B-Lock-Aye Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 I got the Bass POD XT live - it seemed pretty much obsolete - so back it went. Just got the POD HD500X - all updated and connected - pretty straight forward without even using the manual. I have found a couple Bass Patches and put them in my POD HD500X, But I am wondering if anyone else routinely uses Bass patches. Buying POD FARM and the Bass pack seems like a lot of money for a couple amps. Just looking for ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjnette Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 Yes, I do. I am using it much more then I used to for Bass. you can make a bass amp out of nearly most of the amps already in there. You probably don't need POD Farm but the Bass pack, though only a few, is an improvement. Like with Guitars and amps you must, must ensure you are not clipping internally your tone. The low end has a lot of energy. There are no meters or indicators on the HD. I am pretty sure this is the source of most complaints about tone of guitars and bass in the HDs. A very good pair of Studio headphones is a good way to check for distortion, reverb tails etc. It is handy to have a FFT meter inserted into a DAW channel to look at the frequencies that are poking in the red. Makeup gain thru your monitoring but peaks are only important to not go over. Use a free VU meter (mVU or RMS and the like) to actually look at the actual volume. You can have lots of peaks clipping with little-perceived loudness. If you try to get an optimal FFT meter loudness, the tone will get very tubby sounding. Really all you are doing is seeing if there is sub bass energy to be removed that your speakers can't reproduce and any to tame any in the red frequencies without ruining your tone. As the bass widely swing the meters it needs to be tamed by compression, while the Tube Compressor helps it cant catch and clamp down on the bass as well as the hardware counterpart. But if you keep the levels moderate you can get a good tone out of it. For higher levels a decent compressor in the FX loop is ideal. It is easy to overload FX into the amp and then into the converters and it is wise to level check an FX on and off so it matches your initial level. Louder sounds better but not in this case, a slight scratchiness onto ticks is the beginning of clipping. A bodgy cable can cause a more noticeable crackling version of this. I generally leave the Master on the HD volume output at maximum as use another interface. But it is advised to set a level and stick to it as there are so many volume variables in the HD. Also, making a patch with headphones on the HD unit won't translate to an amp or PA and patches made for recording don't translate back to amps and PAs. Whatever the intended purpose is, make the patch under the same conditions. Some of the FX in the HD work very well on bass but so does just an Amp model on it's own. I for a long time would use a better preamp and compressor into the HD FX return and while it smoothed things out it was not suitable for live work. I even just went DI bypassing the HD and occasionally using it as an FX via a loop. Eventually, I figured out how to make it work with the HD only and I'd encourage you to do the same before looking elsewhere first. Anyway, probably too much info and a bit of a raving answer but it is all here. And, use your ears you will be happy with it! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Lock-Aye Posted February 15, 2019 Author Share Posted February 15, 2019 Thanks for the heads up - i do notice just a bit of fuzzy static from time to time, but I need to just play with it. I did get a couple patches dialed in and the one thing I'm fighting is the clank and initial tone of the strings fretting. I roll my bass volume back and it seems better. That was just headphones, it'll be different in production into and amp. Much to learn by trial and error. Great practice tone through headphones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaceatl Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 I use the HD Desktop and shortboard for bass. I love it! The SVT is mostly what I use. I generally use a dual patch with a FULL SVT with the 8x10 cab on one chain and the SVT PRE model with no cab on the other. freaking fantastic and saves my back. I record and and use it live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pianoguyy Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 I use it for bass. But I am not a full time bass player. There are some bass patches that ship with the 500. They can help guide you in a direction for making your own. And Ed Saxman has some good bass patches from the "stock" options. https://line6.com/support/topic/8395-any-bass-tips-hd500/ I have a "mild" distortion patch that I use as one of my main patches on guitar, I often use it for live bass. But that is because I have one of those +/- eq systems that will allow me to dial in various tones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjnette Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 The HDs Pretty good at getting a somewhat "Royal Blood" tone too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codamedia Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 I used the HD500 to record bass parts for years. I don't play bass live so I never invested in the Bass Amp pack... I just used the Flip Top model for pretty much everything I did and it got the job done without fail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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