bjnette

A fine example of what is possible. Interesting!

All comments are well received.

Thanks for posting.

I think one of the perks for any of the top performers in any field are endorsements/sponsorship.

Imagine Racing Cars without sponsors.

It stands to reason; if a band gets plenty of exposure  it is the best promo for a gear manufacturer to give them gear.

IT is a sign of success the ultimate being your own line of guitar.

I come here often checking out topics and help if I can.

I am a keen at least three times per week user of my HD500.and in betweens like to join others users and share  and have often felt something was missing and it has only just dawned on me what it is that's missing.

Credibility, endorcements and testimonials.

On some gear forums the PODs are frowned upon nowadays. Not sure what products lost em the lead but I didn't like my Spider II  after getting it for a song.

With the first POD, there wasn't anything like it and it quickly caught on especially in recording radio ads but found its way onto records as well.

Fractal's AXE stole that thunder and now Kemper pretty well have it as the Pros Studio choice.

Add Software Sims etc and there is little in regard to proud Pro user of the POD HDs.

Anyway I'd like to see a sticky of any well known Artist using their POD HDs but I fear there may be too few.

Not to take anything away from those out there working in the industry using their POD HDs.

Lets see you in action!

Cheers

I only use an EQ prior the Amp for synth type tones; in other words boosts.

Attenuations after the amp block.

The first is more forgiving the second is a little more revealing

Having trouble opening and getting it to play, looks like it might be a HD500X patch.

First impressions always give insight on how something could be and are valuable I'm sure to any manufacturer of anything. Welcome aboard!

It is early days for you and there will be plenty to discover and get used to how it is done with your POD HD500X.

A great analogy I once read when first here near 3 years ago was if someone gave you 30 amps to try out it would take a while not too mention 99 different pedal and rack FX. 

So give yourself some time to get to grips with it all.

My advice is start with a new tone (blank patch)and just try only the  amps and see what you can get with your guitar and save those as presets for later on.

The amp  modeling is very good imo, definitely adequate and  editing onboard is as easy for me as is thru EDIT.

I see no reason not to get the new amps. They are unto themselves distinct like those already in the unit are each unique.

Do not go by presets in evaluating the unit as most are showy and frankly are for routing possibilities.

Concentrate on your amps first.

I go for attenuating brittleness and honk in pretty well most amps.

I find  around 5k has the brittle, dead on 2k the harsh and 400hz the honk in most amps. I say about as is varies slightly but enough of the amps smooth out nicely with a little dip,  not too narrow Q at about those frequencies.

When recording I might switch off the EQs and do it in the mix

It's a shame that they didn't make a model of just ONE compressor with the 5 controls mentioned, as this single compressor would have done the job in most situations without the need to change the compressor model! Yes, it may take more work, but hey, it's a Pod, and I thought Pod owners love tweaking  :P

 

Taking your advice, I think I'll make my patches after I select a comp so that I can EQ with the comp turned on in the chain. Then I'll just leave it on, and if I wanna turn it off, I can make another patch without the comp and with different EQ settings.

 

The application in which I need compression is using a piezo pickup in a live setting (FRFR). Those buggers are annoyingly overly dynamic, and the sound guys complain about the plucked stuff being lost and the strummed stuff being too loud. This is also the situation where the tone effects of compression is not wanted at all. I don't need compression on my dirty tones, and even clean ones with mag pickups.

 

Regarding compression and mixing, sound engineers actually like to have light compression during the recording process. Then, a little bit more during mixing/mastering. Gentle compression in multiple stages sound more natural than a one-time heavier compression.

 

And if you're talking about "the good old days", music is already being compressed during recording, since everything's recorded on tape, and you get tape compression/saturation, if I'm not wrong.

Fair enough, in that situation you need some clamping down only to even out the notes like with bass.

My fix was to uninstall the drivers only in the uninstaller and restart the computer with POD HD connected and it would automatically install drivers and work.

Download an older driver version before hand.

If I did it via Monkey would not be work and not  be seen by my PC nor EDIT.

I know of mates who would tire of their rig and or guitar and change every few years.

The problem one mate in particular had was he traded in and lost on

every purchase in the quest for a inspiring tone whicxh seemed like every 6 months.

Of course he should of never of sold any amp or guitar he ever bought and just added to the collection.

Never trade in.

But here is the thing, I have had my HD500 for near three years and have never tired of it.

I will admit to their being a definite POD HD digital sound but this is mainly when too many FX are run

The amps on their own with only a reverb and or delay still sound great to me.

It is not like I haven''t got some okay amps or even tried plenty of software Amp Sims and in fact 

it was I grew tiresome of the soft amp sims that I decided to get the HD500

It is perfectly adequate!

If your computer says device did not initialize properly, that means it sees it.

What is key is restarting your computer after uninstalling the drivers.

Though you have probably done this, 

It is probably the device.

There is a video on replacing the chip that gets fried as well as the usb connecter.

It sources the supplier and it also does the USB connector.

As silverhead says the chip gets fried and needs to be replaced not just the usb connector

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlY3sV4UXk4

There are plenty of ways to connect.

The first to understand is the 4 cable method. Guitar into HDPro into  FX loop send into Amp input into Amp FX send into HDPro FX return out HDPro output into amp power amp in or FX return on amp FX loop

This way you can use your amps pre amp if you want, just set the FX loop in the POD where ever you want it 

Generally after the pedals in the HDPro and before the Amp block. Put the Studio FX like delays reverbs after the Amp block.

You could now run the HDPro pedals in front of your amp pre amp, or bypass your preamp and use a HDPro amp model or two. But the FX loop will have to go after the AMp block. You can also on off the amps in the amp block.

As for DI, just run out of the HDPro your DI out and it will be a dry no FX or amp out.

If your audio device has a s/pdif you can choose wet or dry.

Also you could use one of the HDPro outputs into the audio device as well.

The HDPro also has a USB cable and can also be your audio device.

Read all this and if you have any questions I am happy to answer. 

I understand when it stops working you try all the usual fixes but if the USB is physically damaged or internally disconnected, you can replace it yourself if you can solder.

But first some hope, the unit may not be recognized because of driver incompatibility with your Windows update. In other words you might be missing a windows update for the latest drivers like I experienced.

Normally you just roll back the driver only when you uninstall the uninstaller. By that I mean you run the uninstaller and only select driver which may include the HD500 not Monkey or EDIT.

You restart the computer with the HD connected via USB and it will automatically update the drivers and be recognized.

Now as you reset the unit the latest drivers probably wont work. Download from the Line 6 a previous installer or even older. perhaps the oldest .

All you are doing is getting the device recognized via USB. Device unrecognized pop up is also a good indicator.

Finally, as dunncan pointed out if you got as far as you did on the install you were up to the turn the unit off and back on, the latest FW was installed.

If it clearly said disconnect USB and reconnect. Restart your computer has worked for me after updating the drivers.

When I have had the latest drivers the HD is not recognized with the latest drivers.Nothing, not even device not recognized.

I then run the uninstaller and uninstall just the drivers.

Restart the computer and it finds the drivers and installs automatically.

Now you can do the USB and Firmware updates.

Worth a try before you buy a replacement USB connector and pull the HD apart.

Also my son uses my computer sometimes and I found he got into the bad habit of applying pressure to the USB connector on the computer. In fact he has ruined two of them due to his phone having a poor USB connection. Even on computers they are just soldered to the board and held with a couple of pegs like on the HD.

Great idea, I'll keep an eye out for the plugs.

I personally don't consider compression on guitars as needed excepting for perhaps a very clean boost into a smallish low powered amp to add a sustain.

It is a mistake to add compression to distorted guitars imo as they are already clipped but it seems to be a growing trend.

Here is the scoop;

Average covers band guitar player listens to the Produced sound of fav records and learns the parts.

He reproduces that mixed and mastered sound on his current rig adding a Studio compressor just like the chain in the mix.

This produces its own set of problems if said band put out a record as now it is also getting compressed in the mix and at Mastering.

On we go,

The result: might as well use keyboards and make music without guitars as the guitar losses more and more life in recordings and less lively instruments are now sounding better then the now less lively guitars.

I can go on about what compression did to the kick drum of real players from the late 70's by Audio Engineers that made it acceptable for audiences to buy records with drum machines in them in from the early 80s and where even rock record drums had to be from a machine. Shamefull days.

Almost as shameful is the inability to record an acceptable drum kit without the need to layer in samples to fatten or thicken.

Alot of this has to do with Audio recordists, Mix Engineers and Mastering Engineers and I being one share responsibility for killing rock! 

Nowadays even pop and most genres including Country music have a very compressed backing track and a very loudly compressed vocal track where compression can sound alright but gets Auto tuned to artificially make a vocal something it is not;

THE FUTURE

The future will be more and more rhythmic, less instrumental and more robotic machine like vocals. Its already happening.

I am finding the PV panama an unexpected treat, rolling off a fair chuck of the gain settles the tone that really cuts a mix well with only a touch of verb and a little EQ dip in the honk.

What I like about the new HD amps is they are distinctly different to what we had. Like adding a new set of colors to your palette.

Man really good of you to upload these!

Always good to see what the ears are supposed to ear.

Cheers

I suggest you uninstall drivers by checking drivers linked to HD Pro in the Line 6 uninstaller in Remove software pgm of your choice.

Disconnect HDPro USB.

Turn off computer.

Reconnect HDPro with USB connected and it will auto locate and install drivers.

Device will now connect.

This has to do with a missing update in Windows.

Great silky cleans, 

Great arrangement and dynamic performances too!

Another thing to consider is the mods techies do for established players that may go unnoticed and may be an unknown.

http://voodooamps.com/home/Modifications/AMPMODIFICATIONS/PeaveyMods/5150/tabid/162/Default.aspx

The question is: hopefully Line6 modeled the amp with at least this mod done to it so that we can adjust the bias.

http://wisdomsguitar.com/peavey-5150-6505-bias-mod

yeah, it really fosters confidence in Line 6 ! and creates goodwill and that is really something!

Depends on the Q or width. If it is wide it will effect more than those two freq.

If the shape is narow than closer to the freq you select. Though a 75 and then a 85 % is too close and will be wide even if both are narrow Qs.

Generally the PODHD EQs are fairly subtle compared to Audio Software plug in EQs.

Ultimately use your ears but you got to train them first.

For the OP my advice is a little study of the actual natural bandwidth of amp'd guitar in question and popular mics frequecy responses and capsule or more correctly basket  resonances.

eg some better amps don't produce much at all above 15k. Usually less. zero in on the fizz and it is likely the digital spectrum available rather then a fault in the reproduction of the sound.

Attenuate a  high shelf. but often fizz will be in the 8k and above range. Try shelving there and now digital is more natural. 

Second a reference recording of the tone you are after. eg an older 60s 70 tone will have less bandwidth due to the tape and playback gear of the time.

This generally equates to a slight shelving of the higher frequencies even from as low as 3or5k

but you might need to restore a parametric peak or two  to get it to cut well in a mix.

To the OP I ahve only had about 2or 3 hours of trying out the different amps and there are a few feature amps in each patch worth owning and several filler amps. Some to me are more of the same but the few feature amps make it worthwhile.

It's not fair to beat up the original poster here!

:)

it's his first post, welcome!

 

it's a legitimate question, which i would like to see as well...

 

however, it's not the way they've chosen to do business....

but imagine an app store with 5$ amps and 3$ effects.... would be great!

especially with a "season pass" type option... where you could pay up front and get all releases in the subscribed category.... EPIC.

but the logistics and amount of work required... as well as prospective revenue from doing this...

must not have worked out in the accounting or technical departments....

and in the end, we have affordable bundles.

 

anyway good idea! just not the way it's going to work out for the pod HD's.

Great idea!

I'd much prefer to audition and purchase individual amps.

The new models packs are mostly good, and a few are excellent!

To me the bass and cleaner amps were what was lacking in the HDs but I do like some of the new metal amps.

There is definitely a tonal/feel difference and they are their own thing.

But there is a feeling of more of the same when you scroll thru. 

This is only after about an hour today and an  hour last night.