Thanks for flagging this up Hans

For the benefit of anyone interested in one of the major stars of this update, there is now enhanced MIDI control

This means that the POD HD500 and POD HD Pro now respond to incoming MIDI CC messages too.  So if you have an external MIDI controller you can program it to control the footswitches and expression pedal functions on either an HD500 or and HD Pro.  This works very well.

Take it a stage further and if you happen to have a POD HD500 and a POD HD Pro or two POD HD Pro's and an FBV Shortboard MkII, you can set one unit up as MIDI master and control both PODs from one floor based unit or FBV controller.  This works very well

So, you can run two or more POD HD's in parallel or series and by doing so you can off-load some DSP intensive stuff to the second unit, and instantly have more DSP power by using the two units to create BIG patches by having part of the 'big' patch on one unit and the other part of the 'big' patch on the second unit.

How about audio transfer between the units?  Either keep it in the digital domain if one of the units is a POD HD Pro by using S/PDIF or use analogue audio out from the master unit to the Line Inputs on the slave unit.  It works well using S/PDIF.

You can run two units in parallel and use one to supply a correctly voiced output version of the sound for PA and one to provide a correctly voiced output for an on-stage guitar amp if you want to.

The overall flexibility of the POD HD500/POD HD Pro has now taken on a 'modular' dimension as I recall someone on the forums discussing last week when they had a 'lightbulb' moment or 'revelation'.

There's other good stuff too, including:

• Variable Input Impedance
• Global Input Setting
• A new Hard Gate

..... and some long awaited bug fixes

This one's a big step forward.  Thank you Line 6.

Nick

7 months later and no new amps?

At least they fixed some bugs and added a little value.

I would pay for more amp models but I wish there was a way to try them first.

Not complaining, but I was hoping for a little more.

CIM1 wrote:

 

Any of this new controller capability work with the HD bean over USB?

 

Also wondering how the variable impedance works in relation to backward compatability - I am guessing the default amp model impedance (whatever that may be) corresponds to the way amp models sounded prior to the update?

No.  It's only the POD HD500 and POD HD Pro.

You can manually set the Variable Input Impedance or you can leave it at Auto and it will act dependent on the first effect in the internal signal chain.  There's a section in the updated Advanced User Guide on this

Nick

hollis1003 wrote:

 

7 months later and no new amps?

 

At least they fixed some bugs and added a little value.

 

I would pay for more amp models but I wish there was a way to try them first.

 

Not complaining, but I was hoping for a little more.

The things that have been added actually increase the flexibility of the HD500 and HD Pro a lot in terms of MIDI control and the increased ability to make the POD HD500/HD Pro part of a multi POD HD or POD HD/third party device hybrid 'modular' setup.  

An improved gate, Variable Input Impedance and Global Input selection as well as a number of minor and not so minor bug fixes.   

I reckon that's pretty good personally    Maybe amp models are part of the future roadmap - we'll just have to wait and see I guess..... 

hollis1003 wrote:

 

So if you can run 4 amps at once, then I guess you can use the L6 link and have each amp go to it's own DT-50 or DT-25?

 

 

Yes - you could do that.  There's really no limit to how many POD HD Pro units you could stack up if you keep the audio path between them in the digital domain.  

CIM1 wrote:

...

 

My view is the HD bean, lacking an expression pedal input as it does...

I'm confused. The HD Bean has an FBV foot controller jack.

silverhead wrote:

I'm confused. The HD Bean has an FBV foot controller jack.

Yes is does, but I wish it had a simple analog expression pedal input that I could plug in one of my existing pedals. I don't really want an FBV.

The HD500 by contrast has an external expression pedal input in addition to its own inbuilt pedal. My M13 also had it.

But if you want a pod HD on your desktop, there is only one external device available that can control it comprehensively and no MIDI controller implementation.