OT-SUPER LATE POST to MULTI-effects: Line6 POD X3 Live

["Rainer Thelonius Balthasar Straschill" <rs@moinlabs.de>]

Ok, this is it: a little more in-depth review of Line6's biggest 
floorboard babe, the Line6 POD X3 Live.


CONCEPT:
Line6 has been known for their amp modeling know-how for a long time. In 
fact, I believe they somehow invented it (at least to do it properly). 
Following up on the success of their first POD, they supplied a big line 
of products, including effects modellers (the DL4 is well known in these 
parts), guitar amps with modelling functions and finally even instruments. 
However, the center of their product catalogue remains the POD - and it's 
now in generation three. Europeam retail prices for the POD X3 Live are in 
the just below €500 region.


PACKAGE:
The "live" variant of this thing (in the first generation, there had only 
been the stupid kidney-shaped thing and the rackmount "Pro" version) is a 
sturdy, black device. Twelve footswitches, a heavy-duty style expression 
pedal and a total of eight big metal knobs are the eyecatchers here 
(together with two strange handlebars which may serve some protective or 
rather some aesthetic function?)
>From the more electronic interface side, this is rounded off by a 
>something like 5x3cm orange-backlit LCD, five softknobs, a four-way 
>navigator and four buttons.
While the footswitches, the pedal and also the metal knobs look really 
made for eternity, the small soft knobs do much less so - definitely 
something that may fail under heavy road use.
It immediately catches the eye that the metal knobs have position 
indicators of the mechanical kind. No rotary encoders here, and what 
disturbs me most is that the values controlled by these "jump" if you turn 
those knobs - meaning that if you're in the midst of a quite passage with 
a clean sound and want to edge up drive just a bit and the knob happens to 
be at full blast, then you're instantly in death metal hell.

Connection-wise, you get the full ballbark: two inputs for guitars (or 
basses, 1/4''), two independent pairs of outputs (1/4'' and XLR), phones, 
aux input (1/8'' stereo), Variax guitar connection, microphone in (XLR, 
but why no phantom power???) effects loop (mono send/stereo return), SPDIF 
out, MIDI in and out/thru, USB and connection for the power supply (which 
is a non-SPS one).
The phones output hasn't got a separate volume knob - but you can at least 
disconnect the XLR outs from the volume knob.

All in all nice looking - except for the following:
        * crappy looking soft knobs
        * big knobs not rotary encoder, no snap function
        * effects loop only with mono send


FUNCTIONALITY:
Two things jump out here, both in comparison to other products and to 
earlier versions of the POD.
First, the X3 got two completely independent processing paths in stereo. 
You can even use separate inputs and outputs for these, or do the in/out 
configuration any way you like. Also editing and control is completely 
independent. The only limitation here is that the effects loop can only be 
applied to two of these processing paths (which are called "Tones" here).
Second, the X3 offers a full complement of models (amps, cabs and effects) 
both for guitar and bass. This is I believe a first (and currently only) 
in class - even with Roland/Boss' latest products, you still have to get 
two devices to have both. This is also what made me choose this product 
over competitors.

These two items might make this the perfect companion for Warr guitar 
players (or for players of any instrument with two outputs and huge tonal 
range from bass to guitar register).

Each tone is built up of a sequence of processing blocks. Basically, it 
goes like 
Input->Gate->Wah->Stomp->(Loop->Mod->Delay->Verb->)Amp+Cab->Comp->EQ->(Loop->Mod->Delay->Verb->)Output.
 The blocks in parantheses can be placed either pre or post amp, but not 
both at the same time in the same tone.
This already shows another big weakness of the X3: there is only minimum 
flexibility in signal routing. You may not have the delay in front of the 
mod block (unless you put the delay before and the mod after the amp), and 
you also can't have the compressor after the EQ - or, more importantly, 
the EQ before the stomp box for some tone shaping before the spectrum hits 
a distortion pedal.

The sheer number of independent processing blocks really screams powerful 
here - but what it has to offer in power, it lacks in flexibility. It's 
some like a 1000bhp car without steering to that respect.


MODELS:
I personally always liked the Line6 amp models much better than those of 
any other modeling thing builder, period. And that hasn't changed. New is 
that there are really tons of those. A total of 42 amp (divided into 
guitar, bass, and preamp sections), which can be freely combined with 24 
cabinet models (in guitar and bass section). A pity that you have a choice 
of four microphones each for guitar and bass cabs, but can't mix those 
(e.g. mike a guitar cabinet with an EV RE20 mike).
Like I said before, those amp models are - great. They work equally well 
for clean and super-meltdown sounds and, more importantly, anything in 
between. Playing with those will have you experiment for hours, only that 
in comparison to earlier incarnations of the POD the number of models has 
vastly increased, AND now you can have two sounds at the same time 
(meaning your experimentation time to the power of two).

The effects models are an assortment of their models mainly from the DL4, 
MM4 and DM4 modelers, plus some reverbs from the Vetta amps, Wahs from the 
Vetta, plus some new creations. What is really strange, however, is that 
some extremely important effects have been left out for no obvious reason 
- in the case of the delay effects, the dynamic delay model (ducking 
delay).
There's only one compressor (except for those available in the "stomp" 
section), but I don't care. I know that LA-2A model from the Bass POD 
which I used to own and it's wonderful.

With that focus (and also centre of expertise) on guitarist/stompbox stuff 
come some big limitations. First, I still have to find a convincing reverb 
effect in this unit, which sounds good and has more controls than 
"predelay", "decay", "tone" and "mix". Second, there is not a single pitch 
shifter effect in the whole unit. There's not even a whammy bar. My cheap 
Zoom G2 has both.

Another thing I noticed is that the documentation doesn't go on as deeply 
about the different models as it used to. Again referring to the Bass POD, 
there was about half a page for each bass amp and cabinet model. Now, 
there's like four lines of fine print per amp model, and only a table of 
available cabinet models without any description.


COMPUTER AND MIDI INTEGRATION:
MIDI support is nearly nonexistent. You can react to program changes and 
can also send them. They don't even mention that in detail in the 
documentation. There's no possibility to control parameters via MIDI or to 
send or receive MIDI clock.

For the computer connection, we get a USB2.0 interface which is used to 
interface with the editor software "Monkey" and also act as a direct 
eight-channel audio input. Pity only that there are no drivers for 64-bit 
Windows systems, no are there any concrete plans for that. A big letdown.


PLAYING IT:
It's got sooo many flaws - and yet, it's great fun to play it, and even to 
edit sounds on it. It's a huuge amount of fun to just create tones, to 
discover the beauty in the sound of your guitar, to combine guitar and 
bass amps for some outstanding sound...


SUMMARY:
There are so many flaws in this unit I don't even remember all of them. 
Whimpy soft knobs, stupid concept for the big knobs, no phantom power on 
the mic in, no separate volume knob for the phones, completely inadequate 
routing structure, important effect models missing, lame reverbs, no x64 
drivers, no stereo send for effects loop, crappy power supply...yet 
judging it for what is in the centre of it, it deserves nothing but 
praise: its amp modeling is outstanding (and better sounding than anything 
I have heard, including both all kinds of expensive plugins and other 
hardware solutions). So if you just try to see it as a combined POD and 
Bass POD and see the other functions as some added gimmick, you may be 
happy with it. However, if you're looking for a guitar floorboard with 
great multi-effects capabilities, go look somewhere else (note of the 
editor: where? G-system?)


        Rainer