Question To Existing Pod Hd Users

[fireman]

I need advise from the community of HD users. I've been a long time user of the POD starting with the POD 2.0, going through every generation and ending up with the X3 (and a SpiderValve).

Live playing is very rare for me theses days and on those occasions, the SpiderValve and FBV Shortboard do nicely. Most of my POD use theses days is recording and even though I'm really pleased with my X3 patches, I'm thinking about upgrading to the HD500. What I'm looking for is greater "touch" dynamics - I want to be able to vary my picking intensity to vary the amount of distortion in medium/high gain patches (the one thing the X3 doesn't do well at all).

Can existing HD500 owners tell me how well the HD series performs compared to the X3 as far as dynamics and also, are the amp models in the HD much better than the X3?

I know some people will ask "why don't I just try one myself?" - problem is, I can't find a dealer in Melbourne at the moment with any Line 6 gear in stock.

I would really appreciate any opinions on the HD series and how they compare to the X3 series or, for what I want, am I better of with a Eleven Rack (or an AxeFX - I'm sure I've got a spare kidney or 2!)

Thanks.

[silverhead]

The Pod HD dynamics and amp modeling are far superior to the X3. The HD is much more responsive to pick intensity and to guitar volume level in terms of dynamic grit/distortion.

 

However, for recording purposes there are a couple of ways in which the X3 can still be considered superior. Whether or not these are relevant to you depends on your workflow habits.

- The X3 directly supports recording a dry signal over usb for subsequent processing via DAW plugins. The HD does not do this directly when used as the audio interface, but there are workarounds.

- In the same vein, the X3 has a directly analogous plugin - Pod Farm. The tones are interchangeable and the DSP uses the same algorithms so you can reproduce live exactly what your recording sounds like. There is no Pod HD plugin.

[fireman]

I use Pro Tools for tracking and use plug-ins extensively for pretty well everything except guitar. As far as guitar tracking goes, I'm fairly old fashioned - I try to get exactly the tone and effects I'm after coming out of the POD and rarely process the recorded track except for a small amount of EQ tweaking. Re-amping is another area I'm not really into, so from your response, I gather the HD500 would probably suit me better.

I must admit though, I am very tempted by the Eleven Rack but at almost twice the cost of an HD500 new, I don't know whether its "twice" as good.