kinglerch

Indeed, you cannot rely on pedal position between patches. One of the reasons I found is that even if you switch and do not touch the pedal, a slight rumble on the ground later will do it for you and change the sound. I typically switch patches, and then move the pedal to the desired position. A pain, which is why I like to stay with the same patch for any song. I also have several patches where the pedal fades from very clean to very distorted, with everything in between.

Good luck.

@kinglerch

 

Let's say I choose my lead tone at a pedal position of 75% to toe and I need a pure clean-tone afterwards. In that case my clean-tone will be at a level of only 75 % if I have the volume assigned to the pedal in the clean patch. Or is there a way to ignore the pedal position in a patch and let it start at 100 % upon the switch? I am not aware of this except when I am USB connected to HD Edit.

I think the pedal can be used for any setting like this. What I do is:

- Get all settings for "rhythm" tone. Save the patch.

- Tweak any settings you like in order to get the "lead" tone you are looking for. Write these down. For example ( delay mix went from 30 to 50, gain went from 100 to 80, etc) and yes you can go from high to low on the settings if you want.

- Assign each of these settings to be controlled by the pedal position, with the settings you wrote down.

- Play with the two extremes to be sure the sound you are looking for is still there. NOTE THAT I OFTEN HAD TO SAVE THE PATCH WITH HDEDIT BEFORE I WOULD HEAR THE EFFECT, a bug I think. Tweak until you get what you are looking for.

- Save the patch and now you can adjust anywhere in between. The control is quite nice.

1 One way to handle this is to have your lead FX in one path (maybe top) and the other FX in the other (maybe bottom) path. Some will be shared and can go in the main path. Then set up the pedal to pan between full lead, rhythm, or a mix. This works exceptionally well other than a few downsides:

- Some FX you won't be able to get in the exact order due to how the paths relate

- You won't be able to use the pedal for some other things, although with the toe button you can still switch on things like WAH

- You may run out of FX or DSP space which I sometimes do but this is not too common

2. The other way to do this which takes more work but can make the patch better in the end is to look at each setting you want to change in your lead, and assign it to the pedal. For instance, if for lead you want the amp gain moved from 30 to 50, the volume moved from 80 to 100, the delay mix from 30 to 50, etc...you can assign all of these exact numbers to the pedal. Then like the first way you can push up for lead, back for rhythm, or anything in between.

And the reason the "anything in between" parts of the above 2 options can be important is depending on the room, song, mood of the band, etc...I rarely find a single button is what I want all the time. Very often I just want to go some of the way, and using these methods make that possible.

You can also do combinations. I use the R out to the PA, the L out to the combo, and depending on the patch it will use more of one or the other or both....quite a complex sound imo.

they are interesting but too expensive for what they are. someone here found some rubber stoppers at lowes that do a similar thing, not as nice but they were $0.40 each.

I would highly recommend not using an amp model for clean tones. I have not found any that don't overly color the sound. The Acoustic amp is a good second choice, but generally I found that using no amp model is best if you want it clean.

Many people like to diss Customtone, but I'd argue that if Customtone didn't exist, that many people would not buy this product in the first place. I find that many patches on Customtone are good starting points. You may find one that is close, or combine pieces of more than one. But to say that there is nothing worthwhile there is an overstatement imo.

The only issue I have with the HD500X is that I sometimes run out of FX slots. Does the Helix offer more or the same number of FX?

I have several different guitars I use with the HD500X, which have different types of pickups (piezo, active, passive, hot, etc) and they all have different volumes on the same patch, and also different volumes depending upon if the patch is clean or not. For example, an active pickup sounds louder on a clean patch whereas the distorted patch sounds closer in volume.

Is this just how it is (as I suspect) or is there some way to normalize the volumes when changing guitars? There are some settings for pickup impedance, but I don't know how much effect they will have on this issue.

however do not worry, no more offenses from me, I'm going to simply ignore you completely from now on..

 

I'm sure not to miss anything useful from your part

no more offenses from you...and then immediately something offensive. it's a wonder the internet is such a kind place.

again, rather than pointing this out and having a discussion, you have decided to continually calling names, and being insulting to someone you don't know

no offense, but you really have nothing better to do than write useless and stupid comments like this above here? ..

 

I never use the 4CM, despite that and since I know quite well this device I could have written in my own words the same concepts written by the guy of the other forum ..

 

but as a quicker solution, I decided to copy the good work already done by that guy ..

 

moreover, unlike what many often do, I have not simply copied and pasted (without declaring it), but I said clearly that I am not the author, whose name is clearly visible in the original text (of course for those who can read)..

 

in this context the big difference between me and you, is that I have done something useful for someone here, but you have only been a PITA

actually, you are right. i didn't originally see that you credited the author. but it doesn't excuse your making insulting remarks to someone who you don't know.

posted by a guy in another forum... pasted and copied here

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

no offense, but after all his work do you really want to paste it all with only the credit of "a guy"?

another option is to use a harmonizer fx. you can either dial in the key if you know what they key of the song will be and harmonize with yourself in fifths for example, or forget the key and dial in a full octave above or below and you will sound like two of you. i am fairly light on this mix for harmonizers though, as they can sound a bit too overwhelming, so I usually set the mix at 25% to 30% max.

you probably have to change the font size in windows, either that or increase the screen resolution. i have a fairly narrow laptop screen and all effects are fully visible.

There are no great models for a real acoustic guitar, or other piezo based instrument. I found that the most natural sound comes from patches with no amp, plus maybe a chorus or reverb. But for sounding like an acoustic with a magnetic pickup, there are two I like a lot:

http://line6.com/customtone/tone/1026292/

http://line6.com/customtone/tone/557842/

They may take some modification to meet what you are looking for but they were pretty close as-is. In my case I put a second path with a dirty amp model, and use the pedal to pan just as much dirt as needed...this is versatility that you just can't get with standard amp/pedal combinations.

I use same, or both on guitar lately because I'm using two amps. A few months ago I was only using single amps, and therefore single paths, so input 2 was set to Variax.

 

That's MY "best" way to do it

I found this out too. For some patch setups, you have to have Input 2 set to same, and just deal with the gain.

I searched but can't find that topic. Can you describe what the issue is and how to get around it?

wondering what would happen using both guit + xlr inputs for my old stereo Gibson ES345...with a stereo 1/4" coming from the guitar out to a split 1/4" mono + xlr plug (for the mic input)?

This is a great question, even if someone wants to have 2 guitars or whatever, what is the recommended way to use a second input? You could of course sum them back into mono, but that would defeat the purpose. The POD seems more than capable of handling more than one signal, so hopefully the gurus here will let us know what the recommended way is.

I have found that if you truly want a clean unprocessed signal, from an acoustic guitar for example, that the only good amp is no amp. Even the Acoustic amp I bought in the Vintage Pack does not sound as good or as natural as no amp.

However, if you want a clean but processed sound, for example your guitar sounds plain and you want a nice non-dirty sound, there are many great ones to choose from in Custom Tone. For Example Anastasia String or Acoustic 12.

I still don't think it is clear on how to find tones that use these packs. While the Custom Tone search engine is enormously useful, it could still use some work. I'm not sure what key words someone/everyone would use in their tones to indicate they are using a model pack, which model pack, model name, amp name, etc. I guess if people find tones they like, maybe post them here.

I found an acoustic one that I didn't like and a lot from the metal pack, but not much from the vintage pack. Any other recommended model pack tones?

and one upload of my backup

Well, more downloads than that. If you consider that your pc was probably also lost to theft, damage, rain, or stolen. So, you'd need to re-download monkey and edit.

I never thought about tone matching and that is another great point. But I can imagine crafting tones over years and saving the banks anywhere, cloud etc. Loss, theft, damage is limited to the cost of the unit, whether you feel it is cheap or not. You can be back up and running in a day, or keep units in different parts of the country as you said.

But the loss or damage of an analog pedal set, broken knobs switches, cables, etc may include pedals that are hard to find or no longer made not to mention the physical setup of power, board, and other materials. The sound and cost is debatable, the ability to clone a pod is not.

This may seem like a dumb reason to some but one of the things I like about the HD500X vs analog pedals is the ability to backup all presets in the event of loss, theft, or damage. If you had your pedal rig damaged by rain or stolen or lost by an airline, how long and how much $ would it cost to get back to playing where you wanted to be and would it ever be quite right? With the HD500X it wouldn't be cheap but with one purchase and one upload of my backup and I am exactly where I need to be.

I found the same thing. The compression made the sound last longer, but the sound was not worth listening to. The sustainiac is an *option* but installation is a bear and not appropriate for all guitars, due to the intensive drilling/routing. I'm also not sure if that is exactly the effect I am looking for.

I have been trying with the pickups and it is having a decent effect already. Pickup type, active vs passive, distance to strings etc. Stanley suggested moving the pickup closer to the strings for volume, but that does affect vibration and sustain so...lots of things to try.

I've used reverb and delays with some success, and changing some pickup wiring but I will try the compressor. I just wondered if Line6 helped this in some way, or if someone out there worked on a sustainy tone to keep the sound going for a bit longer than normal.

It is an obscure technique, but there are others to varying degrees. Tony Keck and Hanspeter Kruesi have instructional videos but neither one describes their gear too much. Michael Angelo Batio uses a device that keeps his strings vibrating. Even Night Ranger have been known for 8 finger tapping, though with distortion it is a much easier thing to pull off sound wise.