Line 6 POD HD Thread

[TallestFiddle]

Just made a new song using the POD HD with BKP Blackhawks.


https://soundcloud.com/nickareias/sunfire-serenade

 

[ghostred7]

So I plugged into a PA last night and it was total fail. Kinna irritated me. Not sure what was wrong. I was in studio/direct mode and tried both XLR Balanced out. Not 100% sure that's where I was supposed to come out of, but I thought it would be.

 

[RobPhoboS]

Hey everyone, I just put this out for free so take a listen if you want. Everything used for instruments was a POD HD500. Let me know what you think, I'd give out some tones if you dig it. Really enjoying everything the POD has done for me so far Paper Cut

Good work man, enjoyed listening to that.

 

[TallestFiddle]

i've got a weird phenomena going on. On certain patches, the first fret on my 7th string (In standard or dropped tuning) barely rings at all in a chord, but just fine if I play the same chord just a fret lower or higher. I've made sure my guitar's had a proper setup, and as I said it only happens on certain patches, my djent tone in particular

Any ideas?

You have an Ibanez RGA-7321 right? I had some problems with the notes not ringing out on that too. particularly on the low string. I'm not sure if it was because of the set up or what, but I wasn't a big fan of that guitar I sold it to get some better pickups for my 6 string and i never regretted it.

 

[DeathMentaL]

 

[DeathMentaL]

Hey everyone, I just put this out for free so take a listen if you want. Everything used for instruments was a POD HD500. Let me know what you think, I'd give out some tones if you dig it. Really enjoying everything the POD has done for me so far Paper Cut

Your second song has a big pop on the intro.

 

[meambobbo]

So I plugged into a PA last night and it was total fail. Kinna irritated me. Not sure what was wrong. I was in studio/direct mode and tried both XLR Balanced out. Not 100% sure that's where I was supposed to come out of, but I thought it would be.

Gonna need more info than that to troubleshoot. XLR out never sums to mono, so if you've got things panned in the mixer opposite of the XLR you hookup, you'll get no output. Also, you want to set the physical master knob on the unit to 100% to give you the best signal-to-noise ratio.

Finally, even with studio/direct, the tone will still be incredibly harsh if you use "no cab" in your amp block (or no amp block). You need to choose a cab and mic to make the tone simulate a mic'ed guitar cabinet. Otherwise, it'd be like sending your FX loop out from your amp straight to the board.

Both the cab and mic choices have drastic impact on your tone. Don't think you can sort it out at the gig. Don't go in blind. Demo them before-hand. They have dramatically different EQ curves to them. You will need to tweak your tone around your choice.

If you're using external cab/mic simulations (IR's or a H&K Red Box or Palmer or something like that), then you want to use "no cab" or one of the other output modes.

 

[RickyCigs]

So I plugged into a PA last night and it was total fail. Kinna irritated me. Not sure what was wrong. I was in studio/direct mode and tried both XLR Balanced out. Not 100% sure that's where I was supposed to come out of, but I thought it would be.

Did you have cab sims enabled?

 

[ghostred7]

Did you have cab sims enabled?

TBH, I have no idea. I thought they were only enabled on the "Studio/Direct" mode, which is what it was in. Audio was coming out...but it had a lot of static. The ground lift didn't change anything. I tried two cables with no change. It could of been in the channel, honestly I don't know. I'm going to take it to our practice space so I can test on our PA.

 

[TallestFiddle]

Ya its probably like they said, you probably had it in "no cab" mode, that really makes the tone staticy and it sounds like shit if you don't have an actual cabinet.

 

[RickyCigs]

TBH, I have no idea. I thought they were only enabled on the "Studio/Direct" mode, which is what it was in. Audio was coming out...but it had a lot of static. The ground lift didn't change anything. I tried two cables with no change. It could of been in the channel, honestly I don't know. I'm going to take it to our practice space so I can test on our PA.

How do you usually use it? Into a power amp? If so, then that's definitely the problem. Just having a mode selected doesn't choose a cab for you.

 

[ghostred7]

Ya its probably like they said, you probably had it in "no cab" mode, that really makes the tone staticy and it sounds like shit if you don't have an actual cabinet.

All my patches had cabs/mics in the chain. The output mode is set to Studio/Direct. I wonder if something got changed when I plugged up my pedal (FBV Shortboard MKII).

 

[RickyCigs]

All my patches had cabs/mics in the chain. The output mode is set to Studio/Direct. I wonder if something got changed when I plugged up my pedal (FBV Shortboard MKII).

How high was your master volume? Maybe the sound guy was clueless and had the gain way too high.

OR, maybe your patches just aren't set up for direct.

Here's another one since you didn't answer my first question, are you using the full models or pre only?

 

[ghostred7]

Here's another one since you didn't answer my first question, are you using the full models or pre only?

Sorry...missed that part. All full models. Master volume started low and I just started gradually bringing it up. As for the cluelessness of the sound guy: he was, but don't think that had impact on me (vocals, entirely different story). I usually only have it connected via firewire.

 

[meambobbo]

when you say Master Volume, you mean the physical knob labeled "MASTER" or the deep-editing parameter for the amp model? Your patch(es) sound fine through headphones? or through a power amp and speaker cab?

 

[ghostred7]

Ya...the physical knob. Patches work fine through headphones. It's never been connected anywhere outside of firewire & my PC

 

[AngstRiddenDreams]

I played with my pod in the wrong mode for about a week before I noticed it. It still sounded better than my Spider III (which was the only amp I ever owned)

 

[meambobbo]

the only thing I can think is either something is wrong with the Pod or the XLR cable or the mixing board or the soundman. All the output jacks should produce the same output. The only difference between 1/4" out and XLR is that XLR never sums to mono whereas 1/4" does if you only connect one of the jacks. I think 1/4" outputs a higher level as well.

As I said, you want MASTER dimed to get the best signal to noise ratio - that should not overload any board unless they try to add phantom power or some other stupidity. A ground loop would produce hum, not static.

I would bring headphones to the gig. Test your tone in headphones (but not with MASTER on 100% or you'll kill your ears). If the tone is right, the Pod is good. Gotta be the cable or board or sound guy (or the Pod's XLR jack).

 

[ghostred7]

the only thing I can think is either something is wrong with the Pod or the XLR cable or the mixing board or the soundman. All the output jacks should produce the same output. The only difference between 1/4" out and XLR is that XLR never sums to mono whereas 1/4" does if you only connect one of the jacks. I think 1/4" outputs a higher level as well.

As I said, you want MASTER dimed to get the best signal to noise ratio - that should not overload any board unless they try to add phantom power or some other stupidity. A ground loop would produce hum, not static.

I would bring headphones to the gig. Test your tone in headphones (but not with MASTER on 100% or you'll kill your ears). If the tone is right, the Pod is good. Gotta be the cable or board or sound guy (or the Pod's XLR jack).

Finally got some time away from work to test a few things out.

PHDP only w/ headphones - patches sound as designed in edit

*This point fwd, headphones are in the Saffire headphone jack
PHDP S/PDIF to Saffire Pro 40 - patches still sound the same
PHDP XLR Right to Saffire Pro 40. Master about 1/4 way, Saffire input maxed - able to reproduce same junk/fail
PHDP XLR Right to Saffire. Master knob 3/4 way up, Saffire channel on 1-2, signal meter staying high green/low orange (good) - No change to sound between direct in to PHDP and signal moving through Saffire via XLR to headphones.

PHDP XLR Left to Saffire. Same as previous.

I did move it the Master knob all the way to max and move the Saffire down to 0-1 to have the meter stay about the same place and still sounds good.

Conclusion: Sound guy was an idiot. I had line selected and Master knob pegged. He had the channel so hot that as soon as it got any volume, total distortion/fuzz/etc (probably had the channel gain maxed or something...open mic and the guy doing sound was running it). Both output XLR channels of the PHDP tested successfully with the same cable I attempted last night. So beyond a doubt it was either within the board channel or the board operator.

Thanks for your input guys...I'm glad to know it's nothing I was doing wrong. I haven't changed any settings for a few days.

 

[RickyCigs]

Phantom power was probably turned on. Probably used a channel normally used with a mic and forgot to change it.