amsdenj

I meant the MIDI controls for all the different amp and effect parameters, not just the hardware switches and dials.

I don't use the Apogee GiO with the HD500X. Rather I have two basic setups - Apogee GiO into MainStage using S-Gear for the guitar amplifier, or HD500X for everything. What I'm looking for here is a bit more hybrid in that I want to use the HD500X to replace the Apogee GiO to provide: 1. an audio interface 2. some before the amp plugins (compression, univibe, distortion, etc.) 3. MIDI control for MainStage and S-Gear MainStage and S-Gear provides flexibility and tones that compliment what's provided in the HD500X. But this is complex to setup and use. The HD500X doesn't sound as good, but it's close and certainly is simpler and easier to use. I use MainStage for backing tracks and the excellent looper, the HD500 looper is too short. So my issue is I want to use some of the HD500 foot switches to control the HD500 front of the amp plugins, and some to control MainStage and S-Gear though MIDI. I have all that working, but pressing the foot switches configured for MIDI don't reflect the control state in the foot switch light - they're always off. This isn't a big deal, but would be nice to have an option to echo back the MIDI control to the POD in order to change the foot switch light state. That's they way the GiO works.

I think we sometimes suffer from too many choices. I try to settle on just five patches, Acoustic (no amp yet, waiting for 2.6), Clean (Twin), Blues (Bassman or Deluxe), Crunch (AC30) and Metal (Marshall). I do find myself continually tweeking even just these four - usually to make them warmer. Its nice to hear other people have the same issues with constantly changing patches. I do suspect it has more to do with ear fatigue than something that's actually wrong with the patch. I also find that playing in context rather than by myself seems to make the patches sound better. Maybe that's part of the problem - its just not possible to set a patch by yourself, in your living room, at low volume, and expect it to translate to a full band live setting.

The older POD's provided documentation for the various MIDI control sequences so you could write your own programs to interface with the POD. But I don't see a similar document for the HD500X. Anyone know where I can get one?

That sounds like it would work, but using up effects blocks just to control lights seems like a waste. I have the effect blocks full, but don't switch them on and off with the the foots witches as they control things in MainStage instead. Rather I just reach down and turn them on and off at the beginning of a song with the POD controls. Its not that bad having the lights not display the state of the control in MainStage because 1) MainStage (or Logic Remote) does show the state properly, and 2) you can clearly hear the impact of the choice (otherwise why have it?). Just wondering if I was missing something simple. Just got the HD500X last weekend.

I'm using the Vintage Pre and various combinations of EQ now, but that doesn't make any use of the drive, bass, middle, treble, and presence knobs on the HD500, and the EQs are mostly tailored for electric, not acoustic guitar or mandolin. The POD X3Live was more flexible for this, but doesn't have the HD quality. I'll try the Hiwatt, using a spectrum analyzer to see how to use it with acoustic instruments. Hopefully this is only temporary until 2.6 comes out. I delayed getting an HD500X until I heard about this update as it now has the same capabilities as the X3Live, but with better quality models.

I've been able to configure HD500X foot switches to control things in MainStage from the POD, but haven't found a way to have the foot switch lights indicate the state of the MainStage control. I could do with with the Apogee GiO by having MainStage output the MIDI CC message back to the device. This didn't do anything with the HD500X. Is there any way for MIDI to control the foot switch light status?

Until the 2.6 release comes out with acoustic model, I need something to provide more tone control for my variax 700 acoustic. I know a Fender Twin in the normal chanel with bass and treble all the way down and middle all the way up is reasonably flat. But is there a better choice for an acoustic pre-amp in the HD500X amp models?

I've owned almost every POD Line6 has created, updating with each new model. When the HD500 came out, I really wanted to upgrade and get the better tones. But I play a combination of Variax 700 Acoustic, mandolin and electric guitar, and even some bass, and the HD500 just didn't have the required models there were in my X3Live. At the time, I said if Line6 ever added bass models, an acoustic preamp and global EQ, I'd get one. In the meantime I discovered Mike Scuffham's truly wonderful S-Gear (www.scuffhamamps.com), and all but concluded I was all done with PODs becase of the flexibility of an Apogee GiO, a MacBook Pro, MainStage 3 and S-Gear. The sound, ease of use (after a lot of setup), and flexibility were just fantastic. Then there was the 2.6 upgrade announcement. So I went out and picked up an HD500X thinking if it didn't do what I wanted, I'd take it back. Basically this is what I was after: 1. A simple, non-computer hardware device that was easy to setup and gig hardened 2. The ability to great tones and effects, especially on the Variax 700 Acoustic and mandolin 3. A workable mic input for those occassions when we needed one more (the mic input on the X3Live wasn't functional because of the sensitivity of the trim pot) 4. Acceptable clean, blues, crunch and metal electric guitar tones 5. A good audio interface to drive S-Gear with the ability to use some of the HD500X front of the amp effects (S-Gear has great chorus/flanger, delay and reverb, but that's it), and the ability to configure the foot switches so some control internal HD500X effects and others provide MIDI control of S-Gear or MainStage. Well, I was more than plesantly surprised. The Apogee GiO is a very nice sounding interface. But the HD500X sounded better to me, a little fuller, and cleaner. I was able to get good acoustic and mandolin tones. Once the new acoustic amp is available, they should be even better, and provide usable hardware tone controls on the unit. The mic input works and sounds great. And the setup with S-Gear and MainStage works perfectly. I find the HD500X front of the amp effects somewhat nicer than the pedalboard effects in MainStage/Logic. And they also work with the S-Gear standalone app which is convenient. I couldn't reproduce the S-Gear tones in the HD500X. S-Gear sounds more transparent, richer, no fizz, fantastic tone, live feel, and great behind the amp effects. But I could get different, and very servicable tones from the HD500X. They're different than S-Gear, and that's fine. Its nice to have the flexibility. Overall, very happy with the HD500X and looking forward to the 2.6 upgrade. Thanks Line6 for sticking with it.

Standard 2.5 to Platinum 2.5 Upgrade

I see that POD Farm doesn't really need the drivers unless you're using it with an X3 as the input/output device. I never do that, so I really only need the drivers for editing convenience. Hope Line 6 addresses this as Mavericks was introduced before the products were discontinued.

Ok, on Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), doing the steps above causes Line 6 Monkey to show the Drivers are not installed, and attempting to reinstall the latest version no longer works. Tried it on two different machines. So now I have no working drivers and GearBox doesn't even partially work. Guess I'll try Line 6 support before the end of the year. I've been thinking about updating to the POD HD500, but don't because: 1. its been in production for a while now, and I don't want to get caught with old technology at this late date 2. not enough bass amp models 3. no mic preamp models 4. no acoustic guitar amp models I use my POD L3 Live with a Variax 700, mandolin, electric guitar and some bass for performances. So I need the flexibility.

But does the old 7.2.9 driver work with Pod Farm 2.5.6?

At least one acoustic amp. A couple more bass amps, Ampeg SVT being one of the best.

But the Vintage Preamp, as an effect, not an amp model, does not provide its parameters to the 500X Drive, Bass, Treble, etc. knobs. Right? So this makes it more difficult to tweak the tone during performances, something I sometimes find convenient.

I understand the HD500 and HD500X has more DSP power, more effects and different/updated HD amp models. That's great. But I'm interested in using the POD for acoustic instruments: mandolin, Variax 700 acoustic, and bass, as well as electric guitar. My question is concerning the A2D, D2A converters, sample rate and bit depth of the HD500 vs. the X3/Live. Are they the same? That is, models aside, would the HD500 have better quality then the X3 for acoustic instruments, not considering the models? Note that I understand you can use effects to cover a lot of what the X3 preamp models provided. But there's a big difference. The X3 preamp models use the X3 front panel controls while the effects don't. This is a big functional gap.

I am a long time Line6 user starting with the origianl POD, and currently using a POD XT/Live. I have been anxiously waiting for Line6 to update the POD HD line. Here's my view on the POS HD500X. I'm a flexible musician in that I play a number of instruments including electric guitar (Strat, Les Paul and Variax 300 with MIDI capability), acoustic guitar (Variax 700 Acoustic), mandolin, and bass. I like Line6 products because they provide the flexibility I need to be a flexible musician. The POD X3/Live provides mic and preamp models that support acoustic instruments, as well as a multitude of guitar and bass models. I use the X3/Live with a Roland AC90 for flexible sounds at low volumes, and a modified '65 Fender Showman for larger venues. The Showman has HI-Fi tone controls in the Normal channel, and full range coaxial speakers in a Tremolux cabinet to support the wide range of instruments. My problem with the HD500 is that it doesn't support this flexibility. There's no mic preamps, acoustic guitar amps, or full range preamps like in the X3. And there's only one somewhat limited bass amp. The HD500 is too focused on just electric guitar. I had hoped the next generation POD HD would address these limitations at least with a few more models. I'd happily drop the $500 if it replicated a bit more of the capability of an X3 with wider dynamic range and better models. But the current HD500 line doesn't meet my needs, so I'll have to stick with the X3 a while longer.

Thanks for the response, and I do see your logic. I can detect on the POD X3 Live for example that the Variax 700 i much brighter direct into the PA, or bypassing the X3 (using the tuner bypass setting). However, I also found that the Vintage preamp on the X3 Live gives a much warmer, darker sound that I quite like. So I guess diversity is our friend.

I have a Variax 700 acoustic that I'm quite happy with. It is a nice playing instrument, feels good to hold live, and provides a lot of good, flexible sounds. I'm wondering what's the best way to connect this to an amplifier. Here's my guess from best to worse. 1. POD HD Probably best because it would have higher bit depth and sample rate than the other solutions, and maybe better D to A converters. But the A to D converters are in the guitar - so that's a constant. One drawback is that there's no amp models for acoustic guitar. But that can be worked around with effect choices. 2. Direct to PA (or other analog amp) This uses the D to A converters and preamps in the guitar. Not sure how these compare to either the POD HD or X3 since we don't have the specs. But at least the signal chain is shorter - generally a plus. Compression, EQ and other effects can often be quite good in a modern digital mixer, providing most of what would be needed. 3. POD X3 Live This seems to loose quite a bit of the high end compared to direct to a PA- perhaps because of a lower sampling frequency that might be more appropriate for electric guitar. Hard to tell without the specs. But its pretty obvious to the ear. That said, the vintage preamp tends to give the variax acoustic a nice warm tone, even though the sparkle is a bit missing. This is also pretty convenient live. Anyone got another opinion, recommendations or observations?