30+ POD HD Patches for Download & Quick Tips

[d09153]

Hi guys, I've posted these in some other forums and thought it'd be a good idea to share them here as well. Here are ALL the patches I’ve created throughout the two years of owning this unit. Nearly forty patches, range from clean, ambient, mid-gain to hi-gain lead and rhythm, are packed in the following link (all in one setlist file), along with the screenshots of the settings on each, so worry not if you don’t own the same unit (mine is the desktop). You can also easily find a POD HD converter for converting these patches to your unit. Some demonstrations of my patches are also posted below.

 

Download Link

 

Clean & Ambient Patches

Lead Patches

Metal Rhythms

 

        However, I found that the setlist file didn’t actually save the amp parameters (the lower part, not the EQs) and the cab parameters. That’s not really a problem since I don’t tweak them drastically most of the time, but the low cut knob in the cab section is left at around 200 hz. Please drag it down to the lowest so you have enough low end coming through.

 

        Some of the patches might look similar to yours, since there’re a few ones that were downloaded from Line6 site and tweaked from there. However those are really rare in my collection, most of the patches are created from the ground up.

        Before I get into some tips, I’d like to inform you the setup I use, so you have a good reference for adjusting the parameters on these patches for your own use. I use my Ibanez RG1527 with DiMarzio CL/LF pickups, they’re fairly high-output and EQ-wise pretty even, a bit compressed as well. Please feel free to adjust the input on the patches for ideal performance.

 

        And for the following tips and tricks, I’d like to give the credits to MeAmBobbo. I’ve learned a ton about this unit in his extremely informative and detailed POD HD tone guide. Most of the things I’m gonna talk about are also covered in his guide, only that I’ll pick some tips that seemed more important to me, as well as my tweaking habits. I’m also gonna briefly talk about clean and mid-gain tones, which are not covered in his guide. Hopefully this is not a heavy reading while being pretty informative.

 

General Approach

 

        My basic approach here is really nothing fancy and the same goes with analog gears as well: “Choose the right amp with the right cab/mic combinationâ€. Get this step right, tweak the amp EQ and boost pedal (if any) and you’re half way there.

 

        On POD however, I like to insert a Mid Focus EQ after the amp with HP freq at around 30, just enough to roll off the muddy low-end, then go through each cab/mic combo. That way the ugly bottom end on some cab/mic will not negatively affect how you perceive the sound which might be usable.

 

Cleans

 

        Now let’s start with cleans. Generally I only use these amps and cab/mic combos for clean:

        Blackface Dbl Nrm + 2x12 Blackface Dbl + 57 on Axis (occasionally 57 off Axis)

        Class A-30 TB + 2x12 Phd Ported + 67 Condenser

 

        Since there’re no one absolute clean amp on POD HD (something like Shiva in Axe Fx), these combos are the best to start with. Use minimal preamp drive and maximal poweramp drive, and go from there. Generally these amps don’t required much pre or post EQing to sound good, as long as you’ve settled down with the right amp EQ setting. Any tweaking on the poweramp sections would be up to taste most of the time. I’d sometimes dial in more poweramp bias if more “body†and “roundness†is needed. Other than that, I generally would insert a compressor, noise gate (occasionally) and some other effects up to taste. A cool tip is that you may put a chorus or flanger in front the amp to thicken the sound. I don’t have a strict rule for putting effects pre or post-amp on clean patches, nor is much EQing needed most of the time.

 

Ambient

 

        Most of the time you don’t need to hear the “meat†of these ambient padding sounds, and since you’ll likely use heavy effects with these, you probably don’t need to use any amp. For these ambient sounds, I’d put a compressor to even out the signal as well as a Mid Focus EQ to clean up the low end, just to make them more mix-ready. Other than that, any effects would be up to what you’re going for. However, on some patches with heavy reverbs (sometime up to four), I like to leave the mix knobs on these reverbs at around 99%, just enough to let your first picking sound go through, otherwise it’d often sound delayed in the performance which is not ideal.

 

Mid-gain

 

        I really can’t say much about mid-gain tones since I don’t use them much, and I didn’t really explore the dual cab combinations with mid-gain amps either. However this combo is by far the best I’ve encountered and I know some of you are interested in too: Plexi Lead 100 Brt with two cabs - 4x12 Hiway + 57 on Axis and 4x12 XXL V-30 + 57 on Axis. It’s also the setting on my patch no. 02A so you may discover by yourself.

 

        Now it’s time to introduce a really useful tip since I use it with mid-gain patches as well as hi-gain ones: Using Mid Focus EQ right before the amp for ultimate control of the signal. I realized this is actually a bit similar to the concept behind Nolly’s signature boost pedal Focus, which gives you the overall control over the HP and LP amount and slope before it hits the amp, and will results in the amount of saturation with both high and low end. It also acts like an input trim, which allows you to dial in just the right amount of preamp gain without sacrificing the clarity or anything (and you may use this knob to adjust the gain you’re getting from my patches on your guitar). I love to have it after the boost pedal too, so I can crank the output of the boost pedal to have enough “color†from it while remain fully controlled over the “push†of the signal with Mid Focus EQ.

 

        Nonetheless, with 4x12 cabs, having another Mid Focus EQ at the end of the chain is also really helpful for controlling the rumbling low end (like I mentioned in my general approach) and high end sizzles, as well as the overall volume.

 

Hi-gain

 

        Now let’s move on to the hi-gain category. First I’d like to start with some of the thoughts on several drive (boost) pedals, since we all know the boost plays a crucial role in the hi-gain guitar sound.

 

        Tube Drive: Sounds really smooth and can be suited for lead patches or even tiny drive boost. The EQs are quite responsive.

        Screamer: Sounds pretty much like what you’d expect from it. I personally like Line 6 Drive over this one, as the Screamer sounds a bit too raw and aggressive for my taste.

        Line 6 Drive: Probably absolute favorite on POD HD aside from Mid Focus EQ and is used almost over every hi-gain patch I created along with Mid Focus EQ. It provides quite some high end and just the right amount of “grindâ€, so works wonderfully as a boost. The mid knob acts more like a mid-frequency sweep than a gain knob, so it’s more or less similar to the Screamer. I like to have the mid at 40-45 on heavy rhythm patches, around 35 on leads.

       

        And more on pedals before I get to the amps. I like using Hard Gate instead of Noise Gate, as it may kill the tone a little. With Hard Gate you can set the open and close threshold according to your setup and the purpose, i.e. you may want to set both threshold fairly high for tight palm-mute rhythm patch while leaving them quite low (and decay up high) on lead patch for less obvious effect.

 

        Aside from Mid Focus EQ which I’ve mentioned already, I also like to put a Parametric EQ either pre or post amp. Mostly of the time I put the Parametric EQ after the amp (and before the Mid Focus EQ) to simply cut off some muddiness around 300 to 400 hz and boost the high shelf a hair for some clarity and air. The effect is definitely not subtle even with really gentle cut and boost.

       

        Now that’s pretty much it for the pedals. For hi-gain guitars, the Holy Grail really is the dual cabs. It truly opens up a whole different level of tonal possibilities on the unit. Since there’re so many usable combinations, I’m not gonna go one by one on them. If you’re interested in discovering some combos on your own, feel free to check out MeAmBobbo’s tone guide for detailed info. However I don’t always go with the method of blending a “bright†cab with a “dark†one, which is recommended by MeAmBobbo. I sometimes like to find a certain cab/mic combo that works great on its own then find another combo that matches well. Personally I love the sound of 4x12 Uber and 4x12 XXL V-30 with either 57 on/off Axis or 409 Dynamic mics, so these combos appear a lot in my setlist.

 

        Onto the amp setting. Though it might differ from patch to patch, I generally like to set the preamp gain fairly low, striking the balance between the right amount of saturation and punch. EQ-wise it certainly differs from amp to amp, but I love the Treadplate model (Dual Rectifier) because it has the EQs that are more responsive than some others.

 

        I don’t touch the amp parameters most of the time, even when I do, it’s a tiny tweak on the amount of poweramp drive and the bias amount. For the cab section, I generally don’t touch anything since I use a post-amp Mid Focus EQ to control the low end, but occasionally I’d lower the res level a tiny bit to get a little more clarity, or boost the decay a bit for more resonance of the cab (these are really subtle so don’t expect to get a lot from them). And on some rhythms patches, I’d even leave the early reflection at 0 and use a room reverb to (hopefully) get some realistic room sound, but that’s subtle too.

 

TL;DR:

Use Line 6 Drive for boost.

Have two Mid Focus EQs one before one after the amp.

Use dual cabs! lol

 

        So yeah this is pretty much all I have to say about this unit atm, hopefully it’s helpful to some of you and hope you guys will have some fun with the patches! Last but not least, please feel free to follow me on soundcloud or facebook for more music related updates. Cheers!

[aussiejoe]

great job

 

much appreciated

thanks

[eenymason]

Nice work - thanks for sharing this. I liked also the individualistic styling. I am not usually that keen on the "metal" side of things we usually see demonstrated on the Pod, but your taste is a little left-field, which I like.

What's your end of chain - FRFR or power amp/cab for live work-  or do you not you use it live?

 

cheers again, Ian.

[d09153]

Nice work - thanks for sharing this. I liked also the individualistic styling. I am not usually that keen on the "metal" side of things we usually see demonstrated on the Pod, but your taste is a little left-field, which I like.

What's your end of chain - FRFR or power amp/cab for live work-  or do you not you use it live?

 

cheers again, Ian.

 

Thanks Ian! It's great to know that I'm doing something a little bit different! Please feel free to check the other clips on my soundcloud if you would :)

I'm using powered studio monitors and built these patches for mainly studio usage. For live use, you can easily HP/LP the tone a tad more to get rid of the unwanted fizz and boominess with the already existed mid-focus EQ at the end, so hopefully it'll still come handy.

Thanks for bringing this up btw, I don't play any live so I wasn't even thinking about that lol. Cheers!

[medbad5150]

Respect mate, always looking to improve sound. I wil try these as not happy with Vox amp on HD500. Good effort appreciated.

[bjnette]

Cheers some great tones there!

[Ed_Saxman]

To d09153:

I´m afraid there is something wrong with the file. The download must be 14-16MB, however, the file I get is about 1MB, so it can´t be unzipped.

 

Maybe you can upload the files to a more reliable server? 

[d09153]

To d09153:

I´m afraid there is something wrong with the file. The download must be 14-16MB, however, the file I get is about 1MB, so it can´t be unzipped.

 

Maybe you can upload the files to a more reliable server? 

 

Hey man thanks for reporting the problem. However the link still works on my computer and no one has reported this problem to me yet (I posted this on some other forums as well).

It might be due to the unstable connection that your download wasn't succeed. Mind trying again later? If the problem still exists I'll then send you directly.

[Millerman]

Clear and concise info. You should teach this stuff! Thank you

[jonhd5000]

Really late to this topic but any chance you could re upload the file.

Says that copy site was discontinued may 2016

Thanks dude

[cruisinon2]

Really late to this topic but any chance you could re upload the file.

Says that copy site was discontinued may 2016

Thanks dude

The OP hadn't posted anything in 2 1/2 years...he's long gone. Don't hold your breath.

[sidsimo]

does anyone know where I can download these patches? I realize they're a few years old. But I recently started to get in the POD HD Kidney.

any help would be appreciated.

thanks

sid