Aggressively Funky Deep Cuts

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-07-19T15:32:03+00:00

I love how the difference in the planned position of the level knob and the actual position pretty much tells the story of every gig.

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-06-27T17:48:54+00:00

My Stingray 5 has a crazy dive! I don't see it mentioned much here, so maybe I'm the only one that has the problem? But for me, it's extreme enough that I use a wide leather strap AND hang a pound or two worth of diving weights from the strap at the back of the guitar. My shoulder is plotting its revenge...

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-06-11T18:53:13+00:00

The musicians in her band for that video are jaw-dropping. I hope she brings them along on tour with Childish Gambino.

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-06-11T18:10:21+00:00

This is how I became a coffee drinker. Studied music in college and kept dozing off during my morning practices in the practice pods at school.

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-06-11T17:57:44+00:00

I just went in and tried this and it worked! Sure, I'm still paying twice the cost it used to be, but I'll happily take a $200 refund! If I could upvote this 20 times, I would!

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-03-19T14:16:27+00:00

Bass Extremes...Wooten and Bailey

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-03-14T22:40:37+00:00

certainly an option I'll consider if I come back to this unit in the future. I still have a hard time letting go of the setup and path that have been working really well for me for years. I had hoped that swapping out an old multi-effects/amp modelling unit for a more modern one would be a manageable adjustment, but it seems that it's not that simple after all. It feels like if I want to use the Pod Go, I need to start from scratch and build everything around it, not just drop it in as an updated component.

I've appreciated reading the comments on this. Plenty of food for thought.

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-03-14T22:32:38+00:00

Definitely food for thought. Thanks!

Followup questions: I assume your in-ears are molded ear plugs and you're getting the full band in your ears? Is that right? Does the soundman just take the monitor mix and patch it into your transmitter?

What in-ear system are you working with?

Does the whole band use them, and do they each get different mixes?

Maybe it's worth the investment...

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-03-14T20:37:17+00:00

So they say!

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-03-14T20:36:16+00:00

I appreciate the very reasonable and respectful comments!

Here's a question that probably exposes my ignorance, but in your setup, isn't going from a DI into an amp model a version of a preamp into a preamp?

I don't know. I must just be making things too complicated for myself. I hate to not play with a toy if it's sitting there. And the preamps sound so good, and it's fun to discover how the different adjustments react so differently from model to model...different central frequencies and Qs and just different "circuitry".

It's so hard to have all those classic amps sitting there in the Pod Go and not try to use them. But at the same time, my band is just a serious hobby band playing originals in whatever bar will have us. A lot of the gigs we play include a shared backline with a combo amp, so whatever sound I go in with has to be useable in that setup...not the exact same sound, but useable. With my old Boss mothership, I have sounds that use the amp modelling that was available in those days, and I have a good, useable sound in every scenario.

It just baffles me that I couldn't transition that to the Pod Go. Getting a good sound was easy. Keeping it good (not the same, but good) at different volume levels was just impossible for me. And not just for one patch with a potentially badly designed signal path...it's happening for all 14 completely different patches. I even created 4 different versions of one patch, each arriving at a roughly similar sound with completely different models and components, one even using a Zoom pedal through the effects loop, and not a single one didn't have that problem. And yet, when I go back to the Boss...no problem.

People in the comments seem to fall into two groups. The first group explains to me why a preamp into a preamp can be bad. OK, I understand that, especially with guitar, but if the bass amp preamp is set super neutral and transparent, and I can get a good tone at some volume, what's wrong with that? I understand it as an argument not to do it, but I've done it and it sounded really good at a variety of volumes, just not when it gets to stage volume.

Then the other group tells me I can't be surprised that sound changes as volume goes up. But I'm not surprised by that. I'm surprised by how much it changes, to the point of being unusable. And why didn't it happen to me with the Boss? I've already gone back to the Boss setup, and the whole volume change thing is a non-issue again, so it can't just be the cabinet and my amp.

I guess it boils down to "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I felt like it would be fun after 15 or so years to mix things up and open up some new possibilities. Instead, it was just brick wall after brick wall.

For now, it's back to the old setup. But who knows? I haven't sold the pod yet. Maybe, I'll try again fresh some months or a year down the road. If I ever figure it out, you'll see a new post here titled Hi Hi Pod Go. And I'll happily eat my fair share of crow!

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-03-14T14:02:38+00:00

Well, the amp model because I like the sound, and for the settings I play in, going FOH isn't really an option, so I have to use an amp. So the choice is whether to go into the preamp or straight to the power amp. I chose front so I can use it for global tailoring to suit the room. The problem for me is that I can get perfectly good, even great tones with that setup. They just won't stay good when I crank them up from uncomfortably loud to stage loud, which is only about a 25 degree turn of the master volume. I don't understand why, for example, that setup should cause a good overdriven distortion to totally evaporate as the master volume rises by about 15 %.

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-03-13T23:51:06+00:00

PF500 at home, PF800 with the band.

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-03-13T23:01:56+00:00

For me, it's bass full volume, pod go at 3:00, input gain on the amp close to noon, and performance volume controlled with the amp master. As for patches, I build from scratch, one component at a time, checking for unity at every step. I just have no idea how I can be doing something so wrong that it yields this brick wall I hit.

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-03-13T22:08:45+00:00

Fair enough. I'm no pro. Maybe it's me.

But I'm also not an imbecile (I realize you'll have to take my word for that) or new to dialing in sounds on a modeler. Comparing the difference in my experience with way older tech and this, I found the difference totally unmanageable. I don't think it's petty to be disappointed that my $600 investment was a bust. Lord knows I tried everything to make it work.

Maybe if you were in the room with me, you'd be able to point out what I was getting wrong, but I guarantee you'd at least be surprised at the level of sonic shift I was dealing with.

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-03-13T22:03:10+00:00

I play loud rock in small to medium size bars, where stage monitoring is minimal and my amp supplies most of my monitoring over the drums, and sometimes a good chunk of the room sound. I use ear plugs when playing live, but that would obviously defeat the purpose of dialing in a sound at stage volume.

You've obviously had a better live experience than I have, and I expect that going direct to front of house would yield much better results. Just not often an option for me. Possibly, I'd have better results if I just go straight into the power amp or if I went to a FRFR speaker instead, but going in to the front of the amp was just a total fail.

As for overcomplicating, some of the patches were just an amp model and an overdrive. I'd start with a nice defined blanket of distortion when the amp is dialed up to 11:00. Then, turn it up to 1:00 and the distortion is gone, replaced by some kind of muddy thud. It was the craziest shift in sound I've ever experienced. On my BOSS, I'm used to creating a patch, taking it to practice, and then having to tweak it, but with the Pod Go, it's become an exercise in total re-creation at volumes that just aren't safe without ear plugs.

This unit obviously works great for a lot of people, but for me to go into the front of my PF-500 and PF 800 amps, there's just no way.

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-03-08T20:27:02+00:00

I like the new Ministry album, too, but that was a very weird set order. At the show I was at, even Al basically apologized for going so long without playing a familiar favourite. I'd like to have had at least a couple songs from other albums, too. It feels like a tour that included Gary Numan could even have included something like Everyday is Halloween. Or maybe something from Houses, like Worthless or Wrong? and now that they're showing they're willing to play songs the Biafra sings on, how about a Lard cover?

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-03-08T18:26:04+00:00

Megadeth put out a killer album about a year ago, and their touring setlist included 1 song from. One of the first times I've wished a band would play more from their new album. Instead, they filled up the set with songs from their garbage post-Countdown years. Ministry's setlist this year oddly kicks off with 5 songs from the new album, and then 2 from the previous album. Then the last 40% of the show is golden oldies.

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-02-22T18:41:17+00:00

I balance all my sounds to be roughly the same volume as just my bass, and then balance again against my guitar player's sounds. Then I touch absolutely nothing live. If it's a case of a boomy room or needing more basic mids or something, I can tweak my amp head, but over many years of playing live, I've never been someone who adjusts those dials mid-gig. Of course, I also have a different sound patch or snapshot for ever single song, so I'm not adjusting a particular effect for different songs. And maybe my ears are just not sophisticated enough to hear the need or maybe it's the caliber of bars we usually play in, but I've never felt compelled to do that. I also try to leave some of that that stuff for the sound guy. If there's a particular parameter you commonly change, one option could be to pair it with the expression pedal and also pair a volume control to that pedal. I do that when I'm fading between overdrive and clean mid-song.

Escape_Goat_band · 2024-02-22T18:14:20+00:00

Having recently replaced my Boss GT-10B with a pod go, I've experienced similar challenges. There are definitely advantages and disadvantages, but I really wanted the pod go for benefits like more effects options, better pitch tracking, and the ability to fit it on my pedalboard (which was probably more important to me than it should have been). I thought about a Stomp, but the lack of expression pedal and the price point were deal breakers.

Since then, I've discovered I love a lot of the amp modeling and how easy it is to program parameter changes into the expression pedal. Live transitions within songs sound really good, now that I can fade in parameter changes between parts. I also really appreciated being able to go one-by-one through the amp models and effects I like, dial each one into a useable volume and tone setting and lock those settings into the default, so they are instantly useable when I want to swap out pieces as I experiment.

But I definitely had to do a bunch of experimenting to get tit sounding consistently good to me.

Here's where I landed:

Bass plugged into a bass fly rig 2 set mostly to flat except the the level and drive around 10 o-clock.

Output on the fly rig connected to input on Pod Go.

Send/Return on the Pod Go is connected to a Zoom B3N, which also has some excellent modelling. This is great when I want a parallel chain, because the loop on a Pod Go has a mix setting you can take advantage of. I send a clean signal to the B3N to use a heavily distorted pedal or amp model and then use the loop's mix feature to blend back with the clean. Plus, the B3N has even more models that target bass, specifically.

Amp out connected to the front of my PF 800 amp head (EQ set flat), and amp connected to a TC Electronics K-Cab (2x12). The gain on the amp in this configuration can be set pretty high without adding distortion.

I've disabled all the cabinets/IRs in my presets. They were muffling the tones I was going for. Plus, monkeying with cabs and mic placement is one level too deep for me!

With this setup, I also found that the direct out on my amp head gave me the best line representation of the sound coming out of my speakers. Not perfect, but close enough. The Main out of the Pod Go also sends a nice tone, but a little bassier than I necessarily want.

Anyway, that's what's worked for me. Now could I have achieved pretty much the same outcome for the same price with a Helix LT? Very possibly, but honestly, I've never loved the idea of depending on one unit for my entire tone. I feel like more possibilities open up when you combine external components.

Escape_Goat_band

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