I got my Ultra Tuesday evening and was able to spend a couple of hours with it. The first thing I did was upgrade to 7.00 firmware. It was very easy and went without a hitch.
Next I started previewing presets. I just used headphones while sitting on my bed. It took me over an hour to go through all of the presets and since there are almost 400 I didn't spend much time on very many of them. Then, sadly, I had to go to bed and then go to work.
The next day (Wednesday) we had rehearsal and I didn't even have time to change any settings or set up my MIDI pedal, ...,etc. I just plugged into the main board and started playing. On every song I would just kind of randomly flip through the presets, hitting a chord as I went to try and find a sound that was close to what we needed. The guys let me have 30 seconds to a minute to find a sound for every song. Obviously, I didn't always find exactly the right sound, but I was amazed that now matter what I picked, it still sounded good. The guys were very impressed. Through the entire rehearsal they kept making comments about how good it sounded.
For some background...I usually play with a Mesa Roadster using TC Electronics G-Major as my effects and I mic the amp. We use IEM as our monitoring system to eliminate feed back problems and at practice we don't plug in the main speakers.
Even though I haven't messed much with all the tweaking possiblilities I am completely impressed and I am about 90% sold that I have found the machine of my dreams. I have yet to do the live full sound setup, and if I can make that sound anywhere near as good as it sounds through the IEMs, then I will make it to 100%. With the little bit of tweaking I did as I raced through the presets I am certain that any sound problems I found can be fixed, at least through the IEM.
I'm really hoping I can successfully go straight to the mixing board with the Ultra. I tried this once with the Line6 PODxt Live. I did 3 or 4 gigs straight in and I couldn't stand it. It's not that it was horrible, it's just that it sounded fake and it didn't feel like I was playing an amp. The Ultra feels like I'm playing a tube amp, even through headphones. I may not be as picky, since I've been using IEM for about 3 years now and I've gotten passed the difference between listening to my amp live and listening to my amp miced. I don't really care because I like hearing what the audience hears so I can know if there's a problem.
Also, I already tried support. I thought I had a problem with the Input LEDs and so I sent an email to the tech support. They answered me in a little over an hour. It turns out that the only problem is that I'm an imbecile. He was very nice about it though, and refrained from calling me names.
Anyway, that's enough from me. I am very happy. Thanks to all the people who have given the reviews and opinions on this site. Even the negative comments. It was very helpful.
Rick
Next I started previewing presets. I just used headphones while sitting on my bed. It took me over an hour to go through all of the presets and since there are almost 400 I didn't spend much time on very many of them. Then, sadly, I had to go to bed and then go to work.
The next day (Wednesday) we had rehearsal and I didn't even have time to change any settings or set up my MIDI pedal, ...,etc. I just plugged into the main board and started playing. On every song I would just kind of randomly flip through the presets, hitting a chord as I went to try and find a sound that was close to what we needed. The guys let me have 30 seconds to a minute to find a sound for every song. Obviously, I didn't always find exactly the right sound, but I was amazed that now matter what I picked, it still sounded good. The guys were very impressed. Through the entire rehearsal they kept making comments about how good it sounded.
For some background...I usually play with a Mesa Roadster using TC Electronics G-Major as my effects and I mic the amp. We use IEM as our monitoring system to eliminate feed back problems and at practice we don't plug in the main speakers.
Even though I haven't messed much with all the tweaking possiblilities I am completely impressed and I am about 90% sold that I have found the machine of my dreams. I have yet to do the live full sound setup, and if I can make that sound anywhere near as good as it sounds through the IEMs, then I will make it to 100%. With the little bit of tweaking I did as I raced through the presets I am certain that any sound problems I found can be fixed, at least through the IEM.
I'm really hoping I can successfully go straight to the mixing board with the Ultra. I tried this once with the Line6 PODxt Live. I did 3 or 4 gigs straight in and I couldn't stand it. It's not that it was horrible, it's just that it sounded fake and it didn't feel like I was playing an amp. The Ultra feels like I'm playing a tube amp, even through headphones. I may not be as picky, since I've been using IEM for about 3 years now and I've gotten passed the difference between listening to my amp live and listening to my amp miced. I don't really care because I like hearing what the audience hears so I can know if there's a problem.
Also, I already tried support. I thought I had a problem with the Input LEDs and so I sent an email to the tech support. They answered me in a little over an hour. It turns out that the only problem is that I'm an imbecile. He was very nice about it though, and refrained from calling me names.
Anyway, that's enough from me. I am very happy. Thanks to all the people who have given the reviews and opinions on this site. Even the negative comments. It was very helpful.
Rick
