Line 6 PODXT as interface?

[espmetalhead]

Just picked up some Mackie MR5 monitors

I have been using a Line 6 POD XT for home practice (can't use the stack in an apartment), and I usually practice by choosing the POD as the audio output from my Macbook and play guitar through the POD. As of now the monitors are hooked up to the balanced line outs on the POD using TRS to XLR cables

Would the audio quality of a dedicated interface be better quality for playback? (as in, run the POD into and interface and use the interface to as the output device?). I bought the Mackies because I wanted something better than computer speakers, as I open tracks in Logic that other musicians send me to record solo tracks on and send back. So far it seems to sound pretty damn good (haven't broken the monitors in yet), but you guys have more experience with studio stuff than I do I'm betting so any advice would be great.

 

[mnemonic]

So playing guitar pod -> interface -> monitors? I would think this would degrade the sound quality further since you're going to need to use the POD's converters to go from POD to Interface, unless I'm reading things wrong.

For what its worth, I use my toneport for practice in the exact same way; monitors plugged into the outputs of the toneport. No sound quality issues.

 

[espmetalhead]

So playing guitar pod -> interface -> monitors? I would think this would degrade the sound quality further since you're going to need to use the POD's converters to go from POD to Interface, unless I'm reading things wrong.

For what its worth, I use my toneport for practice in the exact same way; monitors plugged into the outputs of the toneport. No sound quality issues.

As of now, the signal chain is Guitar - > Pod XT - Monitors, the POD is hooked up USB to the computer and I have the audio out set to USB Pod XT. I wasn't sure if the audio processor made a difference in playback, it sounds pretty good though. I only use the monitors for listening to music and tracking guitar solo demo takes to send back to friends that have real studios (I go to their studio for the final track to play through a real rig). But I wanted regular playback of music to be as clear as possible. Your reply is what I was thinking, but wanted to make sure I had it right. Thanks

 

[mnemonic]

For playing/practice, I don't think it would be any better to use an external interface, however if you're using the podXT as the soundcard for your computer for playback of everything else through the monitors, a dedicated interface may sound better, as I've seen a few people here do it.

Bulb even did it in his 'how to record' videos, he had an interface set up for playback of his recordings rather than go through his axe fx. Though if memory serves, I think he may have done it because there were more ins and outs on the interface so he could plug more stuff in at once.

That being said, I don't know how big of a difference it would really make. A friend back in college had some m-audio interface (i forget which) as well as a podXT and we A/B'd them and I couldn't hear any difference between them as an interface between the computer and monitors.

 

[espmetalhead]

For playing/practice, I don't think it would be any better to use an external interface, however if you're using the podXT as the soundcard for your computer for playback of everything else through the monitors, a dedicated interface may sound better, as I've seen a few people here do it.

Bulb even did it in his 'how to record' videos, he had an interface set up for playback of his recordings rather than go through his axe fx. Though if memory serves, I think he may have done it because there were more ins and outs on the interface so he could plug more stuff in at once.

That being said, I don't know how big of a difference it would really make. A friend back in college had some m-audio interface (i forget which) as well as a podXT and we A/B'd them and I couldn't hear any difference between them as an interface between the computer and monitors.

Ok thanks, it will be used for playback. I sold home theater for years, and I know the different processing in those pre amps did effect sound quite a bit, but those were for 7 channel setups not un processed stereo stuff