Buckethead85

We don't use all the 24 channels but we need at least 16 xlr, i will look after the yamaha, thank you for the advice! ;)

Glad to hear that, well you know sometimes is just bad luck witho some equipment, but with the mixers it seems to be a real problem. We have to replace our mixer maybe looking forward to a mackie or peavy 24channel

EDIT: Another thought is to pick up one of those Crate Powerblocks.. But they do seem to have reliability issues or that solution would be gold for me as this combination gets tremendous reviews where I have found mention of them. Would pair up to my 2- 1x12 cabs nicely. First time i hear of the Crate Powerblock, everyone is talking good about these things! In an other post someone mentioned this http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/8387, i don't know if could be useful for you. EDIT 2: Yet another thought.. If I'm just monitoring.. I could pick up a Mackie SRM150 or Behringer B205D (Would probably pick up the Mackie over the Behringer). Run L/R 1/4" to the monitor and XLR L/R to FOH. Both of those units get great reviews. That's perfect i think, avoid behringer product (IMO), through the years i changed alot of my band gear (monitors/active pa/mixer), we had problems with behringer mixer and active pa cabs, we chose mackie after that. The only thing i did not try is to run the pod through a FRFR system like Tech21 for example. Every active cab has his frequency response that change the sound of the tone you tweaked (do you tweak your tone through the headphones?). My evolution with the pod hd500 in live situation was: - fender frontman 212r (paid used 180 euros) through his fx loop, not miced (didn't like the sound of the lead tones, but nice clean sounds) - pod directly to PA through XLR L/R (mackie thump 15A), the sound out of the mackies was good after some eqing, but the sound coming from the monitor was horrible (Top Pro ark12A). - same as before but using the frontman miced and as a monitor (this was just an attemp because as i said the lead tones coming from the frontman weren't nice ) Actual setup, laney cub12r (270euros) miced and with the pod in his fxloop. The tones are very close to the ones i tweak at home through the headphones, plus the feel of a tube amp acting as a monitor is beatiful. Pretty happy with this configuration. I would like to try to add the xlr out L/R to the pa and mixing with the miced signal, who knows if it is a good idea. Let me know what you are going to do! ;)

Thank you for all the informations, you are very kind to share your experience with all of us and they are extremely useful. I use the 4cm with a laney cub12r which i mic in live situations. I noticed some sort of volume drop but never did any test to verify this. Some questions: Do you set the master level at maximum? What do kind of advice would you give to me to improve my set up? Upgrading the amp with one with more wattage? thank you again

I totally quote the DeanDinosaur and meambobbo point of view, line6 has other interests, at this point, things like the weird eq should have alreay been fixed. Ideascale is useless, nothing on that forum has been considered since now. It is really a pity because with some adjustments the pod hd500 could have been a really great unit. Personally i think i will not buy any other products of line6 if something does not change, but it is a waste of time to continue to complain about this upgrade/support thing if nobody of the staff care about that. The list of the author of this topic could be even bigger, the main issues are well known and they are the important things, we can't add things to fix just because they come to our mind. IMO: eq fixes, clip meter, dual cab micing or dual mic for one cab, power switch(would be better to have it), phase and clipping issues. What i mean is that i understand if someone blames line6 for putting % instead of Hz, because is just nonsense to do something like that, but things like the flimsy power supply may have a reason to be like that. I hope i've explained well what i meant. Peace

You mean 0% drive and 70% output? Anyway also the master volume drastically change the tone of the jcm model!

Yes, totally agreed. I think if you want to keep the price low, it is the best choice. I paid the laney cub12r 270 euros, not so much for a tube amp. Also bugera v22 i think could do the trick, it is around 300 euros i think. After i tried tubes i'm a little biased now. I feel just another level of quality and for the first time when i play live i love my tones, never happened before. Maybe they sound cool only through the amp and the audience hear only fuzz and nasty stuff ahahah :D

Hi Bjorn, i've been using pod hd500 for a year too, i had a pod xt live before. I suggest you to read the meambobbo's guide, it is full of useful tips! On his demo page, you can download some tone he made, maybe you can find something for your need. Also search on youtube a guy named Suhermanto Harsono, he made a pod hd500 vs gt100 comparison and their tones are available on customtone (you can find the link to download them under his video), i found them beatiful. Regarding me, i had problem to make the jcm800 model sound good (for solo stuff). In general i can give this advices to you ( that worked for me). - set input 2 to variax, less background noise - if you are not gonna use dual amp, mute the right channel and keep the left channel centered. - for clean volume boost i set up a studio eq at the end of the chain, i keep gain at +5db, i activate it when i need a boost for solo in live situation assigning it on the second switch button which i labeled "boost" - put the noise gate just before the amp only if there are some distortion or comp pedals, if you have free slot unused put another noise gate just after the mixer (with low level, just to clean slight the tone) of course this is for high gain tones. - use the mid focus eq if the tone is too bassy or too fizzy, it's hard to control the eq cause there are no db or hz but just %. On youtube you can find a video of someone that explain how the eqs work on the pod hd500. - sometimes changing mic can do the job, if the tone is too trebly try the sm57 off axis, the ribbon also is good but can really make the tone too muddy. I hope you find this informations useful. Bye ;)

I had a fender frontman 212, it has a lot of volume but it is a solid state amp and it feels very cold and digital. Just my opinion but i suggest to buy a tube amp.

It depends in what kind of place you will play (small club, pub, venue etc..). If you're gonna mic your amp i suggest you at least a 30 watt amplifier, because even with micing, at monitor volume level a small wattage amp will colour the sound with some power amp distortion. A 30 or 50 watt amplifier would guarantee you a more clean sound. I own a laney cub12, single channel with 12" speakers, fx loop and it is perfect except that it is "only" 12 watt (which miced is perfect even for small pub!). Of course i'm talking about tube amps, i had also a solid state amp and i think is not even close to a tube amp, i would buy (used) a peavey classic 30, or laney vc30. It's better a single channel amp so you can use the clean of the amp and add distortion and other fx with the pod with teh 4cable method. Hope it helps :)

You are right GTLazer, but when everyone bought the pod hd500, didn't they expect at least these minor fixes? I mean in 3 years they could have fix at least the stupid % eq issue? I bought this unit because i was expecting some sort of improving through the years, and i don't mean big changing, just these minor fixes. They simply did a mistake, with dual amp you run out of dsp pretty quick and you cannot use the fx that you want. 20% dsp more and light on footswitch, I don't get that marketing move, that's all.

I'm a pod hd500 buyer and i have to agree with you. I've been a line6 supporter since pod xt live came out and i bought all the expasion packs, i was always happy with line6 until now, honestly i really didn't like that pod hd500x move and in general the way they managed the pod hd500 upgrades. I hope the 2.2 firmware is not the last because it is really useless for most of the pod hd500 owners.I quote entirely "as they no longer have the integrity they did in the beginning". I hope they will do something for us because i have your same idea of not buying more line6 product again (and for doing something i don't mean new hd models, i really don't care, i want the present amps improved, a global eq, fixing the eq % with a graphic eq like on gearbox of pod xt live, a clip meter, using dual cab without dual amp). Nobody is asking for gigantic updates, it cannot be a trasformed new unit, but i would like it be an improved one. p.s.: sorry for my english

Hey i'm happy to see a successful story about using the pod direct with the PA! In my past experiences i had problem with that setup, the sound of every patch was very harsh and cold, plus the sound coming from the speaker monitor was even worst. Maybe my PA does not have a flat response or the monitors are crap. Anyway i bought a tube amp (laney cub12 r) that is miced, and i solved all the problems. I use it through the fx loop, i can use my amp preamp or the full amp simulation, the tone is very similar to the one i tweak with headphones on. The amp act as a monitor also and i feel the "thump" of the amp, the warmth of the tubes and i'm really satisfied. Unfortunately i cannot use stereo fxs but i will try someday to mix both xlr output and the signal coming from the microphone of the amp.

Sorry but i have to disagree with you. Now my pod 500 has no market value, i paid 500 euro for the pod and after all the things that disappoint me like eq freq in PERCENTAGE!?! (and no documentation that helps for this, we are not mad thanks to people like Meambobbo and Jim Reynolds that we can still make it) and DSP limit reached with double amp...why allowing double amps if you cannot add more than a fx and you get DSP limit!? You launch a new product that is exactly the same with a hardware upgrade. I think all the pod hd500 owner feel like they were robbed, i feel a bit like that. I hope will come out a new firmware that fix some of the issues of the pod because i don't think it was not a good market strategy to launch the podhd500x.

I was reading this and without opening a new topic i want to ask a question here: I want to use the hd500 for his modeling capability so i connected it the 4CM through a tube amp (laney cub12r). In my patches i use the full version of the emulated amp ( the pre version doesn't sound good, the same happen with no cab emulation). 1st question: i set the master level knob at maximum, output mode to line, 1/4 output set to line, switch on the back of the pod line/stomp to line. Is this correct? Should i use amp instead of line on the 1/4 output jack? should i use as outputmode combo power amp since i'm using a combo power amp only bypassing his preamp section? I know that i should trust my ears but i don't want to ruin something or overloading the signal etc.. 2nd question: I do gigs once a month and of course i want to use the amp (mic-ing it) as a monitor too. If i activate the FXLOOP block on the chain and disabling the amp i can use the preamp of the real amp. Is this the right way? Because i would like to use the real amp distortion but only for a couple of songs during gigs, should i change some switch positions? Thank you for the answers...