duncann

Speaking of uncomfortable headphones, I have the Sony MDR-V6 and these can get quite uncomfortable. I also wear glasses, so sometimes there are intense pressure points right behind the ears in combination with these. But only sometimes, weird. It's not intolerable but also depends on a persons pain threshold. Sometimes when I play I actually draw energy from this and direct it towards my playing. Turn a negative into a positive? Anyway, I have nothing else to compare these to, so I don't know if other headphones in combination with glasses are any better.

Here you go, one for the hd500 and one for the hd500x: b3po.zip

Interesting effect, the frequency shifter. It's a similar effect Joe Satriani uses in Ghosts; he said he uses a series of ring modulators. It seems there are quite a few effects that can be used in one path to get a wide stereo field. Some better than others. A lot of the modulation effects (including the ring modulator) produce interesting results. The tri-chorus is kind of nice with everything set to min (except mix 100%). The other choruses work too. The reverbs could possibly be used too by setting the mix to 100%, decay to 0%, and adjusting the pre-delay and tone to your liking. This actually allows for a <20ms path difference, but they also mess with the tone. The tile and chamber seem to be about the 'cleanest' sounding. Still the best sounding one is the pitch glide. However, now there's all kind of combinations, pitch glide + reverb, pitch glide in one path, reverb in the other, etc. etc. etc.

See post #2 for the detune/chorus using the pitch glide.

I was thinking more along the lines of tablets, not phones. Aren't most tablets these days capable of bluetooth? I have a several year old nook hd+ that's capable of it with cyanogen installed.

I think the stereo trick you mention is putting a delay in one of the paths and setting the delay to min (20ms) and mix 100%. Make sure the pan controls are 100% left and 100% right. If you don't want to use that method, another would be using a stereo or ping-pong after the mixer. For the stereo delay, set the left time to 20ms and the right to something slightly more (21ms ~ 40ms), left and right feedback to zero, and mix to 100%. For the ping-pong, set time to 20ms, feedback to zero, mix to 100%, and twiddle with the offset and spread controls. Neither of those two methods require the pan controls to be at 100%. Another method would be the pitch glide in one of the paths with pitch set to 0.1 and mix 100% and pan controls 100% left and right. This also gives a nice chorusing effect. As far as getting a good tone, just experiment. There are many ways to do things and there is no right or wrong way. One thing I've noticed on higher gain tones, if there is too much distortion or compression before an amp, it tends to drown out the dynamics and feel of the amp.

When you disable an amp, the CH VOL turns into BYP VOL.

Try fiddling with the path B level slider. I've seen that particular control show some strange behavior before; basically, path B is muted even though the level says 0dB. When you move the slider...BOOM...sound on path B. No idea what the cause is, or even if that's the problem you're having though. It sounds like what you're hearing when amp A is disabled is the straight signal from path A because the BYP VOL is 100? Change it to zero to confirm. With the pan controls 100% left and 100% right, if what I said above is correct, you should only hear sound out of the left speaker, regardless of the state of amp A?

Check the mixer block to make sure the volume and pan are set how you want for each path. Also check the input 2 source, especially if you don't have any effects before the path split. If it's set to none, path B won't have any sound and when you bypass the amp you're hearing just a direct unprocessed sound, i.e. the guitar pickups. When you disable an amp, the CH VOL changes to BYP VOL and defaults to 100. So my guess would be that you have input 2 source set to something not physically present and the pan controls in the mixer centered (you'll here sound from left and right speakers) and BYP VOL is at 100. This setup reproduces what you're describing. Note that there can be certain effects before the path split that will still behave as if nothing is there (the EQs being an example, but dynamics effects behave as if something is there and will allow you to utilize both paths and still set input 2 source to something not physically there).

Ahh. That explains it. Thanks.

Does anyone know what the mix control on the ac flanger is for? It behaves oddly in the edit software: When adjusting it, the patch isn't triggered to notify it that something has changed. If set to max, then save the patch, then switch to another patch, then switch back, it's back at min. Besides those two things, adjusting the mix doesn't seem to have a noticeable effect on the sound. :huh:

How about a completely portable, and replaceable, display by adding wifi to their next product. Shouldn't be too hard as wifi seems to be infiltrating nearly everything these days. And then write an interface for android instead of an embedded lcd screen. Doesn't Amplifi have something similar to this already? On second thought, this would require a wifi infrastructure from the user, so maybe not so good unless it's supplemented by a basic lcd screen. Perhaps bluetooth?

Yea. Definitely thanks for sharing.

No, you can't do this. You can make a sort of patch template and keep it in an unused corner of the available memory, or store it on a computer, but that doesn't help too much if there's a lot of other stuff in the patch you're working on.

The problem is specific to IE 11. Version 10 works, and 9 according to BillBee. As far as I know, this forum doesn't use flash or java. And come to think of it, someone should outlaw both of these disasters. :lol: :angry: Turning off all the filtering and setting compatibility mode doesn't work either.

I would say there is at least one disadvantage in one situation to using the pod as the interface. The pod has to be on to hear any sound. So if you're doing something else on the computer that requires sound, it relies on the pod. But if it's a strictly a one purpose computer, then that's what the pod is for. So then there is no disadvantage. This is with an internal sound card (not mainboard audio) in mind. But then there are other audio interfaces, usually connected through usb i think, that have other goodies on them. Such as midi ports. Some might be able to connect the midi on the pod through the external usb audio interface, which in turn would allow your DAW to control the pod through midi. I've never done any of this, so I could be terribly wrong.

I had the same problem a while back. Apparently it's not fixed yet. The problem seems to be with at least internet explorer on windows 7. Don't know why though. To fix the problem, I downloaded a portable version of firefox. Seems to work ok.

I don't think times have changed too much, but I've gotten older and stopped that lifestyle, which it sounds like you're all too familiar with. One thing I try very hard not to lose is the sense of curiosity from when you're kid. I've always had that and have always been interested in the world around me. That's certainly part of what drives my music. Glad you liked the song. Thank you.

Thank you very much!

Latest song I've just finished, using an HD500X, called Prime Vinculum. Does anyone else who writes music find that it always takes longer than you think to get an acceptable finished version? Appreciate any responses, good and bad. Hope you enjoy it. Now off to re-record the bass parts of my other songs with my new awesome 1205E. For anyone interested in a brief description of the concept of the song read on, else ignore at your pleasure: The idea behind this song is the strong nuclear force. The force that holds the component parts of protons and neutrons together, as well as protons and neutrons themselves. Without this force nuclear fusion couldn't take place in stars. And without nuclear fusion, there would be no end of a star's life in an immense explosion, and thus no visible matter in the universe of seemingly endless variety. So this song is also about matter and the universe's way of organizing itself. And the most wonderful organization of matter that we know of is the human brain. It's the universe organizing matter in a way that allows itself to question itself. It's amazing that the universe can create something that's capable of creating its own virtual (or is it real), universe, As Carl Sagan said, "We are a way for the universe to know itself." Unnecessary information follows, may or may not be of interest: Short description of subtle/prominent effects used: The first 30 seconds uses an auto-volume effect to change the guitar's attack to give it a very subtle backwards-record/clicky type feel/sound. At 1:23 (and throughout parts of the rest of the song) I make heavy use of a pitch glide to give a sort of simulated feedback as well as in some cases an emphasis of blooming higher frequencies at the end of a notes life. I also use the pitch glide in the distorted backing track to achieve a nice simultaneous stereo separation/chorus (no double tracking going on). Any other uses for these effects? Main solo starts at 2:34 and is mostly melodic in nature with a flurry of notes towards the end. Then the song changes feel at 4:30 in preparation for the ending, which is upbeat and tries to be uplifting. Everything you hear (except drums of course) is just an instrument through an HD500X only. No elaborate processing going on in the DAW. Only a multiband compressor, louderizer, and limiter on the master track. So this could be a good example of what the HD500X can do. Anyway, I've attached all the patches I've made for this song to this post. The lead patch actually has two variations because there's a tempo change at 1:23 from 66 to 60. So the only thing different is the delay. The spacey clean patch and the distorted backing patch I think would work on an HD500, but the rest only work on an HD500X. Pickups are Dimarzio Evolution neck, single coil middle, and bridge. Lead parts are all bridge pickup except the first 30 seconds, which is neck. Bass pickups are Nordstrand Big Singles. The u799 in the bass patch filename indicates where the EQ (mid-switch, bass, mid, treble) on the bass was set when recorded. Prime Vinculum HD500X Patches.zip

Are you sure no one accidentally bumped the hum dep control to max? :lol: Joking aside, that really sucks. Short of taking it to an electronics repair shop, the only suggestion I have about fixing it would be to take it apart and look around inside. It could be something simple such as a blown cap, which could even be visible by the top sort of bulging. But it's more likely something not visible such as damaged ic.

I do not use the hd500x as the audio interface. I take the digital out from the pod to an internal soundcard with a digital input. So in this case there is no extra d/a conversions except the one to the headphones/speakers. Plus, whatever else might use audio on the computer (games, websites, music, etc.) doesn't rely on the pod being turned on.

Indeed. And the thing that is slightly infuriating about the explanation of how-the-dsp-and-mcu-communicate is that the graphic and studio EQs are in dB and Hz. :huh: Why is that? Why only those? Perhaps it's my non-understanding of how-the-dsp-and-mcu-communicate.

I don't have an external whammy, but I'm currently using the internal one in a patch as the first thing in the chain. Working on a song called Prime Vinculum that I'm close to finishing. I'm using the whammy as a sort of simulated feedback. And depending on how a note is played, it can also provide a wicked screeching/blooming towards the higher frequencies/harmonics. Pretty neat effect. I would imagine a real one would probably do it even better.

Somebody posted a response; see post number 3.