Modeling amp's don't cut it live

[skorb]

Shut the cabinet sims OFF!! That's when these things sound best...

you're asking for it

[chrisolson]

I've used Line 6's for ten years. I know what sounds best to me... All the cab sims seem to do is muffle the sound and shift the EQ around a bit. Even with the POD set to 'amp', you are still getting cab sims. Don't believe me? Manually shut them off, save it, go to a different patch, come back to that one and...VOILA!! Back to the cab sim mode again! They finally go it right on the Floor POD Plus - it actually saves the patches and leaves the sims off.

[skorb]

I've used Line 6's for ten years. I know what sounds best to me...

you have the Vetta also, correct?

[chrisolson]

Nope. Tried it out for a LONG time though - just like the XT, too much tweaking. I like to turn a know and PLAY! Flextones are my thing... Almost got the HD147, but didn't need that many high gain amps... I love my new POD though.

[soc_monki]

Pods sound best through an amp with the Cab Sims ON. seriously...they sound like complete ass when you try to use them as a preamp. ive tried, through my 5150 and my Classic 120...without cab sims its just harsh no matter what you do.

with a cab sim on...you can get very useable tones and Modelling amps CAN sound good live and project...their problem (and ive seen it WAY too many times) is they didnt have any mids and had too much gain going. even a 5150 wont project and cut if you scoop the mids, crank the bass and resonance and dime the gain. ive seen that happen to, and it wasnt pretty.

[sakeido]

When we had this other guy playing with us, his Vetta could never keep up. My Mark IV killed it 100% of the time even if I scooped my mids and went away from my sound. No matter what we did his amp either sounded like shit or didn't cut. I think we wasted an entire jam session dialing it in (a good five hours) trying to get our sound together for a local gig and it just didn't happen for us, and we ended up not playing the gig.

His freakin Vetta cost us a nice chance to play in front of a decent crowd of 400-500 people It sounded great at low volume or when he was the only one playing. As soon as you put a really good tube amp in the same mix tho, its all over.

[chrisolson]

Oh well... I don't play in front of anyone other than my dog, cat & wife, so I'll sign out of this thread. Nothing left to see here...

[jtr]

These bands were at Rodgers Mn. high school ages from 15-early 20's not Pro bands but some already had CD's on Indie labels. There was only a 10 minutes between bands, did a peeloff with the amps and the drums were set on two moveable platforms (one drummer was playing while the other setup ). No one was going through pod's most through modeling amps(combo's or with 4x12 ,4x10 and 2x12) one Marshall. Bass was going direct, drums were mic

[Twisteramps]

When we had this other guy playing with us, his Vetta could never keep up. My Mark IV killed it 100% of the time even if I scooped my mids and went away from my sound. No matter what we did his amp either sounded like shit or didn't cut. I think we wasted an entire jam session dialing it in (a good five hours) trying to get our sound together for a local gig and it just didn't happen for us, and we ended up not playing the gig.

His freakin Vetta cost us a nice chance to play in front of a decent crowd of 400-500 people It sounded great at low volume or when he was the only one playing. As soon as you put a really good tube amp in the same mix tho, its all over.

You guys didn't know how to dial it in. I played an outdoor show for several hundred people - was one of five bands. All the other guys had typical tube amps - 5150, TSL, one had a Blue Voodoo, can't remember what the other band had. I had my Vetta.

When we were setting up/soundchecking, I went to where the soundguy was set up to hear what my amp sounded like. After our set, he asked what amp I had, because it sounded better than anything else at the show.

I also had a gig where we opened for a band - the guitarist in the other band had a Marshall 30th anniversary. We had mutual friends in the audience that told me my tone was a LOT better.

Problem with modelling amps is that you get so many options - it's kinda like extra rope to hang yourself with, for some people. I prefer the feel of a tube amp, but could happily gig with a Vetta and leave my VHT, Randall or soon to arrive Peters amp at home without any problems.

Pete

[PowerTube]

Shut the cabinet sims OFF!! That's when these things sound best...

See my post above....

[sevser]

As a few have said already...Its the bells and whistles that got me at first...I got all tweak happy when I first used mine...Too much saturation...Just washed it right out.

You need to let go and tweak for the sake of the overall sound and not just use a sound that you practice with at home. I know someone who does that all the time..."No...I spent a week getting this tone at home and I'm using it!" Yeah...well...we are not in your room right now!

As far as the cab sim thing goes...I just set mt XTLive to what I'm running with..."Powered Amp" and it sounds best.

I played a show with is kid who had just bought an XTLive and he was asking why we sounded so different. So I looked and he had it on direct...So I switched it to "Front end stack" as that is what he was running into and...boom! Big ass smile and he was a happy camper.

I also feel a modeller into a tube power section is better by a long shot. I keep saying it but me and my co guitarist run the same shit except he has a Mosvalve SS power amp...(160 watt) and I have a 120 watt tube power section (XXX return) I use half the power he does and he still struggles to be heard...

[tseegert]

I've used my Vetta live 4 times now, and have had more than enough compliments on my sound to know that if you cant get a good sound out of one, you have to be doing something wrong.

[Newc]

#1: If a miked modeling amp doesn't sound good, and you don't have time to dial it in to suit the situation, run it direct. They were primarily designed to run directly into a recording/mixing console and remove the option of miking a cabinet. Unfortunately, the neo-Puritanical anti-modeling technology mindset will never accept this because of the misconceptions that state "it's a guitar amp - stick a mic in it", and "cain't no compyooter sound as good as a real He-Man all tube stack cranked to 11".

#2: Most kids have absolutely no idea how to dial in a modeler, because they don't know enough about the amps they are modeling, and that's a shame. It seems this stuff is being made for those who know what a classic Plexi sounds like, or a Marshall JCM800, or a Soldano SLO100, etc etc WITHOUT all the studio processing and without EVH/Clapton/Vai/etc playing through them, yet they are marketed to the very people who know nothing about those same amps and have no financial means to test them all side by side.

The book is no help at all, because it uses terms like "warm, creamy overdrive", but doesn't provide a sample CD to specifically define and illustrate these terms to the uninitiated.

A unit like the XTL is great, I'm sure, for getting the sound of a JCM800 just like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest used in 1987. I had one, and only after finding the EQ Pedal effect and giving it some mids was I able to get the sounds off the CD.

That leads to point #3:
People generally buy these things (PODs and XTLs) and dial their favorite album tones into it - "Hey, check this out! It's the Fear Factory tone!" - but the rest of the band's tone does not match the same album. This is largely why guitar tones get lost in a full band - the amps were set individually and then dropped into the band.

I had this same problem when I first joined a band. I had my GSP21 Legend stuffed with patches that sounded great through headphones, or even through the PA - as long as I was the only one playing.
I had to readjust - and lose - all my favorite tones to fit in with the band. My singer (the other guitarist) insisted I dump my rack gear for an amp and plug straight in like he did, since "them rack thangs are good fer studio but they cain't stand up live".

Once I got my EQs and gains and cab sims set to work with the band (and listened back to the live-to-2-track recording), he was wagging in a new unit every week trying to get my tone.

[skorb]

I've used my Vetta live 4 times now, and have had more than enough compliments on my sound to know that if you cant get a good sound out of one, you have to be doing something wrong.

exactly. end of story.

[hippietim]

My old VHT 2150 would eat up a Vetta, shit it out, and then yell it at it for it's inability to deliver substantial volume. My Vetta would wimper and hide when it heard the mighty roar of the KT88's.

Of course, I wretched my back moving the 2150 across the room