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 congure 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!