RipperShred

The short answer: YES. Every time I see one of these "I can't a get a good tone" threads, I shake my head and ask myself what the heck these people are doing wrong, because into a power amp and cab I never fail to get amazing tones, and quickly, out my rig. It's been tone bliss for years now. Since I got serious about my rig I've been running the HD this way forever, and have made more than a few converts. Guys who swore black and blue to me they'd "never use that digital sh*t; nothing beats a tube amp" now have pretty much my exact setup now. right now I'm running it into a FR poweramp into 4x12 cabs, and granted, takes a bit more tweaking to get it sounding good, but really only a bit more. Crank the bias, and bias excursion, along with the PEQ low shelf boosting, and cutting around the 3khz with a narrow band, and viola! Great rock and metal tone! But that said, one day I tried a few amps through the headphone jack into some decent AKG headphones, and didn't find I needed much time to find decent tones there, either. L6 Elektric sounded awesome pretty much stock as did the treadplate. Most of the high gain offerings, and the clean channel offerings sound good to me and imho don't need to be tweaked to within an inch of their lives to sound good. WTF are people trying to get out these things? Serioulsy, I never understand the "i can't get it to sound good" threads, because it sounds GOOD. It's gotta be something psychological, because I can't phathom turning something on and it just sounding "good" and the POD doesn't.

what I don't understand is why they don't plug the pod into the 5150 and/or mesa FX loop if they really want to compare the tones apples-to-apples.. The vid clearly states they were using the bugera's power amp and not the mesa/peavey power amp to compare the tones, so even if it's the same cab, it's not the same power section which makes a big difference in the final analysis. So yeah, it sounds close because it's a virtual 5150/dual rec preamp into a different power amp. Run the 5150 pod preamp into the 5150 poweramp into the cab and THEN see what they sound like in comparison. Geesh.

Baaahhh hahahahaha! Thank you for that! I genuinely LOL'd, might have even snorted a little. Talk about a case of "be careful what you wish for", eh? There's a psych paper in there somewhere, I'm sure of it! I'll admit all the exprience with the amp I have is with later iterations of the amp, but I have played them while they were still 5150s and 5150IIs, and I've played the 6505s and 6505IIs and I can't say they sound like the one modeled here. I'm curious, were people clamouring for a 1st gen 5150, or just 5150s in general? Is this a case of lines being crossed? Considering how this forum is lighting up with people's disapproval my curiosity's getting the better of me. That said, it's not that I don't like it, I personally prefer later revisions of the amp as they are a bit smoother, definitely a bit warmer and have a bit more bass to them. So I just add more bottom end via an EQ and cut the highs with a mid focus like I normally do and get a very servicable sound out of it. I'm still exploring the various offerings in the metal pack, with the Big Bottom and Purge being the stand-out favorites to me. Ironically enough I was vocal about how I didn't like the idea of non-HD models on the platform, with HD FX and EQs I'm getting crazy awesome tones out of them. I'm man enough to admit I was wrong. The point is, don't be afraid to EQ the sh*t of an amp model if it's not sounding right to you, because with a PEQ or two, and/or some hi-cutting it's pretty easy to get most of the amps in the metal pack sounding pretty frickin' awesome!

I'm all for the red and blue channels of an XTC, but with the amount of clean channels on it now, would we really be able to tell the difference between the green channel and some of the other offerings? Would love to see Deizel VH4 channels 2,3, and 4, Mesa Mark IIC+ and IV. Heck, L6 puts that out; A HD model-pack with HD models of the MK IIC+, Mk IV, VH4 and XTC, I would buy it today! It would then have ALL the amps I need. And these are all amps they've modeled before, so come on L6! Git'r'dunnn!

I want it to be a favorite. I was really close to buying an XTC Red disortion pedal just to get that juicey bogner lead tone, but have been holding off because I figure I could get ballpark with the forth-coming Shiva channel, but it's just not there. It's bumming me out. Granted, the XTC Red pedal's got some switches that shape its tone a bit. I tend to use 20th aniversary settting, tight pre eq setting, and the variac setting, so granted I'm using some of the tweaks it's got built in, but from all the clips and research I can find the shiva's like a tighter/brighter XTC so I thought I could get there. I may still actually be able to get there, but the darned controls just don't react linearly. There seems to be a lot, and mean A LOT of interaction between them, instead of treble being JUST more treble, and presence being JUST more presence. Twist one of those knobs and the whole character of the amp changes, and to me at least, not in an entirely logical and predictable way, at least with the gain cranked up on it anyways. If the XTC Red pedal is any indication, the B/M/T/P controls on it react in a logical and linear fashion. So if somebody understands how these controls interact and can explain it, it would be great as I still don't want to shell out a couple hundred bucks for that boutique pedal, even though the SOB is dripping with awesome tone! The saving grace is the Purge model, which is hotrodded marshall tone that I can't get enough of. Just wish I could get the Shiva to give me the hotrodded plexi tones I'm after like the Purge is giving me the hotrodded marshall action!

I'm loving the metal pack. I agree about the Shiva - it's not easy to dial in. The knobs don't react in a logical way, even less so than the uberschall. The treble and presence controls aren't making any sense to me as they don't seem to change values in a linear fashion at all. It's like they're doing some kind of parabolic sweep that I can't wrap my mind around. Maybe someone can do a guide up for it? Because I was looking forward to the hot/high-gain plexi-style tone these are known for, but dialing it in seems like too much work. This is exactly why I wanted the XTC instead. :P That said, I like both the 5150 and the new jcm800. Lots of gain, and great tone. What surprised me though is how much I love the Big-Bottom, and ESPECIALLY the Purge! The Purge model is just AMAZING. All in all, it was money well spent!

I would personally love a next-gen HD device. I say bring it on!

FINALLLY!!! WOOT WOOT! TIME TO UPDATE AND BUY THE METAL PACK. :lol: Just in time for the weekend, too! Super pumped if you can't tell lol

In theory it drops somewhere between today, and a week from today... In theory.

I JUST got an email saying "New firmware and model packs for POD HD" not "POD HD X" might I add, so I got all excited, jumped on the software update page... AND... still 2.32 for my HD Pro. Srsly, wtf Line 6. Grrr. :angry:*end rant* :P

Well, I vaguely remember an interview with Hartley Peavey in a kind-of recent guitar world interview (it was the umpteenth anniversary of some Peavey product(s) )where he said something to the effect of "it had the most gain of anything at the time; Five 12ax7s - it would make a cannon out of a mosquito-fart". So it should be no surprise that it's one gainy SOB. :D

Guess I'm not checking often enough, I thought the last announcement was a week or two, not definitively two weeks. If it is so be it, I'd just like to know what timetable I'm working off of here.

So we've got L6 experts saying two weeks now? Is that official in any way? What happened to "a week OR two"? So is it set in stone that April 14th is the best-case release date scenario for Legacy owners? I've been optimistically checking the forum and site daily in the hopes that it might be ahead of schedule, not lagging behind it. :P

Totally. Funny there's no clips posted yet, too.

Just checked the software download page, and 2.6 is live. Download it, and some model packs, and post some clips! I would, but I'm rockin' an old "regular" HD Pro. So let me live vicariously through those of you how have the "X" versions of the hardware gosh darn it! Go! Do it now! lol

If you go to the store section they're up there, pricing and all, but if you try and add them to your shopping cart it says you can't do it. To me that says they should be ready to go any time now. check it out: http://store.line6.com/software.html?p=2

Musikmeese is just around the corner. If they have a POD HD PRO "X3" and it delivers the goods I'd be the first to relegate my HD Pro to backup status or stick it in my recording-only rack.

I'm actually looking forward to that metal pack. Here's to hoping that the non-x versions still see it within a week or so.

" L6 Elektrik, Doom, and Epic models (all XT) for years" That's some serious back pedaling there. And Eletrik takes up more DSP than the updated uberschall - switched out the uber for the elektrik on more than a few presets and hit the wall suddenly. And if they really are xt/x3 models, why can you(L6) produce preamp-only versions and full-amp-with-DEP-parameters OF THOSE FOR FREE, and yet on a monetized model pack where you're asking 50 bucks a pop phone-in full models only? The value proposition's fading fast here....:huh:

Velocity 300 is skull-crackingly loud. Easily competes with a 100+ watt tube head. And easy to get different tube tones out of it. Reactance at half way is like an EL34 amp, and full out is like a 6l6. Love it. Wouldn't go back to tubes unless I was making enough to afford a tech and a roadie or two.

I could've swore the XT had a preamp-only option - what the heck was the output setting STACK PWRAMP for if that wasn't the "preamp" setting on the xt? I rocked an XT Pro for a while and remember getting a good sound in a poweramp/cab setup.

As long as the old X3 models have a preamp-only option I think I'll be happy. If they're full models only, then the value proposition goes right out the window for me. I use the HD Pro as a Preamp/FX unit pretty much exclusively, so I hope they're good to go for live use (into a poweramp, then into a 4x12), because 50 bucks USD for 3/10 functionality is ridiculous.

They said it was a "podfarm" model, which has me wondering if I can use it in preamp-only mode. That part isn't clear to me.

^ not at all. I don't know why people think tube amps only sound good at skull cracking volumes, because they sound great at any volume. They just distort/compress better when they're pushed harder, that's all. I've run the above setup and it sounds fantastic at low volumes too, and if I found another 2:Nintey or a 2:100 at the right price I might pick one up again as it was a great sounding combo. I switched to a Rocktron Velocity 300 because it was SOOOO much lighter, and zero tube maintenance. Seriously, those high wattage poweramps are so heavy that I needed a separate rack case just for them! Great tone, but heavier than my 6U case filled with stuff combined.

I feel you dude, which is why I kicked up the stink about the jc120; I have no need for any of the other models in the vintage pack otherwise, but it is what it is. The metal pack on the other hand, I will probably find a use for every model in it, except for the octone as nothing I do would utilize it's unique thing it's got going on. Purge, Variac'd Plexi and Shiva are going to scratch some serious lead-tone itches I've got going on and Insane, Big Bottom, and 5150 are going to fill in some rhythm gaps. The remastered jcm800 is probably going to be more classic 800 that's clearer and crunchier overall which will be nice, and I'm sure the Aggro and Smash will be interesting. This will probably cure my G.A.S. until they come out with whatever their next box is going to be, and even maybe beyond. I actually hope this thing drops AHEAD of schedule, as the excitement/anticipation is killing me!