Is something wrong with my POD?

[blackbull]

I have a line 6 pod x3 and I've never been satisfied with any tone really, most of them sound like crap. I'm actually starting to wonder if there's something wrong with my pod or guitar maybe.. I recorded a small test:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/76402092/shittone2.mp3
The first tone is the style-preset on Amplitube 3 Free called "Classical Post 1". The second one is Youtube-guitarist csguitar89's "Rectumfrier" tone (i used pod farm). It can be found on the tone-section on csguitar89.com. Is it supposed to sound like this?

 

[Manifesto]

Please avoid mediafire, use something like dropbox

That sounds really bad, but i would not blame it on the pod. Here's a list of thing that could go wrong with the amateur-rish guitar recording process:

Picking tecnique: People (myself included) do not realize how bad their tecnique is until they begin recording themselves.
Strings: always use brand new strings when recording.
Pickups: An an example, stock beheringer strat pickups can make every signal chain weaker.
Connections: Read the manual of your pod (I do not own one, so i can't really help with that)
Presets usage: Presets suck, do not use them unless you find a preset designed for your picking tecnique, your pickups, your tuning and your music approach.

From what i hear in your recording, i guess you should improve your tecnique, check if everything is well connected and forget about the presets

 

[blackbull]

Yeah sorry I realize dropbox is much better for everyone else now. I'm pretty sure my picking technique isn't the problem, as it sounds pretty good with the tones that do sound okay. MM1066's tones sound good but absolutely everything else sucks ass. It's weird isn't it?

 

[LoftMusicRob]

The problem is that it's a POD....

 

[Fox Mulder]

The problem is that it's a POD....

I beg to differ.

 

[Pardi]

Put a physical TS Screamer before you hit the POD. It will probably give you the distortion your looking for.

 

[Spectivum]

I loaded that tone to my X3 and confirm it does sound shit. replace that stupid FX stomp with the Screamer with Drive around 10-15 and voila...

 

[Mm1066]

The reason this tone actually sucks is because I made the terrible terrible preset. I'd done some post processing to the tone, so I tried to make a patch work by adding on the extra processing with it, and it turned out like crap but I haven't had any time to change it. The lead tone I did is slightly better, but I'm moving away from the POD sounds as there's better stuff out there. But to make it sound better, take down the boosts on the highs with the EQ, and also take the amp gain to half instead of where it currently is.

 

[Spectivum]

haha, I was thinking of coming back and editing my comment, I should not be that definitive as all sounds are subjective and this tone might work for some (at least the creator?) but surely not for the OP. now it turns out not even the father is happy
sure the POD is marketed as all in one but unfortunately the more processing you do inside it the worse the sound gets...