stusaysmoo

ok now lets have a bit of fun with this.... Just to illustrate that the reverbs on the HD are insanely cool here is a short demo... but can anyone tell me what the piece is i'm playing? and yes, the sound is totally pod and i am playing a guitar.... nerd points for the first one that can tell me what it is :P https://soundcloud.com/stusaysmoo/whatisit

Its an interesting prospect, and one of the things i used to love about NI Guitar Rig.. Perhaps in future we will see an `Amp Modeler` from l6 and not just a `channel modeler` its great to setup a full 3 channel modeled rig using the same amp, it really gives a great consistency to the sound, especially live. For the moment, i am really quite surprised and pleased that they chose to include the full spectrum of sounds available from the SLO 100.. and it has opened the debate..

there are 2 camps, those who want real and those who want what they perceive to be perfection.. the real camp have a yardstick in the real gear, the rest have their own interpretation of `perfect` like for some it could be that they never want feedback.. or no noise at all or they hate the `sag` of real tubes etc etc All of those things come with a price tag, and that price is always a change somewhere in the sound. Some of those are worth the price and others are not.. be careful what you wish for, Roland and Boss went to that `perfect` place a long time ago and now all their products sound like plastic dummy reproductions of real life.. there are some people who like that sort of thing but (to quote Satchel of steel panther) "none of them ever get laid.." give us the controls and really I think it should cover all tastes, certainly I am really pleased with the approach they have taken..I would extend that slightly to a `normal` and `advanced` mode globally where certain controls are hidden unless you opt for advanced, and decisions about the hidden settings are made automatically based on the other controls you adjust.. that would allow the devs to unlock even more deep editing without the fear of alienating the masses who just want to switch on and djent (without any hum or noise or sag :) ) me, I love a bit of real, my pod is only my squeeze when I cant crank some watts on a valve anyway.. I never heard anyone on a forum complaining about the mains hum on a vintage 60s Watkins amp or an ancient Marshall... its just part of the deal, and the sound. but then i don't frequent the boss forums much these days :P funnily enough my favorite Roland product of all time is the GP-8 and it's also probably their noisiest..

with a bass expansion pack on the way, HD-PRO may be what you want.. but its better to wait and see the quality of the models. if you can record some raw DI of your bass (24bit wav), when the model packs drop i'm sure a user here will run them though the POD for you to hear.

the tube comp is supposed to be an LA-2a I think.. which means its not really designed for "before the amp" use... one thing that i really like for clean tones is to run 2 comps, a pedal (like the mxr or cs-1) in front of the amp with sustain on about 50 (match the level to the un-compressed sound by turning it on and off to check it) and then the tube comp after the amp threshold set on around 60 (watch the level setting on tube comp its all gain, so start from 0 and only add more if you need it..) There is a consideration for the use of the preamp volume with a comp after it, if you change that you will be changing the level going into the comp so bear that in mind (and set it before you put the post-comp in place), it may change the sound... if you need to make your patch louder you can use the tube comp out level to add more without changing the sound This simulates how the sound would be treated in the studio, especially for clean tones where you can lose detail and fullness in a mix without the post compression..

its just a slightly tweaked version of the panama one.. if i can remember what i changed i will upload it

voodoo lab is your best bet then, works a treat

we know about that, but want it included in the available cab options / mic options without the DSP overhead of a second amp.. also 2 amps a real pain to keep the same when you adjust anything

Yeah you and the rest of Line6... B)

and tell me about heavy.. here is my last live rack...

Good or bad is totally subjective anyway, was just adding my opinion.. i dont really enjoy the modelled power stage on the pod going into a real tube power stage.. that being said when i go pod out into fx return on any of my valve heads and use the preamp model alone.. its 97.3842% like the real thing. but all the hard work i did making patches with the full models, doesnt translate well to a tube power stage at all (for me).. So in that case, i prefer to use the same patches and a SS power amp, as it behaves more like the direct patch that way... horses for courses i suppose.. maybe i am just too lazy to make another full set of live patches for my tube amps.. I still use the pod mostly direct theses days, and prefer a bit of 'ol fashioned amp + pedals live, although with enough time to create all the pre model based patches i need i could see that changing at the moment i am a bit `time poor`.. :(

they could even just include some pre-mixed IRs of multiple mics on the came cab.. like 57 cone + U87 1ft really just ask any half decent recording engineer and you will have plenty of ideas. That would have 0 dps hit. its just an alternative IR

i have to agree that i tend to prefer solid state amps for the pod.. although, you can rework all your patches to use only the pre models.. but then it will only sound good loud :P (and it will sound different when the power stage is not cranked, so make sure you dont make all your patches one way to use the other) its a tough one, but to honest these days i am more interested in speakers for monitoring, as the direct-to-pa tone in the HD series is as good or better than most FOH engineers can get with a mic.. for smaller venues, a solid state power amp and stereo cab is my favourite, as it allows me to use the same patches and disable the speaker sim globally, or even have another bank for live tones (without speaker cab sim) that i can tweak for stage.

try this for a start: choose an amp you like the clean sound of and get what you like from that amp (all clean with no effects). Change the eq setttings until it sounds nice with your chosen guitar. now, turn off the amp block and add the od/distortion pedal you want to use. set the desired amount of gain and then toggle the od pedal on and off, listening to the difference in level with it on then off. Adjust the output level of the pedal so they are about the same, maybe slightly louder with the pedal on but not too much. Then turn on the amp again and choose the speaker/mic combination that suits your tone best. Tweak from there and add effects... if you find that your sound is lacking definition, you can add the cs-1 tb comp in front of the OD and set it so sustain is 0 and do the same thing with the level as you did for the OD pedal (match the on and off volumes) That will add some string twang back into the tone if you need it.. i like this for a muff as it really brings the sound of the guitar out. Hope that helps...

a good place to start would be the joyo ultimate drive. In terms of value for money.. hard to beat but you really dont need external drive with the pod hd, tons of great, accurate models in there personally one of my all time favourite amps (real or modelled) to run a drive in front of is the bassman.. has that ability to make even the raspiest pedal sound smooth, and with a tube screamer, it's one of my all time favourite blues rock tones.

Hang on.. isnt the vengeance a midi head?

Ever seen the voodoo lab control switcher? Might be what you need... All my heads now have midi :)

OK so moving along, had a play this evening and wanted to try something a bit more um.. `Unnatural` sounding. So here it is, the intro to `Sorrow` by Pink Floyd. Same as usual straight out the pod. I think it sounds pretty close :) :usual disclaimer about me not being arsed to learn it properly... life's too short and all that.. https://soundcloud.com/stusaysmoo/sorrow-intro-on-the-podhd Just realized i'm starting to look like a Gilmour fan-boy.. which is kind of true but I probably should try someone else next..

well that killed that discussion :P

funny enough, i had the original hd500 when it was released, but after a couple of weeks I sold it again because i couldn't really get anything good from it.. I bought the bean about a year ago and had a play with it, which is what most of these clips came from, and was shocked at how much i liked it. I put that down to firmware changes and whatnot, but you are not the first to tell me the sounds are not the same on the HD500. I don't want to fuel the speculation that there is a sonic difference between the floor and bean models but a lot of people are saying it.. anyone got both and care to comment??

no i have the bean (desktop)

Here is a quick clip of the Plexi model (P75-Brt) run super hot into 2 EQ/preamp modules, This might help to explain what i often talk about when describing `Recorded Tone` vs the Raw amp tone.. I love the grit in this, sounds just like hot tape! as opposed to the playing which is just hot mess.. anyway you get the idea. It's straight out of the line outs, just guitar volume involved.. pretty cool Its actually not something i have heard from any other modeler, they all sound very nice and clean to me.. somehow that always feels artificial no matter how close it gets to the raw amp tone. what can i say, I like em dirty :P of course it can sound pristine as well.. or anywhere in between actually the grit is kinda extreme on this example, even for me, but that was just to illustrate what i meant.. https://soundcloud.com/stusaysmoo/podhd-plexi-demo

http://uk.line6.com/customtone/profile/stusaysmoo/

mostly an old washburn ss-40 summers stuff was on my tele

yeah i think you just rename the file