distortion

[timrams88]

hey ive been playin my axis for a while and i havnt really said much but i think im going to need all your help again, ive got a digitec rp200 guitar pedal with like infinity settings on.. well im tired of trying to get the right sound out of it and i want something cheaper and easier that will give me a good punk/rawk sound and that can still give good acoustic tones as well. any ideas on a new pedal?

 

[phatduckk]

dude im in the same boat.
Im a simple guy ... I want one pedal .... off = clean sound from amp ... pedal on = perfect distortion for punk on the border or metal.

ive been "looking" for years and have been thru many pedals. for metal i like to use a DOD Metal X i got about 11 years ago ... I just got a boss metal zone that's supposed to be super versitile due to its mid control setting but it wounds phony to me. ... oh ya, currently im using a fender blues junior amp cuz i broke my marshall

so ya ... lemme know if u find anything and good luck

 

[bluebullet]

well the classic heavy distortion sound is to crank the preamp on your marshall and then use a tube screamer with the level all the way up and the drive up slightly. if you dont want to pay for a tube screamer a boss sd1 works well also and can be had for about 40 bucks brand new.

 

[spkirby]

I recently picked up one of those Boss Metal Zones that phatduck mentioned. Didnt sound great until I plugged my guitar into its input and wired the pedals output into the effects loop return socket on my amp (thereby bypassing the pre-amp stage on my combo).

All I can say is HUGE sound!

 

[Raz]

Yeah the whole tone thing can be nightmare, it can also suck alot of your playing time. I use a Behringer -V Amp 2.0, and for my distortion I have a Rocktron Metal Planet...combined with the V-amp, I believe I have finally found my tone...and it seems to work well with all of my guitars. The thing I like about the V-amp is, slight changes in presets, accessed via a foot switch, makes for changing tone, without changing the individual pedals...so I can be set up for sevel different guitars, and several playing styles...

 

[fsmith]

I got a PodXT for Christmas and I've been one happy camper since then. I bought the additional model packs for it and they have some kick-ass metal settings.

I've recently been creating a patch ala Iron Maiden's "2 Minutes to Midnight", and have been working on a Rush patch along the lines of "Limelight". It is so damn easy with this thing.

I've noticed that I want to play more often and longer since getting the Pod because it only takes a few twists of the knobs to go from an acoustic fingerstyle song to something chunky depending on what I feel like working on.

My wife is jealous of all the time I spend diddling with my fiddle now, but hey, she bought it for me.

Like Raz said, finding that elusive tone can take a lot of time, but with the Pod I've been able to find very nice useable tones from the presets, and can create others very quickly.

I thought the Pod was a gimmick for many years, and it's not for everyone, but I'm a believer. YMMV.

fred

 

[Raz]

I got a PodXT for Christmas and I've been one happy camper since then. I bought the additional model packs for it and they have some kick-ass metal settings.

I've recently been creating a patch ala Iron Maiden's "2 Minutes to Midnight", and have been working on a Rush patch along the lines of "Limelight". It is so damn easy with this thing.

I've noticed that I want to play more often and longer since getting the Pod because it only takes a few twists of the knobs to go from an acoustic fingerstyle song to something chunky depending on what I feel like working on.

My wife is jealous of all the time I spend diddling with my fiddle now, but hey, she bought it for me.

Like Raz said, finding that elusive tone can take a lot of time, but with the Pod I've been able to find very nice useable tones from the presets, and can create others very quickly.

I thought the Pod was a gimmick for many years, and it's not for everyone, but I'm a believer. YMMV.

fred

Damn I'm jealous now....I may get a pod just so I can download your IM tones...I would love to hear soundclips...HUGE Maiden fan here!

 

[fsmith]

Raz,
I'm still tweaking them, but once I think they're ready for prime time I'd be willing to share. I'm really impressed at the number of variables you have to work with in creating tones on the Pod. The guys at line6 did their homework.

The additional model packs really rounded out an already great product. There were a bunch of pre-configured tones that I knew I'd never use so I deleted them to make room for my home grown versions.

I haven't tried recording with it yet. I've been having too much fun just playing around. I do plan on getting it setup to my laptop so I can record some clips to mess around with and save any that are worth keeping for later use.

fred

 

[Raz]

Raz,
I'm still tweaking them, but once I think they're ready for prime time I'd be willing to share. I'm really impressed at the number of variables you have to work with in creating tones on the Pod. The guys at line6 did their homework.

The additional model packs really rounded out an already great product. There were a bunch of pre-configured tones that I knew I'd never use so I deleted them to make room for my home grown versions.

I haven't tried recording with it yet. I've been having too much fun just playing around. I do plan on getting it setup to my laptop so I can record some clips to mess around with and save any that are worth keeping for later use.

fred

Now I have a question about the Pod XT...first off the V-Amp has only Gain, Amp and Cab modelling, pluse some basic effects...I mean don't get me wrong, the thing is sweet, but I needed more distortion, plus effects cause if I want Flange-Chorus-Delay on at one time, I couldn't do it...so back to the question, is the XT set up in a similar fashion, ie with gain, amp and cab modelling or is there also dist?

 

[beej]

With the XT you pick an amp, cab, mic, and eq. You can then add a stomp box (compressor or distortion box), modulation effects (chorus, flange, phaser, etc.), delay (tape echo, analog/dig delay, etc.) and reverb. There are also a whack of other effect add-ins like octave doubling, basic synth sounds (to track a single line), etc.

The stomp boxes are pretty good. You have a few to choose from, so there are some classic dist pedals (like the Rat, etc.) and a great tube screamer. I actually have an Analog-man modded TS9 and when I A/B it with the XT I'm hard pressed to tell the difference.

My favourite distored XT sounds are the Marshalls (JTM, Plexi) with the tube screamer kicked in. They completely rock. There are a lot of amps that have their own good distortion (via preamp) sounds as well- Soldano, 5150, etc. And also there a ton of great clean sounds.

It's a really handy unit if you love to fiddle, and it's much more portable than lugging a Mesa stack around

 

[Raz]

With the XT you pick an amp, cab, mic, and eq. You can then add a stomp box (compressor or distortion box), modulation effects (chorus, flange, phaser, etc.), delay (tape echo, analog/dig delay, etc.) and reverb. There are also a whack of other effect add-ins like octave doubling, basic synth sounds (to track a single line), etc.

The stomp boxes are pretty good. You have a few to choose from, so there are some classic dist pedals (like the Rat, etc.) and a great tube screamer. I actually have an Analog-man modded TS9 and when I A/B it with the XT I'm hard pressed to tell the difference.

My favourite distored XT sounds are the Marshalls (JTM, Plexi) with the tube screamer kicked in. They completely rock. There are a lot of amps that have their own good distortion (via preamp) sounds as well- Soldano, 5150, etc. And also there a ton of great clean sounds.

It's a really handy unit if you love to fiddle, and it's much more portable than lugging a Mesa stack around

I guess that's one huge diff then...I wish I knew that before hand...oh well back to Ebay!

 

[beej]

> cause if I want Flange-Chorus-Delay on at one time, I couldn't do it

Oh sorry- should clarify. You only get one of the mod effects (flange or chorus or phaser) at a time. However you can have them plus delay at the same time.

 

[fsmith]

With the model pack add-ons you get even more amps and effects to choose from.
They added the 5150, Engl Powerball, Mesa Triple Rectifier, Deizel Herbet just to name a few.

You can change the type of speakers in any amp model for even more tweaking. You end up being able to control almost every aspect of your sound through the Pod.

I love the fact that I can plug headphones in and can jam away without bothering a soul. But it sounds just as nice when I run it into the effects loop of my Mesa Studio .22+.

I'm surprised OC hasn't chimed in yet. Hearing him talk about the Pod and sharing some of his clips pretty much sealed the deal for me. I knew I had to get one. Thanks OC!

fred

 

[Raz]

With the model pack add-ons you get even more amps and effects to choose from.
They added the 5150, Engl Powerball, Mesa Triple Rectifier, Deizel Herbet just to name a few.

You can change the type of speakers in any amp model for even more tweaking. You end up being able to control almost every aspect of your sound through the Pod.

I love the fact that I can plug headphones in and can jam away without bothering a soul. But it sounds just as nice when I run it into the effects loop of my Mesa Studio .22+.

I'm surprised OC hasn't chimed in yet. Hearing him talk about the Pod and sharing some of his clips pretty much sealed the deal for me. I knew I had to get one. Thanks OC!

fred

Well I first learned about the ipod...oh I'm sorry I meant the Pod Xt (whoops) from OC. Now are these mods downloadable or do you have to purchase them cause I saw an XT on Ebay with all of the add ons...I'm getting excited again

 

[beej]

You have to buy the model packs! Ain't nothin' free ...

There are three packs, though. Classic amps, metal amps and effects pack. $50 each or you can buy all three for $100.

Raz- if you're really thinking about buying an XT, think about if you want the floorboard or not. You can use any MIDI pedalboard with it, but the Line6 one is excellent. Only reason I'm mentioning this is that they have the "Pox XT Live" which is an XT built into the chassis of a pedalboard. Haven't played with one but it gets good reviews.

 

[Raz]

You have to buy the model packs! Ain't nothin' free ...

There are three packs, though. Classic amps, metal amps and effects pack. $50 each or you can buy all three for $100.

Raz- if you're really thinking about buying an XT, think about if you want the floorboard or not. You can use any MIDI pedalboard with it, but the Line6 one is excellent. Only reason I'm mentioning this is that they have the "Pox XT Live" which is an XT built into the chassis of a pedalboard. Haven't played with one but it gets good reviews.

Yeah OC mentioned it, if it does exactly what the Pod does...I may save up for one..I think for now though I got nice tone...found it last night at 1:00 AM!
With all of this tone talk, we should approach the mods and see about getting a STICKY TONE THREAD going...no pressure for whole recorded songs just a little sampling of everyone's tone...what d'ya think?

 

[nobozos]

I've been playing for about 19 years now, and I've gone through my share of gear. A couple of years ago I came to the realization that no one effects pedal can do everything as well as one pedal can do one thing.

I've gone through many different effects processors, but there was always an effect I didn't like on them. I may have got great rich chorus, but the delay sounded like crap. Maybe the delay and chorus sounded good, but the phase didn't sound right, or couldn't be adjusted the way I wanted it. And without exception, the distortion never sounded "natural". It always sounded processed. Then it hit me. Buy the individual pedal that does the one thing it was designed to.

For example, if I want a good phaser, I will get an MXR Phase 90. If I want a good overdrive, I get a Tube Screamer. If I want a chorus, I get a Boss Stereo Chorus.

I've just never found a multi-effects unit that can do it all really well.

 

[phatduckk]

all the multi fx things ive used have annoyed me ... the pod too (though i only spent about 30 minutes with it). the thing that always bugged me was that it always sounded "fake" to me ... i guess just like someone above said: "too processed" ... maybe too digital.

eh ...

so what do you guys use to record? i have a Boss BR 864 that i baught new about a year ago and I have literally NEVER recorded anything on it. I spent quite a bit of time tweaking with the presets and never really got what I wanted. Maybe I should use pedals into it with no onboard stuff set ... anyways anyone know of a good, simple digital recorder? maybe ill sell this Boss and get something simpler

 

[bluebullet]

the sans amp pedals sound pretty good recorded and then use other pedals for the effects its just my opinion but they sounded more like a real amp miked to me.