Any love for POD HD500?

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Uncle E wrote:
pbecker314 wrote:The HD500/DT25 sounds like the amps it's supposed to sound like. The G5 gets fairly close, but the lower fidelity was the deal-breaker for me.
Bummer, I was hoping the G5 would be cool, just because of that great expression pedal.
I'm curious. How does the G5 do against the HD500 without the DT25? Using a real tube amp at the end is an unfair advantage to the Pod no? I've found the Pod to sound great as an effects processor in the effect loop of my Kemper, but I was far less impressed by it on it's own and trust me I had a good gain stage the whole way. I'm not saying it sounded bad but I bet I could get just as good a tone from using a software VST amp modeler.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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zerocrossing wrote:As I watched it all go down I couldn't help but think of how much better they could have sounded and how effortless it would have been if they'd all had a pure modeling set up.
Agreed. When The Eagles play live, the sound on the stage is minimal because everyone's amps are direct and they're all monitoring through in-ears.

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Uncle E wrote:
zerocrossing wrote:As I watched it all go down I couldn't help but think of how much better they could have sounded and how effortless it would have been if they'd all had a pure modeling set up.
Agreed. When The Eagles play live, the sound on the stage is minimal because everyone's amps are direct and they're all monitoring through in-ears.
I remember seeing Yes at Madison Square Garden in the mid 80s... maybe it was the Big Generator tour... I can't remember, but I think they had all their amps offstage with iso cabs. I think they may have had wedge monitors on stage... I can't remember but it was a very empty stage. What I do remember clearly was the band sounded like their CD played though a very loud PA system in an arena. One of the better sounding big show's I've been to.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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Uncle E wrote:I'm curious. How does the G5 do against the HD500 without the DT25? Using a real tube amp at the end is an unfair advantage to the Pod no? I've found the Pod to sound great as an effects processor in the effect loop of my Kemper, but I was far less impressed by it on it's own and trust me I had a good gain stage the whole way. I'm not saying it sounded bad but I bet I could get just as good a tone from using a software VST amp modeler.
Okay, this is an interesting question. However, I had already determined through previous experiments that I did not like the HD500 direct into the board. For me, with the level of PA I have access to, that was not a solution for good live tone. I guess it might have been a solution if I had a high-end PA. Anyway, so that's what led me to try the HD500 through an Egnater tube combo. That was encouraging, but it was not quite there tone-wise. That's when I decided to up the ante and try the DT25, which is when I was finally able to get what I was looking for, great tone on stage and through the PA, using the direct out on the DT25.

Getting back to your question, the answer is that I never compared the G5 with the HD500 with both going direct into the board! It never occurred to me to do that since it would be a step backward for the utilization of the Line 6 system, since I already knew it sounded way better with the DT25 in the loop. My goal was to see if I could top the sound of the DT25/HD500 system. It is possible that the G5 sounds better than the HD500 direct into the board, but that was not really the issue for me :-)

Pete

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pbecker314 wrote:
Uncle E wrote:I'm curious. How does the G5 do against the HD500 without the DT25? Using a real tube amp at the end is an unfair advantage to the Pod no? I've found the Pod to sound great as an effects processor in the effect loop of my Kemper, but I was far less impressed by it on it's own and trust me I had a good gain stage the whole way. I'm not saying it sounded bad but I bet I could get just as good a tone from using a software VST amp modeler.
Okay, this is an interesting question. However, I had already determined through previous experiments that I did not like the HD500 direct into the board. For me, with the level of PA I have access to, that was not a solution for good live tone. I guess it might have been a solution if I had a high-end PA. Anyway, so that's what led me to try the HD500 through an Egnater tube combo. That was encouraging, but it was not quite there tone-wise. That's when I decided to up the ante and try the DT25, which is when I was finally able to get what I was looking for, great tone on stage and through the PA, using the direct out on the DT25.

Getting back to your question, the answer is that I never compared the G5 with the HD500 with both going direct into the board! It never occurred to me to do that since it would be a step backward for the utilization of the Line 6 system, since I already knew it sounded way better with the DT25 in the loop. My goal was to see if I could top the sound of the DT25/HD500 system. It is possible that the G5 sounds better than the HD500 direct into the board, but that was not really the issue for me :-)

Pete
I actually wrote that, not Uncle E, but thanks for the reply. Zoom seems to be horrible for providing demo tracks that sound decent. There videos seem to be rock guys talking forever and then a horrible camera mic recording of the unit itself. :roll: Dear manufacturers, please post high quality wav files of your units for people to listen to.

This is one that I thought was pretty good, done by a user:



Not bad... probably on par with the HD500. Here's another that sounds pretty good:



Like Uncle E I really love their pedal design... almost enough to get one... but not quite. One of the reasons I went with the POD HD was because of the possible path to get a DT25 combo amp sometime down the line... but I doubt that'll happen. Also, I love the Line6 synth models a lot and I've come up with a fun way to use amp models as distortion/boost pedals in the Kemper's effect loop. I probably would have been just has happy with the G5, maybe happier because the UI looks a lot better, but I don't think I'm going to mess with my set up now. I've got it sounding fantastic.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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zerocrossing wrote:Also, I love the Line6 synth models a lot
+1 :tu:

I think that Line 6's FX are ALONE, worth the extra hassle of the HD500 and its non-user friendly UI. The L6 link to the DT25 of course, makes it a no-brainer for me but...I would consider it as an all-in-one FX unit that can go toe to toe with some of the better ones I've heard. At the $400-$500 range it is justifiable when you consider that they still fetch that for the M13 FX boards.

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In that case, the Pod HD 300 seems like a better move, especially since it's got the amp bypass mode that I think the 400 and 500 lack.

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Uncle E wrote:In that case, the Pod HD 300 seems like a better move, especially since it's got the amp bypass mode that I think the 400 and 500 lack.
You can bypass the amp on the 500.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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blueman wrote:
zerocrossing wrote:Also, I love the Line6 synth models a lot
+1 :tu:

I think that Line 6's FX are ALONE, worth the extra hassle of the HD500 and its non-user friendly UI.
Luckily Line6 has provided a work around for that horrible UI by providing a really nice software editor. I'm pretty sure if it were not for the editor I would have returned it. With the software editor it's easy as pie to use. The only thing I find really weird with it is that it's duel inputs seem to both always have to have a selection. I'm using the line in so I chose "Variax" based on recommendations from people, but why there's no "none" is beyond me.

Once you're over that hurdle it's not that hard to figure out. Sure, you can get clipping if you're not careful during all the gain stages, but that's to be expected. So far I've found it to be pretty straight forward to set up when using the software editor.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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I'm thinking of trying the Kemper with the Behringer F1320D wedge monitor:

http://jrrshop.com/catalog/behringer-eu ... 11693.html

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zerocrossing wrote:You can bypass the amp on the 500.
Can you make that setting universally or do you have to change each preset? With the 300, there's an amp bypass button that I believe bypasses it on every patch.

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Uncle E wrote:
zerocrossing wrote:You can bypass the amp on the 500.
Can you make that setting universally or do you have to change each preset? With the 300, there's an amp bypass button that I believe bypasses it on every patch.
Oh, I think it's only per preset.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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Fastest return I ever made to GC

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hibidy wrote:Fastest return I ever made to GC
:lol: Right on hibidy. Thanks for playing, please come again :D

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I tried for 2 1/2 months not to say anything. I hit my breaking point today :oops:

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