Music gadgets

News about musical instruments and gear

We announced the release of the new versions of POD models last September and now we had the possibility of having one POD X3 Live unit to review it. The first impression of the device when you get it out of the box is that it has a very professional look and a very cool design, the black and chrome combination looks great.

First of all I want to point out some exterior features, the 2 chrome handles, very useful to transport it, and the metal footswitches and the expression pedal are rugged and strong, much more that the XT Live ones, and you can (de)activate it without fear. The expression pedal has also a roughed plastic cover to avoid foot sliding.

The Line6 POD X3 Live has 2 bank selectors, 4 preset selectors, tap, stomp, mod, delay, compressor/boost and tone 2 footswitches, 3-band EQ, drive, presence, reverb, tone level and master volume controls and 5 endless knobs and some buttons to edit the presets. Although this number of controls can “scare” a little bit the interface is very easy to learn.

The edition of the presets from the POD X3 Live itself is a very easy task, you only need to double-click one button and appears a menu with all the preset adjustments in the LCD display and with only 5 endless rotary knobs you can change all the parameters, from the amp to the stomp effect, even the parameters of the effect. When you are done you only need to press save to store the preset. I think there is no preset editor software, so modifications must be done in the device.

The best

The sound of the amps, cabs, effects and preamps is awesome, listening to the output tone it is clear that the hardware has been improved since the XT Live version.

The dual tone, this is probably were the POD X3 Live device wins any other multi-effect, you can choose to have 1 tone, 2 tones at the same time, 1 tone for guitar and 1 tone for a mic, a bass or another guitar (using the aux input). This allows you to, for example, create one preset with one simulated amp in the tone 1 and the effects in the tone 2, this way you have the single amp sound and the effects separately, like in an amp + pedal configuration.

One of its more interesting features is the huge number of different connections (USB and MIDI, stereo direct 2 mono/1 stereo direct, S/PDIF and headphones outputs and instrument, mic, aux, CD/MP3, aux pedal and dedicated Variax inputs) that make very easy to play on live shows, practice at home or record in a studio or through your DAW.

The weight, looking at the images I though it should be a heavy device but its less than 9 pounds (although I’ve seen 13 on some sites) is a very good point.

I didn’t like

It has the same problem than Pocket POD with the analog knobs, the presets have their own adjustments (drive, presence, reverb, …) levels and when you try to modify it you don’t have the reference point of the original level. But in this device is less probable to modify this parameters, as you probably pre-configure them, so you don’t need to worry.

The included presets are ok but could be better, you will sure have to create your own ones. Another thing that would be great to include is a gig bag for those who need to transport it or carry it around.

Conclusion

The conclusion is clear, the Line6 POD X3 Live is a great product with very good tones for almost all kind of guitar players, no matter if you want it for home recording or for live shows it will do its best (with a great result) in any situation, so if you are planning to get a multi-effects unit take a look at this one you will get an awesome sound.

By the way, thanks a lot to the people in Line6 UK for sending us a X3 Live unit to review it.

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