GTLazer

Couple of quick points on this: If you use a valve amp without speakers connected, you're liable to break the output valves/transformer; you need a compatible load. You also can't use a cab sim without an amp sim on the Pods. You could use a fairly transparent amp sim, but it would have to be there nonetheless. You could use the G Sharp. You could go Guitar > Pod guitar in > Pod loop out > amp guitar in > amp loop out > G Sharp > Pod loop in > Pod out > monitor/PC (you'll get unavoidable latency if you monitor through your PC, though - I wouldn't recommend it) That would allow you to use Pod FX before your amp, then again after the G sharp. There are other people on here with much more experience of 4CM than me, so it might be wise to get some of their advice before making a final decision on how to make this work best.

Sounds like you might need to go back to the vendor for an exchange.

The dry out takes its feed directly from the guitar in, so it is taking its feed before the USB connection. If you're using an empty slot in the pod anyway, purely to use it as an audio interface, you need to use the standard outputs, as they're after the USB feed. So, your current chain is: Guitar In > Dry Out > USB Out > USB In And what you need is: Guitar In > USB Out > USB In > 1/4" Out Does that make sense?

There might be an elephant in the room. You could be creating a ground loop by joining the amp and the mixer - try using the ground lift on the pod to separate the earth references.

Line level would imply gain had already been added to your signal, which makes it not a dry signal anymore. The dry out is rooted directly from the guitar in.

I run an HD500 into a pair of Rokit 5 G2. XLR out is at mic level, so it's not very loud, even with the monitors turned right up. With the 1/4" outs I could take the roof off, but it means I can't use the ground lift. I vaguely recall reading somewhere that you can set the XLR outs on the Pro to line level to avoid this problem. Someone else would have to confirm this... Edit: Yes, you can; there's a switch on the back of the Pro to select Line or Mic.

Lol. What time zone?

What's your signal chain?

It's not in with the amps, it's in with the EQs.

Put the looper in the 'pre' position. That's about it, really.

The grounding thing is because the POD sits behind a DC transformer from which it doesn't take an earth reference; this is not required because the internal voltage is low enough that it is not considered to be dangerous. Ordinarily, the POD would take it's earth reference from something plugged into it, whether it is via USB to a PC or via TS or XLR to mixer/monitors/etc. (This is also why connecting a USB sometimes creates a ground loop through the POD to your monitors) It is designed, however, such that it can be used without an earth reference and it shouldn't need the case to be grounded (except internally) to prevent hum. I would say, therefore, that there's something wrong with it.

I know people who use Ableton to control their lighting rig via midi signals, so I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work controlling the HD500.

Lol. Thanks, guys.

Elastic band several times round the post of the switch will quickly and easily make it much harder to press.

Not sure how much value you'll get from an isolator, as the POD has a low enough internal voltage that it has/needs no earth reference and relies on being grounded through connected equipment. If you're getting hum caused by ground loop, the loop is from your PC, though the POD, to your monitors/other equipment. I had a similar problem to many others where my laptop was causing noise. I bought a couple of XLRs so I could take advantage of the ground lift and found that it made the noise worse (go figure), so it could just be crappy-component noise, like my laptop, that is allowed to propagate by the loop. The solution there was to run on battery while recording, but obviously you can't do that with a desktop (and it's far from ideal with a laptop). In theory, you could isolate the ground on one of the mains components to cut the loop, but there's a chance that this can lead to death by electrocution if there's a short in the isolated component when it's not connected to the grounded component. For example, a short to the case of your PC is fine while the PC is grounded through the POD to your monitors, but if you unplug the USB/firewire then put your hand on the case, then there's a chance you'll go bang.

Yes, it'll work. Enjoy.

Feel free to actually read my post before commenting.

Any half decent amp should have a Direct switch, which will bypass your EQ and such; as far as I'm concerned this switch should always be on. I would use a 2 TS to 2 RCA lead to connect the 1/4" outs to one of your Aux inputs. They're preferable to the XLRs as they're at line level, which your amp will be expecting, whereas the XLRs are at mic level, which will make them much quieter than any of the other inputs on your amp. It might also be worth checking to see if your amp has a co-ax spdif input which you could use. Like silverhead says, you'll only get a stereo signal, but it'll still use all the speakers, obviously, so I would imagine sitting in the middle of the room noodling on a nice glassy clean tone will sound quite marvellous.

If they're listening to the forums, the JC120 and EVH5150 are two of the most popular choices amp-wise. I'd be happy with them. It would be nice to think they'd solve the ongoing EQ argument, but I'd've thought they'd've already done it by now if they were going to. Personally, I bought the 500 when I was happy with what you got with it, so anything extra is a bonus new toy.

That's a fair point. My alternative would be that they could've made the 1/4" outs balanced TRS, allowing access to the ground lift.

I ran into this problem with mine as well. It's because the XLR balanced outputs are at mic level, as they're designed to go into a mixer, simulating the signal they would get from a mic'd cab. The 1/4" unbalanced outputs, on the other hand, are at line level. Seems a bit remiss, to me, not to offer a choice. I prefer the balanced out with ground lift, but because I go straight to monitors (not via a mixer), I have to turn everything up to 11 just to get a reasonable bedroom level. Surely it wouldn't have been difficult to give me a choice of mic or line level...

I think, perhaps, we need to keep a bit of perspective here. Us 500 owners aren't the target market for the 500x; it's just a way of freshening things up for new customers and getting another couple of years out of technology they've already covered their R&D costs on. More is more, at the end of the day; whether it's 20% more or 100% more is neither here nor there if you weren't already a 500 owner.

I think we can safely say they're replacing the 500. Once the existing stock is gone, that'll be it, otherwise they'd be crowding their own market place.

If it did become a memory issue, I don't suppose it would be a huge leap in terms of software to be able to choose a list of amps/effects from HD Edit. For example, memory capacity might allow 30 amps from a list of 40, so you can just choose the stuff you like and remove the stuff you don't, just like when your iTunes library is bigger than your iPod (other mp3 players are available).

Surely it must be possible to hit the HD500 DSP limit on a single path with no more than 4 effects, is it not? If we can find a way of doing that, for example a Bogner with 4 reverbs or 4 smart harmonies or something, then we should be able to just about repeat the same pattern on a 500x on twin paths if it really has double the DSP. See what I mean?