spawn2031

Just snagged them myself today and will be checking them out tonight... is it quittin time yet?

Personally I decided to go direct with the POD out to 31 band EQ and into a pair of FRFR speakers. It was the best choice I ever made ditching my traditional guitar cab though I have often wondered about those DT heads and a L6 cab. What I tend to notice, and maybe it is me micro analyzing, is a perceived digital sound in the high end and I've never been able to EQ it out and it's not in all patches. I am so guilty of no. 1. I am way too much of a perfectionist in my tones. I have to make myself back off sometimes because if I don't I'll never actually play, I'll just tweak forever and that's no fun. For me, what I have been putting in my patches lately is a Noise gate > Distortion or Overdrive (if needed) > Full Amp Model > Delay > Reverb. Lately I have been playing with tube compressors as well if it makes the tone better. It doesn't sound like a ton of stuff but, maybe I really don't need all of that. I am setting up mainly for live stuff and I have heard many people say that a quick slapback delay is better than reverb live except for leads, so I could probably drop that. I only toss an EQ in there if my post 31 band EQ doesn't take care of it, which honestly is rare. Had my soundman friend set it up for me and it does a great job.

So I think just about everyone on this forum is after pretty much the same thing, great awe inspiring tone that sounds as close to the real thing as possible without sounding too digital. I have seen many folks on here acknowledge the fact that the POD has a definite digital sound to it that become more noticeable in patches with the more that you stack in it. For a while now, I have been coming to terms with that issue. At first I thought this odd "frequency" that I couldn't seem to EQ out was an issue with my lack of knowledge of how to EQ properly or old strings but I am really starting to believe that it's the digital quality that of the POD becoming too apparent in my patches. So in an attempt to understand what lines to not cross over for myself and others I was hoping that some of you veterans out there might post some guide lines and helpful hints that you guys have found to keep that digital sound tamed as much as possible. Thanks folks!

I would agree that this is all pointing to the pod being the issue. The only thing I could think you could try would be to run Monkey and when it doesn't detect anything select your pod from the drop down list anyway. This will at least allow you to download the most up to date version of the drivers and re install them just in case you got a bad install (highly unlikely on two PCs though).

If you like what you hear with the PA cabs then stick with it man. I tried running it through a transparent power amp into a 4x12 marshall and it just sounded like mud most of the time. Granted I am no incredible genius at tweaking these things but as soon as I plugged it into a set of PA cabs the unit all of a sudden turned into something I was ecstatic to have and I had no issues getting something awesome from there. If you do plan to try something different for amplification, be prepared that you will more than likely have to re-tweak all of your patches.

I was certainly one of those people. I started out with a UX1 which was very much download and play mostly. Imagine my surprise when I jumped from the UX1 right to the 500x. Talk about a fish out of water and time to learn a bunch of stuff and learn it quick!

This hasn't happened to me recently but it did happen once very soon after buying my 500x (pre 2.62) and I do remember that it WAS plugged into my desktop via USB. Perhaps you are on to something there.

Thank you everyone for your input on this. This gives me PLENTY to research. Perhaps I'll see if I can't get a little more in the budget for these babies and get something really nice but at the same time I wasn't really looking for studio quality although it is certainly nice to know what to look for in the awesome category.

Ok, so several times in several other topics I have seen people mentioning a -12db as level that is supposed to not be gone over if possible for patches. The other day I ran my POD into Reaper and used it's monitor to level all my patches. I just arbitrarily picked a number that they were close to already which was -8db. Should I do this again and move them down to -12db or does this really even mater at all?

Who knows then man, I know that most custom tone users have been complaining about it not working for the better part of a year. I haven't heard anyone saying officially that's it's working again.

FYI guys, it ended up NOT being the above issue. Somehow the drivers on my laptop had gotten corrupted and was solved by a quick re-install of HD Edit. Still I am sure that doing the reset helped something somewhere that I might not have run into yet.

Yeah, this has been busted for quite some time now.

Ok, thanks a ton guys. I see that I will have to re-calibrate my pedal. I don't remember doing much else to the setup of the Pod. I assume everything else will go back to default settings including the Global EQ?

This happens when Edit fires up and is syncing with the pod. These are tones that have been on there and working as of the last FW update (2.61). I know for a fact I have used HD Edit since then but it was after this latest update to 2.62 that the issue began. Should I do as gloc suggested? Backup all my tones to setlists, do a global reset and bring them back in?

Just developed an issue with HD Edit not being able to connect to my POD fully. I run it and it says there was an issue importing tones and to restart the POD and HD edit and try again. No effect unfortunately. The program only displays the tone that I am actually on. This didn't start until after doing all of the updates around 2.62 and yes, everything is fully updated, USB drivers and all. The Pod itself seems to work just fine and recording/ playback works fine as well. Is this is know issue with a quick fix? I'm away from it right now but when I get home my first thought is to uninstall and reinstall HD edit. Thanks y'all!

Oh yeah, no doubt on that man. These aren't for getting polished perfect tones. Just a starting point. I have a 1yr old son that goes to bed pretty early, right about the time I would normally start having time to start messing around so these would be just for when I can't use my main cabs

Hey guys, I am looking to purchase a pair of good headphones just for practice that can get as close as possible to the sound coming out of my FRFR cabs. Doesn't have to be a perfect match, but close enough to be able to make tones by and practice. I am also looking for them to not break the bank. My wife and daughter are starting to nose around for Birthday ideas so I don't want to crush them but I also know they wont want to get me junk. Anyone have a pair that fits the bill? Thanks ahead of time guys.

Agreed, I have this issue with one of my other guitars as well. The pot just needs taken out and cleaned. Either way in your situation.. bad/ dirty pot or bad wiring I would lay money on it being the guitar and not the pod here.

Hey man, I play all metal as well, I use all Shecter guitars but am running into a FRFR cab. The best way that I found to FINALLY work the unwanted tones out of my rig was with an actual hardware post 31 band EQ. I got a relatively inexpensive Alesis 2ch eq and had a sound guy friend come over to help me out. After all was said and done it was very obvious that if I had used the EQs in the pod to finalize this tone then using a very small Q would have worked best. Many frequencies that are right next to each other are at several db level gaps so a smooth transition from one frequency to the other (large Q) wouldn't have worked out well here for me. Personally I really like this solution because 1) I finally have my sound right 2) I find it easier if I can actually see all of the bands and have control over them with a flick of a slider 3) One less block and DSP I have to worry about getting chewed up! May not be the way for everyone but it worked for me and my metal tone.

Ok so, quick (possibly stupid and answered many times that I just cant find) question. I've done all the updates, bought just the metal pack and everything seems to be fine. I don't see or at least haven't found any abnormalities so hellz yeah there. When I did my updates, I chose to keep my current patches, still backed them up but didn't let the process overwrite them. Is there any reason that I should have let it overwrite? Did L6 release any presets with the new model packs besides what automatically shows up when you purchase the new ones, ones that are worth re-flashing again? Only reason I am concerned is because of my days in computers.. I know reloading an OS over top of itself was never as good as a full wipe and reload and of course I don't wanna miss out on any goodies!

LMAO!! No kidding. Rsanchez, do a quick search on 2.6 on this forum and you will get enough info to keep you reading all day on it.

They would have got that tone the same way any of us would, through painstakingly comparing the tones and tweaking and tweaking and tweaking and cursing and making sure they had enough party supplies around to not trash their POD when they got annoyed... you know the drill. Some of those do sound positively wicked but once again we got the wonderful issue of we don't get their guitar, fingers and speakers along with the tones for that 9 Euros, what a rip off! Maybe Satan will pony up the 9 Euros and post them all here for us to have fun with! :D *insert headbanging with devil horns in the air*

Well after much screwing around I did get my crybaby to sound awesome and in front of the Pod was defintly the way to go. On another note, I did find a patch that comes stock with the pod that did have a nice Wah setup. Must have missed this one. It's "Heavy Chords" and it uses the Colorful wah. Actually not that bad at all. Too bad I didn't find it before I bought the Cantrell Wah! Oh well.

okay, that's where I've got it right now and it doesn't sound quite right. I'll have to mess with the settings (the one knob) and see whats up. This particular wah is supposed to sound really good and throaty but it's sounding alot more tinny and harsh in the toe position.

So I think it has been pretty much the consensus of almost every thread I have read that the wah pedals built into the 500x's aren't all that great so I ran out and got me a Jerry Cantrell Crybaby. My question to all of you awesome folks out there is where is the best place to place it? Before or after the Pod? I don't want to put it in the FX loop cuz I tend to need most of my blocks. Questions? Thoughts? Snide remarks?