duncann

How about jinxes, but with a little further explanation. Some people may be genetically predisposed to muck up technology around them. This phenomenon evolved alongside the evolution of technology, and forms a dynamic relationship between humans and technology. Maybe some people's brain's electromagnetic fields are calibrated or organized in such a way that they interact with the subtle electromagnetic fields generated from electrons moving through wires and pcb traces. Perhaps there is even some quantum entanglement going on. :lol: Of course, the above is utter crap and completely made up. Or is it?

Possibly something to do with a mainboard's usb implementation?

You could get a cheap spdif rca to optical converter. I have the same soundcard (it's the one with the front panel) and use a cheap converter to make use of the digital connection, not for reamping though. Although it does suck to have yet another power brick.

I just recently found a 5 dollar used one (don't know who makes it) and it works fine with reaper. I use windows 7 64-bit and the drivers that were installed are part of the operating system, so nothing was needed on my part except plugging it in and figuring out the mechanics in reaper.

An hd pro would work and the hd 500 could control the hd pro through midi. An m9 would work too and I think that has midi as well. Only problem with that is price. It's an old product and still worth something, just not what most places charge for it. An alternative would be the zoom ms-70cdr. But that lacks any midi ports, so it would have to be controlled separate from everything else.

One thing to be aware of with dual amps is that there exists an unwanted comb-filter type effect. It is very subtle and most of the time inaudible. But at times it can be heard. Meambobbo's guide has some info about this and also some things you can do to try an avoid it.

You'd probably have to look at the advanced manual for more specific details, but you can use the hd500 as a midi controller for the hd pro x. In addition to that, you could then take the digital out from the hd500 to the digital in on the hd pro x and get twice the processing power.

I've since found a cheapo used $5 usb to midi device and it seems to work well with reaper. One thing that startled me for a bit is that sending an event to switch an effect on or off is actually a toggle, which might work good for live use, but during composition it doesn't work all that great. I don't yet see a way to specify whether an effect should be either on or off with one event. So that if an effect is already on and there's an event to switch it on, don't send any event and just leave it on. Instead the event just stupidly toggles it. There is some settings in the preferences to send some messages on stop/play but the result isn't quite as expected. It might be possible to do something with scripting though. Haven't looked into it yet.

There's probably more than just distortion involved in a tone not responding well to volume changes. For example, if I use my JEM 7V, like you say, volume changes from the guitar don't respond very well while using a tube drive in front of a SOLO-100 Overdrive. But, with the same patch and an Ibanez American Master, volume changes respond very well. So that must mean the pickups, the volume pot, and the capacitor on the volume pot are all variables on the guitar side of things. I've also noticed that different amp models respond differently to volume changes. And a compressor in addition to distortion before an amp may also affect volume changes, depending on the settings or amount of compression.

It appears that all the looper controls can be controlled by midi. Check out the advanced guide for all the details.

They have another m-audio at bhphotovideo.com for about $31 but doesn't have integrated cables.

Here another video with a little more detailed instructions for the hd500 and reaper. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLqpdLSWyLk I'm considering trying this with an m-audio uno or midisport 1x1. Anyone have any experience with either of these?

Thanks hurghanico. After reading your post about earlier versions, I went back and found that link for the older versions. One thing I immediately noticed is that the interface actually scales and can be made bigger. I don't have to squint (even with glasses) to see stuff. Should be interesting checking things out for sure.

I just tried installing axe-edit to get an idea of what makes up a patch. It installs fine, and runs fine, but apparently you need the physical unit to do anything, unlike hd edit. The next best thing would be to look at the manuals or watch some videos. But then again, unless you have around 3k to through away, it's just a waste of time.

This sounds like what is happening. I've noticed this about the pods, especially with most of the EQs placed after the mixer block. Trying to compensate with a volume reduction can help somewhat, but the 'clipping' is still there if you listen really really close. It also depends somewhat on what and how something is being played. I wish there were internal clip meters (in and out) for each effect block. That would be most useful in cases like this.

What other multifx guitar processors have this sort of flexibility? To be able to move fx blocks where you want them? Axe fx, obviously. I think some zoom products might allow this as well. I can't think of any others. For some really wild stuff, check out some videos featuring Thomas Nordegg, once was (and might still be) one of Steve Vai's guitar techs.

That first thing is excellent info and can apply to a lot more than just guitar tone. I've tried to learn this over about the past year for guitar tone and recording in general, but for some reason I say to myself, "!@#! You!" and proceed to change more than one thing. :lol: I don't know why this is. That second thing is something devious and can mess with you're ear/brain processor big time, especially for stuff lower on the frequency spectrum. If you're a perfectionist type of personality and record stuff that has to be exactly this way (the way you hear inside your head), I find that recording in chunks is a big time saver.

Yea. I'd probably go a step further and build a custom chasis for it, just a little bit taller so that I could internally layer the two mainboards, wire up all the cabling possibilities internally, put a few more switches on it to control the new wiring, and there you go. Now it's not a four-foot wide contraption and basically double the processing power.

The best advice anyone can probably give is to just dig in and experiment. Don't let your thinking be constrained by how the equivalent real world effects actually work in the real world. There are really no right or wrong or any rules. So if something seems counter-intuitive, that same something might actually be a sound you're after. Mess around with the DEP paramters of the amps and cabs. The sag control can give a looser or tighter feel to an amp. The bias control is a sort of (but not really) mid control, and bias excursion determines how much bias can stray. The cab resonance control is a kind of wet mix for the cab and gives the thump and decay parameters more or less effect. All of these things should really be the last thing you adjust after you have the amp in ballpark of where you want it. And finally, here's a very helpful link: http://foobazaar.com/podhd/toneGuide/

I have an hd500x and hd500, but I never actually hooked the two together...yet. I know that if I do this, I will be dragged down into a bottomless pit of patch building. So the stupid thing just sits there collecting dust for now.

You could try using only a clean amp (try the soldano clean) with distortion (maybe even multiple distortions at once or more than one to turn on/off in stages as needed) and maybe compression before the amp. This sort of setup would only really need one amp (unless you're into dual cabs/mics) and would leave many more options available. Still have clean and distorted within one patch. And some of the distortions really don't sound bad at all.

Here's a video of some of the EQs, including parametric. I find this video most helpful. POD EQs (Anyone know how to embed a video in a post?)

I have a couple of pdf files. Don't know if these are the ones you're talking about. hd500 dsp test summary (table).pdf HD500 Effects DSP Usage Estimations (collapsed version 1 page).pdf

I often run into the DSP limit on a 500X. It definitely sucks, that's for sure. There is always that one more thing you want to try and put in to make it sound just that little bit better. Don't get me wrong, it is tons better than a 500 and allows for quite a bit more flexibility to an already flexible device, but after using the 500X for a while, it's got to the point of being not enough. Kind of the same thing of running into the DSP limit on a 500. I often wonder if the processing power of an axe fx 2 would even be enough for a person like me. After using one of these for 6 months or a year, would I still be saying it's not enough? You could try changing the 63 spring reverb to something else as the spring reverbs take around 20%.

If you're good at electronics, I'd say just go ahead and take it apart. It's the only way to find out what the problem is. You can still use the edit software on a computer to build patches though.