guitar input clipping when any non-pre amp is selected

[davidmlee]

HD500X - using either single coils or humbuckers, if i create a new patch and select any amp with no cabinet (this really accentuates the effect, but it's present with cab emulation) and strum the guitar at all loudly, very obvious and nasty digital clipping can be heard. The input pad helps a bit but does not get rid of it (and badly affects the tone).

 

Setting the second input to "VARIAX" instead of "GUITAR" or "SAME" goes a long way towards fixing it, but might cause other problems with dual amp (and obviously, dual instrument) setups. It still occurs at the very peak of my guitars' input levels, but is far less obtrusive.

 

This problem is completely absent with PRE-only amps, so it's obviously the power stage causing the problem.

 

I know line6 are aware of this – http://line6.com/supportarchivenew/thread/54572?tstart=0 â€“ but the advice at the end of that thread said to start a new thread if the problem presents, and i haven't seen a really concise summary of the issue before.

 

I'm fully up to date w/ line6 monkey.

[davidmlee]

possibly you should put here some audio demos of your issue..

 

however, much probably what you hear is not digital clipping, but the modeled normal analog clipping (that could also be very nasty or not) that occours when an element in your chain is overloaded, which could affect also the modeled power-amp as you say..

 

Thanks – but it's definitely digital clipping ;) I've used both analog / valve and digital power amps for long enough to know.

 

Thanks for the link. It seems like something in the power amp section responding badly to the summed inputs; setting input 2 to variax dials enough of it out I can live with it, but it IS still hearable in any patch with an amp with a power stage, esp without cab emulation, when playing hard. Try it and I think you might notice it yourself.

 

Knowing the "input #2 trick" has helped enough I think I'm pretty sure I can live with it, but I still really hope LINE6 address the issue in a future patch.

 

I'll see about recording some samples for reference.

 

cheers

[pfsmith0]

I measured the clip levels of the various IO and reported the results here. A summary of the clip levels are:

 

• Aux/Guitar(normal) input clips at 0dBFS (measured at S/PDIF) with 8.3Vpp
• Mic (min gain) input clips at -1.1dBFS (measured at S/PDIF) with 14Vpp
• Mic (max gain) input clips at -1.1dBFS (measured at S/PDIF) with 91mVpp
• CD/MP3 input clips at various levels near 20Vpp, depending on which output is used (XLR, 1/4", or Phones)

As you can see, the guitar input doesn't clip until you approach 8Vpp, which is HUGE for a guitar signal, which is more like .2Vpp or so, from what I've seen.