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Bass Pod XT Live.. actually any good?


civictiger
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This has raised a question for me for a while back now, are they even good effects units?
They seem to be the most popular effects unit, if not the most popular item, that sells in the For Sale section.

What is bad about them that people seem to sell them off all the time?

I was planning on getting one for uni, I am taking a 3 year course at a Bass Academy in Guildford and its not a requirement to have a POD unit, but its useful to have one for masterclasses and lectures and such.. would it be worth investing in this unit or a different Line 6 model?

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I used to have the POD XT Live and I've found to be good only if you own on of their Variax basses otherwise to me none of the simulated effects were really up to the task, a bit like the Cosm effect on Roland micro amps, not here nor there. Best to save your money on individually designed effects, like a proper compressor, chorus, flanger etc.

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I use one in the studio AND live and i get some great results. I don't tend to use the amp modelling but the modulation effects (chorus, flanger and phaser) are definitely usable with a little patience and tweaking.

Although 'out of the box' it can be a little generic sounding, some time, patience and experimentation can result in a really great, compact and usable system.

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I liked mine at first, but during the process of checking out a couple new amp heads, i realised that it was noticeably reducing the output of the amps (& yes, i had read the manual & was aware of the level controls etc!).

After a bit more investigation, I noticed my sound was also lacking in dynamics & that it was a bit dull/flat That might have been the compressor working but whatever, I didn't like the end result so I sold it.

Ironically, I wouldn't recommend it for live use. I can see how it mught be useful on your course though - if you are going to cover many styles of music , the range of sounds on offer from one box will be useful. So will having the tuner & effects pedals all in one unit too.

imo , individual true bypass stomp boxes are a better quality sound option, but for a bass course, it'll sound fine & probably will be quite convenient.

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I had one and sold it....

What it was good for....
recording, or live without an amp. The amp models are pretty good, with a range of sounds and fully programmeable
and the effects are pretty good too, I found a nice range of stuff to use and play with. As someone said both need a bit of editing to get the best out of them.

What is it not good at....
changing on the fly, I found each time i used it live (with amp modeling) i had to spend ages tweaking all the patches I had made for the room/set up.... not massive fun.
The parametric eq- brilliant if editing via PC, crap if using the unit!
and ultimatly with all the compression off as wilco said, I found it sucked the life out of my playing, all the dynamics were dulled and it sounded compressed. I found the best tone i could get with it live was turning it off!


in conclusion: trying out effects - great
recorded sound - good
different sounds - good
an ampless setup - great
SVT model (with the cab model off) - good, but catalinbreat SFT better

live sound - awful

if you get one get one of the bean ones as it will be cheaper.

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Interesting opinions. I love my X3 LIVE. But you need to play with it a lot to get the good stuff out. But I use mine in pro studios, in my own studio and onstage with all my bands. I wouldn't be without it.

Has your Bass Academy got some sort of sponsorship deal with Line 6 or something ? :)

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