OT - Line 6 Guitar Players

Playing with it right now. Like the new GUI and love the DUAL option. But it seems you have to uncheck the 64-bit Double Precision engine to get it to work as a plugin inside SONAR.

Sven

You're pretty much right in your assumptions. But DUAL tones (option to play two different signal chains at a time) and better preset management makes it worthwhile. And it's free for GearBox plugin owners, so just take it for a spin willya?

On the downside, something tells me that it probably uses more CPU than the GearBox plugin, what with the fancy graphics'n'all!

Oh, and it doesn't 'replace' GearBox, so you'll have the option of chosing which one you want!

Sven

ORIGINAL: yorolpal

I'm a bit confused (so what else is new?) about "Pod Farm". I got the GearBox Gold (DI and software) not too long back. Is Pod Farm a separate product, a replacement or an add-on to GearBox...or is it just a "repackaging" of GearBox that I don't need to bother with? It looks like it's available as a free download to me but if it's just a redundant package with a different GUI I'm not sure I gotta have it. Anyone know the skinny?

If you've got Gearbox Gold, you'll get PodFarm for free. Log into the Monkey and update. When it asks for a serial number, type in "refresh". You should be able to get it for free. I have the same (DI Gold) and I downloaded it last night with no issues.

HTH

Dave

ORIGINAL: SvenArne

Playing with it right now. Like the new GUI and love the DUAL option. But it seems you have to uncheck the 64-bit Double Precision engine to get it to work as a plugin inside SONAR.

Sven

That's a bummer. I'll have to experiment it after I get a chance to download, which won't be until my replacement power conditioner shows up.
(Hard to run any audio when the main power switch is dead.)

One distinction between Gearbox and PODFarm is that Gearbox won't work without a line6 device hooked up as a dongle. While the low cost of PODFarm behaves this way, the more expensive version is compatible with ilock, so you don't need to have a line6 device plugged in. This is convienient for people with laptops (like me) who move the DAW around to different recording and mixing environments.

Nevermind, I figured it out. The "dll" gets loaded into the Line6 folder and not either the "VST" folder or the "Steinberg" folder for who knows what reason. I just copied and pasted it and everything is AOK.

iLock is a USB dongle device that contains the authorization keys for whatever software is tied to it. You can't run the program(s) unless it sees the dongle plugged into your computer. Programs copy protected in this way can then (usually) be installed on several (any) computer and you just carry your iLock device and plug it in to whichever computer you wish to work on. However, there are many pitfalls to this approach. If, for instance, you damage, or worse, lose your iLock dongle you are, for the most part, SOL. At least temporarily if not permanently. No dongle...no software. There are those who love em and those who hate em. That's why many companies now offer you a choice of copy protection schemes. HTH.

Thanks for the iLock explanation yorolpal!

Dave

Hi guys

One of GearBox's nice little features for me is the Hum Reducer.

I've looked and I've looked but I can't find it in POD Farm anywhere - has anyone found it or is it missing?

TIA

Steve

ORIGINAL: gwp99

Of course there is still the issue of the incompatibilty with SONAR's 64-bit Mix Engine

So does this mean the Gearbox has no issues with the 64-bit Mix Engine?

yes. gb works fine with the 64 bit engine.

ORIGINAL: tjm222

I'm using Sonar 7 and just picked up POD Farm. I agree with some others about it having a bit more warmth than gearbox.

I have normally had my chain this way. Guitar - POD - External Sound Card and recorded processed sounds settings from the POD.

What Software Settings (FARM and Sonar) as well chain order do I need to do in order record clean signal but have POD Farm act as an FX. I want to be able to experiment with tones after a track is recorded.

Any help here would be appreciated.

I don't think it matters but I am using a External Delta 1010 sound card.

Thanks

TM

How you should proceed to "reamp" depends. You don't say what pod you have but given the fact you have the plugin I presume it's an podXT or higher.


With a podxt your pod IS a (usb) soundcard. In the gearbox frontend you can define 2 "record sends". 1 (stereo: send 1-2) wet and 1 (stereo: send 3-4) dry.

It is THAT dry signal you will use afterwoods for "re-amping" with the plugin(s).
Mind that this will only work in (podxt) ASIO mode.

Hope this helps,

Hugo

P.S. I use a Toneport UX2 and LOVE the new Pod Farm. As a plugin and Standelone as well! I am waiting for my podX3 Live to arrive...:-)

Just wanted to weigh in real quick:

I like the Gearbox (and VST). I am very pleased with the new PODFarm, especially that it is a free upgrade for the Gearbox VST owners (and some others). A few of the things that are missing are a "shame". I'm not sure on a few of them why they would get left out. Maybe they'll be reincorporated.

Missing:
Still no tuner in VST version. Doesn't seem like this would be rocket science to add, so even though it has been explained as to why it isn't there (VST designed for "already-recorded tracks"), I don't get it - clearly a lot of people have wanted it in GearboxVST.

No 64-bit mode engine in Sonar. I'm sure this one will get fixed. I bet they didn't test for that, however short-sighted that may be. In the mean-time, my quality is getting far more damaged by my gear and talent than the lack of 64 bit mode. In most cases (especially with my simplistic projects), the 64-bitness is audibly negligable anyway. Still, they should fix it.

No ER (early reflections) module. While you can, when using a cabinet, adjust a parameter of "how much room" is emulated, which seems to correlate directly to the ER setting (if you load the same preset into the Gearbox), when using a preamp for vocals or other instuments like Acoustic Guitar, you have to emulate this with the reverb unit or some other workaround. No big deal for me, but I don't know why they would leave it out.

No Hum Reducer. Again, no biggie for me, I'm using a Variax, so no pickups means no noise. I didn't even know the Hum Reducer thing was over there! Anyway, again, I don't understand why they would leave this out.

But I love a lot of things about it, such as:
The GUI. I'm not a huge fan of the iPhone "swinging gallery" look, but it's functional enough, and they've provided drop down menus for things there as well, so whichever works better for you, you can use. The effects chain view at the bottom of the plugin is cool. I feel like it gives a better representation of what's happening than the Gearbox does. Since the gearbox always has the generic module showing in the chain as either on or off, the chain always looks the same. With the PODFarm, you only see a stompbox if one is present. Further, if you have a distortion in there, that's what you see at the summary chain level, where in the Gearbox, you just see "stomp" unless you actually select that section of the signal chain. The images are also much improved, giving a better sense visually what you have in play.

The inspiration of the GUI is also improved. By this, I mean that I feel like I have more control of the whole signal chain. I know I don't, and this is a good indication of the strength of the GUI presentation. The capabilities are the same as before, but they look enough different and are displayed in a "real world" sort of scenario, so it FEELS like there is more control and more to it. It's a very natural process to select a cabinet from a list of pics of cabinets rather than from a dropdown menu. It's cool to be able to start with just an amp and a cab and build from there, only seeing what is actually in the chain. It's hard to describe with words, so if you haven't already gotten at least the standalone version running, I recommend it to better understand what I'm trying to say.

The preset selections. Much improved. I think there are still some improvements to be made, such as being able to drag a patch from one folder to another within the gui, without having to do it via an Explorer Window. But, you can see a list of presets in a certain area, like "Medium Gain" under the Guitar branch, and that set of presets stays on the screen rather than you having to root around in menus again for other tones in the same area.

Preset Search. This works like Vista search - start typing in the box at the top and the preset list changes as you type - doesn't even wait for "enter", which is cool, and helps to soften the importance of patch management.

Dual Tones. Didn't think I'd care. I care. This is a cool feature and makes for some really rich combinations of sounds. I imagine that it will help to cut down on the number of "double tracking" takes that need to be done. It's cool that you can see both signal chains parallel to each other.

Huge preset list. While presets are often the downfall of libraries of all types, in this package you get a TON of them. Seems like they included the entire online Songs tone library, all of the presets from the Gearbox (and other tones you have custom created there), and what I'm guessing are the presets from the X3. If you can't find some tones in here that can be tweaked to your needs, I'm guessing that you just don't know what you are looking for. The representations are vast, and as mentioned above, the GUI makes it really easy to see and change these around to get to "your tone" quickly. It's actually pretty easy to get lost in this - in a good way.

Host sync. Things that have tempo, like delays and mods, can now sync to the host. I really didn't care that much about this, since you could manually set them in Gearbox to match, it's still cool, because it's running on the same clock and simplifies the process.

I hope this mini-review is useful to someone.

There are actually good reasons to run the standalone beside the VST, besides some of the missing things (like the tuner).

The "Tone-Direct" monitoring that you can use while running the standalone verson is what allows you to set your latency to whatever you want within Sonar (like 30ms) and still have about 2ms of playability with the Toneport tones - hearing everything modeled and only recording the dry unprocessed guitar (or instrument/mic) input.

It's a nice way to get the feel of hardware with the convenience of software.