pianoguyy

We've run into this before. The first thing too do is set up a recording. Record yourself now, when you think it is sounding ok. Then again, hours later, after you think the sound has changed. Play the same song, using all the same gear, with all of the recording unit set the same. In other words, don't record with your phone in your pocket now and then on top of the amp later. Every thing needs to be exactly the same, other wise the test becomes invalid. Two days from now, play the recording back to yourself. If the two recordings sound different, check back in and tell us the results. If they sound the same after you gave your ears a proper rest, you have what is called 'ear fatigue'.

click *HERE* *HERE* and *HERE*

TODAY you can buy a bass pack. But a year ago, you couldn't.

There's actually a couple decent SV tones floating around the web (not just CT). My favorite --- (Yankee Rose and Tobacco Road type sound) uses Angel F-Ball 4x12 XXL V-30 409 Dynamic I've never used it live, because playing SV is more of an ego trip than a crowd pleaser. I use it more for fun -- to get my jam on, in my free time.

Don't think of it as on and off, think of it as A and B. Light on is A. Light of is B. A is always the first pedal in the chain. The other way to think of it is --- Build your solo sound and say "this is my sound". But, in order to not blow out everyone during the rest of the song, you change something in your sound. When the light is on, the extra stuff for is on. When you turn it off, that is when your true sound, your solo sound, appears. In other words, you aren't turning on your solo sound, you are turning off your solo blocking sound.

I get cleans using Guitar/Same with guitar volume at 10 while using humbuckers. Just don't pick as hard. That's sort of why we use clean tones -- to lighten the mood, right? If I must pick hard, I hit the switch and turn it into a single coil. Or, just back the guitar volume down to 8.

you should really try all possibilities before you return anything. Could be a faulty hd500. could be a faulty set of speakers. Put the pod into something else... do you have a little recorder or something ?

Similarities between the old and the new: I get the sounds I need --- AND SO MUCH MORE. It has actually opened up a few doors for me. For example, I want to find a reason to use *THIS FILE*, which is something that I currently have no reason for, but I like the effect so much that I want to find a reason. I wouldn't have gotten rid of the old gear if I couldn't use the new. I am a professional, I eat because I play. I can't go on stage with crappy gear. It does take time to learn, especially if you intend on doing some of the more far out things this unit can do. Once you get the hang of it, you think "this is easy, what took me so long". But, remember, for me, I was learning this from scratch. I didn't keep up with technology. Which is a big difference than someone who, let's say, already owned something more modern like a Boss GT8 and therefore had a general understanding of how this stuff works. I still use floppy disks! Piece of advice when shopping --- Listen to Youtube demos. Listen to Sound Cloud demos. Find a local musician that uses one and let him show it to you. Store demos are a mess. First, you're using factory presets, which may not serve your purpose. But then, you are using a Fender model though a Marshall amp (as example). It is not going to sound pretty. And that doesn't even take into consideration if the unit is set for using Direct/Combo/Stack setting. It's not like testing out an amp, where you plug in and twist a couple a couple knobs and say 'yep, I'll take it'. I used my unit for a quite awhile at home before I took it to a rehearsal, and then before I used it on some test gigs. To quote a previous statement I made: Is it really as bad as people say? The only people who have any credibility when talking about how hard it is to program, are the people who are trying to dial in a precise artist tone -- such as wanting to sound exactly like Pink Floyd The Wall, which is much different than just dialing in a clean sound with an echo. My feeling is, if you aren't sounding like [fill in artist name] now, and people aren't running out of the club when you play the sound, there is no reason to fret over not getting the exact sound with the new unit. At least you have the opportunity with it being the two of you together, the both of you can bounce things off of each other. Helping each other learn.

Me and a couple friends own a 50,000 square foot building that gets rented out for bands to plan and rehearse their tours. The reason I do this, the reason it is needed, is because these huge productions that you see do not just magically appear. They need a place to rehearse. Katy Perry isn't building robotic lion in her back yard. Nor are her 30 stage dancers warming up in her bedroom. These things get worked on in advance, and there aren't too many football fields available for rent. Why do I tell you this? Because even in the 'big leagues' people need to work out the kinks of a live performance long before the live performance. As to the guys in the apartment -- you will always be in an apartment and will always be limited to a 15 minute sound check until you fix what is wrong. Once you fix it, then you'll get 30 minutes for sound check which will lead to a bunch more problems that need fixed. Until eventually, you are renting out sound stages and spending a million dollars trying to fix the problem.

For $20 +/-, it's a no brainer. They work on computers. They work for mp3 players. Why wouldn't they work for everything else. Obviously, they won't be as good (or loud) as a $1300 FRFR, but for $20 it is an excellent option.

I can't speak as to if I would have bought one of these when I was a teen and only played one style of music. Nor can I say what these units are like in comparison to your specific situation. But here is what I can tell you... I bought my HD500. It replaced my entire setup. A setup, I may add, that I stopped building and making additions too, 20+ years ago. I knew my rig like the back of my hand. Giving it up for was not an easy decision. But since I did, I am never going back to the old ways. I carry a couple guitars, my pod, and a utility bag. I plug straight into the pa. I can carry all my stuff in a sports car with no back seat and little trunk space, no need for a hatchback, suv, van, or milk truck. Setup and tear down can be done in minutes. Which means a 4 hour gig can be 5 hours of my life instead of 16 hours. However, my personal opinion is this: If you are using it for just fx, and not for modeling (which means getting rid of your amp), then you aren't even scratching the surface of the unit.

First, I wasn't speaking to you. I was responding to someone else's statement. Secondly, I didn't call you or him an amateur. I said that it was a problem that many amateurs don't realize exists ~~~ Bro, listen to how good I sound in my bedroom. Dude, why doesn't it sound the same in this garage. ************************************************************************************************************************* *THIS PART OF THE STATEMENT HAS BEEN DELETED BECAUSE IT WAS INAPPROPRIATE* *************************************************************************************************************************

Don't you have Google? guitarmasterclass.net masterguitaracademy.com thechurchcollective.com jasonmetal.com Queensryche. Lincoln Brewster. Paul Hindmarsh. Joost Vergoossen. Peter Hanmer. Meambobbo. The British guys that do all of the product reviews. All these guys post files to their private sites. A lot of guys on youtube will post links to the files they used. Sometimes you have to read the description or the comments, but they are often there. Will you like any of them? I can't answer that. But in addition to the thousands of files available on Customtone plenty of files are floating around the web for free.

Personally, for this update, I wiped everything. I even deleted every trace off of my computer. And I reinstalled everything fresh. So, yes, I would suggest doing the global reset. ------------------------------------------------------------ Blocks are the spaces available to put fx within a Patch. Blocks are when you decide -- I would like to try some distortion and some echo and I wonder what happens if I add a flanger. Patches are the individual 'files'. Some call them presets, and the two terms are fairly interchangeable. Patches are what you download from Customtone. Setlists are a group of 64 patches. Grouped together in 16 numbered banks consisting of four lettered presets. A Bundle is 8 setlists. Your Pod has 2 ways to it can be run. That is: 1. using the 8 switches as fx on/off switches. Or, 2. Using 4 switches as fx on/off and the other four as patch selectors. Mathmetically: 8 blocks = a patch 4 patches = a bank 16 banks = a setlist 8 setlists = a bundle ***If I said something wrong, let me know so I can correct it. Or even if you think I could reword something to get the point across better.

The patches are there, but to get the setlist name to change (to Variax) you need to do a global reset --- which will then involve recalibrating the pedal. As to your previous files.... First of all, anything can be saved, moved, overwritten, re-saved, removed, added later, etc. So, if you wanted to save what is there now so that you don't lose it when you install your old bundle, go right ahead. If you saved as a bundle, when you load the bundle, everything will be where it was when you saved it. If you saved as a setlist, everything in that setlist will be in that same place within that setlist, but you can load the setlist into any setlist position. {user 1 can be where Heavy is, Heavy can be where Best of is - etc} If you saved individual patches, you can put them in any slot in any setlist you want. Personally, I save patches, setlists, and bundles. I also have blank patches, setlists, and bundles -- so that I can easily erase whatever I need to erase.

And the joke applies to any name you can think of... except Skynard.

You do not want the ones with the usb jack. And probably not the ones that are miniature surround sound units with separate sub-woofers. 3.5mm is the way to go. I plug into the headphone jack with a 3.5mm-to-1/4" stereo adapter. Watts is up to you. I mean, if you want, you could spend $100 on the Bose. But once you start spending that kind of money, it almost defeats the purpose of keeping it cheap and small. The good news is - they have volume knobs. If it is too loud - turn it down. I am sure you (or a mate) have a set of speakers hooked up to a computer somewhere. Stream some music through them to see how loud they get. Should be plenty more volume than you need.

Dude, I love all of those Eric Johnson tones. You have no idea, when I am on stage, how often someone yells out "play me some Eric Johnson, WOOO". Or at the end of the night when I do by best Ronnie Van Zandt impersonation and say "what song is it you wanna hear" and they all yell out in unison "Cliffs of Dover"

but I am thinking that something like *these* or *these* will be able to run in stereo, and would work better if you had your mp3 player plugged into your pod as well. Whereas, a guitar amp, like the Fly3, doesn't sound as good with sounds that are outside of a guitar range like you would find from an mp3 player.

Buy a set of computer speakers for $20. I don't know if you have Radio Shack across the pond, or how accessible Wal-Mart is to where you are. But they are great places for cheap little lollipop like that.

First, it's music - there is no wrong. Next. It's your machine, do what you want to serve what you need. Thirdly - I don't think anyone is going to say that it was wrong, especially if someone is using units outside of the pod. But, especially depending on the type of sound one is making, any time you change volume (bedroom, rehearsal, studio, gig, concert), the tone changes. It has been something that has plagued amateurs for decades - not realizing that they sound different in the garage than they do on stage. If you want to think about it mathematically (even though it isn't 100% accurate) --- If you have sounds made and at the bedroom volume, there can be a minute difference between 2 and 3 which you may not notice at low levels. But when you amplify it 10x through a pa, it now becomes the equivalent of 20 and 30. And that, is certainly something someone may notice.

I do not run into the problem of CT not working the way others say. But, I do find that some of the tones are fairly useless. Others are good starting points for editing. And a couple are fairly decent. But I say the same things about some of the paid files. Like Greg DeLune (sorry for the spelling). I find them to be decent for the purpose they were made (like a specific part of a specific song), but I don't find them to be exact. I find them to be generic - something I could do on my own if I cared. But I know some of you swear by him. So, it's a perfect example of what was just said --- it will never sound the same to you on your rig as it does to the creator. I am not even a fan of what Meambooboo (sorry for the spelling) has available. It is a great book to read, but I just don't jive with the files. ANYWHO... There are places all around that offer files. Sometimes you can find a setlist or bundle, but usually it is individual files. I agree with the previous poster -- make your own.

There are a lot of things that go into the perceived sound that you hear. Volume is one of them. The same thing should happen if you use the volume knob on your (external) amp. Another thing is - the placement of the pedal, as well as what the pedal is actually controlling.

You've waited this long... (And I am not one for usually doing this) Why not wait for the *NEW UNIT* to be released. Not only will other units be sold on the used market, but it allegedly will fix every complaint we've ever had and will even even fix complaints we didn't know we had. But, to answer the question: Yes, the 500x will be a better experience for you. Will it be what you are looking for? This, I can't tell you. But, it is a better unit.

Sound creating is always best at gig volume. And it has been for as long I can remember.