Pod XT Live into Crowdster Plus?

[getgo]

Ok, First of all, I know you "real" electric players are going to moan over this one (and deservedly so!) but am wondering if the XT Live would be a good tool for me with the Crowdy plus (electric side) My band uses IEM's and we are a contemporary Christian group. Mostly originals and re-worked modern covers. I do not play any lead work, just rhythm stuff.

[tom]

a few years ago i used to use a pod for my di with an acoustic and it worked nicely. in the end, if you like what you're hearing, why not use it? my life would be easier if i could use an xt live. at this point i don't have the time to invest to find out if it could work for me.

[dpeterson]

i just bought a live, have had pods over the years... needed something for a cover band i'm playing in, and we are going to use in ears... should work fine.. i'll give a review when i get it, and have time to tweak it.

dave

[getgo]

Yeah,I was concerned about the time it would take to learn/tweak the thing for my needs too. I don't think I would use it at Church unless I had plenty of lead time to get the sounds worked out ahead of time. With the group, I would have more time to experiment and find what works and doesnt work and document them. I still plan to send the Crowdy in for the "bucker" Tom. I just hate to part with it for the 3 weeks plus down time.

[crash]

Yeah,I was concerned about the time it would take to learn/tweak the thing for my needs too...

Joe - I used to use POD quite a bit - for IEM settings, direct to a PA with wedges, and direct-to-console for recordings. Here's my two cents (more like $1.50, I guess).

The time concern is the key - you can make a POD/XT/XTLIVE sound very good, but how good they sound is DIRECTLY related to how much time you spend dialing in the sounds. All of the presets are 'too much', in my book.

What worked for me was, say, if I wanted an AC30 clean sound with a tremolo and delay, then start with a 'clean' patch and dial in the amp and effects and other elements only as needed. You can lose dozens of hours tweaking existing patches which have already too much EQ or effects or whatever and they'll sound overprocessed.

And then, listen to it with headphones, and then through the FOH mix, and whatever else you can to see how they sound, then adjust. It takes some time to get it dialed in, but the cool thing is, once you get it there, it's there EVERY TIME.

(All that being said, my main rig is still a tube amp and pedals...)

[getgo]

Thanks Crash. Luckily, I will have plenty of time to tweak it. I also agree with you on how to tweak it. Start with the raw and flat "dry" setting and flavor to taste.:D

[dpeterson]

got the xt live yesterday.. overall impression is that it's really nice. i was shocked at some of the acoustic patches that made my electric sound like an acoustic. lots of great tones, like crash said... hard to use the presets... although the eruption patch is amazing.. sounds just like early vh. I basically figure out what kind of tone i'm going for, then start with an amp and add on to it from there.. set the stomp for something, set the mod for something etc..

the gearbox program and the xt hooked to the pc over usb allows for some really easy editing, and you even get to see a picture of amp controls, and effects.. overall very nice. this will save me lugging my amp and cabs to practice.

dave

[crash]

...this will save me lugging my amp and cabs to practice.
I remember now - THAT's what I miss about the Pod setup. Portability.

I just put all new tubes in my amp and picked up a Weber 12F150 and a Cannabis Rex to reload it with. With what I spent just tweaking my amp, I could have picked up an XTLive...

Still fighting for the last 3%.... it never ends.