Tone Port UX 2

[Bigg John]

I'm at the point now where I'm so sick of thinking about guitar tone that I'm willing to just put my faith into one of the suckers and run with it. I'd already have the POD XT Pro, except that it's so pricey. Then I'd just feed it into my existing soundcard.


Greg

Yep. The bane of a technological society. what ever happeng to, "strum string, make sound" ????

[bk]

I need re-amping because I often decide to switch tones mid-song. Maybe not drastically, but still not something simple EQ could take care of.

I don't think the UX2 allows for decent re-amping either, though, now that I'm looking at it a bit closer. *sigh*... the elusive quest.

I would love it if they could make that happen. I've tried it with my guitarport with very unsatisfactory results.

Everytime I see someone spouting off about doing it, I ask for some specifics on how they do it and suddenly the thread dies out. No further responses!

Anyone here care to enlighten me? Or maybe I just killed this thread...

[Lawnmower Of The Damned]

Greg, re-amping is completely possible, but not as simple as it is in VST plugins. So long as you have a soundcard, mixer or patchbay that will allow even the most basic patching then it's not hard. Still, VST amp sims certainly have made it more simple.

As for bass the PodXT should have you covered. I'm not sure about the non-upgraded XT, but with model packs you'll have everything I've got in my Vetta. I've got quite a few bass amp models, and a good many that are guitar amps but still sound great on bass.

Oh, and unless you really need SP/DIF input and output then I'd forget about the PodXT Pro. There's nothing special in it that would be useful for most people, as the regular PodXT still has digital output through USB.

The reason I like the SP/DIF and AES/EBU on my Vetta is because it doesn't have USB connectors. I don't remember exactly what the price difference is, but unless you're dead-set on not using USB or you REALLY want it to be rack mountable then save a couple hundred bucks and just get an XT.

Actually, you can spend the money saved on getting the model packs!

[Lunch Money]

Indeed. I brought my amp to my apartment today (it was at my parents' in storage) and it was satisfying to just plug in and play.

BUT... it's a truly crap amp (Marshall MG30DFX and the DFX are shite) so it wasn't all that particularly exciting. It only does 2 sounds well: crunch and crunch. Everything else sucks.

I guess the 'clean' channel is clean... it just doesn't have any character.

I'm wondering if I can use the amp as a DI of sorts. It won't bypass the preamp section at all, so I'll still be using the "clean" channel, but I might be able to add software distortion to it. Hard to say if the signal will be better or worse than just using the Tube MP.

Greg

[Bigg John]

I've had nothing but good experiences with Line 6 tech support, as have dozens of aquantances of mine...

Of course, we all own Vettas, so I imagine our $1,700 might get us a bit more tech support than everyone else's $100

It's was like $400

But yeah, money talks

You probably bought that vetta for live performance. I bought the xt specifically for a computer based recording unit. All I'm saying is Line 6 products and computers are not good partners.

They have yet to deliver a decent mac driver. they're windows drivers are flakey at best.

[Lawnmower Of The Damned]

I would love it if they could make that happen. I've tried it with my guitarport with very unsatisfactory results.

Everytime I see someone spouting off about doing it, I ask for some specifics on how they do it and suddenly the thread dies out. No further responses!

Anyone here care to enlighten me? Or maybe I just killed this thread...

As I've already said, I have a Vetta II not a GuitarPort, but I think I've got a decent idea of how it would work.

First record a guitar riff without any amp models. I'm not sure if GuitarPort has a "Bypass" model, but you should at least be able to get close to unaffected. If not then you might want to run your guitar directly into your soundcard for this phase.

Next, make a copy of that track in your host and mute the original one. This is done in order to keep a version that can be re-amped later.

Now you want to run the second (Un-muted) track out of your soundcard and through the input of the GuitarPort. Adjust the amp settings to taste and bounce the guitar track down.

If you should decide to change your mind later then you just delete the second track and make another duplicate of your original and begin again.

Like I said, it's not as simple as using a VST, but it's still possible. If you're anything like most Vetta users then you'll probably stick to the same couple of patches anyway. I've got a few really great patches that I've been tweaking for about a month now, and I'm very happy with them.

In reality, having 73 amp models, dozens of cabinets and a couple of mics is almost too much. I find that I get better results just finding a couple amps that work well together and working on them until they are perfect. I've easily got enough great patches to record an entire album, but I'd never find time to actually record one if I kept toying with all those amps!

[Bigg John]

The reason I like the SP/DIF and AES/EBU on my Vetta is because it doesn't have USB connectors.

Aaaaaawwwwwww. no wonder you still like your L6 product . you havn't had to deal with their drivers

[Lawnmower Of The Damned]

Actually, I bought the Vetta specificially for studio use. I got it before the model packs were available for the XT. You better believe I was pissed after I found out I could have gotten almost the same thing for $1,000 less than I had payed.

In the end I realized that they were just doing the intelligent thing. The majority of their customers have Pods, and while Line 6 has spent a lot of time wine & dining us because we bought their flagship amp, they still owe the model packs to the largest part of their userbase. Even if it did end up making me feel a little foolish for spending all of that money on two Pod XTs taped together with some speakers under them.

Oh, and the $100 comment was aimed at GuitarPort owners as that was the price of GuitarPort last I heard. I didn't mean to imply that the Pod is cheap. In fact, if my Vetta were destroyed I'd probably just buy a Pod and the model packs next time.

[Lawnmower Of The Damned]

Aaaaaawwwwwww. no wonder you still like your L6 product . you havn't had to deal with their drivers

If it matters that much to you then you can get a decent soundcard (Or standalone A/D converter) and run your Pod XT into it through the analog outs. You'd still need that in order to use GR2 or Amplitube.

Though you are right. I've never had to worry about drivers. The biggest complaint us Vetta users have is that we aren't happy with the way the built in wah pedal sounds. That's right, we're bitching because the 73 amps sound great, and the effects are all pretty good, but the wah pedal effect included gets a bit strident when you open the pedal all the way. We are so utterly tormented, aren't we?

[Lunch Money]

Put some sort of 'stopper' (bicycle tire tube comes to mind, as much of it as you need, cut to size) at the chassis where the pedal comes down. It'll physically stop it from traveling the full distance.

I had a Morely wah and I found the same thing. The last 5% or so was just too nasty. I never made a permanent solution, but I often just quickly wedged something in there. A handy t-shirt or a magazine or whatever was handy.

Greg

[Lawnmower Of The Damned]

Oh, many of us have done that, but that has yet to stop us from endlessly bitching about it to Line 6

No wonder they gave all our amp models away to the Pod guys!

[Lunch Money]

Didn't they SELL them to the Pod guys?

[Lawnmower Of The Damned]

For $100 bucks. I paid $1,700, which comes out to $1,300 for extra amp models. So far as I'm concerned they DID give them away!

[Bigg John]

Aaaaaawwwwwww. no wonder you still like your L6 product . you havn't had to deal with their drivers

If it matters that much to you then you can get a decent soundcard (Or standalone A/D converter) and run your Pod XT into it through the analog outs. You'd still need that in order to use GR2 or Amplitube.

That's the whole point. if they would have put a butt plug instead of a usb port on the xt, it would be a lot more useful

[Sascha Franck]

Personally, I seriously can't make a decision about what to get for my next "serious" guitar setup (due to be done in early spring I hope).
I have some decent live set ups (basically a Twin with stomp boxes or Boogie Mark IV with a small rack, for small commercial jobs or theatre stuff I'm still using my GT-5, for reasons of convenience) and I've got an old POD and a VAmp 2 for the home recording stuff.

Now, for live I could do with something more experimental (planning for some project...). I would never replace my amps with something virtual for the "real deal", there's no reason, especially as there's nothing that'd do the job when it comes to reliability and convenience.
What's really bugging me is the complete lack of proper utility/overall adjustment modes on all the virtual devices. Clean sound too loud? OK, with a real amp I just turn one single pot down and the change will be valid for all clean sounds. With a programmable amp I'd have to reprogram EACH clean patch. Not possible. The same goes for master reverb amounts, master noise suppression threshold (important once you play at some questionable venues without proper transformers for their stage lights), master delay/mod FX levels, etc.
All the currently available devices completely fail in that aspect (actually, the good old GT-5 does it WAY better than anything else).

So, that's why I thought for the more experimental stuff I'd use something virtual. This could fix all the problems mentioned. I wouldn't use the plugin in question as a standalone but rather open multiple instances on multiple mixer channels (one for each sound type), and instead of switching patches I'd rather use the foot controller to switch channels (and probably sends and the likes) on/off.
I thought GR2 was perfect for that... just that now I learned (through the other thread) their controller is only throwing out dedicated messages to control GR, instead of offering plain CC output in addition.
There go my plans...

In addition, I need something new for recording. As far as virtual stuff is concerned, I'm almost sure that something based on the Line 6 amp models so far has got to be the best (I don't think GR2 would do a better job).
Yet, after fooling around with a POD XT for quite a few days, I still find it lacking quite a lot of what is possible with real amps.
I actually found the heavily driven sounds to be quite good enough for my needs (I'm not doing a lot of NuMetal...), proper leads have never been a problem either, but what I seriously haven't found yet on any virtual device are two things:

1) A truly punchy clean and crunch sound. You know, the ones making you feel the attacks physically. And no, I'm not comparing studio monitors to a 4x12 cab, I'm comparing virtual vs. miced up cabs, both running through the same set of monitors. The virtual things just haven't got that decent punch. Heck, I cabled (and miced) up a 20y old 50 bucks practice amp a while ago, and while the basic sound was pretty much worse than lousy, the sort of punch I'm talking about has been there almost instantly.
All that talk about 187368 cabinet models along with 90327 mics and 8267 mic positions to chose from - what a senseless blurb as long as it doesn't provide the most essential things. Punch that is. Just listen to the GR2 demos - nice sounds, but did you find *any* real punch?

2) Guitar/Amp interaction. I'm using that a lot. On both my real amps I can turn the most cutting edge overdriven sound to almost completely clean by simply pulling down the guitar volume. And, very often, I'm using the fully driven channel with the guitar volume turned down for slightly crunchy tones rather than switching to the dedicated crunch channel.


The latter also being one of the reasons that I won't replace my real amps for bread and butter live stuff.

I'm seriously tending towards some "dead box" solution for my recording setup. Just recently I played through a friends dead box setup (admittedly, he's got a Brunetti top, which is something quite else...) and it's just been amazing how well all the sounds did. No need to emulate a halfassed Plexi, Twin, Vox or whatever. It's got that satisfying punch. Instantly.
I wish I could try out one of those Zvex mini amps - those are looking promising for a small, convenient dead box setup (a 1x12" cab might do).

Ah well, sorry for the kinda OT post.