StringsOnFire Posted May 20, 2018 Share Posted May 20, 2018 (edited) Hello folks, I have been testing for a few days my new Powercab Plus with the POD X3 Live and here is my experience so far about the tone: All in all the sound of my pod in the flat mode sounds livelier than through my previous amp (just a small 15W Marshall but its sound is good, too) or through my (simple) monitor speakers. So the flat mode is the way to go when I want to use a preset as it is. LF Raw mode is also good, gives also more an amp feel but the presets may need some adjustments. I am a little bit disappointed with Line6's cabinet sims. They may be ok for rock, blues but for metal etc. all the presets I tested sound quite thin / not powerful. I still have to check clean tones and will also try with more adjusting the presets. Maybe building new preset while using a cab sim would lead to nice tone, but I doubt it atm. The inbuilt IR sound nice, they can definitely be used for metal (+ some adjustments). I also tried the free IR "Celestion Vintage30 - Cenzo Townshend Mix", which also sound nice and lively. Ownhammer's free IR (only tested some mixes) was ok, but not as good as Celestion's. Edit: I've tried IR's from Celestion and they sound killer! My presets even sound amazing as they are.! This is very subjective as it heavily depends on the desired music style and the perceiving of sound. Test it yourself! I give it a 4.5/5 as a final result, since IR's (especially the ones I tested from Celestion) sound really good. Now the following two points are features that I am interested in but I encountered some problems. I'd be happy to hear if anyone of you get the same problem or am I missing something out? Recording via USB is for me important. The pod also allows this but it has sometimes a sound drop out (not that frequently) and I'd like to use different modes of the powercab for recording, too (+ powercab's latency is better). (Extra observation: Recording through flat response sounds nearly the same as the pod's usb studio output. Powercab's recording sounds 1-2% less lively, but this is a really subtle difference. In a mix you wouldn't recognize it.) Now to my problem: It says that the USB stream is stereo but my recording is always mono in the DAW. Since the POD X3 Live has no AES, I plugged both XLR outs to input 1 and 2. I've checked that the pod is really doing something stereo. Records through pod's usb are stereo but through powercab's usb it remains mono. Nothing in the global settings (powercab) could fix this. Is this a bug? What's your experience with your gear? (It doesn't have to be the pod x3 live.) This is about the MIDI connection. The powercab switches its presets flawlessly when changing the presets of the pod - that's really cool. It seems that the pod x3 live has fixed midi messages when I switch its presets, as I couldn't find any options (first time using its MIDI). So far so good, but every time I switch a preset in the pod the volume of the powercab goes to max (as if I'd turn up the volume knob to maximum). When I touch the volume knob a little bit, it jumps back to my desired volume. This a big problem as I'd love to make use of this feature but the volume jumps make it impossible for me. Has anyone else experienced this behavior when using MIDI cable? I can't tell if the powercab is acting strangely or the pod is sending an additional message which changes the volume. Thanks in advance! Edited May 23, 2018 by StringsOnFire tested Celestion IR's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StringsOnFire Posted May 25, 2018 Author Share Posted May 25, 2018 Since the unwanted change of master volume can be a problem for many people using devices with fixed MIDI messages, I've posted this idea here: https://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Additional-MIDI-Filter-for-the-Powercab-112-Plus/929285-23508 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valadilene Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 Hello! I'm so glad I've found someone using the same material as me! I have just bought a Powercab, and I had a few questions as to how to use it at its best. I have opened a forum page, would you mind having a look at the few questions I have, maybe you'll have the answers I'm looking for! Thank you for your feedback, your opinion has been decisive in buying the powercab! Thank you so much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valadilene Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 Sorry! Here's the address! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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