Direct Recording With A POD

Hi All,

Please bear with me as I'm pretty far from High Tech!!!

I've been recording direct to my PC using Cakewalks Guitar Tracks Pro 3 through a POD V2 for a while now.... Just using the generic (****ty) sound card that came with it. I plug the Guitar into the POD, The POD into the MIC input and the Head phones into the phones input on the sound card...... Even I can handle that!!! Sounds OK, simple and easy.......

The latency got to be too much of a problem, so I went out and bought an M-AUDO Audiophile 2496. The problem now is I dont have a phones or a MIC input... only RCA IN/OUT...

So now the questions:

Can I still plug directly into this card with the toys I've got..... just use different cables.... or do I need to buy more gear???

How do I use Head phones to listen to what I'm playing/recording??

Any Help would be much appreciated...

Cheers one and all,

Rob

I just got a PODxt at the weekend, so I'm just getting started with that piece of hardware. As far as I know the POD 2 and XT are "basically" the same...

First thing to do is go to Line6.com and download all of the updates and drivers via USB into your POD. Then, if I'm right, you should be able to play into your pc directly via the USB.

The other scenario is via the line out from the POD and straight into your pc's soundcard... If you are suffering latency issues with something that basic then you need a new pc... I got a friend to custom build me a pc specifially for music: 3GB Ram, Pentium 4 processer, 2x150GB fast hard drives and Windows XP Pro with no added software (office utilities etc). I use a Tascam US428 controller to do all recording direct from guitar. It acts as a superfast soundcard that interfaces with CUbase SX or whatever sequencer you use.

Anyway, I don't advise adding anymore to your pc if you are serious about making music for the next few years... the problem with getting new RAM and cards is that the mother board can only handle so much. Its like having a Porche with a 1 litre engine...

What setup do you have on your computer? OS, RAM, Processer, Drive space etc?
If its a reasonable system, you might be able to get away with defragmenting the drive, then cleaning all unnecessary files from the system, then downloading all of the critical windows updates from microsoft.com
Try that before you buy anything else. I don't know anything about the type of card you have now... I had a Soundblaster Audigy which was fine for direct input recording on a slow pc, never had any issues with latency...

Maybe someone else in the forum will know a bit more about the tech end of things. Good luck!

Thanks for the reply Mate,

The latency is no longer an issue with the new card, the problem is the POD V2 doesnt have USB.... The only outputs are with a standard guitar lead or MIDI.....

I want to connect straight to the soundcard...... which only has RCA IN/OUT ports on it (or MIDI)........ No head phone Jack or Microphone jack, so I either need some kind of cable converter, or a piece of hardware in between to make this work..... But then how do I listen to what I'm playing??

Or maybe I can just connect from MIDI to MIDI?? :confused:

I know not....

I was just hoping someone here could shed some light on the subject before I go out and buy more toys that I dont need.......

But I'll probably do that anyway.. :)

Cheers again one and all!!

To connect the POD to your soundcard you could get a couple of 1/4" to RCA cables, such as these. I'm not too sure about your minitoring situation though.

I had a similar situation when I bought my emu card. It has 1/4 in jacks and all my stuff was 1/8 in jacks.

If you get the 1/4 to rca converters, it should all work out. In my system, the 1/4 outputs can be combined to a single stereo, which I then split into powered speakers and headphones. The output is sufficient to drive the headphones. It is hokey, but it works.

Thanks All,

I new I'd have to buy a stereo of some description.....

Bugger