codamedia

I always start with my ears.... if something is too loud or too quiet I adjust the overall volume of the patch until it is really close to each other. That is usually enough since it is no different than how I would adjust a standard pedal board of effects. I do have a mixer in my home studio... and sometimes I will use the meters to match signals. This is handy when dealing with many different tones on different instruments where my ears will play tricks on me. I measure the results on the meter for the tone I am most familiar and comfortable with... then I match those levels with the other instruments. If you don't have a mixer, you could use a meter in a DAW, or find a free "Meter App" for your phone/tablet and use that. Also keep in mind.... home volumes are very different from live volumes. It doesn't matter how you adjust your volumes at home, you need to fine tune it (with your ears) in a rehearsal or live situation. Be prepared on how to accomplish this in a timely manner.

You need to select LOOP 1 (or 2 depending on which one you want to use). If you only setup a SEND, nothing gets returned to the HX Effects.... it doesn't complete the LOOP.

I am assuming this suggestion (which is a great one by the way) is for running direct.... but two things to point out. The HX Efects doesn't come with any IR's (mine didn't)... you have to find your own. The free Line 6 "Allure Pack" is a nice place to start. Also worth noting... if you are running the HX Effects into an amp you won't need any IR's, although you are always free to experiment.

If starting from a blank patch on the HX Effects... you can build your board from Stomp Mode and they are automatically added to the Signal Flow. I believe you are correct.... 1, 2, 3 across the top, 4, 5, 6 across the bottom (IIRC). However, that leaves three empty slots in the signal flow view. You may not want those spots to be at the end of the chain, so you will have to dig in and move things around. If you move items in Signal Flow, they are NOT MOVED in Stomp mode, and vice versa. It will be plug and play... providing your follow steps 2 & 3 below. 1: Make sure you buy the MISSION that is designed for the LINE 6 products.... The other one may cause grief 2: You have to add a volume pedal block into each patch you want to use it. Remember, you have three extra slots after filling the stomp mode, one of these extras will be the Volume Pedal block 3: Plug the Pedal into EXP 2. It might be tempting to plug into EXP1, but it's easier if you go into 2 (see #4 below) 4: When you add a volume pedal block it automatically sets up to use EXP2. No need to change any parameters unless you want to... just adding the block with the pedal plugged into #2 will work automatically.

As stated... the Signal Flow view is your order of effects... Stomp mode is independent from that, you can arrange stomp mode any way you want without disrupting the Signal Flow itself.

Without hearing any tracks, it sounds to me like you have a mid scooped tone while the other player has a mid forward tone. Knowing your choice of amp model and how you set it would go a long way in any suggestion to fix it. I would be interested in knowing what the other guys's amp model choice is. It is easy to fall into the trap of a mid scoop tone. If you setup your sounds at low volume, and without the context of other instruments at the same time it's easy to push the lows and highs (scooping the mids) to make the tone sound bigger. When you add other instruments in, you get lost in the mix... and as you turn up, the low end takes all the energy, leaving nothing left for the mids. Making your guitar sound great on it's own is totally different from making it sound great in a mix. The other critical part is arrangement, but many others have gone over that already.

Is it a squeal or is it white noise (loud hiss)? If it is hissing, open a support ticket... that is a known issue with some units.

HD500? The only purpose of the footswitch is to hit the "micro switch" on the PCB below it. There is nothing to clean in the switch itself. If anything needs cleaning, it's the micro.... and IMO, it would be easier to replace it.

I have both units as well. Yes - the HX is worth the extra $$$. The only thing the HD has over the HX effects is a built in expression pedal, amp sims (that you say you won't use) and a Variax input (if you own a Variax)... aside from that the HX wins on every other item. It's more versatile, it sounds better and it's easier to use. Not to mention.... the drives you don't intend to use are actually really nice on the HX Effects.... not so much on the HD. Just my 2 cents...

The Spinal Tap reference is perfect... this is exactly the type of pedal they would have had and yes, I would have found it quite amusing. Now where did I put my package of Dean Markley strings with all those hidden easter eggs :)

I thought that was normal behavior? Isn't it? I always save on the machine itself when using edit... I've never thought that "save" in the software is suppose to save on the machine at the same time so I have never tried. I thought the save functions on the software was just to save a copy of the patch to a file.

How much effort does that really take? If you use overdrive or delay on all your patches, don't you need open slots and don't you have to insert those as well on each patch? How long does it take to insert a looper? 5 seconds? I like that fact that resources (and switches) don't get "reserved" for something others may not use. It's left up to each and every one of us what we would like to insert into each patch... the ultimate of customization. Just my 2 cents...

Another no... you need to create that block and set it accordingly on each patch. You could throw an EQ pedal in one of the loops and just insert that loop where ever you want the EQ... then it would be global, if inserted. Keep in mind, the HX Effects is marketed to those using guitar amps... when used like that the global EQ is ultimately the amp itself.

All I will say is it's an easy test, nothing external is needed. Any more than that will be up to Line 6 to share... please understand, it is not my place and I won't have anything more to say on this matter :)

I have played several outdoor gigs this summer without concern or issue. About the hottest it's been is 90f with direct sunlight. If the exposure will be really long (and/or really hot) you may want to try and shade it, or point a small fan at it.... but that could be said about any multi fx. The one thing I will say about direct sunlight, you should know you machine by the colored rings as the scribbles can become hard to read.

Yes this is possible with the HX Effects. As soon as you create a 2nd path (eg: path B) an input Y and output Y are created. You just need to route the Y connections as you wish using the pan controls.

I need to make something clear before I continue. Anyone that has read my offerings on these forums should recognize that I absolutely love the HX Effects... I am a huge supporter of the product! I am a very positive person and it pains me to go public in this thread (I've held off doing so for a few months) but in this case I agree with the OP... and the others here that believe Line 6 should be more forthcoming and not leave it completely in the hands of the buyer to stumble on the problem. Just to be clear... besides my affected unit, it was three other units, from three additional shipments, loaded with three different firmware versions. Unlucky is an understatement for a problem that is only suppose to affect a small number of units. I wish it were that easy... Please read my first post in this thread :) Sure, eventually my distributor and store may get a good unit, but in the meantime I'm stuck with a defective unit and I know of 3 faulty units sitting on the shelf waiting to be purchased! Worse yet.... the distributor hasn't been givin' a directive or even a test to perform on these units so they don't make it to the store shelf. I'm not suggesting a blanket fix... I'm suggesting a blanket TEST and a range of serial numbers. IMO, it would put people more at ease and put the worries behind them. Worst case scenario.... they discover they have a bad HX that needs replacing.... exactly what Line 6 says they want to do!

These are not toys to a professional, they are tools. If I were a carpenter and my $600 table saw and/or guide was 1/16" out of square I'd be expecting a replacement immediately. If the entire line of table saws was out of square I would expect a recall! It's not life threatening but that's not the point... people expect (and deserve) to get what they pay for. If I bought a $99 table saw (or a cheap $100 multi fx) I wouldn't care.... but the XH Effects is not a toy, it is marketed, and meant to be a tool for professionals! IMO... They should release the serial number range of the potential units, and a "test patch" along with a recipe for checking to see if your unit is defective. (this is what I gave them... so they could confirm mine was a troubled unit) 1% or 2% of units with a problem is not the same as 1% or 2% of users that exploit the problem. If the latter is accurate, 98% of users shouldn't be stuck with a lemon!

When I think about this further... if you don't want to give up a footswitch in stomp mode you can also make the change using snapshots, or with a controller attached to EXP 1 or EXP 2.

I don't think it is a "rare number of units" I think it is a "rare number of users that use the unit in a way that exposes the problem"... and I believe Line 6 is handling these on a 1 by 1 case. I live in Canada so I cannot ship my unit back to Line 6 for a replacement with a "working" model. I need to go through my distributor, who tells me I have to go through my store! The store has brought in 3 units for me since I first brought this up with them... the three units have increasingly higher firmware on boots. EVERY UNIT HAS EXHIBITED THIS BEHAVIOR. After the last attempt I was convinced that I can't have the same problem so I opened another ticket with Line 6 and sent them a test patch and an audio clip of my problem.... they continue to confirm that yes indeed, that IS the same problem.... followed by "please contact your distributor for a replacement". (insert SCREAM here) Even if they don't share the serial numbers with the general public, I do expect them to hand those numbers out to all service depots and the distributors that are out of country so they can deal with the problem accordingly. So far, I have encountered 100% failure rate with the units shipping to my area! What are the odds of that with an extremely rare problem?

You can create a 2nd path and that will automatically create two Y junctions.... one at the front and one at the end. That is where you can set the pan and level of each paths output. However, in your case, I think there is a better route... Setup a "SEND" as the last effect block in your chain and assign it to a button. Set the blend/balance of the send so it does not pass any dry signal through and connect a cable from "send 1 or send 2" (whichever one you set up) to the other input on the Vox. When you engage the send it goes to the alternate channel, when it isn't engaged the output goes to the primary channel.

If it's an external pedal, just insert it into the amps loop as always. If you are talking about inserting a time based effect from the HX Effects in the loop of the amp you can always insert 2 separate loop blocks on the HX. 1: Guitar into HX 2: On the HX insert the effects you want before the amp. 3: HX Loop 1 send to Amp input 4: Amp Loop Send to HX Loop 1 return 5: On the HX insert the effects you want in the loop of your amp 6: HX Loop 2 send to Amp loop return 7: Amp to Load box... 8: Line out from Load box to HX Loop 2 return 9: On the HX Insert an IR block 10: Output from HX Effects to mixer Keep in mind... two FX loops and 1 IR will leave you with just 6 effects to work with on the HX Effects.

Use a loop on the HX Effects... send to the input of the amp, and return from the line out of your load box. You are correct, there is no XLR on the HX Effects. The output can be set to instrument or line level, but it is 1/4" unbalanced. When I use an IR I send that output to a direct box when I'm live, and directly to a high imp input on my mixer when I am in my home studio.

Just an FYI.....https://www.guitarworld.com/features/interview-tom-scholz-recalls-making-boston-and-don-t-look-back In that interview Tom says those early albums were tracked with a prototype of the power soak at low volume, close-miked. His studio was a tiny basement room in an apartment house.... volume would have been an issue. If you glance at the same article I link to above you will see that Tom has a serious hatred for anything & everything digital.... abnormally so :)

Yes - there is a lot of truth to that statement.... Tom was copying the gear he had, Line 6 does not have THAT gear! So with that in mind I can understand why a modeled Rockman could have it's advantages.