:shock:
With some helpful advice (thanks Arjen), I purchased a PodXT Live. The past two days have been spent exploring the wide range of sounds it can produce. Very spiffy stuff. There's just one little problem...
What are all those danged knobs for, anyway?
Is there a guide on the web that explains what some of the controls for the efx do? I can use the PodXT just fine; it's the settings for the various efx that confuggle me. What's drive and gain do on distortion efx? What's frequency and gain do on an equalizer? Etc., etc., etc. Heck, I can't even decide if I like the board better for just efx (using my amps preamp), or if I like it as an amp modeler, driving my amp's power half...
Any help or advice appreciated. :D
A sucking chest wound is Nature's way of telling you to slow down.
Godin Freeway Classic, PodXT Live, Seymour-Duncan 84-50.
(All this so I could learn 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little' Star for my youngest.)
Ah ha! RTFM! Yes, yes, I've done that...
I guess I should rephrase the request. I'm a bit confused as to how to get what I want to hear. CustomTone.com is cool for grabbing various effects, so that's covered. What I'm trying to figure out is how to actually mix all the ingredients to yield something edible. I was hoping there would be something somewhere that listed what kinds of effects bands used, or what kinds of effects one would use to achive a particular sound.
A sucking chest wound is Nature's way of telling you to slow down.
Godin Freeway Classic, PodXT Live, Seymour-Duncan 84-50.
(All this so I could learn 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little' Star for my youngest.)
I don't know if it's that good or not, but have you tried the line6 Forums? I briefly looked through it and there's guys asking about different sounds and they seem to be getting some replies. There's also guitargeek.com that has the actual rig layouts of many famous artists.
BUT, aside from that, one suggestion is to take a single amp model and 'live' with it for a week or so. Just as if you'd bought 'just' that amp and you're fooling around with the controls. When I got my POD2 awhile back, I sorta did that. Just one amp, one guitar. Or try out other guitars with the one amp. It gets too weird if you have that many amps and speakers and effects so start off with one amp. Refer to articles or guitargeek to find which brand of amp your favorite artist uses, and then stick with that one for awhile. Just to get used to how the tone and volume controls affect the sound. Tweak it by ear. Use different volume and tone settings on your guitar too. Get really used to the sounds of that one amp until you get something close or something you like, and THEN maybe change the speaker models. It's a whole bunch of experimenting. Even if you take settings that someone suggested online, it's still going to be different slightly because you've got a different guitar with different pickups, you play maybe harder or softer than the other guy, or play closer or further from the bridge - etc. It'll be different from that other person's sound because 'you' are different.
So continue to fool around with the settings until you get closer to what you want.
THEN, start adding effects and reverbs and stuff. Write down or save your settings, and then after a few days or a week, go on to the next amp model.
With so many variables, you have to start someplace and make at least one of the variables stable so things aren't changing all over the place.
One variable you might take out of the loop right away is the external amp. Just use headphones at first and get a sound you like by going through it step by step, and when you've got a bunch of patches you like, put it through the amp and see if you can adjust the amp to sound like it does through the headphones.
At a certain point you'll get close to what you want, but more importantly, you'll have learned the basics of tweaking your rig to get the sound you want, which I think is the more valuable lesson, really.
Good luck and have fun! :)
