Line 6 - Digital dream or Technological nightmare?

JJLipton · Post by **JJLipton** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:16 am

I've had my pod xt live for a while now and the opinions of the unit in general seem to be polarized. It was all i played through while away at college, since using an amp at pretty much any volume proved to be too loud for dormitory settings. Mainly playing through my vox advt 15 while home at summer and then randomly taking the pod xt live for a jam i noticed a few things that seem to bug me about it.
The good: The clean amp simulations (fender deluxe, twin, etc) sound amazing. Reverbs, modulation, and delay effects also seem to be pretty top notch. I especially enjoy the stereo delay setting on an ac30 patch.

The bad: While the distortions geared towards heavy metal sound pretty authentic to me, milder to moderate levels of gain lack dynamics and the saturation that you get from playing just about any real amp regardless of tubes or solid state. The pedal worked great while i went through a few stints with various desperate local metal acts but i find the distortion extremely lacking when i play music that i actually enjoy. The initial "Attack" of the amp sounds just like the real thing but there is a lack of saturation on all models unless you really drench it in gain.

This was recorded using windows stock recording program, the quality of my playing is as bad if not worse than the quality of the sound.
http://download.yousendit.com/6AE08C5834589F13

I think you can really hear what i mean in this clip.

aen · Post by **aen** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:25 am

I have an older pod, and the overdrive on the fender type models is really nice. But I agree, the cleans and reverb sims are great, and the rest (with the exception of the afformenoned fender OD) is pretty useless.

That said it was probably the best $70 i ever spent. I think i even nailed some keeper guitar tracks using the POd.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 4:26 am

They have a new Pocket Pod out that costs like $130. I might look into it just for jamming out song ideas. I still like the idea of using amplifiers and microphones though.

euan · Post by **euan** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:10 pm

Yeah the pocket Pod looks like an interesting product. I'll wait for the Behringer version.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:18 pm

I don't like Pods really. I got better results with GuitarRig2 and on the cheaper side with a simple Vox Valvetronix Amp DId.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:22 pm

Convert to mp3 in future too, sheesh. Wav files are bloated.

Ew. Shred. Thumbs Down.

JJLipton · Post by **JJLipton** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 7:21 pm

Well, thats the thing really. I hate shred too but the dynamics of most of the amp models give you no choice but to play quickly, since sitting on a note for too long will cause it to fade away quicker than on a normal amp. I think i may save up for a used dsl401 combo in the distant future. I like the sound clips of it and everyone who owns one seems to be pretty happy with it.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 7:37 am

You have to be a fruit to try and use digital modelling devices for distortion or gain sounds.