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Mobile POD - Update adds OD pedal; $20 IAP allows use with all interfaces

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mobile-pod/id475002772?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo=8

http://www.musicappblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/mobile-pod-main-interface-unocked-1024x768.jpg

This is pretty big news actually - unless you had the Line6 Sonic Port interface, you couldn't use this app previously. Now you can use it with any guitar interface with the $20 IAP.

Tough to get a feel for how good it is because the subset of people who have actually played it is fairly small (and a lot of the reviews were negative just because of the hardware restriction, which is now gone). What I'm hearing though is "Amp models are good or very good, effects are disappointing". One person noted that there isn't even a distortion box, though you wouldn't necessarily need one if you were happy with the gain from the amps. But John of MusicAppBlog said that in terms of pure amp modeling, it's comparable to BIAS (which is considered elite for iOS).

I'll give it a try. Anyone here have it that could chime in?

Comments

  • As a bassist, I feel ignored! Ha! I had the pod xt live with the bass amps, it would be cool if that was in here, but I'm covered for amps with jamup, bias, and tonestack.

  • Very interesting!!! Thanks for posting this!!! :-)

  • This is what they should have done three years ago. At this point I wouldn't even care if it was free.

  • ^ yep. Happy with JamUp and ToneStack already.

  • In a moment of weakness I bought the Mobile In (discontinued?) package for $10. If I didn't already own Tonestack, Bias/Jamup and Flying Haggis, mobile Pod would be fine. The sounds are good but any of those 3 really cover the same bases for me. Caveat: I'm not a big effects user so I can't comment on effect quality. $20 iap to line 6 for the privilege of using a non-proprietary interface? I'd pass.

  • I don't have a problem with an IAP to use the app, not really any different than buying the others, but at this point the app itself feels unnecessary because there's some great already established apps that have already gotten my investment. Plus, being a bassist, line 6 looks to have ignored that.

    I have been using jamup pro for a long time, and bias, both with many bass options. I really enjoy the jamup bass packs, especially the bass master effect.

    And while tonestack's bass focus is limited, the signal splitting is awesome, especially on distorted bass, where I can run the bass amp and a distorted guitar amp together and get a very cool sound. I do hope they add some bass specific effects though.

  • People are getting hung up the unlock aspect of it - that's irrelevant to me. If Line6 wants to create an app for free to use with their specific interface, that doesn't hurt me as an Apogee JAM user. Now that it's available to me, the question is only "would I get 20 dollars of value out of this?"

    I'm hearing good things about the sound quality. FX kinda suck but I don't use those much and you can address that with AudioBus and an FX app. You can't fix bad tone with another app. I'll post back later with my impressions. Pretty sure the THM Auria plugin was 15 or 20 bucks so the price of Mobile POD is a little high but not obscene.

  • I've owned the Sonic Port for a year or so, so I've used Mobile Pod quite a bit, and I also own BIAS, Flying Haggis, Tonestack, Jamup, THM Overloud, and Amplitube.

    IMO the best thing about Mobile Pod is the presets, it's really easy to dial in a precise sound. You want to play Brown Sugar? Just select the preset from the very extensive list and you get a sound that is really close. So for practicing songs it's great fun, you don't have to fiddle with your settings trying to get the right sound, and you can play a lot of different styles.

    In terms of tone I don't think it's as good as Flying Haggis THM, or BIAS, and the effects aren't as good as Tonestack, but these are the very best apps in those categories. I would put it on a par with Jamup for distorted sounds and Amplitube for clean sounds. it's a useful app, and it is fun to play with.

  • Update: I purchased the interface unlock for Mobile POD and then AmpONE the following day, so about $30 of guitar app over Turkey Day weekend. They aren't at all comparable in approach, but Mobile POD, to me, is significantly better in what it offers. Actually had a quite a bit of fun just jamming with it last night, and it was working well with AudioBus into MultiTrackStudio.

    Some of the amp models are just terrific. Much like ToneStack, you load up an app and they have the mids and treble dimed for some reason. Roll those things down (and the master) a reasonable level, and things sound great. The Marshall amps, in particular, are ballsy like in AmpKit+, but better quality, in my opinion. Some of the amps are a little extreme, but there's some generic Line 6 ones for Blues, Crunch, etc. that I found pretty useful.

    The effects, as mentioned by others, are infuriatingly bad. I actually like the compressor a fair amount, and there is a functioning noise gate. The digital delay is moronic. Three knobs (delay, feedback, and level), and the "Delay" one that controls time has no readout for miliseconds and focuses on a such a wide range, good luck dialing it in. No boosters, OD's, or distortions of any kind. I can mostly live with that given the variety of gain-y amps offered, but it's still strange for an app from an FX company.

    But the base tones are quite good, and you can run it through an AUFX delay or Klevgard app of your choice. Happy with the purchase, even if it is somewhat redundant.

  • Mobile POD just got an unexpected and sneakily huge update yesterday. Here's the change log:

    What's New in Version 1.7.1

    • Added a new effect, "Overdrive" - a tube overdrive pedal with loads of saturation

    • Reverb effects can now go into any effect slot

    • Option to choose linear or rotational knob operation

    • Choose input 1(L) or input 2(R) for audio interfaces that have a guitar input on input 2

    • Bug fixes

    So, the thing that caught me immediately was the addition of an overdrive pedal - as mentioned above, it had NO overdrive or boost pedal of any kind previously. Played with it quite a bit, and I have to say, it's one of my favorite implementations of a dirt pedal in iOS. It really expands the possibilities of Mobile POD, since you can take a cleaner amp (Like the Line6 Clean) and add gain/saturation to it. And it it has a huge of gain settings - the lower settings are very much like a Tubescreamer, but like a Fulltone OCD, it can get fairly overdriven as you turn it up. And best of all, it doesn't suffer from much bass or volume drop, as is often the case with distortion pedals.

    I still would like to see a few more effects, and improvements made to the interface of ones already there, but I'm really enjoying Mobile POD. I don't know how you look at the value of this and say that there isn't $20 worth of quality here, but I dunno, I suppose those same people think that the entire JamUp or ToneStack packages should have been gifted to them for free also.

  • Looking forward to trying the new od pedal. To me, it was worth the money for the variety of presets available.

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