MeAmBobbo PodHD Artist Match Pack (All Merged)

    @oozish, thanks for the feedback. I retagged everything - Rig Comment is now the desired artist/album, Rig Comment is the genre, and Cab comment is "Merged" if merged. I found some serious issues in my patches, made some tweaks, re-profiled, and added the new versions to the zip in the OP. They end with "2". Check them out - these all sound much more like a real amp, and have much more body and warmth. Let me know if I improved things, or if this just isn't worth the effort.


    I went back to the drawing board and really looked into the Pod patches and tried to figure out why a few of them worked so well and why others sounded fake and "off". What I found was the ones that made poor profiles struggled with eliminating weird, nasty issues, like crackling break-up on transients, and some notes getting stronger bass responses than others. I was determined to find the source, and I think I found it. The amp DEP's were often heavily-tweaked. On some amps, some of the DEP's can be tweaked without nastiness popping up, but on most of the high-gain amps, I almost always found moving off the default 50% was bound to introduce issues.


    The big problem with the Pod HD is you are so limited - just a handful of high-gain amps. So you have to find inventive ways to mimic other amps or even get a variety of sounds. The cab/mics are pretty terrible, so you have to double them up to get the most from them. Then you start hitting weird crap like Input 2: same or variax. And if you adjust one amp, you have to adjust the other, even if you're basically trying for the exact same amp tone. Then a lot of the boost options get tricky. The EQ's clip easily, and you have to use so many of them to get the intended effect. You have to budget slots, DSP. I quickly remembered how painful it is to dial this thing in.


    So the amp DEP's are a quick and easy way to make the amps sound and behave differently. But what I discovered was this is almost always going to totally ____ up the tone in some way or another. You may be thinking, I just want the notes to have more bloom, or the mutes to have more chunk, and you lose sight of the total picture. You tweak while only listening for one thing, and when you get it, you declare victory and move on, without realizing you just made low-end single-note riffing sound like it's magically running through a fuzz pedal.


    Anyway, I mostly reset the Amp DEP's which cleared up a lot of awkward issues, and re-balanced the dual cab blends to get more oomph and body to the tone. I then kind of had to re-EQ them.


    Overall, after re-profiling, almost all of the new ones sounded better once they got to the KPA. They just sounded a bit more natural and responded more like a real amp. Once further tweaked using Definition and pre-EQ adjustments, the KPA profiles slay. It's not even close.


    In the coming week, I hope to make some clips of some of my favorites, as well as some comparisons of Pod vs. Kemper for the profiles, untweaked and tweaked in the KPA. Here's the list of the updated profiles:


    John Petrucci - Mark IV Rhythm, Dual Recto Rhythm
    Lamb of God - Ashes of the Wake
    Killswitch Engage - End of Heartache 1 & 2 (5150 and Recto)
    Opeth - Ghost Reveries
    Meshuggah - Chaosphere and Obzen
    Scar Symmetry - Dark Matter Dimensions
    TesseracT - One/Altered State/Polaris
    Veil of Maya


    If anyone wants me to take a stab at some other ones, just let me know which ones to try. I'm thinking the Vai ones are already pretty solid. The Satch Love in Space is probably worth looking at. I think the Petrucci Mk IV and Recto lead profiles could favor an update. Also, definitely want to revisit the Misha Mansoor ones.

    Great work!
    I know I read all tips from you regarding the pod at the time I was thinking to buy one... I am happy that I don't and have a kemper now ;)


    Just a small comment: why do you put so much effort in profiling the pod? Wouldn't it be easier and better to tweak kemper profiles on the direction of the desired artists? I know you are very deep in these devices and on tone - so this should be easy and better for you?

    This is awesome. I probably won't get to check this out for another week or so, but... I'm pretty excited about trying these out. The Line 6 stuff gets a bad rep around the Kemper and Fractal communities, but some people really swear by the equipment and can get some really great sounds out of them. I had an X3, and, while I basically left it on my pedalboard as a virtual amp and didn't really touch much except the volume pedal, it served as a great base to my tone for many years.

    Guitars: Parker Fly Mojo Flame, Ibanez RG7620 7-string, Legator Ninja 8-string, Fender Strat & Tele, Breedlove Pro C25
    Pedalboard: Templeboards Trio 43, Mission VM-1, Morley Bad Horsie, RJM Mini Effect Gizmo, 6 Degrees FX Sally Drive, Foxpedals The City, Addrock Ol' Yeller, RJM MMGT/22, Mission RJM EP-1, Strymon Timeline + BigSky
    Stack: Furman PL-Plus C, Kemper Rack

    Like 1

    "Just a small comment: why do you put so much effort in profiling the pod?"


    Many reasons. One, its the only thing i can profile. Two, I always wanted to profile my setlist so I didnt have that nagging feeling I may have lost something. Three, because I still like to serve that community, so I wanted to update some patches and share with them. And four, because these actually profile wonderfully and I wanted to impress the Kemper community with the quality of profiles despite the source.


    As far as using other people's profiles for a pack, the problem is that I dont want to seek the permission of 20+ people, not would I feel comfortable calling that my own. The Pod is pretty good in the variety it offers, although I wish it had a 5150 and Mark IV (u can buy the 5150 now but im not doing that). So i dont need to audition tons of profiles to get there.

    OK,


    Mshgh Obz 2 is just really GOOD! Love that one mate! Now that's a def improvement. The other Meshuggah stuff I just don't like that much, nor the revision of Chs2. But it's a big change for sure and better than the orginal I guess; just on the muddy side.


    Lambo of God Ash 2 sounded ok, but then I used the (free?) Tills cablab 01 cab on there and I think it's even better.


    I see what you have to struggle with because the revisions are so night and day in some cases, such as KSE EoH2 2 and the original; one way crisp and the other muffled; I imagine it's very hard to balance and I don't have anything (records) to compare so I don't know. Personally, without referencing the songs which I don't have; I love the Obz 2 sound so that's a keeper.


    I also took the Vai Sol and played with cabs. I wanted the same tone but a little cleaned up; and think Andees JTM45 cab did the trick (it's not free but from his JTM 45 pack). If you have that try it, it's pretty close to what you have tonally but not quite as thick; but really cleans up the sound.


    Other cabs I tried I didn't like better than what you have they tend to give the patches a real raspy tone, so cab finding is pretty tough in most cases I like the original. Thanks for all your work I'll make my way through these more and more and let you know if I find something else to love. :)


    Also, try the MkIV Rhy with the Mesa OS 4 cab (I think you have that from tonehammer OS pack?). That sounds good!


    edit: I just tried the JTM cab on the joe satriani alien too, and it's just like made for this POD. Great addition in a world of cabs that usually sound like crap with these, that one just works. Marshall JTM Studio, 4x12 Greens, TC30/87/121

    Edited once, last by oozish ().

    Like 2

    Thanks so much for spending so much time on this! Its real nice to get a 2nd set of ears on them.


    I do have the Tonehammer OS pack. I also may try to see if some swaps work. I used to spend way more time with swapping, but it gets overwhelming quickly.


    Ironically, the Meshuggah Obzen tone is around when they switched to L6 Vetta 2 amps I think. I believe they used the Big Bottom model, which is like a boosted 5150 with more low end. So thats what i was shooting for. Not sure if thats what they used in the studio/album, but that was much approach.


    I need to get some more TAF stuff soon. He was one of the first guys i bought from, but it was more gainy stuff and it wasnt bad at all but wasnt very impressive either. I know...i need to get some Marshall stuff from him.


    I also dont have any of the MBritt packs. So ive gone way overboard on metal profiles i think and need more balance. All things in good time. First i need to put pickups in my old strat copy. That got quickly turned into a dual humbucker high output guitar almost 20 years ago, and needs to return to a Fendery tone

    If you get a marshal now get that 68 (I think, in bed now) Marshall mini pack Britt just realeased


    Word to the wise.


    andee of the amp factory is working in some new stuff and the cleans he's getting are ridiculously good. If you are a member of his forum you can try some early samples
    of 3 amps he has getting started with in studio.

    Quote from meambobbo

    Do you have Top Jimi's '68 or '74? I have those and like them a bunch. I've heard Andy's Marshall toolkit is really, really good. I don't know where to start with M Britt.


    OK, I have the '78 and '74 Top Jimi, and I don't use them. My best advice was already given since the Britt 69 Marshall pack was just released and it's only 15 dollars, I can almost guarantee you will love that pack and it's the best Marshalls I have. I'm sure Andy's toolkit is good yes, I've heard all that too, but Britts' latest thing only costs 15 bucks to try out and it's based on 3.0 etc. My other recommendation for Britt would be his vintage pack if you like that sort of thing. It's really good, but all his packs are, I have all of them except the modern kit so PM me if you're looking for something in particular.


    I have Andy's fentastick and pack 6, and some various single packs; ;but if I had to buy one it would probably be the fentastick, again, for that sort of blues/fender thing.


    I guess my advice at this point, if you're getting your feet wet, would be to go in the mbritt direction, you just can't go wrong. He's got a few small packs out now for as little as 10 dollars, but like I said I'd go for the vintage pack and/or pack 3 if you want to catch up with some non-metal profiles and I would say before that get that marshall pack.


    Based on The Amp Factorys latest free offerings for previous owners, I would get whatever he releases next I think it's going to be 'The best of' series, like the best of clean the best of crunch etc. The tones he's getting now are at a new level, and the cleans he's just released for free for previous owners of (anything) of his via his forum are so good**, I'm going to have to recategorize my best cleans today.


    **He's released a variety of profiles of the Blackstar A30, the WEM, and the Cornell romany plus.

    Wanted to say I think the best of the best for the POD profiles you have there are the ones geared more for solos' such as the VAI and joe satriani. I switched the cab on those as stated above and they really sound solid, tones of sustain and character and very convincing and best of all...fun to play! While the others don't stand up to real amp profiles, the solo sounds are very good and I will be keeping them. Thanks again, it's been a blast working through these.