# Rehearsal space set-up with Pod HD Pro's?



## Flemmigan (Jul 14, 2012)

Hey everyone,

My band and I are in the process of switching to the Pod HD Pro for recording and results have been phenomenal so far. We're hoping to make the transition to rehearsal and live shows as painless as possible and I was hoping y'all could help with that. 

In the past (the glory days of high school), we rehearsed with combo amps and unmic'd drums and that was decent enough. Usually we had trouble hearing one of the guitarists since he was using a tinier amp and the drums were loud as all get out. The transition to live was a pain in the ass since we were micing our amps and getting inconsistent results. 
Since we're all using HD Pro's now, I was thinking the easiest way might be to just use monitors. If we each got a wedge monitor, we could hear ourselves, but I'm more worried about hearing each other, and mostly the drummer hearing us.

At gigs, we would just go straight to FOH with the HD Pros and monitor with the house monitors, or our own if we invest in those.

What would be the wisest and most cost-effective approach? We're all college students and on a fairly tight budget. As well, I live in a different state than the others most of the time, so we'd only rehearse or play shows for a month or so out of the year. So, avoiding buying power amps and all kinds of extra shit would be grand haha!

Would it be worth it to invest in a small mixer, feed the HD Pros into that and then into a wedge for each of us? If so, any specific suggestions?
I'm totally clueless with PA systems, never really handled one before so I'm just spitballing.  I'm just the bassist. 

Thanks for any help, gents!

Jake


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## LolloBlaskhyrt (Jul 15, 2012)

I've got a HD Pro too. If you tweak it, you don't have to buy a poweramp! Guitar -> HD Pro -> FoH (-> monitors). Yes, you could buy a small mixer with some aux out for monitors, but it's not compulsory. Maybe get a cheap mixer such as Behringer.


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## Stealthdjentstic (Jul 15, 2012)

I would go with a stereo poweramp for both of you, so much cheaper. A rocktron velocity is like 200-300 dollars and 150 watts a side or 300 watts bridged. Im guessing the places youll be playing at dont have awesome PA's either so i would stick with the poweramp/cab route,


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## Dores (Jul 15, 2012)

In my band, we only use Pod XT Live for guitars, into Behringer B212Ds. Works great, and it's cheap too! The Behringer PA speakers are more than loud enough and sound great. You might want to get an extra monitor for the drummer too.


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## Flemmigan (Jul 15, 2012)

ToreFagerheim said:


> In my band, we only use Pod XT Live for guitars, into Behringer B212Ds. Works great, and it's cheap too! The Behringer PA speakers are more than loud enough and sound great. You might want to get an extra monitor for the drummer too.



Nice, I think that might be what we go with. I'm thinking of getting a powered mixer so that we can each get a full mix in our own monitor. This seems to be the most cost effective way to go, as well we can use those speakers at live gigs. How do those speakers hold up for the bass, any experience with that?


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## Dores (Jul 16, 2012)

A powered mixer will be good yes, just make sure it has enough AUX outputs and stuff, as one stereo output might now be the best if you need individual mixes. Havent tried the Behringer speakers on bass though, as we have an old PA with huge speakers in our rehearsal space. The B215D might be good though?

But still, remember that using a simple bass combo might be just as effective. Unless the other guys in the band actually need to hear the bass extremely well. On live gigs, just plug the bass directly into the FOH.


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## xCaptainx (Jul 24, 2012)

I had a Matrix GT800FX poweramp, 400w a side, both of our guitarists used them (HD500 and Axe Fx Ultra) into two cabs. 

I'm sure the price of a matrix poweramp and two cheap marshall cabs would be lower than powered monitors.

Then you could have one 'full' signal going go front of house/Drummer, and a 'preamp' only version going to your poweramp/cab. 

That being said, if you could get a good deal on a good set of powered wedges, I say go for it.


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## MetalBuddah (Jul 24, 2012)

For your rehearsal space, go get a pair of active wedges. I currently run my HD500 and backing tracks (hooray double input) -> QSC K8 during rehearsal. That little QSC is louder than our other guitarist's Carvin V3 half stack. But with a double active wedge setup (with whatever brand you can afford) you shouldn't have any issue with volume and you could buy a mixer too if you need more control over volume/inputs.

When I play live, I just bring my HD500 and go direct-in to the house and rely on the stage monitors.


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## polarbeast666 (Jul 25, 2012)

MetalBuddah said:


> For your rehearsal space, go get a pair of active wedges. I currently run my HD500 and backing tracks (hooray double input) -> QSC K8 during rehearsal. That little QSC is louder than our other guitarist's Carvin V3 half stack. But with a double active wedge setup (with whatever brand you can afford) you shouldn't have any issue with volume and you could buy a mixer too if you need more control over volume/inputs.
> 
> When I play live, I just bring my HD500 and go direct-in to the house and rely on the stage monitors.



Is it odd at all not having the sound from a cab coming out from behind you? I juuust got my hd500 today and I thought it might be weird only hearing myself from a wedge


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## MetalBuddah (Jul 26, 2012)

polarbeast666 said:


> Is it odd at all not having the sound from a cab coming out from behind you? I juuust got my hd500 today and I thought it might be weird only hearing myself from a wedge



Not at all actually. It is actually a pretty nice feeling not having a cab behind me and it makes setting up for gigs a breeze (all the sound guys love the fact that they don't have to mic anything on my side). I have become used to hearing myself from a wedge/stage monitors, and now that I don't have a cab blasting behind me...I focus a lot more on the music and play a lot tighter because of it. I have been considering getting a little 2x12 Avatar cab and a power amp for recording and rehearsal purposes, but my QSC work perfectly.


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## Flemmigan (Jul 26, 2012)

Thanks very much for the advice! Monitors definitely seems like the way to go for us. We will probably go with some smaller powered monitors (smaller than 1000W haha) at first and a Behringer mixer so we can wire all 3 PODs, 1 or 2 vocal mics and an iPod for the backing track and drums when our drummer can't make it. Eventually we may move up to bigger speakers but for now this sounds like a pretty great approach. Will definitely keep everyone posted and put some pics once we get everything all set up.

I need to ask though, for the people who have suggested power amp/cab, what cab models do you think are good? I'm curious about the approach, but I've looked around quite a bit and can't find a power amp/cab system anywhere near as cost effective as powered monitors, even taking into account the cost of a mixer. The additional benefit, it seems to me, is getting all the tracks we want in our mix. Thanks y'all.


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## MetalBuddah (Jul 27, 2012)

Flemmigan said:


> Thanks very much for the advice! Monitors definitely seems like the way to go for us. We will probably go with some smaller powered monitors (smaller than 1000W haha) at first and a Behringer mixer so we can wire all 3 PODs, 1 or 2 vocal mics and an iPod for the backing track and drums when our drummer can't make it. Eventually we may move up to bigger speakers but for now this sounds like a pretty great approach. Will definitely keep everyone posted and put some pics once we get everything all set up.
> 
> I need to ask though, for the people who have suggested power amp/cab, what cab models do you think are good? I'm curious about the approach, but I've looked around quite a bit and can't find a power amp/cab system anywhere near as cost effective as powered monitors, even taking into account the cost of a mixer. The additional benefit, it seems to me, is getting all the tracks we want in our mix. Thanks y'all.



No problem man!

And as for cabs (since my buddy does this with his Axe-FX II), you can pretty much use any cab that you want just as long as you take off the cab sim on the pod. Pretty much all depends on what kind of sound you want. However, if you are going to go the route of sending a signal from the pod to FOH and a signal from the POD to PA into cab, you might want to try and find something that has a speaker that doesn't color the tone so you don't send a cab-less pod signal to FOH  So honestly, you are better off using the monitors because they are way easier and less expensive. Now that I think of it....my buddy recently told me he is getting rid of his Vader and power amp and getting some mackie monitors for his Axe-FX II


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