Guitar Hero World Tour Music Studio Powered by Line

When the battle of the bands takes center stage yet again this fall, one of the key differentiators between Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour is that the latter will actually give users the ability to create and share music. Today, Activision announced that the game's music studio will fully incorporate Line 6's POD guitar technology, meaning that for the first time a video game will provide the same guitar processing technology used by professional musicians.

POD essentially "eliminates the need for complicated setups with its proprietary technology for simulating the complex interaction of amplifiers, effects, microphones, speaker cabinets and room acoustics."

Bands that make use of POD include U2, Radiohead, Keane, Muse, Nine Inch Nails, Story of the Year, Slipknot, Dashboard Confessional, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Garbage, Lenny Kravitz and more. Guitar Hero players will be able to use amps, cabs and effects as they compose, record, edit and share their own rock creations.

"With Guitar Hero World Tour's new Music Studio functionality, we wanted to give gamers access to the most authentic music creation tools available, so we went to the pacesetters of professional guitar technology-Line 6," said Dusty Welch, head of publishing for Activision/RedOctane. "The integration of Line 6 technology in the game underscores our commitment to delivering unprecedented innovation to the Guitar Hero franchise that has the potential to revolutionize consumer generated music."

"Line 6 strives to push the boundaries, from revolutionizing the way guitarists record to how they perform live to helping enable the creative process for musicians," added Marcus Ryle, Line 6 Founder and SVP of Research and Development. "Thanks to the incredible processing power of the of the next generation video game consoles, we placed the actual tone algorithms right into the game to give gamers the tools to choose their own sounds for the music they create. For the first time, gamers will have the ability to compose and record with the same technology used by professional musicians."