Line 6 Sounds Suck! Line 6 Sounds Are Great!

[RockViolin]

OOps, don't have the knack yet. I'll call it a wrap. I felt I should respond as I was directly addressed. By the way. Craig. You have a GREAT forum!!! Thanks for your hospitality!


Tom

[axe2 2001]

Dangit!! Now I have to go and buy a POD XT so I can really know what all the fuss is! I do know this, I've been playing since the early 70's thru mostly crap gear. In the 80's I had some nice rack rigs with LOADS of FX . In the 90's I started running many different amps with pedals and now I have one Strat, one Tele, one Jackson, an LP type, JCM 800, a delay and a chorus used very sparingly. My point? Back then I couldn't find a good tone to save my soul but guess what? I played anyhow and some might even say it was good! So why does one guy need to model 100 amps? I get all the variety I need with one amp, several guitars and different playing styles. Maybe i'm one of the lucky ones that have found happiness with minimal gear but I just can't imagine needing to model every amp on the market. All that said, I'm still gonna buy an XT Live soon. Although I anticipate more of the merry go round that I was on with just too many options and I'll end up playing the pedal instead of the guitar. As for the debate itself? Hey, whatever gets you where you want to go is cool and no one should be able to tell you anything different. Life would be pretty wierd if we all played the same, had the same gear, had the same cars etc..

[Lee Flier]

Originally posted by RockViolin There is a lot of that I didn't even begin to say Lee.

Yeah I know, I wasn't being serious really, and you weren't the only one saying some of that stuff either - I was just using a bit of humor to make a point.

Don't worry, I ain't mad at ya!

[Lee Flier]

Originally posted by Anderton And Lee, you're the best! Even though you missed some of my lines which were intended to be more on the humorous side

Yeah I know you were trying to be funny, but the thing is there are a lot of people who say stuff like that in all seriousness!

I admire your sonic integrity and staying true to the "spirit of rock and roll." Major label rock music really did mean something at one time other than focus groups and corporate takeovers. Maybe someday it will again.

Well it will if we have anything to say about it. Just got done with a rehearsal for Saturday's gig, resplendent with cranked up tube amps and our fabulous drummer beating the crap out of my fabulous Gretsch kit. Ahhh.

But anyhow, you rawk too Craig... even if you don't play "real music!"

[sventvkg]

The bottom line is that people have their opinions and they aren't gonna change. Having owned all sorts of Vintage KILLER Tube amps and having also owned most of the modeling units out there today I can say for sure, that I can get 80-85% of the tone and Vibe of any of them on my PODXT. I'm certain of it..And I don't notice the latency or a sterile vibe either, all that much. To each his own but It's an acceptable compromise for me as these days I can't afford an arsenal of crazy Tube Amps like I would like. Having said that, I will be getting one in the near future that will serve as my main guitar sound, only to be augmented with the POD here and there in the studio. The POD is a useful tool though. I stand firm on that but YMMV.

[Anderton]

>

 

You don't!! The cool thing about having so many options is that some people might find two amp models to be their favorites, whereas someone else will find two other amp models to be their favorites. There are some models I never use and probably never will, but there are others that I use all the time. Given 100 PODxt owners, I'd be willing to bet there's little overlap among their favorite presets.

 

In fact I'm glad you brought this up because I should mention I probably underexploit the PODxt and TonePort. I've found a few things that I really like and stuck with those...hmmm, like tube amp people, I guess!

[Tedster]

Kinda like programs like WordPerfect or Microsoft Word. They keep on issuing new programs with more features...heck, I'll NEVER use a quarter of the stuff even much older versions of those programs can do.

For me, an amp modeler is a cool toy, something to play with...experiment with..."Let's try this". But I've got a POD 2.0 and I haven't really played with it nearly enough.

[default_damage]

I have owned and played thru an old tweed deluxe , old brown bassman,mid 60's super reverb. brown princeton none of them had a chrome face.

and yes each one has a special something .
lets call that something beef
there are thousand of great beef dishes
the real question is who's in the kitchen.

I own a Pod 2 and a Pod XT Live .
lets call them pork.
for those expecting the taste of beef when sitting down to a meal of roast pork loin will find the taste very disappointing., particularly if you are expecting the taste of standing rib roast or a T-Bone.


I 've played with synths since the 70's and in retrospect alot of synths when compare to others were deemed lacking ,but today those that lacked worth then are now collectable because of their signiture sound, long after the former fashionable standard has been forgotten.

"that's right it's and EML and does not sound like your odessey or your mini."

remember it was les paul until jimmie page showed up on the cover of guitar player magazine playing a Dan Electro.

that one image probably did more subway guitars business that anything fat-dog or mark silber ever could have dreamed up.

al those jazz cats playing those big boxes and es 175's played Polytones and no one ever complained about their tone. In the polytone manuals the schematic do not indict any tubes/valves present in the circuitry.
Polytone Players include Ron Affif, Howard Alden, Ron Anthony, Chuck Berghofer, George Benson, Norman Brown, Jimmy Bruno, Arni Egillson, Herb Ellis, Jim Fox, Jim Hall, Jim Hughart, Vail Johnson, Carol Kaye, Peter Leitch, Mundell Lowe, Chuck Nenniker, Dave Stone, Phil Upchurch, Buster Williams, Barry Zweig and many more.
so ......

though those of us that have taken a position about what is and is not acceptable please remember that before the age of silicone augmentations for body parts. that an "A" or "AA" cup was consider the hieght of femine beauty. and with that I will retire.

[seclusion]

Hmm too bad we couldn't post a clip of our favorite "tone" without making the MP3 transition that would wreck even the highest quality tube tone...

So for me I'd take 3 levels.

#1 Modeler tone direct (name soundcard)
#2 Modeler tone through a tube amp! (name amp)
#3 Tube amp. Name amp pedals etc.

We could make it that you create whatever sound you want, delays, reverb, chorus optional.
No bass, drums, keyboards added.
Could be a lead tone and or rythmn and go with it.
Winner gets the coveted "Harmony Central Greatest Tone Award" which wins you a "-----------------" something silly.
Might be nice to say, recorded with e.g. A sm 57 mic off axis, in Sonar with no compression outside of the modeler/amp, using a Fender Strat with whatever pickups. Played by Brian @ 24bit/44khz.
Is this something we could do, if so how could we get quality files on in one place so that users could vote (without knowing who or what was played).
I wonder if we'd need
Rock
Metal
Country
Wierd
Thoughts?

Could be cool.
Later
Brian

[default_damage]

to be fair sounds wqould have to be devided into too catagories
1.) solo sounds
2.) ensemble sounds

as we know just because it sounds great solo does not mean....

honestly are we looking for live sound or recorded sound ?
if it's recorded sound I'd say , no restrictions as "the painted word " of audio is just that . it is not the "real thing".
it's an illusion of the real thing so ... drop the restrictions for recorded sounds

and if I use a pod to record would you know if I used a variax if that information was not included? would it be cheating ?

[amplayer]

I can't speak for Line 6, but I have recently downloaded and tried the Native Instruments Guitar Rig 2 demo. I am also an owner and user of IK Multimedia Amplitube 1.

Guitar Rig 2:
1) Sounds great after you figure out how to set your levels properly. The "learn" mode on the input, cabinet, and output modules works really well. Fender, Mesa, and Marshall models sound really nice.
2) Included patches are generally way over processed and include way too many modules. Once you figure out how to make your own patches, it sounds pretty good.
3) For me, latency needs to be set at 5 ms or under to feel OK when playing. 5 ms latency requires a pretty recent/decent computer.
4) Works as a standalone application AND as a plug-in. Amplitube has no standalone mode, so this is a BIG benefit to Guitar Rig IMHO.
5) Unless you like spring reverb (I don't), the reverbs in Guitar Rig leave something to be desired.

Amplitube:
1) Amplitube 2 is out, but they require you already have a dongle in order to try it out. I don't have the dongle, so I can't try the Amplitube 2 demo. This is a big bummer. Guitar Rig 2 has a nice demo that is fully functional but craps out after 30 minutes. Thus, since I can't actually try Amplitube 2, I don't really know how it sounds. Since I have a lot of experience with Amplitube 1 though, I expect Amplitube 2 to sound great. Amplitube 1 sounds very good to me.
2) Amplitube 2 allows for 2 simultaneous rigs in parallel. Guitar Rig does not. There are ways around that, but having 2 rigs as a built in feature is much more convenient.
3) Amplitube has NO STANDALONE mode. Big bummer.
4) Amplitube 2 has way more stomp effects than Guitar Rig. Also, the "rack" effects generally have more controls than Guitar Rig.

[UstadKhanAli]

I actually like spring reverb on guitars, depending, obviously, on the application. I have spring reverb in my Carr Rambler amp and think it sounds gorgeous. For recording some stuff, I'll use a TC Electronic hall reverb if I want a lusher, longer reverb. Or if I want a shorter, spankier reverb for surf-type sounds, I'll go with the Carr Rambler's spring reverb all the way.

[TheBeatButcher]

Originally posted by Anderton This is sort of a preview about a section in the TonePort UX2 review I wrote that's going out in the next HC Confidential newsletter

 

 

Did this newsletter go out yet? I'd love to read your review, as I'm considering purchasing a TonePort UX2.

 

Thanks,

 

Joe