Using POD GO as a passthrough

[nightrain5150]

I have my POD GO connected to my desktop PC audio card's line-in and that works pretty well for me.  I would like to get a separate FX pedal which is an emulator of a well-known guitar amp.  If I plug this into the POD's FX return jack, how do I configure the POD GO to go completely on standby and only allow the sound of the pedal to play through?

[silverhead]

I assume you want to do this without having to change or reroute any cables. Otherwise the simplest thing would be to disconnect the POD Go and use just the external pedal. I also assume that you are using the Send jack as well as the Return jack so that the external pedal receives its signal from the POD Go and returns it’s processed signal. In other words your external pedal is in the FX Loop of the POD Go.

 

Configure your POD Go preset to have only the FX Loop active. Deactivate (turn off) all other processing blocks in the POD Go. That will ensure that the signal your PC receives is processed only by your external pedal. A couple of A/D and D/A conversions are unavoidable but will have minimal impact on the overall signal quality.

 

Have you ever considered using your POD Go as the audio card? Connect it via USB and connect your speakers or headphones to the POD Go. Unless your PC sound card is stellar the sound quality you hear will be much improved.

[nightrain5150]

Thank you, this is really helpful.  Basically, I use a 1/4" to 1/8" cable to connect the POD Go from its headphones output to the line-in jack on my computer's sound card, which has served my needs pretty well.  Now that I think about it, I guess I could just take the cable from the POD Go and plug it in to the pedal, but would prefer to run it through the POD Go, and your explanation (disabling all the blocks except FX Loop) seems like the most workable idea.

 

I've never thought about using the POD Go as the computer's sound card.  I have an Audigy which works pretty well.  The POD is also plugged into the computer via USB so I can access POD GO Edit, but if I could get real-time guitar output through my computer without the latency using this method, that would definitely be worth considering.

[silverhead]

On 10/30/2023 at 2:10 PM, nightrain5150 said:

….

 

I've never thought about using the POD Go as the computer's sound card.  I have an Audigy which works pretty well.  The POD is also plugged into the computer via USB so I can access POD GO Edit, but if I could get real-time guitar output through my computer without the latency using this method, that would definitely be worth considering.

What I’m suggesting does not involve guitar processing through your computer. The POD Go is the guitar processor and produces the sound. I don’t know how good the Audigy product is but chances are the POD Go is a better sound card. Try connecting headphones to the POD Go’s Phones output. There’s no latency. If you have external speakers connect them to the POD Go’s main outputs. 
 

You need the usb connection if you want to use POD Go Edit but the POD Go produces the sound. No need for your computer unless you want to record.

[grdGo33]

You could also try to enable tuner volume, and simply hit the tuner.  If I'm not mistaken, it'll pass the direct signal, then no need for a custom patch or whatnot, always 'bypass' enabled at the push of a button!

[silverhead]

On 10/30/2023 at 5:26 PM, grdGo33 said:

You could also try to enable tuner volume, and simply hit the tuner.  If I'm not mistaken, it'll pass the direct signal, then no need for a custom patch or whatnot, always 'bypass' enabled at the push of a button!

Will that allow the signal to be processed by the external pedal in the FX Loop as desired? Or would this apply only if the POD Go output is connected to the external pedal input?

[grdGo33]

On 10/30/2023 at 5:53 PM, silverhead said:

Will that allow the signal to be processed by the external pedal in the FX Loop as desired? Or would this apply only if the POD Go output is connected to the external pedal input?

 

Pretty sure it'll bypass the FX loop block as well.  But my recommendation was more a different solution; the issue as I understood it was a requirement to bypass podgo.  Using FX loop could be one, but it requires customization for every patch.  If you're gigging it's likely the only solution if you want seamless switching.

 

But if you're just playing as a hobby, and just want to switch from one device to another without having to plug and unplug cables, and don't want to have to customize every single one of your 86 patches with a custom FX Loop snapshot that disables blocks and enables FX Loop, the tuner option might be simpler.  I'm not 100% sure it's 100% bypass though, as it might use some features (noise gate, boost/cut volume, etc.?), but likely should be good enough if you're not recording your next record with it!  ;)

 

Could also be useful if one day you own more than 1 multi-fx unit, so thought I'd mention the idea.  :)

 

But yeah, you'd have say  guit -> amp emu pedal -> pod go ->  computer/speakers/whatnot, and basically have to bypass either device to use the other.

 

Otherwise yeah, I'd also go with snapshots; disables all blocks except FX-Loop and vice versa.  And with the 4 cable method, you could also use the FX Loop amp pedal in Go..

[grdGo33]

On 10/30/2023 at 2:10 PM, nightrain5150 said:

Thank you, this is really helpful.  Basically, I use a 1/4" to 1/8" cable to connect the POD Go from its headphones output to the line-in jack on my computer's sound card, which has served my needs pretty well.  Now that I think about it, I guess I could just take the cable from the POD Go and plug it in to the pedal, but would prefer to run it through the POD Go, and your explanation (disabling all the blocks except FX Loop) seems like the most workable idea.

 

I've never thought about using the POD Go as the computer's sound card.  I have an Audigy which works pretty well.  The POD is also plugged into the computer via USB so I can access POD GO Edit, but if I could get real-time guitar output through my computer without the latency using this method, that would definitely be worth considering.

 

For this, yeah, I'm using similar setup a silverhead described; instead of having speakers connected to the PC,  you connect the speakers to the PodGo, podgo is connected to computer using USB, and you set your computer to output the sound of the computer via PodGo.  And voila, you can then even play computer sound and podgo sounds at the same time.