well the way that pod works it' acts as an amp modeler , meaning that it will try to replicate famous amp and cabinet combos, it also can provide some effects to your playing as well, i purchased the basspod xt live because i wanted a wah pedal and some other effects but by the time i bought 3 boss ex pedals and a wah i would've spent what i paid for my basspod xt. Now it does amp modeling well to me considering i've only played around w/ a few of the real amps and cabs that are modeled, however that tone comes best through the headphones and is a good tool for studio or recording purposes but it wont make a cheap sound setup sound like an eden amp head and a 4 x 10 eden cabinet,i'm not sure if the regular bass pod has usb out but my pro does and i use it to run into fruity loops to do recording, best bet is to go to the line6 web page download and compare the specs on the amount of available models on the two because i believe he live is about $100 more than the regular bass pod , and it's a lot bigger in size because you'll be steppin on it, go to a guitar center if there's one near you and you can try out the pod , the sam ash near where i stay had the basspod live , and the rackmount model i tried all and this one suited my needs the best, thats really the best advice see which one suits your needs if it's somethiin' you want to purchase