POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

davedvdy

davedvdy

New member
I don't own one of these, but after listening to some of the sound clips, it sounds good, IMO...especially that Eruption w/Plexi Variac and Phaser. I am seriously considering purchasing one.

For those of you that own, or have used one, have you found that it is pretty easy to get the tones you want out of them?
 
Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

Nup....not easy....

it all depends on what you are plugging it into, volumes, etc.

For instance, our band played a lot quieter than usual on the weekend.....and the podxt into the pa sounded terrible. As soon as we got a bit louder, it started sounding better.

But, for recording purposes, it is a lot easier to get the sound you want. I think you need to try one out
 
Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

Now that the Flextone and Vox Valvetronix heads have been out for awhile, try finding a used one for cheap. It may cost you $100 more than a POD, but at least you can use it with any speaker cab, AND direct like a POD. Those amps make great home practice rigs.
 
Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

larry_emder said:
Nup....not easy....

it all depends on what you are plugging it into, volumes, etc.

For instance, our band played a lot quieter than usual on the weekend.....and the podxt into the pa sounded terrible. As soon as we got a bit louder, it started sounding better.

But, for recording purposes, it is a lot easier to get the sound you want. I think you need to try one out
Click to expand...

I think I would probably be using it mostly for home recording. The Boss GT-6 through my Amp, sounds fine for regular use, but I don't really like the recorded tone for overdriven or lead recorded. I have heard a GT-5 that sounded great recorded, but they know how to manipulate the effects and amp sims way better, apparently.

Gearjoneser said:
Now that the Flextone and Vox Valvetronix heads have been out for awhile, try finding a used one for cheap. It may cost you $100 more than a POD, but at least you can use it with any speaker cab, AND direct like a POD. Those amps make great home practice rigs.
Click to expand...

That is interesting, I will definitely look into that. It sounds familiar, but I've never heard what that sounds like.

brisk said:
Very easy because you don't have to change anything.

JCM800 patch (13A): http://wonsuckchoi.com/mp3/jcm800.mp3

Blackface Deluxe patch (1C): http://wonsuckchoi.com/mp3/deluxe.mp3

Twin Reverb patch (6C): http://wonsuckchoi.com/mp3/twin reverb.mp3
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting those. For some reason, they won't play though, it says:

"Error 400 'wonsuckchoi.c...' Bad Request."


Thank you for the responses
 
Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

It takes some work...but then again I also find that for the tones I'm looking for I'm very much not the target audience for alot of the pre-fab patches.

I consistently find I need to turn the Drive down, alot, to get the sound I'm looking for.

But it's there...and almost a year later I'm tweaking and getting good results!
 
Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

Skarekrough said:
It takes some work...but then again I also find that for the tones I'm looking for I'm very much not the target audience for alot of the pre-fab patches.

I consistently find I need to turn the Drive down, alot, to get the sound I'm looking for.

But it's there...and almost a year later I'm tweaking and getting good results!
Click to expand...

That's really good to hear that you're getting great results w/it and it's working for you.

Do you find that the sound that you create sounds way different when you go through your amp, as opposed to recording the sound directly? For instance, sometimes I will create a patch on the GT-6, and it will sound great, but then it sounds like crap going directly recorded.
 
Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

davedvdy said:
Thanks for posting those. For some reason, they won't play though, it says:

"Error 400 'wonsuckchoi.c...' Bad Request."


Thank you for the responses
Click to expand...

Hmm try again. They are working now.
 
Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

I have a pod XT and I love it, great for direct recording, check out my clips below in my sig, all where done with the pod (including vocals)

chris
 
Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

I heard both Brisk's and Chris's clips, they all sounded really good. Almost nothing like the POD 2.0.
 
Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

If it's just for recording look into the Toneports, I think they have more options, like mic position, stomp boxes, cabs etc. you can get other amp models cheap.
 
Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

I guess it depends on what you think is a 'good' tone. Personally, I've usually found that using POD's for recording crunch-overdrive tones sounds a bit thin in the mix (compared to real tube amps). I usually use them for scratch tracks & then go back & use real amps & multi-mics to get the sounds I'm after.

The best use (in rock) that I think I've ever heard coming out of Line 6 stuff was on Chris Cornell's solo masterpiece, 'Euphoria Morning' which featured the amazing Alain Johannes & the equally great band Eleven. But I'm sure whatever Line6 stuff they used was mic'd up real nice & sent into a few channels of Neves or API's. It wasn't POD setting #11 (or whatever).

I bought a POD XT in the hopes that it would simplify some live playing situations for me. But the difference in tone between plugging str8 in & going thru the XT has made me relegate it to studio use (mostly as a tuner & scratch trax). It has cool modulation & delay stuff, but the amp models sound thin (imho) & the distortion pedal models are nearly useless.

POD's CAN BE cool, for clean tones that are more JC-120-ish. Or dirtier tones used in concert with already established tube tones in a recording.

If you are limited to recording your guitars direct because of volume concerns, might I humbly suggest that the cheapass original Behringer V-Amps (to my ears) sound a little more like mic'd up real amps in a track, than almost any of the POD stuff. You can get one for about 40 bucks on ebay. I've gotten fairly decent direct tones on a few tracks using a V-amp with a yellow POD multi-dist/ovdrv unit (usually used as either a clean boost or the colorsound tone bender in front). If you want to hear a bit of this v-amp in action, I have 2 older tracks up on my garageband page, titled, 'The End' & 'Dragon Killer', although on those tracks I was going more for kinda Queens Of The Stone Age & Alice In Chains sounds rather than an EVH-ish tone on either http://www.garageband.com/artist/mostdangerousgames

to sum up.. POD's can 'kinda sound' like lots of things, but much like many recording plug-ins boasting vintage tones, when you put it up side by side against the real thing, there IS no comparison.

I hope this helps.:banana:
 
Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

Innerdream, that is something that I should consider, thanks for bringing that up.


MostDangerousGames said:
I guess it depends on what you think is a 'good' tone. Personally, I've usually found that using POD's for recording crunch-overdrive tones sounds a bit thin in the mix (compared to real tube amps). I usually use them for scratch tracks & then go back & use real amps & multi-mics to get the sounds I'm after.

The best use (in rock) that I think I've ever heard coming out of Line 6 stuff was on Chris Cornell's solo masterpiece, 'Euphoria Morning' which featured the amazing Alain Johannes & the equally great band Eleven. But I'm sure whatever Line6 stuff they used was mic'd up real nice & sent into a few channels of Neves or API's. It wasn't POD setting #11 (or whatever).

I bought a POD XT in the hopes that it would simplify some live playing situations for me. But the difference in tone between plugging str8 in & going thru the XT has made me relegate it to studio use (mostly as a tuner & scratch trax). It has cool modulation & delay stuff, but the amp models sound thin (imho) & the distortion pedal models are nearly useless.

POD's CAN BE cool, for clean tones that are more JC-120-ish. Or dirtier tones used in concert with already established tube tones in a recording.

If you are limited to recording your guitars direct because of volume concerns, might I humbly suggest that the cheapass original Behringer V-Amps (to my ears) sound a little more like mic'd up real amps in a track, than almost any of the POD stuff. You can get one for about 40 bucks on ebay. I've gotten fairly decent direct tones on a few tracks using a V-amp with a yellow POD multi-dist/ovdrv unit (usually used as either a clean boost or the colorsound tone bender in front). If you want to hear a bit of this v-amp in action, I have 2 older tracks up on my garageband page, titled, 'The End' & 'Dragon Killer', although on those tracks I was going more for kinda Queens Of The Stone Age & Alice In Chains sounds rather than an EVH-ish tone on either http://www.garageband.com/artist/mostdangerousgames

to sum up.. POD's can 'kinda sound' like lots of things, but much like many recording plug-ins boasting vintage tones, when you put it up side by side against the real thing, there IS no comparison.

I hope this helps.:banana:
Click to expand...

Thank you for that info and welcome to the forum!
 
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Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

davedvdy said:
That's really good to hear that you're getting great results w/it and it's working for you.

Do you find that the sound that you create sounds way different when you go through your amp, as opposed to recording the sound directly? For instance, sometimes I will create a patch on the GT-6, and it will sound great, but then it sounds like crap going directly recorded.
Click to expand...

The thing I found, and which was actually covered in the manual, was that you need to tweak patches for each use.

Line 6 was really good about this and talked about it really early on. Additionally some very easy logic had to be assumed; the cab simulation is going to add or detract some things and when you use an actual cab it's an entirely different world and you need to take that into consideration.

I was in a pinch and ran my PodXT through a Crate PowerBlock and a Marshall 2 x 12 cab. I had about two days to pull it together before the audition and it took a little tweaking. In the end I found that I was best served by copying the patch, removing the Cab Sim, setting the unit for the proper output and then all that was required was a little EQing and probably a slight drop in the Drive. As a defined process I could see this happening pretty easily with most patches I would need through that rig.

I put together three patches, the one I used the most was a Marshall Plexi patch and that tone just killed! It really gave the other guitar player a run for his money tonally; he found that it had some edge over his high-gain amp and just made it sound alot smaller.

I guess, yeah. You need to take account for the patches and tailor them for the use. But then again, you do that with an amp when you play a gig in a bar, club or whatever. If the room is boomy or bassy or dead you need to tweak and a digital setup is going to be no different. The only issue is that if you use a bunch of patches and intend to use them all then you will need to tweak them all.

The upside I have found is that with the USB option and software I can easily back everything up. I really wish they'd do a software version for a handheld; the appeal of being able to have the deep level of control that's found in a laptop would be nice in something more appropriate for a gig. But aside from that my patches get backed up and I can totally see taking those tweaked patches post-gig and saving them on the laptop as a group with the idea that when I gigged there again I could just restore them and pick up where I left off.
 
Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

Using the POD to play live was nightmare for me, playing in a two guitar band. You get a ton of options and you set them up so they sound like you think you want them to, but they always end up cutting through the mix differently, so you get a ton of level adjustment problems when using a poweramp as a post. I eventually gave up and went back to traditional amps. Thing I miss is not have to tap dance on stomps for effects. Thing I don't miss is spending more time tweaking my tone than actually playing.

I think one other thing I hated about the PODXt is that overdriven patches do not respond to your guitar controls like a tube amp. They don't clean up the same way.

OTOH: I think if I was in a single guitar band, I would still be using the POD despite it's shortcomings.
 
Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

brisk, your clips sounded fantastic!
 
Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

....what is your recording chain? how you are getting your sounds from the pod into your DAW makes a huge difference. sounds like you have other pieces of high quality gear in your chain.
 
Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

these_go211 said:
....what is your recording chain? how you are getting your sounds from the pod into your DAW makes a huge difference. sounds like you have other pieces of high quality gear in your chain.
Click to expand...

I got a rather simple and inexpensive recording setup.

1. POD XT
2. Presonus Inspire 1394 (Audio interface):
3. an old computer with Sonar XL 2.0
4. Cheap Roland monitor speakers

I think I spent about $700 for everything except for the computer.

In my opinion, POD patches are fantastic and don't need much change. If you are changing them too much too often, it's either your guitar setup isn't optimum (pickup heights, etc) or you are beating your guitars to death.
 
Re: POD XT - Easy To Get Good Tones?

BTW all the clips were recorded with a Telecaster with lil 59 for tele.
 
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