Rewolf48

On the HD in the System Menu (hold View button) Page 8 change Variax Tuning to Force and then change the tuning of each string as required. This doesn't use the JTV alternate tunings, but is as if you set a virtual capo on the fly. Change to another patch and you revert to the JTV setting or whatever you have set the HD to force that patch to. One warning - there is a "feature" of the software: once you have set a forced tuning if you change the JTV patch (like changing the pickups on a Spank) it will work fine, but if you save the HD Patch from that point onwards it will save it with Variax Tuning Don't Force. You can really get caught out by this if you need to tweak the patch say during a rehearsal because it sounds fine, but when you select the patch again it will not be in whatever the JTV is set to rather than what you thought you had set the HD to force. But only if you save the HD patch after changing the JTV Patch - the one redeeming aspect to this is that it remembers what the altered tuning is set to, so you only need to set it to Force again and Save. Line 6 acknowledged this as the way it works, but didn't quite accept it as a fault, and haven't done anything to fix it in over 6 months.

I did this for a while, but running in stereo, and it worked fine for me using VSTs triggered by a keyboard - there is no reason while you should get ground loop problems using USB. I only don't do it now because I got a much more advanced keyboard that I can load samples into and play tracks - this goes into the FX Loop return. I wouldn't recommend the mp3 input as that might give you ground loops and I would have thought quite a bit more noise, but whatever works for you...

More like a not quite thought through feature. The integration of HD500 and JTV has some good ideas, but is missing the finishing touches that make it work properly. It is fine if you plan on sticking to a single JTV Patch, but if you want to change pickups then it starts failing in little ways, never mind banks (simulated guitar). Two examples where improvements have been requested: The ability to set the JTV Bank (guitar model) when forcing a JTV Patch (guitar model + pickups) so that you can freely use the Patch selection (pickup selector) to change between pickup positions without first having to check that the Bank is correctly set on the JTV. Really embarrassing to go from Strat Neck to Acoustic 12 string in the middle of a solo. The ability for the HD500 to remember forced JTV Tunings when the Model is changed - currently if you set a tuning via the HD500, change the pickup selection and save the HD patch it will have reverted to don't force on the tuning, but you will only find that out when you select the HD500 patch again because the guitar sounds fine at the time. Had some very stressed rehearsals when my alternate tuning appeared to be failing all the time; thank god it hasn't happened live (yet) The way it appears to work is that the moment you change patch on the JTV then the stuff forced by the HD500 is forgotten, when you (and I) would expect that other than the JTV Patch selection that everything else from the HD500 patch will be remembered and active. All I can suggest is adding it to ideascale where it can sit there until somebody decides to do something about it

Locking the Tone knob only applies to Variax Models, and is needed for this method to work. Are you using Variax Mags? If so that is a passive circuit and there is no way to lock it.

I just wish that L6 would sort out a few of these simple little features - I can live without HD global eq (if I have to) and User IRs, and to be honest I don't want another HD Amp, but little things like: Remembering Forced Tuning when JTV Patch is changed HD forced JTV Bank change Workbench HD Strat pickups not saving properly Workbench HD works through HD 500/Pro None of these appear to me (as somebody who has worked in software development for 30 years) to be really that difficult, do they?

I have heard nothing, and just work around it knowing that it is a consistent reproducible "feature" - basically when editing a forced tuning patch do not touch the model selector on the JTV. I haven't tested this since I upgraded to the latest HD firmware, but it wasn't listed as one of the improvements for firmware 2.2 so my hopes are not up. Might have a try tonight

I think it is great and my 8yo daughter would kill for it - she is learning guitar and is at the point where the lessons are going electric. She can have my first electric to use into it (it has pickups from the original PRS Custom in it), and I will give her a guitar cable and strap as well (generous aren't I?) But there is a big problem.... iOS Noooooo... what is the lollipop obsession with Apple? She has a tablet, but rather than spending £400+ on an iPad that will only get dropped onto a tile floor when she is fighting with her sister she has rather more sensibly a HUDL which with the vouchers only cost £60 from Tesco but is as fully capable for watching video, playing games, internet browsing and in this context basic remote control stuff and for streaming music over Bluetooth as anything that ridiculously overpriced Apple have ever produced. It is very simple Line-6: Android App or the Amplifi collects dust in the Music Store

"The looper is the most disappointing feature on my HD500. It's the first item in the signal chain meaning it will never behave the way a person will expect, it only records the dry signal from the guitar, making it impossible to record a rhythm or part with one patch/tone and then layer another tone over top of it... as soon as you switch anything in the chain it affects the recorded loop. Why anybody would want a looper to do this escapes me?" Actually this is a great feature - ok live it is only for some trick effects, but have you tried using when setting up patches on the HD500? Just play a bit of the song you want a patch for with the looper in pre position and then put the guitar down. You are now free to engage brain, ears and hands in setting up the patch while the HD500 plays the guitar for you - this is a serious time saver because it can be very hard to set up the HD500 to give a perfect sound at the best of times.

Inevitably the sensitivity of the piezo pickups will vary, with manufacturing tolerances and with strings (9's apply less pressure than 11's). Line 6 had to come up with a default software set-up that works out of the box, so they did two things: 1) Set the modelling so that it is quite sensitive so that weak piezos don't cause JTV to be returned 2) Built compression/limiting into the modelling so that even the most enthusiastic strumming doesn't result in digital distortion Which is great, but it means that if you have sensitive piezos or have gone with heavier strings you lose sensitivity and the models sound flat and over-compressed before they even leave the JTV But the good news is that this is not a fixed situation, because Workbench HD includes the ability to set "Global String Volume" which appears to control the amplification or (or perhaps the sensitivity to) the individual piezos before they hit the models. Connect the JTV to the computer using the provided cables/interface, with a charged battery, and a 1/4" cable to an Amp or something else through which you can monitor what is happening (not VDI to HD500 because it doesn't work, but the 1/4" into HD500 is fine) and string by string reduce the gain until you find the point where you are just starting to get compression when you pluck the string the hardest that you normally do. That will give you maximum dynamic range on all the models. It might mean coming down a lot - especially if you are using 11s. Now that the string sensitivity is down you might have quiet models, but you just need to go into the model definitions and boost the output level back up again. This is unconfirmed speculation on the part of me and a few others because Line 6 have never confirmed or denied anything, but it seems to work, so why not try it?

Nothing - you can't do it. It is a feature request and has been for ages but nothing has appeared from Line 6 about it.

Probably more about the new product (or products?) being launched at NAMM next week. They are fueling speculation with little hints on the main website, about how they have "re-invented" guitar amplification. I expect that it has been taking up all their time for most of last year. For some reason no speculation threads have taken off here, but this one is more active than most: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1370086 I just hope that: a) The Launch and Delivery are not disconnected like with the JTVs b) That they have been bundling up the bug fixes and improvements for the other products with integration into whatever it is so that we get some fixes soon

First they have heard about it? Is that direct confirmation that Line 6 don't bother with monitoring threads in this forum: http://line6.com/support/topic/2167-jtv59-to-hd500-vdi-getting-a-pop-when-i-change-patchs-that-also-change-variax-model/ ? edstar was on that one too back in August. I also get a pop when changing Models via HD500 expecially going to Acoustics, won't be able to record anything until at least Sunday

My old rack based system (JMP-1, Replifex) used a Boss MIDI Controller Pedal and provided power to it and a dual audio path (to and from Morely Wah) - back in those days I had to build a custom cable bundle that these days is called a Snake. I worked at an aircraft factory at the time and borrowed some waste braided sheeve to hold the cables together neatly like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/260868039666?lpid=83&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=83. It helps if you have an understanding of how to lay a bundle of cables together so that they are neat and roll up nicely - running them in parallel doesn't work very well, but gently twisting them around each other makes it nice and flexible (running in parallel is what you do if you want it to retain its shape). Pedalsnake as sonic points out now make this for you, and there was on the old forum a few discussions about it including a very serious debate about how far you can take a 9v 3A powerline before the levels drop too far. This thread http://line6.com/supportarchivenew/thread/46741 says it doesn't work, but he is running a variax off the HD, while this thread http://uk.line6.com/supportarchivenew/thread/75547 includes posts from PedalSnake who tell you exactly what bits you need to make it work. My worry about modifying the unit would be that the cables in the 7 pin midi cable can't support the required current level without a significant voltage drop, so it might work for a 10' cable but not with a 20'. Theoretically the mod is replace the 5 pin Midi socket with a 7 pin one and then linking the power ones to the power socket, but not having opened mine up (not many have and I haven't found any photos on the net) it might be the MIDI socket is direct into a PCB which would make the job significantly harder to do neatly. There are 7 to 5 pin + power cables like this one: http://www.thomann.de/gb/rocktron_7pin_midikabel.htm but that only works if the power plug is the right size (or suitable adaptor) and you have a source for the right voltage and current that the 7 pin end can plug into. I would go with PedalSnake or a custom cable assembly as the safest option

Local Control is Unlocked on all my HD patches - I do set Tone down for some acoustic patches, but otherwise I don't play with locking - that is really if you are playing Model and Mags together and want to change Mags without altering the Model (e.g. Electric and Acoustic at the same time), or if you are using the JTV knobs as additional Expression Controllers which I don't do as I haven't needed more than Expr 1 and 2 yet. I really want HD to send JTV Bank change because then I don't need to worry about setting the knob in order to change pickups within a model without the risk of getting completely the wrong guitar model, but it looks like it only happens with an accidental combination of versions and cannot be relied on.

The Amp block has two states On and Off. When On the simulation is active and the knobs control the settings, the Off it is not off as in disconnected, but rather Off as is effect is bypassed so the clean signal is passed through, which is something that is often wanted - you might for example want a bit of clean guitar with heavy amp distortion. To change Off to mean no signal is passed at all simply switch the Amp model off and change the Amp (bypass) Volume down to zero by using the Volume knob. The On and Off volume states are stored separately.

Ok I have updated to HD 500 2.2 and I was already on JTV 2.0, and it doesn't work that way for me. If I have JTV on Acoustic (3) for example and use the HD 500 to go to Spank (3) when I move the Pickup selector I get amplified 12 string Acoustics rather than in between Strat position. Can anybody else confirm whether or not there has been a change in behaviour? I would like to be able to switch pickups within a simulated guitar without having to set the knob first - it may be that I need to recreate the HD500 patches from scratch to enable this feature, but it would be nice to know if this was an undocumented change in an update

Well I tested it last night and my set-up doesn't work that way :( Select Acoustic Bank and 12 string Patch so really obvious, switch to Strat P3 using HD500 forced and then on JTV change the Patch from 2 to 4 and... I have an Acoustic 12 string going through the amp. However I think I might still be on HD500 2.1 as it didn't seem worthwhile doing the update - will try it on Friday as rehearsal tonight.

This was a feature request because it didn't used to work this way - it was a pain if the JTV patch and bank was changed from the HD because you couldn't use the JTV patch change as it would go to whatever the JTV Bank setting was. I and others wanted it so that if you switched to a Spank patch via the HD you should be able to change to other Spank pick-up positions without looking down and fiddling with the Bank knob. But our suggestion was to add to HD500 options so that you could set how it worked, and to my knowledge it had not been implemented in the latest firmware updates. I will need to check this out. If they can just sort out the alt-tuning problem that would be good (set an alt tuning on the HD, change JTV patch or pickup position and save HD patch the alt tuning setting on the HD has reverted to don't force, but you won't find this out until you swap HD patches as the JTV stays in the altered tuning)

No L6 Link is for connecting a Source to one or more L6 Amp/Speakers. The Source can be HD500 (Pod), M20d (digital mixer) or a L2t/L3t (mixer part of PA Speaker) The Amp/Speakers can be L2t/L3t/L2m/L3m/L3s (PA Speakers) or DT25/DT50 Guitar Amp The source sends a digital signal that a number of Speakers will actively and intelligently interpret - the Speakers also send back configuration to the Source and have detectors that change their own configuration so placing them on their side or on a speaker pole change their config. For example connecting an HD500 to a L2t will change the output mode of the HD500 so that it is set for a Guitar Amp and the L2t so that it pretends to be a Guitar Amp by reducing the highs. Daisy chain a second L2t or L2m and they will form a stereo pair. Plug in a JTV set to an acoustic model and the speakers change to full range mode. However you cannot connect HD500 to M20d or HD500 using L6 Link (even though it appears to make sense) because they are both Sources and can't talk to each other. Look up the details of the DT and L series speakers to discover what they are capable of. The L speakers are on my wish list but it might be a while yet. You can connect 2 x HD500 together synced using FX Loop and MIDI which sort of works as long as you stick with the way L6 made it work - unfortunately you cannot MIDI Map the Patches so going to a patch on the master HD500 will sync the second to exactly the same patch changes. Or if you want to stick in the digital domain the HD Pro has Digital In and Out, so you can connect HD500 digital out to HD Pro digital in for them to be in series with minimum noise, but control still has to be via MIDI

Not a global one, but for specific products yes - for example the Motif keyboard range there is http://motifator.com/index.php/forum On Motifator as well as enthusiastic users there are also Yamaha employees that can give very detailed answers such as BadMister who also features in English How To Videos - and compared to the Line 6 products a Yamaha Motif XF is really complex (I know I have one but have barely scratched the surface of what it can do) There are several sites in partnership with KeyFax as you said: The Motif series was launched in Summer 2001 and Keyfax designed and produced a dedicated website,Motifator.com, to introduce the technology and associated products and possibilities to the general public. Motifator.com quickly established itself not only as a powerful entity for the Yamaha Motif, but also became a blueprint for other instrument and technology sites providing clear and concise product support on a human scale and with a human, 'community' dimension. In 2003 Yamaha Corporation of Japan appointed another Keyfax site, mLANcentral, as the centralized global resource for the disbursement of mLAN information, and subsequently several other product sites have been produced including SNninety.com (for Yamaha S90) AWinspire.com (for AW series of Digital Audio Recorders), 01xRay.com (for 01x mLAN Mixing Studio), DTXPERIENCE.com (DTX Series Digital Drum Kits), and ArrangerWorkstation.com (Tyros and PSR ranges). On Motifator as well as enthusiastic users there are also Yamaha employees that can give very detailed answers such as BadMister who also features in English How To Videos - and compared to the Line 6 products a Yamaha Motif XF is really complex (I know I have one but have barely scratched the surface of what it can do), and it also hosts downloads and add-on products from other 3rd parties as well as Yamaha

Keyboard Amp v PA Speaker: It looks like a backline amp rather than a PA speaker. It may have better EQ options: some PA Speakers have none expecting to be done at the mixer - except that direct from HD 500 there is no global EQ, others with a built-in mixer may be better and the L2t has some very smart stuff on it so it can be in simulated guitar amp mode (limits tweater) for electric or switched by HD500 patch to full range for acoustic.

I also am thinking about an L2m (have HD500 and JTV), but justifying the spend at the moment is rather hard Micing the L2m is tricky because it has two speakers each with a completely different range of the sound (bass/mid and tweater) and the L3m is worse because it has 3 speakers. What you may want to try is HD500 via L6Link to L2m and then use the "Balanced Mix Out XLR" from the L2m to PA. There is also a dedicated support forum for the Dream Rig that might have the answers...

Yes there is in Appendix B of the Advanced Guide http://line6.com/data/6/0a06434dfb244f7b7f489af64/application/pdf/POD%20HD500%20Advanced%20Guide%20v2.0%20-%20English%20(%20Rev%20A%20).pdf But it doesn't quite work as you want - the HD500 will respond to Program Change (PC) and a limited range of CC assignments all of which change the state of the physical controls (switches and expression pedals) - whatever is assigned to those controls can then be controlled remotely. So yes you can switch on effects or change values, and you can change as many of those values at once because the assignment is on the controlled item end, so you could vary Amp, Drive, Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence, Volume (all on both Amps), plus Reverb level, Chorus level etc all at the same time from a single Expression pedal. One problem is that there are only 2 Expression controls that can do this over MIDI - there actually are two more within the HD500 because a JTV Variax Volume and Tone controls can also be assigned if connected over VDI, but these cannot be addressed over MIDI. When I said "state" of the physical controls that means that the switches while controlled via a MIDI CC are still On/Off switches, so you cannot use a switch to vary a continuous parameter such as Drive only to turn things on or off, but (and I haven't tried this) you might be able to use switches custom MIDI definitions and a MIDI loop (output connected to input) to change the state of the 2 Expression Pedals (even if you don't have anything plugged into Exp2) which might get part of the way. There are several suggestions on ideascale about this - one of which if I recall right is about being able to define "scenes" within a Patch which is a state of everything and then a Switch would be able to jump to a predefined scene, but if Line 6 are working on enhancing any of this then they aren't saying.

The power supply is an international one and is good for between 100 and 240 v AC, and it doesn't mind whether it is 50 or 60 Hz. US is nominally 110v, UK and Europe is normally 230. Despite it saying nominally 240v max I would expect that it can cope with 250v without problems but might struggle to provide the full rated current below 100v. The power supply is converted to DC at 9v which then feeds the power on the digital circuits with the main SHARC chip running at either 3.3 or 5v (can't quite work out which from a quick view of the specs), so internally there is additional voltage regulation. Basically over voltage to the power supply is well covered for and I would expect that the power supply would fry before anything damaging happened in the main unit, and that is easily replaced (but not that cheaply if you want similar quality). The current demand of the HD500 is not the full 3A that the power supply is rated at or even the "2.5A min" that it says on the back of the unit, because that includes powering a JTV via the VDI as well, so the range that the main voltage can vary over is huge - but I wouldn't try 440v power supplies if I were you, and definitely not distribution power line levels. Because the unit is completely digital and well isolated from the mains it doesn't change sound with variation of the mains unlike analogue equipment such as valve amps.

All MIDI definitions are part of a patch (apart from default Channel), so you have to do this for every patch - it is easier if you start with a single patch and copy it. Personally I try to minimise the number of HD500 patches that I use, so it doesn't take long to go through them all