The Watering Hole

of me and HD500

Bit of a yawn, but it is what it is :-)

http://youtu.be/jd0Aatd1-Gg

Good stuff

My media player needs more frames-per-second...  :D

CraigBert — Jun 12, 2011My media player needs more frames-per-second...  :D

There was a lot of mis-picking going on, but I put that down to the lack of frame rate that just couldn't capture it  ;D lol

As the British comedian Eric Morcambe once said ...."I was playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order " :-)

here's another one for good measure

http://youtu.be/jToDUOh9kfU

Jon, enjoyed the clips.  You've had the HD500 for a while now, having previously had the Axe-fx.  What are your thoughts (good & bad) on the HD500?

Rich

voxman — Jun 13, 2011Jon, enjoyed the clips.  You've had the HD500 for a while now, having previously had the Axe-fx.  What are your thoughts (good & bad) on the HD500?

Rich

The first thing I would say is that with both the AxeFX and the HD500, the weak part in the chain is the cab simulations.  There is something about cabinet simulation that just doesn't sound right....it doesn't "breath" if you know what I mean. It is difficult to explain it but it is there.  Having said that, in both the AXE FX and the HD500 the cabinet simulations are of equal quality I would say.

The AXE FX has some excellent synth type patches, but apart from novelty value I don't think I would ever use them....although I did once and Marco put a nice solo on it http://youtu.be/nqxaOyrD_yA  I just noodled a chord sequence when testing out the synth patches.  A good effect, but not really very useful for me.   I think that all the money and development in the AxeFX went into the effects rather than the amps etc, although the amps are very good, they really are not £2,000 worth of good. A major disadvantage is that there are no real knobs to twiddle which for a guitar amp is an absolute must for me really, and of course no foot controller in with the price.

The HD500.  Much cheaper, a quarter of the price of the Axe FX, real knobs to twiddle and a built-in foot controller makes it a much better unit for me.  The HD500 really has nailed the touch sensitivity this time and in my experience it is similar in this regard to the AxeFX, there's nothing between them really.

The major benefit with the AxeFX is that you can load up Impulse cabs, however they are truncated ones so if you have some cabs (as I do with my own created impulses) that are "in the room" cab sounds and have a fairly long reverb tail then they don't really work very well as they have to be truncated to fit them into the AxeFx way of doing it.

One thing I would really like to see someone manufacture is a small standalone unit that you could load up impulse cabs into and use that as your speaker cab.  There is a unit available that does this, but that is £2,000 ish which is way too much for this.  I'm sure that if someone created such a unit in the £300 rice-range then it would be a massive seller.   I do sometimes use impulse cabs in reaper (and have done in protools) but I don't like the vst approach much from a latency perspective as I have never managed to get the latency to an acceptable level such that you could play it "live".

All in all I'm very happy with the HD500.

more thoughts later maybe !

That may be the first Pod HD video that has truly impressed me as on the level of a real amp.

Jon — Jun 12, 2011here's another one for good measure

http://youtu.be/jToDUOh9kfU

Nice stuff there Jon. I am impressed both with the playing and of course the Pod HD.

Thanks for that Jon - sorry to sound such an ignoramus - but what the heck is an 'impulse cab' & a 'truncated' impulse cab? :-??

voxman — Jun 14, 2011Thanks for that Jon - sorry to sound such an ignoramus - but what the heck is an 'impulse cab' & a 'truncated' impulse cab? :-??

Here's some good material to explain what it is  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolution_reverb

http://documentation.apple.com/en/impulseresponseutility/usermanual/index.html#chapter=4%26section=1%26tasks=true


It is a process that was originally designed to simulate real spaces, eg, concert halls etc but it can also be applied to anything that makes a sound to simulate, for example, the "real" sound of guitar speakers & cabinets and the rooms they sit i

and a "truncated" impulse cab is one that has been cut short, therefore it's reverbation tail is not as long as it should be.

Thanks Jon -  Now I feel really old - read that stuff & thought I was reading a foreign language!  ;D  Think I'll just stick to playing!  ;D

charger — Jun 13, 2011That may be the first Pod HD video that has truly impressed me as on the level of a real amp.

Thanks for that.  That's exactly what I want from a modeller, for it to sound like a real amp and to react like one, which certain models on the HD really do.   99% of all POD HD videos on youtube are either megalomaniacs talking endlessly without actually giving any good information or letting you hear it, or they are full-on high gain which doesn't showcase what it can do at all.

I don't know, they will put anyone on the line6 site these days

http://www.youtube.com/line6movies#p/c/AE0F6414CEF1B271/102/jd0Aatd1-Gg

Standards have certainly plummeted on the Line 6 site since I was on there!  ;D

voxman — Jun 20, 2011Standards have certainly plummeted on the Line 6 site since I was on there!  ;D

;D I resemble that remark !

Hey Jon

Just watched your Youtube vids, damn, incredible tones you're getting.
Watched your son's video as well, wow, the kids a great guitarist at age 13, really impressive playing.

I'm confused, is your HD plugged into an amp, or are you recording direct?

Hi Lance,

I shall show Oliver your comments later, he will be chuffed to bits !

The videos, all recorded direct.  All recorded clean without reverb etc, that was added later in Reaper.  Also, my secret ingredient, I switched off the pod cabs and used an impulse cab instead....and that makes a huge difference.

cheers

Jon