# Which should i buy? Pod hd or audio interface?



## jmarzjunior (Jun 16, 2013)

Hi my line6 UX2 recently broke down i was using pod farm 2.5 for recording and practicing trough my studio monitors. I am playing heavy music, with an guitar with active pickups. Now my question is that i am thinking of buying a pod hd desktop or a audio interface. I was wondering if the sound of pod hd is better than pod farm or amplitube 3 for that reason. And can you use the pod hd as a interface? Enlighten me. Thanks


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## Joshua (Jun 16, 2013)

The sound of the POD HD is much better than just using POD Farm or Amplitube on your computer. The amp modeling is a lot more realistic anyway. And I'm pretty sure you can use the POD HD as an interface as well, so you would be covered if you bought one. But you can get great sounds of of amp modelers on your computer, just takes some work.


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## Jlang (Jun 17, 2013)

The quality of modellers in the hd is miles ahead of guitar rig / amplitube and indeed it does double as an interface but I have no personal experience using it as just an interface and using day an axe ultra to run through it. If that's how it works.


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## RickyCigs (Jun 17, 2013)

The HD is more than worth it. Check the links in my sig to get an idea of what it can do. I've had mine for almost a year and it gets better all the time.


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## Gram negative (Jun 17, 2013)

You can use the Pod HD as an interface with your computer. In fact, it works with super-low latency and sounds phenomenal. I use it for an interface with bass and guitar tracks.

With some tweaks, you can get a really professional sound out of the POD HD. Ive managed to get some really great sounds out of patches that I make. You have to put some time into it, but its worth it.


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## Leuchty (Jun 17, 2013)

POD HD.

I use mine as an AI. Works great. I haven't used it for a mic preamp yet but plan to in the near future.

In addition, you can add a poweramp and cab or powered monitor and you have yourself a live rig as well.


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## RickyCigs (Jun 17, 2013)

CYBERSYN said:


> POD HD.
> 
> I use mine as an AI. Works great. I haven't used it for a mic preamp yet but plan to in the near future.
> 
> In addition, you can add a poweramp and cab or powered monitor and you have yourself a live rig as well.



I've used mine as a mic pre. It works great. The tube pre with a little compression and your good to go.


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## Quiet Coil (Jun 17, 2013)

I upgraded to a Pod HD from a Toneport UX2 over a year ago and my tone has never sounded this good. I don't even use my amp anymore, just fire up the HD and my monitors and I'm solid.

EDIT: Also nice to see some L6 love on here. All I ever see is AxeFX this and AxeFX that. I'll stick with my HD, best $400 I ever spent.


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## The Reverend (Jun 17, 2013)

Pod HD500, hands down. Sounds better than everything mentioned, plus has enough I/O options to handle about anything a bedroom producer throws at it.


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## Rev2010 (Jun 17, 2013)

One more nail to hammer into your head - yeah... get the POD HD. Simple, easy to use, sounds great, doubles as an audio interface and mic pre, and has tons of great effects. It's a no brainer. I use mine to record all my scratch recordings and it sounds awesome. Many use it for their final recordings and it's perfectly suited for it - me though... it's just a matter of me having a real Mesa Triple Rec and cab so when I'm ready for my final recordings for say an album then I will be recording my rig with a mic. Outside of that though everything else is done through my POD HD Desktop.


Rev.


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## L1ght (Jun 17, 2013)

I'm on board with the rest of the pod users here, but in a different way. I have the pod x3 pro, and I love it to death. I love it way more than the pod hd series. Some people here will complain that the X series pods have this "hiss" or "static" to them, but I have not found that to be the case at all, and I have owned two pod x3 pros and one pod x3. It may just be the difference in sound between the pods to be honest, but my suggestion is to go for the X3. You can find it way cheaper than the HD series, and in my opinion, you can get better sounds out of it and have way more variety. But that of course all depends on how far you are willing to delve in to the actual pod itself. Most of the people here who babble on about how many features the pods have between each model don't even dig further themselves, and just cut short the experimenting as soon as they find the tone(s) they like. I have been guilty of it before so I know it's true. It's that whole honeymoon phase thing that happens to us all. 

In short though, I would say find the best pod you can that is within your desired budget, and don't be afraid to wait a little while until the right deal pops up. People here and on eBay sell pods like hot cakes and most of the time they go for way less than what you would expect to pay for one.

I think another thing you may want to consider, since many of the pods are footpedal style, is the practicality of the actual device. Do you want the footpedal style models, the rackmountable models, or the desktop/bean models. They all have different purposes and I would suggest thinking seriously about what you really want. I'm not sure if people actually show up to live venues toting around a pod HD bean.


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## Orgalmer (Jun 18, 2013)

I have a Pod HD Pro and they work a treat, lots of I/O options and you can use it reliably as an audio interface. I also have a FireWire interface but I don't use it any more due to the Pod being so reliable. Highly recommended!

The HD500 or HD Desktop/Bean will also do the trick nicely and will have the same DSP limit and amp options as the HD Pro.


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## jmarzjunior (Jun 18, 2013)

Thanks guys it helped alot i guess i order the Pod HD bean one of theese days. 



Noisy Humbucker said:


> I upgraded to a Pod HD from a Toneport UX2 over a year ago and my tone has never sounded this good. I don't even use my amp anymore, just fire up the HD and my monitors and I'm solid..



Do you use studio monitors trough it? When used as interface you can hear everything on your pc like listening to music and stuff? Im new to all this so.


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## mnemonic (Jun 18, 2013)

i used my toneport back in college as an interface, always plugged in, basically it just automatically routed everything through it, as an external soundcard. So i just plugged my speakers into the toneport, and everything ran though there (music, movies i watched on my computer, etc). 

You should be able to do that with the HD's, I dont see why line6 would remove features...


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## Quiet Coil (Jun 18, 2013)

jmarzjunior said:


> Thanks guys it helped alot i guess i order the Pod HD bean one of theese days.
> 
> 
> 
> Do you use studio monitors trough it? When used as interface you can hear everything on your pc like listening to music and stuff? Im new to all this so.


 

Yep. It takes the place of your soundcard so you would just run your speakers straight from the pod and all music, whether from the pod or from the PC will be output from there.


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## jmarzjunior (Jun 18, 2013)

Ok thanks everyone i guess i go with the pod hd. Thanks for your help



Noisy Humbucker said:


> Yep. It takes the place of your soundcard so you would just run your speakers straight from the pod and all music, whether from the pod or from the PC will be output from there.



Thanks man thats solves it.


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## mongey (Jun 18, 2013)

MY hd 500 works pretty well as an USB interface. sounds great , a little more latency than my firewire card . need to switch off the live montoring on the track when I dont with the edirol card , but thats fine. records in time with a tiny bit of dealy compensation 

I use reason a bit and it comes with a verison of pod software and I pretty much hated it for heavy sounds. the hd500 in miles ahead in sound quality 

where the Edirol card is much better to use is monitoring options and setting levels . in USB mode the master on the pod is the overall output master . If the patch is too loud or soft you have to go into the patch and adjust it .maybe their is a work aorund but I havent found it yet 


for mics I dont really care for the sound. rather the sound of the mic into the soundcard . but its usable


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## Given To Fly (Jun 19, 2013)

I don't want to derail your decision on getting a POD HD Pro, its actually a better audio interface than the AxeFX II, but if in the future you want to branch out in your recording endeavors, a POD HD Pro has limitations that a dedicated audio interface won't have. For example, go on the Sweetwater website and look at the Audio Interface section. Compare what features all those interfaces emphasize to what Line6 emphasizes. The audio interfaces immediately list bit depth/sample rate, number of mic preamps, I/O options, number of channels, etc. If the sample rate is not obvious at first glance its because the manufacturer doesn't want to draw attention to that aspect of the interface for a reason. These features are what determine the quality of an interface. The POD HD Pro is heavily geared towards performing and less so as an audio interface. The quality of the mic preamps and A/D D/A converters will be lower. But you also have a thread full of people saying the POD HD Pro works great so I can't argue against that. But if you want to take recording further than ITB, a dedicated audio interface with a guitar preamp (like a HD 500) would allow you to record at a higher quality but also connect other types of gear such as compressors, EQ's, external mic preamps,etc. I have my Mesa Boogie Rectifier Direct Recording Preamp hooked up to my Apogee Duet 2. You might be able to do that with the POD HD Pro but I'm not sure if you bypass everything on the POD and connect straight to the converters which is what you would want to do.

So if you just want to record guitar direct which is the easiest way to do it, then get the POD HD Pro. But if you want to do more you might want to start looking for a dedicated audio interface for the future. 

The only "true" audio interface/guitar preamp is the Eleven Rack which is great but mostly limited to recording. When I wanted to start recording other things besides electric guitar I had to get a different interface that wasn't guitar centric. I basically had to figure all of this out on my own and I wish that on no one so thats why I'm writing this soliloquy.  

In the end, if you decide you want a separate audio interface, you can use your POD HD Pro as a preamp, plug it into the new interface and probably get even better results.


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## jmarzjunior (Jun 19, 2013)

Given To Fly said:


> I don't want to derail your decision on getting a POD HD Pro, its actually a better audio interface than the AxeFX II, but if in the future you want to branch out in your recording endeavors, a POD HD Pro has limitations that a dedicated audio interface won't have. For example, go on the Sweetwater website and look at the Audio Interface section. Compare what features all those interfaces emphasize to what Line6 emphasizes. The audio interfaces immediately list bit depth/sample rate, number of mic preamps, I/O options, number of channels, etc. If the sample rate is not obvious at first glance its because the manufacturer doesn't want to draw attention to that aspect of the interface for a reason. These features are what determine the quality of an interface. The POD HD Pro is heavily geared towards performing and less so as an audio interface. The quality of the mic preamps and A/D D/A converters will be lower. But you also have a thread full of people saying the POD HD Pro works great so I can't argue against that. But if you want to take recording further than ITB, a dedicated audio interface with a guitar preamp (like a HD 500) would allow you to record at a higher quality but also connect other types of gear such as compressors, EQ's, external mic preamps,etc. I have my Mesa Boogie Rectifier Direct Recording Preamp hooked up to my Apogee Duet 2. You might be able to do that with the POD HD Pro but I'm not sure if you bypass everything on the POD and connect straight to the converters which is what you would want to do.
> 
> So if you just want to record guitar direct which is the easiest way to do it, then get the POD HD Pro. But if you want to do more you might want to start looking for a dedicated audio interface for the future.
> 
> ...



Thanks man. But i aint buying the hd pro. The hd pro costs more than twice the hd desktop. I see your points, but for my needs and my budget i think the hd desktop is a good choice. But i dont now until i have tried it out. I do have a line6 interface but its at reparation. And i dont really have money for the eleven rack and i now its limited when its come to recording as using daw and stuff. And i am mainly gonna record electric guitar. So right now i cant record any thing cuz i dont have and interface so i thought the hd desktop for the price would be the best choice and it being a interface ass well made it all brighter. So it not being a good interface is probably true. But i have limited money and for the budget i go with this one.


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## Given To Fly (Jun 19, 2013)

jmarzjunior said:


> Thanks man. But i aint buying the hd pro. The hd pro costs more than twice the hd desktop. I see your points, but for my needs and my budget i think the hd desktop is a good choice. But i dont now until i have tried it out. I do have a line6 interface but its at reparation. And i dont really have money for the eleven rack and i now its limited when its come to recording as using daw and stuff. And i am mainly gonna record electric guitar. So right now i cant record any thing cuz i dont have and interface so i thought the hd desktop for the price would be the best choice and it being a interface ass well made it all brighter. So it not being a good interface is probably true. But i have limited money and for the budget i go with this one.



Sorry! I got my Line6 products confused. When you asked about whether you should get a POD HD Desktop or audio interface I just wanted you to be aware of the differences between a an audio interface and a lot of the guitar centric interfaces. Based on what you want to do, I think you are making a good choice!


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## jmarzjunior (Jun 21, 2013)

Given To Fly said:


> Sorry! I got my Line6 products confused. When you asked about whether you should get a POD HD Desktop or audio interface I just wanted you to be aware of the differences between a an audio interface and a lot of the guitar centric interfaces. Based on what you want to do, I think you are making a good choice!



Sorry for the late reply.
Thanks man. I appreciate your input.


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