POD and Line 6 question

[Sonic Misfit]

I have been using a POD a lot with Strats and other single coil pickup guitars. When I switch to a Les Paul or PRS with humbuckers, it seems to sound muddy. I have tweaked and tried to get some clarity, but it still sounds muddy.

I went to a local Guitar Sinner and tried one of the Line 6 amps and found that with a humbucker equipped guitar, it also sound muddy, but sounds fine with a single coil guitar.

Does anyone else notice this?

I found that using a Sansamp Tri-AC with the humbuckers is a lot less muddy than the POD, but it still doesn't compare to a real amp with a well place mic.

 

[Neil Ogilvie]

On the contrary, I've found with the P90 on my SG junior I got a muddy, fuzzy sound, but when I installed the humbucker, I had a much clearer tone.

Then again, I generally stuck with the high gain models like the Rectifier and Marshall.

 

[Kevzmusic]

Which POD are you using?


To be honest, all the earlier POD's have a tendency to sound 'muddy' especially when playing rhythm/chord stuff. ya can even notice it within a full mixdown...

I have a Flextone II amp too, which has exactly the same characteristics....

Line6 rectified that problem on their new XT series models, which have a much better clarity & presence overall.

The only way to 'get rid' of that mud vibe is to use some post EQ, it's as simple as that.....

I currently use an XTPRO rackmount for all my direct recordings....and there is no mud at all......although, I do use WAVES Q10 parametric plugins to 'fine tune' the tones when recording in Cubase SX.

Let's face it, no matter what gear one uses (modeller or real amp/cab)....some additional EQ is always necessary, in order to achieve a truly great tone....

MY 02c worth,

KEV

 

[Sonic Misfit]

KEV,

Thanks. I have two PODs a Ver 2 and the new XT. I haven't had time to use the XT much, but when I switched over to it, what a difference. Well it looks like the old POD is going to relegated to the Strat and the new XT will be used for the Les Paul.

Now I have to learn how to use all the features in the XT.

Thanks again.

 

[Fret]

If you turn off the air it seems to help a lot. Also if you check out the line6 pod forum “dar” has posted some post EQ settings that will overcome the air and supposedly clear things up a bit. The “air” is a good thing and there is more to it then just mud but it does add a lot of low end so using the post EQ is probably a better way to go.

Personally I like things to be a little bit bass heavy but I have been working on cleaning up my Pod sounds a little. I have actually been finding what I like by playing with the EQ (finding the sweet spot between the mid and treble) and turning the bass down more then I normally would.

Actually to back up a little… I run my Pod into a combo amp but I found that if I run it into the effects loop in amp mode it is too harsh and thin. If I run it in direct mode it is too bassy. What I have actually found is that if I run it into the preamp I can use the EQ to tweak it and is sounds as close as humanly possible to the sound I get through my flat (ish) studio monitors. I know this is totally wrong but it is what I have found that works best. To make matters seem worse I set my amps EQ with the bass and mids half way up and the treble all the way down. The setup seems screwy as anything but it allows me to record direct, monitor from the amp and still come up with a common sound. Or when playing live I run direct to the amp and to the board.

 

[Kevzmusic]

Sonic,

be prepared to 'tweak' the XT (use the GP editor) for at least a couple of weeks, in order to start getting the good tones...it's NOT a dial-up kinda unit, like the old POD 2.3, etc....ya have to be willing to work at it.....but, in the end, you will like the 'clarity' and tones much better...

KEV

 

[musicsdarkangel]

what's "air"?

 

[Fret]

from the Pod 2.0 manual

The guitar amp, cabinet, and microphone don't just sit in empty space. The
room that they are in contributes importantly to the guitar sound you will
record. Reverb can be used to capture the basic character of the space,
simulating the effect of the sound reflecting off the room's walls, floors and
ceiling. But there are other subtle details that have more to do with the “spread”
of the sound as it passes through the air between the speaker and microphone.
This final component is the key to the sense that the listener is in one position
in the room, and the guitar sound is in another position, and that the two are
separated by a mass of air that sound spreads through to reach the listener.


All of these important sound-shaping components are accounted for in Line 6's
POD. Turn the Amp Model knob to call up the amplifier emulation you want.
POD automatically matches that amplifier with an appropriate cabinet and
microphone setup, and gives you the sound of that setup coming through the air of
a recording space.


...you’ve got a choice of setups. You can plug
straight out of the POD’s outputs into the house system for awesome tone without
the hassle of mics and cabinets and all that other stage setup. You can also choose
to run POD into a power amp and speaker cabinets, using it as a preamp. Or you
can plug your POD in between your guitar and a guitar amplifier so the POD acts
as a tone shaping front end for the amp.
For plugging into a PA or other sound system, flip the A.I.R. switch to its
DIRECT position. In this mode, the A.I.R. DSP is active, and you are getting a
virtual version of the speaker-cabinet-air-microphone experience that’s so good you
may never use a regular guitar amplifier and microphone set up on stage again. The
POD 1/4" TRS outputs are versatile, merrily sending their magic tones into +4dBu
balanced, or -10dBV unbalanced inputs. Quality cables are obviously
recommended for best performance.