A Few Questions Before I Hand Over The Cash

[Mynameismatt]

Hi guys I've been a member but not posted since I had an old pod XT pro years ago

 

I'm thinking of buying a pod HD but before I do I have a few questions. I want to choose two amps that will work well with my external drive pedals in front of the pod and stick with them. I'm not really interested in presets. I plan to find something that works and stick with it. Kinda like a traditional pedal board and amp set up.

 

I want to use the my M13 in the effects loop of the pod because of the dsp issue. The ability to control the M13 from the pod really interests me.

 

So here are the questions

 

1) Does it sound that much better when using two amps?

 

2) Do I have to be careful about input levels when running my external drive pedals in front of the pod?

 

3) I don't want to control "scenes" on the M13. Instead I want to be able to switch individual effects on and off. Like i said i not interested in presets. Is this possible?

 

4) When you press a foot switch on the pod that you have assigned to control something via midi does the LED light still light up and turn off when to u press it again.

 

5) When something is plugged into the MP3 inout is that routes through to the XLR outputs? And is there a level control for the Mp3 input?

 

Hope that's not to much for a first post

 

Matt

[Inerzia]

5-There is no specific level control for the mp3 input
4-The leds on the footswitches respond to the state of the effect (or the first effect in the chain if there's more than one) assigned to it. When they're not assigned to an effect they don't light up.
3-It's possible to just create a scene on the M13 and use it as a permanent pedal setup, if that's what you want.
2-When do you not have to be careful about input levels when running anything in front of anything? :-) There's a pad switch in case you need it
1-If you are going to use your HD in stereo, two hard panned amps (different amps and/or different cabs/mics/settings) are the best way to really open your sound.
If you go mono, choosing two amps that blend perfectly can take a lot of time. For your intended setup, where the drive will be coming from external pedals, you'll probably lose more than you win, because of phase and cancelling frequencies

[bjnette]

If your monitoring thru full range powered speakers rather than an amp the Amp modelling will be worth it.

I have used the foot switches to control my DAW transport but it would be good if the HD500 had a HD300 type mode select to use it for both sound and midi controll.

[Mynameismatt]

Thanks for the replies guys...

 

I do plan on panning the amps hard left and right. Is phase cancellation often a problem when doin this?

 

Matt

[moondancer]

hi,

 

first of all you should read this, then most of your questions will be answered  ;)

http://www.foobazaar.com/podhd/toneGuide/

[Inerzia]

Well, phase is tricky, so I guess, instead of "no, you won't have any phase problems doing that", the correct answer would be "If you do that you won't be contributing to phase problems" :-)
That link to Meambobbo's tone guide, that moondancer just posted, is indeed useful for some, but it wasn't for me, because I use a different approach, so, may be nice to read it and learn 

some interesting things, but don't take it as the absolute truth. It seems to be peddled back and again around these parts as a "one size fits all" kind of deal, but it's not. Nothing is.
Then again, it's a nice guide and will give you a good start (& more)

[joel_brown]

For a nice stereo effect, you can also use a single amp but place a delay on the left side set to 20ms.  I learned that from Glenn Delaune.  His tutorials on Youtube are really good.