Line 6 POD HD Thread

[Rev2010]

Guys, do you all not know about GC's price protection? If you go back with the coupon they'll refund the $30 to your credit card. They may even do it if you call in, don't know for sure on that though. I've had times at MusicianFriend where I got coupons that took off $500 after I made a purchase. I called in and they refunded the money to my card. Give it a shot, it's certainly worth it.


Rev.

[Krankguitarist]

Just got mine today.

Took me an hour and thirty minutes of fiddling around thinking "man, this thing sounds like ass" until I realized I was still in the "combo" output mode.

Flipped it to "Studio Direct" and it came alive.

Funny thing is, this has happened to me EVERY time I've bought a POD, and I've had 4.

[Isan]

FINALLY DJENT Manifold (early preview) | licentia

[QuambaFu]

Originally Posted by Isan

FINALLY DJENT Manifold (early preview) | licentia

NICE! What amp model are you using?

[Isan]

that isnt me but he is using


"A few things:

The rhythm tone is its the uberschall amp/cab with an 87 condenser and the fireball amp/cab with a 409 dynamic.. There are lots of other amps I'm using on various tracks but the gain is a little less than 50% on both of those amps so I'm sure you can come up with something usable and tight.

The guitars have a lot of high end in them, almost too much. Heavier rhythm guitars like this sound best to me with less high and low end and more attention to the midrange."

[meisterjager]

My new interface turned up, which means I can start properly using my HD500 when I finish work in like 4 hours! I had a lot of trouble using it via USB - my DAW didn't like it too much! I need to buy me some monitors to achieve ultimate win, though...

Anyone came across any new mixes using the Pods? Be interested to hear how far people have got with tweaking them since last week!

[Isan]

i am waiting for ....ing zzounds to send me mine ~_~

[SSK0909]

i've had my HD300 for two weeks time now and thought the time was right to share my thoughts.

Interface on the 300 is pretty intuitive.
It's a little lacking compared to the 400 and 500 models, firstly some features like presence, cab, and fx parameters can only be reached by pressing down the "presets" button. But its no biggie and if you plug the pod into your pc its far easier to modify and adjust your patches from the line 6 software anyways.

Secondly, bank switching is really akward on the 300. You have to step on two buttons at the same time. For home recording and practising its no biggie. But for you guys who consider a Pod HD for live usage, go with the 400 or 500 with bank up and down buttons

The amp selection button/interface i find a bit weird. As you dial it, a red or green LED will light up besides the amp describtion to let you know what amp is dialed in.
Red LED in front og "high gain" is the jcm 800, green LED in front of "high gain" is the Bogner, Red LED in front of "metal" is the recto etc... It works, but i wonder how this system will work if they release upgrades with new amp models.

Now for the fun part. The sounds

So far i've only run it through headphones and monitors.

The amp sims are really good, they're not axe-fx or real amp levels. But when i switch back to my old Line 6 toneport the difference is very noticeable.
The old Line 6 sims sound very sterile, muddy and with no dynamics compared to the HD.

The HD sims also have a lot more of an open character to them. its easier to get the feeling of a powefull, cranked stack with the HD.

For recording the HD sits pretty well in the mix. The high gain amps tend to be on the boomy side and you need a lot of bass cut, but tweaking can give you some pretty nice results I found that the recto cab sounded really dull. But try playing around with the Ûberschall cab, it worked wonders for my sound and made me skip impulses.

Value really is the keyword for the HD. You get a really nice practicing tool, a good recording tool and a multifx/amp sim board for live usage for a sum of money that is pretty miniscule in the world of GAS musicians. Hell. I've owned FX pedals more expensive and they hardly sounded better

Of course you're not going to get a 100% replacement for your amp stack, but I almost wanna bet that the amp sims in the HD will sound better than any real amp in its price range.

If i had to put a score on it I would probably give it a 9/10 because the aim here is to get great value for the money and surpass the old Line 6 sounds. Not cure your gas or compete with the Axe-fx.
But yet, it still has a few akward design choices that should have been avoided, even on the cheap model.

End of rant/review

[Isan]

Okay .... zzounds ... backordered till the 25th and they didn't even send me an email!
WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER !

[cyril v]

Originally Posted by Isan

Okay .... zzounds ... backordered till the 25th and they didn't even send me an email!
WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER !

Damn dude. that ....ing blows, i feel ya on this one because i waited damn near a month before being put on another backorder for a month w/american music supply (even though i placed my order the moment they added them to their site when they were still in-stock.

Judging by what I was told by them, it is on Line 6's end that is causing the problem with shipping these out. I can only assume it's because they are shipping most of them to guitarcenter first and making sure their stock is met first, so I would suggest you cancel your order w/zzounds and just snag one from GC... seems you have quite a few of them around you that have some in stock and free shipping is always win.

What I actually did was call up GC, asked them to hold one for me and then cancelled my order with AMS and drove to pick mine up.

[meisterjager]

Best thing I've done with the HD500 so far is run it through the poweramp of the Triple X. It sounded AWESOME - possibly better than the amp itself, dare I say it.

Very impressive stuff!

[Wookieslayer]

Originally Posted by meisterjager

Best thing I've done with the HD500 so far is run it through the poweramp of the Triple X. It sounded AWESOME - possibly better than the amp itself, dare I say it.

Very impressive stuff!

wow that sounds brutal! could you post any clips even video clips

[meisterjager]

When I'm next infront of all my gear I'll do that, yeah!

[JPhoenix19]

Originally Posted by meisterjager

My new interface turned up, which means I can start properly using my HD500 when I finish work in like 4 hours! I had a lot of trouble using it via USB - my DAW didn't like it too much! I need to buy me some monitors to achieve ultimate win, though...

Could you elaborate on this? I'm looking at picking up an HD500, and I'm wanting to know what to expect to be able to do (or not be able to do) without picking up any other recording equipment.

Forgive my noobish-ness, I'm relatively inexperienced with recording. Basically, I want to be able to have the HD500 hooked up to my computer via its USB interface and into my DAW- which would be connected to Reason (where I build my drum tracks). I guess I'm wanting to know if I can monitor what I'm playing from my computer and not have noticeable (monitoring) latency. If not, would I need a separate interface for this? Or would I be better off with a multi-track recorder like a Boss BR-series or Tascam Portastudio?

[Razzy]

Originally Posted by JPhoenix19

Could you elaborate on this? I'm looking at picking up an HD500, and I'm wanting to know what to expect to be able to do (or not be able to do) without picking up any other recording equipment.

Forgive my noobish-ness, I'm relatively inexperienced with recording. Basically, I want to be able to have the HD500 hooked up to my computer via its USB interface and into my DAW- which would be connected to Reason (where I build my drum tracks). I guess I'm wanting to know if I can monitor what I'm playing from my computer and not have noticeable (monitoring) latency. If not, would I need a separate interface for this? Or would I be better off with a multi-track recorder like a Boss BR-series or Tascam Portastudio?

Record via USB in your DAW, but monitor the pod by plugginh the headphone out into the microphone port on your computer's soundcard. It's what I do with my PodXT.

[JPhoenix19]

Originally Posted by Razzy

Record via USB in your DAW, but monitor the pod by plugginh the headphone out into the microphone port on your computer's soundcard. It's what I do with my PodXT.

Hmmm, not a bad idea!

[durangokid]

I've found some nice clips on youtube...

The lead tone sounds really good on this one.




And this one from the Fireball sim, sounds quite good, but it's too ''closed'' sounding,a cut on the lower mids and a boost on the high mids would do the trick i guess.



The sound of the picking on the fireball really sounds awesome, i don't know if this guy is using impulses, but that clip sounds really awesome, it seems like the pod HD will be a really great tool for recording!

[teqnick]

I can't figure out how to use dual tone for the life of me via the HD500 online editor. What the ....in a.

[Meshugger]

Whoa! I just found out about this. A question though, how does it work with older patches that are made for the Pod X3? Are they even compatible with each other to begin with?

[Isan]

Originally Posted by Meshugger

Whoa! I just found out about this. A question though, how does it work with older patches that are made for the Pod X3? Are they even compatible with each other to begin with?

Not at all. It is completely new.

[Meshugger]

Originally Posted by Isan

Not at all. It is completely new.

Thanks for clearing that up. How about between the models? Are HD500 patches compatible with HD300? Atleast from what i gather, all HD300 patches are compatible with the HD500, but not the other way around, due to the latter having more features? Correct?

[xCaptainx]

need some advise here guys

so I've got a Vetta. I love it. It sounds great.

I might be able to pick up a JCM800KK (kerry king head) really cheap (if I sell the Vetta, I can afford the head + an HD pod)

why would I do this? well my sound is reliant on what the vetta does for me. I have the wah, whammy and nice lead tones created using a variety of effects. I also use the floorboard controller.

It just dawned on me last night. If we tour and I can't get my head, I'm going to be in a difficult position! I have a Modtone overdrive pedal, a boss NS2 and a Korg Pitchblack as backups (I used to have a big pedalboard and I sold everything and kept those as backups) but yeah, I am completely reliant on my Vetta. If we fly (it's really heavy, I wouldnt take it) then my live sound suffers!

With the KKjcm800 I'd use the head for overdrive (I used to have a modded jcm800 and loved it, the KK looks perfect for metal, and the tone I like) and simply use the HD pod as an effects pedal.

I need your opinion on which one would be suitable. I could probably afford the HD500 after the sale, I'm not just sure if I should spent he extra money.

key points for me is:
- it's going to be a multi effects pedal only. The KK head will do my overdrive
- effects loop is not an issue. All my current effects chain are 'front of amp only'. I'm not going to do the 4 cable method

The HD300 looks tempting as I doubt I'll need all the other functions (and I doubt I'll be able to run more than 4 effects at once!

also I'm well aware people might just say 'well why not get the M19/13 if you just want an effects pedal?' but I dont want to have to buy an expression pedal (I use whammy/wah a lot) plus for the same price, why not just get an HD Pod and have all those other cool features to set up practise/bedroom/headphone levels for practising at venues/at home.

Anyway. Any suggestions regarding which would be a better 'multi effects pedal' Although I've got a feeling that if I can afford it, I'll just man up and get the HD500 haha!

sorry for the tl;dr post!

[xCaptainx]

*UPDATE* so after some research, I'm pretty sure just the HD300 will be fine for me, live.

reasoning: the Kerry King doesnt have an effects loop, the HD300 doesnt have an effects loop. I've NEVER done the 4 cable method, or have a setup on the Vetta that uses the effects loop. I doubt it will be an issue at all.

So for a multi effects pedal with a KK head, I think the HD300 will be fine. Unless someone can tell me otherwise? bear in mind this is for LIVE use. Someone mentioned that switching to different banks requires two button pushes. The vetta has 4 patches (A B C D) per bank, I currently use four patches with my band and dont change banks anyway, so I dont think it will be an issue. Changing patches I'm guessing will be quite easy?

[El Caco]

It depends on what you plan to use, the only reason you would want an effects loop is if you want certain blocks such as distortion pedals before your head and effects such as delay after your head, only the HD500 can do this. If you want to use effects such as wah or distortion as well as post effects such as reverb and delay with an existing head or preamp get the HD500 for the loop, if you don't need the loop or other extras grab the cheaper model that fits your needs.

[DevourTheDamned]

so is there a pretty general consensus on how awesome these HD's are?
because it looks like it from the one who actually DO own one, like me :]
i LOVE this thing
its a tweakers dream to just sit play with knobs until it sounds perfect.
im going thru a crate 10 watt and it sounds ....ing incredible.
id LOVE to hear it thru some sick tube head.

ill post some clips for you guys when i get off work from my soundclick