RipperShred

50 bucks for a single amp model - that would make sense years from now when inflation makes 50 bucks the same as 5 is now. You're in a very small minority there. And it's not an apples to apples comparison with the savings compared to pedals thing; Pedals hold their value over time, and are easily resold with little to no hoops involved. Not at all the same thing with the model packs. Sure it'll save you (me/us/we) money vs the hardware pedal to get that tone, but you can't just up and one day decide you're going to sell your 5150 model to the guitarist down the street 'cause he's interested. He may not even have a POD, and that's just for starters. So while I can understand how you may place a lot of value on a model, your valuation is on the short-sighted side as you're not taking into account things like ease of resale, market segment/size, technological obsolescence (what's all this going to get you on the open market when POD SUPER HD EX PLUS ALPHA is released) etc etc etc Whatever's coming, they feel they're going to get a decent return on for money spent, and it's probably sort of a beta test to see if it's a viable business model as well. If enough people up to this point would've asked for single models you could bet your bottom dollar that they'd have a single amp model custom shop ready to go.

Hoping sooner rather than later. Actually looking forward to this now. Really interested in hearing some clips/seeing some videos.

I use my HD Pro as a preamp/fx unit with a traditional power amp. It's been quite a while since I had access to an XT, so I'd like to know if the preamp-only version of the model is going to sound the same as it would in my HD Pro? If it does, while being the L6 fanboy that I am, I feel just a little disappointed about that. 50 bucks isn't pocket change to me, so I like to know that if I'm buying a HD model pack that I'm getting my HD's money's worth. :-P If it sounds better - and by better I mean more dynamic, and more organic gain, etc. than I feel better about that money being spent.

What the heck do you mean? So are you saying that the HD SLO is no different than the X3 SLO? Or the Dual Rec, or any of the other amps in the HD line? Then what dafaq was the point of moving to the HD platform if they're the same? It's the same thing dude. Originals or not, they can be improved upon. Better dynamics, more organic gain, etc etc. They can be enhanced without becoming fundamentally different, otherwise we'd all still be rocking an XT for crying out loud.

I'm interested to see what the next box will be like, but honestly, the 5150, Shiva and Variac'ed Plexi probably solve a lot of if not most of my problems for me; I really was about to get a Bogner XTC red pedal because I couldn't get that/those tones out of the POD HD PRO as it is. And even though I'm not thrilled at the X3 models not getting a new coat of HD paint I'm sure they'll round out what I need for metal amps, so I'm going to need something compelling to move up. Don't get me wrong, I want it to be compelling. If the value's there, the tone's there, and the multiplicity of amp and fx models are there, I'm ready to give it a whirl. However, with 10 more metal amp channels to mess around with it will definitely do a lot to alleviate any G.A.S. I've got at the moment.

Only three in the metal pack, the other packs have HD models too. Apparently the vintage is all HD except for the "acoustic" model, and the bass models are all good too. Just the metal pack that got the 3. I'm still probably going to buy it, as picking up an XTC Red pedal used is still more expensive than this pack. I was really just about to pull the trigger on the pedal, and this came out, and if the Shiva model does its namesake justice it will have saved me 100-200 bucks. Just wish there was more on offer for genuinely new and true-HD models in the metal dept.

Yeah, DI pretty much said only the three named amps are HD ones, the rest are straight X3/POD FARM ports, so now I've got mixed feelings about it. Still think I'm willing to pay for it, but 7/10 models are filler/padding so that 50 bucks seems kind of steep now. And I use the term filler/padding because apparently absolutely nothing has been done to them - no tweaking, no reworking, just straight up ports from the X3/pod farm. If they were reworked/remastered HD versions of those amps I'd be totally cool with the 50 bucks, but knowing they're ports feels like the pricing's off. Seems a little dishonest to me; 4+ yrs into the products life cycle with all the HD hype marketing sticking old stuff in the box now and not being up front about it seems like shifty marketing. They had to be like "we only have 3 new models to offer, but no one's going pay 50 bucks for three models, so let's toss 7 more models from old tech so people will look at it like 'hey, 10 models for 50 bucks - that's 5 bucks a model! What a deal!' we can't lose!" lol

Cool there's a bunch of old favorites from the x3 line making their way into HD line. Are these models (agro, insane, etc) revamped-to-HD-quality standards, or has L6 found a way to just port old models over?

Yeah, but the fact that it was/is solidstate, and damn "cold" sounding (even/not-warm/however you want to describe it) didn't go over as well with classic tube enthusiasts as well as it has with metal heads who LOVE that evenness and super-cleanness of the amp. that super-cleanness is what metalheads love about it, because if they're going clean, they want the cleanest frickin' clean possible, and nothing does clean (and relatively flat) better than the JC-120! It makes the heaviness THAT MUCH MORE HEAVY by contrast! High gain sounds ULTRA high-gain when you go from jc-120 clean to high gain! :-D

And the guys in marketing have to know this. I don't need more "vintage" amps from my POD; it's got plenty already, but I could use the amps in the metal pack, and JUST the JC-120, so stick it in the metal pack as well, or, make it an amp your can purchase on its own. I don't need/want to spend an extra 50 bucks for a single model, and I know I'm not alone.

lol, I'll assume you're being facetious there with the Hetfield remark; James Hetfield - frontman of Metallica, and one of the biggest proponents of the jc-120 in the metal world. I'll concede I don't spend my every waking moment on this forum, but I can't recall a conversation where that amp was in a list with something like a fender champ, deluxe, or an AC30. It's almost always in a list of metal amps that people wish was in the POD. So while I respect your childhood love for things Roland JC, it's a big one in the metal community dude, as I'm sure many who play the metalz in this thread will contest.

Yeah, vintage alright; Vintage Hetfield. lol

I agree that the jc-120 is a great addition, but sticking it in the "vintage" amp pack is a lame-@ss way of squeezing and extra 50 bucks out of the primary community that was clamoring for it; the Metal players. It absolutely should be included in the metal pack and taken out of the vintage, because there's nothing "vintage" about the way that amp sounds. The people who've been begging for that amp are the same guys begging for the 5150 and a Boogie MKIIC+. No one in the vintage amp community wants that amp, and quite frankly I see that as a kick in the nuts. Digital_Igloo, if you're listening dude, fix that ASAP. Soaking your target audience like that is down right insulting.

It's not an experience I've "had", it's what I "have". perhaps it just tracks better given your above math equation when it's dealing with a standard tuned guitar to A440. Pitch glide as a means to downtune an instruments tracks well when the guitar is tuned to standard, and tends to warble terribly when it's not. Why that doesn't make sense to you doesn't really make sense to me. I and the few other guys I know personally who have this box have observed the same thing. Pitch glide as a makeshift polyphonic tuning device tracks standard E in A440 really well for droptuning a guitar, and warbles horribly / tracks poorly with guitars that aren't. single notes are unaffected by this, but even a basic powerchord will warble if the guitar's not tuned and intonated. Whether it's an algorithmic quirk, a DSP issue, a combination of those two, or something else altogether who knows. So for the purposes of the OP's original question, that/this is my advice; tune and intonate your guitar, preferably to E standard A440 using the POD's internal tuner, or an external one, and it should track really well. using the pitchglide as a polyphonic pitch shifter I've been able to down to B and further and still have it sound good. And as for the EVH song a 1/4 of a step down, well the pitchglide can do that easily enough when it's working right. And yeah, like someone else in this thread said, make sure it's the very 1st fx in the chain, and really the 1st anything in the chain as putting it after any other effect and/or amp will definitely have you warbling and pitch-bouncing all over the place.

It works for me when I've tuned my guitar A440 standard. I find if it's not tuned up, and not properly intonated, it warbles, but tuned up and setup (in E standard) the pitch glide tunes down / drops amazingly. I also find it doesn't do it as well on guitars that are already downtuned. I've got a guitar that I keep tuned down to D standard, and it's definitely warbly sounding. My standard tuned guitar can tune down to B standard and beyond and still sound really good.

Yeah, but he's saying it on the POD HD forum and that's got to count for something!

Digital_Igloo said " A bunch of big ones may, uh, show up later next year. Several may show up at, oh I don't know, let's say... Winter NAMM 2015 on January 22." How dafaq didn't everyone jump on that? Thunderin' Sh*t Balls people! I'm going to lose my mind in anticipation for the next 20 days! :blink:

I used to be pretty vocal on this subject, then I just made piece with my HD Pro. It's the best option in its price range, and an incredible value. Being a metal guy, and having had an afx2 for a while, I can say that there is an incredible amount of tonal redundancy with all those amps. Maybe my ears just aren't as fussy as some people's, but I gotta tell you of the 50+ high gain channels I had to choose from they really blurred together and I came back to the Engl Powerball, the Boogie dual rec, Uberschall and VH4/Das Metal amps more often than not. Same goes for fx; tubescreamer boost, a good warm digital delay, and a decent chorus. A bazillion fx are definitely lost on me. My only caveat is some of the fx could use an updating, like everyone says on here; need some better variety in the overdrive/distortion box category, a lusher chorus, etc. Honestly, a Vh4, Herbert, and XTC would complete this thing for me, and I could be happy for the rest of my days. If I never see those amps in the box I could still probably be happy, but I'd have something to complain about in the "if only there was X" category! hahahaha! Digital_Igloo said that there's a meaningful update in the pipeline "likely" to show by 2015's end, so I'll at least give it the benefit of the doubt that stuff people have been asking for for the past 4+ yrs might show up. In the meantime go play your guitar and enjoy it for crying out loud.

Just read the whole thread from start to finish, and I'm glad @Digital_Igloo has a sense of humour about this. I KNOW the reason you can't say anything about what's in the pipeline is because you're a businessman, and telling people when the next big thing is coming out can hurt sales of the current big thing. All of us not having a meltdown over waiting are just dying to know what the timeline is on the "next big thing", because we own the current tech, and knowing one way or the other isn't going to stop us from buying another one that we were never going to purchase in the first place. I'm as happy with my HD Pro as ever, but some missing amp models and a less than ideal midi-input implementation has me wondering when your next unit will ship, what its features will be, and if it will address these things for me. It's like waiting for Christmas, only 100x worse because unlike Christmas we have abosolutely no idea when it's going to happen, and after a while we start to wonder IF it's going to happen. :lol:

There's close to 150 items "in review". I'm curious as to what that means exactly, and how/when/if they'll transition into "in progress". There's some good stuff "in review", but no way to tell what's going on with it. Are we any closer to getting that 5150/5150II, Diezels, etc. that everyone over there keeps clamouring for? They're in review, but not in progress, so who knows? lol

What's funny is that I have since sold both the 2:Ninety and the 2:100 and have kept the Velocity 300. And I'd amend that review to say it's fairly close to a 6l6 with the reactance on full, and an EL34 with the reactance dialed between 6-8, and the wooliness I experienced with the definition (presence) control seemed to have as much to do with the preamp/amp model and 4x12 cabinet I was running it through as it did the character of the power amp itself. It came down to the fact that it's 1 rack space, 1/3 the weight, and zero tube maintenance and as "tubey" as I need it to be. Those heavy tube power amps required a separate 2u rack case to move them around since all of my gear in one rack case was just too heavy to move. I mean it was close to a separate 40lbs+ just for that poweramp/rackcase 2:90 or 2:100 combo! In a band mix, it doesn't sound any less "tube-like" than a real tube amp. Compared to my friends' JCM 900, Orange Rockerverb, or 5150ii amps, my rig holds its own, and most of the time I think it sounds better! And more than once they've asked me "you sure there aren't any tubes in that thing?"

There's gotta be more than 6 people who have this problem! hahahha!

Thanks for the votes peeps! Keep'em coming - enhancing MIDI implementation is a great way to improve the box without a lot of R&D overhead.

That's an option too, I suppose. Have toggle an option, and intelligent state an option. For me, not having to program everything backwards would make it AMAZING, as it would for a lot of other people. For those who like the toggle, all the power to ya!

Come on guys, I know there's more of you out there who have a non-fbv foot controller for you POD Pro that would love to have the midi fixed! Vote this up, for all our sakes!