Community: Message List

Re: Can you emulate these tones with M13

support@line6.com — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:05:37 GMT

I had similar issues re the distortions and posted a note a few months ago. Basically, some people love the distortions on the M9/13 and others, myself included, just feel they're a bit "off" versus what we'd like to hear. Depends what style of music you like to play, and as a blues fan myself I agree with you.

For me, it seems like every distortion breaks up, like it has a certain kind of scratchiness to it. I found two ways to combat this. One is to realize that the drive settings need to be very low - with many pedals the best action is between 50-75%, but with Line 6 its really around 0-40% where you want to try it. Each tiny little tweak does something, so start out around 10% drive for starters (just raise the output knob if its not loud enough). Human nature makes you want to start at 50% (plus their defaults start around there too) but you need to move lower.

The second solution was I bought a Fulltone OCD to use in front of the M9. Amazing pedal and it now covers 80% of my songs. Which also freed up a slot on the M9 for something else and I have gotten great feedback from using chorus and flanger more than I used to. So just realize the M9/M13 can't do everything for everyone but its still pretty cool overall.

Re: Looper loses its sample

support@line6.com — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:43:10 GMT

OK, then I'll call it a bizarre design instead of a bug. Strange and not helpful to lose your looper sample just because you need to tune up!

Re: Looper loses its sample

support@line6.com — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 13:53:13 GMT

Thanks for your answer. Sounds like a bug to me. Hopefully to be addressed should there be an update patch down the road. Can't imagine that functionality was planned or necessary.

Re: Looper loses its sample

support@line6.com — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 22:36:24 GMT

Yes I do use the tuner. That could be it then. Thanks for clearing that up, though if you're right, who the heck designed that? Is there some reason I'm missing why someone would want the tuner to erase the looper? Or is that the only way they made to erase the looper if you want to start from scratch again, to turn the tuner on?

Looper loses its sample

support@line6.com — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 22:12:04 GMT

Hi, I've been having an issue with the looper on my M9 and was wondering if anyone could help. Several times now I have had an issue where I record something into the looper, and it plays back right away and everything is fine. I can leave looper mode, come back to it, and it is still there and plays fine. However I was playing live Saturday night, and recorded my sample then left looper mode for about an hour (never shut the unit off) and when I came back to looper mode to actually play my sample for real in the song, the looper was blank. No sample there anymore. This has happened to me several times - whenever I leave the looper mode for a while and come back to it, the sample isn't there. Is there somehow something I am doing when out of looper mode that might be erasing the file? Or is this a bug, has anyone else had this?

Thanks for your help.

Re: unwanted volume boost w/Chorus effect

support@line6.com — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:19:16 GMT

I had this issue, mostly when switching between my clean sound (which is usually just analog chorus) and anything distorted. I don't recall if I had this problem when I was using the M9's distortion, or more recently since I bought an OCD before the M9 as my main distortion sound. I think for both.

But anyway heres what I have running now and it works great somehow:

Guitar runs into the OCD. OCD runs into the M9. OCD's volume control is set to about 10 o'clock (pretty low). First in the M9 is Vetta Comp, which is a great compressor and boost in my opinion (technically I dont think its supposed to boost, but it seems to, and with less ambient noise than the Boost comp). I think I have the output level on that set somewhere between 80-100%. Then after that I have the Analog chorus, with mix around 75%. After that, whatever you'd like...I have usually analog flanger or dynamic delay.

I leave the Vetta comp on all the time. So if I have chorus on, and then turn on the OCD, theres no volume difference, or vice versa. Even if I am just playing super clean with just the Vetta comp on and I hit the chorus, also no large boost anymore. I am not sure why it works, but it does.

2 notes of this setup: One, some people will point out that distortion pedals are already performing like a compressor, they are right but having both doesn't seem to alter my sound. I also get a nice sustain for soloing and dont seem to have any bad effects from also having it on when playing rhythm. Two, others will point out that usually you'd prefer compressor before distortion and not other way around. Ideally yes, and once I added the OCD to my chain I tried buying an additional external compressor/sustain pedal to place before the OCD. It added a heck of a lot of buzz to the setup, which if you read up on compressors/sustainers is not surprising. Somehow using the M9's compessor, in combination with the global noise gate for the scene, allows it to work better together and I can great great sustain without a lot of noise. What also helps is that the OCD adds crazy boost, but since I have its volume down I dont get the hum you get when the OCD's volume is way up. And don't forget that the key to this whole thing is that the Vetta comp always has to stay on.

Hopefully this helps you out.

Re: M9 volume boost

support@line6.com — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:17:32 GMT

But anyway heres what I have running now and it works great somehow:

Hopefully this helps you out.

Re: Volume pedal before and after M9

support@line6.com — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:46:28 GMT

Just be aware that if you're already using 3 slots most of the time, the M9 expression pedal won't help you then as you need to set a slot to be volume control in order to use it for that. It is not a volume pedal on top of the other 3 slots - it still needs to use a slot. I had the same issue (not wanting to waste a slot on volume control) so I just ordered an Ernie Ball VP Jr 6181 to put after my M9 as a master volume control. Though someone else pointed out that if you are using a distortion with an output setting you can use that slot along with the M9 expression pedal as your de facto volume control too - thats a great idea, I haven't tried it. If I ever want to use a pedal to do volume swells instead of master volume, I'll just use the M9 expression pedal at the beginning of the chain for that. I also use the expression pedal for setting delay time on the Dynamic Delay effect, and as a wah (I like Fassel best).

Re high vs low impedance, I have also not found any engineering-based explanation for why high wouldn't work elsewhere - like I said it'll work but you may notice some tone loss or volume loss even when your pedal is set to 100%. Just test it when you get it by setting it to 100%, listening, then unplugging and playing without it. If theres no noticeable difference to you, then its fine and like everything else in guitar effects rules, rules are OK to break if it sounds good to you.

If you want to read a huge debate on the issue check out:

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-295683.html

You'll see that there is no firm answer, and a lot of misunderstanding on this issue. Theres always a lot of confusion re the definition of active vs passive. With volume pedals especially, the term is often misused as you care where in the signal chain you are i.e. if its after some powered or buffered pedal, the chain is then active but it doesnt matter if your actual volume pedal is active or passive or not (but the impedance of it matters). Most volume pedals themselves are passive and do the job just fine, but you need to know whats before them to pick the right one. Just trust your ear and ignore the rest of it.

Re: Using the Line6 M13 live on national radio

support@line6.com — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 20:34:38 GMT

Sounds great...what are the settings for the reverb & tape echo?

Re: Volume pedal before and after M9

support@line6.com — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 19:22:32 GMT

You are generally correct, with a guitar anyway, before an M9 you'd use a higher impedance pedal (250K ohm) if your guitar has passive pickups (or lower impedance 25K ohm if you have battery-powered active pickups), and after the M9 you'd need a lower impedance pedal (25K ohm) once the signal chain is "active". If your clarinet pickups need power (battery or adapter) you might need a lower impedance even before the M9, I can't tell you for sure.

Both the lower and higher impedance pedals will "work" at either location, its just that your signal quality won't be as good as it otherwise could be if you were using the correct impedance. So you do need to figure out where in the chain you'll be using it before knowing which to buy (unless you have active guitar pickups, then either before or after the M9 you'd want a low impedance 25K ohm version).

I think you could easily get away with one external volume pedal, and one expression pedal for the M9 to use a slot of the M9 as a volume pedal. The M9 expression pedals cost only $40 instead of $70-100 for another volume pedal. Plus with the M9 pedal you can simulate being either "before" or "after" the M9 by making it the first or last slot on the M9. Also, you can use the expression pedal to control the delay you mention on the M9 - you can cut the feedback from 100% to zero with the pedal, to turn off the delay when it gets crazy.

Or if you buy an Ernie Ball VP Jr low impedance (model 6181 25K ohms), this also works as an expression pedal for the M9, you connect the output jack only to one of the M9 expression pedal slots.