Podx3 live for Bass

Frankiestylee

Just wondering what the craic is for using a podx3 live with a bass?

I thought it might be the ideal solution for me since I play guitar and bass in differant projects, so rather then have to fork out for two pedals it'd be nice to have an all in one solution, but is it any use with a bass?

Karl Hungus

I've run bass through my Pod XT Live, and it sounded very good, even though that was with no amp model, so I'm sure the additional bass models with the X3 would make it the perfect tool.

Honestly, I think the Pod was one of my best puchases, so I don't think you can go wrong.

murphaph

Could one of you guys explain to me what a pod is/does please. I find myself a little bewildered at all the gizmos available and now that I've decided to buy an electric I know I'll want to learn more. Ta v'ry much.:)

Karl Hungus

murphaph wrote: »

Could one of you guys explain to me what a pod is/does please. I find myself a little bewildered at all the gizmos available and now that I've decided to buy an electric I know I'll want to learn more. Ta v'ry much.:)

Digital processor.

It does with software, what other amps do with tubes or transistors. As such, you've got loads of different onboard amps models, which mimick many real life amps (Such as Fender, Marshall, Mesa Boogie and so forth) as well as various effects.

That help?

murphaph

Yes thanks Karl.

The thing is, surely when you use these DSP effects you then have to output through a real world amp, which will have it's own tone. Do you have to 'tell' the pod what type of real world amp you are playing through so it can compensate?

I held a pod for the first time last night in my guitar teacher's place but she doesn't really know that much about it (use by her bro who records his own music). It's sparked my curiosity, not that I'll be ready for such things for quite a while yet!

Karl Hungus

murphaph wrote: »

Yes thanks Karl.

The thing is, surely when you use these DSP effects you then have to output through a real world amp, which will have it's own tone. Do you have to 'tell' the pod what type of real world amp you are playing through so it can compensate?

I held a pod for the first time last night in my guitar teacher's place but she doesn't really know that much about it (use by her bro who records his own music). It's sparked my curiosity, not that I'll be ready for such things for quite a while yet!

You can output through a real world amp, or you can connect to your PC for direct recording, or connect to a PA system, or studio monitors. There's a lot of ways to do it.

You don't really need to compensate for using effects with a real amp though, just don't have any amp models turned on, if you follow.

murphaph

ah right, so when you use the "digital amps" you don't output through a real world amp, but generally for recording purposes?

Karl Hungus

You can output the digital amps through anything. You can even go straight into another real amp if you want, just be sure to use a clean channel.

murphaph

Ah ok. So generally all amps have a clean channel with no effects and the pod emulates the effects channel(s) of those amps? Am I getting warmer?

Karl Hungus

murphaph wrote: »

Ah ok. So generally all amps have a clean channel with no effects and the pod emulates the effects channel(s) of those amps? Am I getting warmer?

Effects channel? Now you've lost me...

Eh, the pod emulates various amps, some of those being a clean sound, like a Fender, some being a high gain sound like a Mesa or Soldano.

murphaph

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Effects channel? Now you've lost me...

Eh, the pod emulates various amps, some of those being a clean sound, like a Fender, some being a high gain sound like a Mesa or Soldano.

Sorry. This is turning into Amps101 now!

Ok, so do all amps have a clean channel?

What I don't get is this: If the pod is being used to emulate say, a clean Fender, how can that faithfully be passed through another type of clean sounding amp without that second amp nullifying the effect of the pod, or am I missing the point completely?

Cheers for the babysteps. I haven't a clue on any of this stuff!

lev

You are completely right, the amp you plug it into will colour the tone to some extent. To counter this effect you should use as clean a tone as possible on your amp which will limit the amount of colour your amp adds to the sound coming from the POD.

The POD does have endless tweakable parameters - you have the modelled amps and all the dials you would find on the real thing to tweak, then you have EQ's and effects that you can add on the POD, then you have stuff like noise gates and microphone positions that you can tweak. So even if your amp colours the sound of the modelled amp you can tweak to make it more like the real thing (assuming you know what the real thing sounds like). If you really like your amp sound you can turn off all the amp models on the POD and just used the effects section to add delay, chorus, flanger etc to your amp sound.

I think in most cases people spend some time tweaking to get a tone that they like and then add some effects on to of it. So think of the modelled amps as a pallet of tones & you can chose which ever work best with your gear.

A truer representation of the modelled amp would be achieved by outputing the POD directly to a PA or studio monitors - that way nothing will 'colour' the tone. There's quite a few working guitarists who do this, no need to bring an amp to your gigs. There's an option on the POD that allows you to select whether you are outputting to an amp or to monitors

Finally you can use the POD as a recording device by connecting a USB cable to your PC, again you're getting the true modelled amp tone here because the sound that comes from the POD is exactly what you record.

All in all it's pretty versatile!

murphaph

Thanks lev. Most useful.

Frankiestylee

Guess the purchase will be made tonight then. Nice.