Mar 20, 2009 9:37 PM
Line 6 - Time for a Solution for the USB Audio Dropout
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This may come off as a rant. It is not meant to be, although it does allow some venting. First, let me say I think Line 6 is a very good company to deal with based on prior treatment with an XTL problem in which they were more than reasonable. Second, I love the X3L and all its capabilities and especially the tones. I love POD farm and Guitarport Online (when I can use it) and I am beggining to like the new forum although the learning curve was abit steep at first, and I love the community of users of Line 6 products. These things make Line 6 a cutting edge company. Now, the problem. Many of us have been patiently waiting for a resolution to the USB audio drop-out problem for over a year. It is time to admit that this is a hardware issue and make arrangements for an orderly repair, or, give us a projected date when a firmware fix will fix the issue. Yes, I know you will be crucified if you are a week late. But, Line 6 has had quite a long time without a deadline pressure to resolve this issue, without result, yet many new products have been introduced since this issue was known. Workarounds that involve purchasing additional hardware is unacceptable and does not work for everyone of us. Many of the first X3L purchasers were(are) repeat customers, having owned the XTL and other Line 6 products. It is time for Line 6 to make this the ONLY priority in the company. The affected customers do not want this to become another Vetta II where fixes were promised then dismissed as not cost effective (after 2 years). If there is no viable fix, then be prepared to offer refunds as a stand-up thing to do. We customers may surprise you and buy other of your products with the refund. To do what has been done for over a year cannot continue. It makes Line 6 look like they don't care, right or wrong. Please issue your own fix it date, recall date(s), or admit defeat and offer refunds. Again, I think we all want to keep the unit, but, it has to work with USB. Sorry for the Rant.
Starriddin I think your post is very reasonable considering that many of us have been waiting over a year. I too love the X3L's tones and am a repeat L6 customer, but my primary use of the X3L is recording guitar tracks via USB. My dropout times are not as severe as others have reported, but it seems L6 owes the community a better explanation of the situation. I am beginning to believe that if there is a fix for this problem it will cost the people who opt for it both money and time.
Of course his post is reasonable... so are many on other L6 product forums requesting that L6 "fix" the bugs in their products.
Personally, I've been waiting for over 3 yrs for L6 to fix the bugs in my Flextone software - I'll not list them here, but there's quite a few - and to date NONE of them have been corrected.
They decided to focus their resources on other products such as the Spider Valve and the X3 series.
Based on experience, I'd not hold my breath !
Bump for an official Line 6 reply.
"/.../ The affected customers do not want this to become another Vetta II where fixes were promised then dismissed as not cost effective (after 2 years)."
Did Line 6 do promisses and dismissed them with the Vetta II after two years?
Where can I find this offical information about the Vetta II?
I have a POD X3 Live and a Pocket POD. Both units need software (????) fixes.
Now, with your information, I'm affraid of not having my Line 6 gear fixed: if they (actually and officially) don't fix the Vetta II, the most expensive gear, why do they fix POD X3L and Pocket POD?
One more time, could you please show me the official informations about the Vetta II?
Regards,
Leonardo.
http://Vetta Software and Upgrade F.A.Q.s
hope the link works , its at the bottom ,
i cant seem to copy and paste , but this was there responce after 3 years of the promise to fix it ,
there is a big thread in the old forums, im sure they just want us to forget
we were assured the issues would be fixed , and then did not follow through ,
again this was after 3 years of - it will be fixed
maybe we should all band together and seek a legal solution... seriously... everyone here has given them patience upon patience only to get non-commital answers that serve to pacify us... the kicker for me was... the part where they acknowledged a solution that was "beyond the testing phase" but then somehow still more or less said "you can't have it though" and they won't even acknowledge what "it" is... i mean if its waiting for a coordinated rollout on a hardware fix... that's fine... i'm happy to do it orderly etc... i just want it done.
here is a copy of the old vetta thread , i hope it works , its a good read
Hey.
i've owned my X3 live for a few months. I've only recently recorded with it USB into my computer , and only a little bit , as I have a decent recording studio with a lot of professional gear already. I wanted to use the X3 for ideas , and for possibly adding additional tracks of guitars into Logic before mastering.
Anyways ; during the little bit I did record , I didn't notice any "dropout" in audio. Can you explain the scenario where this happens ?
I'm wondering if this is an issue that Line 6 has resolved "unannounced" in newer units , so they don't have to be responsible for correcting the problem in early X3's. ( just a thought )
When using the X3L as the computers "soundcard", the audio will be playing but suddenly stop. This might take seconds, minutes, tens of minutes or hours. There is no error detected by the audio program. Recording actually continues to work. To get the audio playback working again, you have to quit the audio program, reboot the X3L, and restart the audio program. You can test yours by putting any audio playback in a loop, and leave it run all day/all night to see if it ever cuts out.
Line6 has a hardware fix that they tested on a couple units for people here in the forum, 6 months ago, but they refuse to tell us anything other than they are still working on it. In fact, the comments were more positive a month ago ("Honestly, I can't se it taking much longer"; "We are past the testing phase") than they were last week ("We're still working on it"; "Nothing new to report").
Line6Miller has said repeatedly that they absolutely intend to fix this problem.
What is a person to think?
I will definitely try this out for myself and post my results. I highly doubt I have a new "fixed " unit , but who knows.
My advice is , Don't stop the threads complaining about it. Make everyone aware of the problem so people don't think they are alone. Update the thread daily - asking for help from Line 6 . Keep the thread at the top of the current ones. I'm sure there are some great guys who work for the company that post , but that doesn't mean these guys are the one's responsible for sales and service. remember -- squeaky wheel gets the grease , and there's strength in numbers.![]()
I've often wondered if this problem is related to quality control. Perhaps some of the X3L's are made with components that match the design specs done by L6 and therefore don't have the dropout problem, while some have components that are not within design tolerance and have the problem. It's just a thought and I have no evidence for it. However, one of the things I've heard consistently about electronics and guitars manufactured in China is that it was fine when the US companies were actively involved in monitoring quality control. In the last several years companies that outsource the labor to China have "saved" some money by letting the Chinese do the quality control. Unfortunately, in some cases the Chinese company didn't do a very good job of it. I hope nobody construes this as bashing the Chinese, but it's just a sad fact. A guitar dealer on another forum told the story that he wanted to stock Eastman guitars, which are made in China, but he was worried about quality. So he ordered 5 to see what they were like. His comment was that they were exquisitely made and an incredible bargain for the price. So he ordered 45 more and got 45 guitars which were almost worthless - truss rods snapped, necks warped, and on and on. He just pitched most of them.
OK. Consider this a longwinded bump. Peace.
I wonder why line6 cannot provide any information. They must have some knowledge about this issue after year of investigation. Or are they too busy developing new products?
It would help new customers (and existing ones) if they could provide more information about this problem (incompatible hardware, chipsets etc). Or is it really so that they don't have any more knowledge? If this is the case, they should at least announce official list of known issues in the product pages.
At the moment, my feeling is that they are misleading their customers.
Back to the top for a replay from Line 6
Hey Brainstem, that Vetta.doc was amazing. Like Yogi Berra said it's deja vu all over again.
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