworben. Falls nicht, sollte ich das Problem mit meinem Händler klären.Die Programm-CD war allerdings in der dick eingeschweißten Packung von GuitarLink enthalten, die Seriennummer von außen nicht zu erkennen. Es ist absolut unmöglich, dass diese Packung schon einmal geöffnet war. Und ich wüsste auch nicht, was Amazon hier hätte machen können. Also konnte ich Guitar Rig 4 LE nur im "Demo"-Modus ausprobieren.Randbemerkung: Meine (natürlich) deutsch formulierte Supportanfrage an Native Instruments GmbH in Berlin wurde von einem "Matthias" vom "Native Instruments Support Team" auf Englisch beantwortet. Jetzt kann ich zwar Englisch, insofern kein Problem. Aber es zeigt wieviel Mühe sich NI mit Supportanfragen gibt.* Und um das Maß voll zu machen: Ich habe es auch nach längerem Herumprobieren nicht geschafft, Guitar Rig einen Ton via ASIO zu entlocken. Unter WSAPI hat sich zwar etwas getan, aber das hat keinen Sinn, wenn man sowieso schon mit Latenzen kämpft.Ich habe keine Ahnung, ob mein Guitar Link-Exemplar kaputt war, oder ob irgendetwas an meinem Setup nicht gestimmt hat. Die (glücklicherweise recht kurze) Anleitung _habe_ ich gelesen, den beiliegende ASIO4ALL-Treiber habe ich ordnungsgemäß installiert, kurzes Googeln hat nichts gebracht. Also zurück damit.Mein Eindruck von Hardware, Software und dem Support von Native Instruments waren rundrum negativ.Ich weiß nicht, ob das jetzt Pech war oder ob diese Bundle einfach nichts taugt; das wird man sehen, wenn weitere Bewertungen folgen. Aber nach meiner Erfahrung möchte ich allen Interessenten zu größter Vorsicht raten.

I was a bit unsure about this when it first arrived, as it distorted on every amp no matter the setting after about 2 minutes playing. Bear in mind this is my first leap into the digital guitar playing world. Anyway, I then switched the sound output on my PC from the HDMI to the onboard soundcard (ASRock G41M) and no more distortion. The onboard soundcard is not great by any standards, but even that can handle this piece of kit, the moral being, if it sounds rubbish, it's probably your soundcard that's rubbish, not the kit.Once working it's literally hours of fun. I can get the latency down to almost unnoticeable levels via an onboard soundcard, although I may invest in a better soundcard anyway at some point.The software was simple to install, I've set it up on two PC's (Windows 8.1 32 bit and Windows 7 64 bit) with no issues and it works great. You get two amps with the Guitar Rig Light Edition and lots of effects.Amazing value for money!

Le logiciel fourni est très efficace, et les simulations à télécharger assez nombreuses. Avec un peu d'entrainement et quelques connaissances sur les différents et nombreux modules proposés on obtient pour un prix quasi dérisoire un très bon outil dans la catégorie. Prévoir cependant de la mémoire vive et un bon processeur. Le jack est bien fait, mais le réglage de la puissance d'entrée est délicat ( du moins pour ce que j'ai réussi à faire) fonctionne avec tous les logiciels dont garageBand sur Mac ce qui est très appréciable, reste un bruit de fond du à la puissance d'entrée dont je n'arrive pas à me défaire.

I bought this product as an alternative to an amp for my first electric guitar. It seemed a good alternative to the relatively expensive USB guitar links. It comes with a highly regarded guitar amp software however the cable does not give the best sound quality and it is not plug and play. I had to play with the sound settings on my computer and after several forced restarts to stop the squealing of the speakers I finally got it to work. There was a lot of interference and the sound was awful. I gave up, but the sound is not right on my laptop still. The speakers stop working intermittently which is extremely frustrating!

Le câble n'est pas compatible avec le programme "Rocksmith Edition 2014". dommage que ce ne soit pas spécifié les compatibilités.