Line 6 announced BackTrack and BackTrack + Mic just six weeks back and are now already shipping! Depending on inventory taken and ground to cover your nearest dealer should have them in stock or coming in shortly .

BackTrack productmanager Michael Murphy gives some additional info on the BackTrack product. He explains the idea behind BackTrack and gives some examples how you could use it also.

"Think of BackTrack as an indispensable tool for a guitarist or musician, much like a tuner, but specifically designed for the creative guitarist or musician.  Me trying to explain this is kind of like trying to explain why a DVR is so important to have with your cable TV. 

At first, people think- oh that's kind of cool, maybe I can use it to replace my VCR, but when they start using it, it becomes apparent that this is going to change how they watch television.  BackTrack is similar to that, but it provides a creative safety net for musicians by intelligently recording everything they do, quietly waiting for them to have a moment of inspiration, and allowing them the comfort of knowing that idea will never be lost.

We've released the manual and a video for BackTrack online, so I suggest checking them out to see if they help clear up any of your questions.  I'll try to help address some of them here...

"Right, but still, it's recording bone dry guitar signal. " It's actually recording whatever you are running into it- so that can be a dry signal or wet signal through the 1/4" input, or anything that makes noise through the mic.

"And how useful is that going to be when you go to play it back? ONLY useful if you want to try and remember something you played." That's the key- being able to have a moment of inspiration saved from disappearing forever is extremely useful for the creative musician.  How you use it after that is up to you (ex. load it into a DAW and throw some fx on it, loop it and play it back so you can memorize it or expand on it, play it for someone else in your band to check out, etc.).

"Sure, that's cool and all, but there are many ways to do that already."  None that were created specifically for the creative musician, so they tend to not be ideal.  Other recorders have to be set up and aren't meant to just silently sit there with you or even in line with your signal recording everything.  There are other ways to do that, like calling your own answering machine to sing song parts into it (which I do all the time to myself- kind of embarrassing) but BackTrack is meant to be the 'right' way to do it.

"I can't recall off hand, but I don't think you playback from this device right?" You can play back anything you record from the 1/4" output, or if you have a BackTrack + Mic you can also playback through the headphones output.


One last thing I'd like to say is that aside from being a required part of my setup as a creative musician, imagine the different uses beyond capturing some of those moments of inspiration:

I've used BackTrack + Mic to record my band on the road.  With the ability to adjust the mic sensitivity I can go from recording acoustic guitar to a full gig without any trouble.  It even cuts up the sets automatically because we go below the threshold set for auto recording.  Now I have a 24 bit 48k copy of every set we ever play, ready to be loaded into a DAW, cleaned up, and posted.

I recorded a short (10 second) riff and looped the playback through my amp- then walked around the room to make sure my tone sounded right from everywhere.  No more just relying on the sound guy or someone else to tell you how you sound to the crowd.

If you were a music teacher or student, you could save weekly lessons into the BackTrack for practice until the next class.

You can take BackTrack + Mic to record lectures or meetings every day.
I hope this helps explain BackTrack a little better"

Line 6 has added BackTrack manuals to their site for download. There are different users manuals for BackTrack and BackTrack + Mic. In addition Line 6 also added advanced Users Guides. Choose the approriate link for direct download.

• BackTrack Users Manual click here
• BackTrack Advanced Users Guide click here
• BackTrack + Mic Users Manual click here
• Backtrack + Mic Advanced Users Guide click here

Line 6 updated their websiet and added information about the newly announced BackTrack and BackTrack+Mic.

Information includes features, movies, specifications, Frequently Asked Questions and more. To go there directly click here. 

Line 6 just released a pressrelease announcing new Backtrack products, Here's the pressrelease .

LINE 6 ANNOUNCES BACKTRACK™ AND BACKTRACK™ + MIC

—Instant replay for guitarists—

CALABASAS, Calif.—September 12, 2008—Line 6, Inc. (www.line6.com), the industry leader in digital modeling technology for music creation products, announces BackTrack and BackTrack + Mic, easy to use recording devices that guitarists can rely on to capture all their inspirations, epiphanies and great musical ideas .

Simple, small enough to be clipped to a belt or guitar strap, and featuring true plug-and-play designs, BackTrack and BackTrack + Mic power on and begin capturing album-quality audio as soon as a signal is detected.  Always recording, BackTrack and BackTrack + Mic provide crucial inspiration insurance by letting guitarists be guitarists instead of audio engineers.

“It’s like instant replay for guitarists,” comments Mike Murphy, Line 6 Product Manager.  “Constantly recording, BackTrack and BackTrack + Mic capture everything you play and hitting the ‘Mark’ button after playing something brilliant will let you quickly revisit all your best ideas.”

Pressing the “Mark” button designates what was just played as special and separates it for easy review.  The Forward and Reverse buttons provide instant recall of marked and non-marked ideas. 

BackTrack + Mic captures up to 24 hours of audio and, ideal for vocals or acoustic guitar, features a powerful microphone with automatic gain control.  The essential ins and outs include a quiet 1/4-inch input and output and a 1/8-inch headphone jack.  BackTrack captures up to 12 hours of audio and features a 1/4-inch input and output.  Both store audio as .WAV files to reliable flash memories.  The audio can be easily transferred to a computer via USB 2.0 for further recording, editing, mixing or storage.  The USB connection also recharges the internal battery, which offers over 8 hours of battery life.

Click the links underneath to see the product images:

Close up Picture BackTrack
Close up Picture BackTrack + Mic