software

I recently sold all of my stompboxes because I hate tapdancing on stage.. what's your fav multi-effects pedal and why?.. so far I'm digging the boss GT8.. can anybody tell me about the Vox, Line 6, or digitech floorboards?

OK. Well, I use a Vox Tone Lab SE. I've had it a few months now, amp; I like it a lot. I have used it for recording direct to my PC, amp; I use it live, fed through the FX return of my amp. It probably sounds best through a very clean stereo setup, like a small PA.

It is highly configurable. I am still exploring the functionality of this thing. It’s very deep.

It has 6 sections of the audio chain: Pedal effects, Amp, Cabinet, Modulation effect, Delay Effect, and Reverb Effect

Pedal Effect: This is where you find fuzzes, overdrives, wahs, a ring modulator, an Octavia fuzz, amp; the octave divider pedal. Emulates a bunch of stomp boxes but only one at a time. You cannot use an overdrive and a Wah at the same time.

Amp: 16 different amp models. I like the AC30 and Marshall UK 68 (plexi) best. I go for “Classic Rock” tones. The recto is good; it can be set to emulate an old Boogie with the right amount of fiddling. Boutique clean, Boutique OD, amp; Fender amps too. The amp sims utilize a tube to model the amps sounds. Vox claims that the guy who designed the Univibe designed the tube circuit. What I really like here is that I can set up “Brown” sound by dime-ing the gains of the vintage type amps, amp; then the sound will clean up when I back off on the guitar volume. The amps also seem to react properly to my guitar tone controls; one thing I dislike about some high impedance buffered effects, is that by isolating the guitar’s passive wiring from my amp, they mess with the tone when the effect is out of the chain. That’s not a problem here. That is what initially got my interested about the Tone Lab, it acted like an amp.

Cabinet: 11 cabinet sims. Most useful through a system that doesn’t color the sound, like a PA, but interesting things can happen through a guitar amp. I use the cab sims on the Vox amp; Marshall, I turn off the cabinet for the Blackface Fender amp; the Boutique clean amp. You can mix amp; match amps with cabs. Most of the great tones come from these 2 sections.

Modulation effects: Things like chorus, flangers, phasers amp; a great Mutron envelope filter. I have a great “Jerry Garcia” patch that uses the Octave Divider pedal, the Boutique clean amp, amp; the Envelope filter. I also have a nice Leslie patch that sounds great in stereo. It can be set up to slow down amp; speed up with a stomp switch.

Delays: Frankly I haven’t messed with these too much, but there some analog amp; tape echo sims, amp; lots of spacey digital delays, all delays can be set up with different types of tap-tempo functions.

Reverbs: Nothing groundbreaking, but they get the job done. Again, I haven’t dug into these much. Fun to play with.

Control system: Each patch can use 2 expression pedals, the presets all use the 2nd pedal for volume control, but you can use it for whatever you want. I am boring, I usually use the first exp pedal for one of the Vox Wah sims, but these can be configured to control lots of different parameters. There is also a control pedal, a button that can be configured to turn an effect on or off, or used as a tap-tempo button, or to switch the Leslie from slow to fast. Each patch also has a channel select, you can set up each patch to switch between 2 separate amp and cabinet configurations. There are 24 separate program banks, with 4 programs per bank. There is also a PC utility that can be downloaded from Vox, but I haven’t set that up yet either.

This thing is huge, about 2 feet across. Seems sturdy. It’s metal box with knobs and metal footswitches. Lights up all over too. It has 2 displays, one orange one that calls out the patch name, I cannot read this when I am standing up. The other display is a large red numerical display that indicates the patch and program number. This I can read. The red one doubles as a tuner.

That's it for now, hope this helps.

Line 6 POD xt Live!

Tell them I referred you

I have a Digitech RP-1, which is incredibly archaic. To tell the truth, I haven't used it much, because my main stage rig is a rackmounted system (also controlled by Digitech stuff). But I've always liked the sound of it.

For the money, I would say a Lexicon Alex. Otherwise I would say Line 6 rack stuff. I am actually thinking about getting rid of my Alex and Chandler. I am still rolling it over in my mind though, because I have just grown so attached to them. That's me though.

Don't toss the BOSS GT-PRO. Might not be the greatest unit, but it has some specific features unique to it, such as dynamic picking sensitivity. In other words, pick softly, get one sound, pick harder, and it transitions smoothly to another.

The pod xt live is great. Depend on the effects you want but overall it´s great.

If you want a whole modelling rig, PODxt Live.

If you want to keep your amp and just do effects, go with whatever Line6 effects unit tweaks your fancy.


Originally Posted by LesStratLine 6 POD xt Live!

Tell them I referred you

DITTO! CHRIS

More on the Vox ToneLab SE, if anyone is interested.

I finally got around to using the PC application, amp; lemme tell you, this is the way to program the ToneLab.

Basically replicates the ToneLab’s control panel on your PC, amp; lets you set it up without kneeling on the floor for hours. Believe you me, I can dig that.

I've done more playing with the delays amp; reverbs. Finally figured out how to set up the delay times to be a multiplier (or fraction) of the song tempo. Probably not new to most of you guys, but this is the first unit I've owned that has a delay time tap function, so it's new to me. Now I've got a U2 type delay set, to repeat every 3rd beat, amp; I've got a cool rockabilly patch where the slap can be related to song tempo.

The spring reverbs are nice; I'm using one for a Surf setting, and a very obnoxious Neil Young setting. I thought I'd get a good Neil patch with the Fender Deluxe amp model, but the patch works best using a cranked Twin model. Go figure.

I'm also getting more use out of the KT66 and 80's Marshall models. The KT66 (UK Blues) can be pushed with the built-in treble booster pedal model to sound very Bluesbreak-ery. I put together a patch with the wobbly Bi-Chorus modulator to emulate Clapton’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. Now if I could just play more like him..

The 80's Marshall is now my main dirty sound on this thing. Brighter than the 68 plexi model, amp; a little more controllable, with more gain. Comes pretty close to my normal Boogie sound, amp; responds well to the built-in Wah model.

I've decided I don't like the noise reduction function much, but I've never used one in the past, so maybe it's just me. Cuts off weirdly at the end of notes, sorta fizzles out. Mostly, I turn it down, except for really stupid high gain patches.Enough. If anybody is interested in more info, PM me amp; I can answer any other questions.

Boss GT-8 kills 'em all. It replaced my Fender amps for live use.

Search for my responses to other POD questions in the last 2 months.

I'm too lazy to type it all out again.

Suffice it to say that the POD xt Live is VERY user-friendly (Hah! Even I can program it!) with quot;amp-likequot; control knobs for adjusting your 'amp' sounds. It's almost too good to be true, but thankfully Line6, to paraphrase Star Trek TNG, quot;made it so.quot;