

Ableton Live is a digital audio workstation with an unusual approach to making music, really good especially for electronic music, but describing its operation is a subject for another post. Toneport KB37 comes with two pieces of software: GearBox and Ableton Live Lite Edition. On the KB37 I was using, the knobs felt a bit loose, but the rest of controls were reasonably good quality. You also get four assignable knobs and transport buttons. As on any other MIDI keyboard, there are modulation and pitch bend wheels and octave selection buttons. KB37 is also a 37-key MIDI controller (that's really where the name came from). I didn't even have to mess around with buffer size settings. And to tell the truth, I really had no problems with latency at all. When advertising audio interfaces, Line 6 emphasise their "latency-killing ToneDirect™ monitoring". Without any doubt one of my favourite features of KB37 are the backlit VU meters, which look amazing when recording in the dark :) They also give you a really precise look at the levels of your audio. headphone out with independent volume control

To tell the truth, KB37 is just a Toneport UX2 interface with a keyboard attached :) The audio interface part is in the back of the device. Probably the only similar product I came across was a KeyStudio offered by M-Audio. Although it is a very convenient solution, that saves you a lot of space in your home studio (or just in front of your computer), not many manufacturers offer such devices. Not that long ago I had a chance to try a Toneport KB37), which is a very interesting fusion of an audio interface and a MIDI keyboard. Before they were black and red and now they are all black :) A few months ago the Toneport series changed its name to POD Studio, probably to consolidate the products with the POD FX mentioned before, but the only change that was made was the included software and the devices' colour. They have made a Toneport interface series, which meets the seeds of both hobbyists and professionals. Line 6 is well known for their guitar amps and POD multi-effects, but in the past few years they have also built a really strong position on the market of affordable USB audio interfaces.
