My Pod will not cooperate!!

[Snowdog]

For the last couple of years I have used Zoom products to recrd my guitar tracks into a Tascam 414 with surprisingly good results. After reading rave reviews all over the net I broke down and bought a used pod. It is a Pod 1.0 and sounded great thru the moniters. The problem I have is that it records Terrible!! My Genre of music is 80's style Metal so I'm using priarily the Brit Hi,Rectified and Modern Hi amp simulations with gain settings in the 7-10 range and slight delay.
The highs are ok but the lows fall completely apart. Clipping is a serious problem and if I bring the levels down to negate the clipping them the track becomes barely audible. At this point in time my lowly 505 sounds much better than my Pod on recordings and surely that shouldn't be! Has anyone else experianced these problems?? HELP!!!! I plan to get a 2.0 upgrade today,will that help??

[HFFritz]

Make sure that if you have a mike/line control, it is set all the way to line. Then you should be able to adust everything using the fader and the POD output control.

[Snowdog]

Thanks Fritz, I was aware of the line/mic selector setting and that is not the problem. I get a great sound when running headphones out of the Pod or thru the monitors until I select a track to record on. If I could get the sound I'm hearing out of the Pod headphone jack on tape I'd be a very happy camper! The recorded tracks have almost a muffled aspect to them.
I clean the heads and demag periodically so I don't think the problem is with the Tascam. I have pulled all the bass out of the pod and EQ settings on the recorded track to no avail. It just simply sounds like crap. Is anyone else recording Metal type music with a pod and getting good results?

[Jon X]

You should be able to get a better sound out of the POD direct than through that Zoom I would think. When you say you are getting a good sound through the monitors, is that coming from the outputs of the multitracker? Like, are you monitoring the sound that the recorder is getting, or monitoring right out of the POD. Just trying to suggest a few things as this shouldn't be as happening.

I recorded this a while back using just the POD presets. The rythm guitar sound aint great, and the more I listen the more it sucks... but I don't think that's the PODs fault, just my clipping problem and that's easy to fix by turning down the input level on the recorder next time around. The lead tone isn't bad though, and this is sorta metal. Well maybe more hard rock, but give it a listen if you want. I have no problem getting what I hear in the monitors recorded with the POD, but I have experience similar problems with the low end on the POD presets. I left it just like that on this track to see what the POD would sound like if you just plugged it in, selected a preset and hit record. I used 9A for the rythm and 6A for the lead if I remember right. Here's the thread I posted before with the MP3 link if you want to hear it: http://homerecording.com/bbs//showth...?threadid=9809

Have you hooked the POD to a computer yet via midi to work with the software? That's when the thing really begins to shine and you have much more control over settings.

[Snowdog]

I couldn't get the link to work Jon but have made some progress. I installed the 2.0 upgrade and it made a great difference! Still not what I'm hoping for as far as results but definately heading the right direction. Now I am impressed with the Pod! Some of the combinations of Amps and Cabs that you wouldn't think would work together actually sound very good. Turning off the A.I.R. made a marked improvement in recording. Thats doesn't seem right.
I haven't tried hooking it up to my PC as of yet and am a complete Midiot! I will get into that in the near future. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks

[Stan Williams]

The upgrade to 2.0 is a big step up, i just upgraded also. One thing about some of those amps is, they have too much bottom end. I've owned some of the amps on pod, they were also to bottomy, but the new cab select on 2.0 has solved all that.
Thats it !

[reco]

Hey I would monitor with the four track not the pod.
You may be getting what I got.
It sounded awsome in the phones but muddy as hell on playback so I pluged into the headphone on the recorder and got the tone I wanted. hey check ur e.q. to on your recorder. when ur going in set the e.q. flat. e.q. after.
I have had great results with the pod 1.0 and no upgrade.
keep trying its worth it.
-Reco