pianoguyy

We won't answer anything regarding other sites/products. But, as far as what a model/metal pack is... Your HD500 came with x-amount of amp models. You can buy more amps. I think it is important to note: Because you are looking at multiple sites, you are getting confused with what terminology to use.

You're buying too much gear.

I love when toothless 50 year old gas station attendants try telling other people what it takes to be in the music business. And I doubly love when toothless 50 year old gas station attendants don't listen to millionaire musicians with grammy awards and platinum album sales that are trying to offer assistance.

Unless you are Jimi Hendrix and you are using feedback as a weapon - you don't need amps to be in the same room. In fact.... The next time you are on a stage.... You've got your stage sound worked out. Your volume is set for your little space for you to hear yourself over the drummer without drowning out the guys on the other side of the stage. They set their volume for their little space so that they can hear themselves over the drums without drowning you out. Now, assuming you use a long cord or a wireless unit... SWITCH SIDES. Go play in front of his stuff. Have him stand in front of yours. You can no longer hear yourself. What are you going to do? You're f'd if you think that you need to hear yourself in order to play. Or, imagine yourself standing on the stage of some auditorium or a stadium... You've got a 70 feet wide stage to fill (70 x 35 is 2450 square feet, which is the size of a small home). Are you going to stand in your little 4x4 area so that you can hear yourself, or are to run across the stage and slide on your knees 10 feet putting on a show for the audience. But what happens once you leave that itty bitty area of yours? You can't hear yourself.

Unless backlined, I have never used a tube amp. Nor did I ever use fx loops. I use my Pod direct to the PA. But prior to owning a Pod, I always used solid-state. And everything ran in one long daisy chain.

Unless backlined - My rig today consists of an HD500. Nothing else. Guitar to Pod to PA. Prior to switching to the Pod, my rig went unchanged for 20+ years. (unless backlined) I used a Peavey Bandit 65 - not for tone. Just for volume and reverb. It had a great 80s reverb. My tone came from a Rocktron Pro GAP, Art SGE Mach II (two of them), and a Rockman Soloist. I had a few extra devices for special/specific things. But those 4 were the primary tone makers. Oh, and there were no loops/routing going on. Everything went in a straight line, one right into the next. How do I feel about MIDI running a whole show - I'm fine with it. In fact, when you do "musical theater" like Pink Floyd, Cooper, and Gaga, it is almost a necessity to have everything sync'd. Now, as to the physical amp vs virtual modeler issue - This has been discussed plenty of times. Ultimately, it comes down to two things - 1. Need. I played in a band called Dirty Looks. We had one sound. There was no need for 512 patches or a device that could do 512 patches. If I still played in that band, I would not need a Pod. I would need an amp. Sure, a modeler has its benefits but a $200 amp vs a $500 device that does 10,000 times more than what you need seems like a waste of money. Today, I need more than one tone. Not just more than one tone for one band, I need multiple tones for each of my multiple bands. 2. Player tone vs listener tone. When you put on a VH album, what you hear is not what he heard. What you hear is the sound he heard which was changed by a microphone that sent the sound to a recorder, where it was manipulated over and over again to make sure it sounded good when played with all of the other instruments at the same time. We, the musicians, are not paying your bills. The audience is. You need to be more concerned with what they hear than what a couple "neighborhood axe slingers" think. ========================= There's a series of videos on YouTube called "Rig Rundown". A magazine asks the big stars what gear they use and techs spend 20 minutes wasting our time because it makes them feel important. Many of the videos that are recorded at a concert venue will show you that most guys don't have amps on stage. They have their gear back stage where the techs can manage it. The artists aren't hearing "same room" tone because they aren't in the same room. If you want a demonstration - I tell people to go listen to The Music of Nashville season 2, 3, 4, the Christmas album, and the live albums covering those seasons. There's many reasons I say to use that specific playlist. First, I can guarantee that there are Pods being used. But also because, it is a "various artist" album. There is not one specific tone for people to latch onto the way you would if you listened to, as example, a KISS album. You have numerous artists. Numerous backing bands/artists. Sometimes recorded "live" and sometimes done track by track. There are modelers (not just Line 6), there are amps, there are acoustic guitars, there are electric guitars. It is really just a big hodgepodge of recordings. The goal is to try to determine what are the physical instruments/amps and what are the virtual instruments/amps. And, then, the argument between what is a better item - the $2 phone app, the $100 computer program, the $500 device, the $3000 device, or the Fender amp or the Vox or the Marshall.

Yeah, you need to recalibrate the exp pedal after a reset. That should have been in the "how to" that explained the reset process. The tuner - it is a hit or miss. No one has an explanation. Some people experience a "bleed through" and others do not. What I find most perplexing is the fact that it didn't happen before. I mean, I haven't spoken to every single 500 owner, but as far as I can recall here on the forums, that is an issue that doesn't change based on firmware.

They buy the Helix, or the HD500 if they are on a budget.

35 years as a professional musician (which includes playing guitar for people like Alice Cooper, Meat Loaf, and Shania Twain), and I have never used a tube amp unless backlined. People need to get over it.

So, instead of doing away with "Pod", they do away with the HD. They keep the Pod moniker and make it a Pod HX. That makes much more sense. "Pod" existed before "HD" existed.

But music tech doesn't move as fast. In fact, keyboards still used floppy discs until Microsoft and Dell determined that they weren't going to use floppy drives as standard equipment. Most MIDI files are single digit kilobyte files, maxing out at 100-200 kilobytes. Who needs an 700mb CD. We'd probably still be using them if we had a choice. I mean, just think of our Pod files measuring 4.03kb. Sure, a Bundle is 2mb, But you can fit 288 individual patches on a single floppy disc. Do we need to talk in terms of Giga and Tera when Kilo and Mega are plenty? ***** I remember when Kawai (always the innovator, never the imitator) started putting USB in their units. It failed miserably because it was useless tech. We only needed 3.5" floppy. And then, when the floppy went away and USB had become more prominent, they were hesitant to use USB again because of their previous experience.

No one ever makes statements saying they are killing off an actively sold product. But there have been forum posts saying things like "if we were to re-sign our contract with the manufacturer we wouldn't be able to make a $500 unit"

what are you talking about?

Correct me if I am wrong - Didn't they have to reprogram the 500 to be able to make room for the current model packs? I mean, isn't that why we can no longer (easily) get setlist names to appear/change. In order to make room for another round of 30 extra amps, what more little bits of the 500 are you willing to sacrifice.

Did that MoFo just call all of us stupid?

no

Plug nothing in (other than your amp). And try to run a really really long guitar cord from the pod to the amp, so that the amp can be in the other room on another circuit. Open up a "new tone". What does it sound like? And then, do little things. First, increase the volume (master volume and mixer). One at a time, add things individually. Tell us what does and what does not create the noise.

In a nutshell. Make the signal flow left to right instead of right to left.

To the best of my knowledge - (and please, someone tell me I have a new toy to play with if I am wrong) - you cannot separate your strings. But, maybe since you are part way there, do what you already did a 2nd time --- add a 2nd low pass filter after the first one. It may help eliminate some more of the unwanted sounds.

step one - take a picture of the one right beside it

I wonder if the internal battery needs charged once in a while - especially at this age

There area guys that want the rack unit and foot controller because, apparently, there are drunks in these bars that get on stage and puke on gear. Replacing a foot controller is cheaper and easier then a floor unit. I know that I am way above those types of places today, but I wasn't always. I was a nobody like the rest of you ---- I never had people jumping on my stage and bashing my gear around.

Holy crap. If those pedals are all you need to make your tone - the Pod may be too much unit for you, lol. The only benefit you will have using a programmable unit over those would be the able to dial in and store your favorite settings. Also, take note... The HD Pro, HD Pro X, HD500, and HD500x are all the same unit - as far as a computer brain is concerned. The floor unit made more sense for me. A rack may make more sense for you. A rack unit with a foot controller may make sense too. The X units have slightly more DSP because of a hardware change. And there are some minute differences in jacks between the floor and rack units. But ultimately, when updated to the latest firmware, they are all the same basic unit.

and also try a different power supply. (those are good to have a backup as well). It may not be the power supply itself, but the wire or jack could have gone bad.

*A quick Google of those bands leads me to say - sure, you can do that. I don't know those bands. BUT... I bought a pod and replaced everything that went between me and the pa. No amps. No other fx. I walk in, I put my pod on the floor, and I am ready to go. You, of course, are looking at the rack unit. So, you wouldn't necessarily put yours on the floor. Although, you should consider getting the foot controller for it, which would be on the floor. I can tell you - There are limits as to how many effects you can use at one time. You can have a maximum of 8 at one time, but you are also limited by DSP (similar to RAM on a pc). Amps, delays, and reverbs are heavy on DSP. It is possible that if you run a dual amp and then try to add 8 delays/reverbs/harmonizers that you will run out of DSP before you hit 8. *Amps use DSP but do not count towards your 8 blocks. Depending on how many effects you actually want to run, as well as routing options, you may want to consider a Helix. You will not find a better unit in this price range, but the unit is 7 years old. Technology now allows for much more if you need more, which is why the Helix may be a better choice. Certainly, "pedals" are not an option if the Pod cannot handle the work.