Just got a Pod HD - My Impressions
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 1:07 am
Basically, I'm mostly an electronic musician and we like to travel light. However I've always been into guitar music more or less primarily so I've wanted to find a way of introducing it to my music without falling into the "But everyone plays guitar" trap. I like synths, but I suck at playing keys even more than guitar, can't get my head around it, and I prefer the overall interaction of playing guitar as well as working with guitar effects, etc., I like the imperfection of a synth/effects heavy guitar tone versus a synth "nailing" it properly. Enter the Pod HD500, which gives you 8 effects at once, 2 amps, and routing options. And lots of switches that I hope don't break.
First off, the amp modelling is pretty high quality. My monitors aren't the best, but I reckon guitar speakers are relatively shit quality at least on vintage amps so once they're half decent monitors you're generally fine. Like a lot of modelers, some of the cabs are a bit shit with certain amps they're meant to be paired with, exaggerated sounding. A lot of stuff only really sounds good when you turn your monitor up loud.
First off, one of my concerns was that I couldn't do arpeggiator type effects. I had tried to do it on the M9 and failed. The Vibrato didn't have an extreme square wave function, which it really should(like the Memory Boy).
However when I load it up, I notice the preset "C64". THIS WAS EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED. Ironically, carrying the large box on the way home, I had actually worked out how to do it, and their solution was much the same as mine. A split fed into two harmonisers and a panner going between them with a square wave pattern, using some fuzz for a square wavey sound.
Some really amazing effect presets here.
However, in all honestly, the amps are a bit dull. It's not that they aren't great models. It's just that they seemed a bit vanilla, and my worries pan out. However the combination of pedals + amps works REALLY well, for example I got one of the neatest tones I've heard in a long time running a Fuzz Face into the AC15 model, more or less cranked. A lot of these things don't tend to work well with modelers, so I'm glad it did in this case.
I don't know if I can get used to using monitors instead of an amp. My Fender Mustang is technically inferior but since it's an actual amp, it's cooler to play somehow. The HD is also a little awkward to set up (Well, if I was ONLY using the HD, I could just leave it where it is).
The fact that the effect heavy models were infinitely cooler and more fun to play and the amp models boring in comparison(usually effects presets can be pretty gimmicky so you levitate towards the more versatile rawk sounds, but in this case, I could imagine using most of them in a track).
I'm really not sure what to do now. I was thinking of shipping my
I think in some ways I may have been better off keeping the M9 and getting the Zoom G3 instead as that had some tastier models even if they probably aren't as good. But the routing is just too cool. I'm looking forward to dicking around with the effects some more, but actually playing? I think part of the issue is that my chair is a bit awkward for actually holding a guitar on, so perhaps I should sit on a different chair, or stand up.
Of course, having a guitar that's more fun to play and I like the sound of(such as a Jag) could be an improvement too, I just don't want to bet on it. I did manage to get some single coil-esque tones out of my Sheena with a very bright setting on the Bassman(same thing I did live when I wanted to play a part that was originally done on a Tele, and distinctly so).
Of course I have to go home tomorrow so won't get much of a chance to play it. Boo. I might be best off just getting a small combo I like at some stage when I have more money and using the HD500 as an effective pedal board, because it's actually really good at that. It doesn't have the interface of the M series but you actually CAN replace a pedal board with it. The Pre models also give you some neat distortion tones as the "Distortion" setting is mostly vintage overdrives and fuzzes rather than distortions.
The lack of global noise gate is a dick move though. Because of the cab models(I find them boomy on average, probably trying to squeeze a 4x12" sound through my AV40s a bit too hard), it really needs global EQ too, which shouldn't be DSP heavy at all.
anyway I might plug it in tomorrow morning and see how I feel about it. as things are now I'm confused and don't know if I want to play guitar again. I do want to play a commodore 64.
First off, the amp modelling is pretty high quality. My monitors aren't the best, but I reckon guitar speakers are relatively shit quality at least on vintage amps so once they're half decent monitors you're generally fine. Like a lot of modelers, some of the cabs are a bit shit with certain amps they're meant to be paired with, exaggerated sounding. A lot of stuff only really sounds good when you turn your monitor up loud.
First off, one of my concerns was that I couldn't do arpeggiator type effects. I had tried to do it on the M9 and failed. The Vibrato didn't have an extreme square wave function, which it really should(like the Memory Boy).
However when I load it up, I notice the preset "C64". THIS WAS EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED. Ironically, carrying the large box on the way home, I had actually worked out how to do it, and their solution was much the same as mine. A split fed into two harmonisers and a panner going between them with a square wave pattern, using some fuzz for a square wavey sound.
Some really amazing effect presets here.
However, in all honestly, the amps are a bit dull. It's not that they aren't great models. It's just that they seemed a bit vanilla, and my worries pan out. However the combination of pedals + amps works REALLY well, for example I got one of the neatest tones I've heard in a long time running a Fuzz Face into the AC15 model, more or less cranked. A lot of these things don't tend to work well with modelers, so I'm glad it did in this case.
I don't know if I can get used to using monitors instead of an amp. My Fender Mustang is technically inferior but since it's an actual amp, it's cooler to play somehow. The HD is also a little awkward to set up (Well, if I was ONLY using the HD, I could just leave it where it is).
The fact that the effect heavy models were infinitely cooler and more fun to play and the amp models boring in comparison(usually effects presets can be pretty gimmicky so you levitate towards the more versatile rawk sounds, but in this case, I could imagine using most of them in a track).
I'm really not sure what to do now. I was thinking of shipping my
I think in some ways I may have been better off keeping the M9 and getting the Zoom G3 instead as that had some tastier models even if they probably aren't as good. But the routing is just too cool. I'm looking forward to dicking around with the effects some more, but actually playing? I think part of the issue is that my chair is a bit awkward for actually holding a guitar on, so perhaps I should sit on a different chair, or stand up.
Of course, having a guitar that's more fun to play and I like the sound of(such as a Jag) could be an improvement too, I just don't want to bet on it. I did manage to get some single coil-esque tones out of my Sheena with a very bright setting on the Bassman(same thing I did live when I wanted to play a part that was originally done on a Tele, and distinctly so).
Of course I have to go home tomorrow so won't get much of a chance to play it. Boo. I might be best off just getting a small combo I like at some stage when I have more money and using the HD500 as an effective pedal board, because it's actually really good at that. It doesn't have the interface of the M series but you actually CAN replace a pedal board with it. The Pre models also give you some neat distortion tones as the "Distortion" setting is mostly vintage overdrives and fuzzes rather than distortions.
The lack of global noise gate is a dick move though. Because of the cab models(I find them boomy on average, probably trying to squeeze a 4x12" sound through my AV40s a bit too hard), it really needs global EQ too, which shouldn't be DSP heavy at all.
anyway I might plug it in tomorrow morning and see how I feel about it. as things are now I'm confused and don't know if I want to play guitar again. I do want to play a commodore 64.