Owner's Manual
POD Farm 2 Advanced User Guide – How To....
8•13
How to connect your Hardware to a guitar amp
We get this one a lot! Many Line 6 users want to know how to physically connect their hardware to
a guitar amp, because they think it will sound better that way. In fact, typically the opposite is true:
Because the audio signal we provide for direct monitoring features a virtual amp emulation that’s
optimized for full-range systems, the results you’ll get when using a guitar amp will be less than ideal,
due to the limited range of guitar amp circuits and speakers.
If a guitar amp is your only monitoring solution, following are a few pointers to help you get the most
out this connection:
If your amp has an effects loop, plugging into the effects loop return is the preferred connection, for
2 reasons:
• You are bypassing the preamp’s tone stack, which tends to color the signal in an undesirable
fashion.
• Your Line 6 hardware generally puts out a line-level signal, which is generally too hot for the
guitar input of your amp.
Note: If you happen to have a stereo power amp (even better, a tube stereo power amp) then the
above bullet points are true as well, since a power amp includes no preamp stage.
If your amp has no effects loop, then plug into the front input, following these steps:
• Place all your tone controls at the 12 O’clock position.
• Turn your amp’s Drive or Volume setting all the way to zero. If your amp has a Master Volume,
place that control at 12 O’clock or below.
• Plug in your hardware, and slowly bring up the Drive until you hear a satisfactory level of volume,
being careful not to overdrive the input.
You can also try disabling cabinet modeling, by selecting No Cab in the POD Farm 2 Cabinet menu,
to further enhance your tonal experience.
POD X3 & PODxt Users: POD devices feature an output setup menu that optimizes the output for
different monitoring systems, including the front end or the loop of a guitar amp. Please refer to your
POD Pilot’s Handbook for more information.
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How to route a MIDI external controller to POD Farm 2 Plug-In
POD Farm 2 Plug-In does support the ability to be remotely controlled by an external MIDI controller
device (such as the Line 6 FBV MkII Series Controllers, or most any 3rd party MIDI controller device).
POD Farm 2 Plug-In is, of course, designed to run as an audio plug-in within your DAW host software.
Therefore, you will need to congure your DAW host software to receive MIDI control data from your
MIDI device’s MIDI Out port. Within DAW host applications, there can be two ways to access audio
plug-ins via external MIDI control; Via the DAW’s own track parameter automation options, or via
MIDI input into the plug-in itself. Not all audio plug-ins support the latter method, since this requires
the plug-in to support MIDI input, but POD Farm 2 does support this so we’ve got you covered!