duncann

I feel pretty much the same way about making the change-over. I actually don't look forward to duplicating or improving what I did on the HD, not to mention re-recording tracks that I've forgotten how to play. :o Four amps does seem kind of useless, but then again, you won't know for certain until you try it. Thirty-two FX blocks seems like overkill too, but then again... There are some things that would be useful. Improved tone in sound and feel is a big one. And lets face it, the tone will be improved by MY%. The MIDI over USB and the numerous USB ins/outs will be very useful in a studio setting. It's got a power swtich and no wall-wart! And it's a new toy to play with.

I'm curious, can you elaborate on the misconception?

There is a definite difference. I prefer the HD cab by a lot. There's something about the Wall of Sound that is either missing something, mids, or has too much of something, high end fizz, or both, which makes the whole tone sound not very defined. The HD cab seems well rounded, sits better in the mix, is a little more forward, and clearer.

Here's the best info on the amp DEP params: http://blog.line6.com/2013/pod-hd-amplifier-extras%E2%80%94using-the-sag-bias-and-bias-excursion-settings/ The HUM control adds a hum component. It makes the amp hum/buzz. Some amps have this, and some don't. Beyond this simplicity, I don't know much about it. Something about how the 50/60Hz from the electricity powering an amp interacts with certain components of an amp. The cab low cut is just what it says it is: it cuts low frequencies below what it's set at. Note that it's not a sudden drop-off at the set frequency, but a slope of some sort. When I make presets, I almost always set this at a minimum of 100Hz. It can help get rid of a lot of the flabby/flubbery/muddy low end. The rest of the cab params (resonance, thump, decay) - The Resonator® - work together. (It's not actually a trademark, forum member hurghanico made that up.) Resonance acts as a sort of mix control for thump and decay. Increasing this also increases volume, so you'd have to make the appropriate channel volume decrease. Many people prefer to set this control at zero to get a more pure impulse response (IR). Some prefer to increase it, even above the default of 50. I find increasing this gives the overall tone a more aggressive texture. Decreasing provides for a more smooth, crisp, and clearer texture. But not all situations are the same, so you have to experiment with it. Thump kind of does what the name implies. It adds a low frequency component that's more focused than turning the amp's bass control up. So while adding bass from the amp may start to introduce some unwanted muddiness, increasing thump can help give a tone more balls without the muddiness. Decay is time-based. I'm not sure if I understand exactly what this does. Something along the lines of controlling how long it takes the frequencies bouncing around inside the cabinet to disperse. I could be completely wrong about this one. If someone knows better, please correct.

I've heard people mention that when they send the patch to the pod using hd edit, they also hit save on the pod immediately after. Don't know if this does anything or not, never had the problem you describe. Perhaps it clears the buffer you mentioned when you do this?

Dig around in the Helix forum, specifically the FAQ thread. Helix is much more capable than POD for MIDI.

He's trying to change his physical amp's channel upon a preset change, with a Voodoo Labs device in between. Are you saying the HD500X sends one or more user assignable CC#s upon a preset change?

The PC message data (0-64) sent upon a preset change is determined by what preset you're changing to. So if you change from 1A to 1D, the data sent is 4. If you want a value of 16 sent, organize the preset change to be that way; from patch whatever to 4D. One thing I'm not sure about, is what happens when you switch from say preset 1A in setlist 1 to 1D in setlist 3, but this might not be useful anyway since setlists can't be changed by the footswitches. Anyway, you might be able to make use of the auto PC messages depending on how your other midi device can respond to it. If your Voodoo Lab can accept a PC change of 4 and send something out to your amp based on that, it might work. As for nothing but a zero being sent out, not sure. But check the midi channel the data is being sent on. The midi channel on the HD500X can be changed in the system menu, page 6 I think.

Not a MIDI guru to be sure, but this isn't possible upon a preset change. The only thing sent during a preset change is an automatic Program Change message.

I think you're right, not much you can do about it. It is what it is, and what it's going to be, regardless. I look at it as a situation where you can only hold off for so long, so I hope Windows 7 is around for a while yet. How long before we start to have a collective consciousness, like the borg. :D

Good idea not updating. It's simply not ready yet. MS did release a tool to allow selective hiding of updates because of the reboot loops, but it's an answer to a problem that shouldn't exist in the first place. In addition to the updates, another thing that's really bad is Cortana, which thankfully can be turned off, I think, hope. A system where it collects a lot of stuff (email content, web usage, things of that nature) about how you use your computer so it can personalize your experience. This data is sent to Microsoft. What could go wrong with that? I haven't run into any stability issues, just compatibility, and mostly with drivers.

Could you assign four of the eight settings of one amp to one switch, and the remaining four settings of the same amp to another switch?

Certainly Line 6 is a bit slow in getting properly tested and working drivers for Win 10. They should have something by now, other than just suddenly listing Windows 10 on the driver download page for v4.2.7.1, which are from July 2013. More broadly, outside of driver compatibility, my whole experience with Windows 10 has been rather negative. Small things like UI inconsistency and two control panels leave an unpolished and unfinished impression; have you ever tried resizing a window from the corner? The cursor actually changes shape under an invisible border, lol. But the biggest thing is the default force-feeding of information I care absolutely nothing about. I know you can turn a lot of this stuff off, but it's not always easy to find the "off" button. Some cases you have to resort to registry changes. Not everything can be turned off, and not everything can be turned off completely. Not to mention their new update model that even installs third-party drivers auto-magically (again no good way to turn this stuff off). Ugh! I'm sure there's lots of people who don't mind or don't care about all that, which is fine. At this point, Windows 10 doesn't really offer anything for me over Windows 7.

This whole Windows 10 seems like a mildly unfinished disaster. For people having problems, I would suggest waiting a while and in the meantime go back to what you were using before if possible, especially if it's critical to your guitar work/hobby/whatever. Initially at least, I suspect the HD will outperform Helix in the synth/filter department. I hope I'm wrong. I see a lot of people wanting more more more amps gotta have more amps, for Helix, but not nearly as many complaints about the obvious gap in effects between HD and Helix.

Well, that was interesting. Not exactly my kind of music, but it really does a good job of portraying a sense of the capability of the human mind to display chaotically neurotic behavior, contrary to what David Carradine (may he rest in peace) says at the beginning. Lol. One thing that stood out for me is how everything seems kind of scrunched together, too much trying to compete for a single sound space. Maybe it's supposed to be like that? It does get better the second half when the panning effect shows up, which is really cool. It relieves some of the hellish tension built up in the first half, exchanging it for something that's merely nightmarish. Is that effect done with guitar?

I just checked and don't have a problem with HD Edit in win10 either. The license manager, monkey, and drivers work as well (in Reaper). It's really odd that Monkey sees the hd500 but not HD Edit. The only suggestion I can think of is trying the hd500 in a different USB port.

No, it isn't stuck. It's as Rewolf said, the first 1 indicates the switch is pressed, the second 1 is the switch being let go.

I can confirm this.

Don't forget about the buttons by the LCD screen, like the directional pad, etc.

I opened a support ticket about this in the beginning of April. They said they are aware of it and working on a fix...

1. Probably only Line 6 knows for sure why some amps are at master volume 100%. One reason I've heard is that some of them (the real amps) don't actually have a master volume (some of the Marshall amps?). Isn't the Line 6 Doom an invention that doesn't exist in the real world? 2. I'm not entirely sure why you'd want to do this. Perhaps some weird effect that can only be achieved by using dual stereo paths before being amplified. I don't know. 3. It probably defaults like that so when you plug in an instrument on any of those inputs, you don't have to change this setting to hear sound; say If you plug in a variax and the default is guitar, you won't hear anything.

Looks like I missed one. The mystery deepens. Now we'll have to wait till the release date of Double Helix to solve the mystery. God's got a rotten sense of humo(u)r on this one, with damaging consequences. :o But who's the one running the simulation? Us from the future? Your picture doesn't seem to be showing for some reason.

Within a preset you can have one midi message to one switch, not multiple messages assigned to one switch. But when you change presets, an automatic PC message is sent. So when you switch from 2A to 2B, an automatic message with data of 2B (check out appendix B of the advanced user guide for how 2B is represented in midi form) will be sent. The channel it is sent on is determined by the global setting 'midi channel' on page 6 of the system menu.

I guess they would be here.

As you discovered, it's not possible to assign multiple midi messages to one switch, and that when you use the switches for midi, it doesn't affect the LEDs. When you change presets on the HD500X, there is an automatic Program Change message sent corresponding to the selected preset.