Good evening Home Recording Forum

[brandondrury]

I was just messing around with my Line6 PODXT pro. It has several different ways to send the signal thru the m-box. I recorded a few tracks of whatever to get a feel of how its done. I think I chose the wrong outputs because it sounded like crap.

Assuming you have hooked everything up correct, it's time for my opinion of Line 6. They are a company with an incredible marketing department but the tone of their products is near the bottom.

There are excellent guitar "simulator" products out now. (I was VERY slow to accept this as I'm a big fan of my real amps.) Those that stands out are Revalver MK3, Revalver MK2, and maybe the Waves GTR3 (I haven't tried it out yet). I have heard some decent results out of Amplitude and Guitar Rig 2 or Guitar Rig 3.

Compared to all of these, the Line 6 direct stuff is behind. I can always hear their massively 2k heavy sounds immediately. Of course, it's possible to get that sort "lack of tone" out of a real amp, you'd think they'd make an effort to actually make their products sound good.

It appears to me that they have taken the approach of telling their customers that these products sound good and therefor the customers begin to believe it.

Brandon

[Mr Durden]

Brandon,

I appreciate your opinion, and maybe you've actually done some recordings using a Line 6, but my live tone is sick! I often get compliments on how thick & unique my tone is when I gig out. My rack gear is usually hidden behind my cabs, so when people cant see it, they ask what I use. Is your opinion based on personal experience, or a product rating/comparison?

My live tone is what it is, but in your opinion, do you believe I will be able to duplicate that live sound? Does it sound different when recording digital? If it doesn't, what can you recommend to use during the recording process?

[brandondrury]

Is your opinion based on personal experience, or a product rating/comparison?

Ha! No, my opinions are based entirely on both my own experiences in studio land and from hearing the same issues on thousands of mp3s posted in the Bash This Recording section. I am glad you asked this question though.

my live tone is sick!

In that case, capturing that tone should be pretty simple if you are in a situation where you can mic up your amp.

Brandon

[Mr Durden]

I wanted to avoid having to mic my cab because of the lack of space, but if I have to... I have a really nice neumann condenser mic, an audio technica tube mic, and a bunch of regular shure mics. What type of mic would you recommend using to mic a mesa boogie 4x12 cab?

Also I went to Guitar Center earlier, I checked out a plugin called Guitar Rig 3. I haven't heard it yet, but the software doesn't seem all that dissimilar from the Line 6 stuff. I'm going to have to do a bit of research first. Meshuggah uses the Line 6 Spider Valve heads when they record and their tone is amazing.

I'm still thinking too far ahead though because I need to first figure out the best way to build the drum tracks. I figured out how to use the key-rig to trigger the samples, but for some reason, the snare drum isn't assigned to any key. Not sure if I'm doing it correctly. Back to the drawing board...

[brandondrury]

What type of mic would you recommend using to mic a mesa boogie 4x12 cab?

Check this out:
Electric Guitar Microphone Shootout

Meshuggah uses the Line 6 Spider Valve heads when they record and their tone is amazing.

I guess you mean "used". That head hasn't been out very long and I'm sure not every album they've made used that amp. I've heard a few really good sounding clips of the Spider Valve, but the other Spider stuff has been blatantly unusable to me. Always be skeptical when you hear "X band uses Y in the studio". X band uses whatever the hell they want regardless of what some marketing asshole said.

Michael Wagener told me that he apparently endorses Radial even though he sent the unit back because he didn't like it. He knew nothing about it. Oh well.

Brandon