A few stray thoughts,

• Most people would create a snake when working with that many cables.  The cables would all be bundled together and taped/secured.  This doesn't cut down on the number of cables in the hookup but makes them easier to manage (with proper labelling).
• The expression pedals should not be counted as part of the signal chain as the signal does not pass to them ... just control voltages back to the POD.
• If you were to go with an HD Pro and Midi Controller then you would have just the Midi controller at front of stage ( 1 x Midi + 1 x Power).   Everything else would be back of stage and could be connected to your amps using short cables. Yeah, it means you have to go through a learning curve with the foot controller but it is the only practical way to cut down the cables to front of stage.
• You could consider going with an HD500 and a Midi controller.  Then only use the MIDI controller when you are on larger stages. 

Cheers

maxrichard wrote:

 

So I'm a big Line 6 fan, have many of their products, but must admit that I've never used my L6 stuff Live. For practice I'm using a POD 2.0 with the latest firmware and it sounds fantastic run straight to the board with 1/4 cables (stereo). For live work I use my "big rig" which consists of a Tube amp and a ton of rackmount units. For control I'm using a GCX.

 

I REALLY want to upgrade (like tomorrow) to the HD500, BUT, I keep thinking of all the cable runs back and forth??? Let's do a cable count and you guys tell me where I'm wrong or how you get around these things. I'm gonna do a simple version (not the 4 cable method because I'm going to use a 2 channel power amp to power 2 2 x 12 cabs for left and right. I DO however, intend to utilize at the least, my TC Electronics GMajor 2 FX processor, for it's great intelligent harmonizer, rich tri-chorus, and it's OUT OF THIS WORLD Univibe - you can control every parameter down to the speed of each fan with an expression pedals (I use two, the other is to set my delay length (feedback) which I jack up for solos or in some patches pan my sound left and right to freak people out lol). Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_njX52NyaA Frankly, it does some effects a lot better than Line 6, so I guess I would be using the HD500 primarily for it's awesome preamp models.

 

This would be for a medium size stage (15' max between me and my rig) - I dunno what I'd do on a bigger stage?

 

Cable runs back and forth:

- The HD500 needs power                                                                                                                                                           Power Cable =1

- Wireless unit in my rack               Only thing I can think  of is run a 20' cable from the out of the wireless to the IN on the HD500.     20' Cable #1

- HD500 Send to Return of my rack                                                                                                                                             20' Cable #2

- Send from my rack to Return of HD500                                                                                                                                      20' Cable #3

- 1/4" HD500 Right out to power amp Right                                                                                                                                  20' Cable #4

- 1/4" HD500 Left out to power amp Left                                                                                                                                       20' Cable #5

Then there's the control cable...     7 cables total!!     I can image quite a bit of signal loss over those length runs.

 

I'd run the XLR outs (L and R) straight to the board, but I'm not worried about those cause they'll go to the snake

 

Have I got it all wrong? What do you guys with racks and a wireless unit do? I considered getting HD500 PRO, but I love the layout of the HD500 board, especially the looper controls.

Considering the looper, I'd have to have a million buttons to acheive all this with another foot controller, Plus, I'd have to set all of that up manually and I don't even need to tell y'all how crazy that would get.

 

Also, I dunno too much about cables, but wouldn't I have to use instrument level cables, like a guitar cable for all these runs or can other kinds of cables (that have less signal loss for longer runs) be used?

 

Please advise - any and all comments are appreciated

 

Thanks!

 

Max

You are correct about the xlr output being only mic level. I should have added that sending to a power amp will require a mixer of some sort to bring the xlr signal to a level that the power amp can use. This is honestly a prefered method over using the 1/4" plugs. A TRS connection is superior to a simple TS connection. I don't believe that the POD HD series sends out the 1/4" via a buffered send? But I could be wrong? It very well may be and it simply uses a -10 / +4 reference switch for line and amp level? In either case if it is not a TRS connection, it will not be balanced, can introduce noise over long cable lengths and will increase the impedence of the cable run making it loose signal quality over longer lengths.

My rig using all the stuff mentioned above would consist of a small rack mountable mixer to delegate all the incoming signal. It would run XLR from pod to rack mixer, then to power amp. The 1/4" send either from mixer, or pod would go to house PA system via D.I. and I would run a midi cable to play position back to POD for control over patch changes. The wireless system would be integral to the rack and it's input would go straight into the POD.