Pod Xt

I have a Pod pro pre and it is great. You can use a Pod or a Pod XT instead of an amp and just plug it into what ever you are recording.

You have several choices as far as connections go.

I'd plum for direct in using the USB which should be picked up by what ever audio software you are using. No amp required ! However if you want to use the pod to drive your amp for lave work well that is another option to. However you can also hook the analogue outs up to your sound card and do it that way. If you have the "Pro" model you can also use the S/PDIF out which is what I do

Is the USB out much better than analogue out in terms of quality or anything?

I use the A/D converter in the pod as it saves the signal being digitized then processed and then converted back to analogue for the journey to the sound card before it is re-digitized and finally stored on disk before being re-processed during mix down.

I've got the PODxt bean and I enjoy it. I could send you a recording or two I've done with it if you want to give it a listen. I usually record with the analogue outputs because for some reason, the USB recording freezes evrything up. My pc has an AMD Athalon 1800 processor and 512megs of RAM, so I'm not sure what's causing the freeze ups. ACID Pro has a tendancy to do that anyway for me for some reason. What little I have been able to record using the USB turned out great. There is less white noise, and the effects are cleaner. Either way works just fine. If you don't mind tweaking a good bit then I would suggest the XT for the extra options, but if you don't like tweaking, I would suggest the POD 2.0. Both sound great IMO. The XT has sooo much more versatility than the regular POD, as you can get model packs and upgrade to newer versions much easier. There are 3 model packs out right now. One with higher gain amp models, one with more vintage style amps, and one with different effects. I must warn you of two things though....1) don't listen to the presets and make your mind up, because they all suck, and 2) there is a certain fizzyness to some of the gainier amps and cabs, but that can usually be taken care of with its 4 band parametric eq, and 3) listen with your ears, and not your eyes. If you take it on with the thinking "I want to play through a Rectifier, so I will choose the Rectifier model" you will be dissapointed. It's possible to sound like almost any amp with the XT, you just have to pay attention with your ears, and what the model say's it's supposed to sound like. Another cool thing about the XT is that if you have the floorboard and you like how your real amp sounds, you can run the XT through the FX loop and use it as an effects processor. Hope some of that might have helped. If you have anymore questions feel free to ask away ;)

Thanks for the input guys. Well, it seems as though the POD 2.0 is much more affordable than the XT, especially second-hand. I think I will get POD 2.0 on ebay. Does the POD offer the same amp models and effects as the line 6 amps, like the Flextone?

POD 2.0 = Flextone II , PODxt = Flextone III basically

I have it. I've had it since December 2002, and while I've used it a little bit, I've never liked effects that much. I'm going to sell it to a friend of mine in a few months when he gets his money together. Overall? It's pretty nice if you love effects. You'll have to customize it yourself though. Be prepared to spend 15-20 solid hours developing the effects to perfection.

~Incidents