HELP!! Made the jump... Missing anything?

[Ram150023]

Finally took the leap to get away from practice amps to a rack set up.
Im not entirely sure what im doing... I have done and still doing plenty of reading / researching and comparing notes... But here is what ive compiled and purchased so far (in order)...

Furman M-8LX Power
Korg Pitchblack Pro
Line 6 Pod HD Pro X
Behringer Multigate Pro XR 4400
Alesis 3630 Compressor / Gate

Pro Tools DAW

Now im very confused on Pre amp / Power amp stuff... Or if theres something else needed in my rack to help play out loud as well as record. As well as hooking all of this up to work

Quick note... I WISH I could afford an Axe FX... The Pod was the closest I could find that would aim me to the tones im looking for... Plus well within my affordability without wifey hanging me

Im aiming at an "ATB / Periphery / BoO / Moder Day Babylon...etc" dare I use the word "djenty" tone... But definitely metal and technical with the ability to play ambient things in the mix.

I currently have these guitars...

Agile 928
Agile 828
Agile 725
BCR Warlock
Ibby Acoustic

And also, please forgive me if my questions are vague as I might not be able to narrow them down adequately enough yet or be able to explain in correct terms.

Any and all words of wisdom and insight is much appreciated!

 

[zarg]

to play through a normal guitar cab you will need a poweramp that amplifies the sound coming out of your modeller for the passive speakers. when doing this, you need to turn off your cab simulation on your pod since you don't need to simulate a cab when you're running the signal through an actual cab.

some people also play their modellers through powered speakers, those don't need a poweramp since they have their own built in (thats why theyre called powered speakers). these speakers are usually not meant for guitar so you need to turn on the cab simulation on your modeller for it to sound the way its meant to be.

recording can be done either straight out of your pod with usb into your computer or using the line out of the modeller into an audio interface.

I have recently built a rack myself, and I'm very happy with it. if you have any more detailed questions, let me know.

btw: line6 has a great thing on their website, you can download presets from other people. search for "modern metal" or "periphery" and you will find great tones to start with, worked really well for my pod xt pro.

 

[Ram150023]

to play through a normal guitar cab you will need a poweramp that amplifies the sound coming out of your modeller for the passive speakers. when doing this, you need to turn off your cab simulation on your pod since you don't need to simulate a cab when you're running the signal through an actual cab.

some people also play their modellers through powered speakers, those don't need a poweramp since they have their own built in (thats why theyre called powered speakers). these speakers are usually not meant for guitar so you need to turn on the cab simulation on your modeller for it to sound the way its meant to be.

recording can be done either straight out of your pod with usb into your computer or using the line out of the modeller into an audio interface.

I have recently built a rack myself, and I'm very happy with it. if you have any more detailed questions, let me know.

btw: line6 has a great thing on their website, you can download presets from other people. search for "modern metal" or "periphery" and you will find great tones to start with, worked really well for my pod xt pro.

Ok so from what i gather... Unless I have a cab... Which prolly wont happen as wifey is pissed enough she trips over my small amp a power amp is not needed at all.

Thats good news.

I literally had the Pod delivered yesterday and havent even powered it up yet... But thank you very much for the heads up on the patches!

Which leads me to a more direct question...

Given the hardware I have... How in the hell should I / do I inter-connect it all (aside from the power supply) to make it a happy functioning system?

PS... Looking at a Behringer 2 channel 15 set EQ maybe to add to the line up... Maybe...

 

[zarg]

Ok so from what i gather... Unless I have a cab... Which prolly wont happen as wifey is pissed enough she trips over my small amp a power amp is not needed at all.

Thats good news.

I literally had the Pod delivered yesterday and havent even powered it up yet... But thank you very much for the heads up on the patches!

Which leads me to a more direct question...

Given the hardware I have... How in the hell should I / do I inter-connect it all (aside from the power supply) to make it a happy functioning system?

PS... Looking at a Behringer 2 channel 15 set EQ maybe to add to the line up... Maybe...

I think the best way for you is to plug in your Pod direct to your computer using USB. Any effects in front of the amp should be recorded that way too, most of your stuff seems to go in front of the amp in a normal chain (tuner, gate, comp).

so wire it up like this for a start: guitar --cable--> tuner --cable--> gate --cable--> comp --cable--> pod hd --USB(out of the pod)--> computer (DAW)

about the EQ: the pod has a built in EQ, try using that first.
when you have your pod connected to usb, you can modify the patches of the pod remotely using your mouse instead of fiddling with the small controls on the pod

 

[Ram150023]

Another prolly stoopid question...

The behringer XR4400 I have is a 4 channel Expander / noise gate.

The Alesis 3630 is a 2 channel Compressor / Noise gate.

Honestly I was after the noise gate function as this is a big influence on the sound / tone im chasing... and happened to win both off ebay. (Lucky me)

However... Is one preferable over the other (ie- the difference between expander and compressor) and per the schematic... One gate pre modeler... Should i put the other gate inbetween the Pod and the computer?

Seriously appreciate the patience and guidance!

 

[zarg]

Another prolly stoopid question...

The behringer XR4400 I have is a 4 channel Expander / noise gate.

The Alesis 3630 is a 2 channel Compressor / Noise gate.

Honestly I was after the noise gate function as this is a big influence on the sound / tone im chasing... and happened to win both off ebay. (Lucky me)

However... Is one preferable over the other (ie- the difference between expander and compressor) and per the schematic... One gate pre modeler... Should i put the other gate inbetween the Pod and the computer?

Seriously appreciate the patience and guidance!

personally I'd just start with using the built in gate on the pod, its a good starting point.

If you use an external gate I'd put it right after the tuner, the behringer unit seems pretty good for that. (don't have experience with either device, tho)

 

[Shask]

Yeah, I am also confused by all the extra units. The HD PRO has compressors, gates, and tuners built into it, so I don't know why you have the rest of those units.

 

[op1e]

Normally built in tuners aren't the greatest, at least for low tuning. Keep the power unit and Pitchblack Pro. Get rid of that shit Alesis. I had one. Totally not needed with what's built into the Pod HD. Start with the Angel model in there, tweak to taste. Most of your djent presets are gonna be built around it. It's the only one I liked during my brief stint with an HD500. Get the new expansion pack that has the 5150 in it. You'll live on those two amps. Another great patch to download is that clean one for Tesseract style cleans. I almost wanna get an HD just for that and the Recto sim.

 

[DudeManBrother]

So obviously the Furman is what everything plugs into. Everything you bought would be in front of the Pod. I bet you'll have no need for either gate but you have them now, so play with them and see how they sound.
I’d start with:
Guitar>Korg Input; Korg output>Behringer input;Behringer output>Alesis input;Alesis output>Pod input;Pod output>DAW
Once you decide the Behringer and or Alesis is not needed, then pull them out of the chain. Being that you won’t be using a power amp or speaker cab, they won’t really do much of anything. I’d bet stock pro tools compression and expansion is better than the rack units you have now; but you have them so give them a shot... before you start building your unused rack pile in the corner of your closet like the rest of us

 

[Ram150023]

I went after the extra gates because of the research I had done.

Virtually EVERYONE that had an opinion and /or set up thread or youtube vid highly suggested a gate before the modeler. Get rid of extra noise right from the get go.

Plus reading on trying to "hone the tone"... gates and compressors play a big role in giving that tight chop sound.

Ill play with them just for fun... Thankfully both didnt even cost me $60 in total!! Ill prolly give one to my brother in law to play with.

With the tuner... Yeah... On super low tunings (9 string) the onboard tuner didnt have great reviews... Again suggested to get a stand alone. Thank you ebay again.

Thanks for the tips everyone!! I will definitely be studying this thing as much as possible to try and get every ounce out of it!

Ill meander around ebay for a power amp just to have in case... That or a very nice set of PA speakers.

Im assuming the Pod has enough effects (chorus, delay, etc) to work in the separate rack units would be a waste of time...?

 

[Ram150023]

So obviously the Furman is what everything plugs into. Everything you bought would be in front of the Pod. I bet you'll have no need for either gate but you have them now, so play with them and see how they sound.
I’d start with:
Guitar>Korg Input; Korg output>Behringer input;Behringer output>Alesis input;Alesis output>Pod input;Pod output>DAW
Once you decide the Behringer and or Alesis is not needed, then pull them out of the chain. Being that you won’t be using a power amp or speaker cab, they won’t really do much of anything. I’d bet stock pro tools compression and expansion is better than the rack units you have now; but you have them so give them a shot... before you start building your unused rack pile in the corner of your closet like the rest of us

What about putting a gate between the Pod and the computer? Put the Alesis (compressor / gate) infront of the Pod and the Behringer (expander / gate) after it? Any benefits? Drawbacks?

The more knowledge... The better armed...

 

[Shask]

I went after the extra gates because of the research I had done.

Virtually EVERYONE that had an opinion and /or set up thread or youtube vid highly suggested a gate before the modeler. Get rid of extra noise right from the get go.

Plus reading on trying to "hone the tone"... gates and compressors play a big role in giving that tight chop sound.

Ill play with them just for fun... Thankfully both didnt even cost me $60 in total!! Ill prolly give one to my brother in law to play with.

With the tuner... Yeah... On super low tunings (9 string) the onboard tuner didnt have great reviews... Again suggested to get a stand alone. Thank you ebay again.

Thanks for the tips everyone!! I will definitely be studying this thing as much as possible to try and get every ounce out of it!

Ill meander around ebay for a power amp just to have in case... That or a very nice set of PA speakers.

Im assuming the Pod has enough effects (chorus, delay, etc) to work in the separate rack units would be a waste of time...?

Usually you do that in your preset in the POD HD. Run a gate->comp->OD->gate->amp->cab->delay/verb chain in the POD HD, and that will usually give you a Djent type sound. I know I usually don't like to run other units with modelers because they mess up your tone when you switch to other sounds, like your clean tones. Usually you can run that many blocks at once, if you dont use dual amps.

 

[Andromalia]

The simplest way to explain the preamp/power amp thing is to consider that the preamp is a distorsion pedal, and the power amp is an amplifier.
While it is not true, it's close enough to help understanding how it works. Kind of a kindergarten explanation, that works.

 

[DudeManBrother]

What about putting a gate between the Pod and the computer? Put the Alesis (compressor / gate) infront of the Pod and the Behringer (expander / gate) after it? Any benefits? Drawbacks?

The more knowledge... The better armed...

A gate restricts a signal at the set point, it wouldn’t provide anything useful to block your signal into the computer. The only time you’d feasibly use a gate after the Pod is if you had delay and reverb (think TC electronics G major or something) that was so noisy it needed gating. But even that would only realistically come into play if you had a power amp and cab

 

[op1e]

The Alesis is a stereo comp/gate. You can put it before and after the Pod. Say Tuner/3630/Pod/3630/Amp. But the dumb thing about that is you can't control it thru midi or anything. It's always on, and it's gonna strangle your clean patches. Just use what's in the Pod.

 

[Ram150023]

Honestly... Its the "kindergarten" version I need... Brand new to this world.

I will dig deep into the settings on the Pod unit... Explore what she can offer. Again... The $$ was right not to pick up the extra gates for giggles.

Speaking of... A stand alone EQ...? Needed or just extra thats not needed? Im really trying to use my 9 as a main axe... Without just thumpin on the 9th or even the 8th string.. Just bigger voicings.

Another facet of learning... Dropping the muddy lows... Boosting the mids and highs to leave room for a bass line... Just EQ in general... Giving the ability to seriously tweak...

 

[Shask]

Honestly... Its the "kindergarten" version I need... Brand new to this world.

I will dig deep into the settings on the Pod unit... Explore what she can offer. Again... The $$ was right not to pick up the extra gates for giggles.

Speaking of... A stand alone EQ...? Needed or just extra thats not needed? Im really trying to use my 9 as a main axe... Without just thumpin on the 9th or even the 8th string.. Just bigger voicings.

Another facet of learning... Dropping the muddy lows... Boosting the mids and highs to leave room for a bass line... Just EQ in general... Giving the ability to seriously tweak...

Honestly, I would recommend just keeping it simple until you learn. Many people try to make things more complicated then they need to be, and end up with a million problems.

Just make a preset on the POD. Gate->OD->Amp->Cab. Turn the threshold up on the gate just until the hiss goes away when you guitar volume is all the way up. On the OD, pick Screamer, turn the gain to 0, level to about 75%, tone about 50%, and leave it. For the amp, pick your favorite. Probably the Recto or Engl. In the cab block, pick your favorite 4x12 cab. Adjust the amp controls until you get the sound you want. Leave it at that for now. Master what you can do with this before you start looking at extra gates and EQ.