zaphodboy

The Dream Rig as we know it? Possibly. I can see L6 bringing out dedicated amp products for Helix, but if you're sold on the whole 'any amp, any effect, any guitar' concept the Variax is still relevant. My rig is JTV 59-HD500-Stagesource which I love. When the POD dies I should be able to swap it out for a Helix and get even more enhanced tone with little or no hassle. If you have a DT amp Helix will talk to the DT with a midi work around. Hopefully L6 will add DT compatibility to the Helix in FW updates. It would be a real shame to lose the Dream Rig concept. I have never had such great tone with my FRFR Dream Rig. With Helix it should be even better, I'm just waiting for my POD to die. Trouble is mine's been bullet proof, it's even had a pint of beer spilled in it! Darn you Line 6! :angry:

When my HD500 dies I'll deffo be getting one. Trouble is the POD's too darn reliable, I could be waiting years :o . The page opens just fine on Chrome.

I wouldn't like to be in the Boss or Fractal R&D offices this morning!!

Two things which really helped me improve 1. Join a band. It doesn't matter if you suck. In my case it was an indie rock covers band in the late 80s. It's surprising how much further you can push yourself when exposed to other peoples ideas, maybe with different tastes. You find yourself playing stuff you otherwise may never even have heard, let alone played so it gets you out of the loop of picking your guitar up and playing that riff....you know the one.....AGAIN! Plus if you're in a band you'll subconsciously try that bit harder because you don't want to let your band mates down or look a complete tool! I found I got a lot better fairly quickly when I joined a band. 2. Download one of those programs which allows you to slow down a track but keep it in pitch. I used to find a track I really wanted to play but just couldn't. The one that sticks out for me was the solo from Bohemian Rhapsody. I could almost play it but not quite. Once I slowed the track down by 15% I could just about manage it. Practice it at 15% then, once you've mastered it speed up to 10% and so on. I still use this method when I need to learn a particularly tricky passage. Hope that helps mate!

We're an innovative lot up north!! :D The L3 is massively loud to the point that it's difficult to adjust the POD master to make it 'slightly louder'. Move the knob at all and it can have a BIG effect on volume. Too much low end on these speakers tends not to make the sound muddy as such, just less balanced. I find rolling the bottom end off the amp works just fine without having to resort to EQing. As far as FOH we play pubs and small clubs with the odd wedding thrown in. We just have vocals through our p.a. with drums bled through slightly to fill the sound. All the instrument volume is just via our amps. In the environments we play this set up works really well and are frequently complemented on our FOH sound by the audience. If you wanted to boost the signal level on the XLR outputs I don't see why turning the POD master up and L3 volume down would make a negative difference. The 12 o'clock 'notch' position is not essential as far as I know....I've never tried it though.

I use a Variax and HD 500 through an L3m. I play very little high gain stuff but at gig volumes, which for us is L3 at 12 o'clock notch position and HD500 master at 10 or 11 o'clock I still need to roll off some bottom end. Once the bottom end has been rolled off a bit it sounds awesome though! Not sure if that helps or not?

+1 to that!! I have played many a gig with a 'in house' sound guy and thought the sound was dogsh!t only to be told by (reliable) friends in the audience that the FOH sound was great.

I run through an L3m. I can't compare it to a DT as I have never used one but the tones I am getting out of the L3 are awesome AND really easy to dial in. Apart from Fletcher Munson curve issues you can build your tones at high bedroom volume and be reasonably confident that only minor tweakage will be needed at the venue during sound check (maybe rolling off a little bottom end). I have been playing for (eep) 35 years and have never been happier with my sound than I am with this set up. I don't play much high gain stuff but for everything from classic rock to acoustic the L3 rocks. I have heard a lot of posts on the forums about feeling detached from your sound without a 'real' guitar amp but, honestly, I have never experienced this. If you go down the Stagesource route all I would say is that I wish I had gone for the L2. The L3 is pretty heavy and INSANELY loud. Unless you're playing large venues I reckon the L2 would more than suffice.

Like Arislaf said..You are more likey to get gunge in the Pod Variax input than the Variax itself and there is no door on that.

I couldn't save the bundle directly as Arislaf suggested- it was an old post so may be due to firmware updates. The settings would load into workbench so I could see what they were, they just wouldn't upload to the Variax. I was just a matter of changing the overall dB on each model in each position manually, which took around 15 minutes. That's the bad news, the good news is that all models are now usable in a live situation. The wild volume differences have disappeared and I can now happily switch between Spank and Lester within the same patch on my Pod without suddenly drowning out the rest of the band. If you are having the same problem I would urge you to give it a try. Just thought I'd share...

Yeah, I've seen a lot of posts on these forums about the delay when switching patch being a big problem. When practising with no backing it does sound pretty bad but I find that in a live situation the rest of the band members tend to mask the gap to make it unnoticeable.

I'm also really happy with my rig and the points from Max EXACTLY mirror mine.

....or you could write each one as a separate patch and toggle between them as you need? Would get rid of any DSP issue and 'layering' of distortions. Fits neatly in one bank of patches too.

Yes. The only way to achieve the effect you want is by assigning 4 separate distortions (can be the same e.g. screamer) to the 4 footswitches then adding your other effects to the appropriate one. This would mean also having 2 separate delays and 2 separate reverbs though. Not sure about DSP limits. FS1 Distortion 1 FS2 Distortion 2 + Delay 1 FS3 Distortion 3 + Reverb 1 FS4 Distortion 4 + Delay 2 + Reverb 2 That uses up all your fx blocks.....seems a shame really!

I use a DMX cable from my HD500 to Stagesource L3m and it works just fine.

Hi I am using a JTV59 through an HD500 into an Stagesource L3 live. The rig sounds really sweet but the volume seems to swing around a lot depending on the model on the Variax. It seems to be more noticeable since I added the L3. I know that an LP has a hotter signal than a Strat etc. and that L6 modelled the guitars to behave like the real thing. The thing is though that it's not very helpful in a live situation as I like to keep the number of patches to a minimum, using different JTV models within the same patch. Has anyone managed to match volumes across the model range? If so it'd be great if they could post.

The 30% off has tipped me over the edge and I have just bought the Vintage pack. I'd be massively peeved though if I had stumped up for it on release and seen the price slashed already. For once procrastination has worked in my favour :D

I have found that the best combinations approximate what you often find in 'real' rigs. The strat models tend to sound better with the Twin model, LP model with the JCM or Park etc. That's not to say that other combinations can sound great of course, but this is a good place to start.

Interesting that most seem to be in their 40s (I'm 46). This was the first real 'computer generation'...think ZX81, VIC20 etc. Does this mean we are the first generation who can use these types of device without being flummoxed by them, whilst still being able to afford the relatively high cost compared to stomp boxes? When I was in my 20s and 30s I couldn't have afforded the relative cost of a POD in one chunk so I went for stomp boxes and built my rig up slowly...kids cost a fortune!!

Just remember that to get the L6 link to remember your speaker setting you have to hit save on the POD. If you try to save it through HD Edit it won't work..... dunno why.......Also the speaker mode is set per patch, so you'll have to do this on all your patches, it's not a global setting.

That's a great solution. How have you fixed it to the POD?

Hi This is easier to to in Edit than on the Pod itself. All you need to do is assign both effects to the same foot switch under the controller tab make sure one of the effects, say your phaser, is switched on and the other one, distortion, is off under the effects tab. Now when you hit the foot switch the phaser will switch off and the distortion will switch on. Cheers

Just tip your head a few degrees to the right when you're using your iPad ;)

Comparing the POD to an AXE or Kemper is missing the point. You're probably absolutely right about the list of well known artists using PODs being woefully short, but they probably had their AXEs and Kempers bought for them by their record companies. I suspect even the most die-hard Line 6 fan would trade their POD for an AXE if they were the same price (well maybe some wouldn't). The POD is all about bang for buck and for the weekend rockstar, which probably makes up 90% of forums the POD HD can't be beaten.....all IMO of course! ...but for the record, Vernon Reid from living colour uses an M9, see 5:45 Cheers

+1. That's the exact same I approach that I use. Less is definitely more when patch building. It stands to reason if you think about it...the more processing the unit has to do the more processed the sound you get out of it will become.