Zeppelin fan? I like the "Zoso" on the cabinet

Wasnt that the one where John Bonham and John Paul Jones were invited to choose their esoteric symbols from a book, not knowing that Pagey and Plantey had commissioned a designer to come up with theirs!

Sorry, very off topic here,

Sounds fun, guys, but very off topic. Please start a new thread to continue. Thanks.

I felt I needed to post on this thread.  I had for a long time denied a real difference other than signal level between Input 1:Guitar Input 2:Guitar/Same and Input 1: Guitar Input 2: Variax (Null).  Well I was wrong.  I think what through me off is when I really tried to test the issue, I was using clean tones, which are less noticeable for the difference.

To be very clear about the difference, setting Input 1 Guitar Input 2 guitar/same means that the two input signals are slightly out-of-sync.  For darker, cleaner tones, the difference is so small it is negligible.  For brighter, distorted tones, there is a more obvious phasing-type sound and comb-filtering in the tone.  Some of the highs are wiped out.  The overall feel of the tone is looser.  For dual amp tones with no mono-summing effects in front the channel split, it's more difficult to hear.  If your amp is in front of the channel split or you have a mono-summing effect in front the split, the tonal difference is much more obvious.

Now, at first Input 2: Guitar/Same can sound better - you have a hotter input signal and thus get more distortion.  The comb filtering can darken the tone causing it to sound "thicker".  And the slight delay can make the tone sound a bit beefier as well.  But once you compensate for these things with Input 2 Variax/null, the difference is night and day.  Everything is crisper and tighter.  You can dial in the beefier low end and hotter distortion with Input 2 Variax, but you can't dial out the comb-filtering, looseness, and phasing sound from Input 2 Guitar/Same.

Now if you've already dialed in patches using Input 2 Guitar/Same, it can sometimes be difficult to transition.  If you use dual amps with no mono-summing effect before the split, you need to introduce a mono-summing effect before the split or you get no signal into Channel B.  The least expensive way to do this in terms of DSP is the FX Loop with a patch cable.  This may introduce some noise into the signal - playing with the levels of effects before and after the loop may help here.  However, my preferred effect is a Noise Gate.  You can set threshold to min so that it basically does nothing - just mono-summing.  It is fairly low DSP.  If I have more room and want an actual gate I use a Hard Gate.  Note that all the Dynamic and Distortion effects are mono-summing.

If you need a hotter signal for your distortion, I find it's best to start by trying to increase output levels of effects already in your chain before your amp or distortion effect.  If you use a compressor or distortion effect, you probably want to decrease threshold (or increase sustain) or increase Drive.  That's compensating for the lower input signal.  You can also try boosting the Output/Gain parameters where possible.  If these options are not available, I recommend adding a Studio EQ to the chain, and boosting Gain - this will give you a clean boost, pushing your amp/distortion harder.

THAT is SO true

I wish i had read your post sooner - been having exactly the same problem

was about to retur, the whomle damn thing or throw it through a window or something

so i went to a mate who had axactly the same as i have

- DT25
- POD 500

- JTV (mine is 89 his is 69) but that shoudl sound the same

so after an afternoon of testing and checking and rechecking and comparing parameters we suddenly found it

AND it is exactly as you say

put it to SAME and it sounds terrible liek its filled with digital overdribe or so
change it and you have the thing you wanted to buy in the first place

and apply it to GLOBAL so all patches are cleaned from this bad sound

Greetz from Belgium

Pilo

So, many thansk for those explanations but...the post is quite long and is such difficult to read/understand whats the best solution / position pre post / aso / aso

Could anybody please make a guide on that?

Thanks

Regards

Andrea

the routing is a bit bizarre because it tries to be so many things at once.  It wants all the lines to be stereo so you can put a stereo effect anywhere in the chain, including before the split.  It tries to incorporate multiple inputs using the same signal chain, so you can switch which you use outside of the Pod.  It tries to incorporate two different Variax inputs.  It tries to allow 2 inputs to have completely independent parallel chains.  It tries to allow a single guitar signal to use dual amps.  It tries to allow you add effects in parallel, and to mix/pan them differently.

There are some neat things you can do with all this, but it makes some simple things a complete pain in the butt.  I think they would have been much better off offering 3-4 common use case modes to set up the signal chain.  Or at least make an easy way to pull up an example patch as a starting point and set things up from there.

Well, the inputs themselves are mono. It's just that they are split into a stereo signal if you use a mono effect first in the chain. If you use a true stereo effect first, the signal will remain mono and only pass through one side of the effect. Because of the mix of mono and stereo effects in the POD, they have to address it somehow.

Really, if you want a simple setup, I think the best option is to mute Path B from the start and just insert everything in Path A. That way you're always only dealing with one input. The only drawback with doing this is that if you put a true stereo effect first in the chain, there's nothing coming through the right side of that effect. But, really, most people won't do that other than maybe a volume or wah, but with those it doesn't necessarily matter.

It not necessarily detached from reality, either. If you had a collection of effects that were mono, mono in/stereo out, and true stereo, these are things you'd have to think about. I have this sort of thing on my pedalboard, and I had to think about how I wanted everything routed.