Pod Farm 2 vs Pod HD500x

[entrasticemperor]

Hi All,

Sorry if this is a silly question.

As far as I understand, Pod HD500x works with Pod Farm 2 where you can arrange your signal flow and download the patches to the HD500x. So purely from a tone point of view (ignoring portability, IOs etc), would the tone from Pod HD500x be the same as using a Line 6 GX + Pod Farm 2?

Since these are all digital effects, shouldn't a computer with far more processing power be able to produce better tones that HD500x which is limited in power? So why is the HD500x or HD Pro preferred?

I am considering buying a HD500x and trying to justify the 700$ price point

Thanks in advance.

 

[zesn]

Yeah a computer has a hundred/thousand/million times better processing power but why digital effects sound good is because of the algorithms. (product design)

The POD500 is pretty damn well designed in terms of amp/speaker emulation and all the other effects you would need for a convenient live/studio setup.

Have you tried looking at other cheaper PODs that might fit your requirements?

A $5000 computer will not produce better tones than a POD if i'm gonna use some free/cheap poorly designed guitar software / amp emulation on it.

A POD's processing power is dedicated to just powering the POD and i believe it is more than sufficient for what it does, whereas a computer's processing power is distributed to the system processes and many many other things.

Disclaimer: Not a POD-owner but I have used a POD before, neither do I support/condemn the use of PODs but I believe in it's capabilities for what it does.

The price point justification is very personal and up to you to decide if you need it or not

 

[eljo89]

Actually, the thing with POD farm is that it's supposedly the exact same algorithm/program as the floor units. You can edit and tweak your POD through POD Farm too. In -theory-, they should sound exactly the same.

I've heard of people who've recorded full albums with plugins/POD Farm alone and their tone still sounds pretty stinking awesome, but a ton of hours goes into tweaking and making it work right.

At the end of the day, you'll probably be able to get the same tones out of both, but it just depends on whether you need the portability, be able to switch effects on the fly with your feet, and stuff like that. Also, if you go the POD Farm route, having a decent pair of monitors and a good interface will go a long way too!