NAMD! (New Amp Modeler Day) Superior 2.0 Content

[Despised_0515]

Today, I had the pleasure of going through the quickest and most satisfying gear sale ever. I waved goodbye to my beloved 5150II and brought home some cash and this mofo.

I had my doubts but if I was going to switch over to completely direct recording, I figure I might as well give it a shot. I was pretty overwhelmed at first but I managed to throw a patch or two together and give it a go.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/18016904/HD500.mp3

Conclusion? I think I'll keep it around for a while!

 

[bandinaboy]

Sounds great! the drums could sound a little better, but were not listening to the drums. Were listening to the good guitar tone. But im curious why you sold an amp, to get a pedal. What about live gigs? My band uses POD's (one 500 and one 300) and were looking to upgrade from our solid state half stacks to tube half stacks. We definitely use the POD 500 for recording us though. That sounds good!

 

[evilmnky204]

Excellent tone! Is there any way you could possibly share the tone? Only thing that it could use would be maybe some extra low-end, the bass seems lacking a little bit. Is there bass on the recording?

 

[Despised_0515]

@bandinaboy
Thanks man! I sold the 5150II because I don't see anyone serious about making some real progress in a band picking me up any time soon. It's always one thing or the other and I'm fine with just getting into college this year and writing for fun in my room. Most of my ideas hit me in the middle of the night so the 5150II was just not ideal. I was shooting for a preamp of some sort but when this was offered, I got curious.


@evilmnky204
I like to leave the low-end duties to bass. I don't have one at the moment so there's no bass on this track and no post-EQ. Glad you like the tone enough to try it out! I'll shoot you a PM with the settings.

 

[Isan]

Do yourself a favor if you do go back to playing live ...... Get a good pa/monitor and run direct in if you want the best live mix ever!

 

[LacesOutTyler]

That sounds sooo good. I really like the tune too.

 

[Leuchty]

Sounds awesome dude!

 

[Despised_0515]

@Isan
Going back to playing live is the only reason why I'm still on the fence about keeping it but time will tell. I'm really liking it so far!

@LacesOutTyler
Thanks a ton bro!

@CYBERSYN
Glad everyone's digging it man. This thing really is a great piece of gear.

 

[slayerrulesyo]

Live you can run the pod directly into a PA. Make sure you can hear it in your monitors (hopefully the place has em) Don't know if it'll be mind blowing, but it would work with some good impulses.

 

[MF_Kitten]

I just got mine as well, replacing the X3L!

I am still getting familiar with it though. If you want a tighter and clearer tone rather than the thick growly tone most of the amp models give you, use the "pre" version of the amp model instead. I have to do that myself to try it out. You can use the split path to have two amp models on. Then you can have one of each (one pre model and one full model) and either switch or pan between them. Make sure you adjust the volumes, of course, since the pre models have less volume most of the time.

 

[Despised_0515]

@slayerrulesyo
"with some good impulses" is my biggest concern with this thing. I'm still not sure if I can use my own impulses or not. Can someone fill me in?

@MF_Kitten
Congrats man! I'm really new to Line 6's POD series altogether so if you have any more pointers, they'd be much appreciated! I'll try blending 2 pre's for a new rhythm tone later today.

 

[adrock]

sounds pretty good man. definitely not helping my GAS for one of these...

i really like the song though, good stuff

 

[MF_Kitten]

@slayerrulesyo
"with some good impulses" is my biggest concern with this thing. I'm still not sure if I can use my own impulses or not. Can someone fill me in?

@MF_Kitten
Congrats man! I'm really new to Line 6's POD series altogether so if you have any more pointers, they'd be much appreciated! I'll try blending 2 pre's for a new rhythm tone later today.

actually, i meant blending one pre and one full amp (without "pre" behind it).

the full amps are fatter and thicker and has a saturated low end, which can be negative if you want a clear and tight low end. awesome for fat growly stuff though.

if it sounds like crap when blended (i dunno how it sound myself), then you could assign a switch to turn them both on/off, and then just have one on and one off. then when you step on the switch, one switches on, and the other switches off, giving you a different amp with a different sound, but in the same signal chain.

 

[maccayoung]

@slayerrulesyo
"with some good impulses" is my biggest concern with this thing. I'm still not sure if I can use my own impulses or not. Can someone fill me in?

Nah, you can't. Not on the unit itself anyway. You can record and then add the impulses on later on via plugins on your recording software. That's not going to work live though.

 

[xCaptainx]

if you ever go back to playing live, just pick up a rocktron velocity 300 poweramp. I use one + the HD500 through a 4x12 with V30 speakers and it sounds huge.

 

[Despised_0515]

^ I just might do that, man. No lie.

Just an update for everyone on how I feel about the unit:
Today, I tried to blend an amp model with a a pre and was kind of underwhelmed. Through trying all different EQ settings of blending the two, I was actually more happy with my tone I'd already found.

At this point, I was really tired of using the HD500 editing software. I don't like tweaking tones with a mouse, I'm all about turning knobs!!! So I kneeled down, decided to stop being scared of the tiny screen of doom, and start looking at the HD500 as pedals. Lots and lots of lovely pedals at my disposal. No longer just "one big clusterfuck of endless possibilities" which is what scared me about it.

I'd settled for the first of everything that I ran into just because I wanted it to make noise yesterday. Simple changes like which OD I used and tightening up the noise gate won me over. So. Freakin'. Brutal.

I'll try and throw some clips up later. This really, really is a great unit. Any skepticism I had got pwned today. I'm not 100% on keeping it just yet but I'm definitely leaning towards keeping it or going for a very similar alternative after today's progress.

Expect to see some for sale threads popping up

 

[pearl_07]

Very impressed with this tone. I'm definitely getting a The Ghost Inside feel to the song.

 

[Despised_0515]

Old Rhythm Patch:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18016904/HD500 Old Rhythm Tone.mp3

New Rhythm Patch:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18016904/HD500 New Rhythm Tone.mp3

Looking back on it, I think I'll keep both.
The first tone I achieved sounds better to me for this syle.
The second tone I find to be too agressive but PERFECT for a meaner drop tuned song.
I definitely achieved some purr in the newer patch

 

[MF_Kitten]

Okay, new tip: put one gate in front of, and one gate after boost. Double tightness, aww yeah! Having it closely gated after the compression caused by the OD (i assume the Screamer?) means yoi get that "impossible" tightness.

Edit: just wanted to add that i tried the mixed pre and full amp yesterday, and the results were interesting. I shall have to work with the levels, but i noticed the pre alone gets you that spongy midsy smooth, yet brutal, catch-33 sound from that meshuggah album (at least with the fireball model that i'm using). The full amp adds power amp distortion on top of that, so it's less presicion and more growl, and a whole lot more presence. I gave the full amp a higher presence setting, and then i mixed them together. The result was good, but i think i will lower the Pre signal a tiny bit, as it's louder than the full amp model by default. Before the amps, my signal chain goes:

Boost comp. With drive at like 15-20%, output at full, treble at 60%, comp at 60%
Noise gate with decay at 15% and threshold at like 60%
Screamer with drive at 20% and output and tone at full
Noise gate, same settings as the first one, except decay at 0%

Then i adjust the amp gain until it's just right. Together, it all sounds like "oh jesus, holy shitFUCK!"

 

[Despised_0515]

That's just what I was going to try tomorrow morning!
I duplicated my newest patch to revert one copy to my old patch and the other to create my rendition of Bulb's "Impossible Tone" you mention.

Any pointers on creating a nice lead tone? I don't really even know where to start when trying to come up with a lead tone other than some delay. The short lead bits on the intro came out too "boxy" sounding if you hear what I mean. I feel that was in part due to the reverb I added but without the reverb, it didn't stand out enough to my ears with just delay.