Without Line 6’s excellent work in the modeling arena, XONE would not sound like it does today. Both the Vetta and the Bass POD XT Pro help us make our sound rich and full. But how about the POD XT Live for guitar? How does it sound in context with the Vetta?
Recently, both XONE and members of the band EBackwardsE have started getting together on Sundays to create a Supergroup as a side project to stretch our abilities. It's a lot of fun, and we may even play live for a few songs at a XONE/EBackwardsE show. To start off, Jeremy Larsson of EBackwardsE, Will Austin of XONE, and Jason Seger of EBackwardsE & XONE, have been mapping out the direction of this "Supergroup yet to be named". This project has allowed for the Vetta and the POD XT Live to come together in a two-guitar environment.
It is a really cool and interesting situation. First off, I (Will) play an Ibanez RG1570 guitar, and Jeremy plays an earlier RG Series Ibanez guitar. Both guitars utilize the Ibanez V8 humbucking pickup in the Bridge slot. This could create a problem for both guitars in the overall sound since distinguishing one guitar from the other could be difficult due to their similar makeup. This is where the Vetta and the POD XT Live have become essential to giving each player his own respective place within the live mix. Overall rigs of each player consist of:
Will = Vetta HD ver2.50>Marshall 1960A 4x12 cabinet with G12_T75 speakers
Jeremy = POD XT Live>Mesa Boogie 2:90 Power Amp>Mesa Boogie 4x12 with V30 speakers.
Now some in the Tube Snob community believe that one digital modeler, will sound dry, harsh, and well, "Digital".
Similarly, they believe that two digital modelers will sound like "Stale Doughnuts".
Do the Vetta and the POD XT Live sound like stiff, stale doughnuts?
Well, in our opinion, "NO!"
Especially by utilizing the Mesa 2:90 Power Amp with the POD XT Live, and the Marshall 1960A cabinet with the Vetta, we are having no problem getting an organic sound out of our rigs. We are also creating patches for each prospective song that give each guitar its own sonic space in the live mix. It's necessary, but also a great excuse to tweak new patches!!! Last Sunday, we worked on a souped-up version of "Sweet Leaf" by Black Sabbath. We created a patch on the POD XT Live that utilized the Soldano SLO-100 model. We tweaked the patch predominantly to carry the Low and Low-Mid section of the overall tone. Alternatively, my patch on the Vetta would carry the Higher End of the overall tone. I had created a patch that utilized the Engl Powerball model for the Low End of my patch, and the Line 6 Agro model for the Highs. (Vetta uses 2 amp models at once). The Powerball carries most of my patch, but I've added just enough Agro to bring out the highs in the Vetta patch. When we played them together, you could hear each guitar's specific tone in harmony with the other's. Instead of giving off a general swirl of muddy noise, the two rigs hammered out an evil sounding, jacked-up, twin guitar version of Sabbath's classic song. It did not sound like "Stale Doughnuts".
Hey, maybe we should name the Supergroup that...
"Stale Donuts"....
No comments:
Post a Comment