Help! Hd 500 Is Too Complicated!

[croSSed]

I need videos.  I need COMPLETE videos that cover everything in the user start guide, Advanced Guide and more.  This thing is WAY over my head.  I'm used to plugging into a nice tube amp with a handful of stompbox effects, turning it on, and after a few minutes of dialing in, I have a great tone.  This thing... I feel like the user needs a degree in the operation of the thing just to make it work.  The manuals are just too much.  I don't learn things well by reading "how to", but give me a video demo and I can make it work.  I've spent well over an hour tonight trying to figure out how to use this thing, and I haven't made any ground.  Additionally, I don't find it enjoyable to be trying to "figure it out".  I want to PLAY with KILLER TONE.  The whole learning curve thing is not fun.  HELP!!!!!!  BTW, I searched YouTube vids and that was just frustrating.  None of the videos I viewed told me what I wanted to know.

[toneman2121]

http://line6.com/support/page/kb/_/effects/pod/

 

there are some video tutorials here

[radatats]

sell it and move on...

[croSSed]

_{Thanks, but I don't find anything on this page that tells me what I'm after.  This video starts GREAT:}

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkbOim_Gyuw

 

Starts as something exactly what I'm looking for, but where's the rest of it?  I can't find the next video in this series!

:angry:

 

I'm this close to selling this POS and buying a GOOD amp!  Why did I sell the one I had to get this? WHY??

[ext1jdh]

If you're this frustrated by technology then sell it and get an amp. You'll be stuck with a single tone, but it sounds like that's all you're capable of anyway.

 

The HD500 is not a POS because you can't figure it out. Thousands of others have no problem understanding it.

[XCrossroadsX2000]

As otherss have said the HD500 is an outstanding device. Unfortunately I do agree that programming through the device is not user friendly. I do not modify settings on the POD but use the HD Edit softtware. You can also download tones from custom tone and tweak them rather than building from scratch.

 

Use the Line 6 monkey to download the drivers and try watching this vIdeo.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IKbUbisZJE

 

Good Luck

[joel_brown]

Connect your PODHD to your PC and use the HD Edit software.  It makes it easier to work with.  Then it's kind'a like connecting stomp pedals to an amp, except your doing it on your computer screen.

[bignath]

If you're this frustrated by technology then sell it and get an amp. You'll be stuck with a single tone, but it sounds like that's all you're capable of anyway.

The HD500 is not a POS because you can't figure it out. Thousands of others have no problem understanding it.

Amen to that...

 

It's not THAT hard to work out. I'm first and foremost a drummer and I've nutted mine out easy enough.

[bjnette]

Someone here said once and it is most apt, "if someone just gave you 30 amps and 99 FX to try out you'd get into a spin." Something like that.

If you go by the presets you will be disapointed.

 

The thing to do is start with a "new tone". a blank slate. try out the different amp models. The pre amp models follow when you scroll down enough.

 

Pick an Amp, tweak it to your liking. Try different pickups turn your guitar volume down a bit and back up. Add an effect that sounds okay, tweak it a bit. tweak your guitar volume. Add another and tweak etc. Save your patch and label it.

 

go to another new tone and pick an Amp, ad infinitum.

[smrybacki]

sell it and move on...

 

This ^

[ext1jdh]

I'll buy it off you for $50 if you hate it that much

[BigChas52]

Here is some advice:

1.  DO NOT try to explore the HD 500 via it's interface.  You'll get quickly lost and frustrated.  I do suggest that you learn it later, but for starters connect your HD500 to your PC and use HD500 Edit.

 

2.  Start with 3 of the separate sections in the Edit program: AMPS - FX - Controllers

 

3.  I would start in the AMPS section, and pick an amp to start with.  You might start by picking something you're familiar with in the physical amp world.  Do not pick one of the "pre" models until you have a grip on what you're doing.  Use the "nrm" models for now.  DO feel free to twist the treble, bass, and middle knobs on the HD500 if that makes it easier to dial in your tone.  Treat this part like an actual amp.  For now, do not mess with the Amp Parameters or Cab Parameters sections.

 

4. Once you have a decent sounding AMP, go to the FX section.  From here, imagine how you would place stomps and effect in a physical environment.  It's really not that different.  You'll have lots of toys to choose from.  Again, start with stomps and effects that you are familiar with in the physical world.  You might want to make sure you assign a volume pedal in there as well. - Notice the little purple blocks.  You can drag them before, or after the amp section to decide if you want the effect before or after the amp.  For example, I like GATE and distortions before, and delays and reverb after.  I like volume pedals before the amp on overdriven patches, and after the amp on clean patches.  You can also set up dual amping by dragging the amp block around until the single amp path turns into two paths, but I wouldn't do this for now.

 

5.  In the CONTROLLERS section, think about the FX you've chosen and which ones you would like assigned to foot switches.  In the physical world, you might leave something like GATE or mild compression on all the time, so you don't necessarily need to assign them to foot switches.  I usually assign distortions, delays, chorus, and one additional (depending on the patch) to the foot switches.  Remember the volume pedal?  Make sure you assign it to the expression pedal here :)

 

6.  You can save your patch to the HD500 by using the "SEND - Selected" option in the upper left corner of the Edit interface.

 

Once you have this part down, it shouldn't be difficult to get a grip on the MIXER section and some of the output options.

 

Try not to get frustrated.  It's a learning experience, and can be quite fun.  Enjoy :)

[DeanDinosaur]

What you must learn before you learn anything:

 

1-How to setup the POD "options" based on what you'r using for amplification. For amp, Power amp. Studio speaker or whatever else

Not setting this correctly, your pod will never sound right.

[croSSed]

@BigChas52: Best reply by far to my quandary.  Thank you for that!  I've already downloaded Line 6 Monkey and will connect my HD 500 to my computer and start editing that way.  Thanks also to all of you who posted something HELPFUL.  To the "just give up, sell it," naysayers, well...Unfortunately, this site only allows one down vote per day.

[ozbadman]

You might want to consider an HD300. It has the same sounds, and is set up much more like a plug-and-play device. It was intended for people who didn't want to deal with the freedom/complexity of the HD500.

[ext1jdh]

To the "just give up, sell it," naysayers, well...Unfortunately, this site only allows one down vote per day.

Replacing it with a system that you're far more comfortable with is helpful commentary. Just because the advice you receive is not the advice you want does not make it bad advice.

[smrybacki]

@BigChas52: Best reply by far to my quandary.  Thank you for that!  I've already downloaded Line 6 Monkey and will connect my HD 500 to my computer and start editing that way.  Thanks also to all of you who posted something HELPFUL.  To the "just give up, sell it," naysayers, well...Unfortunately, this site only allows one down vote per day.

 

So let's see, you buy Line6's flagship digital processor, then decide it is too difficult for you. 

 

  -  "Way over my head."

  -  "User needs a degree in this thing"

  - "The whole learning curve thing is not fun."

 

These are your words sir, and since playing guitar is generally a voluntary activity, I suggested you give up, sell it and go back to what you already know and like.  It was hardly a snarky comment by me or anyone else as far as I can see.

 

I program computers for a living, and I know that the digital realm isn't for everyone.  There IS a learning curve.  And I'd add here that once you have the basics down of how to select amp(s), effects, speaker cabinets and so on down -- the REAL learning curve will begin where you get to figure out how to make it all work together in a way that YOU like.  I can give you an extensive read on the POD HD series that was suggested to me.  beware, it is long and detailed, but it WILL give you that secondary level of knowledge that you'll be wanting soon enough:

 

http://foobazaar.com/podhd/toneGuide/

 

Just because you are frustrated with the experience doesn't mean you can come along and slam people over it.  This forum is VERY helpful as forums go from my brief experience.  Try taking your approach down several notches and ask for specifics. 

 

One other place I can point you is something I found just this morning, which is a walk through on creating Andy Summers type sounds on the HD.  Doesn't matter if you like The Police or Andy really, but it will show you how to achieve a specific goal:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhTvmSx_mLQ

 

[Charlie_Watt]

I program for a living but I find the interface on pods hard to use because I don't use it every day.  I find the computer based Edit programs solve that problem and make it easy to see what you are doing.  I do most of my editing on my X3 with Gearbox.  I am about to buy the 500X to upgrade to HD for use with my JTV69s.

[medbad5150]

ha ha..not laughing at ya mate, cos it is complicated to start, thing to remember is that you can never make a serious mistake, there is always factory prest and this superb forum.....patronising intended!

[radatats]

I am always willing to help those that I can on this forum.  However, after reading your post I was more than a little ticked off.  You started out with how you are used to "nice tube amps" and your pedals and everything is great but you spent a whole hour with the POD and can't get it to work perfectly.  Now you want us to drop everything and hold your hands getting started.  Guess what? We all spent a lot of time reading, researching and playing with our gear to figure our how to make it work.  It didn't come with a tone Genie attached.  Hence, my comment to sell it and move on.  If you are willing to put in the time we are willing to help.  If not, feel free to keep using those nice tube amps and pedals.

 

Stick around, chill out, have fun and play... it gets better... ;)

[TheRealZap]

i find myself editing on the unit more than the edit program...

that's just because of the pro being mounted right in front of me in the studio desk...

with the 500 i used the computer editing program more...

 

some things on the unit are obviously buried a bit more because of the limited info on the screen.

i'd agree that the edit program will make it easier to find some things and to see their relationship....

mostly i'd say download some custom tone files and check out what others have done...

 

 

I program for a living but I find the interface on pods hard to use because I don't use it every day.  I find the computer based Edit programs solve that problem and make it easy to see what you are doing.  I do most of my editing on my X3 with Gearbox.  I am about to buy the 500X to upgrade to HD for use with my JTV69s.

[mcolquitt]

Call me goofy but it seems to me that when I have ever needed help with anything, not just electronics but anything, and I asked for help from someone or a group of someones, I never considered that it would benefit me to ask the questions I had in a whiney, complaining, insulting and childish fashion. I would simply state my situation and ask for some help or more likely, answers to specific questions. In other words, I never tried to seek help the way you have here, how does that work out for you?

 

The people here are amazingly kind and generous with their time. Now I see them in an even better light because I see that they will be just as helpful to those that clearly don't deserve it. Like you, here. Nomsayin?

[smrybacki]

I use both interfaces myself....the built in LCD and the HD Edit.  The HD Edit IS way better in my opinion, but the built in one isn't all that hard to grasp, once you have an idea of what's going on.  Admittedly, that takes a bit of what I call "sticktoitiveness", but tell me about something worth doing that doesn't involve a bit of that.

 

I read somewhere that this person doing the tweaking (I think it was a David Gilour tribute type site) preferred the old GearBox interface and I'd say looking back I mifght have to agree with that.  The thing about the HD Edit is that you can drag and drop blocks as you wish, but the order you see them in the FX panel remains unchanged which is a bit counterintuitive to me.  But hey, that is a minor quibble....

[perapera]

YES it's complicated

and I LOVE IT :D

[Metalchef]

Time, Patience, and perseverance will accomplish all things....... Buck up little camper it will work out. Some of it is a little complicated but not so much that you couldn't dial in a decent enough tone to play. The best advice I've seen to get basic tones is treat your signal chain just as u would a real CHAIN (if u had all the actual stompboxes). Also if you need a better reference point for artists tones do a Google search or YouTube search for Isolated Guitar Tracks for those artists. I know for me when I first started trying to match tones with other artists I would always try to match the mixed tone and that's almost impossible and very frustrating. There is no need to have to run a bunch of effects to achieve a playable tone on this thing.

[stumblinman]

I've only used the LCD interface for tones, besides saving set lists etc. I've never done tweaking using HD Edit. My gear isn't normally near my computer, so the idea of hauling my Pod and DT25 into another room to make sounds is folly. Looks like I will have to hook it up again to my computer for the new firmware though. A set list backup wouldn't be a bad idea as well.

[silverhead]

.... A set list backup wouldn't be a bad idea as well.

 

I would recommend that everyone make a backup before updating firmware. Then, during the firmware update process, choose to replace all presets.

[croSSed]

Replacing it with a system that you're far more comfortable with is helpful commentary. Just because the advice you receive is not the advice you want does not make it bad advice.

Wow.  Offering to buy a device for $50 when I could easily get $300 for it is helpful in some way?  Come on.  Some people call this "trolling".

 

Anyways... I appreciate all the encouragement, tips, etc.  I think the computer edit will really help me.  Part of my problem I'm realizing is that I can't see the edit screen on the POD well enough to have a "connection" with it.  I have to have my reading glasses right there to make edits there, and it just isn't working.  Also, the actually WAY you have to edit things - push this button, turn this knob, scroll to this screen, etc. - for my feeble mind seems counter intuitive.  Looking at the edit feature on the computer screen though makes a lot more sense to me.

[ext1jdh]

Wow.  Offering to buy a device for $50 when I could easily get $300 for it is helpful in some way?  Come on.  Some people call this "trolling".

 

Look at your first post in this thread and let's see who's trolling. 

[guitarno]

I need videos.  I need COMPLETE videos that cover everything in the user start guide, Advanced Guide and more.  This thing is WAY over my head.  I'm used to plugging into a nice tube amp with a handful of stompbox effects, turning it on, and after a few minutes of dialing in, I have a great tone.  This thing... I feel like the user needs a degree in the operation of the thing just to make it work.  The manuals are just too much.  I don't learn things well by reading "how to", but give me a video demo and I can make it work.  I've spent well over an hour tonight trying to figure out how to use this thing, and I haven't made any ground.  Additionally, I don't find it enjoyable to be trying to "figure it out".  I want to PLAY with KILLER TONE.  The whole learning curve thing is not fun.  HELP!!!!!!  BTW, I searched YouTube vids and that was just frustrating.  None of the videos I viewed told me what I wanted to know.

 

To the OP's point of needing videos, the following link is the complete set of Line 6's videos:

 

http://line6.com/support/page/kb/_/general-faq/line-6-video-tutorials-complete-list-r202

 

Have you looked through these? These are also on Line 6's YouTube page. There are also a lot of user created instructional videos on YouTube that you might need to watch. Some of them are helpful, some are just guys noodling with presets and aren't much help, but there are some decent ones out there.

 

  I understand your frustration in not getting what you want right away, but the HD500 is a complicated beast. There's a lot of good tones to be had, but it does take work and time to understand it and get the most out of it. Complicated powerful modelers are by their very nature, well... complex! If you've been using different modelers for years, it's a lot easier to understand how they work & how to set them up, but they all have a learning curve that you have to go through - just like learning to play guitar - you have to pay your dues, or you won't be successful! If this is your first modeler, then it's going to take some time to wrap your mind around the layout & controls - it will come with time. Just download some basic tones from Custom tone, or better yet set up a few real basic patches on your own (one amp, one or two effects, dead simple), that you can use to play for the moment, and in your spare time, watch the videos, take a factory or customtone patch that you like & start going through how it is set up - try to analyze what each module does, how the different parameters affect the tone - experiment with settings.

 

   As a previous poster said, initially, set up patches to mimic how you would with your physical pedalboard effects and your amp.

[croSSed]

Look at your first post in this thread and let's see who's trolling. 

You're saying my OP is trolling?

[ext1jdh]

Yes

[AParedes]

 

One other place I can point you is something I found just this morning, which is a walk through on creating Andy Summers type sounds on the HD.  Doesn't matter if you like The Police or Andy really, but it will show you how to achieve a specific goal:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhTvmSx_mLQ

 

we created this video (and a number of others) to try and help in this exact type of situation - players who want to "dive in" and get dirty without having to do a ton of reading.  Thanks for noticing the video, we should have a half dozen or so posted in the few weeks from some of the most commonly requested guitarists/sounds.

[sonnyducks]

I'd agree with you that this thing is a bit complicated and I find you have to do too many "tricks" to get a good tone.  Had I not needed something like this for my weekly church gig, I'd probably never have it.

 

That being said like anything, you will have to put time into it to get something out of it.  I got the POD b/c there were lots of tones on-line and my thinking would be I would just download a bunch and just use those.  Well that is an option but it just didn't work for me.  You have to wade thru too much crap in Customtone to find good stuff.

 

It came down to selling it and finding an alternative or learning this thing.  I chose to learn and guess what it didn't take too long once I started being serious about wanting to learn it.  However this thing is massive and I decided to start real simple when learning it (see below).

 

Some say use the HD Edit software to learn on, and that is valid.  Since I'm only ever playing this thing on stage I did not go that route and instead just sat down one day in the living room while watching a baseball game and just farted around building patches w/o headphones or a guitar.   That went a long way to learning the interface and now I can do anything quickly on the unit (except dialing in delay or controller assigns...those are way faster on the computer).   I would just give myself scenarios where I would approximate a famous guitar players rig.  That is a great exercise for learning the interface and since I wasn't on the floor or bent over with my guitar in my hand it was an enjoyable experance.

 

My best tip:   Find your go-to amp (mine are the Bassman BRT PRE).  Using a blank patch go thru all the amps by themselves.  DO NOT IGNORE PRE-AMP ONLY VERSIONS.  They are totally different and IMO better than the full models.  To my ears they are a lot less processed sounding.  Once you have a go-to amp you'll have a baseline to build new patches from.  You can also use CustomTone at that point to find out what others are doing with your favorite amp and that will give you some ideas.  I quite enjoy the unit now that I have a handful of amps that I know how to dial in.

 

My second best tip:  Use the looper to build your patches.   Record a phrase, put the looper in the front of your signal chain and then you can just go to town editing with both hands on the POD or computer.  This makes building a tone much faster and you can get to writing/playing quicker.

[sonnyducks]

Sorry to write a book and not address your original request, if you want a video I find Glenn DeLaune to have some of the best videos on the POD

 

Try this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6I6WCufEtk

[Akeron]

DO NOT IGNORE PRE-AMP ONLY VERSIONS.  They are totally different and IMO better than the full models.  To my ears they are a lot less processed sounding. 

 

Dont' know if that's the same even with the other amps, but I've found out that using the "full" version of the "Plexi Lead 100 Brt" you can get a sound similar to the "pre" one having all the amp deep editing parameters set to 0% except for the "Master", which must be set at 50% instead of the default 100%...

[alsithi]

Look at it logically. Set it up as you would your old rig.

 

The 500 is a virtual pedal board, so try setting it up as if it was a real one!

[croSSed]

Great help, folks; thanks.  Now I just need to get my HD 500 working again.  It "laid down" on me.

:unsure:

[rmaginnis]

I've been using my HD500 for a year combined with JTV69 . To this day I don't think I have totally figured out this combination but there again I'm old and sometimes I think I'm a brain dead moron.I have gotten some great and bad results but only after spending many hours of research reading and watching videos.I'm a stubborn old fart and if I can figure most of it out by reading and watching videos then i'm sure you can too.Don't give up! 

[Metalchef]

Preach the gospel rmaginnis. I too have had to spend what seems like an eternity reading (and re-reading) and watching (and re-watching) videos to grasp a lot of what this unit is capable of. You gotta stick with it. They pay off when it comes is usually worth it.