Hi,

  I only had access to an older MacBook (white) with Leopard OSX installed and an older version of GarageBand, but here's what I found/did.

  Latest drivers for the POD HD500 installed, POD HD500 Edit installed, Monkey 1.34.

  I didn't mess with any settings on the HD500 (which has 1.10 firmware installed, by the way). Selected patch #1C: Pitch Slap. In Mac OSX System Preferences/Sounds/Input I visually verified that a healthy audio input signal corresponded to guitar input events- OK. The levels never really peaked beyond 2/3's of the bar meters.

  In GarageBand, I went to Preferences/Audio MIDI and made sure Audio Input was set to POD HD500, Output set to Built-In.

  I created a New (Real Instrument) track. Recorded an idea. Played back with full volume present. Made a second audio track and did an overdub. The signal of the mix output was full.

  That's all I did. Can you try to repro that and confirm that you didn't get similar results?

  Regards,

  L6Perry

I'm having the same problem with it being a weak signal.  As a workaround for now I'm just upping the levels in the Mixer in each POD patch.  Just using the mixer to boost the signals I can go from that 30% signal to full clipping.  Funny thing is it doesn't seem to clip at the track meter level, but rather looking at the main GB level at the bottom of the screen.

Give the mixer a whirl.  I think it will get you by for the moment.  It is odd however to have to almost max out the levels in the mixer to get a usable signal strength.  I seem to remember in the X3 bean that I used to have that gearbox and pod farm both had input/output level control knobs.  Maybe something like this in a future patch?

Also, for fun, any of you GB people tried GarageRemote yet?  Would be interested in feedback if you have.

Still using GB'08, with OSX 10.6.5

At first look, I agree the track level from the HD500 does look a bit anemic.   With clean patches like the stock Best OF HD's  "BF Double" or "Blackface 'Lux" patches, it does seem a bit low on the track meter.  Say, around 20%.  FX Heavy patches like the previously mentioned Pitch Slap kicked the track meter upwards of 30%.

Oddly enough, those same anemic looking default levels of the tracks I layed down mixed perfectly with the jamalong bass, drum, and guitar practice tracks from Guitar Lesson 1 that I loaded as standard reference.

Ideally, I would rather have a good hot (but not clipping) track level during recording to maintain a proper signal to noise ratio and all that.  And then lower that track level for proper mixing with the other tracks.   But this is Garage Band, not Logic; so I suppose I should expect a bit of dumbed down silliness like this or maybe find other ways to work around it.  Like using an outboard mixer, or maybe a tube preamp to give it a little more "air" in the noise! 

Gil...