POD song experiment

Jon X

Jon X

New member
Here's a brand new one, 3:55, about 3.6 MB.


I've seen a couple of threads lately about recording with the POD, so my goal was to record an entire song with nothing but the POD for all the guitars... no external effects, no amp, no wah or other pedals, just direct with the POD. This song is the result of that experiment this afternoon. One rythm track in stereo panned hard left and right, one lead track (mono) in the center, and one bass track (mono) also in the center. Plus, I wanted to stick with the default settings that come on the POD, only thing manual or edited is the bass, which just uses the preamp and a little compression. I used Sound Forge to add multitap delay on the very last guitar note on the lead, because I didn't realize the track was ending and I kinda kept playing... whoops. Only other tracks are the V-Drums.

I spent more time this evening trying to find the song or songs this reminds me of than it took to record this song. It's almost too familiar to me, so please let me know if you can come up with a song it's too similar to. As always, I have a hard time telling if it's familiar because I've been playing the guitar riff for a while, or if I've unintentionally borrowed from another song. I have lots of work left on this one, but I won't bother if I haven't actually wrote a song that's original enough to call my own. So I'm posting it unfinished, as this is the most musically educated group of people I know by far.


Here's the known issues, any comments about these or anything else is much appreciated:

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>Rythm electric starts to distort in the lower notes sometimes.
<LI> Bass guitar is monsterously too heavy, didn't catch that until I got the thing uploaded.
<LI> Bass gets way off track around 3 minute mark, as I tried to improvise and lost it completely. I mean WAAAY off.
<LI> Drums need some serious re-mixing
<LI> Lead needs work
<LI> Ending is screwed up
</UL>


[This message has been edited by Jon X (edited 05-24-2000).]
 
Sorry Jon X, couldn't get the link either, you guys got me curious now. Anyway, I have a POD as well,and am pretty pleased with the sound. I would like to use my amp on certain songs but not having to worry about noise and micing makes it just too easy to use it on everything. I'll keep trying for the link...........Ray J
 
Thanks for the replys. I appreciate everyone taking the time to listen and comment. I'm not sure why that happened Dobro and Ray J. You might try going to the page directly and seeing if you can get that to load. Then right click on the 900.mp3 filename and do a Save As. Just take the 900.mp3 off the original link I posted to get to my sorry looking homepage (it's brand new, I gotta put some time in on it, lol). I know Optical.mp3 won't work on that site as I haven't moved the file to that server yet, but 900.mp3 should.

Thanks for the encouragement to finish this thing, Brad. I knew posting it here would either make me take the time to finish it or throw it out. The clipping will be the first thing to go. I was kinda suprised at the sounds I got from the POD, it's the first time I really recorded a whole song with it.

Teddie, I agree with everything you said. The snare drum got panned hard, and I still can't figure out what happened with that. I didn't do it intentionally. Needless to say that's only ONE of the things that needs to be fixed in the drum kit mix. I also noticed that those POD presets tend to record a little bottom heavy. Since this was my POD experiment I decided to leave everything as is, no EQ even. Before I put this thing to CD I will definitely fix all the guitar track problems. Especially that clipping. I didn't realize you used a POD for your stuff. You get some nice tones out of it as well. To tell you what "900" means I would have to give away the secret of how I name all my songs. :D Besides, it's really stupid anyway.


[This message has been edited by Jon X (edited 05-25-2000).]
 
Damn, JonX, that is some tasty playing!!

I can't add anything to the known issues you already mentioned. I would really like to hear this baby when it is finished!
I mean, I dig it now, but I want to hear it clean without the clipping.

Very nice! You've probably sold a few people on the POD by showing it's sonic abilities. Hell, I'd buy one after listening to this if I didn't already have one :)
 
Jon X, yah, I use a Pod (direct) for all my stuff... I really like it. I used to use an ART SGX 2000 (direct), but I really had trouble getting the sound I wanted with that. Too many freakin' parameters for me to deal with (I'm lazy - I just want to plug in and go)... With the Pod, I can do that. Although, I've noticed, for me at least, that the bottom end of a lot of the presets for my Pod tend to record too heavy... I just cut the low end a little if it's too much on the track.

I haven't tried to use the Pod with my bass because I use a SansAmp DI box for my bass.

On your song "900" (by the way, what's 900 mean?) I have a couple of suggestions. First off, let me say, the riff doesn't sound familiar, and... It rocks - man you can really shred that guit to pieces. Okay, I think, to me, there is too much verb on the rhythm guit, and maybe a little to much low end, I think. Also, the drums are panned funny in my ears... the snare is completely isolated (I think) in my right ear - uncomfortable. Still, I like this tune. Let us know when you do the remix. :)
 
Come on Jon, I was wondering what "900" meant also. Now I am really curious how you go about naming your stuff. Do tell, do tell... I won't think it is stupid, believe me!
 
You pretty much listed everything that might need some changes...I liked the lead a lot, thought it was great as is....no rip off on the riff, and it was sure played well...damn, that pod makes a good sound....gibs
 
Pretty nice stuff Jon X. I thought the lead sound was excellent, but I wasn't that impressed by the rhythm tone you dialed up... to my ears it sounded a little too direct... maybe it was the 'verb... but it certainly sounded a little fake to me... any chance of posting the same overdriven tone but completely dry? even it's just a few seconds...

I recently went to a Line 6 product night at my local music store and I have to say was extremely impressed by what the POD can do.

Great playing though!!
 
Jon X, since I definitely know you own a Pod like me, and since you're experimenting, would you have a listen to David's new post:
https://homerecording.com/ubb/Forum15/HTML/000392.html

... do you think you could setup the Pod to get the tone he has in this song? I'm going to mess around with it as well when I get a chance, but I thought since you were experimenting, I'd see if you wanted to give it a shot :)
 
For those having trouble getting the file:

If, instead of clicking on the link, you hold the mouse on the link and select "Save This Link As...", it'll save correctly.

This is in Netscape, but I'm sure IE has a similar feature (perhaps right-click?).

CharlesThomas
 
Hey, thanks again everybody that has listened or even tried to download. If anyone that tries is still having problems downloading let me know, as I am thinking about moving to a different server anyway.

Cooperman, I'll be posting a clip sometime soon with that same POD patch, just turning the reverb and delay off completely. What I'll have to do is record a new clip with it since I recorded the reverb and delay in from the POD on this track. It does sound kinda direct to me as well. That direct sound might also be coming from the guitar I used. It's a Strat, not the best for hard rock/metal riffs. :D I noticed a similar sound when I hooked it to my amp on the same setting.

Teddie, I checked out David's song (my comments are posted in that thread). I think that's a good challenge for us POD owners to try and pull that tone out. However, I think I am getting a sorta similar blues type tone from micing my amp that I like, so if I get frustrated with the POD I might give up quickly. ;) It's on the song "Optical", and I'll put it back up on the server for download tonight in case you want to check it out. Same link as 900, just replace the filename. I'd like to hear what you come up with on the POD, and if I get anything decent I will post it.

For anyone that's read this far in my overly long post, here's what 900 means: absolutely nothing. I name my instrumental songs by the first thing that sticks in my mind and sorta fits when it's time to type the name in SoundForge for saving the file. I have a Mitsubishi 900u monitor, and when I looked at the digital clock it was 9:00pm. So that one was easy. Now, I TOLD you it was stupid.
 
Jon X, I found something -- I've gotta try these later this evening. Try em out:

# Title Amp (simulates) Drive Bass Mid Treb Chan Vol Reverb E lvl Effect Type
1 Chorus Clean Tweed Blues Fender Bassman 0 10 8 10 10 0 5 Chorus2/Dly
2 Metallica Clean Pod Clean mix 3 8 10 10 4 7 4 Fanger2
3 Metallica MOP Modern HG Soldano 8 10 10 10 10 0 0 bypass
4 Hammet Lead Rectified Mesa Boogie 10 9 10 10 10 4 3 Rotary
5 Metallica direct Brit High g Marshall JCM-800 7 10 5 10 10 2 4 Chorus
6 Solo Heaven Fuzz Arbiter Fuzz Box 10 10 10 10 10 2 3 Chorus2/Dly
7 Lil' wing Brit Classic Marshall Plexi 3.5 5 10 7 7 8 7 Delay (.5sec)
8 SRV Marshall Brit High g Marshall JCM-800 6 4 7 6 7 4 0 Bypass

I'm not sure if these are going to show up right in the post -- if not, here's a great freakin' link for Podders: http://www.dthraco.com/manual_settings.htm
 
Hey Jon this sounds awesome!!! I had the johnson 150 for a while and it kinda had sounds like that on it but I couldn't do anything about the bottom end for some reason but this POD is the shit! That song Optical you posted a while back now thats the tone Teddie needs to check out strat and fender amp thats where the real meat is :D
 
There's over 400 patches on one of those links. I just downloaded the fuzz tones. I think I'll hook up my POD and see what's happening.
 
That's some wicked playing. Sounds great, the bottom end might be a bit heavy as others have suggested. I know what it reminds me of, that song you had stuck in your head. No it doesn't sound familiar at all. Looking forward to the final revision.
 
Jon... you know I'm a POD-aholic, so I really enjoyed this cut.
Great tones, great playing, cool riff.
You hit the shortcomings right on the head. Make those adjustments and it's ready for the album.
 
I can't for the life of me get my SoundDiver to communicate with my Pod. I picked up a midi/joystick port cable yesterday from Mars after seeing all that downloadable patch-crap. It sucks to be me, when me don't know nuttin' bout midi.
 
Teddie...if you are just using the software to edit the pod settings, the software that comes with the unit should work if the midi settings are correct. If you want to use the downloaded patches, try downloading the software upgrade. I've noticed that I have to enter the program from the application files in Windows Explorer. You just have to fool around with it for awhile to get it going. Try entering the downloaded upgrade program from Win Ex and then open a patch from the file menu, after you have unzipped them. Try alternate midi settings in your computer. Put the POD on midi channel one and if there is an option, put your computer on midi channel one. It's funny software. I just had to keep tweakin' to get it to work, but it does work.

[This message has been edited by monty (edited 05-27-2000).]
 
Cool POD link Teddie, lots of good stuff to try out there. I haven't done much with midi myself, so I hope we both can get the thing connected and working. Looks like it's not a simple thing to do from what monty just posted. Good to know all that stuff up front. I probably won't have a chance to try it out until next week, but if anyone downloads some patches they like, post the names of 'em.

David, thanks for listening. You have a good tone going on yourself in the last song you posted. I'd like to hear more stuff like that.

Thanks to everyone that has listened, for the excellent comments, and for letting me know it's so familiar to me because it's been in my head for the last few months. As always, great feedback from everyone on here.

BTW, what does everyone think about seeing if Dragon would go for a POD (or line6) related forum here? I know there's a lot of forums already, but there seems to be a lot of POD users here, and even more questions/threads about the POD spread all over the place. I think it would be cool to trade patches and settings that way, if other people are into it. Just a thought.
 
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