meambobbo

I never dug into the reverbs on the hd, but what i do on the kemper is run a wet/dry split with a delay feeding the reverb. You can easily do this on the pod by placing the effects in channel A 100% wet and use no fx in channel b. Dial in however much reverb you want using the mixer w both channels panned dead center. Then vary tone, time, feedback, reverb time, etc settings for unique sounds. Keep the delay repeats rather short and use quirky stereo times. Use no pre-delay on the verb. It gets complex but it can add extra depth to a lush reverb. Especially try adding modulation via the delay or via a chorus in front the delay

Hmm, that last post didnt convey what i wanted to say which is that i generally like this community and am not here to dog the Pod in general. I may come off that way in THIS thread, but thats just because i like the Kemper so much. I never intend to take my tone guide down, and i answer all the emails i get through my site trying to help people get the best tone they can from the unit. I understand affordability is a big issue. It was for me, and it was difficult to scrap together the money for the Kemper especially since im not a professional. We all want the best tone possible. The Pod HD is definitely a step in the right direction.

Dean, I'll happily accept the challenge. Give me some time. I have to move things around to get back to doing any recordings, but I promise it will be the first thing I get to. I have written a Pod HD vs. Kemper comparison, and there are numerous things I prefer about the Pod. And as mentioned, although I dont use one, the Pod can control a Variax. Same with a L6 DT amp. I wont release my comparison without comparison clips, though, which I dont have time to record for some time. I dont have any agenda against the Pod or L6, although the HD certainly left me with a bad taste in my mouth, not because it sucked, but it glimmers with such promise that it never reaches. Of course this is all just my opinion. You are welcome to ignore it and i respect you whatever your conclusion. You can debate price and theories of value and claim gouging, etc. Theres only one way to look at value - different people place different values and prices on different things. Arm chair quarterbacking about what should and shouldnt be doesnt mean anything.

Hepdog, i had a great opinion of line 6 from 2003 until about 2 years ago. I think im qualified to express my opinion, considering i have provided tons of advice to other forum members for years, and even created a website for this purpose. I would have expected Line 6 to at least address some of the warts on this unit and possibly fix some. Nothing of the sort has happened. If you feel this thread is a waste of time or offensive to you, dont read it! And if you think the Kemper is a slight tone improvement, I would question if youve ever played one. -slight narcisist

all these words are unnecessary. to sum up, the Kemper sounds about $4,000 better than the Pod HD. also, when you factor into the opportunity cost of the 3,000 hours of reading forums and tweaking you end up doing, the Kemper is far cheaper, as you can dial in dozens of killer tones in about an hour. My Pod HD guide is what... 14 really long web pages? My Kemper guide is 1 page. still, if you need top-class delay and reverb effects, you may find the Kemper a bit lacking. it also has no computer editor (although the unit's interface is very quick and intuitive). so the fanboys say, you can't compare them because they're not the same price. well, first of all you can ignore price and compare them anyway. The Kemper is not the same as buying a high-end sports car, which basically none of us can afford, regardless of how thrifty we become or how much overtime we work. Relatively, there's a huge price difference between Pod and Kemper, but in absolute terms, the difference is not that big. If you want to afford the Kemper, you likely CAN do it. If you don't WANT to, that's your choice, and I certainly respect it. But if your rationale is that the Kemper isn't worth the price premium, I would argue otherwise. I definitely think it is, and I really wish I had gone straight to it instead of spending so much time with the HD, regardless of the vacations and other luxuries I would had to have sacrificed at the time. the thing that really nailed it for me is that the Kemper's design means no jockeying on the forums to add this or that amp model (And despite all that, still no Mesa Marks in the Pod) - anyone can make them and most people share them for free. Some charge for them, but the prices are much cheaper than real amps and the quality is generally quite high (prices way cheaper than the announced model packs for the Pod). also, the Kemper staff engages its customers on the forum and its frequent firmware updates clearly target what the users ask for. Digital Igloo seems like the only L6 staff engaging the customers here, and it seems that this is actually a very recent thing. Still, he can't fix the Pod HD. 4 years and EQ's still in phantom parameters. The Pod amps are good, and the cabs aren't quite as bad as they may initially seem. The problem is that its all a juggling act - there's some seriously fake stuff going on in the Pod. You dial in tighter palm mutes, and now your power chords are thin. You get the B and G strings to thicken up, and now the thick strings sound dull or muddy. Occasionally you get a glimpse of this incredible tone, but it's all a tease. With the XT/X3, the tone wasn't anything mind-blowing, but what you heard is what you got. You could dial it in quickly and then you were done. Overall, it wasn't a revelation but still a positive experience. The HD is a lot of frustration. Anyway, I don't want to poo poo the HD too much. I just really love the Kemper.

Awesome tone. I like the first one best. The 2nd is a bit clearer, but i dont think it needs that clarity. The thickness of the first sounds more real. Great work

I always went direct, so I can keep the volume pretty low, so through some M Audio BX8's or through my sennheiser 280 hd pro's. With my main guitar (EBMM JPM), I cannot lower the pickups (without routing the guitar further) - they are fairly hot and quite close to the strings. I swapped the originals for CL/LF - definitely a little brighter but not necessarily hotter. If I strum hard over the bridge pickup, its a huge spike and will come close to clipping the pod at the input. I don't really ever play like that, so it's not an issue. I also have an Ibanez RGA8 which had SD Blackouts, and now has D-Activators. The Blackouts are ridiculously hot, but it's different from the passives - you get less of a spike on hard picking - it actually seems to be like there's a limiter on them. If I move them a little further from the pickups, they get a bit more dynamic. Still much happier with the D-Activators - definitely not as hot as the Blackouts and much easier to deal with and they sound better. Anyway, with all the input 1/2 settings and paths and being sure to use the Pad switch, it's very easy to clip the cleanest of the amp models if you are not careful. Instead of eating up effect slots with EQ's and Compressors, I thought it would make more sense to stick them in the amp block like the super clean model in prior Pods. Or an Acoustic Model - just EQ adjustments - seems simple enough Not a big complaint, but I can see why it makes things a bit more difficult for people. (Still glad to see the arrival of Global EQ and its format seems very handy).

Look, I don't have a dog in this fight. I'm not going to buy any of the packs. I'm just suggesting that it would be nice if L6 included the JC-120 in the metal pack to throw the metal players a bone. One of the main gripes repeated over and over again about the unit is that there are no pristine clean amps. I had great success tweaking the Fender Twin to be completely clean, but it was a little more involved than most would think, especially before the amp DEP's were added (see http://foobazaar.com/podhd/toneGuide/ampTone#pureClean). When we had that whole argument, lots of ppl came to L6's defense saying that's just how the amp works, and that it wasn't designed for high-output humbucking pickups. No argument there, but as the cleanest amp model in the unit, metal players (who nearly exclusively use high-output humbuckers) are unable to get a pristine clean without wasting FX blocks on fixed volume pedal or EQ effects to prevent driving the amp into clipping. I dunno. After basically 2 years of nothing, if I thought L6 was trying to milk an extra $50 out of me for the pristine clean amp model that wasn't delivered from day 1 on the unit, I'd be a little sour. I was hoping this update would be a step in the right direction, but the more I think about it, the more I find it a bit weak. I don't mind the pay for amps paradigm. I was very happy to shell out $50 for the metal pack on the XT, and it included quite a few amps, most of which were my favorites for the unit. This update has a 5150 and a Shiva. Not sure why I should be excited about a 2nd JCM-800 - if the first one wasn't considered great, why not upgrade that one? Everything else is just a port from the XT/X3, which while nice is little to be excited about, especially since you have to pay for it. If the 5150 and Shiva are bonkers good, then it's worth it for sure. Much cheaper than an actual 5150 and much, much, much cheaper than an actual Shiva (badass amp and excellent selection btw). It just sucks that everything that seems to come from this company comes with another annoyance...and another forum fight. And still no Mesa Marks, which are actually my favorite amps.

Look I'm not arguing it's a "metal amp". I don't think any amp should be labeled as a <insert genre> amp. I think that's being way too literal and close-minded. All that matters is whether musicians inside some genre demonstrate a preference for said amp. When Line 6 puts out a "metal amp" pack, I interpret that as meaning "Here are some amps that work well for metal players", not "Here is a collection of 'metal amps'". Sure the Jazz Chorus 120 has Jazz in its name. How many other amps are named like that? Maybe some amps have Blues or Rock in their name. And there are plenty of high gain amps that have "edgy" names like Armageddon, Savage, Dark Terror, etc. But here's the thing. Other than the SLO, Line 6 isn't modeling the clean channel of such amps, which are often designed to provide pristine cleans like the JC-120. So instead of saying why not include the JC-120 in the metal pack as well as vintage, which would be the easiest and simplest solution for all parties involved, are you arguing metal players should buy the vintage pack as well...to play metal? We could also argue that Blues players aren't getting a model pack at all. But that's absurd - it's all just labels. So why not just allow some overlap in model packs?

Um ok... so metal bands use an amp on their metal album to deliver pristine clean tones, which are tonally considered an aspect of the "metal" sound...BUT ITS NOT A METAL AMP

Regarding the JC-120, could it not be available in both vintage and metal packs? No one is going to choose not to buy one or the other because they already got the JC-120 in the other. Why does everything have to be so mutually exclusive? A little overlap makes more sense to me. As far as whether or not it's a metal amp...Metallica (used to?) uses it for their cleans. Regardless, it's nice to see that Line 6 has not abandoned the Pod HD platform and is continuing to develop substantial updates.

+1 That was my main gripe with the provided single cab/mic emulations. The frequency response is all over the place, rarely balanced. The Treadplate cab is particularly thin - the Mesa Rectifier cab is widely known as a very punchy, thick cab. There shouldn't be such a wide gap between it and the ENGL. In a really, really old post, I use a ton of Pod EQ to match the cabs to their RedWirez equivalents, and they sounded pretty darn good (see http://foobazaar.com/podhd/PodCabComp/). This was before the Cab DEP's were even available. Of course, the patches were unusable because there were so many EQ's that you didn't have room for effects. I also included separating amp and cab/mic in my wishlist, so you wouldn't eat DSP just to use dual cab/mics.

I will say I was very disappointed that L6 never provided an official translation table or even verified one of several that the community made

I didnt make the images, but they clearly show what to expect. Http://foobazaar.com/podhd/toneGuide/EQ Yeah i think the whole db/eq/% debacle is likely more a problem of getting locked into a bad design vs. L6 laziness. Aggravating yes, but forum anger isnt going to help you. The more you use the EQs, the easier it is to figure out how to dial them in and even what freq they correspond to.

Yeah, just as well as playing clean and crunch tones sound when played through a closed back 4x12. Its not going to sound like an open back 1x12 with a Jensen, but it can definitely sound good if eq'ed nicely.

Well what i did was route each cab/mic hard left and right to individual tracks in my daw and used voxengo sound delay on one to find how much latency i needed to introduce to phase correct them. I always used the tread v30 57 on axis as cab/mic a. So thats like my baseline and from there computed how many samples of delay any other combo of two cab/mics would need. So instead of trying every possible combo, it went a bit faster, plus id know if i could use a null eq to phase align a pair that was off. It may be easier to just do a bunch or trial and error lol

I'll be happy to be wrong and will retract what I've said once an announcement is made. My statements about the Pod stem from the frequency and scope of firmware updates throughout the product's lifecycle. I bought one when the line first came out, and development has steadily tapered off. That generally indicates to me that the company is focused on other things. As FW updates became less exciting and frequent, other products were developed, launched, and pushed, namely StageSource and Amplifi. In fact, the Pod HD isn't even featured on Line 6's home page anymore. I always thought the Pod was Line 6's flagship product, but I don't get that impression at all anymore. Of course, there could be other explanations - internal shake-ups, being grandfathered into some bad design choices, the product being launched prematurely to meet a deadline rather than extend the design another cycle, etc. As far as IdeaScale, it replaced the product feedback/feature request page. I'm pretty sure it is intended to improve existing products as well as shape development of future ones. Time will tell, but as already mentioned, it seems like absolutely nothing has come of it. Again, maybe there's something I'm missing behind the scenes; but it always seemed to me like it offered a glimmer of false hope that we'd see the improvements suggested developed. I hate to sound so negative. I'm actually a very positive guy. Again, I hope I'm wrong and eagerly anticipate NAMM and perhaps announcements that get this product moving forwards again this year.

I come back to this forum every few months just to see if Line 6 has released any updates or paid any attention to its customers whatsoever. It's always the same. Line 6 has given the community nothing in the last 2 years basically. Yet you still have these apologists who claim Line 6 doesn't owe its customers anything or claiming that development is indeed "in the pipeline". 1. Line 6 doesn't legally owe its customers anything. No one is arguing that. Don't straw man the argument. 2. In prior generations of Pods and in other companies' digital products, there were fairly regular updates throughout the product lifecycle, particularly the expansion of the number of amp models offered. Even more to the point, Line 6 had product feedback/feature request webpage and now has the IdeaScale page. This gives everyone the expectation that the product is going to be expanded upon. 3. The argument that Line 6 will make more money throwing those ideas into future products instead of updating current products for free is simply not true. Frustrated customers won't buy the next generation if they had a bad experience with this generation. I've had Pod 2, XT, X3, and HD. The HD biased me against Line 6 to the point where I'd rather pay more for a competitor's product. 4. If Line 6 wanted to chime in and let its (potential) customers know what their priorities are and whether the sore spots would be fixed later on, it could at any point. It chooses not to do so. In other words, it is satisfied leaving the community with the expectation of updates in point #2 without actually delivering any of them. 5. There are numerous things that are unlikely to be noticed before buying, such as EQ's in % instead of meaningful units, or the % values of the exp pedal poorly aligning to musical values in the pitch shifter. No one is angry that these things were in the product initially. But people should be angry that these issues haven't been addressed, let alone fixed, by the company. 6. I call BS on any "developments in the pipeline". Ever since that mixer was announced (then later Amplifi), the Pod HD has gotten absolutely no attention. I'd be very surprised if it isn't labeled a "legacy product" by next year.

I will say that the kemper makes leveling very easy since you dont have to worry about gain staging causing digital clipping. You just turn the patch volume knob and save. Most effects have volume parameters so you can compensate if necessary

Bob u can certainly use the pod like that in studio/direct mode with a cab/mic selected. In other modes or with "no cab" itll be quite harsh. Not all guitar power amps are the same. Some have quite the impact on tone and may not offer tons of headroom, so keep that in mind

Just wanted to mention the audio samples out there are not up to date with my patches. Everytime i made demo clips id notice a tweak later on and updated the patch. I never finished my tone demo page and have no plans to do so. Im not saying to not listen to them, only that the patches should sound better than the demos suggest

Ha yes guys. Its been over a year since ive POWERED ON the Pod. That said I havent had much time to play guitar at all. If you really want a kemper vs pod comparison I can post one, but I want to use clips to demonstrate so it might be a while. I definitely like it much better than the pod but its by no means a perfect piece of gear. And you still need a foot controller so... Anyway, I actually have a new site thats a work in progress. I have to tighten up security and do backups before making it live so I cant share yet. Its nothing amazing but itll be a good resource for all guitarists. Keep rockin!

Also russ contacted me by email so I wanted to share my response in case it helps others I read your post but not the entire thread. My initial conclusion is that some of that crunch you are describing that gets altered as you adjust volume via the mixer is post effects clipping. It would probably sound much worse if it wasnt running through your real tube amp and real speaker cab. In any case, if you do like that tone, I think the only way to preserve it would be to attenuate the volume level at the end of your chain, rather than the mixer. I would NOT use an eq effect to do this. They are notoriously easy to clip from high input levels and can even clip "internally" if you are boosting frequency bands or the overall mix level. I would instead use a volume pedal effect. Just be sure to turn off expression pedal control, then you can tweak the effect's attenuation level inside hd edit or directly tweaking the effect using the pod's knobs. This is a much cleaner way to do it and it uses virtually no dsp although I see you have the 500x which probably doesnt hit dsp issues. Another thing to keep in mind is the pods digital signal chain can also be digitally clipped pretty easily. Channel volume is the main culprit. I try to keep it around 50%. I never get anywhere close to 100% unless im doing something crazy in that patch. Its usually easier to rely on distortion effects as well as the modeled preamp and power amp distortion to get all your distortion tone. Then you have much more flexibility with adjusting levels. If youre using digital clipping or other unorthodox means to get your distortion, you will be left to LOTS of trial and error to adjust levels while retaining tone. A good effect that can approximate the digital ish clipping but isnt going to get hosed by changing volume is the vintage mic pre. Of course its input level does matter but can be conpensated with the gain control and it has its own output control to deal with levels without impacting tone. Another good suggestion is to rethink some of your patches taking into account how easy it is to clip eqs. It can make it a nightmare to keep consistent tone while adjusting levels. I basically try to keep my levels as low as possible inside the pods digital chain and boost towards the end, if possible. Theres lots of info on digital clipping in my guide and a good step by step method to find exactly where it occurs in the chain. Usually I approach the topic from the viewpoint that im trying to eliminate it, not keep it consistent. Anyway, I hope that helps some. I know exactly how frustrating this kind of thing is.

To clarify my first paragraph, the mixer can be placed at the end of the chain but theres often good reasons not to. If you are running a single amp patch like russ, its best to do as he said above and put EVERYTHING in path A. All lines in hd edit and the pod's display are stereo signals, so you dont lose stereo fx. Just be aware that any mono fx and the amp models will mix stereo down to mono before processing so keep stereo fx towards the end of the chain

I first want to point out that theres no defending line 6's bad design decisions. There is no digital control that can be saved per patch that affects the final volume level of the patch. Ie post all effects. Your only option is to use an eq or volume pedal effect at the very end of your chain which means you just lost one of your 8 precious fx slots for tone neutral patch volume! Rewolf has the best idea here - it will effectively level your patches by attenuating only so no Chance of clipping but also give you wiggle room in a live context. We all understand that digital patches CAN vary widely from one to another. A good design would understand that players generally want level volumes across patches and try to get all the amps and effects to have roughly the same output at default settings. Combine this with how easy it is to acheive digital clipping, clip effects like eq's that you dont intend to clip, and the absence of clip meters, you've got a very difficult unit to deal with.