Haxasaurus

Fixed it: the guy who pointed out the issue must have deleted his post, but for anyone googling this in the future, you just need to move the mixer to the right end of the signal chain. Worked like a charm!

Slight update: I finally got the firmware reinstalled (had to use my laptop...apparently my desktop hates the POD) but I'm still having the same issue.

About two weeks ago, I began to realize that when I would try to play a lead over a backing track with the built in looper, the looping backing track would cut out when I was playing leads. I can kind of still hear the backing track but it get extremely quiet/goes away completely when the leads are louder. The mixer has volumes set to max and high and low cut are turned all of the way down (like it's always been). The problem seems to go away (or at least is less noticeable) when I am just using a clean patch instead of my hi-gain patches (Tube screamer -> Noise gate -> Amp). I had an idea to try to reinstall the latest firmware but when I try to connect it via USB, the connection is highly unstable. It will show the pod being connected and disconnected every second or so and I am unable to install the firmware. I reinstalled the latest drivers with a clean install (deleted all traces of line6 software and started from scratch), many attempts replugging the USB both ways, and restarting. Occasionally my computer will give up and BSOD. Any ideas for combating these issues?

Thanks for all the replies, I think I'm good now! You guys were totally right. I took the speaker down to about 9-10 o clock (12 o clock is when the "mic" volumes kick in...I shouldn't ever go that far) and set the mixer to +4db to both A and B. After that I cranked the preset volume and master volume and it was louder than my previous amp and the limiter wasn't going off! I am confused, though. What actually triggers the limiter to go off and what does it mean? I just assumed that since it was showing up before that my speaker just couldn't output any louder. Thanks so much, again! After next band practice I'll update you guys on how it went, but I think I'm golden now.

Ahhhh gotcha. I've never messed with those but I'll give it a look. Thanks!

Also, thanks a ton for that suggestion. If I can't get things to work out, this seems much more promising of a product than anything else I've seen! Could it power a 2x12 with 60W V30s I wonder?

Thanks for all the replies! It really means a lot to me. I'll try this when I get home and my roommates aren't asleep but what do you mean by "mixer block volumes?" I'm aware of the master volume and the preset volume knobs, but I'm not sure what you are referring to. FYI, I'm plugging straight into my Alto from my HD500X with a 1/4" cable. This gives me a lot of hope. I wonder if there may be something wrong with my speaker? It was refurbished but I was made aware that it would be in total working order and it looks like it's in great condition. Also, maybe I'm wrong on this, but I thought that the signal limiter that my Alto was showing meant that was its maximum output? Would that not mean that increasing the volume on the pedal and lowering the volume on the speaker would have the same effect? I may be completely wrong on this. If so, what does the limiter actually mean? I'm using 1/4" outputs and have that switch set to line. Thanks for checking, though.

So, I pose this as a question because after my research, I was under the impression that the Alto speaker would be more than loud enough for band practice. We play rock/hard rock music and it can get quite loud trying to keep up with the drums. During practice tonight I had to turn my Alto up as far as I could without getting the signal limit LED popping up and placed it right next to the drummer and it was still nowhere loud enough. For reference, I used to use a 30W Peavey Vypyr and for practice I would turn it up to about 3 out of 13 and it was painfully loud. Are the Altos (or FRFR speakers in general) just not built for this kind of use? I'm afraid that even if I bought another for stereo output it still would barely be loud enough. If not, should I go the cab route? Only issue here is buying a reasonably priced power amp for the cab seems to be pretty difficult (also may be due to my lack of knowledge of them). Just for anyone wondering, it sounds great at low volumes. I just can't keep up in practice :(. Thanks!