DunedinDragon

I just ordered a return/open box unit from Musician's Friend for $1199. But I had to keep checking on a daily basis. When they come in, supposedly from returns, they don't last long.

Are you sure you lose a channel when you come out of the POD? I would think the 1/4" Left (Mono) output would sum the two channels even if it came in through the sound card of the HD500X.

My first impression is it's probably an artifact of latency in your Cubase where you're monitoring both source and recording at the same time. If it's not there when you play it back, that's probably it.

I had an intermittent problem with it using Windows 8. I found if I had my POD powered up and USB plugged in prior to booting my laptop the problem seemed to go away.

Again, you won't notice anything as far as the guitar unless you use a stereo effect. I output from my left XLR to the mixing board at gigs all the time and there's no problem. But I don't use stereo effects because it would be a waste of time in a live setting. It may be a problem with music streams, but you should be able to tell if that if so. If in doubt route the speaker out of the mono 1/4" output rather than the XLR. That's how I run my output to the FRFR speaker on the HD500X. I also have a HDProX for the studio but that's routed via XLR to 2 studio monitors.

Probably a good portion of your questions can be answered in detail in the following PodHD guide by MeAmBobbo http://foobazaar.com/podhd/toneGuide/setup 1) I have one signal going into my POD (ignoring for now anything coming from my laptop hosting the Editor) and one output (single speaker). But I often see a single amp with two outputs (in the typical preset these outputs just go to a Mixer). What is going on here? Is there some implied stereo path (left input/right input) implied by the signal path to the left of the amp and right of the Mixer? Or ?? The POD is essentially a stereo device, but it only really affects you if you are using stereo effects. At the point you're at I wouldn't worry about that too much and just concentrate on the basic functionality. Suffice it to say if you've plugged your single speaker in the left (mono) output the stereo lines are summed and sent mono, so the only thing you're missing is the stereo separation of a stereo effect. 2) I have been told a number of times that many of the HD500X effects 'are best in stereo' - referencing my choice of a single speaker (which will be changing down the road when/if I get serious about recording or maybe depending on the answer to this question). So for the case of a single input (just a guitar, no accompaniment) what exactly does this mean? I can imagine a number of ways of splitting up a signal into two different signals (where the sum = the original signal), but what exactly am I missing here in my single speaker setup? It depends on what your use is. For live performances, probably not much since most folks running PA's aren't too keen on separating stereo since it's not very effective unless you happen to be the small number of people perfectly positioned between the two main speakers. For recording purposes it might be useful to you depending on the style of music you play. As mentioned above the stereo lines are summed to the mono output of the board if that's where you're plugged in. Personally I only use a single speaker and perform weekly with no problems. 3) Is the cabinet not shown and at the end of the chain? I often see effects 'after' the amplifier and this just seems odd (since to me amplifier implies the existence of a cabinet). Is it simply something that can easily be done in modeling so why not (where in a real/physical situation you would not run a 100W signal through an Effects Pedal - I assume??). The cabinet model being used is part of the amp block. There some deep editing features of the amp block that include the cabinet and microphone parameters. All explained in the documentation for the POD. The effects positioned after the amp block behave in a manner similar to an effect loop in that they are applied after the pre-amp generally. You'll note that many of them behave quite differently pre and post amp block. Again your documentation explains this all pretty well. 4) I often see a "E.R." knob in the editor. What is this? I'm assuming this is early reflections..a cabinet parameter. Again detailed in your documentation.

I'm with pfsmith and pianoguyy....I hear nothing but the string and maybe some fret noise on some notes.through either my Yamaha HS7 studio monitors or my Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headsets. I'm wondering if it's an artifact of your monitors.....

Signal chain development for jazz is actually pretty simple compared to most rock setups and mostly revolves around starting with the right amp model. If you start with the right amp model in the first place you'll find you likely won't need too much correction using EQ FX. I've already mentioned the Roland JC-120 from the vintage pack, but one of my more simple jazz signal chains consists of a Soldono clean model with drive at 45%, bass at 55%, mids at 65%, treble at 50%,presence at 25% amp volume at 75%. Post mixing block I simply have a hall reverb with mix at 15%, decay around 25% followed by a Studio EQ that has about a 1.5db boost at 500hz to give some low smoothness and a -2db on highs at 5000hz to tame the brittle highs, That pretty much is all I need to get a clean, full sound using a Gretsch Silver Falcon hollow body guitar. Of course a lot of this is irrelevant if you're using a different type of guitar, so you'd have to adjust to taste. I have slightly more complex signal chains that might incorporate a very light chorus effect (slow chorus and not very deep), but that's really about it. There's just not a lot you need to do to get a good jazz sound. Mostly just use your ears.

Sorry, I just misread that. I thought you were saying you weren't getting big changes in volume and that you needed to have them... I also play in a church band as well, and that's why I use the sound meter to measure each patch. As you well know, most churches don't have terribly proficient sound men running the board, so I try to do everything I can to make their jobs easy. That's the only way I can make sure I'm at a stable volume each week regardless of the patches I'm using.

Generally speaking, I keep the POD master volume on my unit around 50%. As I build a patch I use the amp model's volume control (along with the drive which also has an effect on volume) to target a specific, measured volume level using a sound meter of around 80db. Each of the amp models is different in terms of how they respond to a combination of drive and amp volume, and in some cases I have to rely on the mixer block volume to reach my target of 80db. In that way all of my patches are at the same relative volume, and the only thing I need to change to adapt to a venue is my master volume on the unit. But I'm unclear about your statement about "not getting big volume changes" when you switch patches. Typically that's exactly what you want. Or am I not understanding something?

You should be able to get a good warm jazz tone pretty easily on your POD. I'm most typically drawn to the Roland JC-120 amp model available in the vintage pack from Line 6. It's got beautiful clarity with a nice round tone with awesome presence and has been used by a great number of jazz musicians. For traditional jazz type sound I'll almost always use my Gretsch Silver Falcon and roll off a good part of the treble on the JC-120. I have used my Strat as well on jazzier R&B type tunes like Atlanta Rhythm Section or Hall and Oats styles. They also work pretty well with the JC-120. As far as the Global EQ, I use a FRFR speaker which is a Yamaha DXR12 which, because of the range of response, can sometimes be a little boomy on the bass end and somewhat brittle on the high end depending on the amp model and style of song.. I do use the Global EQ to correct some of this. I don't go overboard on it because with some amps and styles I want a bit more low end and/or high end. The only things I use are the Low Cut and High Cut filters on the Global EQ. I set the Low Cut at around 120 Hz and the High Cut at around 8.0 Khz. Those are still below and above the normal range of any typical guitar cabinet so I will sometimes end up using the Studio EQ filter at the end of my patch's signal chain to further confine those ranges either on the low end or (more typically) on the high end. There are some amp models and setups where those Global EQ's work fine, but I don't want them to cut too deeply into the range and lose something I might otherwise want to keep on those types of setups where I don't need to use any additional filter. I don't think I would want to do much more with the Global EQ. I reserve the rest of the parameters (low, mid, and high) for those situations in which I really need to adapt to some strange room acoustics across all of the presets. But quite honestly, that's been pretty rare for me. Hope that helps...

"Better" is all relative and subjective when it comes to modeling. It's all based on what you personally like as far as what you're hearing. As far as differences/resemblances, pretty much the entire modeling marketplace uses the same general process for modeling...including COSM. The exact way the do the modeling and how they interpret and exploit the results from the modeling labs is proprietary to each company. So it will always come back to your subjective impression of what you like best. I think you're problem relates to downloading presets. You're going to find that most of the experienced people on this board and on other modeling forums aren't great fans of downloaded presets. The ONLY way you're likely going to find the exact tones you're looking for is to learn to build them yourself. It's really not that hard. That's why there are so many different tones uploaded...because it's not a black art. Anyone can do it if they invest the time to learn the system they're working with and have a good ear for what they want. There are some significant issues with dowloaded presets. First, you have no idea what specific guitar, pickups, and guitar configuation (tone and volume settings) the author is using, and how it compares to your guitar...and that can make a huge difference in how it sounds. Secondly, you have no idea of what output rig they used to construct the preset and how it compares with yours. And in the case of modelers, the sky is the limit in terms of variations. They could be constructing it through headsets, or FRFR speakers of which there are big variations in quality and sound depending on the manufacturer, or even through the return loop of an amp into a standard guitar cabinet. And that doesn't even account for the configuration of various global parameters which aren't saved with the preset such as input source configuration, input impedance, output mode or global EQ settings. These impediments will be the same whether it's the HD500X, the BOSS GT-100, AxeFX, Helix, or Kemper. I can pretty much guarantee you the HD500X can produce the tones you want. It has plenty of facilities to do it. But it's up to you to invest your time to learn the system and how to construct the signal paths to get you the sounds you're looking for. That's simply the state of modeling. And if you want to be successful at using modeling technology, that's all part of it.

Although I'd agree with your sentiment when it comes to remastered videos or music, I think their use of the term is slightly different. In watching some of the promo videos for the Helix I found one that covered the process and techniques used in their modeling lab. Apparently they've gone much deeper in modeling additional parts of the circuit paths in the amps for the Helix of which the remastered JCM-800 is one of the beneficiaries. The response of the gain circuit is clearly different on this remastered version as is the response on the tone circuits and amp volume circuit. In both cases they match up very closely to what I remember from using a JCM in the past. I've also noticed considerably better gain, tone and amp volume response from the other amps I've been using from the vintage pack. It's just a guess on my part but I'm suspecting, given the timing of the release of the model packs and the development of the Helix, that the same process was likely used on the amps in the vintage pack. Of course they weren't marked as "remastered" because they didn't exist prior to their release on the vintage pack. Whatever the case may be, I know I tend to be drawn to the amps in the vintage pack because of their tone and responsiveness over the stock amp models. If they could do the same for some of my other favorite stock amp models, I'd gladly pay the $50.

I suspect this may be due to the relative slowness of bass players to adopt modeling. This is what drives the market. It's something of a chicken and egg thing. Guitar players have all sorts of options for FRFR speakers to go with their modeling rig. Not so for bass players. Also the fact that a great number of bass amps don't come with an effect loop return so the cabinet and basic amp could be used cleanly from a POD and you haven't got a lot of incentive for bass players to make the move.

Submitted to IdeaScale...give it a vote if you can: Additional Amp Packs for POD HD The HD Model Packs are a welcome and useful addition to the POD HD series. I believe the HD series could receive additional life if many of the stock amps that come with the HD were remastered in the same way as the JCM800 and released as a new model pack. Of particular interest would be amps like the HiWatt, VOX A-15, Marshall J-45, Plexi, P-75, and Soldono. Between a remastered Soldono and the Pete Anderson Custom I believe the Twin and Deluxe Reverb are already well covered.

I've owned the vintage pack for some time now and I just got the metal pack, primarily for the remastered JCM800. However I noticed while going through all the amps in both the vintage and metal packs they seem to respond in a much more accurate manner to the original amps than do the models that come with the POD HD. I realize the JCM is remastered, which apparently involves a different process (HX) for modeling than what was used on the default JCM that came with the unit. Based on the better response of all of the amps in the add-on packs, I wondering if these were all modeled with the HX modeling process. Does anyone know? If so it sure seems they could breathe a little more life into the HD series with some additional amp packs remodeled with the HX process. Sounds like a something for IdeaScale....

Do you ever go through a PA? Typically they're resistant to panning on the FOH since the effect is only viable for the people in the center of the room and sounds horrible to people on the sides.

It's pretty rare that I would feel the need to do this, but if I did I'd simply reserve a space in some other setlist and use it as a scratch pad. In the case you're talking about I'd copy my original to the scratchpad set 1A, modify it and copy that to 1B. As long as you don't save 1A it will revert back to the original setup when you move off of it. So I'd go to 1B, play my sequence, move back to 1A (which is now the original) and compare. Repeat as necessary with 1C, 1D, 2A, 2B, etc. Select the best one and copy it back to the original setlist. If you want to save any of the variations I'd just copy them off to disk under some meaningful name. But I'd always reserve that area as a scratch pad so I'd know I could overwrite anything there to experiment with.

In this day and age I wouldn't get too hung up on the "true tube sound". Many of us here use powered monitors as our output mechanism with no tubes at all and depend on the modeling to provide that sound...and it works just fine. In your case if you want to use the amp modeling (which is the real key feature of the POD) you'd probably need to change your setup and bypass the preamp portion of your amp and go direct to the power amp portion of your amplifier from the pod. Since I don't use this type of setup the best way as I understand it is to go from your POD 1/4 out into the effects return of your amp. This still won't be a perfect representation of the POD's modeling as your sound will still be colored by the amplifier's cabinet. You may want to experiment with "no cabinet) on the POD's amp model and see how that affects the overall sound, but this is the main reason many of us have opted to use FRFR powered speakers to get the true, full effect of the modeling. The issue is, I think you'll have to decide upfront whether to use modeling or not because the configuration of the POD, the settings on the presets and potentially the connection method are going to be different, Probably too much to try and pull off a combination of modeling and no modeling in a live situation. I have no doubt you can come very close to any of the styles you're wanting to achieve using a standard modeling with effects setup. If I were in your situation I'd probably start with a country preset which should be pretty simple. I'd start by turning off your Global EQ once you have a clean, no pre-amp connection to your amp so you can concentrate on just the modeling and a clean amplified output. Start off with a simple configuration of a Twin Reverb amp along with maybe a plate reverb effect and play with the settings until you get that clean, sparkly, spanky type sound. Again, since you're going through the Blackstar's cabinet, I'd try both options on the modeled Twin with the standard cabinet and with no cabinet and see how it sounds. Good luck.

The 1/4" outputs are unbalanced, so I'm not sure how they would react with a TRS plug and how it's wired into the zoom q8. The first thing I'd try is an unbalanced TS 1/4" plug and see if it works. If you get nothing try pulling the plug out part way until you feel the second connection. Alternatively, just use the XLR outputs as they are balanced.

Just out of curiosity, I commonly use the J-800 that came with the POD for a lot of my heavier rock tones. I purchased the Vintage Pack which was well worth it, but I didn't get the Metal Pack since I didn't think there would be a huge benefit as I only use rock tones for maybe 20% of the songs in our songlist. However, if there is a REAL significant difference in the remodeled version in the Metal Pack I might re-think this. For those that use the remodeled J-800 from the metal pack how would you characterize the differences between that and the stock J-800 that comes with the unit?

Welcome to the "Old Guys Club". I'm 63 and still playing, so you're not alone at least. It's not really clear what you're wanting to do. You mention wanting presets to match up with different artists, but then you say you're using the fx loop of your amp to bypass the modeling amps. Of course any presets you might download or that might get recommended to you are naturally going to incorporate modeled amps, so are you planning on re-configuring your amp setup to incorporate modeling? Because it sounds like your current setup wouldn't accommodate that. I think that's where AlexKenivel is coming from on his question. As to the presets, I'm sure you could probably find some presets to download from CustomTone that might be good starting points for the artists list you've got. However I'll tell you I'm not a big fan of downloaded presets mainly because they rarely match up with your expectations given that you're particular gear and setup is different from what the author of the preset used to build the preset. I've just found it easier to build my own presets than to monkey around trying to tweak someone else's presets to my gear and my tastes. But everyone is different and you might end up finding some great presets to get what you want. Personally I don't find that building presets is all that hard. You simply start with an appropriate amp that matches the style you're trying to emulate. Dial that in just like you would if you were dealing with the real amp, add in some appropriate effects, and you're done. For example, Creedence Clearwater is going to require a clean amp with maybe just a touch of drive to it. My natural starting point would be either a Fender Deluxe or a HiWatt as they best match that type of sound. If you've got the Vintage Pack download, the Black Panel Pete is another good option. Likewise country is pretty much always best done on a Fender Twin, Although the Soledad clean is a nice option on those types of songs as well. Blues is a bit tougher to characterize because there's such a range of styles involved from BB King to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Sometimes it's just easier to do a little internet research and find out what amp the artist preferred to use. BB King, for example, used a Roland JC-120 for many years, which is available as part or the Vintage amp pack you can download from Line 6. The bottom line for us to really help you we need to know if you're intending on changing your setup to accommodate using modeled amps and how you're planning on doing it with your current gear, because that determines a lot about what we might recommend.

Around here, as long as it involves more gear and a vastly more complex setup who cares if it sounds good???!!!! :rolleyes: Guitar playing used to be about playing guitar...now it's a freakin' equipment demonstration.....

I suspect from what you've written that the sounds are there if you're willing to understand and use all the various editing parameters that apply to your setup i.e. input z, no cab, or with cab and resonance/thump adjustments, bias, sag, etc. But it doesn't sound like you've spent much time with these adjustments (or you have and simply didn't mention it). You have a fairly non-standard input and a somewhat odd output arrangement that most likely need to be adjusted for. How much have you tinkered with these various factors?

Do you have the mic/instr button set to mic? The XLR outputs on the HD500X are set to mic level outputs, not instrument level outputs.