Behringer V-Amp Vs POD

  • Thread starter Thread starter Monsterpop
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The odd looking input is for connecting the floorboard foot controller......a worthwhile (if somewhat expensive) addition if you're gonna be using it live.
However, if you've been using a half-stack.......I have to doubt you'll be happy with the POD for live usage. I agree with morindae about that. I use Fender amps and on the occassional gig where I use the POD for convenience or space reasons,.....it never satisfies me. I can get by with it but that's all.
 
pod etc,,

Hi Guys,,
well i bought the FB4 today for £59,,2nd hand. I bet its cheaper than that brand new in the states.
i will have a go at sorting out the sounds i want in the correct order tomorrrow, and hopefully it will be cool for me to use in Germany at the weekend. I DO use a half stack Marshall live at home,,but i never know what i will be usisng at festivals and gigs abroad so i think the POD will be the very thing for those occasions! The half stack i use at home is set clean anyway,,and i use nt Boss GT3 with that.
Its actual ot capable of overdrivong the amp,,even i f i wanted to
so ive no choice. thanks for all the posts folks,,,all i have to do is save up for my OWN POD when i can afford it now!
Ta much!
 
My wife bought me a V-Amp for my birthday. I've always wanted to try one but I figured it would be a toy. Looks like a toy. I mentioned it to my wife and she just up and bought it. I'm actually impressed with this little toy. It actually has useable sounds. Sounds much better than the modeling in my Korg recorder. Some of the stuff is cheesy ( Auto Wah ) but there is far more capability in it than I imagined. Even the effects aren't bad. A LOT of tonal choices. It's made me pick up my old Mustang again. I've got a humbucker in the 'stang and there are big differences in the tone among the single coils and the humbucker. I've never mic'd any of the amps modeled and never will so I don't know how close it gets, but I've listed to a LOT of guitar music in my life. Some of these models actually sound like guitar amps. The gain will crackle on you if you overdrive it some. Somebody said "fizzle." But if you set it right it's pretty smooth on some of the amps. Amazing little toy for $140. Just think what they'll be able to do in 10 years.
 
Just as an aside, you might think about one of the SansAmp modeling boxes. I had their GT-S, sold it, bought a J-station, totally regretted it, then bought a Trademark 10 (little combo amp that has the GT-S built into it) and life was good again :-)
 
Get a Yamaha DG Stomp if you want authentic tube tone both distorted or clean. It's rugged and ment to be stomped on and the effects are better and there more of them to choose from. You don't even need any pedals to change presets because it has it's own foot switches for that.
 
I'll second the sansamp. I have a Sansamp Original and a Sansamp Tri-AC. For live, the Tri-AC is the shiznet. Tougher than the Behringer and more "depth" to it. I've never tried a POD live, but I think you need the expensive control pedal to get the most out of it in real time.
 
I direct PC record in my home as a hobby. I have spent mucho dollers on many different types of rack gear to get just a little better sound. I researched the Pod, V-amp pro, genesis, and j-station for about a week on every site I could find. After all of that I found (for me) the V-Amp pro to be the best choice overall. So I ordered one from MF and figured I would use it for the amp and cabinet models and continue useing my Boss ME-50 and TC Electronics M-ONE XL for effects. When it arrived I put it in the rack and started tweaking. Too make an already long story shorter, I took my Boss ME-50 out of the loop and only use the V-Amp Pro!!!!!!!!!! It sound so damn sweet I only use the M-One XL for Reverb (because nothing I say nothing compares to TC Electronics reverb). You absolutely must download and use the V-Amp Pro editor software. It just makes everything so much simpler. If at first you plug in and dont love it, then you need only to spend just a little more time with it. Search for patches on the web and DL some. This too is where the editor comes into play. Anyway, I love the V-Amp Pro and it sounds great!!!!!!!!!! If you think its noisy, try using the noise gate stupid :0) Cause it.s not.
 
Just got a VAMP Pro

I couldn't have a pedal on the floor, so I was stuck with rack mount, and you would be amazed how little there is to choose from. The POD is expensive and doesn't even have stereo effects.

The VAMP seems noisy, but I have only tried it with my Epiphone Bass, not with my P Bass. Any of the settings that require the treble to be turned up get a lot of hiss. And there are several of the amp sims that are basically unusable because the hiss and noise are so prevalent.

However, if you get a relatively quiet amp sim, don't go totally nuts on the compression, gain, and treble, the sounds you can get are great.

The Reverbs and Delays are noisy as hell, too. The synth module makes up for that, as you can get some great sounds out of the nine different flavors of bass synth. Most of the effects are too noisy for real use, but I don't use much in the way of effects on my bass sounds, so thats fine.

Being able to tweak the presets with the software is GREAT. Fiddling with a bunch of non-intuitive knobs on a rack mounted piece is frustrating and hard on your back after awhile. Being able to do all your tweaking with a mouse RULES. Plus, you can load in different libraries, save things easily, rename things easily...its just a lot easier. If you actually tried to use the physical interfact Behringer gives you, you would probably go mad very shortly.

There are six different modes, three for studio and three for live playing that give you great flexibility as to where to where you can route the wet/dry/cab simmed signals. And you can use regular mic cables to connect it to your board. (I bought some short ones)

I am not a full time bass player, and this is ten times more processor than I'll ever need. Hell, my old Rockman Bassman did just fine before it died and I used a Korg A-5 for a few years. I will be able to get the fifteen sounds or so that I need this thing to do, and that will hold me for another ten years.

So far so good. If it were just a little quieter...
 
I do sessions now and again where the guitarist has some really aweful sounding setup, so I'm interested in some sort of "Plan B" type device. I think the SansAmp GT-2 sounds the most even with the least noise, from the samples I've heard. I used a Behringer V-Amp Pro thing on a session, and it worked ok, but yes, it's VERY noisy, and just seemed a little lacking in "guts". But then, I had a Bass Pod, and felt that sounded weak, too.

I guess it'd be hard to get anything that sounds as pure and present as an SM57 on a Marshall, but the Sansamp seems like the best bet to me, with the Line 6 stuff coming in second.

Has anyone tried the Line 6 TonePort stuff? Some of the samples sound pretty decent...
 
johnsuitcase said:
I used a Behringer V-Amp Pro thing on a session, and it worked ok, but yes, it's VERY noisy, and just seemed a little lacking in "guts".
If it was noisy then either the noise gate was set wrong or it was broken. The V-Amp Pro is dead silent when it is tweaked correctly. If you don't use the software to adjust the parameters it will take you forever to get a good tone.
 
johnsuitcase said:
I used a Behringer V-Amp Pro thing on a session, and it worked ok, but yes, it's VERY noisy, and just seemed a little lacking in "guts". But then, I had a Bass Pod, and felt that sounded weak, too.

There are a few legitimate gripes you can make about the V-AMP, but it not having "guts" or sounding weak is not one of them. For proof of this, I offer this riff I recorded direct using a V-AMP Pro:

V-AMP Pro Sample
 
I'm not sure if it was any fault of the v-amp but that mp3 sounds like it's clipping. It may have just been recorded too hot or some string slap.
 
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I was just relating my experience. I imagine that using the gate and tweaking the setting swould have solved some of the noise issue, I was jsut surprised that it was noticeably noisier than a Marshall with a LOT of gain.

As far as "guts", I suppose I am feeling like it misses some of the lower register body that you get from a miked cabinet at relatively high volume. It just sounded a bit thin and like a second generation recording, if that makes sense...
 
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