PODxt or 10 or 15 watt Marshall Amp?

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the edzell

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I have a Digitech RPx400 and I’ve been trying for a month to get a decent distorted tone. (too much Fuzz, not enough warmth) I’ve about given up and am ready to invest in some new equipment. I was wondering if any of you pros can give a newbie some equipment advice.

I’ve heard some demos with the PODxt and have really been impressed with the sound quality. Of course this might have to do with someone who knows how to use it to get the best sound out of it. Either pre or post production.

I’ve also been thinking about getting a 10 or 15 watt Marshall Amp to use when recording. Of course it isn’t convenient as a direct line unit and you can only have the wife visit your in-laws so many times a week before she thinks your doing more than cutting a demo.

So what’s everyone’s take? Buy a small amp or pay more for the PODxt. Any suggestions would be appreciated
 
Between the two, I'd go with the Pod. It'll have alot more usable sounds, I've never heard a small Marshall that was worth a shit or that could get more than one descent sound. Some of the low wattage, boutique tube amps sound nice, but get expensive. Just my 2 cents.
 
i am in the get the small amp camp.

a fender champ is a hell of an amp. (the old ones at least) and arent obscenely expensive (at the very least they will increase in value in time... UNLIKE the pod which will be worth about as much as an 80's digitech multieffects rack unit in a few years). i have also heard great things about the vox pathfinder, the little crate vintage clubs, etc.

small marshalls can sound cool as well.

of course then you will need a mic and a nice pre, etc... but at least you will be open to recording something in a more interesting, more artistic way than using the POD. you get to play with the room sound... micing techniques stuff like that. not just punching buttons.

now, using a POD for vocals or drums... that is a different story.
 
I'd go with the Pod. Your wife and kids will appreciate it. Plus you get a lot more variety in tone.
 
TexRoadkill said:
How many varieties of shitty tone does one need? ;)
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LOLLOLLOLLOL. :D

I put a pre-amp direct out on my champ- I didn't want the noise but didn't want to give up my little tone monster. A lot of those small amps today have direct outs. You can keep your digi, still use the effects, and have a noisemaker if you want to jam with people....
 
TexRoadkill said:
How many varieties of shitty tone does one need? ;)
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I'm not saying the Pod's tone compares to the real thing. It's just more practical for my situation. It's nice to have something smaller and quieter late at night with a household of kids. A marshall, fender, vox would be great to have, but the pod just gives me a variety of those simulated sounds (not identical tone) without the inconveniences of real amps.

There's no way in hell it compares to the real thing though.
 
Well, you know what ... don't laugh at me for this. My youngest brother was after a practice amp the other week and I went to the stores to listen to them all and was blown away by the Crate GX-15R amp which we went on to buy for £69. It has a powered output and when I ran it through a Marshall 4x12 stack it had a simply fabulous sound for the money. Great distortions and a very passable clean. Even through its own 8" it was ok!

That said, my favourite small amp is a Carlsbro ... can't remember the model. A friend has it, it's an all-valve affair with a very good all-round set of sounds. A little more expensive but if you don't need something to double up for live stuff you could do much worse. It's not as expensive as a Champ I think.
 
Avoid the Pod at all costs. I know some people will disagree with me, but I think the Pod is one of the worst things to happen to recorded music in decades. They are truly awful!! I make half my living mixing records other producers have recorded and if the guitars were recored with a Pod (or amp farm) most of my energy goes into trying to fix how badly the Pod has fucked up the track instead of being creative. Pod guitars just do not sit in the track. They either have no presence or the obliterate the other tracks and they never really sound that great on their own

The Pod is the perfect product for when you no longer care and your passion for music is gone. A little solid state Marshall will not be the best choice in the world but that and some interesting pedals will get you some better sounds than the Pod. Also keep an eye on the used market. You can find some cool amps for pretty cheap (tube almost always sounds better than solid state for guitars.) Build a box to put the amp in so you do not have to worry so much about bugging the family.
 
Ronan said:
Avoid the Pod at all costs..
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Well I couldn't disagree with you more. The new PODxt is actually a pretty good unit and they have made some nice changes from the original POD. The problem with people using it is the fact that they don't know what a good guitar should sound like in the first place. That would be the same for about any product. I know that I have guitar tracks recorded with the POD that experienced recording engineers can't tell the difference. The POD is a sword and in the right hands can be a pretty neat weapon. In the wrong hands, just like anything else, it can sound like crap.

Ronan said:
The Pod is the perfect product for when you no longer care and your passion for music is gone.
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This is just an all around stupid thing to say. We make music with the heart, not with equipment. I could beat out something on a couple of coffee cans and have it sound pretty soulful. ......... It was just stupid that is all.
 
I think Ronan had a point that when you just can't be bothered searching for a great tone you can get an ok one with a POD preset. This is a good approach for a recording musician who wants to get an idea down but can't be arsed learning engineering techniques. Ben Folds is a classic example - one of his CD sleeves admits he just pointed mics in the general direction of instruments ... not great technique, but he got the music on tape ...
 
IchabodVer7 said:
The problem with people using it is the fact that they don't know what a good guitar should sound like in the first place.
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Thanks for the input IchabodVer7.
Well since a big part of my client base are guitar players that you see on the cover of guitar player magazine and the like, I am not really sure that is the case. In the best case scenario I have heard Pod tracks that were "OK" but I have never heard amazing, or even really good. They are less offensive on clean tones, chords played with overdrive..yikes!


IchabodVer7 said:
This is just an all around stupid thing to say. We make music with the heart, not with equipment. I could beat out something on a couple of coffee cans and have it sound pretty soulful. ......... It was just stupid that is all.
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Apart from the you thinking my comments are stupid, we are in complete agreement. I think banging on a couple coffee cans would be a great creative launch point. Music from the heart is a beautiful thing. There are a couple reasons why I rail against the Pod. Almost every time I talk to some one that defends the Pod, they always say "well its really convenient, and if you know how to use it, it can be OK" I dont know about you all, but I have dedicated most of my life to trying to make amazing records (I cant say if I have succeeded), I have always gone out on a limb to do what ever it takes to try and make better records. Every record we make has the chance to be that great record that changes some ones life. We might be making that record that some kid falls in love with, or the soundtrack to some one loosing their virginity, we could be making records for the ages. The idea of people taking the convinient route when there may be another route that is better (and not more expensive) makes me really sad. I know I probably sound silly up here on a soap box, but getting to make albums is one of the most amazing gifts in the world, and I can not imagine why any one would ever want to just take the easy way.
 
PS. Hey IchabodVer7, I just checked out your web site. The Nounhole stuff is really good. I am stoked to hear the new material once you get it posted.
 
Well, Ronan.

If you really do work on making albums with the kind of high-profile guitarists you say you do, then I can see where you're coming from. In that case, you may be in an entirely different league than a good number of the people hanging out on this forum, myself included.

A bunch of us here are home recording hobbyists often with a day job that helps pay the bills, support a family, etc. and might provide a little bit leftover to go toward our hobby. So, budget is often a big concern, as it is in my case. I like the flexibility that the PODxt gives me in terms of dialing up different sounds. I know that when it says that it's modeling a SM57 in front of a Marshall stack, that it is doing just that... "modeling". I know that it will not sound anywhere near as good as the real thing. But, in order for me to get all the different amps and microphones it says it can model and to build myself a well-treated room in which to set them up, well that's running into lots o' dough that I will probably never see being able to spend on this hobby of mine.

Another thing is that a lot of us hobbyists are what I like to call "bedtime warriors" (a variant of the "weekend warrior" idea). The only time we get to do our stuff is when the kids and wife are asleep. Hence, cranking up an amplifier to mic it is just not an option.

I am really happy with my PODxt, but I understand its limitations and that it can never rival a well-miced amp. It gives me a lot of settings to play with (which I love to do - can tweak for hours) and a lot of different sounds to experiment with in my mixes. I think that you can get some pretty decent sounds out of it (and you can get some pretty crappy ones too :D), and it can get the job done - my "job" may be different from your "job". I'm able to use it to play my music and get my stuff recorded quickly and easily with a variety of sounds at my disposal and a quiet way of getting them into my computer. Overall, a very happy POD customer here, and I would recommend it to someone in my similar situation.

-Jeff
 
the winner is

Well I broke down yesterday and finally bought the PODxt. Thanks to all for their input. I was a little hesitant because of the price, but I didn’t have the time or patience to find a small amp that fit my needs. Plus I got a bit of a discount since I had the music store put in a custom EVH Seymour Duncan pickup into my Epiphone Les Paul.

So did with the pick up and the PODxt did I get the exact EVH brown sound? Well no, and IMO not really that close. But it’s a better sounding distortion than the Digitech which at the end of the day is what I was looking for. I’m sure when I’m ready to step up & get my demos prepared for the general public to listen to I’ll invest in a small amp when I can put the time and effort into researching a model that will fit my needs.

Of course now I can’t get the POD’s drivers to work with my Adobe Audition. How it sounds being recorded is going to be the Acid test. The store has a 30-day return policy (I made them put it in writing) no questions asked. So if it as crappy as the critics say it is I can still return it and get my money back for a new amp.
 
Ronan said:
PS. Hey IchabodVer7, I just checked out your web site. The Nounhole stuff is really good. I am stoked to hear the new material once you get it posted.
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Thank you very much for the comments about my music. They are greatly appreciated. I am hoping to have some new stuff done in a month or two. The Nounhole stuff is about a year old. I didn't mean to sound like a dick in my previous post.

I know where you are coming from about the convienience of the POD. I know this is a recording forum so it is very recording based, but as an artist it is nice to be able to create something and not have to worry about tweaking all the time. I would hate to have to fire my Pro Tools system up every time I wanted to record a song idea. That is why I still carry a small tape recorder. I want to create while I am still in the mood.

Another point I would like to make is that a greater majority of people on the face of the earth wouldn't know the difference. Most people don't pay to much attention to the actual recording of the music unless it is complete crap. They say, "Wow, that is a cool song" or "Wow, that songs sucks." I have never heard an average music listener say, "Wow, they need to back the mids of that guitar in the chorus." I know that we are all perfectionists when it comes to recording music. I hate even releasing final mixes of mine, because a month down the road I know I could have made them better. But, I have friends that don't care and can't tell the difference. They just want to hear the music. I guess as tech-heads we can get caught up with gear and stuff and forget about the art that we create.

Ok, I am done now.

the edzell,
I think you made a good choice, and like you said if you don't like it you can always bring it back.
 
the edzell said:
Well I broke down yesterday and finally bought the PODxt. Thanks to all for their input. I was a little hesitant because of the price, ....... The store has a 30-day return policy (I made them put it in writing) no questions asked. So if it as crappy as the critics say it is I can still return it and get my money back for a new amp.
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If you have a chance to look around in the next month, see if you can get your hands on a sansamp try and A-B the two. Try and A-B it in the context of a mix which is where the strengths and weaknesses of each will be more aparent. (try layering tracks with the Pod to see how they work together).

Also check the used market for an old Mesa Boogie Studio pre amp. I have seen them go for as little as $300 and on ebay they go for a little over $400. I owned one for several years and its the best direct guitar recording I have ever used (I got my start in an apartment). It does not have the opennes of a miced amp but still a decent warm range of tones and they fit into mixes pretty well.
 
eeldipat said:
the very least they will increase in value in time... UNLIKE the pod which will be worth about as much as an 80's digitech multieffects rack unit in a few years).
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Hey! I have an 80s digitech rack unit! Its not bad... really... its not...
 
Ronan said:
If you have a chance to look around in the next month, see if you can get your hands on a sansamp try and A-B the two. Try and A-B it in the context of a mix which is where the strengths and weaknesses of each will be more aparent. (try layering tracks with the Pod to see how they work together).

Also check the used market for an old Mesa Boogie Studio pre amp. I have seen them go for as little as $300 and on ebay they go for a little over $400. I owned one for several years and its the best direct guitar recording I have ever used (I got my start in an apartment). It does not have the opennes of a miced amp but still a decent warm range of tones and they fit into mixes pretty well.
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I'll check those out when I get a chance.

For now I thought about doing an A-B split with the POD on a preset I created (creamy distortion) and the digitech dry with the pitch setting an octive below. Just to see how the doubling effect will sound.
 
THE POD IS AWESOME!!!!!!! ...............for laying down scratch guitar tracks so a drummer and bassist can do their tracks on their own time. It is also nice to have the scratch tracks in place when trying to guess how your drum or bass sound will fit in the mix. For this it is GOLDEN. This is what proffesional studios and major label bands use it for, not for the main tracks that will sit at the front of the mix! Well, not if the studio is worth a shit.

The POD is a very useful peice of gear, but DO NOT EVER, EVER, EVER think you will get a great guitar tone out of the thing.

If you have a problem with kids/wife/loud noise, then record your guitar tracks dry and re-amp them later when noise isn't a problem.

My 2 cents.
 
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