Struggling with setup

[Denny385South]

I am having a lot of trouble getting any kind of decent sound from my hd 500x. Are there any basic setup stuff I need to know? I'm playing into a fender Deville and are my tone controls supposed to be off? Through headphones it sounds bad. I'm not using variax guitar either. Are there basic setup steps in the pod I need to take? I'm very new to multi effect boards and am lost. Thanks

[Denny385South]

Also I can't connect through USB. Says no device connected work offline

[duncann]

The best advice anyone can probably give is to just dig in and experiment. Don't let your thinking be constrained by how the equivalent real world effects actually work in the real world. There are really no right or wrong or any rules. So if something seems counter-intuitive, that same something might actually be a sound you're after.

 

Mess around with the DEP paramters of the amps and cabs. The sag control can give a looser or tighter feel to an amp. The bias control is a sort of (but not really) mid control, and bias excursion determines how much bias can stray. The cab resonance control is a kind of wet mix for the cab and gives the thump and decay parameters more or less effect. All of these things should really be the last thing you adjust after you have the amp in ballpark of where you want it.

 

And finally, here's a very helpful link:

 

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

[Denny385South]

Thanks. I'll look into that link. I just don't have a clue what I'm doing. Keep trying.

[silverhead]

If you are connecting the HD500X output to your amp's guitar input, try setting the HD500X Output to Combo Front (not Studio Direct). Also experiment with using a PRE (rather than Full) amp model in the HD500X, and set your amp's tone controls as neutral as possible.

[Denny385South]

Thank you. Will try this tomorrow as I've also read most of the link sent to me. BIG help guys. I'll touch base as soon as I experiment some more. Thanks again

[edstar1960]

My advice would be to keep it simple at first and just try to get the fx to sound like you want through the amp.  Once you get a feel for how the HD500x works with your amp and what you need to tweak to get it to sound good then start exploring the other possibilities and connection methods.

 

I would suggest getting the HD500x with a blank patch plugged in to the front of the amp to sound like your guitar does when plugged directly into the amp first. Then add some fx that you want to use and tweak them to taste. 

 

I did this for my Sessionette-75.  I set up the HD500 to be used in FS mode, so all 8 FS could be used to control fx.  I left the output on Studio/Direct.  I took 1/4 inch output from the L 1/4 output to the amp, and I had the switch on the top (Next to expression pedal) set to AMP.  In the patch I had all fx blocks off, and the amp block off. I moved all 8 fx blocks to post mixer.  Then I set Input 1 to GUITAR and input 2 to VARIAX. At the mixer block I muted PATH B, and  I centred both L and R channels for PATH A, and gave the PATH A channel a 6db boost at the mixer block.  Then when I compared it to the guitar going straight in, it sounded the same.  Then I added fx, I wanted to the blocks, following the order I would use if I was using real pedals rather than models.  I used the REVERB from the amp as well, because I wanted to use the 8 available FS to control Noise Gate, Wah, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Screamer, Tube Overdrive.   I found that this very quickly gave me usable sounds and allowed me to work out how each model fx worked.

 

The HD500 is an incredibly useful and flexible unit capable of doing so much that it can be overwhelming and it is very easy to unknowingly make bad choices simply  from lack of knowledge of what is happening with signal routing etc, and assuming that default settings will be good, and before you know it you have produced a very bad sound, (nothing like the demo's that you have probably heard and which may have persuaded you to buy the unit) which can leave you very disheartened. So, take your time, keep it simple and learn what the unit is capable of and then exploit it as you want to get the tones you want.

 

Once you get your head round it, hopefully you will love it!   Good luck!

[Denny385South]

Thanks. I was ready to send it back yesterday now I'm ready to experiment some more

[Denny385South]

Anyone have any idea as to why my hd500x edit says no hd 500x connected will work offline?

[edstar1960]

Anyone have any idea as to why my hd500x edit says no hd 500x connected will work offline?

 

I have had that happen some times.  Often it is just because I have opened HD EDIT up before the PC has had time to detect and identify and then load the correct HD500 drivers. I just close HD EDIT down and try launching it again and see if it then detects the connected HD500.  If it continues, I suggest you have you HD500X connected to PC, and then open up Monkey and see if it says all the necessary software components are up to date - specifically check the drivers in the Monkey list. If any are not then you can update them accordingly.

[aerosol_d7]

Try in another PC to see if it is your PC or your PODHD. I usually let windows load, then I open HD Edit and then I plug my usb cable to PC. I dont know why sometimes it gives false messages.

 

make sure your windows recognizes your usb port in Hardware/device settings.

 

Hope it helps.