thinking of buying a POD XT? read this first

[axeman81]

Hey everyone, today I went out and traded in my brand new shiny POD XT for the 2.0. Yes you read that correctly, I'm going back to the old model...
I feel I have been forced to do so, because you simply CANNOT get the exact same sounds out of the XT as from the 2.0. I feel it is harder to get metal sounds out of the XT.

I tried for a week to get the same heavy/open/crisp/clear metal sound that I had achieved with the 2.0, but I simply couldn't do it not even by patching the XT with the 2.0 patch I used.

This is just a friendly warning to those who are thinking of maybe upgrading to the XT like I did.
This is NOT to say that the XT is bad, it has a better noisegate than the 2.0 and lots of improvements, but for my purpose (metal) it simply fell through and that is pretty disappointing...
I lost cash too, selling 2.0 buying xt and then having to trade-in again!

live and learn.

- Rune.

[Creepy]

Re: thinking of buying a POD XT? read this first

I've heard a lot of people say the exact same thing. I use a Behringer V-amp 2 and am very pleased with the tone it produces. And for the price...vs. the POD you can't go wrong. Really, the only advantage I've seen on the XT vs. the 2.0 is the USB connectivity. Hell, I don't blame you.

[Twisteramps]

Re: thinking of buying a POD XT? read this first

Well, opinions vary. I had my pod 2.3 at the same time I had my XT (I bought my XT literally the first week they were out) and I preferred the XT over the 2.3 by far.

However, the XT takes a lot more tweaking, and if you want to just dive in and record, the 2.0 is much easier to get a heavy tone. But, the XT sounds better if you spend the time to learn it.

Both are good pieces of gear, but I never regretted selling my 2.3 and keeping the XT.

Pete

[Dreamland_Rebel]

Re: thinking of buying a POD XT? read this first

i found the 2.3 harder to dial in than the 2.0

[Fragle]

Re: thinking of buying a POD XT? read this first

strange......i found the 2.0 to be muddy, undefined and kinda "far away" if you know what i mean. but it only took me 5 minutes to dial in a killer metal tone on the xt...just don't stick with the dual recto, go and use the line6 originals and of course, tweak tweak tweak...experiment with stomp boxes, cabs, eq settings, .....

greets
fragle

[PowerTube]

Re: thinking of buying a POD XT? read this first

Rune,

You just described my experience perfectly. I've heard some great sounding XT samples on the Internet, but I can't get those sounds on one in real life if you put a gun to my head. On the 2.0, however, I can plug in, go straight to Modern Hi-Gain and bam, there it is. Add a little reverb, maybe some compression and delay, and I'm all set with MY sound.

I've heard others criticize the XT for its high gain sounds, as well.

[PowerTube]

Re: thinking of buying a POD XT? read this first

Metalheads, take note:

I also want to take a minute to point this out; when you waltz into the music store and plug into a POD 2.0, the first thing you should do is to PUNCH THE "MANUAL" BUTTON. When you turn a POD on, it defaults to the "1A" setting. If someone saved "1A" as Line 6 Clean with Tremolo or whatever, that's what you'll get. Sure, you can switch it to Modern Hi-Gain, Recto, Delay, whatever, but you're still running with the default cab settings, knob behavior, cab simulation, etc..., of the original setting. Hitting "Manual" throws all of that out so that what you see on the dials is what you get. It's much easier to know what you're getting with a clean slate.

[BigDaddyD]

Re: thinking of buying a POD XT? read this first

I just recently got a pod 2.0. It is my first pod. Anyway, I think it sounds amazing for recording and that is with almost no tweaking. Preset 8c is a really good one, although not metal. I find myself using the manual feature with either the JCM 800 or Soldano mode, and some delay. Some time delay/compression and it sounds awesome. By just varying the eq, drive and channel volumes I can get a huge atray of tones with only those two models.

[lafours]

Re: thinking of buying a POD XT? read this first

I sold my pod 2.0 and got the xt.....great descision..the xt smokes it...even in the high gain dept....Check out the models "Chemical x" , "Spinal Puppet" and the Buddah amp.....I agree the recto and soldano suck in the podxt but the 3 amps I mentioned earlier sound way better than anything i could get tonewise out of the 2.0. And the cleans/in betweens and pallet of effects makes this thing hard to beat.

[Ric1983]

Re: thinking of buying a POD XT? read this first

I get great Hi-gains and every clean you can imagine out of my XT. The Marshall Variac and JMP are great sounding Hi-gains along with the other mentioned by lafours earlier. Even the Hiwatt model can give a great Med-Hi Gain. Lots of very high quality tones are available in the XT to be found.


Ric

[axeman81]

Re: thinking of buying a POD XT? read this first

I think the main problem is the output device people use. While one patch sounds like crap in my Alesis monitors, it may sound like the best thing since sliced bread in another guy's headphones.

This is why, although the idea of having something like customtone.com available is nothing short of genius, it isn't feasible at all due to all the differences in people's equipment.
The only real application would be if you use it on your Line6 amp or combo, when all the equipment is identical. (barring guitar woods/electronics of course)

I use the POD for recording.
If all goes well, I'll soon get an ENGL head for all other purposes. [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

- Rune.

[pro-fusion]

Re: thinking of buying a POD XT? read this first

The XT isn't perfect for metal, but I got some really great sounds out of the "Spinal Puppet" amp model, by using the 'tube screamer' setting. I liked mine a lot better than the POD 2.0, but it's all a matter of taste, and you do have to tweak the XT a lot.

Now, I use a Rocktron Chameleon/ADA Ampulator to get my high gain sounds, and I do a lot better than any of the modelers, but also at a much higher cost, and with less flexibility.

[Newc]

Re: thinking of buying a POD XT? read this first

Having had a POD for a couple of months now, and having tweaked it for the best sounds I could get (including using the 'hidden' function accessed by holding the Tempo button), I have to say I've been getting very similar tones for some time out of my ADA MP-1/Digitech TSR-12 combo.
Still, the POD does sound good on its own, and I'd like to get that Line6 cabinet for it (the one where the POD goes into a little slot and drives the cabinet).

Newc

[fritzreiser]

Re: thinking of buying a POD XT? read this first

Originally posted by Creepy:
I use a Behringer V-amp 2 and am very pleased with the tone it produces. And for the price...vs. the POD you can't go wrong.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I just picked up a V-Amp2 and I agree with Creepy. The thing rocks even with the presets. I went thru all 125 presets and found 26 that I really like. $139 from AMS which included a pair of decent headphones. Fabulous practice preamp.