Can I connect two Pod HDs to the same floorboard?

[Black4334]

Hey guys, first time poster!

Basically I'm running two amps in my bass rig - a clean channel, utilizing a Warwick Quad VI running a Pod HD Pro in tandem via the 4-cable method, and a dirty channel running a Gallien-Krueger 700RB. I've recently come across a second HD Pro for a ridiculous price and bought it without thinking. I use the HD Pro for mostly modulation FX when it's connected to my Warwick - chorus, delay, pitch glide, stuff like that, all controlled by my Shortboard MKI.

So here's my question. If I set up my Gallien-Krueger and the second HD Pro using the 4-cable method, and load it with the same patch as the first, could I potentially control both with the same Shortboard? I'd love to be able to have them both connected to one controller. It would be much easier and less messy to hit my delay-assigned footswitch and get delay coming through both cabs instead of one. Is this doable? Could I potentially do it by just getting a Y-split Ethernet Cable and plugging each receiving end into each Pod, or can I physically connect both Pods to eachother so that the second Pod mimics the first? I know it's a super-weird question but I would really appreciate any advice on the subject.

Thank you!

[joel_brown]

I know in computer networking you can't do that.  Each port has to have a switch which is why you see 4 port hub/switches and not y splitters for connecting computers.  The PODHD is basically a computer so in theory this shouldn't work, at least not reliably.  Now the question is will a 4 port hub/switch work.  I don't know and in the years I've been hanging out on this forum this is the first time I've ever seen anyone ask this question.

 

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful and I'm curious to see if anyone really knows the answer to this.

[Black4334]

You're all good mate! I really appreciate it. It's a really weird scenario and I don't think it's ever been done before as a setup, as it's probably easier to get all those effects as pedals and just run them in front of the splitter box. I personally like the idea of hiding all the modulation in the fx loop as that generally lends to a much better sound once it leaves the cab. Only problem is, having that just come out of the clean amp kills a lot of the volume and diminishes a lot of the prominence of those effects.

I just looked at those 4-port hub/switches. They look promising, but I'd rather not experiment with something that could potentially do damage to both Pods as well as the footswitch (Can it? It must carry a voltage to activate the shortboard). It would give me more piece of mind to get some other opinions on this.

Thanks for the help though, I would never have known about those switches otherwise!

[Black4334]

if all you need is to change patch in both 2 units at the same time, you could connect by MIDI cable one POD to the other one..

 

so as an example, if you call the "C" patch of a given bank in the master unit (controlled by the floorboard), the slave unit will automatically call to the "C" patch in the same bank number..

obviously the above patch "C" will be programmed differently on each unit.

Cheers! That makes a whole lot of sense actually.

 

Would I be able to switch different effects on and off in the same patch? Say if I were to click the "stomp" switch, would both the Pods switch to whatever effect's assigned to the "stomp" switch? Would there be any latency between switching on the two? 

[spaceatl]

Yes, it can be done...I hacked the serial com and made a splitter to run my Spider Valve and Flextone III XL off the same Shortboard...The pinout is the same for HD...However, you have to clip all the wires save one...I think it's pin 6...There is a post in the archive on this mod. I will try to find it. It totally is not supported, but it does work...However, the way it works is that one of the devices becomes listen only...Pretty cool actually because you offset the banks and the patches between the devices...FX can be mutually exclusive...etc...

 

But since you have HD Pro, I would think all you need is midi cables to control both of them from one shortboard...It would take a little programming, but seems pretty simple...