|
|
#1
03-03-2009, 04:55 PM
|
||||
|
||||
POD Farm is pretty cool
Recently, a guitarist called before the session he was going to play for and said, "Do you have amp modeling software or do I have to lug in a steenkin' amp?" At that point we didn't have any modeling software so he had to lug in his amp. It got me thinking though, so I go the wheels spinning on a purchase of modeling software. Today I downloaded and installed the ILOK 15-day demo of Line6's POD Farm Platinum VST plug-in. In case you don't know what ILOK is, it is a dongle (basically a glorified, registered thumbdrive that handles all authentication and copy protection of software for your computer. If you have pay-to-play VST plug-ins for your workstation, you've probably got one already.
After I played in a little song with two tracks, I spent the day building guitar rigs around my performance. The basis of the rig is a plug-in that creates your amp, effect, and speaker cab sounds. You plug-in your guitar to your workstation through a direct box and play into the software clean and POD Farm provides the sounds. In order to pull this off, you need to turn off direct monitoring, if you have it, so that you can hear the sounds. It may introduce a slight latency, but frankly, I didn't have a problem with the small amount my system introduced. So how did it work? In a word, great. There are great models and you are allowed to stack several effects before and after the amplifier. Another great feature is dual modeling in one plug-in, allowing you to blend sounds. The format is graphic, built around a picture of the selected amp on the floor. When you add effects, they are pictured plugged into the amp or after the amp. You can choose from three mic types, mic'ing methods, amount of room, type of cab, etc. Clicking on a component brings up its front panel with the knobs to tweak. And how does it sound? Well, nothing beats an analog signal chain in person, but this does extremely well in the recording chain. Everything seems a tiny bit bright, but you can always pull the down the top end a little to round it out. Of course, the other thing you can do that you can't in person is hop between amps as quickly as you can click. I began demonstrating a sound based upon a Fender Deluxe and quickly hopped over to a Marshall 1987 with a Variac on the power supply to brown it up. The Marshall sound was a little too bright and fizzy for me so I hopped over to a Mesa Bookie MkI to take the Deluxe sound and add just a little gain, all the while maintaining my choice of pedals and processing. Slick. So, for a person with a home recording rig, it is well work the $299 to be able to control the guitar sounds after the recording in a detailed way. Bob
__________________
"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' " Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring THE MUSICIAN'S ROOM (my website) 
|
|
#2
03-03-2009, 05:03 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Always enjoy your reviews Bob. Been dabling with the pocket pod and the Vyzex software that allows you to do adjust tones, cabs, on screen as well-in a very elementary way compared to the farm I'm sure. Being able to play those in realtime is cool. I'm not dealing with much if any latency on my mac. Keep us posted with more please. -Z
|
|
#3
03-03-2009, 07:09 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
I wonder if this would be a better deal? Probably not as many amp models and configurations available, but you get the hardware.
Line 6 POD Studio UX1 http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PodStuUX1 Post edit: I just happened to think that if you already have good hardware, you might just want the advanced features of the Platinum plug-in.
__________________
Taylor 610 (1989) Taylor 514CE (2002) Larrivee OMV-05 Taylor GA3 Last edited by deltoid; 03-03-2009 at 07:19 PM.
|
|
#4
03-03-2009, 07:20 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
That interface comes with POD Farm as its software. Here's the difference between POD Farm and POD Farm platinum:
POD Farm offers up 18 guitar amplifiers, 24 guitar cabinets, five thumping bass amplifiers, five bass cabinets, 29 stompboxes and studio effects, and even six world-class microphone preamplifiers. POD Farm Platinum offers up 78 guitar amplifiers, 24 guitar cabinets, 28 thumping bass amplifiers, 22 bass cabinets, 97 stompboxes and studio effects, and even six world-class microphone preamplifiers. I suppose it is all in how much variety you feel you need. HERE is a comparative list of the features of each. Bob
__________________
"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' " Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring THE MUSICIAN'S ROOM (my website)
|
|
#5
03-03-2009, 07:24 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Oh, and HERE are screen shots courtesy of Sweetwater. Click on one and scroll down to see it displayed at the bottom of the page.
 Bob
__________________
"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' " Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring THE MUSICIAN'S ROOM (my website)
|
|
#6
03-04-2009, 10:13 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Pod Farm is an excellent modeling solution; its only drawback is that you have to use their hardware (or ilOK) as your interface or as a dongle. For that reason, I much prefer Amplitube 2 or Guitar Rig 3, since I can use my own interface(s) (For me, and Edirol m16-dx for studio and an AudioKontrol 1 for gigs)...
YMMV, of course, but especially for acoustic, the clean-to-crunch models in all these programs are excellent, and a lot of fun to tweak....  Update: iLOK or Line 6 specific hardware are no longer required for Pod Farm.
__________________
"Flamenco Chuck" http://www.FlamencoChuck.com Me, ca. 1980: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL7wL5m1xIg Jerez Bulerias: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVxUe5hA_yw Last edited by BuleriaChk; 10-02-2012 at 02:33 PM.
|
