2 Pod 500 What To Try

[MIKEY9966]

been a pod owner for 1 year love it, now I have pick a other one up in a trade, so my question is sell it or use both at the same time, I have not read anything on this subject. I am thinking a super clean with lots of eq, then a mean over drive distortion , maybe 2 wah, or vol and wah, just trowin it out there to anyone who might have a coment thanks and merry xmas

[stumblinman]

You could make some awesome tones running one pod in the fx loop of the other. Use one strictly fx loop post amp for delays/mods/synth and the other for amp models and dirt boxes. Could have some crazy tones. Cascade one amp into the other using the loop. My brain is gonna explode!

[arislaf]

Why not... To use a jtv that will run on both pods simultaneously, with 1 amp at each pod and different settings that will give you a stereo spectrum?Or even stereo delay at each path to make a dolby delay system?and some chorus with different speed at the end of the chain?or a swell at the begin of 1 chain?I can write for hours...

[arislaf]

Ok, i have an idea!check out this: http://line6.com/customtone/tone/255247/

 

and that: http://line6.com/customtone/tone/255245/

 

with the amp of your choice, preferably an AC15 or 30  on the first and a Hiway on the second.

[MIKEY9966]

I can't wait to try this I am lucky I have a godin xtsa with 2 out puts and parker nightfly with stereo outs, not sure what you talking about running in to the fx loops, but thanks guys this should be fun a bit over kill maybe,

 

Also when I run 2 pods will I have to install for both and use to edit pages or will one work, not sure how this is going to work my amps are black star ht 5 ; Taylor k1 keyboard amp and a set 4 of krk 10, lol wish I had this when I was 18,,,

[MIKEY9966]

I think this is going to kick some lollipop if my brain dose not explode !!!

[MIKEY9966]

I sold it ire was to much, but I will say I made a decovery I think you call it wet and dry, wow so a totaly crisp clean amp and a super high gain amp and,find the right mix and the sound kicks lollipop, I will try to do it with one pod,

[gckelloch]

Oh yeah, a classic guitar live setup back in the 80's was to run a Roland JC120 on one side and a Marshall JCM800 on the other.  Picking articulation comes from the clean tone, sustain from the distortion, and the combined tone is just huge.  You probably want some compression on the clean tone.  Adjust respective outputs accordingly.  Any type of combo where one amp is more compressed/distorted than the other can be just awesome.  I set up a dual Marshal S100 patch in a PC amp sim thats my maybe my favorite mid 60's rhythm soul strat tone.  I also run amps into others (like early EVH) in several patches.  It takes a lot of tweaking to get it right, but the sounds are so rich and juicy.

[MIKEY9966]

Oh yeah, a classic guitar live setup back in the 80's was to run a Roland JC120 on one side and a Marshall JCM800 on the other.  Picking articulation comes from the clean tone, sustain from the distortion, and the combined tone is just huge.  You probably want some compression on the clean tone.  Adjust respective outputs accordingly.  Any type of combo where one amp is more compressed/distorted than the other can be just awesome.  I set up a dual Marshal S100 patch in a PC amp sim thats my maybe my favorite mid 60's rhythm soul strat tone.  I also run amps into others (like early EVH) in several patches.  It takes a lot of tweaking to get it right, but the sounds are so rich and juicy.

So the compression would be the blue or red comp? Do you think you could send me some patch? I really like the sound of this would it be call wet dry? Thanks

[gckelloch]

I actually don't even use a pod.  I use PC amp modelers.  Can't really suggest a compressor/limiter.  Get to know how they affect the attack and release and use what sounds right for the patch you put together.

[arislaf]

I would go for the vetta comp. after the mixer, since it's the most ''flat''.The red gives more high and the blue more bass...

[gckelloch]

Here I'm talking about running a compressor b4 just the clean amp path. It might duck the bass too much if run after the amp. The Vetta Comp or Juice might be a good choice, but treble boost compensates for the inherent treble loss of compression, so the Red Comp or Blue Comp Treb might be great, as might the Tube Comp, or one of the drive pedals -- anything that limits the dynamics a bit without creating much distortion. It depends on the type of sound you want, how it works with the the amp, etc. It will take some experimenting.

 

Do yourself a favor and record something in the looper mode for use to set up your presets. It makes editing much easier. The Blackface Double amp might be a good place to start. You could even drive it for a little sparkle -- kept in check by the compressor in front. One of the other sparkly sounding amp channels might work well, even without a compressor. I don't know the models very well, so I couldn't say. For modern metal style dual amp tones, you'd want the metal amps of course. I'm not at all versed in that type of sound. As I said, I really like my dual Marshall S100 tone. I kind of hear what I want for each amp first, then set up each one soloed b4 I combine them. Then I tweak a bit from there, soloing each amp as I need to.

 

The Pod HD's don't have a cab with speakers like the JC120. Those, or a cab with JBL D120F's would be ideal for the clean amp. All the other cab speakers, but maybe the Supro or Field Coil, roll off at ~4kHz or even lower. The The 4x12 Hiway cab has Fane speakers that roll off at ~6kHz. It's worth a try.

 

Most of the mics have presence boosts above ~4 kHz. Some also have significant bass roll off. You might look up spectrum graphs for each mic to get a better idea. The Rbn 121 mic is pretty flat, and the 4038 rolls off the highs. The Dyn 409 is pretty flat, but I prefer the ribbons. The 67 Cond tube mic is nice on vintage amp distortion tones. It might be nice on asparkly Blackface Double amp/4x12 Hiway cab tone -- with one of the less bassy Dyn mics on the overdrive amp tone. The 87 Cond solid state is pretty flat with sort of smooth glassy highs.  Combining amps is a daunting task. You probably want to set up one amp as the main tone, then set the other one up to compliment it, somewhat filling in the spaces the other lacks. You probably wouldn't want a Rbn 4038 or Dyn 409 on both cabs, but it really depends on how much bass each cab has. A Dyn 57 will usually fit somewhere in the mix.

 

It is a good idea to use some kind of limiting last in the chain. The Vintage Mic Pre might work well for that if it naturally compresses. I don't generally like using compressors post amps, unless it's a really transparent "brickwall" limiter on the top ~6dB  peaks. Another thing to try is one of the Tape FX like the Echo Platter; only if you can set the delay time and feedback to 0. It might cut the highs a lot, but a little tape saturation has a really nice gluing/fattening effect.

 

Definitely check out this guide for some crucial tips; particularly the A. Quirks section of the Quick Guide: http://foobazaar.com/podhd/toneGuide/

 

He uses a lot of eqing both pre and post. I try to avoid that in general. It just further complicates things, but a little post amp eq might help. You can use the HD500 IN Z setting per preset to cut the highs a little if you get too much gain fizz. 230k Z should be low enough. It depends on the PUP's, pot values, and cable capacitance. They should really add a 500k Z option. I use a low C ~200pF cable for less presence emphasis and more high end extension. It produces a fuller flatter tone to begin with.

 

He also mentions that certain FX have what's called latency.  It's a very short delay required for processing overhead.  ~5ms is enough to start confusing your high velocity playing, but it wouldn't come to that because FX latencies are only in the few sample range.  Pod HD units operate at 48kHz 24bit natively, so there would need to be a ~3 sample delay in one path before it affects the audible range.  Unfortunately, latency delays are often higher than that and audible high frequency comb filtering occurs.  He does offer a solution to the problem.  Listening for subtle comb filtering in the high end is actually a good critical listening exercise.  There really should be auto latency compensation built into the unit.  Perhaps they will come up with a solution in future.

 

If I haven't mentioned it, consider a backup PSU...and always plug into a surge protector. I'm curious to hear the sounds you come up with. As I say, I don't use the Pod HD, so maybe share samples of your prized presets on box.net (has free full quality previewing) at some point. If you're interested, I have some "fast and dirty" flac samples of my PC amp sim sounds all recorded at 48kHz 24bit here: https://app.box.com/s/dkm6g4my1z2nsx7tz0d1