cruisinon2

Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I've never actually purchased a USB cable... for f#$@'s sake, they come with everything from shoelaces to hamster wheels, lol... I have a bin full of them. Nor can I can recall an instance where a USB cable that stays in one place and remains more or less stationary, actually stopped working. Thin ones that get used with mobile devices will eventually succumb to the physical wear and tear of frequent manipulation... but even with those you still have to put the time in to destroy them, lol... and pardon the pun, but left to their own devices, they're just not that fragile. I dunno, maybe it's me. The mocking is really just the result of the same friggin' question being asked for the Nth time... in retrospect though, this hardly surprising. Anyone who can't be bothered to read the update instructions is unlikely to peruse the forums for their answer prior to engaging in a Whine Fest... even though it wouldn't take any longer to find the answer here, in any of the 7218 similar threads, than it would to have read the instructions in the first place... but I digress. ;)

For the flagship device, by the time you buy a footswitch to go with it, it's pushing $3K...

All? No. A solid majority? You bet your a$$. It happens with every single update, usually within minutes of the release, and they accelerate straight to b1tching and moaning in here when the solution to their "problem" was writ large in bold type, if only they had bothered to look. If I had a nickel for every "I updated to "firmware X", but I cant find all the new $hit in HX Edit. WTF?!?!?!.!", I wouldn't need to work... I'm also very skeptical of blaming USB cables. It's a digital connection... the 1's and 0's either arrive at their destination or they don't, and I don't see how there can be anything particularly magical about one cable over another. It seems far more likely to me that it's an issue with the computer that's directing the traffic, or perhaps dodgy WIFI. I honestly have no idea if the update process downloads the firmware onto one's computer in it's entirety before dumping it into Helix, or if it's merely a conduit passing it straight through.... but if it's the latter, then crappy WIFI and/or slow download speeds could certainly explain failed updates. All I know is I've updated numerous times over the last 4+ years, and I've yet to have an issue... and I've even done so through the much maligned USB hub, still without problems. So am I just lucky, or are my USB cables bulletproof?

Well whether it makes sense or not, this is how the world works now. Ours is a disposable economy, and long gone are the days when the same gadget is produced forever. Plus, in this particular case, they have little incentive to keep cranking those things out in any quantity because the simple fact is that the majority of those who are going to buy a modeling guitar are also going to be using some sort of amp modeling. Most likely another Line 6 product that will not only supply power to a Variax, but allow footswitch control of it's various features... product integration and selling you multiple devices (and preferably ones that are much more expensive than a power kit) is the business model. I'm not saying you don't have a legitimate gripe... but stomp box/real amp guys just aren't the Variax target demographic.

Because it's old... originally designed for Variax models that predated current lineup (which itself is more than a decade old now) by a number of years, long before there were other L6 compatible devices that could supply power to the guitars (POD, Helix, etc). While it may not be officially "discontinued", there's no guarantee that production runs are frequent and/or done in large quantities anymore.

Hey, he's busy... read the instructions for him, will ya? ;)

Oh please... really? And a three minute sun shower and a typhoon are both "rain", but only one is worth talking about. These semantic arguments really don't help your cause... but never mind, you win. Don't know how I could have been so terribly misguided. Variax "updates" continue to abound. I'm sure the next one is just minutes away.

Variax is a niche product, and you'll either love it or hate it. Either way, I doubt that a new generation is imminent... with the tiny market share of all the world's guitars, I don't think it's at the top of their list of things to do. And unless there's been some behind the scenes seismic shift in the technology that they're working on, I would bet that the next iteration, whatever it turns out to be, will probably be an incremental improvement over what we've already got. I could be wrong, and time will tell... but if you want one, just buy it. Otherwise you might be in for an extended wait.

Must we do this dance every time this discussion comes up? There has been nothing NEW added to the modeling for years on end... the Shuriken is a different physical package, with a few other alt tunings included as "standard issue" compared to the others... the modeling is otherwise identical. Updates that included nothing but bug fixes and/or to fix how things get displayed in Workbench are fine and dandy, but they don't represent "development" of a product. That part of the current Variax lineup's life cycle is clearly over (or at the very least, is on extended hiatus) and has been for some time.

They never announce anything until the product release is imminent... that's how they roll. The only thing that you can be relatively certain of, is that the current iterations are no longer being developed, as there hasn't been a firmware update of any significance in 6 or 7 years. But whether or not there will be another generation of Variax guitars, or when they might appear, is anybody's guess.

Wouldn't much matter if you had paid ten grand....No matter what breaks or who's product it is, when you take it to a repair shop, you're not gonna be the first one in line. On top of that, half the time they're gonna have to order whatever part(s) need replacing... it's far from a given that they'll have one of everything on hand the day you show up. Then there's the question of whether or not it's a warranty job. There's always some protocol to determine who's paying for it, and how much. Generally speaking, it's a much shorter the wait when the money is coming out of your pocket... but I digress. Either way, waiting is par for the course.

H.R. 69... The "Fig Leaf" Bill is expected to pass with overwhelming bipartisan support. It's the one thing those a$$holes can agree on... ;)

I can't believe this is actually being debated... have we run out of real problems? lol

Car makes a funny noise once in a while, and when you take it to the shop, what happens? Nothing. Hardware failures are often intermittent, and you probably just have a bad switch... highly unlikely that it's software related. You can try factory reset if you want...it certainly won't hurt. But I seriously doubt it'll help either. Open a service ticket and see what they tell you.

Lmao... You've got a really peculiar way of asking for help. You come in breathing fire, whining about the lack of a feature that's been readily available for months, complaining that it should have been there all along...and after all that you expect us to hold your hand and show you how to use it? There will be so many folks lining up for that privilege, you'll have to beat them away with a stick... or perhaps not. I'm guessing not. Too-da-loo, go with God, and don't take any wooden nickels...

And we're off! Yet again...;)

Yup, that's why they put it under that new "$hittier FX" selection in the drop down menu...;)

He hasn't logged on in 3 1/2 years.... don't hold your breath.

Go shopping... it's DOA. ;)

That's not what he was asking about...he didn't say anything about using both outputs... he's talking about creating a custom model that blends the mag pickups together with a model.

Well this is refreshing... usually the gripe is that the alt tunings either don't work at all, or they just suck.;)

I love this time of year, when the update failures are in bloom...

And you don't have to... once should be sufficient. No. For one thing, you'll deafen yourself. And second, every time you change your output device(s), your sound will change.. can't be helped. Different speakers = different sound. IEM's and headphones are not the same thing as a monitor wedge or PA speaker.... one is right on top of your head, and with the other you're listening way off-axis, and at some distance from the speakers. There are no room reflections with headphones etc etc... different devices for different tasks. The high end in particular will generally be much more pronounced in headphones or IEMS, but it's the first thing to diffuse and vanish in a room. If you value your sanity, you'll create two sets of patches. One to use at home at low volumes, and one for live use. Yes it's more work up front, but you only have to do it once. The alternative is to be in a constant state of tweaking multiple parameters back and forth... for every patch you use... every time your Helix leaves the house. So unless you really enjoy turning knobs, it's just not worth the aggravation. After a while, you'll learn what adjustments typically need to be made to adapt a patch created for one use, to the other... enough to get you in the ballpark at least. But there will never be a substitute for actually using your ears under real-world conditions. Believe me, I wish there was a short cut...a pushbutton solution for this would be the best thing since crapping indoors...but I've been at this for years, and there simply isn't one. And there really can't be... perception is fickle, weird, mostly unexplainable (aside from a bunch of oft-regurgitated adjectives that don't really mean anything), and very much an individual phenomenon. What sounds good to you might sound like nails on a chalkboard to me, and nobody will ever convince either one of us otherwise. You can fight the physics of sound and your own biology all you want, but it's a losing battle.

Nope. Ok, I won't suggest it.... I'll just flat- out say it: 1) This has nothing to do with gear, no matter how expensive, and 2) You have no choice in the matter... volume affects tone, and you must dial in your tones at the volume at which you intend to use them, or chaos will ensue every time you turn up or down significantly. Period. The perceived loudness of different frequency ranges varies tremendously with volume. Google "Fletcher-Munson curve" if you really want to drown yourself in the nitty gritty. It's just how our brains work, so unless you can rewire your head to deal differently with sound, there's nothing to be done. There is no device, algorithm, or protocol that can undo the biology. It's not about anything that the amp or modeler is or isn't doing... it's about how you qualitatively perceive the end result. The problem is... quite literally... all in your head. It's the same for all of us.

We've had it for months now. See above. Check for updates once in a while. Especially pre-rant. Righteous indignation is a stinky cologne when you're abysmally uniformed and have no idea what's going on. Well "tacky"or not, it was the only viable option until recently. Life's rough... No, it's not ignorant...nor is it a waste of time to suggest viable solutions to a problem. What's ignorant is refusing to acknowledge the limitations of a device simply because you've decided that it should be something other than what it is (or in this case, was), based merely on the price tag. No one box can do everything under the sun equally well... life just isn't that neat and tidy. And like it or not, no matter how emotionally or financially upsetting you find it to be, sometimes the answer is "you have to buy something else". Pretending otherwise accomplishes nothing but forcing you to tread water with the same problem... which by the way, tends to be rather difficult with a giant chip on your shoulder. But it's a moot point now anyway. Update to 3.1 and you can polytune to your heart's content. And if you can manage to allow your 5 year snit to come to an end, perhaps you'll start to feel like you've finally gotten your money's worth. Bon voyáge!