Pod Hd Desktop And External Hardware Gain Pedals In Front

[pangea2003]

Hello out there!

 

I'm just wondering if someone can share experiences using external hardware pedals connected straight to the POD HD desktop (No return loops or POD HD 500 users).

 

So far I'm not happy at all with the compressors on the POD. They suck tone, they are noisy, and I feel even a bit of latency when I insert one in the chain..

 

So I'm wondering what would it happen if I use external pedals to crank up gain into a POD's amp, or using hardware compressors  or even just a volume pedal in front of the POD HD DESKTOP..??

 

I'm talking about connecting the pedals just in front of the POD HD DESKTOP, not interested in apparently noisy FX Return of the POD HD500

 

I'm just a bit paranoid with clipping the A/D Converter and spend unnecessary bucks on pedals that won't improve my tone.

 

As I presume, everyone has experienced the many issues of clipping signals inside the POD.

Yes, I eq as crazy with different slots of eq's before and after the amps to improve tone and remove unwanted fizz and hum..

 

This, I'm not sure if the POD would allow a hot signal from a pedal like the BB Preamp to get inside the digital domain without clipping the signal..?? 

 

Do you think I'm looking for more trouble going this way?

 

There're a few options with the impedance input on the POD but I have no idea if this would help though..

 

Please help me out, and share your experiences POD guitarists out there!

 

THANKS

 

 

[scottyo78]

I agree with you on the compressors not being stellar. The ones' I'll sometimes use are the Red, Blue and Vetta. I do like the Tube Drive (Chandler) model though.

 

You should be fine running "a pedal" into/before the HD500. Don't ever run an output from an amp into the HD500 though.

I'd start with your (additional) pedals' gain way down then slowly bring it up while listening. If any distortions you may want to disable the effects 1 at a time within your preset on the HD500 then when it sounds correct to you, adjust the effect level.

[gchaddock1972]

As far as fuzz and hum check your hum setting on amp edit. Especially if you're using a patch from customtone. You can adjust hum to any tone. Why someone would want hum I'll never know, but you can have it if you want it.  I always use a noise gate on all my presets. I have even experimented with two back to back. One set with threshold @ 20% and Decay @ 0 and the next with slightly higher threshold @ 30% and decay @ 100%. Most of the time I use 40 - 50 % threshold and 0% decay. This gives you a low amount of fuzz and hum from the guitar and keeps you from knowing you have the gate on. I like the tube comp as well. I use it to get a bit more drive out of most amps. I use it with 10-35% threshold and 10-35% Level.