duncann

On both my hd500 and hd500x the nav buttons (the entire assembly) is somewhat loose, with ~3mm of play. Never had a problem with functionality though. The sticky switch doesn't sound normal. Use bjnette's suggestions or sit there and continuously switch it until maybe something (the spring?) pops into a more correct position.

I'm with sinistralx on not expecting a new flagship model for amp modeling. But an effects only processor might be a real possibility. The M-Series is what, ~8 years old now? And overpriced. I've also heard there have been some rebates going around for these things? Don't know if that's true or not. I really hope they aren't focusing too much energy on mobile stuff. Especially if it's only i(whatever) only.

They could have simply labeled the user interface with the half and whole steps.

Do the three Soldano amps count as one? Because in reality they are one. If so, then all three of those and the Flip-Top with associated cabs. If all three Soldano amps don't count as one, then the Soldano Overdrive and Flip-Top with associated cabs. But only being limited to two amps, I would definitely not have bought such a guitar processor in the first place. Three would probably do it for me though.

I'm by no means a midii expert, but looking at some of those from disaster area, is seems like you would have some control with most of those. I'm not sure specifically how it would work though. You're best bet would probably be to look at appendix b of the hd500 advanced guide to get the detailed info the hd500 would need as far as cc#'s and bank and program change messages and then look at disaster area's product info pages to see if you can figure out how it would specifically work, or how flexibly you can program these devices given how a lot of them have a limited number of switches. There seems to be a lot of info on those pages and some videos too. You could also contact them and ask them specifically about the hd500. I noticed that they mention the line 6 m9 and m13 devices. Man those things are expensive.

That's what I thought you meant. The pod has a midi input, so it should work. Setting up whatever alternate midi controller you have might be different depending on what exactly it is. In my case, I brought up using a DAW to control the pod because the DAW would be one example of an alternate midi controller, as opposed to the pod's own built in controls.

The hd500 has a midi input, so yes, you could do this. Take a look at the hd500 advanced guide, appendix b, for detailed info on the specifics. Don't know about, or haven't used, any external midi controllers, so maybe there are some individual quirks depending on the controller. But I have mine set up to be controlled from within Reaper, and while the functions you can control are pretty basic, it works.

I'm reminded about a song Satriani wrote, Crushing Day, where he says he wrote it while sitting down. And when he tried to play it standing, he had problems during some parts that boiled down to him not being able to play it. Oops. :lol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-lT2wvJt1M Unfortunately for me, I write all my stuff sitting down. Never even tried to play it standing. Perhaps I should try.

Happiness and Health! Can't beat that!

Something I've been told before. Easy said... I really do appreciate any criticism. I can keep trying and trying. I'm very open to it and not one to take it the wrong way, at least I hope so. :) And I guess that's the genius of Satriani, being able to grab you and keep you where he wants until he's done, and in a deceptively simple way.

You aren't kidding about writing a piece that is all just simple melody. Sometimes when I write some parts, they start out as simple melodic sections, but quickly evolve to something more complex. And after hearing the simple vs complex parts, it's no choice for me but to take the more complex. I guess that's where the discipline comes in by learning to stop earlier and move on. By the way, none of the more speedy parts are particularly easy to play. I often spend hours upon hours, usually days, being able to play something that I hear in my head. In fact, I've worn a permanent flat spot on the tip of my middle finger on my right hand. One thing that terrifies me is playing this stuff live. Very difficult. Something I really have to learn, because I often suspect that Vai/Satriani deliberately hold themselves back for the sake of live performance. I used to perform live when I was younger and basically I suck as a performer. I completely agree with your assessment of Vai vs Satriani. I've always found Satriani easy to listen to on the first hearing. A lot of Vai's stuff takes multiple listenings to start to 'get' it. One of my motivations for writing the way I do and the subject matter is to maybe spark some curiosity in people about the universe around them. Maybe someone will take it upon themselves to start looking into the subject matter my songs are about. It opens up a entirely new perspective in one's mind. As far as taking it to the next level, not quite there yet. I still have more songs to tell on this album.

The pitch glide appears during the last minute of the song and isn't part of the lead track. Just a typical rythm backing track, and the lead track happens to play along with it at the beginning and end (of the last minute). It's a way to get a wider stereo separation, with a natural sounding chorusing effect, without using any double tracking techniques in the DAW. So any sort of wideness that's perceived for the lead track might be because of the heavy delay mix for the lead patch in combination with playing style that synchronizes the musical part to the heavily delayed signal. No idea if that's what Vai uses in Bad Horsie. My guess is it's probably some post processing. There are several ways to get this with using only the pod, but the pitch glide sounds best to me. You can use an effect with an adjustable time parameter (delay and reverbs in particular) before the mixer and in one path. It requires the mixer balance controls are >0%L and >0%R (likely 100%L and 100%R). It's a way to have the signal separated by at least 20ms (in the case delays); somewhere between 20ms and 40ms usually sounds ok. Delays should have the mix at 100%, feedback at 0%, and delay time to your liking. Not all reverbs work ok for this, but some produce interesting results. Put the mix and decay controls at 100% and 0%, tone where-ever, and adjust the pre-delay for separation. You can also use some delays after the mixer, which takes the mixer balance controls out of the equation. the ping-pong and stereo delays work well for this.

Really glad you all like it! Awesome!

Thanks for the kind words. Appreciate it greatly. For the wah, yeah, I guess it's personal preference. I might tend to overuse it, but only two of my songs so far use a wah, Asymptotic Freedom and Manifold Eternity (which I don't care too much about anymore because there's something about that song that I just don't like). Prime Vinculum uses a pitch shifter in a way to simulate feedback to give that extra emphasis on a notes end of life. And Radiative Embrace uses a tron up and phaser, so I guess that's a sort of wah, but with different type of feel to it. But I appreciate the advice about the wah in any event. I tend to overuse the whammy bar also, which I've learned to tone down somewhat, mainly because I keep breaking them (3 metal ones, and 2 carbon fiber ones so far in ~3 years). Any specific influences you hear are likely the result of my unconscious mind acting upon what I think sounds good to me. The only exception might be an intentional use of middle eastern speckled throughout. Obviously Steve Vai and Joe Satriani are great influences as far as playing style goes.

Thanks! The guitars are: JEM 7V with evo pickups; lead track and distorted tracks use the bridge pup, clean tracks use 1/2 neck pup and middle pup (single coil). Volume always at max. Ibanez SR1205E for bass.

I would be very humbled for anyone to take a listen to my latest composition, Asymptotic Freedom, using an HD500X exclusively (no post processing in the DAW, except for the drum track, of course). Satriani/Vai type style with, I hope, my own uniqueness mixed in. I'm particularly fond of the ending (the last minute or so), so if you make it that far, more power to you! (You can always cheat and skip :) ). I tend to write longish songs. I'll probably still end up making very minor tweaks to the bass part, so it's not 100% done, but when it comes to stuff like this, is it ever really done? Thanks for taking a listen, hope you enjoy, and have a great New Year! asymptotic.freedom.zip

I have a pod hd500 and experimented a while back with EQs after the mixer. This did indeed get some ugly digital clipping that I could almost dial out by adjusting each FX block (including amps and mixer) that had any sort of volume control. I've heard the term unity gain before, so I suspect that was what I was trying to achieve. So you might try that if you haven't already. But I could never quite get rid of the clipping entirely so I just abandoned the idea of putting any EQs post mixer. Although, if I remember right, the studio eq might not have this problem, but also might not be quite the EQ you're looking for. I also have an hd500x, but never tried with EQs after the mixer.

I upgraded from a 500 to a 500x and am rather glad I did for the extra DSP. Dual amp/cab setups are pretty usable with the extra power. The cab parameters can change the sound quite a bit, with one in particular affecting things the most, which is the resonance. It also acts a kind of master control for the thump and decay parameters. And then there is the low cut which is useful for getting rid of some of the muddy low end that is characteristic of some amps. There is nothing quite as extensive as you might see in a vst ir plugin, but you can get some good tones (equally on par with ir plugins) by messing with these parameters and trying the different combinations of cabs and mics. And dual cabs expand the combinations even more.

I've had this problem a couple of times. Ultimately, it took multiple recalibration tries to get it to go from 0 to 255. Only in my case, it tended to get stuck on around 45 to 255. I tightened the pedal just a little bit with the provided allen wrench and I think it might have had a positive effect. A low of 5 can be quite noticeable, depending on what you have tied to the pedal. For example, if you have the tron up mix tied to the pedal and can't get quite to zero, that's not good.

And why do they have to have the EQs in percent? Why can't they use millimeters? Or better yet, why not just a single on/off switch?

Reminds me of the George Carlin skit about stuff and too much of it.

Another problem with >1 pod is if you make a bunch of patches relying on more than one pod and something goes wrong with one of them you might be kind of screwed. I guess the same could be said with only one pod but with two, you're doubly screwed. :lol:

Try putting the hard gate (with the settings you have) before the two amps. If you put it after the amps, you're losing the stereo separation; the signal is being summed to mono. Also with that particular setup of amps, I wouldn't use the noise gate as it seems to me that's the one that's causing the whooshing.

Well, you could get a pod hd500x and pod hd pro x and connect them using the digital out and in. Rather expensive though, not to mention cumbersome. Might work good for a studio though.

Ok. I just tried it on my hd500x and it's definitely the combination of gates causing this. It seems to sound better when you put one of the hard gates before both amps (and before the split) and get rid of the other two. I think the worst offender in this case is the noise gate.