As a guitarist and song writer for some 20 years, I have seen fads come and go and new technologies explode and implode just as quick. I have to admit I have always been a proponent of the analogue era and have strived to use vintage equipment (with all it's jagged edges and hisses) as I truly believed that was the only way to get the sounds I wanted. More recently I had heard of heathens marching into studios, multi effects boards in hand, leaving with the tinny, tepid recordings that their equipment deserved, and then suddenly something changed... I started hearing great things about the Line 6 POD.
First time I saw the pod, I quipped that it looked much like the kidney I'd rather lose than actually use one, but it wasn't too long before I had bought one myself. While amp modelling is still a dirty word in some circles, Line 6 have championed the technology, turning a toy or practising tool into a real world professional must have for the guitarist/song writer/bassist/recording engineer.
So what is this Line 6 POD Studio UX1? Essentially it is a small, tough, black plastic box with various inputs and outputs, which you connect to your computer and is designed specifically to convert analogue signals into digital ones. While the original POD was all about the dials and buttons, the POD Studio has only 2 knobs (one master volume and 1 microphone gain). Almost everything else is controlled via the packaged POD Farm software.
POD farm comes with an extendible range of Modelled Amps, Effects and Pre-sets for any kind of Microphone, Guitar, Bass or other mic'd instruments, and is totally customizable. If I only told you one thing about the POD Studio it would have to be the near Zero Latency. For those of you unaware of what this is all about, Latency is what generally happens during the conversion process and typically means there is a noticeable delay between what you play and what you hear in your headphones, which typically means that it makes it difficult to keep in time/sync up your recordings.
So what else can you do? Another great feature of the POD Farm software is the ability to split the signal from your guitar/bass/vocal and run it through separate amps and effects. The big boys in the music biz have been doing this for years, to get the best of both worlds, using the strengths of different amps to get bigger warmer sounds. You can also pan them left and right to get a stereo effect. The Edge from U2 uses a signal splitter and runs the signal through separate delay units, set at different milliseconds to get that distinctive U2 depth.
You can also record a vocal and guitar at the same time, for quick demo's and the like. But this has another use too, I often use my laptop and Line 6 POD Studio UX1 as a preamp for small gigs! (don't think it was designed for this but it works great) This gives me total control over how my vocal and guitar sounds, it's also quick, almost no sound check required. I typically make pre-sets for each song, so it really is as simple as plugging in and playing! POD Farm also has a built in tuner, so it really is all I need.
While there are a bunch of pre-sets included, there will come a time when you know what sound you are looking for and how you would get them with real equipment, you can also do this with POD Farm by selecting amps and adjusting knobs, add some effects or even noise gates, all by drag and drop. I love using the Bassman amp as the controls are the same as my real one. You can even choose to mic an amp instead of the direct sound and even choose the mic to use and the distance from the speakers! The POD Farm software is easy to use, but can be used in a professional way if you so desire. It also remembers the last sound you were using when you closed it last!
What it all comes down to is this, you can get great sounds out of this box of tricks and for the price it's really a no brainer, sure there are many more expensive USB audio interfaces out there, but what you get here is all the power of the ubiquitous POD and total control with it. The near zero latency is the icing on the cake and I would seriously recommend this to anyone interested in recording their own music, especially guitar/bass/vocals. If you think out of the box too, there are bunch of other uses, for example, I have used the line inputs to record the output from my record player to digitize my vinyl album collection. I have also used it to record pod casts, or to make loops that I use to practise with. Seriously, try the Line 6 POD Studio UX1, IMHO it rocks! I bought mine at Amazon but here is the whole list I made when I was researching:
| Store | Link | Price |
|---|---|---|
 | Line 6 POD Studio UX1 | $149.99 |
 | Line 6 POD Studio UX1 | $149.99 |
 | Line 6 POD Studio UX1 | $149.99 |
 | Line 6 POD Studio UX1 | $132.00 |