wardick wrote:

 

They never specify what the HD really means.  Has Dots?  Half Done Hanoi Dung?  Two years in the making brick by brick, but already working on it since 2k5, sold everything in between for better or worse to keep cashflow going for the HD.   I think for a great release the tech needs to really be a step up and all the rest of it needs to be there too such as editor, vst and whatever else is part of the complete product.   None of this wait many months for the rest to catch up like the X3 rollout.   I think it was leaked on purpose to build the buzz regarless of what Renkin says about it afterall its that time of year and the cycle of things.  I hope its a great product since lots of folks will buy it just because its the next new thing.

Please don't say regardless of what I say. I do not lie, I do not fudge, I do not imply to confuse. I don't even work in the marketing dept. I had to ask them if it would be ok to let you guys know what is up. My title is luthier/customer advocate. I am telling you, we didn't want it leaked. For many reasons. Many that guys have guessed here.  So as a guy who looks out for our customers, I thought it would be good to come in and let you know what I can for now. Soon you guys will know all. It is a great product. Major artists who have seen it are floored and want to use it, NOW. Monster engineers are dying to record with it all. But, yes, it will be also be the next new thing, but it will also be the next BIG thing.

mikey1 wrote:

 

Yea, it was a leak. Right. Nice toy analogy though.

It was not a leak. One, I don't lie, ask these guys, here or at TGP or HRI. Some know me in real life. Two, if I say it was not a leak, it was not a leak. It would be illegal and my next meeting would be in our lawyer's office. So please guys, hang tight.

donfrantz wrote:

 

I'm looking forward to hearing this. If it's as good as the M13, I'd think about selling my Axe FX, and get the HD 500, and new Tyler Variax to go with it. Could be a very simple and versatile system--if the Amp models are good! And having Rich Renken working on it makes me hopeful!

I am not working on it. We all interact and many things we learned doing the M13 we have moved to these new things. But the guys working on it are way smarter than me and bad a$$ cats. So all is well. You are going to have a blast.

Line6Renken wrote:

 

toneman2121 wrote:

 

well i think HD could mean one of two things, hi-def or heavy duty. i'm going with heavy duty. if ithe technology isn't updated, i will be very disappointed. if it is then it will probably be out of my price range anyway

Guys, really? You think that we would add HD to mean Heavy Duty when Line 6 is a technology company. We would know that most would think it was High Definition, so that would be kinda foolhardy, right? So if I were guessing, I sure wouldn't guess Heavy Duty. Over at the gear page, they know what we meant and to be fun, they are posting all kinds of wacky anwers.

While I understand why the "HD" moniker was used and what it means, I gotta say I'm burned out on all the "HD" stuff from companies in general. It's the new buzzword/phrase de jour.

However, that won't in any way influence me in my decision to buy it obviously, since it's just a name. And if the models are that good, HD would describe them.

pbear5 wrote:

 

while i really don't care about the name of the product i do think it's interesting that Line6 already has an HD400 product where the HD stands for HeaD and the 400 for the wattage of the amp.

 

i have to say that i am skeptical about the dramatic drop in amp models.  no, i really don't need more than 16 amps but they have to be the right ones.  when i had a POD 1.0 i only used the two high gain amps so i'm sure that, of the HD collection, i would optimistically only be interested in 4 of them.  isn't it possible to load in the 106 Standard Definition amps along with the 16 High Definition amps?  A Standard Definition Chemical X is going to sound better than a High Definition Marshall attempting to sound like a Chemical X right?

 

that said, i'm not really the target market for this line anymore--i am more interested in what's next for Studio POD.  i loved my XTLive but it's sitting in a closet.

Good point, I didn't even think of the bass head.

I still to this day only use maybe 5 different models in POD Farm, so provided the models selected are good, I'm not concerned. I don't even really use the dual function at all, though I am sure many do. I just need Fender clean, Marshall gain, Mesa gain, Vox crunch. Anything beyond that is just icing on the cake for me. But I'm of course just one example. It must be tough for L6 to design something limited to "only" 16 models when everyone's so different in preferences.

The ad says 2 years in the making. The genesis of this was already being talked about when I got to Line 6 in 2005. So no, there is no license with any other company.

I guess, technically, it would be at least 5 years in the making.

I just happened to stumble on the ad in GW and it piqued my curiosity. As a guitarist/producer, I earn my living with a combination of Line 6, vintage and boutique amps. I own every generation of POD and plan on putting any Fractal consideration on hold. For my wallet's sake, I hope this one's a winner.

i don't have access to all of the research that Line6 Product Management does so this is as uneducated as an opinion can be but where i thought Line6 should be headed was that all of their products would essentially give you access to POD Farm or whatever the name for the Collection becomes.  they basically have these assets which are their models (amps both Standard & High Definition, cabs, effects also apparently Standard and High Definition "M" series) and their hardware products are essentially license to access them.  just give us a choice of hardware and different packages of models and we choose how and where we want to use them.

Very fair comment Phil.

I bought the X3L as my friend has the XTL and was pretty happy with it.  I originally was going to get a TC Electronic Nova System, but it demo'd badly in the shop.  In the end I decided as I do a lot with home studio as well as live I was probably just as well off with the X3L.  In hindsight the change of decision was pretty 'snap'.

Having said that, what the product offers is perfect - home studio integration and live gig functionality.  I just wish I could get the sounds I want - I still struggle with a smooth blues / solo tone through my combo amp for example.  I agree with what a lot of people have said that there are so many amp models (and effects) in the X3L that I would actually rather have a few very high quality ones.  I have a young family and limited time, so too much choice can be bad.

When a new digital effect unit is released it is reviewed as being awesome, then a year later it isn't and a new one is on it's way... ... whereas tube amps from 20 years ago still sound awesome. Perhaps digital effects boxes are reviewed as awesome compared to the last generation, rather than compared to our tone expectations?

I will persevere and hope I can ignore the HD range :-)