Of Pods and p*ds; digi-dreck and those who love it

Recording Techniques, People Skills, Gear, Recording Spaces, Computers, and DIY

Moderators: drumsound, tomb

User avatar
vvv
zen recordist
Posts: 10139
Joined: Tue May 13, 2003 8:08 am
Location: Chi
Contact:

Of Pods and p*ds; digi-dreck and those who love it

Post by vvv » Tue May 10, 2016 9:15 pm

So I jam with this band this eve and they are pretty good, a three piece looking for second guitar.

But the singer/guitarist is playing a Les Paul through a Crate Palomino stereo 2x12 powered by an ADA power amp, with the latest rack mount Pod in front.

As he is showing off the pre-sets, "Here is a AC30, here's a JCM800, here's a HiWatt", he waxes all enthusiastic.

I'm thinking, "That sounds like shite, and shite and more shite."

And the guy can sing and write and play pretty well, but he's actually citing these pre-sets as sounding like those amps, and they just sound like processed digital doo-doo.

And he brags about how it sounds just as great as the DI from the Pod and I'm thinking, I can't be in a band with somebody who thinks this rig sounds good, much less accurate.

I dislike digital outboard effects, altho' I can tolerate 'em and plug-ins and such if I take the time to edit and EQ and mebbe even re-amp, etc.

I do like some digital guitar pedals.

And BTW, I am playing through the bassist's Hot Rod DeVille which sounds pretty damn good and the drummer comments I sound "dull", playing a DirtyFingers-equipped The Paul into it. He appears to prefer the simul-crap sound as well.

But I guess my rant is, this crap reminds me of *.mp3 and I-Pods and all of that - convenience is apparently the basis for deciding something sounds good.

:(
bandcamp;
blog.
I mix with olive juice.

User avatar
Gregg Juke
cryogenically thawing
Posts: 3544
Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2010 10:35 pm
Location: Buffalo, NY, USA
Contact:

Post by Gregg Juke » Wed May 11, 2016 6:00 am

Not to sound too "old man in a rocking chair on the porch yelling 'hey you, get off of my lawn!'"-ish, but "kids these days," that's the sound they're used to-- brighter, probably a bit harsh to our ears, and, "close enough."

The Pod _is_ very convenient, and I have a mini for some things live and in the studio, and I know three decent-to-really-great players that used either the Pod, the Pod-amp, or both. All but one have abandoned Pod-gear; and one of them, you never would have noticed either way, because he would have sounded great playing through a 1959 Motorola transistor radio. It's a great concept, but execution still isn't where it should be; as you said, the patches aren't that great, and the output on even the acoustic settings is noise-y as all get-out. But in general, I think sounds are becoming so much less important to the new generation of players and consumers...

GJ
Gregg Juke
Nocturnal Productions Music Group
Drum! Magazine Contributor
http://MightyNoStars.com

"He's about to learn the most important lesson in the music business-- 'Never trust people in the music business.' "

User avatar
vvv
zen recordist
Posts: 10139
Joined: Tue May 13, 2003 8:08 am
Location: Chi
Contact:

Post by vvv » Wed May 11, 2016 8:02 am

I mean, the opportunities for analogy abound:

Lite beer
Spelling it "lite" instead of "light"
Aspartame
Pizza Hut
Fish sticks
Squier
Behringer
I Zombie
Reign
Mumford and Sons
GNR II
Trump
...
bandcamp;
blog.
I mix with olive juice.

kslight
mixes from purgatory
Posts: 2968
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:40 pm

Post by kslight » Wed May 11, 2016 8:11 am

Truthfully I don't care about accuracy of models...IMHO the sooner we forget comparisons the sooner we can just make something ground up that's great...

And a POD can only sound as good as you program it. This variable definitely passes over to a "real man all t00b rig" in my experience. Plenty of shit sounding rigs of all types out there.


I've owned probably a half dozen classic amps over the last 10 years, but ditched all of them...well except one, because it's not replaceable and not worth much to anyone else.

Really I get a lot of mileage out of my HD500X with my JTV89 Variax. I'm sure you have something to say about that also...but if you can't make that setup sound good it's not the gear.

On a movie I recently scored, I don't think there's a single non-direct guitar sound. Even my acoustic...and I'm normally a fan of miking, but in this case acoustic into a bunch of Moog pedals was what I needed.





As for this player, I dunno why anyone would take a pod and run it into an external power amp and cabinet, that seems to defeat the purpose.

User avatar
Nick Sevilla
on a wing and a prayer
Posts: 5555
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:34 pm
Location: Lake Arrowhead California USA
Contact:

Post by Nick Sevilla » Wed May 11, 2016 9:16 am

I can attest to the Line6 AMPLIFIERS being really great.

And the Line6 PRO also being really great:

Who uses them?

Steve Howe of Yes and Asia, uses Line6 amplifiers on tour. Because he got tired of having his two Fender Twins being destroyed on every tour.

Depeche Mode's Martin Gore uses the rackmount Pros (a few of them) on tour. And on demos sometimes.

as to the kidney (that is what we've called them since they came out) I still have my original V1, which I got the EPROM update to 2.0

It gets used sometimes to get certain sounds.

IMPORTANt: these, all of these, have this little switch on the units, which is labelled "AIR" mode. When plugging into an amplifier TURN IT TO AMP. Otherwise it sounds like shite.

Cheers
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

Jim Williams
tinnitus
Posts: 1135
Joined: Sat Jun 03, 2006 8:19 am
Location: beautiful Carlsbad, CA
Contact:

Post by Jim Williams » Wed May 11, 2016 9:35 am

One of my friends has a Line 6 guitar amp. It's absolutly the worst sounding POS I've ever heard, and I've heard a lot.

It makes a nice guitar sound like a kazoo. It's almost a joke amp, providing the thinest, screachingest soda straw sound ever. It might be a good amp to use to get a "telephone" vocal sound or a CB radio voice.

For me, vintage Fender or my Basson tube amps do everything I need an amp to do.
Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

User avatar
Nick Sevilla
on a wing and a prayer
Posts: 5555
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:34 pm
Location: Lake Arrowhead California USA
Contact:

Post by Nick Sevilla » Wed May 11, 2016 9:52 am

Jim Williams wrote:One of my friends has a Line 6 guitar amp. It's absolutly the worst sounding POS I've ever heard, and I've heard a lot.

It makes a nice guitar sound like a kazoo. It's almost a joke amp, providing the thinest, screachingest soda straw sound ever. It might be a good amp to use to get a "telephone" vocal sound or a CB radio voice.

For me, vintage Fender or my Basson tube amps do everything I need an amp to do.
He is using it wrong.
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

User avatar
joninc
dead but not forgotten
Posts: 2099
Joined: Mon Jun 09, 2003 5:02 pm
Location: canada
Contact:

Post by joninc » Wed May 11, 2016 10:18 am

I very much doubt we'd all agree on what a "great guitar tone" is gentlemen. To each his own.
the new rules : there are no rules

User avatar
analogika
gettin' sounds
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Aug 17, 2013 2:41 am
Contact:

Post by analogika » Wed May 11, 2016 2:20 pm

I've heard absolutely great stuff on a Kemper, and I've heard boring, nasal shit on a Kemper.

A tasteless player will be tasteless no matter what the equipment, and somebody with a cultured sound will coax it out of whatever he's using, be it digital, analog, expensive, cheap, old, or new.

User avatar
floid
buyin' a studio
Posts: 983
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2006 1:39 pm
Location: in exile

Re: Of Pods and p*ds; digi-dreck and those who love it

Post by floid » Wed May 11, 2016 3:55 pm

vvv wrote:the drummer comments I sound "dull"
Hearing loss?
Village Idiot.

ashcat_lt
tinnitus
Posts: 1094
Joined: Thu Jan 04, 2007 1:54 pm
Location: Duluth, MN
Contact:

Post by ashcat_lt » Wed May 11, 2016 5:59 pm

Almost on topic (?):

Last Friday I ran sound and played a show. Since my band was playing all amp sims and drum triggers and synths, I brought my live rack with a computer and interface in it, and since my live rack was there and connected to the PA, I used it to run the mics for the other bands. Since they were punks with big amps and live drums in a small room, it was supposed to be only vocals, but the PA was specified to give my band (remember, no actual volume aside from the PA) plenty of headroom (and clean bass) to compete with those fuckers.

The band before mine was having trouble with their guitar amp. Tried 3 different cables and couldn't get anything. I said "Give me the end of your cable, I'll pull up an amp sim on the computer and you'll be rocking." He started to turn up his nose. I pointed to his Line6 modeling amp and said, "That IS an amp sim". He gave me the cable, I pulled up the track template that I use for my guitar (loosely based on an AC30), adjusted the gain a little bit, and it turned it up til everybody was happy. Nobody (including the guitarist) complained about the tone. In fact, it was pretty bad ass, and probably better than he would have got out of that amp.

User avatar
JWL
deaf.
Posts: 1870
Joined: Sun Apr 02, 2006 7:37 pm
Location: Maine
Contact:

Post by JWL » Wed May 11, 2016 9:34 pm

Pods and ampsims in general are useful. I'd rather mic an amp where possible, if I have the amp I want to hear of course.

The main benefit to me of such tech is its versatility. For a live rig it makes a lot of sense, unless you're the sort of player that only uses 2 or 3 sounds in a set.

I do use ampsims on things-that-aren't-guitars quite often....

User avatar
vvv
zen recordist
Posts: 10139
Joined: Tue May 13, 2003 8:08 am
Location: Chi
Contact:

Post by vvv » Thu May 12, 2016 4:22 am

I agree that sims can be useful. I prefer analog sims, like a T2 pre into a Microcab, and even a little Zoom Vam5 I have can be tweaked to be acceptable.

But of this guy, as I said, "As he is showing off the pre-sets, ...." No editing!

And where I said, "... convenience is apparently the basis for deciding something sounds good", mebbe I coulda said "marketing/labeling is apparently the basis for deciding something sounds good."

I mean, DI can sound awesome ("Black Dog", anyone?), also, but lawdy-lawdy, don't just plug into yer simul-shite and tell me it sound like my Marshall, and then get pissy when I say it don't.

Also, I need to add Taco Bell and Summers Eve to my list. :twisted:
bandcamp;
blog.
I mix with olive juice.

User avatar
Scodiddly
genitals didn't survive the freeze
Posts: 3957
Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 6:38 am
Location: Mundelein, IL, USA
Contact:

Post by Scodiddly » Sun May 15, 2016 4:22 pm

One of the new kids at work is a huge Primus fan. So I've been hearing more Primus than usual lately. I do still like that early album with all the classic songs on it, but it sure doesn't sound that good. I'm told that the first three albums were recorded on ADAT, which is why it sounds so thin.

I don't think so. It's not about gear, it's about choices. There are other ADAT albums that don't sound that way.

User avatar
Nick Sevilla
on a wing and a prayer
Posts: 5555
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:34 pm
Location: Lake Arrowhead California USA
Contact:

Post by Nick Sevilla » Sun May 15, 2016 5:24 pm

Scodiddly wrote:One of the new kids at work is a huge Primus fan. So I've been hearing more Primus than usual lately. I do still like that early album with all the classic songs on it, but it sure doesn't sound that good. I'm told that the first three albums were recorded on ADAT, which is why it sounds so thin.

I don't think so. It's not about gear, it's about choices. There are other ADAT albums that don't sound that way.
Alanis Morrissette : Jagged Little Pill.

ADAT all the way baby.
Sadly the producer / engineer passed last year, Greg Ladanyi.
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 56 guests