I use a lot of different things in my studio...find out what I think of different items!
Line 6 Pod X3
As most of you know, I have been a POD user ever since the original bean came out. It was so much easier than sticking a 57 in front of an amp and trying to keep my dogs quiet long enough to get a good sound (which sometimes was a LLOOOONNNGGGG time).
Recently, I sold my POD XT and upgraded to the POD X3. IMPORTANT NOTE HERE: If you do this, make a backup of your patches before selling your old one. I didn’t, and could kick myself because I had about 30 patches that I made and labored over!
Anyway, I didn’t upgrade so much for the sound, as it is very close to the XT. I do believe that it has lost a bit of it’s boominess and fizz, so that’s a good thing. I have seen reports where people post a lot of scientific data saying otherwise, but to my ears it is a bit smoother sounding and improved overall. Not enough to make it worth upgrading for that alone, but still nice.
I upgraded because it is also a Bass Pod, having a lot of very nice bass amps/cabs, it can do two amp sims at once (either blended together or panned left and right) and plus it has the XLR input with six vocal preamps to choose from. I was using a Johnson J-Station for my bass, and this was a way to keep it all in one box and make some room by putting the J-Station in the closet. I don’t expect to use the vocal part very often, but when I take it with me to do some demo work at other locations, it will be pretty nice just plugging my SM58 in there and having a decent scratch vocal. I used to own a Toneport just for that reason, and was able to part with it also. Long story short, from three boxes on my mixing desk down to one was a good trade for me.
So the plusses are: a bit of a better sound, all the add-on packs (metal, fx junkie, etc), bass tones, input for microphones, vocal preamp models and an improved view screen.
Now the bad news. This thing is a pain in the butt to edit on. I waited to buy it until the end of December because the Gearbox editor was supposed to be available by mid to late January and I figured I could limp through until then (don’t even get me started on why you would release a product before the editing software was ready, and don’t flame me telling me that Gearbox is just an extra and they didn’t have to include it, blah blah blah. Every release of the POD products has come with an editor and this one should have also, ON THE DAY IT WAS RELEASED). Trying to dance around on this thing with all it’s buttons and windows is really tiring. By the time I adjust to get a sound close to what I want, the desire to play has moved on and I have to take a break to get ready again. And notice I said “close to”. Once I’m in the ballpark, it is too much trouble to go back in and tweak and tweak, so I just live with what I have. So sue me, I’m lazy. That’s why I make music…it sounded better than working construction!
I also have not found a way to adjust the level of the sound if I monitor through the POD, so I don’t. In gearbox there is a little dial that let’s you change the pan and volume while monitoring, but since there is no Gearbox editor for the X3 yet, I can’t do it. There is a similar setting in the properties dialog (where you can also change bit depth, etc), but it doesn’t seem to do anything for me.
In conclusion, it seems to be a nice piece of equipment, but FOR ME, it’s pretty useless until I get the editor at the end of February (if they don’t push it back again). My advice, wait until March or so and in the meantime, hang on to your 2.0 or XT.
NOTE: Here it is the middle of March and they STILL don't have an editor out and won't give any kind of new timeline for it's release. There are numerous bugs with the product and instead of communicating about those, all they do is send PR releases about their new products and how you should buy them. In my opinion, Line 6 is a struggling company that is trying to pad it's bank accounts to try and save themselves and right the ship (at least that is how it seems to me), and if i were you, I would hold off on buying any new Line 6 products until they get all their problems worked out. Something tells me that is going to be a lllooooooonnnngggg time.
Steven Slate Drums 1.5
I have been intrigued by the Steven Slate Drum samples since I first heard about them a year ago or more. I don't do many drums in my studio (I leave that to the Skinbasher himself, Mr. Scot Goacher!), but when I do, it's easier to get a good solid sound and then take it to the next level with samples. I don't have 20 great mics to use, so this is the next best thing.
In searching for some new samples one day, I stumbled on Steven Slate's website, and listened to some of his demos of his samples, and they flat out rocked! I was floored. I was then floored again when I looked at the price! I can't remember what they were, but I think it was around 250 bucks at the time, so I passed. Important note: I'm not in any way implying that he over charges for his samples or that it isn't worth it, I'm just saying that was too much for me to justify paying for samples. I'm sure he puts in tons of hours using very expensive equipment to make these. He is also a nice guy, and will answer any questions you have in a day or two via e-mail.
Anyway, I kept dropping in from time to time, and noticed that he had dropped the price to $149.00 for a stripped down set of samples, and I ordered up. So after getting a chance to play with them for a while, what do I think? Honestly, if someone took my disc and left me $149.00, I wouldn't re-order. There just isn't enough there to make it worth my while. There are 10 or 11 kicks of which there are 2 or 3 I like, there are 9 or so snares but I don't really care for any of them, there are two sets of toms (each consisting of 3 toms...hi, medium and low) which I don't care for (they have too much ring for me and just don't sound very powerful), and there are no cymbals at all which I didn't realize. Now I should point out (for the few of you visiting here that don't know me) that I play hard rock and metal. If I did all kinds of music this package would be much more usable to me. I have been able to get them closer to what I wanted by adding eq and compression, but the whole selling point of these samples is that they are already finished and all you need to do is drop them in and you are good to go. That wasn't the case for me, but your mileage may vary. The package also consists of stereo versions of the samples, and also a "room" sample that you can mix in to give your drum sounds more depth.
One cool thing Slate is doing that sounds interesting is taking drum sounds from certain bands and making matching samples, so if you like that band's drum sounds, then you can have it. He is doing bands like Dream Theater, Metallica, and several other bands that I don't remeber right now. If I remember right, that disc is back in the $300.00 range, though, so that takes it off of my wish list. Maybe in the future he will offer a Metallica pack, or a Dream Theater pack for a lesser amount, and I might look back into it. Hell, I'd swap him out my disc for just the Dream Theater samples right now if he would do it.
So do I recommend the Slate samples? Yes and no. If you are pretty set in one type of music, the Slate samples are a bit of overkill. I would have liked to see him package them into genres (metal, pop, punk, etc) and then I think he would have something. I actually suggested this to him about 6 months ago, and he was looking into it, but it never happened. If you do order, you probably need to get the Elite package which offers more samples and also includes cymbals I believe (I think it was $249.00). Like I said, though, Steven is a heck of a nice guy and is willing to answer any question you have, so chat it up with him and make up your own mind. And Steven, if you're reading this, trade me for the Dream Theater pack!!!!