Pod opinions

S

SCOTT502

New member
Hey everyone,

I know a fair amount of you own / have owned a Pod xt or Pod Pro and was wanting some "real world" opinions on the sound quality for recording. I am currently micing an amp but am thinking about getting one of these as well. I would use it for some of the heavier stuff and in checking out the website I would probably invest in the metal pack as well.

I understand that tweeking is necessary and that's no problem. Is the overall quality of sounds there? Any and all info / opinions would be great!

Does the metal pack offer enouph raw material as far as usable amp models to be worth the money?

Thanks.
 
Re: Pod opinions

sorry man, but i don't think too much of pod. i had an XT Live for a few weeks and took it back. i tried everything i could to make it sound good, but it wasn't that great. some people get good tones out of it for metal, but that's about the best tones i've heard from it. i have yet to hear an impressive sound sample for blues or rock or something.

now, i had the boss GT-8 and it BLEW THE POD AWAY! tehe gt-8 had the best sounding tone, best operation, and nicest features. the pod does not compare tonewise. the gt-8 doesn't have as many amp models as the pod, but the models it does have are much better.

the pod xt live distortions, overdrives, effects DO NOT COMPARE to the gt-8. the gt-8 has world-class effects. reverb, chorus, delay, etc... they're all good. you can get such great tones with the gt-8.

my opinion is that you should get a good tube amp and a few analog pedals, but if you have to, then you'll get a LOT more out of the gt-8.

to me, the pod xt is more like a toy than serious recording/performing gear.
 
Re: Pod opinions

Jeff Dunne gets some fantastic tones out of his. Wait for his 2 cents on the matter.
 
Re: Pod opinions

Cheers for the plug, Kyuss!

I personally prefer my POD recordings to what I've heard out of people using the Palmer. The Palmer just isn't quite "in your face" or aggressive enough for me.

I wouldn't use it as a main rig unless you had to go direct, in a dorm room or small apartment or something, but it's definitely a great recording/demo tool.

Some great sounds out of a POD:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=404561&songID=5747495

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=283678&songID=4827663

http://www.audiostreet.net/artist.aspx?artistid=7831

And my personal recordings:

http://jefftd.googlepages.com/Part1-June24.mp3

http://jefftd.googlepages.com/Part2-June24.mp3

http://jefftd.googlepages.com/NailBoyd.mp3
 
Re: Pod opinions

shogunlegend said:
sorry man, but i don't think too much of pod. i had an XT Live for a few weeks and took it back. i tried everything i could to make it sound good, but it wasn't that great.
Click to expand...

I dont think a few weeks is long enough to get good sound out of a pod. I dont own one, but most people I know who do own one, find that lots of times you use an amp and cab model that doesnt really make sense, the model you thought would get the sound you want might not, but a different one will. That is often the PODs downfall. I know a couple of guys who get great sound out of theirs, and it was totally random settings that got them there (one guy actually picked a different amp model then he thought he was using and loved it)
 
Re: Pod opinions

dude, 3 weeks is plenty of time to get used to the pod. with the gt-8, it took me 2-3 days to find at least 5 gigable tones. like i said, the only decent tones i could get out of a pod xt live were metal tones, even then they sound nowhere near as good as my marshal dsl or mesa boogie amp.

if the pod xt live was priced about $200 less, i might have more respect for it. at that price however, i don't care for it in the least. for $50 more you can get the gt-8 and that is a superior sounding processor. it's worth every penny. it sound warmer, smoother, more authentic, and more professional than the pod. it makes the pod sound like a toy.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=687009&songID=5464269

the only recording i did with a gt-8, but you can hear one of the tones i was able to get with it. it's the PINK FLOYD SHRED THING. what do you think about that tone (excuse the music loop :).
 
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Re: Pod opinions

I have been using an XTLive for two years. I have not purchased a Boss GT, Vox ToneLab, or Behringer V-Amp.

If I were to pick my direct recording device of choice based on the clips in this thread, I'd go for the XT(L). Some of that may be due to how the clips were mixed.

The metal pack is a real shot in the arm for the XT's ability to do heavy stuff. For me, was well worth the $50 upgrade. The L6 Big Bottom model - allegedly based on a triple rec with a TS in front and a Rivera sub cab attached - is eminently usable for all sorts of Mesa-like sounds, and not just the bassy ones you'd expect from the name. Other folks have had good luck with the Uberschall and 5150 models; I think I saw some threads in Tips and Clips that were cut with a Toneport/Guitarport, which is very similar to the XT tonally, though software based, rather than hardware.

That said, somewhere in the late September to early October range, people are expecting to see a new Pod out of L6 that'll be packing some significant improvements, e.g. all model packs already activated, more I/O, and the oft-marketed "two amps at once."
 
Re: Pod opinions

Ok, first of all the POD has a lot of detractors. Many of them are disengenuious because they really haven't played with them much or haven't used them in a setting where budget and time are factors. The simple fact is that PODs have been used on countless commercial recordings. I haven't been in a commercial studio in the last several years that didn't have at least one form of POD close at hand. Most of them have the Amp Farm plugin as well.

As for me I have some really nice amps and love to mic them up. However, if time and budget are issues then the POD is almost always thrown into the mix. The POD also gets a lot of use adding flavor to recordings.

Here's the deal with PODs:

They are a great boon to the home recordist. Most people cannot afford to have all the amps a POD emulates. Furthermore even if you had all of those amps most people would struggle to make a decent recording with them because they, a. do not know how to mic up an amp effectively, b. do not have a decent room in which to put the amp being recorded, c. have decent recording hardware with good converters, pre's, software, etc......

The POD solves many of these issues for the home recordist and pro alike. It's quick, functional, and does a better approximation of many of the amps than a home recordist could make if they had the real thing mic'ed up in their bedroom or somewhere else in their house.

The POD has many usable models. My favorites are the AC30, Champ, and Budda Twinmaster models. The Champ is especially fun when you experiment with different cabinets. I also enjoy the Plexi, Chieftain, JCM 800, and Boogie models.

The best thing to do with a POD is to start with each of the models dry then add effects and reverb to taste. It's also fun to add pedals on either side of the signal chain. I enjoy messing with the delay and trem on a POD because the tap/tempo function is so convenient.

For me it's also fun to note that I was in a studio when they did some comparisons between a POD, a JCM 800, and a MB Dual Rect. The same parts were recorded with the all three of the setups and and the end almost everyone was hard pressed to say which recording was the real amp and which was the POD. In fact, a lot of people prefered the POD tracks. I tend to think that if we could have spent hours finding the sweet spots of the amps then we ultimately would have made slightly better recordings with them but who has that kind of time when it's costing someone $120 an hour?

The moral of this story is that a POD is a great tool to have in your guitarsenal.
 
Re: Pod opinions

shogunlegend said:
dude, 3 weeks is plenty of time to get used to the pod. with the gt-8, it took me 2-3 days to find at least 5 gigable tones. like i said, the only decent tones i could get out of a pod xt live were metal tones, even then they sound nowhere near as good as my marshal dsl or mesa boogie amp.

if the pod xt live was priced about $200 less, i might have more respect for it. at that price however, i don't care for it in the least. for $50 more you can get the gt-8 and that is a superior sounding processor. it's worth every penny. it sound warmer, smoother, more authentic, and more professional than the pod. it makes the pod sound like a toy.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=687009&songID=5464269

the only recording i did with a gt-8, but you can hear one of the tones i was able to get with it. it's the PINK FLOYD SHRED THING. what do you think about that tone (excuse the music loop :).
Click to expand...



Sorry, but that clip doesn't enforce anything you've been saying about the GT8 over the POD.
 
Re: Pod opinions

Virtual Kevorkian said:
Sorry, but that clip doesn't enforce anything you've been saying about the GT8 over the POD.
Click to expand...

I don't think there's any need to apologize. Empirically, all the recordings you posted were head and shoulders above the PINK FLOYD SHRED THING clip. (I'm not busting on your playing, Shogun; I'm making the point that the recording quality just isn't in the same league.)

- Keith
 
Re: Pod opinions

Thanks for all the responses guys,

I can's listen to any of the clips at work so I'll check them out tonight.

I think I'll go ahead and give it a shot though, but may wait for the new Pod. It depends on time I guess, i don't want to wait for 6 months.

As I stated before, the only sounds I would be going after with the Pod would be the heavy ones. I can go direct for cleans or mic my Valvtronix for the rest.

Actually Jeff's stuff is what made me seriously consider going in this direction....I like the Vox I have for a LOT of the sounds I can get from it but that detuned heavy in-your-face sound still eludes me.

Anyone know when the "new" Pod is due to be released?
 
Re: Pod opinions

i would personally rate the top three multi-effects processors as follows:

1. boss gt-8
2. vox tonelab se
3. pod xt live

if you like your valvetronics, you will definitely like how the tonelab se makes it sound. i used to have a vox 100vt and ran all the aforementioned on it. my favorite, by far, was the gt-8. the pod, admittedly, sounded decent.

the tonelab se does not have all the modeling that the pod does, but it sounds great and there is no doubt that you will get some super tones with it.

i'd really recommend at least giving the gt-8 a try before you decide to go pod. i'm pretty sure most people prefer that over the pod xt live anyway, but check it out for yourself. good luck.
 
Re: Pod opinions

SCOTT502 said:
Anyone know when the "new" Pod is due to be released?
Click to expand...

Over on the Line6 forums people have reported dealers quoting "late September, early October", generally coinciding with the Spider Valves arriving in the first couple weeks of October.
 
Re: Pod opinions

Johnny L said:
Over on the Line6 forums people have reported dealers quoting "late September, early October", generally coinciding with the Spider Valves arriving in the first couple weeks of October.
Click to expand...

Cool, Thanks.

And thanks to all for the help!

Scott
 
Re: Pod opinions

Virtual Kevorkian said:
Sorry, but that clip doesn't enforce anything you've been saying about the GT8 over the POD.
Click to expand...

sorry, i guess everyone can't be as elite as you are. you're right, the tone sucks. the dude should go with a pod. actually, i hope you weren't referring to the rhythm because that wasn't even real. it was from my roland dr5. only the lead guitar was real - with the gt-8.are you saying that the lead tone sucks?
 
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Re: Pod opinions

KGMESSIER said:
I was able to get a couple great clean tones and a couple great OD/distortion tones after one night of tweaking my PODxt. I guess some of us just have a knack for it. ;)

- Keith
Click to expand...

the only knack you have is for being annoying and arrogant. maybe to YOU the tones you got were good, but not everyone will think your tones are great. same as me. what i think is good may be crap to everyone else... including virtual kevorkian. besides, if you would have read more carefully before posting your smart-ass remarks, you would have noticed that i did in fact get decent tones, but i said only really for metal music.
 
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Re: Pod opinions

KGMESSIER said:
I don't think there's any need to apologize. Empirically, all the recordings you posted were head and shoulders above the PINK FLOYD SHRED THING clip. (I'm not busting on your playing, Shogun; I'm making the point that the recording quality just isn't in the same league.)

- Keith
Click to expand...

of course you can't knock my playing because i'm a pretty good player. you can knock my tone, my recording (because i don't have a darned decent thing to record on and have always stated that), or even my creativity. but no one can really knock my playing ability.
 
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