PODxt Live in a Worship Service

[PRStringer]

We recently went to all "in-ear Monitors" on stage and so here I was, the lone guy with the amp.

So what does Guy do? He goes and buys a POD.... and that's just what I did.

Now, I have a great sound.... can play at home without waking the neighbors (A fellow member of our Worship Team made some CD's of our music and now I can jam along at home!) or the Wife... and I got rid of the on stage amp.

I must admit though, that its a bit TOO much... there are so many options, I spend alot of time finding that PERFECT sound.... sooo....

I just wanted to know who out there is using a PODxtl also, maybe what amp models/effects your using.... maybe a patch, you name it...

I personally use the Matchless model ALOT and the VOX AC30 with a bit of Stereo Delay (ala U2).... works real well.

I don't try to play alot of notes.... just add to what fits the song and this works great.

[kewlpack]

Moving this to the Effects forum...

I use the Boss GT8 and have had really good results with it. I tried the POD XT Live but found it was more adept at the shred/metal kinds of tones and could get really fizzy (5.2Khz digital noise or something).

I really liked a lot of things about the XTL (and I may get one again to run in tandem with my GT8! :) ). I never got any super patches setup, but you can find literally hundreds and hundreds of patches at the Line6 forums... http://www.line6.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi - just go to the POD forum there and ask around. Also try their patch website: http://customtone.com/.

There are tons of good, useful patches out there. Have fun and praise the Lord!

[BigJim]

Yup, there are a lot of options with the XTL. I love mine. I have the great tone I have always been looking for and it beats lugging around a tone of pedals and an amp. I usually only use a couple of patches for worship. The rest of the patches I have are for my own enjoyment and don't fit well with worship songs. Once in a while we play a song that needs just the right sound and I always seem to manage to find it among all thoes patches. Or the worship leader says "could you do something like..." and I go through my presets and try to find something that's fits what he is looking for. My biggest problem with the pedal is that I find myself going from a patch in a lower bank say bank 4 to a patch in bank 25, and the worship leader doesn't give me time to change, but that's what I get for having soo many options :dunno .

For patches also check out: http://www.instituteofnoise.com/L6/patches.asp

-Jim

[BigJim]

Oh, and did you download Guitar Port 2.5 from Line 6? That allows you to save and change you patches using you computer.

[kewlpack]

I'm thinking of getting a POD XT Live to put in the LOOP of my GT8... now there is some digital trickery! I have no idea if it would sound good... but I do like some of the amp models in there a lot. There isn't too much crossover between the GT8 and XTL so it's worth a try. :)

Could end up being a pain in the neck tho...!

[SAguitar]

Well dern, Vern! I've been thinkin' of tryin' that same thing! It is totally ludicrous though. I've been seriously thinkin' of addin' some of my favorite stomp boxes into the equation just to further degrade my signal. I wouldn't want folks out front hear what I really sound like! :lol:

[Teleguy]

I'm sure the soundman would like it, which would be a bad sign.


Oops, I better get my asbestos clothes on for when MrMike reads this. :angel

[MrMike]

:dunno :nevem:

[LesStrat]

I LOVE my XTL. I had the POD 2.0 and all its accessories. I loved it as well...but the XTL is a VAST improvement. BTW, I play a Parker Nitefly (1997 w/ passive circuits and 3 s/c p/ups).

For you tube snobs, the amp controls are setup just like an amp...easy to adjust on the fly, and if you want to save the setting, this too is easy and fast (however, it takes a minute or so if you want to name the patch...but this is a COOL feature).

Currently, I am using four user-designed patches. Mainly based on the Fender Tweed and a Hiwatt 100W. Personally, I prefer darker tones; however, I usually play with another guitarist who uses a LP and likes the same darker tones. Therefore, I use the brighter tones to be able to cut through the mix.

I do agree with what reverbb said in another thread about his POD Pro, though. It's best to design your settings in your regular venue. I can get close at home, but inevitably there is a need for tweaking once I plug in at church.

[Jena]

Hi guys! I am quite new here, so ...

I have my XTL for about two weeks and I am very pleased with the unit. I had Flextone III plus before, but this piece is much better, especially because of the controling possibilities. I lead worship, so I am simple player, in my team there are drums, keyboard (mainly playing piano with bass - awesome keyboard player - I love him! :mrgreen: ), I am more into bluesy sound, sort of crunch, not very high gain guy.

This sunday I used it in church and I was impressed, I used only one patch, it was enough for me. But still I am looking forward to getting to know this little digi machine :-)

So, I do not regret having this thing - it is more suitable for my needs than the flex was.

hope this helps somebody ... :-s

[Crunchyriff]

HI Jena, welcome to the forum here!! =D> \:D/

[SAguitar]

Welcome Jena! :cool:

Praise on, Stan

[Crunchyriff]

For you tube snobs

Guilty as charged...but I'm NOT a snob!! :-s

[Jena]

Thanx for welcome! :-)

I think I will like it here! Though I am not that often on this forum ... :---) :mrgreen:

[kewlpack]

I found some good tones on my XTL last night. I bought the Model Packs at the same time I bought the hardware (bought those online via Line 6, mind you).

I actually dialed in a tone with the Spinal Puppet preamp that wasn't too fizzy (without any post EQ). I was pretty surprised! The Supro Thunder has a nice chimey clean tone too... mmm there are lots of things in here!

Spinal Puppet is what they term Head Bangers at Line 6... which I still have a teeny bit of that streak in me from way back in the day. Thankfully the self-induced whiplash wasn't permanent! :crazy

[MDK2323]

I see some names that I recognize from the L6 board! Howdy! Hey Kewlpack, did you get the collector's pack or the metal pack?

[kewlpack]

Well I actually bought them both. There are cool preamps in both that I could use.

However, I had a car-related financial issue come up and it had to go back. Since that time, I was able to pick up a Flextone 3 XL. It's a pretty cool beast too. :)

[LesStrat]

I recently programmed a Vox AC30 channel with the Tube Driver as the stomp effect. I'm REALLY digging the tone of this thing!

[MDK2323]

Has anyone noticed the wierd sound in the background on high gain models on the XTL? It sounds kind of like a ring modulator, and I don't know if I can stand to own this box anymore frankly. I have been very frustrated with it over the last 2 weeks.

Just wondered if anybody else noticed. ? :banghead

[kewlpack]

MDK, can you post examples of what you mean?

[leecow]

wierd sound in the background on high gain models

Divide and conquer - start with the patch that's making you cringe and back off on settings (taking note of adjustments) adding things back until you isolate the evil. I think the first thing I would do is shut off all the effects leaving only the amp and cab models. Weirdness still present? Tweek the EQ, back off on the gain a bit, change the cab, etc to see if you can get rid of it. If it's gone then start adding back the effects one at a time until you find the offensive series of 1's and 0's.

Getting workable tones out of any of the modelers can be done but it takes a bit of patience. Another thing to keep in mind is a sound that knocks you dead in your den may completely disappear or be just horrible in a band context. It takes time to experiment, listen and figure out what makes the guitar sit up in the mix but when you're done, you'll have a pretty fair understanding of 'the tone'.

[prscustom24]

My experience with anything involving high gain, sampling, and A/D and D/A goodconversion, is that sooner or later digital artifacts will be noticed.

[LCC MusicMan]

Almost eveything I use is self-programmed, but I often like to start with something, such as the stuff from customtone.com., and tweak it in. I've probably downloaded 200 tones from them. They have some great stuff, especially the stuff made by their engineers. Most of the factory settings are useless.

I do a lot of emerging/alternative stuff, so I make heavy use of the Solo 100 sound for crunch. I'll use a bit of the 58 Bassman tones, too. I love the AC30 tone for certain things.

(By the way, some here have said you can't roll back the volume knob and clean up your tone... I disagree. The 58 Bassman model does this quite nicely, at least for me. Roll it back and lighten up on the touch, and it cleans up. Dial it wide open, and it crunches. But you can't set the drive higher than about 50 percent, or you'll get nothing but crunch... much the same as a real Bassman.)

I use the 87 Jazz amp for regular clean tones, and for more ethereal sounds I have a tone I called "Crystal." I can't remember what amp model I used (I'm at work) but it's just killer. Kind of an ethereal clean tone that will crunch just a bit if you dig in.

I love the POD XT. It's so versatile. I'm probably going to get a Variax 600 for even more versatility.

[MDK2323]

It works well direct to the board. I have actually come to a point where I haven't changed my patches at all for a while(3 or 4 months) since I have started using a Variax 300 with this unit. It is simply amazing what you can do with the XTL once you add a Vax IMHO.

I'm very satisfied with my sounds, and our P&W Pastor is also, for the first time since he came to our church 3 or 4 years ago. Amazing!

Loving my XTL+Vax combo.

I still want a nice tube amp to go with my Carvin Bolt tho. If money only grew on trees......

[Jaybo]

Glad to hear that's working for you. :ILY

Despite the drawbacks of digital units, there are also MANY positives, that we forget about when we get a little glitch, or digital noise, etc.

Of course, if money did grow on trees, and we could all have 10 roadies, and our own personal guitar tech team... :biggrin:

[MDK2323]

(By the way, some here have said you can't roll back the volume knob and clean up your tone... I disagree.

You are correct, it's not true. I use the volume knob on lots of different amp models and really like the results. It works like a tube amp. It's still a modeler, but it works.

[LesStrat]

Update, 2 years later:

I use 4-6 user designed presets for each guitar. I have about 12 presets saved.

I lean towards the following amp models:

Vox AC30
Boogie
Tweed

Occasionally I use a Soldano patch.

The only factory preset that I use (slightly modified, of course) is the PF Run Like Hell patch. It is GREAT for clean tones.

If you use only a couple of settings, but they get YOUR tone, who cares about the rest of the settings? It's still cheaper than a good amp. :D

[hotraman]

wow... nice update. Props for remembering!
I rarely play any of the Vox Tonelab SE factory patches.
All of my current settings are ones I've tweaked for various guitars.
I agree, once you start playing with a modeler ( Line 6, Vox, Roland)
it opens up a whole new world of sounds.