I remember the neck and back aches well!
So I wasn't the only one? Woohoo!
Seriously, I actually have a little more pain in those areas right now after typing that. Casting my mind back to that editing marathon caused a slight increase over what I usually have (issues since age 12; every breath hurts, but that bloody HD500 amplified(!) it all so much).
i never tried the HD 500, but the Pods didn't need tweaking to get a decent tone. I used to have earlier an ART preamp that was also pretty immediate. Not very accurate but it had all those effects that the rock stars had in their rack but at an affordable price. And having a rack of your own was cool. 
Yeah, the POD 1.0 and PODxt were the quickest to get a decent tone out of IMHO CJ. The X3 took longer as things became trickier / more-sophisticated routing-wise, for instance, and then the HD series took a giant leap in the same direction.
I remember the blurb / hype (which L6 does very-well) at the time, promising an all-new (what does that mean anyway?), high-definition, DNA-level modelling process that was going to blow us away. Well, it blew my back and shoulder away, I'll give it that.
The pattern is clear: With every iteration of the POD, finding your tone/s became more of a PITA.
Almost forgot:
Sansamp PSA-1 (I think that was what it was called).
Talk about instant gratification. That thing was incredible, man. Had to sell it (needed the bucks), and have regretted it ever since. Its only flaw was that it was a tad noisy. We're talking '90s here too, so I admit I might be looking at it with a nostalgic eye.
i never tried the HD 500, but the Pods didn't need tweaking to get a decent tone. I used to have earlier an ART preamp that was also pretty immediate. Not very accurate but it had all those effects that the rock stars had in their rack but at an affordable price. And having a rack of your own was cool.
POD HD 500 needs a lot of tweaking to get usable tones. I still have mine. Once you get a decent tone that's it, adjusting the EQ on the fly will completely wreck the tone. It's a very good controller however. The Drives and effects are pretty good and if it's it's the only device you have, it's more than adequate and gig worthy.
POD HD 500 needs a lot of tweaking to get usable tones. I still have mine. Once you get a decent tone that's it, adjusting the EQ on the fly will completely wreck the tone.
My experience exactly, Dean. See below what I said on page 2:
Yeah, my "good bit of tweaking" took nearly 3 years, but I got there eventually. Many compromises had to be made in order to eliminate the scratchiness, meaning that when all was said and done I only had a very-narrow range of tonal adjustability to work with.
The cumulative effect of determining the sweet spots across all parameters meant that in the end, I was left with just one "perfect" tone for each amp / cab setup. I effectively had to paint myself into a corner in each instance.
seems to me they were aiming to show off the best of the pod against the poorer KPA and AF presets.
This doesn't make any sense.
Anderton is not selling Pod, but is selling both Amplifire and Kemper.
I think they didn't do this demo correctly (they should have go DI and not mic a FRFR cab), but it was not done on purpose.
If this vid has any effect on sales it will be do decrease them.
This doesn't make any sense.Anderton is not selling Pod, but is selling both Amplifire and Kemper.
I think they didn't do this demo correctly (they should have go DI and not mic a FRFR cab), but it was not done on purpose.
If this vid has any effect on sales it will be do decrease them.
Agree, its obvious that this is not a sales promotion. What i think they were aiming to do was get the best of the pod and the not-so-best of the others to level the playing field a bit. Like most agree, it certainly doesn't do the newer units much justice.
Still, it's created a bit of a debate and that's generated them some attention 
Following this video, i felt compelled to do my own comparison with a KPA, AF and my old GSP1101. I sold my red-kidney pod and HD500x ages ago but kept the GSP.
playing was off the cuff but hopefully it gives a fairer shoot-out:
Wow slateboy that's a great comparison, I may grab an 1101 for the basement gigs and stuff where I don't want the kemper getting damaged or stolen
Following this video, i felt compelled to do my own comparison with a KPA, AF and my old GSP1101. I sold my red-kidney pod and HD500x ages ago but kept the GSP.
playing was off the cuff but hopefully it gives a fairer shoot-out:External Content youtu.beContent embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.
It's what happens when you use same IR.
IR is a massive part of the tone.
The quality of amp modelling is not as massively different as it may be assumed -- modellers have been doing a great job at it for a while now.
Of course certain characteristics are indeed different, as is the "feel".
Kemper has a great ability to create cab sims out of cabs, for me.
Cool video, btw, great illustration.
Following this video, i felt compelled to do my own comparison with a KPA, AF and my old GSP1101. I sold my red-kidney pod and HD500x ages ago but kept the GSP.
playing was off the cuff but hopefully it gives a fairer shoot-out:External Content youtu.beContent embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.
Wow! This is a much better comparison.
Impressive, thanks!
.
Display MoreThat is true, I heard some engineer stating that almost 80% of tone is from type of speaker and I believe it.
Modeling the sound is close, but the feel is not something that can be heard specifically when use a DI track.
The biggest, not spoken of as often when talking about the Kemper, is the natural feel. From my experience, the Kemper is much more inspiring to play and in the end of the day, that's 100% of what matters for when you're trying to get inspired from sound.
I can still play my POD HD or Eleven Rack or some plugins, they can be made to sound very good but I'm very aware of how much less inspiring they are to play when compared with Kemper because they feel the least like the real deal.
All of these comparisons don't factor the feel. You can even toss the real amp in the room in the comparison and the sound wouldn't sound that much better, if you start with the amp in the room, you can achieve the best feel, and next is the Kemper. That's why I no longer play these other devices.
The way I see it, life is too short playing uninspiring gear, if I'm not going to play the real amp, I will play the next best thing. When you factor the flexibility and the massive variety of almost every amp under the sound at bedroom level and with Pure Cab to get much closer to "amp in the room" than any other digital device, it's no wonder why most who adopt the Kemper aren't looking back.
All I'm trying to say, is not to underestimate the value of the natural feel and response of the sound not just the sound itself.
In that regard (the feel), I haven't met or heard anyone who played the Kemper that thought any other device came even close to how well the Kemper does that.
I agree that the feel can make such a big difference. Kempers feel is very close to the amps it profiles when profiling goes well and there are no issues with power amp distortion. Clips may not convey these nuances, and something that sounds quite similar may be more uninspiring to play through.
Display MoreThat is true, I heard some engineer stating that almost 80% of tone is from type of speaker and I believe it.
Modeling the sound is close, but the feel is not something that can be heard specifically when use a DI track.
The biggest, not spoken of as often when talking about the Kemper, is the natural feel. From my experience, the Kemper is much more inspiring to play and in the end of the day, that's 100% of what matters for when you're trying to get inspired from sound.
I can still play my POD HD or Eleven Rack or some plugins, they can be made to sound very good but I'm very aware of how much less inspiring they are to play when compared with Kemper because they feel the least like the real deal.
All of these comparisons don't factor the feel. You can even toss the real amp in the room in the comparison and the sound wouldn't sound that much better, if you start with the amp in the room, you can achieve the best feel, and next is the Kemper. That's why I no longer play these other devices.
The way I see it, life is too short playing uninspiring gear, if I'm not going to play the real amp, I will play the next best thing. When you factor the flexibility and the massive variety of almost every amp under the sound at bedroom level and with Pure Cab to get much closer to "amp in the room" than any other digital device, it's no wonder why most who adopt the Kemper aren't looking back.
All I'm trying to say, is not to underestimate the value of the natural feel and response of the sound not just the sound itself.
In that regard (the feel), I haven't met or heard anyone who played the Kemper that thought any other device came even close to how well the Kemper does that.
totally agree. the gsp used to be my main unit ten years ago, especially when the ability to load your own cab IRs in with the beta 63 firmware became a feature. then along came the kemper which was a massive leap forward. i got the AF as a travel-light device when i have to fit everything in a rucksack, replacing a pod hd500x which never really done it or me (maybe if that accepted cab IRs it might have been kept) The AF was suggested to me (in this forum actually) and, again, its the cab IRs that make it work for me though. So i put the same cab IRs into the gsp and this has given it a fresh lease of life. the gsp has limited storage for IRs and trims the files to fit the units memory so there is some compromise and change of tone as a result but sufficient for a backup unit in my rack. trouble is when i needed a back up the other week following a kpa crash i forgot i had created the backup presets and forgot how to use the gsp! derr! 
The Helix doesn't sound that great with stock cabs either, with IRs it's much better, but the Kemper beats it hands down.
Except for the editor.
