clay-man

Very true, but by latency I'm talking about processing latency, as in adding more time between if the effect was processed, or if it was bypassed. There are 0 latency processes when it comes to DSP stuff, EXCLUDING D/A A/D conversion and all hardware latency. This is called real time processing. Pitch shifting usually has latency of at least 3-5 ms minimum. Do you understand what I'm saying? Edit: The complexity is what would cause latency, but it's needed. Like I said, if there was no latency, it wouldn't know how to process the pitch and it would be absolutely warble noises. It HAS to have SOME processing latency to process the pitch without warble.

"Almost 0 latency" You just defeated the purpose of your argument. I said that pitch shifting requires at least SOME latency. "Almost 0 latency" is not 0 latency, and is -> some latency. I've messed with pitch shifters that have latency adjusters on it. The less latency you put into it, the less accurate it will pitch shift. At extremely low latency, it just sounds like complete noise. I'm sure there's different approaches to pitch shifting out there that kill latency inducing routines in the programming, but you have to understand that there's a balance between latency and quality of pitch shifting. The Variax is something you'll want quality pitch shifting with. In the end, I've tested a LOT of pitch shifters. All of them have latency. They need to read some of the wave to determine how to pitch shift it WITHOUT sounding horrible. Not one of them had no latency. If no latency is possible, I'm sure one of them would have done that by now out of the bundle I have tried.

Can you explain to me why they should? This is a support forum. People who come here are mostly people who come for support, not to discuss their opinions and views. Sure, there are people who do that, I do that, but that is a small percentage of the L6 product users that exist. Those people exist massively outside this forum, hence why Line 6 shouldn't focus on this forum as feedback or to make any sort of business decisions. It's ridiculous.

Oz kinda nailed it on the head. The Variax has pretty high quality pitch shifters, not the best, but pretty awesome. Variax's pitch shifter mechanism has a bit of formant preserving in it's algorithm, or at least compared to a very basic pitch shifter, it does. Since the Variax pitch shifts each string individually, the tuning will sound a LOT better than pitch shifting all 6 strings at once with 1 pitch shifter. As for latency, there will always be latency when it comes to pitch shifters, as it needs to read a bit of the input's wave before it can determine what the algorithm needs to do to make it sound like the correct pitch it's shifting to. Latency never seemed to be much of a problem with me on the Variax, and I hate latency. Like I said before, the quality is pretty good. Downtuning doesn't sound like muddy garbage with cut off highs, it actually keeps a lot of the tonality when the pitch shifter is on. Like I said, I think it has some formant preserving going on in the algorithm, which helps make it sound natural.

You're awesome with firmware comparisons, Arnold! Glad you're so into the guitar.

Dustin Kensrue of Thrice used a Variax in D standard and based the alt tunings off of that. Seemed to work just fine for him. Note that if you go down you might want thicker strings because with low tension, the piezos don't pick up the string vibrations.

Hey buds, once you guys have some fun, can you guys share some demos?

What do you mean natural sounding? The sound all depends on the synth/keyboard, not the midi controller, unless you're talking about how nice it controls the midi signals.

Remember, a piezo pickup pickups up the sound by EXACTLY that, physical vibrations, whereas a magnetic pickup captures the magnetic field in front of the pickup, which would be the strings in front of it. It's why a piezo has to be in contact with the strings, hence why it's in the saddles since that's where the strings will physically sit. The good thing about it is that you'll get killer sounding replications of guitars, the downside is a bit of sympathetic sounds can come through, so muting the sources of that is a smart idea.

It will be a complete overhaul of the modeling technology. All models are being reprogrammed to sound even more accurate and lively than before, Remember the Acoustic upgrade? Think of it like that, except on every other model on the guitar.

Would be nice, but I think the string volume thing is for calibration purposes only, not to actually customize your tone.

You need a workbench interface to communicate with your computer correctly. You can also use a POD X3 Live or POD HD500 as a workbench interface.

I hope there's some killer demos when it comes out. If not, give us some demos, guys. Just cause I got a 600 in January doesn't mean I'm not interested in what's new with the JTV!

Thank you. Spot on. Nothing electric guitar-wise is being emulated through the piezos. It's being used for the acoustic sounds. The guitar settings are all pickup configurations with post EQ effects. Nothing is really being modeled here, just tweaking sounds to get close to some "signature" settings. The Variax's goal is to replicate guitars, not just tweak tones. The people who made it spent their time making algorithms and coding to replicate each guitar sound, not just a bunch of EQs. Either way, LPX IS a hack guitar, and IS a rehash of the firebird X which was an amazing flop. What they should of done is overhaul the technology, not put the crappy technology into another guitar body. I like how they treat digital like it's a bad thing. It's the EXECUTION, not the path you take to make something. You make a distortion pedal have really basic solid state circuitry, it'll sound dull, just the same as if you only use a few lines of code to make a distortion effect on a processor. It's the effort and execution.

Then go buy your LPX.

Understandable. I suggest giving it a try if you replaced all possible faulty hardware though. Make sure the connection is solid and not to move around cables while it's updating.

Either way, it would work with a regular guitar perhaps, but not a Variax. The saddles are all arranged specifically. Maybe if you rewired all the piezos in reverse order.

I was hoping if I got a 500 I could drop the interface, but I guess not. Does the HD500 variax stuff at least work with the original Variaxes?

Ouch are you serious? Does the X3 Live work with workbench?

Did you get a new workbench interface? A bad one might be bricking your guitar.

I'm not sure if it's supposed to or not, my guess is no. My piezo's are a bit rusty on the top, but on the string notches I don't see any wear on mine. Maybe you should get a hold of Line 6.

Well as long as it's more well built than the original Variax bridges. I know graphtech ghost has ground wires for each saddle and I think it's a lot better than relying on the piezo's physical contact with the bridge. Not the best design idea when you're gonna be touching it quite a bit.

I was referring to a point where the strings sit at an angle on the bridge, like a point where it's being choked at a sharp point to where it basically cuts the strings over time. I had to lessen the action on my 600 to reduce the choke as it seems like it was cutting the strings by sitting on a sharp point in the saddle/piezo. You don't want any sharp edges choking your string and leading it to be cut over time from constantly vibrating on that choke point.

It doesn't because original Variaxes didn't have a tuning knob, ergo there is no such thing as a global tuning. It's one of the plus sides of having a JTV. I have to waste model spaces for alternate tunings on my 600. I'd kill for an alt tuning knob function. Workbench was originally designed towards the original Variax guitars. It's outdated but it's still very useful for changing up models and deep editting the models' pickups, pickup positions, wiring, and tone and volume pot values. I love workbench, and I'm glad the JTV is getting it's own Workbench soon with the HD update.

I usually put my gain at like 6-7 on high gain. I never overkill on gain, cause it sounds awful if you do. I know there's always gonna be a little bit of noise, but I look at others and they always have a nice setup that sounds noiseless. I try to use the preamp a bit on my M-Audio but it'll clip if I put it too high. Speaking of preamps is there any preamp stuff on the POD HD, and does it have a limiter?