spaceatl wrote:

 

Dual tones...While dual amps is a cool thing, depending on the amp models you select, you can find yourself running out of DSP fast....Dual tones is a novelty...you need two HD500s or HDPros running together to be able to do whatever you like with true dual tones...

 

Interesting. I wouldnt say I disagree with this, but I'm not sure the powers that be would be so eager to refer to dual tones this way, after all it is a 'feature' and a USP of the product. (im not saying this is unique to this product... how many food items say 'serves 2' and only have one worthwhile portion within... so again you would need to buy 2 to service the claims of the one).

Having said all that, I do find some simple dual tone patches are pretty good, so the feature IS useful as it stands.

Fox_Hellraisers point has been discussed in the past though, and I see both sides of the arguments. My first reaction was to question why a unit would be released that did not allow all of its promise to be fulfilled. Eventually, however, I decided that I prefer the option to use all of the DSP available in preference to having the number of slots limited or any of the fx placed in restrictive groups. My preference may of course change if I start to become more imaginative with my dual tone patches, though this is my perogative, and neither preference will change anything anyway.

One could of course argue that more DSP should have been provided in the first place so that we could have all the flexibiity and routings we wanted. In this situation, however, the goalposts would have merely been moved (whilst obviously incurring more DSP cost) but we would in most instances not be using all the DSP even with fully populated patches, and again we could argue that more slots should be available to use that DSP.. Catch 22.

I have no doubt bored or irritated some forum members with my repeated mention of an old (very old) modelling and effects unit I purchased. This has no such limits in so much as  there ARE groupings and predetermined sections, but there are numerous slots, and no combination is 'disallowed' through DSP overload. Phsycologically it feels better - more natural perhaps - to have this freedom, but I am still grateful I can maximise the use of the DSP provided in the HD, regardless of the potentially valid argument that there should be more.