How would one improve the POD sounds?

[Black neon bob]

The fact that i have a POD XT straight into the soundcard.. i am quite happy with the sound so far, but i want a more, thicker sound coming from the POD now.. i have a gibson explorer loaded with zakk wylde's EMG's, into a POD, into the soundcard..

So i was thinking, what if i took a nice pre-amp in between the that chain? like "the brick" or another pre-amp.. would that really make my sound more thick? more aggressive? i feel it needs something, since the POD XT sounds are good, but a bit thin though..

any suggestions on this one?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Black neon bob]

I have a behringer mic-200 laying around here somewhere, but that cheap thing did absolutely nothing for me at all, and i have no further pre-amp experiences beside that one..

 

[DIOBOLIC5150]

The fact that i have a POD XT straight into the soundcard.. i am quite happy with the sound so far, but i want a more, thicker sound coming from the POD now.. i have a gibson explorer loaded with zakk wylde's EMG's, into a POD, into the soundcard..

So i was thinking, what if i took a nice pre-amp in between the that chain? like "the brick" or another pre-amp.. would that really make my sound more thick? more aggressive? i feel it needs something, since the POD XT sounds are good, but a bit thin though..

any suggestions on this one?

Thanks in advance!

I had a Rocktron Gainiac that I used to run in front of the POD every now and then. It was only one tube, but it made it sound a lot thicker for sure...more natural sounding. It's definitely worth trying.

 

[Nitronium Blood]

How is the 81 and 85 set up?

If it is like this: Bridge:81 - Neck:85, then try swapping them.

The 85 in the bridge should be your first step towards improving your sound, and to me your sound is already exceptional for Pod Xt direct sounds

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Kazrog here said putting a Tube Screamer in front of the POD greatly improved his sound.

 

[JeffTD]

Kazrog here said putting a Tube Screamer in front of the POD greatly improved his sound.

I can attest to that. Putting a Tubescreamer or Boss SD-1 infront of just about anything will improve the sound.

 

[Mendel]

hey bob a thing that i tried. i got this mixer thing amp that's kinda old. ( see picture )
and i pluggen my podtxt in it, and then the tape output ( that red, white thing behind it ) to the computer. becuase you can change the freq. of the sound the podxt sounds
allot thicker now. the tone's are much brighter, fuller, more powerful.

hopefully this helps.

 

[Hopkins-WitchfinderGeneral]

Just tried the screamer thing with the TS9 that was hanging about, it made a slight difference, but nothing worth singing from the rooftops about.

...AND YES I KNOW IT'S A TS9 AND NOT AN 808 OK.

 

[OverDriven]

Heres a clip I recently did with my PODxt. The drums/bass/ piano are programmed...guitar comes in at about :30 seconds so you may want to fast forward to that part. If you like it, heres how i did it:

-Rhythm parts are 2 tracks of SLO model, 2 tracks of Recto model. I pan 1 recto and 1 SLO left, and the other Recto/SLO right.
- On the guitars, all frequencies 80 hz and down I cut. Same for 12.5 khz and up.
- Used Andy's waves C4 preset, though you can get away with not using it. It just adds a bit of tightness
- Don't use any reverb or anything like that on the rhythm tracks, and go VERY sparingly if you use it on lead tracks. It just makes the tone distant and muddy.
- The number one tip for massive POD sounds is to KEEP THE GAIN AS LOW AS POSSIBLE while still maintaining the tone you are looking for.

-Joe

 

[Kazrog]

The emulated tube screamer in the POD XT sounds pretty good, and if you don't have the real thing it should suffice. I highly recommend putting your EMG 85 in the bridge position, that will make a huge difference!

 

[Hapexamendios]

Heres a clip I recently did with my PODxt. The drums/bass/ piano are programmed...guitar comes in at about :30 seconds so you may want to fast forward to that part. If you like it, heres how i did it:

-Rhythm parts are 2 tracks of SLO model, 2 tracks of Recto model. I pan 1 recto and 1 SLO left, and the other Recto/SLO right.
- On the guitars, all frequencies 80 hz and down I cut. Same for 12.5 khz and up.
- Used Andy's waves C4 preset, though you can get away with not using it. It just adds a bit of tightness
- Don't use any reverb or anything like that on the rhythm tracks, and go VERY sparingly if you use it on lead tracks. It just makes the tone distant and muddy.
- The number one tip for massive POD sounds is to KEEP THE GAIN AS LOW AS POSSIBLE while still maintaining the tone you are looking for.

-Joe

Dude, I dig the clip. I love that shit with harmony. Sweet.

 

[bobvex]

dual 31 band EQ's seem to clean up the POD > Soundcard route.

Check this page too.

http://users.panafonet.gr/mtsag/pod.html