Create blank patches?

[bptrav]

I'm going to be trying out a HD500X at guitar center tomorrow, and have read the Quick Start guide and watched a few youtube videos.  One important thing that wasn't clear to me though is how do you make a new patch from scratch?  If you scroll through the patches and setlists is that an option in one of them?  Or do you just remove all the stuff out of an existing patch and do it that way?

 

Keep in mind I will be demoing this at a store, so I will have to be using the physical controls not the software (which I will definitely end up using if/when I buy it).  That's part of my problem trying to find youtube videos of it.  Almost all of the videos use the software for editing.

[Punkyboy]

if you mean to erase a patch with a blank one ?

 

or you open HD Edit and save a empty preset "new tone" and than just copy this saved over another one

or you hold an empty preset "new tone " on your Pod  select it click on SAVE  and copy it to another place  over another one

 

Cheers

[edstar1960]

On a factory set HD500X you will get the supplied Line 6 Set Lists along with at least 2 USER SET LISTS at latest firmware level - but if it's the previous firmware level you will get 3 USER Set Lists.  The User Set Lists consist of BLANK new patches with nothing in them.   You use one of those patches to create your own and test things out.

 

If you buy your own one, then one of the first things you should do is backup all the supplied patches, and then backup one of the Blank user set lists and one of the blank user patches which you can then use to reset things as and when needed.

[pianoguyy]

Once you own a unit, using the EDIT software is always the easiest to get rid of the old - just by dragging a 'new tone' into the slot. 

 

But, at the store: 

1. there are empty slots available. 

2. changing the blocks to contain nothing is a good way. 

 

 

I'll be honest with ya though... 

I don't know how well you'll be able to create sounds during a 5 minute test run in a store. 

[bptrav]

Thanks for the responses.  Good to know there are some blank patches available by default.  I couldn't actually find a list anywhere so I wasn't sure.

 

I'll be honest with ya though... 

I don't know how well you'll be able to create sounds during a 5 minute test run in a store. 

 

Hopefully they'll let me try it for more than 5 minutes!  I agree something this complicated I'm probably not going to get a "perfect" dialed in tone in that short amount of time, but I just want to get some sort of feel for it.

 

Also right now I'm using a Line 6 Spider II, so the HD500X should be a huge step up from that.   :)   I'll be running the HD500X into my studio monitors and headphones.

[pianoguyy]

I agree something this complicated I'm probably not going to get a "perfect" dialed in tone in that short amount of time, but I just want to get some sort of feel for it.

 

Forget "perfect dialed in tone". I don't think, if starting with a blank patch, that you'll get ANY usable sound in 5 minutes.

There is a learning curve for these units. We've all been there at one point. One day you will wake up, and it will all make sense all at once. 

[ppiluk]

i agree with the above posters. I would suggest you don't get too hung up on the tones you create in store. The POD HD500x takes more effort than some of the other multi-effect pedals but your efforts will be rewarded. I have used a handful of other multi-effect pedals from Zoom, Boss and Digitech and my HD500 sounds so much better!

 

If I may suggest one more thing, after you get the unit home, download, dissect and modify as many patches as you can get your hands on. Switch out effect pedals with others of the same type, change amps and cabs. This helped me get a feel for the different effects and amps built in the unit.

 

Good luck with the demo! Let us know how it went. 

[bptrav]

I traded in my old amp and ended up buying it!  Even just using some of the presets at the store and tweaking them a bit (usually turning overdone effects/distortion/etc down) I got better sounds out of my guitar than I ever have from my Spider II, so I can't even imagine how good it will sound once I actually figure the thing out.   :)   

 

I listened to a bunch of youtube/soundcloud demos and comparisons first too, and the HD500X always sounded richer to me than anything even close to this price range.  Some of the other multi-effect stuff around this price seem to have pretty good effects, but the amp/cabinet modelling leaves a lot to be desired compared to the HD500X from what I've heard, especially for clean to mid-gain tones (most of what I play).  This is basically my entire rig so that's really important.

 

 

i agree with the above posters. I would suggest you don't get too hung up on the tones you create in store. The POD HD500x takes more effort than some of the other multi-effect pedals but your efforts will be rewarded. I have used a handful of other multi-effect pedals from Zoom, Boss and Digitech and my HD500 sounds so much better!

 

If I may suggest one more thing, after you get the unit home, download, dissect and modify as many patches as you can get your hands on. Switch out effect pedals with others of the same type, change amps and cabs. This helped me get a feel for the different effects and amps built in the unit.

 

Good luck with the demo! Let us know how it went. 

 

That's pretty much all I've been doing since I got it home.  It's amazing how many sounds you can get just out of the amp/cab/mic stuff, depending on the combination you use, and that's not even adding in all the pedals and settings/order of those, plus how they interact to your pickups/guitar.

 

Some of the user made presets sound pretty great even without tweaking them too...others not so much.  There is an "Acoustic (best)" one I downloaded that just sounds phenomenal.  I can actually hear each note ringing out in the chords in a way I've never experienced before, at least not with me playing  :lol:   Even when adding in some distortion/fuzz pedals and stuff there is much more articulation of each note than I ever had before with the same amount of gain (for example I can play a full barre chord and it doesn't sound like a car wreck anymore).  At the very least it has given me a lot of confidence that great tones are possible, I just need to figure out how to make some myself now.

 

I really like the software for it too, night and day difference between that and trying to tweak with the buttons/knobs.  There are a million settings of course but at least they make it easy to mess around with them.

[pianoguyy]

Toy around with it between now and June. 

Download some Customtone files. 

Learn the EDIT software. 

 

Have fun. 

 

But don't get frustrated during this first month. It seems like trying to pilot a space ship right now, and you haven't even gone through flight school yet. 

One day, it will all make sense. 

[pianoguyy]

here's something I just thought of when reading another post.... 

 

 

You may want to make sure you have the latest firmware. 

It is possible that you have a 'stock' unit. Not only are some bugs fixed (until new bugs are found and released in the next firmware), but there have been added features to the unit since it's invention. 

[Glebber]

I bought a used HD500X about 2 weeks ago, just the unit and power supply, no manual. Got it home, plugged it in and "blank user" pre-sets showed up on screen. First nite spent mindlessly twisting knobs and ONLY getting the sound of my raw guitar thru headphones. Second nite after work, plugged it in and somehow it was on Line 6 pre-sets, ok, most did not sound usable for anything other than space tones. Broke down and looked at Pilot Guide then advanced guide on Google. Wow, this thing is rocket science! Now a week later and after really working on the thing and watching YouTube tutorials I am creating tones I like. There certainly is a learning curve but boy howdy does this thing sound sweet! Even did the 4 cable method into my Carvin V3 100 watt combo amp and if I could lift the beast (80 + lbs) I could actually play out somewhere. Have to wait until I get a lighter amp, I don't feel 61 until I try to move the amp more than 10 feet. 

[pianoguyy]

manuals are all pdf files 

 

download monkey to make sure that the pod is up to date.

installing the most recent versions will also blank out any changes the original owner made. 

 

but, that also means that certain settings will be reverted as well. and then you have to set them or it will sound like lollipop.

[Glebber]

I bought the unit with the "all optional amp model packs" installed and had to wait for the seller to "gift" them to me (which he finally did) before I hooked it up to my computer. Now I see it has latest updates and the Model Packs are also there  and listed in my account. I did download some patches from "PDXguitar freak" and put them in the blank user tones they sound pretty good. I just bought a Yamaha G100-112 series iii solid state guitar amp that I can actually pick up  and the Pod sounds good through it also. The guy I bought the unit from hadn't used it much I don't think because non of the factory patches appeared modified and all the user presets were empty. I like the Line 6 Edit a lot.