Pod xt sounds better than helix???

[mg777]

Had a pod xt with the metal pack, live in an apt so usually play through headphones. A/b helix to pod xt and pod xt seems fuller more punch. Helix sounds thin/ bright. For the price point i expected epic...anyone else feeling this way. Helix is oretty good but pod xt seems better, am i losing it,lol. Thx

[silverhead]

Well, you've likely had the xt for years and have been tweaking and honing your tone to perfection (for your taste/style). You can't have had Helix long enough to really get to know it yet. Your tones (and much better than xt if you work at it) are in there! Be patient and experiment.

[mdmayfield]

Few things:

 

1) Not every single combination of settings on the Helix will be better than every single combination of settings on the XT Live.

2) Your ears & brain are used to the XT Live, and people naturally like what they're familiar with. Also, the XTL is fine; it's not bad.

3) Volume differences HUGELY mask tone differences. Louder seems better in the short term. Make sure you are matching volumes carefully.

[gtrman100]

Most likely, your headphones are coloring the sound in a way that compensates for the deficiencies of the XT. Add that to the fact that you are used to the XT, and that's probably why you come to that conclusion. I suggest you record some guitar parts with both and listen through a good pair of studio monitors. No recording engineer worth his salt mixes on headphones; they might check the mix through headphones, but that's about it.

[silverhead]

Another thought.....

 

A thin sound, especially through headphones, is often the result of using a pre-amp in the preset, rather than the full version of the amp that includes a cab/mic simulation. Listening through headphones with no cab/mic sim will usually sound thin.

[skategeezer]

Had a pod xt with the metal pack, live in an apt so usually play through headphones. A/b helix to pod xt and pod xt seems fuller more punch. Helix sounds thin/ bright. For the price point i expected epic...anyone else feeling this way. Helix is oretty good but pod xt seems better, am i losing it,lol. Thx

Sorry, But I have no idea what you are hearing. Perhaps you can post some example preset recordings on soundcloud or youtube to illustrate what you are hearing?

[brue58ski]

A big difference between the XT and Helix (and the HD) is, think of the XT as a miced amp, which has then been processed by a professional recording engineer. Then think of the Helix and HD as just the miced amp, no processing at all. So you're getting a much more raw sound which, in turn, should make whatever sound you come up with, more personal. Theoretically anyway. And, like the XT, that's what the Amplifi series is about too. A preprocessed amp sound as opposed to a more raw one.

[mg777]

Thx for all the replys. That makes sense about the processing. Wish the helix had a way to get that sound, that would put it in epic status. Im trying some impulse responses currently.

[Leftzilla]

Just my personal take on this so take it as you will.  I have owned the XT, X3, HD500 and HD500X and now Helix and each iteration has improved the sound in my opinion and the HELIX just completely knocked it out of the park.  My bands, especially my prog keyboardist who does all of our recording and album mastering noticed and love the how the Helix sounds.  I would suggest posting some comparisons just to make sure that something in your Helix setup is not correct.  Its been a long time since I Have heard my XT but I can safely state that the HELIX sounds better than the HD500X (which sounded pretty damn good)

[phil_m]

Some of those XT Metal Pack amp models were and are still really popular with certain players, especially some of the Line 6 original models. I think they compress in a way that people like. They are models of amps that don't exist in reality, though. Right now, the Helix doesn't have any of these "idealized" models. I'm not sure if Line 6 has plans to go down the route again or not.

[miguel_lopez]

Line6 is not a brand you can compare with something else. My first Line6 gear was the PODXT bean. Since I am a classical guitar player, the idea of introducing myself into the electric guitar-amp world was great by getting close to LINE6 products(also I had two variax guitars:500 and 700). My experience with this tiny sucker was so amazing that I could NOT stop updating the following products of Line6. So, being my first impression I can say my favorites are Line6 acoustic 2, Spinal Puppeter and Line6 Purge. As you can see, I have it all:

-Ultra sterile cleans(I really love listening nothing but my guitar, that are very dedicated and totally modified -paint, hardware, electronics) with wahaterver treatment: chorus, compression, delay, reverb and very dedicated eq)

-Ultra high gain: and many possibilities of cranking and punching-in-audience's-faces and managing a strong character to get their spinals broken

-Dirty-Crunch-Warm-Hot tone between Angus and Paige, something very unique and personal style which took me years to find.

I'm not a Marshall-Fender-Vox-Eng-Mesa-ETC... guy. I'm a very serious musician: Classical guitar player 10 years studyng in a fine arts academy, 10 years studying serious composition and nowadays I am a very commited producer. So I don't consider myself an ordinary guitar player. 

Since the first time I plugged a Variax-POD I found tremendous interesting possibilities of creating something else than whole lotta love-sweet chind o mine-satisfaction-panama-paranoid-etc.. As soon as I turned into the real world, by playing real amps, real pedals, real guitars, I found myself so far from these devices that I ended working with my very HUMBLE PODxt/FBV connected to a very modest PA along with my bandmates also connected via BASS POD and POD PRO(for vocals). There was all that magic we expected to hear. The first time I purchased a pair of professional Studio monitors for flat response I got SO impressed when I played the factory patches programmed in those old LINE6 gear I had, nowadays incluided the PODHD family. 

This post caught my attention because there's someone who has noticed certain difference between the old and the new gear. Yes, you get used to something that has been around many years you've been working with. I could say something similar happend to me. The reason is because I'm not too much into the new HD amp family, I like so much LINE6 original tones that I don't find that Marshall remastered-Bassman-Deluxe-HiWatt-whattever attractive. So, what I'm doing right now is taking the amp(no cab-AIR) into the helix(cab AIR, now IR) and I just cannot believe the experience I'm having with this combination!!!

This is just the greatest tones I've ever heard in my entire live. And I'm not saying the new amps are good; actually they are a dream come true, but definetly ar not what I'm up to. My POD-HELI>< combination is something so ALIVE so bright tight strong powerfull expressive magical MUSICAL that I can't ask anymore than inspiration. Since PODx3PRO manage digital connections I don't loose any data or quality and can combine as well so much possibilities that I'm getting incredibly inspired by my favorite tones already found in the POD family. I've been reading in other threads the necessity of the FRFR technology... something I haven't work with yet, but soon I will. It's not an advise, but I can share my thought with you: being a composer I find more important to create great music itself than gear and tone. If you have a nice song you will not have to worry about the tone, the music is gonna be so dominant that the audience are NOT gonna pay particular attention to the amp-guitar-pedaltrain-whatever you are connected to. As many singers I've met I always suggest them to go for vocal lessons. The same in here: go and train yourself in music; that's gonna make a BIG difference, not POD-HELIX-FRACTAL-EVENTIDE-whatever...

[Mr_Arkadin]

Woah, wall of text! Maybe try paragraphs next time and people might be able to read it. ;)

[miguel_lopez]

I didn't know how to separate the bunch of ideas in my typing, so sorry, I really wanted my text to be ordered in paragraphs but my operating system didn't allowed me. And that's precisely what I was afraid to get so much info in a Wall of text... Sorry

[HonestOpinion]

I didn't know how to separate the bunch of ideas in my typing, so sorry, I really wanted my text to be ordered in paragraphs but my operating system didn't allowed me. And that's precisely what I was afraid to get so much info in a Wall of text... Sorry

 

With some interfaces hitting return doesn't give you a blank line but holding the Control(Ctrl) button and then hitting Return will. Not sure if this will work for you but it's worth a try.  Btw, there was some great stuff in that "Wall of text", just a bit hard to read.

[miguel_lopez]

thanx por the feedback HonestOpinion. I appreciate. Even in youtube the comments have the same issue, I've always pressed many combinations and when I post my humble idea there's again a "wall of text", I'll keep trying =)

[PeterHamm]

I thought it was "shift" - return, btw.

like this.

and this...

[BigRalphN]

Just my personal take on this so take it as you will.  I have owned the XT, X3, HD500 and HD500X and now Helix and each iteration has improved the sound in my opinion and the HELIX just completely knocked it out of the park.  My bands, especially my prog keyboardist who does all of our recording and album mastering noticed and love the how the Helix sounds.  I would suggest posting some comparisons just to make sure that something in your Helix setup is not correct.  Its been a long time since I Have heard my XT but I can safely state that the HELIX sounds better than the HD500X (which sounded pretty damn good)

I am in the same category here. I liked the X3 Live at the time. I did not think modeling was great but it sufficed for our church (and the powers that be that said no amps). The effects were ok. He amps were ok but I thought high gain stuff sounded terrible. I did not like the HD series at all. I wanted to return ours as soon as we got it but they seem to think new is better. I could never find a sound that I was happy with. It was always not quite right. Close , but I could never find that magic something to please me. Plus I thought it was insanely difficult to adjust on the fly and edit. Maybe I was just used to the X3 . The Helix is something different . It just blows me away. The ease of use is outstanding. An the tones to me are so far superior that I can't believe I ever used the one stuff. I will admit I didn't li,e the presets but the updates gave improved them and with a little tweaking they sound great. Headsets can be super misleading so I do everything through my studio monitors. I am pretty close when. Get to chuch tnen. I actually have to cut los a hair when I get there. I think it will just take you a little time to figure out the tweaks for your situation.