World's Best guitar processor for direct recording

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Middleman

Middleman

Professional Amateur
Ok, I have all kinds of pedals and a Digitech RP7. Not really happy with the sound going direct into the board.

I have a Fender Vibrolux which sounds great miked but I can't record late at night due to kids, wife, cat, neighbors. Looking for an effects box which does a reasonably good job of direct recording. Low noise is a must, which is why I have not gone the POD route. I want something that has a broad range of tones and effects too. Any jewels out there that I may not have found? What have others found in the $500 range?

Current Pedals: Crybaby, Boss Distortion, Rat distortion, RP7 multieffects, Ibanez Chorus.
 
I'm not sure I understand your comment about the POD and noise. I have one and don't find it particularly noisy.
I have a POD, a J Station, an old ART SGX-2000, a Rockman and a Hughs & Kettner B.A.T.T. that I use for direct recording. The POD and the J Station are by far the most flexible as far as a wide range of amp sounds and both are relatively quiet but depending on what I'm trying to do, I might reach for any one of them. If I could only have one, it would be the POD.
 
Track Rat

In my internet ramblings I have come across complaints about line noise on the POD. No direct experience mind you. I just had a behringer experience with noise and did not want a repeat performance.

I generally don't use distortion a whole lot and lean to the clean tele side of things. I am looking for spacial sounds, delayed, chorus, and some synth maybe. I currently have all the traditional tones I need. I was looking for a larger tone palette, if you will.

I think I will check out the POD if what you say is true. What I would like to find is something on the order of a Roland Synth module that a guitar could plug into and tap into a large bank of sounds. Off the wall stuff. Not midi mind you, just tone shapes.

Any suggestions?
 
Not for anything like that. I have no experience with those outside of a music store.
I still prefere to mic an amp when I can, but the boxes do a decent job in a pinch (stealth recording:D ).
 
I've got the POD 2.0 and I like it. You do have to tweak the settings cuz for some reason the presets don't sound good to me when recording.

If you're recorder has digital SPDIF inputs, then you should check out the Digitech Genesis3. A friend has it and it sounds good, too. Plus, with the digital output, you stay in the digital domain, which the POD 2.0 doesn't have.
 
I TRIED ALOT OF STUFF,BORROWED MY BROS POD...TOO BRIGHT(OF COURSE I USE A DIGITAL DECK),I BEEN USING THE ZOOM GM 200 FOR ABOUT 6 MONTHS,I GET A PRETTY WIDE RANGE OF TONES.IT WORKS GREAT WITH MY THINLINE TELLY,AND THE LES PAUL.I BEEN RECENTLY USIN IT FOR MY BASS A 76 P BASS,IT HAS NOISE REDUCTION ,I FIND I DONT HAVE TO SMASH THE BASS . THIS IS THE DIRECT SOUND. GOOD LUCK,IF YOU FIND ANY DIFFERENT,LET ME KNOW.ALLWAYS LOOKIN FOR A BETTER SOUND
DONE211
 
I tried several options and went with the J-Station. I get good sound out of it, and it has and S/PDIF output so you get a really clean (totally digital) signal to the sound card. Heck, and the $149 price tag sure doesn't hurt. ;)
 
Lo and behld the latest version of Future Music has a review of 6 low cost effects units for recording.

They reviewed the Boss VF-1, Fostex DE10, LEM FX24, Lexicon MPX110, TCE M300 and the Zoom RFX100.

They gave the the Zoom the best value, the TCE the best buy and the Boss VF-1 the most versatile sound. They rated the Boss unit a 10 on sound versatility. The lexicon, TCE and Boss were rated eqaul in sound quality.

Guess I will have to check out both the POD and VF-1.
 
Boom! here comes the boom! Ready or not, here come the boys from the south!

Oh... uh... hehe..

Not *THAT* POD...
 
I've got a POD 2.0 and a J-Station. I find the J-Station to be less noisy than the POD but I don't find the POD to be overly noisy.

I like the POD amp sims better and the J. Stations effects better - but if I had to choose only one - it would be the POD.

Regarding guitar synths - I use a Roland GR09 (an older version). I believe the GR33 is the most current version. You need an interface (the most used is the GK-2A - which costs about $150-$200). A new guitar synth is about $1200 (I think) but you may find an older version for less - I think I paid $400 for my GR09 with the GK-2A.

The guitar synths are really designed to give a guitarist access to "synth sounds" and the Roland units are heavey on "standard keyboards sound". You can tweak the sounds but it helps if you have some understanding of keyboard sound design capabilities.

If you are looking for "wild sounds" you may be better off getting some of the filters and ring modulators that are being made for guitar (Line 6 has a series of them.)
 
done211 said:
I BEEN USING THE ZOOM GM 200 FOR ABOUT 6 MONTHS,I GET A PRETTY WIDE RANGE OF TONES.
Click to expand...


I have one of these, I got it at Daddy's Junky a few months ago for super-duper-cheap (less than $50!). It's not bad for what it is at all. Can get some nice distortions when layering tracks. It doesn't seem to be terribly good in the clean tone department, in my experience--low gain, and only one really clean (non-tweakable) preset (the others are slightly dirty when quiet, distorted when the gain is cranked). It does have chorus and spring reverb efects, but they aren't all that flexible.

So this isn't what you're looking for, Middleman, IMHO, though it would be a deal if you were looking for a cheap distortion pedal. Or a hold-me-over until you decide on a unit to get. ;)
 
My vote goes to the POD 2.0 all the way. I have one and I dont find it noisy. I used to have a Boss GT-3 and that think sucked. everything was OVER processed. I have been a little afraid of Zooms sound quality ever since I had one of those grey boxes that looked like a doorstop. Noisy as hell!!
 
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