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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
POD HD500 Review - Sorta
POD HD500 Review - Sorta
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HarpNinja
2113 posts
Jan 31, 2012
9:36 AM
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Got my POD and enough time to try it through QSC K10s and Headphones.
Last night all I tried to do was get a handle on editing and finding a good template for amped harmonica tone. It was super easy to do!
I went direct from the 1/4 out to the QSC and had PLENTY of volume for gigging using the Bassman Normal amp model. The settings work just like a real amp with the exception of a harp friend master control...there is a drive, volume, bass, mids, treble, and presence control...all of which worked great.
There are also advanced controls for sag and bias. I was able to dial in a tone that was just as good as my HG2 (but louder and bigger) in just a couple of minutes. Where it gets tricky is if you want to go stereo or add effects.
I did manage to dial in an analog delay model that sounded great with harp.
I tried the POD with both a 1/4" adaptor and going right to the mic input...which was my preferred method. It will take some time to make sure the mic input is right, etc, but I could do a gig with it right now if need be.
For a few minutes, I tried to dial in a bass patch and beatboxing patch, but only via headphones. I have no idea if they are good or not, lol.
If you use the editor on your computer, you can tweak and play in real time and everything is way easy to do. From the POD itself, there is a steep learning curve.
It is very easy to save/share presets, which I'll do, sorta like Richard Hunter, as I have time. I really need to get some studio monitors to dial things in for recording purposes, but so far so good.
For only the briefest of moments I tried some of the other amps - like the Gibson and Supro. They are very high gain (but not really feedback monsters), so would need tweaking. The Blackface Fender stuff was underwhelming, but again, there is a lot to tweak.
The Bassman was easy as I had experience with them and what I wanted - slight gain, bass heavy, cool bias.
The Drive acts like your preamp character while the volume adds no gain, but does slightly change the dynamics. The master is really the volume control and doesn't impact the tone, I think. It is kinda confusing using three controls for the overall volume, but I just cranked the master and adjusted the volume via the volume knob.
All the main amp controls are available in realtime from the board with dedicated knobs. Tweaking effects or the advanced parameters is trickier.
If I can figure out direct recording, I will share basic clips, but I have to clean up the work area and figure out where to route things.
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Mike
VHT Special 6 Mods
Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
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garry
167 posts
Feb 01, 2012
7:58 PM
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by happenstance, i stumbled across this article last night. it clarified a lot about the multiple volume controls for me.
i'd be curious to hear what you did with the sag and bias controls, and what the effects on the sound are. i'm looking at the fender mustang amps that provide control over all of that.
Last Edited by on Feb 01, 2012 8:00 PM
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HarpNinja
2226 posts
Feb 27, 2012
8:36 PM
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I did my first gig with it this past Saturday. It was a duo show with acoustic guitar. We played rock covers in a room that was about 125-200 people strong at any one time.
I fed a direct line form my board to the mixer and then took a monitor out to my monitor. In the future, I will go right to the monitor so I can have separate eq's. The room was really dark FOH, but plenty bright from the stage.
I probably played at half volume overall.
Overall, it worked amazingly well for no real world experience. I only had one issue - my beatbox patch wasn't loud enough to start. I mixed it between sets and by the second set was able to get the mix I wanted.
The bass humming was spectacular from the go. I wasn't running a sub, but you could feel on stage...great sound right where I wanted it in the mix. It was my biggest worry coming in, but the biggest success live.
The harp was interesting. At home, I set it up cupping my mic probably 100% of the time. When I "rehearesed" I used headphones at night, so it didn't sound the same.
Live, I wasn't prepared for the change in dynamics when playing one-handed. You see, when playing in a duo, I cup the mic. When playing solo, I have a shaker or something in my right hand. I didn't plan on doing many solo tunes this past weekend, but I ended up doing 5. When playing one handed, the tone was much cleaner and brighter.
I was shocked by how dynamic the pedal was in its response to breath pressure and cupping. At home, you never get the full effect, but on a stage - wow!
Fearing feedback, I had set the patch dark and lo gain to begin with. I had absolutely no issues and kept plenty of headroom.
Regarding Garry's question...Originally, and I shared a clip like this, I had the whole thing setup wrong. The included directions suck and and I found a site from a user that had great advice.
I had the master volume cranked, the volume cranked, and was mixing my levels via the master knob. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I was clipping my looping pedal and ended up with a very warm sound with no dynamics or live.
Well, after a few hours of tweaking, I learned my lessons.
1. The master knob should be full on.
2. The volume should be around 50-60% to avoid clipping effects.
3. The master volume controls the tube breakup when you hit the POD with a hard signal. I ended up around 55% (originally 100%, which makes it act like class A).
4. The drive needs to be under 20% (which is the character of the preamp). More than that is too likely to feedback with a SM57
5. The MIXER on each patch is where you should set your overall output...My harp patch was at unity, but the beatbox was at +6dB. My bass patch is +3.5dB, I think.
On the harp patch, I had an auto-wah, phaser, chorus, and rotary. The footswtich went from a normal analog delay to a long dynamic delay. They all worked great. I even got compliments for the effects use.
The harmonica tone overall was really consistent with what I was using the last year - fairly clean until pushed. I aim for a Carlos Del Junco sound with maybe more compression. I use a Bassman model with the stock cab and an of axis SM57...about as generic as I can get, lol.
I also had a vocal patch that was matched to my main vocal mic. I only used it to add effects to my voice like the chorus and particle verb.
For high gain harp, I have no idea how it will work. That just isn't my thing. The more I play, the more I want a clean sound with just a little warmth/hair.
Now that I have a full bank of presets saved that are gig ready, I can A/B against them at home. I want to take a little boom out of the bass and see if I can come up with a more Champ-like harp tone.
I really shoulda taped the show. The sound was good, the crowd was great, we played really well...I regret not getting my Zoom HD setup.
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Mike
VHT Special 6 Mods
Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
Last Edited by on Feb 27, 2012 8:38 PM
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