billlorentzen

I'm pretty stoked. Really looking forward to hearing this baby! I've been extremely satisfied with my HD500, gigging several days a week for a few years with it, but better modeling is always welcome! Below are some features I'm interested in: 1) Have you included a mix or bypass control for fx such as distortion so we don't have to resort to PITA routing schemes to bypass them? I use the control pedal to dial from clean to distorted, and have to set up two paths in HD500 to accomplish this (one path holds the pedal, the other doesn't). 2) Will there be a new external control pedal? The current one is pretty weak. 3) Can you say if it will have a better auto wah? The Mutron was never very guitar friendly, and was IMHO the wrong piece to model. 4) Any new compressors, especially rack models? Can we get some DBX 160X overeasy or other soft knee in the house?

Hate to criticize, but that's a crap comparison. I could have tweaked that patch to sound way closer to the original.

Another approach that I use is to use just one amp, but set up two paths leading to it. On one path I add a distortion pedal. I can then rock back and forth with the control pedal between the two sounds. I also use the pedal to tweak the amp settings, so the lead sound is optimized. If you pick the right amp, you can get a great clean sound and a good breakup, and then when you kick in the dist. the full on lead sound. Good amps for this are the /13, the Deluxe and the Dr Z.

I'd love to know how you do that? Im talking about using a single amp, not an amp on each path. I know I could do that, but I don't have the headroom with all the fx I need.

The 69 has a thick neck. That might make you happy.

Due to the routing scheme, when you break into 2 paths, the paths have to go straight into the mixer. If I had enough processing headroom or a 500X, I could probably use 2 amps, one for each path, but it works fine with one amp after the mixer.

Piano guy is right on. One thing I would add: if you have a rider for back line, I would ask for a quality individual powered monitor or smallish PA cab that you alone control, so you are not dependent on getting all your comfort monitoring from the monitor guy. That's something I just couldn't leave in someone else's hands unless they worked for me and I really trusted them. If you can't do that, then I would bring some small gift to every gig, and during sound check, present it to the person handling your monitors, and then tell him what you need.

First patch uses just one path, with The Blue Comp first then amp, then the mixer, followed by the Tube Comp. Second patch uses dual paths (controlled by a pan pedal up front), one with a Blue Comp and the other with the Screamer, then the mixer, then amp, then Tube Comp. Probably just from studio habit, I tend to place comps as I would in the real world; although you could do it, I doubt anyone carries an LA2A (the tube comp) in their guitar rack, so I put it in the "mix" section of the Pod, with the delay and verb and that kind of stuff. Using multiple comps in series is a studio trick to avoid pumping (audible compression drop and then surge back).

I don't know that this is my best tone ever, but it's one I use a lot. It's a "super strat with EMGs on neck p-up into Blue Comp, Divided by 13, tube comp, delay and verb. The rhythm sound is parameters dialed back for clean and the lead is gains up a bit, probably with extra verb and delay, all controlled with the pedal. This is on the looper at max length, one pass for rhythm and one for lead (so don't judge my sloppy playing!) https://soundcloud.com/billlorentzen/patch-sample-pod-hd-divided-by-13 This one below is my most used patch. Same amp and rhythm sound as other patch, but this one is on the middle p-up and has a Tube Screamer instead of the Blue comp up front. Again this is all controlled by the pedal, so I can go from clean rhythm to full lead by just rocking the pedal. I showed a little more of my go-to basic clean rhythm sound here. https://soundcloud.com/billlorentzen/patch-sample-2

Personally I tweak with studio monitors, and find it translates well to a pa. I am a recording engineer, so I know what to listen for. I would suggest working a bit then resting your ears, then listen again, until you like it consistently.

I'm very curious, does the Kemper allow dual channels - different model on each channel - so one can cross fade between them with a control pedal? I'm so totally hooked on the ability to instantly go from my rhythm sound to a lead sound with the pedal, that I absolutely refuse to give that up going forward. Maybe I would need two Kempers!

I rarely use the EQs, but usally use the pedal to control the amp tone controls. If I'm going to use EQs, I use them to take away rather than add.

I'm 60, a pro musician since 21 years old. I play several gigs a week, and although I've used modelers off and on since the original bean, this is the first one I've owned good enough to stand on its own without a tube power section to warm it up and give some juice.

I've got an old 2x12 reactor, which is a bit too bright for me. I liked the sound of my original 1x12 reactor, but it wasn't loud enough. I gig with my PA cabs, and have based all my tones on flat amplification, so re-EQing them all for the Reactor, was a waste of time, but now that we have the global EQ, I might try it again.

I have a different opinion about the OP's original post, which I also found somewhat distasteful. It seems discourteous to L6, who host these forums for us. On the other hand, if the OP had already bought and used his new Axe, and wanted to share his experiences, good or bad, I suppose I wouldn't object to that, as it might at least be helpful to others.

I believe it will come up in the position it was in last time you saved. Am I imagining that?

Yes, I use them with a sub for my solo or duo with tracks gigs, and if I'm with a band, I use them for my own stage monitoring and/or "amp", without the sub. I looove these speaks. Very versatile and really good sounding.

Someone asked about EQ placement. Think about your HD as you would signal flow in the studio. EQ is added at the board, usually immediately after the mic signal passes through the preamp. Then fx such as verbs and delay are added. Of course you can vary this if it works for you, for instance, EQing the the guitar signal itself before the amp.

Keep in mind that when using the looper to knobulate, after a short time listening to the same phrase you won't hear it with much discrimination. I suggest working on a tone for a couple minutes then taking a break for a while, then listening again.

I woul go with studio monitors, as well. Not only will you get the truest sound, but you may find them useful for lots of other things, like improving the audio from your record/radio/TV/movie use.

My HD is still in the car from my gig last night, so I can't test this, but as I recall, the pan and vol pedal are assignable in the menu accessed by double tapping the up arrow. I use an analog vol pedal before the HD, myself.

This may have been covered, but arch tops and semi acoustics don't take distortion well. The sim'd guitar will probably not work any better than a real one on higher gain settings.

I haven't tried the Mission pedals, but anything has to be better than the shoddy and inaccurate Line 6 pedal. It was super cheap, though.

In which department are those found? Wonder if they also fit the non-X HDs

I don't know a way to dial all fx down as a sort of master fx return channel setting, but it's not hard to assign the mix parameters on many fx to a pedal. However you can't do this with some floor type fx like distortions and compressors. Compressors can be dialed down in threshold settings. Distortions can be reduced, but they will still color the sound if they're in the chain and active - this is something I would love to see L6 change, with an actual mix control or a bypass when the setting goes to, say, minus zero. This can be done on the Axe FX. I have discovered a very workable solution for this problem with distortion pedals. I insert a pan pedal early in the chain, followed by two paths, one with the dist pedal and one without. I move the amp to after the mixer, panned center, so it will receive equal amounts of whichever channel has signal fed to it by the panning. This gives me the ability to go from a clean (or cleanish) lower vol rhythm sound to a louder, more distorted sound simply by depressing the pedal, and it also gives me varying amounts of distortion and volume in the in-between positions. This is a huge advantage for me. I hate looking down at the board every time I want to solo or throw in a line or louder part while comping (my foot easily finds the control pedal without looking). As a singer, I hate all that pedal dancing while I'm trying to entertain. Even when I'm not singing and just playing with an ensemble, the ability to easily control my volume and sound with just the pedal is a facility I love. I should prolly do a vid on this to show how powerful this setup is, and how easy it is to implement.