Some room for improvement?

[RobBaartwijk]

Hi all,

I bought a Line 6 Pod Go about a month ago and coming from the ancient Boss GT-8 it is brilliant.

There are three things that I think can be improved though so here they are.

1. The quality of the presets is terrible. I have been programming user patches and they sound absolutely great. When I now compare them to the standard presets I get the feeling that I am some kind of Super Programmer... 

2. Line 6 gives the impression that there are 128 presets and 128 user patches. This may be technically correct, but a preset cannot be altered. This goes for every preset I have ever come across, and I have owned dozens of synths over the years. What you supply are default patches, not preset patches.

What is such a shame about this is that the manual only mentions the fact that the presets can also be updated/altered/improved, just like the user patches, in one line in the manual. I would think that having 256 patches available would make the Pod Go even more desirable, so why not mention this more clearly in the docs?

3. Small thingy but very useful; If you address issue #3; there should be a way to change the words 'Factory' and 'User' into something else. For instance; I would like to be able to have banks under 'Live' and 'Studio' instead of 'Factory' and 'User'. That would be extremely useful because I can then clearly separate my patches that use the amp/cabs for studio use and the other ones for playing live. I can even make duplicates for both situations and store them at the same place in the two banks.

4. You really really REALLY should include a couple of IRs. The moment I started playing with IR's my Pod-life got immeasurably better. I know that there is a whole market out there for IRs and I am not saying that you should supply hundreds of them, but I think that if you include say a dozen of them, people will immediately hear the difference and start using more and more of them.

Having said all this ; as a synth-/guitar-player, as well as a software developer who knows about the power of the processor, I was and am very impressed with what you have been able to achieve. And I am now going back again to programming the  sh*t out of this machine! ;)


What do you all think?

Cheers,

Rob.

[phil_m]

On 2/7/2023 at 7:11 AM, RobBaartwijk said:

2. Line 6 gives the impression that there are 128 presets and 128 user patches. This may be technically correct, but a preset cannot be altered. This goes for every preset I have ever come across, and I have owned dozens of synths over the years. What you supply are default patches, not preset patches.

I don’t think there’s any actual difference in the terms “preset” and “patch” any more. People basically use them interchangeably now.

[voxman55]

On 2/7/2023 at 1:11 PM, RobBaartwijk said:

Hi all,

I bought a Line 6 Pod Go about a month ago and coming from the ancient Boss GT-8 it is brilliant.

There are three things that I think can be improved though so here they are.

1. The quality of the presets is terrible. I have been programming user patches and they sound absolutely great. When I now compare them to the standard presets I get the feeling that I am some kind of Super Programmer... 

 

The presets in all units are problematic because  most users gear is different to how the presets were recreated. Eg if the presets were created with a Strat utilising studio grade headphones or FRFR power cabs, they won't sound the way intended if you are playing a Les Paul through your Marshall DSL40C amp using 4 cable method, or using mp3 headphones!   It can be the same problem when you buy patches. No matter how good the underlying patch might be, you'll nearly always need to tweak pre-made patches to suit your gear and ears. 

2. Line 6 gives the impression that there are 128 presets and 128 user patches. This may be technically correct, but a preset cannot be altered. This goes for every preset I have ever come across, and I have owned dozens of synths over the years. What you supply are default patches, not preset patches.

What is such a shame about this is that the manual only mentions the fact that the presets can also be updated/altered/improved, just like the user patches, in one line in the manual. I would think that having 256 patches available would make the Pod Go even more desirable, so why not mention this more clearly in the docs?

 

Not really - they are  only called factory presets simply because they are included  at the factory to get you started with ideas. Some you might like but need to tweak a bit, others you'll hate - it's the same with EVERY mfx modeller.  Even my Vox Tonelab SE/LE from 2004/2007 respectively used the same descriptions but every patch was wholly programmable. Only in cheaper units eg the Tonelab ST, were you unable to save a tweaked factory patch unless you saved it to one of the 50 user slots.  

 

As you rightly say, you can 100% customise any preset aka patch (same thing), in any location and it does tell you this in the manual . So that's 256 fully customizable presets as you say! You can create an infinite number of patches that can be imported to or exported from Pod Go and saved via Pod Go Edit. You can create blocks of patches for gigs and or different guitars or even to suit FRFR v a guitar amp. 

3. Small thingy but very useful; If you address issue #3; there should be a way to change the words 'Factory' and 'User' into something else. For instance; I would like to be able to have banks under 'Live' and 'Studio' instead of 'Factory' and 'User'. That would be extremely useful because I can then clearly separate my patches that use the amp/cabs for studio use and the other ones for playing live. I can even make duplicates for both situations and store them at the same place in the two banks.

 

No modeller that I'm aware of has that facility, but it's a reasonable suggestion that you could post on the Line 6 'Ideascale'. 

4. You really really REALLY should include a couple of IRs. The moment I started playing with IR's my Pod-life got immeasurably better. I know that there is a whole market out there for IRs and I am not saying that you should supply hundreds of them, but I think that if you include say a dozen of them, people will immediately hear the difference and start using more and more of them.

Having said all this ; as a synth-/guitar-player, as well as a software developer who knows about the power of the processor, I was and am very impressed with what you have been able to achieve. And I am now going back again to programming the  sh*t out of this machine! ;)

 

First, and this is widely misunderstood, the stock cabs ARE IRs.  You mean THIRD PARTY IR's.  And sure, there are a lot of third party IRs out there that can sound better. Want a 'trick' to make the stock cabs sound better? Increase their output level to e.g. 3 to 5dB. 

 

Most MFX do not include IRs . Some exceptions include the Boss GT1000 and GX100 where Boss ( calling its approach AIRD) mixes IRs with its amp.models. 

The forthcoming v1.50 will almost certainly incorporate a version of the new cab engine  that came out in Helix v3.50 and has been hailed as the single biggest tonal improvement since its launch in 2015.  Might take Line 6 a couple more months  & it may be a more limited format than Helix, but it could be the sonic difference you're looking for.  In the meantime there are plenty of good free IR's around if you don't want to buy IR's, and you can store 128 immediately - the latest Boss GX100  can only hold 32 & that requires separate software to load them!  

What do you all think?

 

My biggest gripes? 

1. The dreadful PSU that is not fit for gigging with a horrible wall wart and a cable that's too short and too thin.  Even Line 6 doesn't like it but it was the only solution in budget that met Pod Go's power requirements.  O

2. The optical sensor in the expression pedal that mucks up the expression pedal in bright sunlight, and finally ...

3. That FS7/8 do not show up in the display. 

 

Other than the above, it's a great sounding and very versatile little unit with a great display and (mostly) excellent user friendly UI and an excellent edit program in pod Go Edit.  And if I need more than 4 user blocks, although it doesn't  increase DSP, I can use a 'jailbreak' patch .  

Cheers,

Rob.

 

[RobBaartwijk]

Thanks for the input so far people. More later.

[grdGo33]

On 2/7/2023 at 8:11 AM, RobBaartwijk said:

1. The quality of the presets is terrible. I have been programming user patches and they sound absolutely great. When I now compare them to the standard presets I get the feeling that I am some kind of Super Programmer...

 

Subjective innit?   Issue is that people like different things and what they play, the way they play and what guitar they are using has a MASSIVE effect on whether you'll like a preset or not.  But just listening to the presets when a good guitarist is playing, would you really say that they're that awful?   Ex:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V6-nCYt88A&t=46s   To me, all honesty, they all sound pretty great.  But yeah, myself, with my guitars, playing style and all, also think most are awful, few gems in there though!

 

What I'd love, to have say more themed and tweaked preset packs;  like a classic rock (majority of presets I think already), lead, metal, etc., and maybe a pack for humbuckers, etc.  BUT, you can kinda get that from user packs downloaded from teh interwebs, sooo...  Maybe L6 could invest for better presets, not a big deal in the end..

 

Quote

2. Line 6 gives the impression that there are 128 presets and 128 user patches. This may be technically correct, but a preset cannot be altered. This goes for every preset I have ever come across, and I have owned dozens of synths over the years. What you supply are default patches, not preset patches.

What is such a shame about this is that the manual only mentions the fact that the presets can also be updated/altered/improved, just like the user patches, in one line in the manual. I would think that having 256 patches available would make the Pod Go even more desirable, so why not mention this more clearly in the docs?

 

The presets can be altered by the user...?  So you have 256 'banks' where you can save a sound.  If it's just terminology

 

Quote

3. Small thingy but very useful; If you address issue #3; there should be a way to change the words 'Factory' and 'User' into something else. For instance; I would like to be able to have banks under 'Live' and 'Studio' instead of 'Factory' and 'User'. That would be extremely useful because I can then clearly separate my patches that use the amp/cabs for studio use and the other ones for playing live. I can even make duplicates for both situations and store them at the same place in the two banks.

 

Are you really going to have 128 patches for live and 128 patches for studio?   IF you really wanted to improve, functionality with more than 2 folders, where you can name the folders and move patches around would be great.  

 

Main issue with Go is navigating 100+ list of items.  Less of an issue with PG Edit, but within Go, it is an issue as it's just tedious.  Having a better way to order and group items and patches would be a plus.

 

Quote

4. You really really REALLY should include a couple of IRs. The moment I started playing with IR's my Pod-life got immeasurably better. I know that there is a whole market out there for IRs and I am not saying that you should supply hundreds of them, but I think that if you include say a dozen of them, people will immediately hear the difference and start using more and more of them.

 

Yeah the cab/mic block of the Go IMHO was always tedious.  Too many options, too hard to wrap your head around; even today, for me I've gotten a couple IRs, they mostly don't sound great to my ears, little bit about the same as cab/mic block;  

 

Issue here imho is a bit the 'culture'.  PGO/Helix cab/mic seems aimed towards experienced studio musicians/engineers, who are familiar with cabs, mics and recording.  The average Joe has no chance.  Sure, easy to randomly just pick stuff that sounds ok;  possible to read articles and threads about what are the better mics and the better cabs for what type of sound.  But all of it is just tedious.  It's overwhelming.  Too many cabs, mics, combinations, etc.

 

Same goes for hunting for IRs, downloaded I don't know 200 IRs and 99% of the time I just use the Best IR in the world.  BOSS Katana for instance has a sort of amp/cab combo for 'brown sound' and I don't know what else.  To me, that's a way better system for new and amateur players. 

 

Adding it maybe 1-2 dozen of great IRs representing the different sorts of sound representative of the different genres would be great.  But that's not even required really.  If say you could choose from 'cab' 3 blocks:

1)  Cab/mic

2)  IR

3)  Classic sounds

 

The 3rd simply be a normal cab/mic preset, for a particular kind of sound, à la BOSS, that would be a HUGE help for amateurs.  So could be edited teh same way, but just give you 'better'/real examples of common usage.

 

So ex; You'd choose the Voodoo Cab, and it would be the Hendrix Amp + mic..   Choose the Numb and comfortable Cab, and it would be Gilmour's, hiwaat with I don't know what mic settings.  Same config page as cab+mics, just presets

[grdGo33]

weird coincidence, was about to comment yesterday on how it was a bit archaic to just reproduce mics / cabs, as per 2023 modeler, you'd think that rather than restricting users to existing cabs and mics, they'd offer more options and flexibility.  As in;  if you've got a physical cab with a speaker, you can't really tweak it.  But since we're in virtual world, no reason why you couldn't tweak cabs, or start with base, neutral-tone-ish virtual cab and tweak it to get your own personal ideal sounding cab.

 

But I was struggling to find exact settings to define what I had in mind as per settings, so just deleted that bit.  Well, looks like Fractal and I have similar minds; 

 

 

 

 

[RobBaartwijk]

Another improvement for the editor that EveryOne would like : Make it possible to select all IRs that are used/not used in patches. That way it is SO much easier to clean up the unused IRs. Now, as I understand it, I have to make a list somewhere of all the irs used by going through the patches one by one to find out which ones are being used, and that is a lot of manual labour.

What would also work is to put a marker next to the Irs in the editor list that are used in at least one patch. Problem solved!

[voxman55]

On 2/18/2023 at 1:28 PM, RobBaartwijk said:

Another improvement for the editor that EveryOne would like : Make it possible to select all IRs that are used/not used in patches. That way it is SO much easier to clean up the unused IRs. Now, as I understand it, I have to make a list somewhere of all the irs used by going through the patches one by one to find out which ones are being used, and that is a lot of manual labour.

What would also work is to put a marker next to the Irs in the editor list that are used in at least one patch. Problem solved!

 

Re 'everyone would like' I suspect you're in the minority & I can't see Line 6 bringing such a feature in - in fact, I'm not aware of any MFX unit anywhere that has such a feature. Many users don't use IR's & those that do will usually have figured out a few favourites that they regularly use and keep at the front of their IR list. That's what I do and anything I'm unlikely to use I'll either delete if I hate it or I'll back up in case I might want to try it later, or I might just keep in the list for tonal comparisons.  So although it might be useful for you personally it's probably not something that will attract wider appeal.  However, by all means post your suggestion on Ideascale - if sufficient numbers of users vote for it, line 6 might look at it.

[RobBaartwijk]

On 2/20/2023 at 12:53 AM, voxman55 said:

 

Re 'everyone would like' I suspect you're in the minority & I can't see Line 6 bringing such a feature in - in fact, I'm not aware of any MFX unit anywhere that has such a feature. Many users don't use IR's & those that do will usually have figured out a few favourites that they regularly use and keep at the front of their IR list. That's what I do and anything I'm unlikely to use I'll either delete if I hate it or I'll back up in case I might want to try it later, or I might just keep in the list for tonal comparisons.  So although it might be useful for you personally it's probably not something that will attract wider appeal.  However, by all means post your suggestion on Ideascale - if sufficient numbers of users vote for it, line 6 might look at it.

That is a 'no-reply reply' If I ever saw one.

I do not like negative arses.

/out

[voxman55]

On 7/31/2023 at 3:52 PM, RobBaartwijk said:

That is a 'no-reply reply' If I ever saw one.

I do not like negative arses.

/out

You posted, got a fair and reasonable response which pointed you to Ideascale.  The place to raise requests for Pod Go enhancements is not here -its on the Line 6 Ideascale site. 

 

And for the record I do not like rude people who act like a child and have a hissy fit and call people names because they don't like the response.  You are a new contributor who has only made 4 posts. If you are to remain a contributor here please act like an adult.  This is a safe, friendly, knowledgeable and helpful community and its important it stays this way without rudeness, harassment or bullying.  I've never had cause to report any post on this community before but I consider your post has crossed that line, & is inappropriate.  @Line6Tonyperhaps I can leave this with you to action as appropriate, thanks.   

[RobBaartwijk]

On 8/5/2023 at 12:18 PM, voxman55 said:

You posted, got a fair and reasonable response which pointed you to Ideascale.  The place to raise requests for Pod Go enhancements is not here -its on the Line 6 Ideascale site. 

 

And for the record I do not like rude people who act like a child and have a hissy fit and call people names because they don't like the response.  You are a new contributor who has only made 4 posts. If you are to remain a contributor here please act like an adult.  This is a safe, friendly, knowledgeable and helpful community and its important it stays this way without rudeness, harassment or bullying.  I've never had cause to report any post on this community before but I consider your post has crossed that line, & is inappropriate.  @Line6Tonyperhaps I can leave this with you to action as appropriate, thanks.   

The response starts out with 'that's subjective innit? that is YOUR opinion innit?" etcetera. I do not post something like that without having feedback from die hard users on other forums as well as over 40 years of recording experience. You are therefore assuming quite a lot.

I quote : "I've never had cause to report any post on this community before but I consider your post has crossed that line, & is inappropriate."
If you cannot take the word arse then I seriously do not understand how you can survive in the modern world sir. And if you wish to go to the headmaster with your complaint that says more about you than about me.

And BTW : I am NOT a contributor, I am someone with a reasonable suggestion phrased under the very reasonable and polite subject line : "Some room for improvement?".


So long and thanks for all the fish.

P.S. My apologies to the webmaster for the unnecessary fuss that has been generated.