cruisinon2

Repeating the same thing over and over lends no validity to the content of a message. If it was ridiculous upon first utterance, it will be ridiculous after the nth repetition. Although I'm sure it makes it easier to believe after a while.

Never made any sense to me either...

I doubt the cable is a factor at all. I think a number of things contribute to it, which may be different from one instrument to the next...or in your case, even the same guitar can have the symptoms come and go. And then there are those guitars that don't have the problem at all. Issues like that seldom get fixed...it's difficult to find a universal fix when the problem clearly isn't.

It's government logic, known as the "Mushroom Principle": Keep 'em in the dark, and feed them sh*t. Whomever is making these decisions should run for office. They'd fit right in.

"One guy said he was a guitar tech..." And? Who cares what "one guy" did? Or a thousand for that matter...if they destroy their guitar, that's on THEM. Morons will forge ahead anyway, with or without access to the specs...it's what they do. So if you think this policy is saving anything from ending up on your bench, you're fooling yourself. You can't save people from themselves. Besides, you're not gonna warranty obvious abuse anyway. So giving out the specs would cost a grand total of nothing. If you're worried about money, take a lesson from the motorcycle industry...most of those manufacturers will deny warranty repairs if they think you breathed on the chrome to rub off a dead bug. Withholding basic info from the masses because of handful of idiots makes no sense at all, no matter how you try to justify it. If the rest of the world operated with this logic, we'd have to close all the libraries...information being so "dangerous", and all. Coddling the lowest common denominator is ruining our species...let the stupid be their own problem, don't make them mine.

First and foremost, you need to level your patches at the volumes you intend to use them (within reason...there's always some wiggle room). Any patch at bedroom volume vs. stage volume is not going to sound the same. After that, it's mostly the mixer block and the channel volume within each patch that you'll be using to level things out. Some models are louder than others for reasons unknown, so the channel volume alone isn't always sufficient, sometimes you'll need to boost from the mixer block as well. As for the POD's physical master volume knob, you don't really want to max that out. You need headroom somewhere. Good rule of thumb is to set the master volume on your final output device (studio monitors, FRFR speaker, amp, etc) around noon, and use the master volume on the POD for quick +/- adjustments.

Option 1 or 2 will probably yield the best results. Bouncing back to your amp for acoustic tones is likely to be disappointing. The acoustic models through a "real" amp are generally awful, and it'll sound nothing like what's going to FOH.

I'm curious what will come first, the eruption of the Yellowstone super-volcano, or the end of this thread....;)

If you're scampering across stadium-sized stages, I understand the need for a wireless. But if your band is tucked into the corner by the bar at Walt's Trout Hut every Friday night, then why bother? Half the point of the VDI is not being dependent on a battery to power the guitar. Why in the name of all that is decent and holy, would I fork over a thousand dollars and add yet another battery that I have to keep charged/replace? Thank you, no...

L6 won't even divulge pickup HEIGHT specs...let alone what's actually under the hood. Doesn't much matter anyway. Having the info isn't gonna help you much. Even if you went out and bought another pickup that claims to have the same magnet in it, there's no predictive value there. Buying pickups is a crap-shoot. Always was, always will be. I've transferred the same pickup from one guitar to another, and had it sound VERY different. It's the combination of guitar and pick-up that either works, or doesn't. Bottom line, if you don't like the pickup in the other axe, try something else. It's all guesswork anyway.

Plus you can star in your own basement "re-imagining" of old Queensryche videos...;)

What you're doing should work. If the changes aren't being saved to the new location, something is wrong. When all else fails, back up your patches to a computer, and do a factory reset on the POD.

You know what the deep, dark secret is? That setting up one of these guitars does NOT involve anything mysterious at all... (insert audible gasp here)...now imagine if THAT got out. Think of all the guys at "authorized service centers" who'd end up homeless. It's a guitar, not the space shuttle...proceed accordingly, everybody. But for some reason, they'd rather have us believe that tinkering with ANYTHING will have the same consequences as a chimp banging on the control rods of a fission reactor with a ball peen hammer.

True. Especially if you record dry, L and R waveforms are virtually identical anyway.

Who does? They smell funny...;)

OK, so I recorded a track with both inputs, and a super-annoying ping pong delay from the POD. Still displays only one waveform when cycling multiple takes, but the delay is intact, so it obviously is indeed recording both L and R inputs, so who knows? I suppose it doesn't much matter what's being displayed, as long as its recording the signals it's fed. Weird...

Power amps always want a line level signal...never seen one that wanted anything else.

Just take a couple of throw pillows and strap them on either side of your head. The effect is the same...;)

No, you got it...stereo take displayed as mono. It is weird...you select the input options when you create a new track, and I'm certainly not changing that between takes. It's definitely tied to the use of the "cycle recording" feature. If I disengage it and record another pass, it's back to displaying the stereo waveforms. Strange... I'm thinking it's a bug too, because the track header still indicates both inputs are in use, despite displaying only one waveform. I always record everything dry, so soloing the different takes,its hard to tell if it's actually being summed to mono, or just being displayed that way. Tonight I'm gonna try the same thing, but with a real obvious stereo delay from the POD...if that stays intact under both scenarios, then it's probably a bug in how it's being displayed. Can't think of any other way to rule it out. It was also about 2 am when it started...can't entirely rule out "bleary-eyed and stupid" as a cause ;), but I was able to reproduce the issue several times. Seemed real enough, lol. We shall see...

OK, so I've been using Garageband for some time now to quickly lay down scratch tracks for new material. Here's the set-up: POD500X L/R 1/4" outs--->Focusrite 2i4 interface--->Macbook Pro Last night I noticed that if I record a single take on an empty track, both L and R waveforms show up in the track as they always have. But, if I click on the "cycle recording" feature that allows you to stack multiple takes, the inputs seem (at least visually) to be summed, and I only get one waveform appearing in the track on subsequent takes. If I then go back and select the original take, it also appears as a single waveform. Any ideas from those more computer savvy than myself?

They're quite different. I like the original J800 for low-mid gain, "Def Leppard-ish" rhythm tone stuff. I find the 2204 more suited to a saturated high-gain lead. Both useful, but definitely different.

Well "harsh" is never desirable, unless you're actually trying to sound like crap, which I'm assuming you're not. (Although some bands do make you wonder ;) ). So no, it's not supposed to sound like that. I have found (with various modelers, not just this one) that running without cab and mic sims, while the intuitive thing to do with a "real" amp and cabinet rig, doesn't necessarily yield good results...often resulting in exactly the "harshness" you describe. Never worked for me. There's nothing that says you can't run cab/mic sims into an actual cabinet, however. I did just that for years with the POD before going to an FRFR rig, and I'm not alone. You might be surprised at the sounds you can get that way.

Why would you bother changing anything for existing patches? Experiment to your heart's content with an empty one...there's more space than you'll ever realistically need. Besides, mucking around with the inputs isn't really the best way to do that anyway. Create a custom model in Workbench, blending in the mags with the model of your choice, then flash it to one of the empty slots on the guitar.

"Remastered" is a great word for driving sales...almost as good as a subliminal ad, endlessly repeating "buy me again, buy me again". ;)

Backup your patches, and try a factory reset...it's a weird problem, and I'm guessing it probably won't help, but you never know. These things get weird sometimes.