what do think of the pod?

[beeresin]

i dig it sometimes...i llike to ues it for vocals...

[Stefan Elmblad]

I don't like it for anything... and it's designed like a mooning ass too.

[Speeddemon]

get a Digitech Genesis 3. It will SMOKE your POD.

...Better sound, better effects, more tube-like sound, warp-function, digital output, larger display, more presets (48 factory, 48 user), 24bit converters, better dynamic response...

[scottboyher]

why cant these companies manufacture these modules in a rack mount version... most of us are using these things for recording direct in a studio setting. who has the room for a bunch of these fucking things sitting around cuttering up our studio space.... The damn things arent even practical for taking to a gig...

[Smokepole]

I was very close to buying a pod. I bought the Sansamp PSA-1 after posting here and doing a lot of comparing. Its rack mount like the above post mentions and that is nice. The Marshall settings are very accurate but I really needed several clean tones also and that locked it up for me. Tweaking and making your own programs is simple. There is a sight I had found on Google that had untouched samples on it. They are very impressive.

Here's a tune with the solo tracks done on it if you want to check it out.
L.P. Classic through only the PSA-1. This was originally a factory B.B. King setting but I tweaked it a bit to give it my own sound.

Joe

www.nowhereradio.com/mytunes/singles

You can hit the lo-fi play button and avoid having to wait. The tone still comes through surprisingly well.

[SCLlama]

Originally posted by scottboyher
why cant these companies manufacture these modules in a rack mount version... most of us are using these things for recording direct in a studio setting. who has the room for a bunch of these fucking things sitting around cuttering up our studio space.... The damn things arent even practical for taking to a gig...

AMEN!!!

[Andrew123]

Originally posted by scottboyher
why cant these companies manufacture these modules in a rack mount version... most of us are using these things for recording direct in a studio setting. who has the room for a bunch of these fucking things sitting around cuttering up our studio space.... The damn things arent even practical for taking to a gig...

http://www.harmony-central.com/Newp/...6/POD-Pro.html

[SCLlama]

Originally posted by Andrew123
http://www.harmony-central.com/Newp/...6/POD-Pro.html

Yes, but its twice as much money for the same sounds, right?

-Ryan

[A1A2]

it will give you just about any sound you want, BUT with a half-ass job or sometimes better, depends on the tone you are after. I own a POD pro for a lil over a yr now. Who knows, maybe it's my guittar or maybe it's my half-ass skill on that baby. but, I do find it useful in most cases.

AL

[crawdad]

My modeler of choice is also the Genesis3. This is only my opinion (and I can't stress this enough--I do NOT want to get into a shouting match over these things)--but I've had a Pod, a J-Station, a Boss GT3 and a Behringer V-Amp. By far, the Genesis3 was the most usable. The GT3 is pretty cool too.

I would rate the Genesis 3 much higher than the Pod, and its a better deal too. Still, you should check them all out and see what sounds best to you and which one has the sounds you are looking to use. Everything has its strengths, including the Pod.

[bostonfan2]

does the genesis 3 generate less noise than the pod? my pod for clean sounds
has to much hiss to be usable in quiet
parts of songs although i do like the tone. it seems with digi out it would be quieter compared to a regular pod..
anyone compare?...Bostonfan2

[Speeddemon]

Yes, Genesis 3 is more silent. Especially when you don't play guitar...

Like Crawdad I tested a whole bunch (owned a Boss GT-3 and a Zoom 3000S), tried the POD, J-Station, V-amp2, GNX1 and some modeller-amps (Line6 Flextone 2=sucks! H&K ZenAmp=rules!).
Anyway, after I gave up on my Boss GT-3, due to digital distortion, bad dynamics and cheesy sounds (although I made a couple of very convincing tube-like presets for tones like Dire Straits, Deep Purple, AC/DC and Europe/Dokken), I went with the Genesis 3 and never regretted it.

But yeah, they should make a super-modeler with a user-interface like the Genesis 3, only rackmounted, a better and bigger display, lots of I/O options (XLR, AES/EBU, S/PDIF, USB, etc.) about 100 factory presets and 100 or 200 user presets, maybe a cool retro look with an analog VU-meter...

[ChuckU]

I went with the J-Station because...

1. For bass DI, there were a couple of amp models.
2. Digital out instantly gave the spdif-in on my Delta-1010 usability.
3. Made by Harmon (who also makes the Genesis3) and who, when the EPROM on my RP-5 shit the bed, mailed me a replacement free.....three years after I bought it.

I find the Rectifier and Solo settings very usable because, well, I can play.

[Dick Flansen]

PODs are pretty great, in general. IF I had my choice of a nice miked amp in a nice room, I'd pick that over the pod. Most people DON'T have that, ergo, the POD is a no-brainer.

Although, I've gotta say that the Behringer V-Amp sounds every bit as good as the pod, for roughly a third of the price. Get the V-Amp. I have the J-Station, too - glad I have it, different sounds than the pod/v-amp... But, to me the pod and v-amp are nearly identical and have a slight edge of the j-station in terms of flexibility.

[jslator]

Originally posted by Speeddemon
I made a couple of very convincing tube-like presets for tones like Dire Straits, Deep Purple, AC/DC and Europe/Dokken

Now there's something you don't hear very often: "How can I sound more like Europe/Dokken?" Must be a Sweedish thing.

[TexRoadkill]

Originally posted by jslator
Now there's something you don't hear very often: "How can I sound more like Europe/Dokken?" Must be a Sweedish thing.

Shhhhhh, they haven't realized the 80's are over yet. You never want to wake up a sleepwalker.

[charger]

I love the Pod! It's the greatest thing ever! It kicks ass! It slices my bread! It makes weird sounds when I kick it! It feeds my dog and my wife when I'm out of town!

Actually, I used to use my original Pod a lot, but now I use my Pod xt, and it kicks ass on everything except for the Golden Obvious (amp > speaker > mic). Note that the Pod xt costs $350, which is way over your budget if you want to only spend $150.

I have some samples up at:
www.astrondelta.com/charger/podxt

I've also used the J-Station, and man that thing has a lot of gain! I mean, the "crunch" setting is more gain than anyone would ever need to record, and then they have another setting that has even more gain! I think for $150 it's a great deal, if that's all you can afford.

I've tried the Digitech "GNX/Genesis" units a few times now and remain unimpressed. I was a loyal Digitech user for about 6 years, and I think they missed the boat with their speaker modeling or something--great clean sounds, great effects, horrid distortion sounds that sound like they're going direct into the board. Yeah, I know Johnson is a division of Harman, which owns Digitech, blah blah...

The Behringer V-Amp sounds like the Pod because... well, they modelled the Pod sounds. It's a decent box, though a lot of people (myself included) find it way too hissy for critical recording use. I like the lights on the rotary encoders though. For that price, spend an extra 10 bucks and get the J-Station.

[dudleys100]

I have never used a modeller that I liked enough to actually use on a finnished product. I do like them for practicing however. I owned a V-amp 2 and personally I liked it better than any of the POD's I had tried. I have never tried the sansamp stuff though and I hear they are much more realistic sounding. I think I just have a terrible sensitivity to digital sounds. I am the same way with effects. I just have a real hard time with a multi effects processor getting the tone I like. Now plop a Hellhound in front of me with a tubescreamer and maybe an analog delay and let me touch heaven.

[Speeddemon]

JSlator and Tex, the sound I was referring to was more of a general heavy metal sound, but I made the patch in order to mimic "Final Countdown's" guitarsolo. I was giggin with a reasonably known dutch singer (Bert Heerink; Kayak and Vandenberg) and we did his Heineken-commercial songs... those commercials use known songs, but with dutch lyrics that are related to Heineken and/or summer/beer. We played The Final Countdown (FWIW, I nailed the solo and Bert himself came to me afterwards, applauding my skills ), but it turned out that that solo-patch (consisted of a Soldano pre-amp with lots and lots of mids, a dash reverb and delay, some slight chorus...) was very allround for both rhythm and lead work. Yes, it DID sound a bit dated, but you could basically play anything from Sabbath to Bon Jovi, via Metallica with that sound. That patch alone was basically worth keeping the GT-3, but I really got tired from some high-pitched digital distortion. Bruce, if you read this, this unit DOES sound digital! I know "digital' isn't supposed to have some signature sound, but if you're pretty anal about your tone (as most (semi-)pro guitarplayers are), you'll notice some deficiencies within the GT-3.

I know the 80's are over, I just wanna bring 'em back, and my army to do so is growing as we speak! People are really getting fed up with nu metal.
As a better example, two of the more famous metalbands from this decade (Nightwish and Children of Bodom) both use quite an 80's guitar sound, and I must admit that Emppu (Nightwish's guitarplayer) has an AWESOME tone. If you like metal at all, I suggest you listen to some Nightwish songs. It's a blend of sympho, powermetal and gothic heavy metal. Opera female voice and lots of synths.

[littledog]

Every time I've had anyone use the Pod at my studio I've had serious noise issues. Unless the whole track was thrashing so that it got buried, I've almost always had to use my DNR noise reduction to get an acceptable result when mixing. I will admit the possibility that perhaps the guitarists were giving me ass for gain structure.

However, someone came in last week with a Digitech floor unit (didn't note the exact model number) that was, by comparison, amazingly quiet.

[Blue Bear Sound]

Originally posted by SCLlama
Yes, but its twice as much money for the same sounds, right?

Same sounds... but expanded front fascia controls, digital I/O, balanced and unbalanced I/O, choice of gain structure....

[cominginsecond]

Originally posted by Dick Flansen
PODs are pretty great, in general. IF I had my choice of a nice miked amp in a nice room, I'd pick that over the pod. Most people DON'T have that, ergo, the POD is a no-brainer.

If you're close micing with a dynamic you don't have to have a "nice room" just not an "awful" one. I've never had a problem with mic'ing amps in a fairly medium sized living room, and the sound of a mic'ed amp, even when you don't have a nice room, kills amp modelers, IMHO.

That being said, the bass models on the J-Station are pretty damn nice. Nicer than I can get from my old Peavey bass amp.

[littledog]

Originally posted by cominginsecond
If you're close micing with a dynamic you don't have to have a "nice room" ...

But it helps if you have "nice neighbors".

[SCLlama]

well, I was at guitar center today, and I happend to notice a used POD Pro for $299. I was pretty suprised at the price, so I figured, what the hell! To make a long story short, I got it home, and I love this thing. Im not really a guitar player, but I do play on occasion. I feel it is a good substitution if you dont have all the money for the real thing. I'm running The outputs through spdif into my DPS24, and it seems that I can get a much more consistent sound out of the POD. My band likes to record about a song a week, and we have gigs in between, so sometimes it is hard to reproduce a sound perfectly micing a real amp. The effects arent great, but i'll probably look into an external unit for that. Anyways, I highly recommend it!

-Ryan

[Axe4Yahweh]

Behringer's wannabe poster child here. V-AMP2 user and very pleased for almost a year about it. I'm not very familiar with either the J-Station or the POD, but it would seem that those units would have a noise gate like the one on the V-AMP for those of you who are complaining about too much noise for serious recording. My noise gate works fine.

All the Guitars on these 3 Tunes were done using the V-AMP2. Everything form Plexi-on-Steroids to Fender Clean and everything in between:

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/...119183728#8467

Charger;

The Behringer V-Amp sounds like the Pod because... well, they modelled the Pod sounds. It's a decent box, though a lot of people (myself included) find it way too hissy for critical recording use. I like the lights on the rotary encoders though. For that price, spend an extra 10 bucks and get the J-Station.

There's a paper that comes with the V-AMP2 telling exactly who modeled each of the Factory Presets on the V-AMP2 and none of them works for Line6. They were modeled at Behringer. Behringers are capable of using POD Presets though. I thought that I would clear that up.

CR ><>