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== The Pod HD's EQ Effects ==
I mainly use the Parametric and Mid-Focus EQ's, and occasionally use the Studio and Graphic EQ effects. It's a bit more difficult to tell exactly what the 4 Band Shift EQ is doing, but it seems to mildly duplicate the bass/mids/treble/presence controls on the amp. Making things more difficult, many parameters are expressed in terms of "%" rather than db, HZHz, or normal Q coefficients like octave ranges. NO THANKS TO LINE 6, some community members have researched these EQ's and provided documentation of how they are actually operating, which I present below.
Excellent EQ effect video by Matt Mayfield:
Here's a [http://line6.com/support/topic/335-frequency-response-graphs-for-hd500-eqs/ new thread by pfSmith0 on the new Line 6 forum], who most graciously allowed me to host his beautiful images here. Check them out below (and click to magnify them). They're absolutely amazing.
With the EQ tools on the Pod, you can't really fine-tune the higher frequencies. You can boost or cut them as a whole, but not dial in or out small frequency ranges. The Parametric EQ's "highs" parameter is a shelf EQ starting at about 1.5kHZ5 kHz. Setting its frequency parameter at 100% will only get you up to about 4.7 kHZkHz. The Studio EQ has 3, 5, and 8 kHZ kHz settings for the high frequencies, but it does not have an adjustable Q. The Mid-Focus EQ's low-pass does extend almost all the way to 20 kHZkHz, but is very sensitive to the frequency control as shown below. Also, you can only cut, not boost. You'll likely have to do a combination the amp model's presence and treble controls, along with some combination of controls just mentioned to fine-tune your high end. Starting with a good cab/mic choice and cab DEP settings is absolutely essential.
=== Graphic EQ ===
This is the most straightforward of all the EQ's. You just adjust the gain on the 5 fixed bands, which are clearly denoted in HZHz. One thing to be aware of is that this EQ is not tone-neutral at default settings - it seems to add a slight bright boost even when everything is at 0 db.
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The best effect on the Pod HD IMO is the parametric EQ. My only regret is that Line 6 doesn't make a dual parametric EQ, that ditches the Lows/Highs parameters and instead gives you another set of Freq, Q, and Gain controls; so you'd get two EQ's in one effect block (and you use less DSP). Its biggest problem is that it measures frequency in terms of percentage, instead of HZHz. Here is the best translation I've seen, done by community member alpernar. His results seem to agree with the video Matt made which I linked above. The results I got seem to be a little higher than them, but I trust their results over mine. 2 beats 1.
{|class="wikitable"
!% !!Freq (HZHz)
|50% ||880
|-
|}
The gain seems to provide +12/-15db for the parametric band. As for the shelves, the low shelf has around +/-15 db of gain, with everything below 100 HZ Hz flat and a slope from 100 HZ Hz to 200 HZHz. The high shelf has around +/-12 db of gain, with everything above 2 kHZ kHz flat and a slope from 1 kHZ to 2 kHZkHz.
I'll almost always use 1-3 Parametric EQ's on all my patches. No other EQ controls allows you pinpoint exactly a certain frequency range to boost/cut. This can be useful to make the entire signal brighter or darker, add a slight or dramatic mids cut/boost, add a touch of presence, suck out a boomy or [[#Fizzy Spots|fizzy spot]], etc.
It provides 4 peak/dip band EQ's with gain denoted in db's already.
* '''Lo freq''' - centered around 90 HZ Hz with shift at 50%, about 2 octaves wide. Use to boost/cut thump.* '''Low mid''' - centered around 180 HZ Hz with shift at 50%, about 2 octaves wide. Use to boost/cut punch.* '''Hi mid''' - centered around 1 kHZ kHz with shift at 50%, about 6 octaves wide. Use make the tone more or less midsy across the whole tone.* '''High''' - centered around 4 kHZ kHz with shift at 50%, about 5 octaves wide. Use like a treble control.
* '''Shift''' - causes the low and low mids bands to shift from higher to lower center frequencies, while causing the high and high mids bands to shift from lower to higher center frequencies, as shift moves from 0 to 100%. Shift move the center frequency of each band about 1 octave from its min to max setting.
As the name implies, this EQ boosts the mid frequencies by means of a high pass and a low pass filter. Its default settings are for a heavy mid boost, which can immediately turn people off. To make the EQ neutral, set hp freq 0%, lp freq 100%, both Q's at around 55% and turn gain down to almost 0%. I like to start here and gradually improve the tone.
This EQ has the only high-pass and low-pass filters, other than the Vintage Mic Pre effect. Also, the low pass frequency goes almost all the way to 20 kHZkHz, so it provides an excellent way to trim the high end. The cab DEP's include a high-pass filter now, which reduces the need for this EQ, but you get more control over it here because of the variable Q.
The Q settings affect the slope the rolloff, and when higher than around 60%, they actually form a resonance peak that slightly boosts the signal before rolling off above or below that point. At 100%, the boost is quite strong - around 10 db. Below are the frequencies of these resonant peaks with 100% Q.
{|class="wikitable"
! HP % !! HP Freq (HZHz) !! LP % !! LP Freq (HZHz)
|-
|0% || 0 || 0% || 500
With Q higher than that and you're actually getting a resonant peak, boosting at that spot before dropping off. This can possibly create the opposite effect that you want, but for extreme highs and lows it's not as noticeable. It's also quite useful to fine tune the signal before the amp. You can filter the lows and highs as well as give a mild to extreme boost where you want to focus the amp's distortion on.
Also, notice how quickly the frequency moves from ~4 kHZ kHz to ~18 kHZ kHz for the low-pass. It's very sensitive, so be wary of that when you're trying to trim the high end - IE don't just adjust 5% at a time, move 1% at a time.
I typically use the SM 57 mic, which is very bright. To compensate, I need to use the low-pass on this EQ to roll-off those highs to get a more natural-sounding amp tone. I find the frequency around 60-75% works, and I use very low Q values (0-20%).
{|class="wikitable"
! % !! Freq (HZHz)
|50% || 805
|-
|}
Note: Certain Mix/Gain values cause a very steep, narrow band-stop at approximately the point where the "hump" from the Q-Filter's boost levels off on the high frequency side. So with Q at 0% and Frequency around 50%, the hump levels off around 5 kHZkHz. Here are some values where I noticed the drop-off was steep. Veering one parameter off of these values, while holding the other constant reduces the severity of it or causes it to go away completely.
{|class="wikitable"