Line 6 POD for Recording!

[endserenading81]

Has anyone had any good luck with the Line 6 POD for recording direct? I've been using it for awhile but sound like I'm missing something. Let me see> Plug guitar in, check levels, and record....right?
Thanks,
Rob

 

[Ed Dixon]

That's the way I use mine. I also use two input channels to handle the stereo features of the POD. Works well for me.

Have also done some recording in a professional studio, and they used the same approach.

Ed

 

[apl]

...sound like I'm missing something...

Hey, Rob.

Could you be a little more specific about what you're wanting or not getting out of the sound?

 

[Massive Master]

If you're working with the POD Pro, or if the regular POD has editable MIDI features, look for the "AIR" control and turn it all the way up. Night & day difference in recording direct.

 

[endserenading81]

Pro sound

I am just looking for professional results. I want the guitars to be full, even if they are panned hard right or left. I use the AIR direct feature and it makes a big difference. But I was just wondering if I'm missing something. It seams theres more to set up than just levels. Should I EQ and compress guitars to tape?
Thanks,
Rob

 

[noiseportrait]

Is there really an AIR control on the pod pro? When I first read that comment I thought is was supposed to be a joke reference to the bitchslap sessions. The vocals need more air! Well just turn that "air" knob over there. Wow! that makes a big difference! Freaking hilarious.

 

[Massive Master]

The Acoustically Integrated Response (A.I.R.) on the POD is sort of a "virtual microphone" adjustment. It seems to add a little "room" noise into the signal. Just enough to put it over the edge.

On the other Q, depending on the style - If it's distorted stuff, try turing the gain down a bit - "chunky" instead of "fuzzy" normally works best.

A little compression here and there isn't illegal either.

 

[The Seifer]

I use a J-Station, which is very similar to a P.O.D. I have found that most commercial albums use certain techniques when it comes to tracking guitars, and these are what usually make them sound "full." What I do is double every rhythm part normally and pan each one almost hard left and right, then record the exact same part totally clean and double that panned hard left and right as well. I just recently started micing my electric guitar unamplified, as in I put a microphone directly up to the neck of my unplugged electric and record myself playing the rhythm part. When mixed in with the distored parts, it adds a subtle chunkyness because of the sound of my pick scraping the strings. I got this idea after seeing Massive Master plug the whisper track idea for vocals. It works sort of the same way; it adds just enough to the part to make it better, but nobody would ever know it's there. I also keep the gain turned all the way down. Once the parts are compressed and EQ'ed it sounds great and adding any more gain just adds layers of farts (fuzz) over the part. I then add some very subtle room reverb over all of those tracks with S.I.R. and mess with the wet/dry settings until it almost sounds like a miced amp in a room picking up the sound of the amp and me scraping the strings.

 

[Fletcher]

Around our joint we've been using the Palmer PGA-04 direct box... it goes after the amp and loads the output like a speaker cabinet would load the output... then gives a line level source for the console... with the THD "Uni-Valve" amp and that we've been getting seriously professional results [hopefully, we do a bunch of label work... which I reckon would be a "professional" application].

 

[Alchemist3k]

Em, can someone elaborate on the ability to 'turn up' the A.I.R. function on a standard POD v2? As far as I can see, the POD has a switch at the back to simply turn it on or off. If there's a way to turn it up, can someone explain how, or is this an exclusive feature of the POD Pro?

 

[vestast]

Em, can someone elaborate on the ability to 'turn up' the A.I.R. function on a standard POD v2? As far as I can see, the POD has a switch at the back to simply turn it on or off. If there's a way to turn it up, can someone explain how, or is this an exclusive feature of the POD Pro?

I think that switch on the back is for direct recording vs out to an Amp.

You can get to the A.I.R. function using the midi hookup to your PC, and installing the editing software that you can download from Line 6.

 

[artCROSS]

very dumb question, but i wanna be as educated as possible...which is why i'm here...

what exactly is the POD? I mean, i've seen them used before, one was actually used on my band when we went into a studio for the first time, but never really grasped the concept. Is it something that is needed even when micing a guitar amp?

Sorry, very new to recording, just recently bought some equipment so i dont' have to go to a studio the next time i want a quasi decent recording of myself, but i'm very unexperienced. I want a better distorted guitar sound...right now, as massive master put it, i'm getting a fuzzy, as opposed to chunky sound, which is what i really want. I'm pretty sure it's more to do w/ the tone of my amp, but it sounds fine in the room. Anyways, wondering if the pod6 is what i need...sounds to be an amp modeler, but again, i don't even know if i need one.

 

[Bob Keelan]

A POD is an amp-modeler that you can plug directly into your recorder. Us dads with young kids love them.

 

[Ed Dixon]

what exactly is the POD?

POD gear is made by Line 6. A POD is a guitar effects unit. It offers multiple effects (reverb, chorus, distortion, delay, etc) at the same time. There are multiple controls/parameters for each effect and as a result, thousands of possible combinations.

POD gear can be used both for recording work and for live work. The units even have different output options tailored to these two different uses.

Most past guitar effects were analog based. Your guitar signal went in one site, and a modified version of the same analog signal came out the other.

POD gear is digital based. The input signal is converted to digital form and then modified. It is again converted to analog for the output.

One term used is Modelling, which means that they have attempted to model the sound of specific amps and speaker cabainets via digital means. The result is in generally quite good.

Line 6 makes a number of different POD units, and also has integrated amps with POD features integrated directly in the amp.

Ed