Doth the PodXT (presets) sucketh... yea, sucketh mightily?

Kind Of Loud · Post by **Kind Of Loud** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 8:41 am

monkey man wrote:

Wow, thanks for the info, KOL!
I'd been checking the L6 site for 6 months earlier in the year and gave up.
Guess I clean forgot.
"A bunch of new amps and effects" sounds tres cool.

Thanks again.

No problem dude...!!!
Hey, for updates. all you need to do is run that "Line6 Monkey"......(.....any relation..??

)......It will tell you if there are any updates you can install.

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 9:18 am

`
Good call, dude.
I haven't installed the Monkey this time 'round, as my POD XTs were both at v2.0 or 2.1 or something.
I just used to visit a page at the site whenever I was on the net.
What with all the troubleshootin' I've been doing the last 5 years, I don't install anything non-essential.

I sure needed that reminder, though.
This v3 update is more than I was expecting, KOL.
UnicorNation's been a better(!) distraction than I realised...

Thanks again, champ!

mikebeckmotu · Post by **mikebeckmotu** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 8:43 pm

monkey man wrote:
mikebeckmotu wrote:Anyway, I think James wins thread title of the month award, though. I almost, almost! mind you, spit out some beer when I read it.
Way to go, Mike!

Well, you'd agree, wouldn't you?
Also - I wondered if you'd capitalize on the Line 6 Monkey angle...

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 11:59 pm

Okay... well... little updated. Hooked the PodXT backup and used the Line 6 Edit software and did some tweaking with the presets. Obviously, this unit is much deeper than the earlier ones. I managed to dial in something I think is pretty good using the Marshall Silver model as suggested. I will post the preset for you guys with XTs to try and see what you think. But bottom line for me is the presets that come with this unit weren't so good and editing them into something useable is just too daunting without using the Edit software and a USB connection.

BradLyons · Post by **BradLyons** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 5:31 am

James,

If you ever get a chance to try this box, I think you'll like what you hear

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ToneLabSE/

Kind Of Loud · Post by **Kind Of Loud** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 6:37 am

Oh, yeah....

Those presets that come installed on the XT, are total garbage..I wiped all of them out, and use those banks to store my own....

Starting from scratch, with just an amp and cab, is the best way to get anything useful going...Once that is setup, I'll start fine tuning by adding distortion boxes.. some modulation.....reverb/delay, and so forth.

Hey Brad....

I gave that Tonelab a try....The clean type amps, Vox's and Fenders, were quite good...Matter of fact, they were REAL good...!!!
But starting with Marshall's and the high gain amps, I think the XT does a better job for those types of tones.
But, yeah, the Tonelab is decent unit.....!!!

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 7:15 am

mikebeckmotu wrote:
monkey man wrote:
mikebeckmotu wrote:Anyway, I think James wins thread title of the month award, though. I almost, almost! mind you, spit out some beer when I read it.
Way to go, Mike!
Well, you'd agree, wouldn't you?

Absolutely. Thread title of the month, indeed.

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... highlight=

mikebeckmotu wrote:Also - I wondered if you'd capitalize on the Line 6 Monkey angle...

You know, Mike, I wondered the same thing.

Nothing came; I can't force anything at the mo' due to health issues.
Whilst I've had some serious challenges the last 35 years, things finally seem hopeless.
The silver-lining monkey can't even find the clouds.
Just been logging on for a sense of usefulness.

FWIW, I've tested "snappy" and it still works at 7:00AM after being awake for 3 days.
Somewhat surprisingly, so does "I'm looking for a PDF manual for DP".
Guess I'm an easy room. Putrefying pilchards, perhaps?

You guys, however, are a different kettle of fish.
Orange ruffy or caviar, I suspect.

It's kinda ironic that the Nation should provide the quality of peeps my life-exposures could not.
I feel like I'm finally home!

I s'pose the moral of this sorry post, Mike, could be that if I'm not being light-hearted and funny, it's not for lack of trying.
I'll see if I can change my avatar for the duration of this thead out of respect for you and your request.
The Line 6 Monkey app icon would suit, methinks.

Cheers
M

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 7:33 am

Kind Of Loud wrote:Oh, yeah....
Those presets that come installed on the XT, are total garbage..I wiped all of them out, and use those banks to store my own....
Starting from scratch, with just an amp and cab, is the best way to get anything useful going...Once that is setup, I'll start fine tuning by adding distortion boxes.. some modulation.....reverb/delay, and so forth.

That's how it's done!

Kind Of Loud wrote:Hey Brad....
I gave that Tonelab a try....The clean type amps, Vox's and Fenders, were quite good...Matter of fact, they were REAL good...!!!
But starting with Marshall's and the high gain amps, I think the XT does a better job for those types of tones.
But, yeah, the Tonelab is decent unit.....!!!

Many reviewers would agree with you, KOL.
I've heard it said many times that the clean sounds are the ToneLab's forte'.
Still, if it's variety you want, I reckon the XT sucketh not.

Cheers
M

BradLyons · Post by **BradLyons** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 9:25 am

Personally, I can't stand guitar processors. I'm not knocking them, they are useful.... but I refuse to use them in my own studio, then again I've got some nice mics and pres to get the tone I'm after. But if I do use a processor, my personal favorite is the Rocktron Prophesy, oh yeah! We used that all over the Spectre guitar tracks (www.spectreusa.com)

David Polich · Post by **David Polich** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 10:13 am

Vox Tonelab. Best guitar processor box on the planet.

I've done two CD's using just the Tonelab, working on a third.

Kind Of Loud · Post by **Kind Of Loud** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 10:21 am

Brad Lyons wrote:

Personally, I can't stand guitar processors. I'm not knocking them, they are useful.... but I refuse to use them in my own studio

Then why did you recommend, the Vox Tonelab..???

BradLyons · Post by **BradLyons** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 11:13 am

The TonelabSE is a processor that is very good on the affordable scale, I mentioned it as many (surprisingly) aren't familiar with it. When I said I personally don't like processors, I was just referring to my personal preference when recording.

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 12:19 pm

BradLyons wrote:When I said I personally don't like processors, I was just referring to my personal preference when recording.

I don't like them either myself. Honestly, my post was in the context of recording scratch tracks while I'm simply working out arrangements... doing some songwriting. When I record for real... it's my hot-rodded Marshall. I'm just willing to do scratch tracks with a processor and they all suck to some degree... I want to use the one that sucks the least.

Firstly for me... I'm not a bluesy kinda guy. Good clean tones... the bluesy Fender Twin kinda stuff means absolutely nothing to me. It's a waste of preset space for me. I was trying to be chartiable, but seriously the Pod XT presets were what sucked. After a few minutes of tweaking (using the edit software which actually helped me to visualize what was going on) I dialed something in a 100 times more useful than any of the existing presets.

Kind Of Loud · Post by **Kind Of Loud** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 1:02 pm

Hey James....

What year/type is your Marshall...??...or Marshall(s) for that matter..
I'm a "Marshall Law" fanatic myself..!!!

By" tricked out", I take it you had an extra gain stage installed..???

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 3:16 pm

Kind Of Loud wrote:Hey James....

What year/type is your Marshall...??...or Marshall(s) for that matter..
I'm a "Marshall Law" fanatic myself..!!!

By" tricked out", I take it you had an extra gain stage installed..???

Yeah... I have a 1979 100-watt Mark II Master Lead head and there's an extra gain stage on it. It has *four* 12AX7 preamp tubes. It also has an effects loop that can be bypassed and has gain control to both the input and the output. I actually like this arrangement as it "decouples" the preamp of the Marshall from the power amp stage, so with a rackmount switcher and I can switch in a rack pre-amp to feed the main amplification stage of the Marshall head.

However, honestly I probably could have foregone the additonal gain stage as I think the beauty of Marshall amps don't really come out until you learn to get the tone with your fingers and playing and back off on the gain. I'm of the opinion that the more you can back off of the pre-amp the better it sounds. I'm also a fan of the 6550 power tubes... some say they're more brittle, but I like the "tightness" that I think the 6550's bring to the table. Of course it's all subjective. I play the head into a 1960A cab loaded with Vintage 30s... although when I get the dough, I really want to experiment with greenback reissues and some other speakes and see what it's like.

As for people's choices in amps... in my area for a while there were two major schools... the Mesa guys and the Marshall guys. They both have their merits. To me though, nothing sounds quite so glorious as a *good* Marshall head... 'tis the stuff of dreams!