Palico

This is true but it will only be a couple of offending frequencies that cause it. With a Specetral Anaylizer (you can get them on a tablet or phone) and good EQ (31 band perferred to get to narrow Qs) you can lower just the problem frequeices and get so you can just about lay the mic on the speaker and have zero feedback.

I thought Line 6 already stated Amplifi was not intended to be replacement for the Pod HD series. As far as I could see the Dream rig is still the flagship product. The Amplifi is intended for different market than the POD and DT amps. Now that doesn't mean they are going to drop a lot of time and $$$ into free upgrades for those that already bought the product. Maybe they will throw a little bone to us here and there. They will likely take the ideas and request and put them into a updated version with updated hardware. That is just the name of the game in the digital market. If you buy any digitial hardware setups you need to buy it for what it can do today, not what it will do tommorow. This is really the same for any musical gear. If you bought a Marshall Super lead back in the day, it didn't sound like a JCM 800 did. If you wanted the JCM 800 sound you had to buy and JCM 800. The same is true here. Get the gear you really want sound wise and use it, missing features and all. Sure your taste may change over time and then like all of us probably get Gear Acquistion Syndrome and buy new stuff. I've seen quite a few people complain about the support on older products, but it's not totally fair to L6. They can't support stuff forever. The older gear, assuming it doesn't have an issue, still sounds exactly like it did when it was the newest and latest thing. It's just not the new and latest thing anymore. I go by a local Jam session from time to time and one of the other guys there brings in a old Line6 amp and small foot controller for us to use. It's old but still sounds pretty good. Maybe not as good as my HD/DT combo but I still enjoying paying thought it.

My group is in the process of recording a Demo CD we can use to give out to booking agents etc... We have an original song on the demo as well as two songs that are public domain, therefore legal for us to use. So the idea of uploading these to iTunes came up. It looked around a found the easyist way to accomplish that would be to use Aggreator to handle all the legalites of having a UPC and other stuff needed for iTunes and the other services. They look to do a nice package or charging you for getting this done and then a small transation % for funds from sales of the songs. I don't know these would really sell or not but just to have them out there would help with exposure and I'm willing to pay a small fee just to see. Anyway I know this site is about learning to play but figure maybe some of you out there might be bands and or as individual artist did some of this before. The ones I saw so far look like CDBaby (most expensive) ,Catapult and TuneCore. From the marketing type info it looks like I like Tunecore the best as far setup. Any thoughts on which companies do the best job with this or any others I should look into?

If your using a external pre-amp, you want to bring the signal in via a line level. The on the X3 this will be the Aux input. You could still bring it in via the Mic input but be very careful of the gain as it will be easy to overdrive it. If you going to the point of getting a external pre-amp then you might just look into an interface instead as they will usually have at least one preamp on them. Like the Line 6 UX1, but others work great and honestly for vocals I would look into something less guitar centric than the L6 offerings in that arena.

I've recorded vocals via the X3 and it does work pretty decent. You do have to understand gain levels to make it work best. First if you want to connect a condensor mike you will need another preamp as the X3 will not provide phantom power a condensor needs to work. For this I've used a even a small mixer before. For a setting the gain you HAVE to make sure you are getting good levels but NOT overdriving the signal at any point along the gain signal chain. Forget monitoring the mic at first. Just make all your connections and make sure you not going clipping the signal anywhere. Use what ever meters you have avialalbe. For dynamic mics such as Shure SM58 pull up your DAW and arm the incomming track so you can see your input levels. Now check the mic and see what you have. You should have a decent level but no clipping nothing over 0.0db, perferable a bit less but not much. Adjust the trim on the X3 until you have decent level but no clipping when you check the mic as hard as you plan on singing into it. Now go back and see what you have in the monitor level. It may not be much. The trick at this point is not turn up the mic, turn up the headphones instead. Work with the volume on the PC to mix something approrpate to taste for the mix between the direct monitoring and any previously record tracks. I perfer to get my singers to sing very close to the mic as I won't need as much gain to pick them up well. If they stand back on the mic you have have the gain levels pretty high and you will start picking up any small noise, A/C units etc... The first time I tried this I had a mic setup with so much gain (and it was not clipping) that I was picking up noise from my kitchen three rooms way beind closed doors). In studios vocal booths are setup to be padded and quite so they don't have nearly as much to pick up. Most of us don't have a great vocal booth to work with. There is certinally a lot of information on the web about setting up ideal recording enviroments if you want to try to do what you can in that area. A wind screen can help with the random hiss and any A/C wind noise. But if you can have a singer right up on mic you avoid a lot of that. You can also play with high pass filters on the DAW to cut off any levels below given HZ settings hiss sometimes. Which is pretty much what most noise gates do on for high gain amps where you also get a lot of hiss without one, although noise gate is gate and works a bit different than a high pass filter. A actually outboard compressor set to low setting can help with being able to tame singers that have large difference between soft parts and loud parts from clipping the gain stages as well, the compressor on the DAW is useless for that purpsoe becuase the once the signal is cliped and distorted by the A/D converter you can't undistort it. Not that the compressors on a DAW are not useful but they are more useful for specific effects on a track and for mastering the final product. Hope my rambling helped some.

Update: I pulled out the Battery holder to setup some more Test with it. After checking back and forth and getting workable numbers from the rechargables left me befuddled for a bit. Then I finally noticed on the connector part of the connector is broken. That finally explains the problems I've had when attempting to use battery power! Now to order a new battery holder. and FYI on the noise when switching models, I mine is just like Charlie, there is little pop when going acoutic models but all others are dead quite not matter which power source is being used.

I don't know the mAH values on those, I'll check them when I get home. The recharageables (Rayvac) were listed 1.2v and fully charged show 1.35v. The total output from the 5.83v, which come to think about I would expect to be at least 6v (actualy calculates to 8.1v if each one giving full output) since each battery should be contriubing at least 1v. Maybe there is something shorting or not connecting on my battery pack. A cut off a 7V would make sense as the rechargeables measured output in the pack didn't make that. Hmmm.I didn't measure the disposables output in the pack itself, I just threw them in and it worked. Got more measuring to do later today. I think maybe I got bad connector or something in the pack.

hmmm Wonder if mine is just touchy to voltage? Variax 500, your's a 500 or different model?

Learned something last night. When to open mic jam at local venue. I normally use my Variax via VDI so power is not issue. Well I knew I would be using someone elses rig for this I picked up some recharable batteries from wally world. Well I get to the show and plug in and nothing! Luckly for me another guitarist there was kind of enough to let me use his lovely PRS instead. So I get home today and plug into my rig using a 1/4 plug instead of the VDI. Sure enough nothing. So I pull out the battery pack and grab a multi-meter. 8.35 volts, seems low. I pull out check the first battery 1.35 volts. hmmm should be 1.5 or more. Check each one which all show the same and then look on the battery itself, it list as 1.2 volts! Grab some disposable AA and put them in the guitar. Sure enough comes right to life. So I figured I post this as a reminder or heads up for any other Variax users, before you use a recharable battery check the voltage!

When you use the Line level it is going to be a bit more output than with the Amp setting. If you use Line you can overdrive the inputs of the Amplifier, which is sort of like use a guitar with hotter pickup or using a boost pedal with very low boost setting. Listening to your clip the second one is slightly distored and bit louder which would make sense to me. If you like the "Line" setting better with your amp then use it though. Nothing wrong with it as long as the sound is what you want.

RIP to one of the Greats.

AMEN!

Your look labels look pretty cool. The thing with the HD500(x) is you can reassign the pedals by patch so I may have the same say "Overdrive" in a different patch on a different pedal. Of course I do tend to build my patches so they are in the same posistion. I do think there could be a market for you product though if the price was not too high. I might be instrested myself. FYI, you might want to post this in the HD forum as well, there was already a thread on this there. http://line6.com/support/topic/8185-labelling-foot-switch/

I saw in a gear review with Santana's tech he does not use a wireless and uses a 50ft cable to his board. The reason gave was actually two fold. One was to give him room to move around, the second thought was the he actually wanted the slight tone altering affect of having a long cable. I never really thought about someone doing that on purpose, and yes that is with his PRS signature guitar he does this on.

+1. There are lots and lots of great amps and speaker combonations out there. I think L6 did a pretty good job with the choices of amps that can cover a good range of styles. No matter how many they come out with there will always be one not inculded that someone wants. If you really, really, want a 5150 tone then go buy a 5150. You could still use the POD as effects processor in that kind of setup. The only one I was bit suprised at was nothing for Acoustic guitars (or Variax acoustic patch).

Measure the diameter of the shaft and make sure you order the same. I think almost all knobs come a pretty standard shaft diameter, not sure on the Fender ones. There bunch of places you can get knobs if you really wanted, stewmac etc... Personally I don't care of know the exact setting of my volume/tone cause I'm just gonna roll them around until I hear what I'm looking for, but to if it works for you then do it.

I agree here. For a number of years I used an Atomic 2x12 with and X3 just for this reason. Before I had Atomic I tried using an active monitor but just didn't dig it as much. As good as the POD is there is just something about real tube, maybe it's in my head but I can hear it. The Atomic gave out and I changed my setup to a HD500x and DT25 so I could keep the tubes in the mix. Still use my X3 for recording and workbench capability for my old Variax.

Most guitar sounds are going to sit the middle of the frequency range. The EQ on POD or the even a normal guitar amp is not going to work the same way it does on Graphic EQ. The controls don't have the same range as full EQ, which is why most professional PAs use a 31 band on each side of the stereo field. For example push too much in the 250hz range and your gutiar is sound can turn to mud. The same area can also add Fullness if applied to something that not very full. This is why the EQ on the FOH and monitors should be set so that response is flat out of the system, then you EQ each instrument on the channel strip as needed. My suspicion (and it is just that a suspicion) is that FOH main EQ in those cases is just set to way that makes your POD not sound good to you, although other things that could be in the chain PA such a preamp (assuming there isn't a line level input) etc... could all affect it. I wouldn't put 31 band on my rig to offset them, too hard to know what and how the PA was set to. I would just adjust the controls on the amp or channel on the PA. For those that like to swtich patches a lot a external EQ down stream of the POD might actually be useful, althought I would probably go with a easier to use one with less bands, maybe a parametric EQ where you control the frequency Q(width) and just boost or cut certian ones might fit the bill. Again only if it really was a big enough problem. Personally althought I think POD units sound best straight into the PA, I use a DT25 amp and will just mic when needed. If the sound guy can't seem to get me good sound or doesn't seem to care, I got a volume knob. When I turn it up seconds before I play he will care then.

I'd would be willing to bet if you got a look at the PA you would see a 2 (or double unit) 31 band EQ on the FOH but nothing on the monitors. That would be typcial setup, althought sucks because with a 31 band on the montors you can tweak out the feedback out of the monitors and then turn them up almost all you want. You might also consider what else they have on the FOH line. Could be something like those BBE sonic maxiimers. I have not idea what they would do to POD output but I'm sure it would effect it, all they really do is EQ and supposely phase correction for the speakers themselves. And I bet the EQ on the 31 bands are set in a general notched mid pattern (where it's likely to affect the gutiar the most), not always the best but you'll see people do that with graphic EQ all the time. When you detect that in the mains, all you can do is up the mids on your POD (or amp) to compensate and just know it sounds good to the audience but sucks where you standing. The concept of the main stage EQ should be to compensate for deffiecients in the room and/or the speakers. All too often People have no idea how to set them, even well intentioned ppl.

The PA should (a good one anyway) will have a 31 band EQ on each side of the system. Overall this should be adjusted to fit the room so that the response in the room is flat. And Jandrio pointed out follow up with a solid sanity check to make sure the system sounds good. Often times though most PA's EQ is adjusted way to randomly based solely on a track and not really leveled first and the sound guy may know what he is doing but not have all the equipment he/she needs and is just doing the best he/she can.

Bonozi! Every room is different and you would be amazed when you put pink noise though a PA system and then look at it on a spectral analyser how much variance you can get from one brand/ type of speaker. In using a house PA you are also at the mercy of the sound engineers ears. Everyone hears things a bit differnetly and certinally has different taste in music. Most any of them are going to try to make you sound your best to THEIR ears, not yours. And the others are right the same thing can happen to amps from venue to venue as well. That POD has High, Mid, and Low knobs on it. If you switch patches a lot I know that don't help much though.

1. When performing, how do you select tones? D. Several presets, laid out randomly across multiple banks 2. Which one of the following best represents preset management before a gig? B. Little to no management; preset order is independent of the set's song order 3. How (if at all) do you use Setlists? C. I pretty much stay within the same Setlist of 64 presets I setup a couple of Amp setups very much like I would if I were not using emulattions but the real thing. So I have about 4 to 5 of my favorite ones for shows that geared towards specific sytles. Heavy gain, Clean, Blues, etc... I swtich to these depending on the song or honestly just whatever I feel like i wanna sound like for partiuclar song. I still tap dance the footswitches just like I was using pedals. Basically I use the POD/DT as a subtitue for all the expensive gear I can't afford! Live peformances to me are not so much about making it sound exactly the original recording, it's about entertaining and having a good time. If they audience wanted to hear the song exactly as it was recorded then they could buy it and sit at home and listen cheaper, so for live, I really don't use a lot different main tones. Now for recording, this is a very different game. I will spending hours playing with Amp models, pedals (emulated and Real), mics, or mic'ing my DT or going direct(more the norm) to get a specific sound. Then for overdups or other layered parts I might use a completely different setup. All get saved off to the PC usally with songtitle and label for which part it is. But live I rarely uses these patches.

Most of the POD units IMO sound best straight into the PA. But that is not very convient a lot of the time and then there is the monitoring situation which may or may not be a problem for you. If the Amp has a effect return in then use that. It will elemiate the preamp section of the amp which is where a lot for the coloring occurs. Second make sure you set the POD to tell it what you pluggin into to. If you going to PA then use Studio/Direct. For input to Amp use Combo front, for effects loop (or power amp in) use Combo PowerAmp, or if you using stack use the approriate setting. These help, not fully correct it but help.

Generally I switch to the view with FS1-FS8 on the screen. I can generally rememeber which Dist etc.. is which for each patch. I also tend to build my patches so I map the FS in similar positions and I really only have 5 patches I uses very much.

Yea, I know they were no "supposed" to change and maybe they didn't. That's why I was wondering if it was possible and how it could be done since I didn't see an obvious way. That way I could compare and see. Yep did the global reset thing.