# 30+ POD HD Patches for Download & Tips and Tricks



## Dans (Aug 24, 2014)

Hi guys, as promised, here are ALL the patches Ive created throughout the two years of owning this unit. Nearly forty patches, range from clean, ambient, mid-gain to hi-gain lead and rhythm, are packed in the following link (all in one setlist file), along with the screenshots of the settings on each, so worry not if you dont own the same unit (mine is the desktop). You can also easily find a POD HD converter for converting these patches to your unit. Some demonstrations of my patches are also posted below.

https://copy.com/dPEXuotReb0Z

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/danshuang/pod-hd-clean-ambient[/SC]
[SC]https://soundcloud.com/danshuang/pod-hd-lead-tone-demonstration[/SC]
[SC]https://soundcloud.com/danshuang/pod-hd-metal-rhythm[/SC]

However, I found that the setlist file didnt actually save the amp parameters (the lower part, not the EQs) and the cab parameters. Thats not really a problem since I dont tweak them drastically most of the time, but the low cut knob in the cab section is left at around 200 hz. Please drag it down to the lowest so you have enough low end coming through.

Some of the patches might look similar to yours, since therere a few ones that were downloaded from Line6 site and tweaked from there. However those are really rare in my collection, most of the patches are created from the ground up.
Before I get into some tips, Id like to inform you the setup I use, so you have a good reference for adjusting the parameters on these patches for your own use. I use my Ibanez RG1527 with DiMarzio CL/LF pickups, theyre fairly high-output and EQ-wise pretty even, a bit compressed as well. Please feel free to adjust the input on the patches for ideal performance.

And for the following tips and tricks, Id like to give the credits to MeAmBobbo (Im not sure if hes an active member on this forum though). Ive learned a ton about this unit in his extremely informative and detailed POD HD tone guide. Most of the things Im gonna talk about are also covered in his guide, only that Ill pick some tips that seemed more important to me, as well as my tweaking habits. Im also gonna briefly talk about clean and mid-gain tones, which are not covered in his guide. Hopefully this is not a heavy reading while being pretty informative.

*General Approach*

My basic approach here is really nothing fancy and the same goes with analog gears as well: Choose the right amp with the right cab/mic combination. Get this step right, tweak the amp EQ and boost pedal (if any) and youre half way there.

On POD however, I like to insert a Mid Focus EQ after the amp with HP freq at around 30, just enough to roll off the muddy low-end, then go through each cab/mic combo. That way the ugly bottom end on some cab/mic will not negatively affect how you perceive the sound which might be usable. 

*Cleans*

Now lets start with cleans. Generally I only use these amps and cab/mic combos for clean:
Blackface Dbl Nrm + 2x12 Blackface Dbl + 57 on Axis (occasionally 57 off Axis)
Class A-30 TB + 2x12 Phd Ported + 67 Condenser

Since therere no one absolute clean amp on POD HD (something like Shiva in Axe Fx), these combos are the best to start with. Use minimal preamp drive and maximal poweramp drive, and go from there. Generally these amps dont required much pre or post EQing to sound good, as long as youve settled down with the right amp EQ setting. Any tweaking on the poweramp sections would be up to taste most of the time. Id sometimes dial in more poweramp bias if more body and roundness is needed. Other than that, I generally would insert a compressor, noise gate (occasionally) and some other effects up to taste. A cool tip is that you may put a chorus or flanger in front the amp to thicken the sound. I dont have a strict rule for putting effects pre or post-amp on clean patches, nor is much EQing needed most of the time.

*Ambient*

Most of the time you dont need to hear the meat of these ambient padding sounds, and since youll likely use heavy effects with these, you probably dont need to use any amp. For these ambient sounds, Id put a compressor to even out the signal as well as a Mid Focus EQ to clean up the low end, just to make them more mix-ready. Other than that, any effects would be up to what youre going for. However, on some patches with heavy reverbs (sometime up to four), I like to leave the mix knobs on these reverbs at around 99%, just enough to let your first picking sound go through, otherwise itd often sound delayed in the performance which is not ideal.

*Mid-gain*

I really cant say much about mid-gain tones since I dont use them much, and I didnt really explore the dual cab combinations with mid-gain amps either. However this combo is by far the best Ive encountered and I know some of you are interested in too: Plexi Lead 100 Brt with two cabs - 4x12 Hiway + 57 on Axis and 4x12 XXL V-30 + 57 on Axis. Its also the setting on my patch no. 02A so you may discover by yourself. 

Now its time to introduce a really useful tip since I use it with mid-gain patches as well as hi-gain ones: Using Mid Focus EQ right before the amp for ultimate control of the signal. I realized this is actually a bit similar to the concept behind Nollys signature boost pedal Focus, which gives you the overall control over the HP and LP amount and slope before it hits the amp, and will results in the amount of saturation with both high and low end. It also acts like an input trim, which allows you to dial in just the right amount of preamp gain without sacrificing the clarity or anything (and you may use this knob to adjust the gain youre getting from my patches on your guitar). I love to have it after the boost pedal too, so I can crank the output of the boost pedal to have enough color from it while remain fully controlled over the push of the signal with Mid Focus EQ.

Nonetheless, with 4x12 cabs, having another Mid Focus EQ at the end of the chain is also really helpful for controlling the rumbling low end (like I mentioned in my general approach) and high end sizzles, as well as the overall volume.

*Hi-gain*

Now lets move on to the hi-gain category. First Id like to start with some of the thoughts on several drive (boost) pedals, since we all know the boost plays a crucial role in the hi-gain guitar sound.

Tube Drive: Sounds really smooth and can be suited for lead patches or even tiny drive boost. The EQs are quite responsive.
Screamer: Sounds pretty much like what youd expect from it. I personally like Line 6 Drive over this one, as the Screamer sounds a bit too raw and aggressive for my taste.
Line 6 Drive: Probably absolute favorite on POD HD aside from Mid Focus EQ and is used almost over every hi-gain patch I created along with Mid Focus EQ. It provides quite some high end and just the right amount of grind, so works wonderfully as a boost. The mid knob acts more like a mid-frequency sweep than a gain knob, so its more or less similar to the Screamer. I like to have the mid at 40-45 on heavy rhythm patches, around 35 on leads.

And more on pedals before I get to the amps. I like using Hard Gate instead of Noise Gate, as it may kill the tone a little. With Hard Gate you can set the open and close threshold according to your setup and the purpose, i.e. you may want to set both threshold fairly high for tight palm-mute rhythm patch while leaving them quite low (and decay up high) on lead patch for less obvious effect.

Aside from Mid Focus EQ which Ive mentioned already, I also like to put a Parametric EQ either pre or post amp. Mostly of the time I put the Parametric EQ after the amp (and before the Mid Focus EQ) to simply cut off some muddiness around 300 to 400 hz and boost the high shelf a hair for some clarity and air. The effect is definitely not subtle even with really gentle cut and boost.

Now thats pretty much it for the pedals. For hi-gain guitars, the Holy Grail really is the dual cabs. It truly opens up a whole different level of tonal possibilities on the unit. Since therere so many usable combinations, Im not gonna go one by one on them. If youre interested in discovering some combos on your own, feel free to check out MeAmBobbos tone guide for detailed info. However I dont always go with the method of blending a bright cab with a dark one, which is recommended by MeAmBobbo. I sometimes like to find a certain cab/mic combo that works great on its own then find another combo that matches well. Personally I love the sound of 4x12 Uber and 4x12 XXL V-30 with either 57 on/off Axis or 409 Dynamic mics, so these combos appear a lot in my setlist.

Onto the amp setting. Though it might differ from patch to patch, I generally like to set the preamp gain fairly low, striking the balance between the right amount of saturation and punch. EQ-wise it certainly differs from amp to amp, but I love the Treadplate model (Dual Rectifier) because it has the EQs that are more responsive than some others.

I dont touch the amp parameters most of the time, even when I do, its a tiny tweak on the amount of poweramp drive and the bias amount. For the cab section, I generally dont touch anything since I use a post-amp Mid Focus EQ to control the low end, but occasionally Id lower the res level a tiny bit to get a little more clarity, or boost the decay a bit for more resonance of the cab (these are really subtle so dont expect to get a lot from them). And on some rhythms patches, Id even leave the early reflection at 0 and use a room reverb to (hopefully) get some realistic room sound, but thats subtle too.

TL;DR:
Use Line 6 Drive for boost.
Have two Mid Focus EQs one before one after the amp.
Use dual cabs! lol

So yeah this is pretty much all I have to say about this unit atm, hopefully its helpful to some of you and hope you guys will have some fun with the patches! Last but not least, please feel free to follow me on soundcloud or facebook for more music related updates. Cheers!


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## InCasinoOut (Aug 25, 2014)

Sweet, thanks for this! Will definitely check it out. I went from having a shitty Line 6 Spider II combo for 8+ years (lol), so I still feel like a noob with the Pod HD500 sometimes. Although I don't like to use untweaked patches, I enjoy seeing how people piece together their own. Looks like my RGA121 with Titans should be close enough to the guitar you built the patches for too!


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## Dans (Aug 25, 2014)

InCasinoOut said:


> Sweet, thanks for this! Will definitely check it out. I went from having a shitty Line 6 Spider II combo for 8+ years (lol), so I still feel like a noob with the Pod HD500 sometimes. Although I don't like to use untweaked patches, I enjoy seeing how people piece together their own. Looks like my RGA121 with Titans should be close enough to the guitar you built the patches for too!



Your guitar setup probably will sound even better than mine man 
Would love to hear your feedback on these patches!


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## Captain Butterscotch (Aug 25, 2014)

Can't wait to give these a run. Thanks!


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## Poltergeist (Aug 25, 2014)

Hey Dans, much appreciated for sharing these patches. I've been messing around with them and I really am enjoying the clean and ambient patches, as well as your treadplate rhythm patches. They are eq'd really well. Just curious, did you intend for these patches to be used in a mix or outside of a mix for live purposes?


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## Dans (Aug 25, 2014)

Poltergeist said:


> Hey Dans, much appreciated for sharing these patches. I've been messing around with them and I really am enjoying the clean and ambient patches, as well as your treadplate rhythm patches. They are eq'd really well. Just curious, did you intend for these patches to be used in a mix or outside of a mix for live purposes?



Glad you like them!
These patches are all built to work in the mix, that's why I put a mid-focus EQ in the end of chain of every patch, just so you don't have to HP/LP them again in the mix that much. I use a parametric EQ to clean up the muddiness a bit too.
Though with the limited EQs in the unit, the patches will still need some work to sit perfectly in the mix. But I've tried my best to get them there.
For live use, you can easily HP/LP the tone a tad more to get rid of the unwanted fizz and boominess with the already existed mid-focus EQ at the end, so hopefully it'll still come handy.
Thanks for bringing this up btw, I don't play any live so I wasn't even thinking about that lol. Cheers


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## kamello (Aug 25, 2014)

nice! many many thanks for taking the time of doing this 

just a little doubt though, how I identify every patch of your demos with the screenshots you uploaded?


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## Dans (Aug 25, 2014)

Here are the patches used in the demos in order:
Clean & Ambient: 01A, 01B, 01C, 07A, 07B, 07C, 08A, 08B, 08C
Lead: 02A, 02B, 02C, 03A, 03B, 05B, 05D, 09A
Rhythm: 04A, 04B, 04D, 06A, 06B, 09C, 10D
I've also tagged the numbers on the audio itself for better reference! Feel free to check that out!


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## bouVIP (Aug 25, 2014)

Thanks for sharing all these patches! I've checked out most of them a little and they all sound really good!!!


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## kamello (Aug 26, 2014)

did a quickie with 2A and 3A (god, I haven't recorded leads in ages, I feel sooooooo sloppy  ), but whatever, Im definitely using those in the future, again, thanks a billion Dan! 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/107519405/Mezclas/nollynollynollynollynollynollynolly.mp3


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## Chi (Aug 26, 2014)

You, I like you.


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## Dans (Aug 26, 2014)

kamello said:


> did a quickie with 2A and 3A (god, I haven't recorded leads in ages, I feel sooooooo sloppy  ), but whatever, Im definitely using those in the future, again, thanks a billion Dan!
> 
> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/107519405/Mezclas/nollynollynollynollynollynollynolly.mp3




You're welcome bro!
Nice pick for the solos from AAL and Corelia


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## Dominoes282 (Aug 27, 2014)

So I just figured this out. Take the Uber Lead 1 patch and take the reverb and delay out of it to make one of the best rhythm tones I've heard from this thing.


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## Carl Kolchak (Aug 30, 2014)

Try as I might, I could never get a satisfactory high-gain guitar tone using the POD's guitar cabs. Anyways, I use a combo of the Soldao amp and the 1X15 Flip Top bass amp. Sounds really good for slow, chunky-chug stuff.


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## Dans (Aug 30, 2014)

Carl Kolchak said:


> Try as I might, I could never get a satisfactory high-gain guitar tone using the POD's guitar cabs. Anyways, I use a combo of the Soldao amp and the 1X15 Flip Top bass amp. Sounds really good for slow, chunky-chug stuff.



Soldano with 1x15 cab? That sounds interesting 
Hope you'll find my Soldano patches useful!


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## Carl Kolchak (Sep 2, 2014)

Dans said:


> Soldano with 1x15 cab? That sounds interesting
> Hope you'll find my Soldano patches useful!



What I found especially useful were your "tips and tricks" suggestions. That EQ chart that broke down the freqs and their associated sonic characteristics, boom, warmth, honk, etc., was one of the most useful bits a tone shaping advice I've come across so far. 

Thanks again for posting this.


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## KristapsCoCoo (Sep 3, 2014)

Thanks, will try these out with my fellow guitarist, as he owns and uses HD. 
Sounding really good! I never could get anything decent out of his HD, as I own XT myself and I'm used to it too much. And he's not much of a tone junky either, so this would be helpful!


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## Carl Kolchak (Sep 3, 2014)

Stacking gain stages ftw!


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## Carl Kolchak (Sep 11, 2014)

Dans said:


> Soldano with 1x15 cab? That sounds interesting
> Hope you'll find my Soldano patches useful!



https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17738100/3guitartonetest.mp3

My attempt at a high-gain tone using just POD Farm. Amp is the Big Bottom. Cabs are a combo of the Flip Top bass cab on the left channel and the 4X12 Treadplate, Line 6, and 25 cabs on the right. Mics were one of the bass amp ones and the 421 for the guitar cabs. Think I'm using too much of the chorus atm, but I haven't had a chance to dial this tone is perfectly yet.


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## TommyG (Sep 16, 2014)

Dans,
I finally tested these out last night and they are great.
Its nice to get another pespective on settings besides my own, and the few I have downloaded from Line 6's site.
You forget how much the POD HD's are capable of when you stick with same same few patches.
The Dual Rec samples are nice and a change from the fireball ones I have been defaulting to.
I also like the gate settings since they are a little more controlled than mine... 
Thanks for sharing!


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## Dans (Sep 16, 2014)

TommyG said:


> Dans,
> I finally tested these out last night and they are great.
> Its nice to get another pespective on settings besides my own, and the few I have downloaded from Line 6's site.
> You forget how much the POD HD's are capable of when you stick with same same few patches.
> ...



Thanks Tommy! Really glad you're enjoying these patches.
It's really great to know my effort on this unit is helpful for you guys.


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## Devyn Eclipse Nav (Sep 16, 2014)

so um

I downloaded the file from copy.com

And I got a bunch of jpgs???

Help

EDIT: I SEE NEVERMIND I THOUGHT YOU INCLUDED THE ACTUAL FILES, NOT SCREENSHOTS OF THE HD EDIT SCREEN

Ignore this

SECOND EDIT: Opening the setlist file I see it's all there. I shall see myself out before I embarrass myself further.


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## Rizzo (Sep 16, 2014)

Hey Dans, finally had time to check those out. Huge thanks for your contribution.
Two noobs question:
1. While putting a mid-f eq after the amp does wonders, i can't really tell any difference by putting one before the amp no matter how much i turn any knob. What am i doing wrong?

2. I still can't understand how to use the hard gate, against the noise gate. I'm just not able to play with your settings, and even if i setup my own hard gate from scratch, i never get to usable settings. I just find myself with a silenced guitar that breaks the gate only when i hit the string really f***in' hard. Again, what am i doing wrong? I would like to compare the hard gate against the noise one!


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## TommyG (Sep 16, 2014)

Gates can be touchy depending on how hot the pickups are and how your playing style is.
Is there 1 particular patch that this is happening on ?
Typically the thresholds need to be tweaked.
All of the patches are working good on my setup except for the 
Soldano rhythm patches that seem a bit touchy but I have not spent much time with them yet.

Best of luck....


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## Dans (Sep 16, 2014)

Rizzo said:


> Hey Dans, finally had time to check those out. Huge thanks for your contribution.
> Two noobs question:
> 1. While putting a mid-f eq after the amp does wonders, i can't really tell any difference by putting one before the amp no matter how much i turn any knob. What am i doing wrong?
> 
> 2. I still can't understand how to use the hard gate, against the noise gate. I'm just not able to play with your settings, and even if i setup my own hard gate from scratch, i never get to usable settings. I just find myself with a silenced guitar that breaks the gate only when i hit the string really f***in' hard. Again, what am i doing wrong? I would like to compare the hard gate against the noise one!



Hi Rizzo!

1. You may want the Mid-Focus EQ to be the last stompbox before it hits the amp, so see if you have it at the right position. Other than that I can't really think of any possibilities of not hearing how the EQ reacts. Maybe you wanna post your settings so I can figure it out?

2. You're probably setting the open threshold way too high. You might wanna start with the open and close threshold relatively close (I like to have the close threshold lower than the open) and go from there. Set the open low enough so the transients can get through easily while high enough for unwanted moves (hand sliding on the string etc) not causing any noise. Set the close threshold low enough for the note to sustain right while high enough so your palm mute can instantly stop the sound with ease. If the gate is working too obvious, you can turn up the decay for more natural fade-out. You might also want to check my settings on both lead and rhythm patches to get a better idea. Note that the settings will be different since the output of my guitar is probably different than yours.

Hope that helps


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## Miijk (Sep 17, 2014)

This is awesome! Great stuff dude


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## kierc0857 (Feb 11, 2021)

HI guys, sorry im late to the party, but would anyone have these presets they would share as the original link is dead. Thank you


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