Line In Guitar using POD xt

[aaronmcoleman]

Ok, this might sound silly, but living in an apartment, I use a POD xt to record sometimes (that's not the silly part).

I would like the flexibility of being able to change patches like a plugin would do but I only have the hardware. So could I just run a straight line-in from the the guitar to sound card and record that way (we'll call this track A), then use an output from Track A to the POD xt and send the POD xt to another track (Track B)? Essentially I would always have the raw guitar on Track A, but be able to change the settings if necessary to Track B. Would the signal from Track A be the same as the signal coming directly from the guitar to the POD xt?

Guitar (no effects or hardware, line-in) -> Track A -> POD xt (set for line input and output) -> Track B???

Does this make sense, or am I just confusing myself and everyone else? I'm going to mess with this and see what happens, but I just wanted some expert advice or tips so I don't reinvent the wheel.

Thanks a ton, you guys (and gals) are the best!

 

[Nalfeingr]

I'm by no means an expert, but i have been using a pod xt live for years and i am an electronic engineer so i have a good understanding of how things work. If I understand correctly, you want to be recording both the raw guitar and the modified guitar at the same time, right? If not, you could simply record the guitar in clean (disable all effects or line in to the sound card) and then feed it to the pod xt and experiment with the effects.

Also, will the total audio output come from the pod xt ( as in a guitar amp or headset) or from the computer? If the latter is the case, you'll need to correctly separate the tracks and their outputs so that you don't get part of Track B or any computer-generated sound (like drum machines) into the podxt. Other than that your setup sound legit!

 

[Lt. Bob]

If I understand correctly, you want to be recording both the raw guitar and the modified guitar at the same time, right?

no ....... he simply wants to record the guitar raw and then run THAT to the XT and record what comes out of the XT so he can change things around while listening to it during playback.

aaron ...... it's called re-amping and yes, you can do that.
However ..... the signal coming from your raw guitar track and going to the XT will NOT be the same as plugging a guitar into the XT. The raw guitar track coming from the recorder will be a line level signal which is different than a guitar signal. So the XT probably won't react to it the same way. They actually make re-amping units for doing this exact thing.
But you won't harm anything so you may as well give it a try and see if it sounds ok to you.
It might or it might not ...... you'll just have to see.

 

[bolenti]

As Lt. Bob mentioned you're trying to reamp, this is possible.
If you search on Google "POD X3 reamping setup" you'll find a site giving an explanation of a such technique applied using a POD X3 Live. It might help you.

 

[studiopa]

As was mentioned, you can do this. If you're bypassing the Pod for Track A, you'll need some kind of pre-amplification to get enough level to go directly into your sound card--the guitar level itself won't be enough. If your soundcard can take a microphone level input, that would work. Any preamp on a small mixer would work as well.

You may also be able to use the Pod as a preamp only and bypass all modeling, but I'm not positive.

 

[aaronmcoleman]

Great! Thanks for all the help.

Bob, that is exactly what I was looking for, I just wasn't sure if re-amping would be the same as plugging straight into the POD. Now that I know, I'll experiment around and see if I'm satisfied.

Bolenti, thanks, I'll check out the X3 reamping and see how that goes.