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The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison

#5,062
I'm also going to go with track 2 for the Oracle Path.

But after hearing both those clips, I'm might just have to try out that Tweed model next time I fire up my Stomp, and explore the LA-2A comp further.

@chadhargis - If you're using the Low/High Shelf block as your HPF/LPF, you could also check out the HPF/LPF options in the Global EQ to free up the block in the signal chain.

5sg.
 
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#5,063
chadhargis said:
Alrighty...here's the first clip of the POD Go.

But for fun...I'm not telling you which is which. I spent about 30 minutes or so to come up with a tone that closely matches the Oracle so it will be a fair fight. No cab sims. Just ooey gooey tubey goodness.

Both clips were recorded simultaneously using a JHS buffered splitter sending a signal to each board.

The Oracle signal path is:
Tuner -> Buffer (used to level the signal for various basses) -> LA-1A Comp -> Oracle -> microThumpinator -> RNDI

The Line 6 POD Go path is:
Guitar in jack -> Mono Out Jack -> 1/4" to XLR cable
The modeled effects are:
HPF/LPF -> LA-2A - Fender Tweed Deluxe (yes...I know it's a guitar amp) -> 10 band EQ

You be the judge...which one is which???

Track One

Track Two
Click to expand...
Track 1 has a funny scratchy sound at :34, maybe a digital artifact.

I think track 2 has the Arkham tubey goodness. If not, my, my, my, SMH!
 
#5,065
Definitely less highs (and possibly lows) in track 2. Whether that is due to the HPF/LPF on the Digital unit or natural roll of with the Tubes in the LA-1A and Oracle it is impossible to know. Sounded like a bit of Tube saturation in the 2nd also. Could be the Amp Sim, could be the tubes. Going with:
1 POD
2 Oracle/LA-1A
 
#5,066
chadhargis said:
Alrighty...here's the first clip of the POD Go.

But for fun...I'm not telling you which is which. I spent about 30 minutes or so to come up with a tone that closely matches the Oracle so it will be a fair fight. No cab sims. Just ooey gooey tubey goodness.

Both clips were recorded simultaneously using a JHS buffered splitter sending a signal to each board.

The Oracle signal path is:
Tuner -> Buffer (used to level the signal for various basses) -> LA-1A Comp -> Oracle -> microThumpinator -> RNDI

The Line 6 POD Go path is:
Guitar in jack -> Mono Out Jack -> 1/4" to XLR cable
The modeled effects are:
HPF/LPF -> LA-2A - Fender Tweed Deluxe (yes...I know it's a guitar amp) -> 10 band EQ

You be the judge...which one is which???

Track One

Track Two
Click to expand...
I'm so bad at this game, and am usually wrong. But track one sounds more digitally processed to me, while track two sounds warmer and a bit more analog to me. But both sound great.
 
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#5,067
So most got it right.

Track 1 is the POD Go
Track 2 is the Oracle

With some tweaking I probably could have got them closer. The EQ options are damn near limitless.

The digital artifact sound was probably due to having it plugged into my computer. I forget to unplug the USB. It causes all sorts of noise with my setup as I have my mixer on the same USB bus.
 
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#5,069
Thank you. Very interesting.

Oh, now I would hope to know which item in the analog chain softened the lowest notes (because that's what I didn't like, compared to the other track).

Can you say?
 
Last edited:
#5,072
chadhargis said:
So most got it right.

Track 1 is the POD Go
Track 2 is the Oracle

With some tweaking I probably could have got them closer. The EQ options are damn near limitless.

The digital artifact sound was probably due to having it plugged into my computer. I forget to unplug the USB. It causes all sorts of noise with my setup as I have my mixer on the same USB bus.
Click to expand...

Your audio confirms why the Oracle has been high on my G.A.S. list for a while, but still... the Pod Go signal chain sounded quite good!

Perhaps hijacking the thread a little bit, but you might like trying these settings for the 10-band EQ. @Chace90 recently let me check out his Noble, and I was quite pleased with how close these settings got me to the sound with the Noble's controls at noon.

5sg.

10-BandEQ_Noble.JPG
 
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#5,074
chadhargis said:
So most got it right.

Track 1 is the POD Go
Track 2 is the Oracle

With some tweaking I probably could have got them closer. The EQ options are damn near limitless.

The digital artifact sound was probably due to having it plugged into my computer. I forget to unplug the USB. It causes all sorts of noise with my setup as I have my mixer on the same USB bus.
Click to expand...

POD Go is pretty amazing.

Thanks for the comparo!
 
#5,075
Mr. voodoobass said:
Dial in the lpf in global eq on the pod and it would have been closer in tone. Having the stomp wasn't hard to tell the clips apart. Both clips great sounding.

My clean tone is usually eq block, LA comp, svt nrm and another eq at the end. Cutting some hi and lo at the beginning and boosting some lo back at the end. No cab sims or ir, sounds great without.
Click to expand...

Oh I didn't even think about disabling the amp sim and trying to tone shape using just comp and EQ...that's another several hours of my life gone. :)

I also want to play with the preamps too. I haven't even tried any yet.

As I said above, I spent about 30 minutes tweaking to get it to sound close to the Oracle. There are a ton of options. I don't think there is a tone you can't get close to and dial up with the tap of a switch. I'm in the technology biz, and I know the amount of work that went into developing a device like this. For the price point, it's simply amazing. I can only imagine the R&D dollars were recouped through the Helix and HX lines and the POD Go is just gravy as they are recycling the code base at a lower price point. But even the hardware feels solid. Knobs and switches operate with a nice feel.

mikeGJ said:
POD Go is pretty amazing.

Thanks for the comparo!
Click to expand...

It really is. I'm not easily impressed and throughout this thread I've tested several products that I was not impressed with. A few I have really liked. The NuX I loved for the money. For what it costs, it sounds really good...but it has some warts. If the NuX were $300 I'd steer people away from it, but for half that money, it's good if you wanna futz with it. The POD Go, so far, has just astounded me. The things you can do with it can't even be done with analog equipment, regardless of how good it is. The ability to move "pedals" around on the fly, move the FX loop anywhere in the patch, "snapshot" your settings on a patch and change snapshots on the fly, etc.

If you are lucky enough to play in a band that does all original songs and you get to determine what your tone is....you many not have much need for something like the POD Go. But if you do cover tunes, and it's a Zeppelin tune...you can dial up that amp and cab. If it's a Motown tune, you can dial up that amp and cab. It's really cool.
 
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#5,076
fivestringgecko said:
Your audio confirms why the Oracle has been high on my G.A.S. list for a while, but still... the Pod Go signal chain sounded quite good!

Perhaps hijacking the thread a little bit, but you might like trying these settings for the 10-band EQ. @Chace90 recently let me check out his Noble, and I was quite pleased with how close these settings got me to the sound with the Noble's controls at noon.

5sg.

View attachment 4191206
Click to expand...

Thanks!

The EQs are insane on the POD Go. So many options. The parametric EQ basically lets you dial in or out any frequency you can imagine with a fully adjustable Q.

I think I'm going to play with creating a clean patch with just EQ and comp. I wanna play with all the different EQs.
 
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#5,077
chadhargis said:
So most got it right.

Track 1 is the POD Go
Track 2 is the Oracle

With some tweaking I probably could have got them closer. The EQ options are damn near limitless.

The digital artifact sound was probably due to having it plugged into my computer. I forget to unplug the USB. It causes all sorts of noise with my setup as I have my mixer on the same USB bus.
Click to expand...
Woo-hoo! I finally got one of these right!
 
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