line 6 podxtlive

[superhairycamel]

so, what do you guys think about it. i have done quite a bit of reading and it seems quite good. if i can try it and it is nice, i am thinking about getting it instead of an amp. me and my buddy record some music on the computer and are lacking some distortion sounds that are good. would it be a good idea to ge one rather than a second hand laney tf300?

Ps Monkeys like peanuts (my band) Rule

[skiz]

I whole heartedly agree on that bottom bit, and like I've said before (or i haven't said before, but am doing so now) i played my uncle's pod and that was the original pod, and that had alot of effects and the likes on it, and the pod you're thinking of getting must be MUCHOES better if its newer. And it would be better than using an amp for recording; the whole microphone placement and all, and the difference between putting something straight into the computer and recording through a microphone. just my opinion though.

[superhairycamel]

you can also put it straight to headphones for practicing. im using a jade 50 watt amp at the moment, which sounds like crap and was wondering if there was a way to bypass the pre amp on it but use the poweramp so that i could have stage volume at small gigs and band rehearsels. i suppose a real amp would be more practical but do you think that a modeling unit would be better suited to my situation? i have yet to try one and being in australia it is probably going to be hard to fnd a shop that has them. btw the laney has a tube in the pre-am and can get some pretty sweet tones. i can get it for like half the new price aswell.

[hexa-db]

I recently upgraded from a Pod 2 to an XT Live and there's a huge difference. To begin with I really wasn't sure I liked it. The XT Live has a lot more top end and almost sounds 'fizzy', I ended up pretty disappointed that I couldn't get the same sounds as I used to have on my Pod2. After a lot of tweaking though, I'm a lot closer and have some sounds that are way better than the Pod 2 versions. If you're using a lot of high gain metal type sounds it's well worth getting the "metal shop" model pack, it has some really nice models.
If you try one out in a shop, don't pay too much attention to the presets. Some are awesome but I wasn't too impressed by the metal sounds there.
Another tip (if there's any other frustrated XT/XTLive users reading!), and an analog chorus mod effect, with a depth of 0, the rate set to minimum, bass around 50%, treble 60-70% and mix 60-75%. It gives a much chunkier sound with less fuzz and there's hardly any noticeable chorus effect.

A lot of my reservations are probably because I've been using the original Pod for so long that I'm conditioned to like those sounds. Reading the Line 6 forums it seems like a lot of the people who critisize the XT are upgrading from Pods, anyone coming to the XT/XTLive without playing a Pod first loves it. Also, a lot of people have said that the XT/XTLive sounds a lot more like a real amp and that the sounds sit much better in a mix.