grdGo33

Just to conclude!  If you're starting out with IRs, thanks again @voxman55 and @olerabbit grab these:

1) ML Sould Lab best IR,  It's just one IR, but it's pretty good, very balanced!  Just sounds 'right'.    https://www.dropbox.com/s/m4fwk8jx6m08hse/ML Sound Lab's BEST IR IN THE WORLD.zip?dl=0

2) L6 Allure pack, 6 IRs, but they're pretty good.  https://de.line6.com/allure/

3) Seacow's Christmas pack.  It contains a 45 IRs, they're pretty good sounding all quite varied.  https://seacowcabs.wordpress.com/2019/12/24/seacow-cabs-christmas-ir-pack/

Just with these 3 downloads, you'll end up with around 50 IRs, and while it takes some time to import them all, once you have them it's much easier to jump from on IR to the other, and it's much simpler/faster than going through the L6 PGO cab/mic/distance thing.  I mean, when you click on a Mesa Boogie cab, you'll instantly get the Mesa sound, same for Marshall, and for some reason seem to make the sound 'pop' a little more than the default cabs seem to do...  They just instantly give you "the sound".

But still they don't sound drastically different to the L6 cabs, comparing a Fender one with the same mic they sounded basically identical, but, just being able to click on an IR is much better than having to select the cab, then change the mic, and then change the distance.  Plus not having to remember exactly what every cab/mic/distance setting sounds like and having to endlessly experiment with settings...  A much easier/faster process, and absolutely ZERO messing around with mics/distance, priceless!   Just having these 50 cab options would take you weeks of trial/error configuring the default cabs, and most likely you'd just never get to experience these sounds...

Surprisingly, I was expecting the Tone Junky IRs to sound great, but I found the sound from their free pack to be quite bland and disappointing... Even if some said TJ's IRs were fantastic, I couldn't hear it...  Might be amp matching...  So far I just mainly used the Dirty Placater Amp with heavy riffs;  haven't gotten around to clean and lead.  So maybe they'll do better there...  But yeah to me the above 3 IR packs all sounded quite a bit better.

Also Seacow has a lot of cabs and IRs...  But my issue is that in packs, when you're getting 500 IRs at once, when you get 50 IRs for 1 cab; 10 different mics & 4 different placements for each, that's just too many, and kinda pointless unless you're so picky about your IRs and you're really anal about your mic & placement and want that exact sound...!  It becomes obfuscation through quantity...  For me, too many options, scrolling, and 50 IRs for 1 cab is just too much; much prefer the above packs simplicity!  :D 

Oh, and btw, you can import multiple IRs at once...   Don't do like me and import them 1 by 1... lol

Why would setting it last be any worse than setting in first?  If the out/in have noise or quality issues, the noise will be the same if it's first or if it's last.  Even logically, well depending on whether your block chain ends up increasing or decreasing the overall signal, putting it last might have less noise.  Since if your noisy signal is put at the start of your chain and your chain increases the overall volume, the noise will equally be increased, whereas if it was last, in the contrary the noise/distortion from the FX loop would be lower relative to the overall loud sound.

1 hour ago, voxman55 said:

As I said, Pod Go is not 'plug n play' - and it isn't for everyone but hey, I'm an oldie and I had to go on a learning curve too, but if I can pretty much suss it out enough to get good tones, I'm sure you can too. But (and I'm being serious) if you really don't have the patience/inclination and don't want to go through that effort and just want to plug in and play (which I totally respect & get!)  I honestly think its the wrong unit for you and perhaps a more straightforward stomp pedal like unit such as the Boss ME80 might better suit your personal needs?  It sounds great, its built like a tank, has loads of features, and is very straightforward to use - effectively it's a series of stomp boxes with real knobs.  I seriously thought about an ME70 or ME80 but it didn't suit my personal needs.  However, a very good friend of mine uses it professionally and he swears by it.   

Bit too late for that!  :)    (L6 cab ranting spoilered)

But anyway, IR largely solves the cab issue for me.  Now it's much more easier to just go from one IR to the next, without having to tweak mic & distance every single time!   So far I'm really liking the ML Sound Lab's BEST IR IN THE WORLD, not sure what it is exactly though, Boogie maybe?  "ML mix IR", maybe mix of IRs/cabs/mics also...  But I guess that's the beauty of it, it's one click away instead instead of a huge headache away! :D   Kalthallen also seem to sound pretty good, but haven't tested them all.

But yeah, so far, I'm really happy with the IRs I've tried so far!  :D

Oh, and trying to find out what the ML best IR is, saw this below, so while I don't doubt the L6 cabs can all be made to sound phenomenal with time & dedication, very likely that there's many IR that can be achieved IRL which are just not possible with the L6 cab parameters.  From dual cabs, multiple mics, angling the mics, positioning them differently vs driver, etc.,  The more I think about it, the more using IR make sense as the better solution! 

Quote

 Still most of an IR producer's job is to know how to mic up cabs well and that takes years of practice. I've had a self-built 4x12 sized xyz-axis microphone robot for 3 years prior to Dynamount creating that xy-axis robot which is what pretty much every other IR producer is using. If you've ever miked a guitar cab you'll know that a guitar speaker sounds completely different if you f.ex. pull the mic straight up or to the side. The best mic positions are usually somewhere in-between "straight up" or "to the side" and most IR producers never even try those positions. Try the freebie and if it's not at all your thing then you'll at least know: bit.ly/MLSoundLab

@voxman55  Thx for the ML Soundlap 'best' IR I'll try it out a bit later!   I didn't dl so far the packs; some ask for payment even if it's for 0$, etc, but this one seems to have quite a few which can be downloaded without hassle!  https://www.soundwoofer.se/blog/about/top-20-list/. 

Tone junkies also looks good, and the later links also contain non-hassle downloads, Seacow, KalthallenCabsIR, etc, big thanks!  :D

On 10/12/2020 at 2:05 PM, voxman55 said:

Think of it like choosing a car - before you buy you need to decide what makes you like - Ford, Mercedes, BMW etc (akin to Marshall, Fender, Vox etc), how many doors (3,4, 5 - akin to 1x12, 2x12, 4x12 speaker) then the specific model (eg Vox 2x12 Blues, Silver, greenbacks), then how does it feel to drive ie how does the cab sound to you?

Except I wouldn't be buying a car, I would be downloading free cars!  So you could tell me; well here's a Ferrari SF90, here's a McLaren 720s, Porsches GT3RS, here's an F1, here's a Tesla, Ford truck, a jeep, a RollsRoyce, BMW Sedan, Mercedes SUV, etc.!  And I could drive around with all of them  ;)

Quote

Once you've found a few favourite stock cabs that work for you

But yeah I understand the basics of cabs, mics & distance.  I'm not just super interested in getting a PHD in Pod Go Cabs science at the moment...  Just wanna play music!  And the way the L6 PGO works, I find that it's more of a deterrent to me; I'm wasting more time on this cab/mic/distance sh!t than just enjoying playing guitar!  If IRs can simplify my life and give me just a dozen awesome cab tones (that people have spent years learning and developing) without requiring me to mess with L6 cab-sh!t for days/weeks/months, huge win for IRs for now!  :D

ranting

So yeah sure I can get decent usable tones, it's just never as I exactly want it, but you could argue that I'm being too picky...

@olerabbit thx for the Allure pack I tried it a bit earlier and they really sound great!

6 hours ago, olerabbit said:

Besides this I tried some free IRs, too, but was rather disappointed. To my ears it's a questrion of matching frequencies.

Most of the IRs that I tested did not harmonize with the PodGo's amp models soundwise. 

From 10 free IRs I tested only 1 was an improvement of sound - but only with 2 of POD Go's amp models.

:\   Hmmm...  Lost me on harmonizing!  ;)  But yeah I see them more as templates for the moment; instead of having to mess with the L6 cab/mic/dist, you just pick an IR based on a cab, don't worry about the details and use that.  And if say I know that 3 IRs are based on the same cab and are good representatives of the tone of the cabs, already that's a huge improvement vs the L6 too confusing because of too many variables configure your own recording studio setup...   I'm sure you can get great results with the L6 stock cabs, it's likely just more hassle than IRs, and if I can just load a few IRs and be satisfied, I'll be happy & content!  But yeah to me the Allure pack IRs sounded great, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

I'll definitely also try Vox's best ML and https://www.soundwoofer.se/blog/about/top-20-list/ 

Thanks!  :D    

On 10/3/2020 at 2:23 PM, HansD said:

Thanx for your reply cristt. I tried different cables including TRS cables, but there's no difference. I will submit a support ticket.

The thing that surprises me, is that there has been no comments from others about this. The difference in tone is quite severe.

Any improvement/news/update after speaking to L6 or trying different stuff?

Jesus...  1st link...   " 700+ Mesa OS IRs (.wav)"!   o.0

Yeah the main issue for me is always being overwhelmed with options.  In PGO:  There's 16 mics.  There's 30 cabs.  There's at least 10 mic usable positions.  (typical mic placement is 1 to 5 inch?).  So that's what, like 5000 possibilities?  Sure, not all are useful, but I'm having great trouble wrapping my head around the sound of the cab, the sound of the mics and the exact effect of the combinations of those vs distance.  700+ Mesa OS IRs is a bit similar, I can't see myself scrolling through 700+ IRs, that would take me years!   lol

Hence, if there's already 'renown' classic great sounding IRs, well, since you're not dealing with cabs/mic/distance, and are just getting IR sound, that's way simpler.  Maybe at least use them as reference...   Ex: If I were trying to make Bourbon, and I have a bunch of ingredients; I'd be asking, what are the best Bourbons I should taste to know what great Bourbon is supposed to taste like?  Having then a crate with 700+ different bourbon bottles would just get me drunk lol

For the L6 cabs, yeah, read a bit on mics and cabs and and setup some patches, but not sure how much better/worse good IRs would sound in comparison.  Too many options I didn't try, if just plugging an IR would give me better sound with less hassle...!

And for using the L6 cabs, it's super annoying that the mic is stuck with the cab.  If I could set the mic & distance and just switch cab that would be one thing, but having to reconfigure the mic & distance each time you switch cab is super annoying... (don't think you can...)  Also, as per the above, never know if you're missing out on a great cab/mic/distance combination, but often it seems it ends up with "well I guess it sounds ok now, but if only it could be a little bit more like this and a bit less like that", and given just the cab/mic/distance combination possibilities, it's like rocket science, would probably take dozens of scientific papers to be able to explain the relation between them all and what combinations results in the 'best' combinations for different purposes...

Thanks!!!  :D  Have you made some more?  I'm also trying to find some good IRs, having dual cabs ones would be great since I also heard good things about them.  I'm entirely new to IRs so really am in the learning phase.  One thing, I think setting up the high and low cut in the IR isn't a good idea, since you can just set them in the IR settings, but if they're cut off from the IR itself, then it's gone forever and you cannot get those frequencies back...

I think some of the IRs are more suited for some amps/styles, so if not used 'correctly', it might not sound good/great even if it is in fact a fantastic IR?  For this one, I just quickly tested with a Placater dirty (default settings), and maybe because I'm more accustomed to Ribbon mics so far, so it seemed to sound fairly balanced but seemed to somehow have a smoothing effect to the amp's distortion? 

So yeah I guess for finding an IR, what you're trying to achieve (style of music, amp, etc.) might be more critical than the IR 'quality' itself?  I'd guess this particular IR would be better suited for a classic rock / marshall sound rather than a more modern/heavier/aggressive/saturated type of sound?  Or are IRs generally supposed to be great at everything or are they more generally targeted to a particular style?

Just curious if someone found some good free impulse responses?  Not that I'd be absolutely opposed to paying for some, but I'd rather start to get familiar with them and what they bring to the table, instead of just spending money where I'm not sure it'll be so fruitful.

Thanks!

I tried on mine and I do also get some high end reduction it seems like.  Not drastic, but noticeable.  Still, could be placebo, but I'm fairly confident I could differentiate it in a DBT...  One thing though is that it could be a volume level, are the guitar & Go using the same volume?  If not, if your guitar is louder than the go maybe you're getting more tube saturation/distortion and that's what you interpret as sparkle...

Other than that, my theories would be:

1) Going through the Go is bound to affect the signal in some way.  Some pedals have "true bypass", but in case of Go, being digital, even when you're turning everything off in software, you're still going through the analog and digital conversion, and all of the circuits of the Go.  If the Go was perfect, you couldn't hear any of it, but it appears that it isn't optimal and it does, as you describe, suck the tone...  :\

2) Could be impedance related; when the guitar is connected directly to the amp, it creates a circuit; and in simple terms, the guitar affects the amp and the amp affects the guitar.  (all offer different resistances and work 'as a whole').   When you're plugging in the Go, well now you've completely change the circuit; Guitar -> Go -> amp -> Go -> Guitar, so now everything has changed...  Maybe that also has an effect on your tone... (theory on my part, I know impedance affects electronics, but not quite certain about PUs & amps.  Maybe no effect, maybe someone knows lol)

3) You're also using an extra cable which will also have an effect, the longer cable the more effect... 

So in the end, I'm guessing it's the sum of all of the above.  But I'm surprised that other devices like HD500 & others wouldn't have such impact...  Is the Go really worse than others?  I'd be curious now to know if the other Helix products would have the same 'tone sucking quality' that the Go seems to have...

36 minutes ago, silverhead said:

2) The FX Loop block sits after the Vol and Wah pedals and before anything else. Hence your external looper is receiving only the effects of the Vol and Wah pedals. Specifically, your looper is NOT receiving any of the processing from any other amp, cab, or FX block. What you describe is exactly what I would expect. Since the Wah seems to be off your looper is receiving only the Vol-effected raw signal. If you are listening to your looper outputs that's all you will hear. Your POD Go outputs should give you the fully processed signal.

Exactly, but that's what not it does!  It's connected to 1) Main out left/Mono to guitar amp and 2) headphone out to stereo amp speakers.  But when the FX Loop is on, it gives me absolutely no processed signal, like the FX return goes straight to the PGO out... Exactly like this:

And yeah my Looper (in) is connected to Pod Go FX send, and my looper (out) is connecter to the Go's FX return, so I expected it to go through all the chain like you said, but it's really not what it does...

Ok I just figured it out...! 

Global settings, in/out

That was why as I said in this and the other thread I linked earlier, that the looper kept playing even if the block was off...  So it's actually an interesting option if you have a mono looper and are outputting sound from Go to Monitors/PA/whatever!

But yeah not sure why that option was set the way it was...  When I changed the option, the Go started behaving as you would expect... The more you know LOL   (optimally, there could have been some indicator that the option is on/off, since it really screws up the FX loop behavior, but I guess that when you know the option exist...)

Thanks!

Using my mad Photoshopping skillz, this is how the FX loop appears to be working in actuality when it is turned on in the 3rd effects block location:

48 minutes ago, Punkyboy said:

Depends the pedal that you put on the FXloop, In your case it's a looper and you have just  2 possibilities:

Begin or end of the chain.

 

If you put your looper at the end of your preset and make a loop, when you change the preset, I supose that your loop sound change too?

If yes, change the looper and set it after your pod, in this case you can change your preset without affect your loop sound and can add other preset sound on your loop!

 

Yeah I understand how my looper pedal works, you don't have to try to explain it to me!  lol  I used the looper just as an example.  My question has nothing to do with the looper pedal itself.  It could be a distortion pedal, chorus, compressor, phaser, EQ, reverb, etc., I'm trying to figure out why the Pod Go FX Loop block doesn't seem to work as you would normally assume it to!   Please reread or read the original post, even just the 1st TLDR line of the message for what I'm asking!   Thanks!   :p

Visually:

1 minute ago, Punkyboy said:

To play with a looper for jamming, It must be at the end of the chain and stay there!

I f you want to make a sound, put it to the begin, play your sound in dry, let's play your looper, set your guitar on the stand , and now you can change anything like amp, cab, mods etc... and the sound of the looper gonna change everytime you change something

In short:

Jamming =looper a the end

Create = looper at the begin

 

But the best way to use an external looper is put it after your pod, not in the chain; I mean guitar>POD>looper>PA or amp.....

Thanks yeah I understand how the looper works, I'm trying to figure out how the Pod Go's FX loop works!

TLDR:  How does the FX Loop work relative to the other blocks?

I have a looper connect to the PGO:   PGO FX out -> Looper -> FX in.

1) If the FX Loop is the last element of my effect block chain, it works normally, if I put on some reverb, distortion, etc., I can record with the looper, I can hear all effects, etc., works.

2) BUT, if I move the FX Loop to the 1st block, just before the say the distortion, then it doesn't work.  I'm getting totally raw guitar signal, it sounds like the FX Loop bypasses all the blocks including amp, cab, etc., so I'm not getting anything from the go with this configuration.

3) If I put it at the end just before the cab, I'm getting a loud bright harsh sound.  And if I turn off the the FX loop and turn off the cab, I'm getting the exact same sound.  So it's like the FX loop bypasses the cab when it's on....

So basically, from what I can gather, is that unlike all of the above pictures show, the FX loop block doesn't work like a regular block.  The signal doesn't go through the block... The signal enters the block, and then seems directly routed to the output, bypassing everything that comes after it.

And what is strange, is that if I record something with the looper and I turn the FX Loop off in PGO, I can still hear the looper playing the music through the monitors.  So the FX Loop isn't even really turned off, it's just that the PGO is not outputting any signal from the FX Loop out, but is still processing signal from the FX Loop in.

Does this make any sense? 

More thoughts ...

Ok I'm getting a lot of incoherence...   Turned everything off, then I went back to the Akai E2 Head Rush, and I'm not getting any clipping anymore, even though as I did mention, earlier I was getting a lot of noise/clipping it with...  So I really don't get it, smells like the Go maybe detects impedance at startup and sets itself up for whatever's plugged in, and if you plug in something afterwards it might not work well?  That's my guess...

Something cool though I noticed, which if it isn't a bug is a cool feature:  If you switch patch while the looper is looping, the Go is smart enough to keep the effects loop as the last bit of the chain (the same spot it was when you started looping), and then even if it shows the effects loop say before the amp, it still works as if it was last...  So basically, you're getting the 'correct' looper sound instead of the Go moving the effects loop before the amp and distorting it...  BUT, you cannot disable it via the Pod Go footswitches, if you try to do so, it will cut out the Guitar in sound, and not the looper...  And if the effect loop was off by default, it will show as off but actually be on, and if pressed, switch will light up, but it will mute your guitar and the FX loop will still be on and your looper will keep looping...  (Trail settings for FX loop?  Maybe!)

So much confusion...

[edit] ok just figured out something.  The footswitch to disable the FX loop doesn't disable the 'entire' FX loop, just the FX loop OUT.  The IN is always active no matter if FX Loop is on/off.  

OK it seems to be a level issue...  When I reduce the effect out volume by a lot (ex -6dB), which is barely audible, the clipping goes away.

Test1:  Guitar -> Looper -> Go Effect in (last effect in chain), it works fine, there is no clipping, but the volume is about the same as the above -6dB for effects loop out, which is barely audible...

Test2: Guitar -> Go -> effects loop out -> looper -> Guitar Amp guitar In.   Works fine, no clipping

So basically seems to be an issue with the Pod Go effect in.  It seems to be able to output a 'loud' signal, but when it goes back in through its own effects loop, it will clip.  But, it's with a louder signal than you'd get with just a regular guitar, even with active PUs...

Anybody else getting the same?  I was thinking that I could also likely reproduce the issue by just using a patch cable (cable from/to effect loop in/out), but I don't get the issue with a patch cable.  So it seems to be a combination of guitar pedal + Go...   So I'm guessing it's an impedance issue with the Pedal + PGo, but only with higher levels?

Bit confused...  I'm using the effects loop for a looper, and with some patches, there is some clipping noise when going through the effects loop and looper...  Ex:

1) I go to patch one, activate the effects loop, record a phrase though the looper, all is fine.

2) I switch patch, play a bit, sounds fine.

3) I activate the effects loop, the looper plays fine.

4) I play, but now I'm getting some clipping noise (not from the looper, but from the current guitar/patch sound) when the effects loop is active...

At first I thought it had to do with levels, but even lowering the Go's effects loop out volume so that it's really not loud, I'm still getting the clipping...  And it seems to do so only with some patches...   My effects loop is the last effect of the Go's chain.

I even tried with another Looper (Have an ammoon and an Akai), and the akai seemed much worse than the ammoon; the ammoon sounds fine with some patches, but clips with others.  The akai seemed to clip much worse for more patches from what I can recall...

Thanks!  :\

1 hour ago, phil_m said:

 

You can for sure switch presets while using the looper... It's even mentioned in the manual.

 

Ha!  Ok interesting!  So looper engaged, then to switch; hit mode twice, then select the other patch, then hit mode again to be back to your pedal board, and you can hit the dub/record of the looper to be back to your looper.  Hmm..  Not the most practical vs using an external looper but not so bad, thanks!

15 hours ago, weitzhandler said:

Fairly unproductive if you ask me.

 I'm currently using my Go's effect loop to use a "ammoon AP-09 Nano Loop", think I picked it up a couple yars back from from aliexpress at like US $30 shipped, and I set it up in effects loop as the last block of my Go, seems to work fairly well.  Not sure why, but another looper of mine doesn't work as well (akai) as its playback seems to clip.  But anyway, if you're interested in a looper and aren't using your Go's effect loop, might be worth to pick one up!  (cheap, tiny and works great!).  Or, if you're outputting to guitar cab, amp, etc., you could just set your looper between the Go & it, but I'm using headphone out to audio speakers so not really an option for me, I think...

20 hours ago, Northsea said:

Appreciate the response. I think it’s a really well designed unit and am trying to be positive but...Amp out sounds the same as main out (with cab off) and both sound poor into my amps effects return.

 

It sounds better into the front of the amp to my ears into the clean channel with a bit of amp eq but still nothing like as good as the demos on YouTube etc. Somewhat fizzy, electronic and digital sounding rather than organic, nuanced and saturated. I’ve just used the presets so will experiment with my own patches and spend some time trying to dial it in but out of the box it doesn’t sound “not perfect” frankly it sounds quite bad (again to my ears) and this is my first modelling unit I’ve played valve and solid state amps with pedal boards up to this point. And into an amp effects return with the stock presets there’s just no comparison in terms of tone quality. I don’t have a pa or FRFR powered cab unfortunately to compare that. 

Are you bypassing the Go's cab section?  If not, don't forget that the Go doesn't try to sound 'good' through your guitar Cab.  What it does, is simulate a microphone + guitar cab, and it will output that sound.  So if you output to studio monitors, it will not sound like if it was played through a guitar cab (not as a "good sounding amp in a room", it isn't trying to do that either), but as the mic would have recorded a cab's output.   So it'll sound a like a guitar on a recording, but it's not emulating just "a guitar cab".

If you're using a cab, you'd be better off to go through, as you said, your guitar in and go through your 'real' amp/cab.  When you're using your effects loop in, you're just, basically, playing 'directly' through your guitar speaker; and should be getting your own 'guitar cab sound'.  If your guitar cab was a 'perfect' speaker, it should sound as good as the youtube videos.  But, you're playing emulated cab+mic through your guitar cab, not something intended, or not exactly something Go is trying to do.

I think it's similar to using Go's headphone out to amp mp3/cd in input, to me sounded quite poor, to quote myself from another thread:

Quote

 

Just in case this might help someone.  Basically, should have been evident, but the 'best' way to plug in basically any amp without effects loop such as the Spider or whatever, is simply to bypass the POD Go's amp block and plug to guitar in.  Sure, you're losing out on the cab block of the Go, but honestly, just messing a bit with the amps and the L6, I'd recommend that.

 

If you want to use a Go with a Spider, I'd put the drive to 0, the low/mids/treble to noon, no reverb & delay (unless you're planning to use Combo's to save or Go Blocks), and completely forget that the cab block of the Go exists.  If you want, create a 'base' preset for all the L6 Spider's amp models with 0 drive & all, and that gives your different 'cab' settings.   It would have been nice to have a totally neutral sound out of the Spider, but since you're basically getting 9 cabs with a L6 Spider 3 (forget anything metal/insane, even 0 distortion = too much distortion), you're bound to find one which will sound decent with whatever you're trying to do.

 

Just playing a bit with the Go's amps + L6 Spider, honestly, it's better than I first thought.  It really does sound quite bad when you add the Go's Cab section + Spider's amp/cab, but bypassing the Go's cab, it's decent.  Probably better than the aux, plus saves you the headache of cab+mic+distance, which given that the Go is already soo complex, is a big plus. 

 

Then you can migrate to monitors and use the cabs later on, when you're familiar with the Go & want to improve your sound, but short term, probably your best bet.

 

TLDR.  Guitar -> Go -> Amp effect in =  Go simulated cab -> simulated mic -> out of real cab.  <-- not optimal.   Think it's better to turn off Go's simulated cab & mic and just use your real cab. 

Also, for the Katana, I'm not sure if there's any wizardry at the amp/speaker level, like if the amp section of the Katana (pre effects loop out) already tweaks the sound for its own power amp section & driver.  Because reading back my TLDR,  guitar -> Go (cab bypassed) -> amp effects in, should not sound any worse than the Katana's own amp section (anything before the effects loop out) if the Go's cab section is bypassed...

Quote

  b) I can do things the other way around and 'expand' the number of blocks I have in the PG by putting the Mustang in the PG FX loop, and for example use Mustang distortion stomp boxes (and they should sound ok IF I set the PG FX loop to be BEFORE the PG amp/cab blocks) In this example my guitar would run straight in to the PG input, and I would be using the PG amp/cab models and modulation fx.

What are you trying to use off the Mustang?  The Amp section is a bit pointless as it's a set block on the Go, you cannot change it to something else so it's essentially 'free'.

Quote

3) Is this confusing situation a generic problem if you are trying to use a multi FX unit with a  modelling multi FX amp - because the assumption is that most of the FX you will use will come from the amp itself (And if the FX loop is at the very end of the signal chain, is Fender assuming you don't need more distortion, only more delays etc)?

Quote

Mustang GTX also features an effects loop.The right/left FX send and right/left FX return jacks on the far right of the rear panel are for mono or stereo external effects use (see illustration below); a mono effect can be plugged into the right or left channel. Note that effects connected to these jacks are “global” (not preset-spe-cific) and will act as the last elements in the signal path.

Well not sure if it works exactly as it says in the manual, but if it does, that would be quite limiting...

A few thoughts:

4 cable method

1a)  You could use your amp's distortion as a distortion pedal / boost, plus compressor or other pre-amp effects.  You wouldn't be able to use your amp's reverb/delay/others as these would be pre PGo amp, but you could save 1-2 blocks for boost/distortion/compressor with this; effects before the Go Amp section.

1b) Use the amp's amp modeling instead of the Go, this opens up using more effects from the Mustang as if you're not using the Go's amp/cab, you'll be able to use other effects after your Mustang's...  But you wouldn't be using your Go's amp section, which would kinda defeat the point of the Go IMHO...  (here the Go would be 'last' in the chain)

Guitar to Go to Amp guitar in:

2) You'd get to use your full Go (without cab) 4 blocks, and then use the Mustang's for reverb/delay/phaser, etc., anything at the end.  But then you do not get to use your Mustang's amp section, which should be fine I think since the Go's should be better... 

Latter is probably the simplest and most practical to use.  But... The Go's reverb & other effects are really great, so you might be missing out by not using the Go's effects and instead using the Mustang's...  Anyway, I'd try to use it this way first, just use 100% of the Go and ignore your amp effects.  You could plug to Amp effects in to bypass everything.  Then just get used to the Go effects and all, and then you'll see if your 4 blocks really aren't enough for you, and you'll have a better idea of what effects you want to use at once, and then you'll be able to choose the method most optimal for your specific needs.  There's quite a few options!

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But I had a worrying problem with my Pod Go today. All of a sudden whilst I was playing the volume slowly started to fade out until all audio was gone.

Think the same thing happened to me while editing a patch, seemed like the volume slowly went away, just became softer and softer over a few minutes (1-2 minutes?), and at one point I couldn't figure out why I was getting basically no distortion vs what I had a few minutes ago and I hadn't really changed anything which could have affected it...  But I think it came back after switching the patch, or I just closed the thing and went to do something else... Can't really recall as it happened like a week ago.

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I would like to have in snapshot 1 distortion and snapshot 2 overdrive.

And btw you can't switch blocks, so if your block 1 Dst and block 2 is OD that would work, you can turn on/off effects with snapshots.  But you can't change a block from distortion to OD or whathever, you can only change parameters (ex; drive = 6 vs 2) or turn effects on/off.

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Every effect i put infront of the Mono FX block WORKS.
Every effect ( tried all reverbs and delays) i put after the Mono FX block Dont affect the sound at all.

Check your amp out source setting, looks like you're using "pre cab/IR" instead of "Main out".

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So I'm left with, I think, trying to find the most neutral amp out of the amp's...

Just in case this might help someone.  Basically, should have been evident, but the 'best' way to plug in basically any amp without effects loop such as the Spider or whatever, is simply to bypass the POD Go's cab block and plug to guitar in, that way you're using the amp's cab instead of a simulated cab.  Sure, you're losing out on the cab block of the Go, but honestly, just messing a bit with the cabs and the L6 Spider, I'd recommend that.

If you want to use a Go with a Spider, I'd put the drive to 0, the low/mids/treble to noon, no reverb & delay (unless you're planning to use Spider's reverb/delay to save on PGO Blocks), and completely forget that the cab block of the Go exists.  If you want, create a 'base' preset for all the L6 Spider's amp models with 0 drive & all, and that gives your different 'cab' settings.   It would have been nice to have a totally neutral sound out of the Spider, but since you're basically getting 9 cabs with a L6 Spider 3 (forget anything metal/insane, even 0 distortion = too much distortion), you're bound to find one which will sound decent with whatever you're trying to do.

Just playing a bit with the Go's amps + L6 Spider, honestly, it's better than I first thought.  It really does sound quite bad when you add the Go's Cab section + Spider's amp/cab, but bypassing the Go's cab, it's decent.  Probably better than the aux, plus saves you the headache of cab+mic+distance, which given that the Go is already soo complex, is a big plus. 

Then you can migrate to monitors and use the cabs later on, when you're familiar with the Go & want to improve your sound, but short term, probably your best bet.