cruisinon2

There's no magic bullet. Emulating any specific tone is a trial and error process. Even if you were to stumble upon a patch that someone created that claims to be exactly what you're looking for, the odds of it being a perfectly convincing reproduction on your end is slim to none. There are numerous variables that affect the final product...from the instrument used to create the patch, to the playback system, to the individual's playing style...all of which are different from the tools that you have at your disposal. The only common denominator is the Stomp, and that's only one piece of a very large puzzle. If there's anything close to a "universal" approach to reproducing a specific tone, it would be to start with Helix models that are the same (or the closest thing that's available) to the gear that was used on the original recording...if you even know what those were. And that includes the instrument you're playing as well...there's little point in trying to reproduce a tone that was played on a Tele when you've got a Les Paul in your lap, but I digress. Otherwise, it's up to you to twiddle enough knobs until it sounds right to your ears.

I doubt there'd be enough takers for them to bother with a product like that in today's market. The guitar playing world is pretty firmly divided into two camps at this point. You've got the quiet stage/straight to PA/IEM crowd who don't even want monitor wedges on stage anymore, and then there's the 'washed in the blood and filled with the spirit' tube/stomp box snobs who, oddly enough, have seemed to become even more committed to their "Death Before Digital" philosophy as modelers have gotten better and better. Pick a side, lol...I don't think manufacturers are interested in bridging the gap anymore. It's easier to just target one demographic or the other...

Oh, you'll get opinions alright, lol... and no two will be the same. I've used a bunch of different cans over the years, some with impedance well below the recommended range, and others well above. And I could have made my ears bleed with all of them if I wanted to... so frankly, these discussions have always baffled me. I suspect that those having issues with low volume either have a hardware problem with the headphone amp, or there's a leveling issue elsewhere in the signal chain.

Learn to use snapshots and you'll never have this problem again. It'll take some experimentation to figure out how to best utilize them to serve your particular needs, but I'd be stunned if you couldn't manage to use snapshots to dial in what you need 98% of the time. Practically every patch I have can go from clean to stupid gain, with a variety of typical fx. I can count on one hand all the times I've hit the DSP wall, and I honestly can't remember the last tune that I couldn't get through using just one patch. There might be the occasional situation where you need to switch between two tones that are so radically different that it can't be achieved within one patch using snapshots, but those instances will be few and far between.

I sympathize with your plight, and you're not wrong...however we're dealing with a unit that, despite still being available, was effectively mothballed quite some time ago. Even the Helix stuff, the current "flagship"family of devices, are pushing 10 years old now, and the 500X passed it's prime well before that. If memory serves, I got mine somewhere around 2012. That's why you're getting a lackluster response to your service ticket...it's not right, but it's also not surprising. It's a sad fact of life in a disposable economy. I seriously doubt they're devoting much in the way of resources to the HD stuff at this point.

And failing that, there are a thousand youtube videos that describe the 4CM in gory detail.

One man's "simple" rig is another's Rube Goldberg contraption...;) Just contemplating that much signal gymnastics and add-on hardware, especially in a live situation, gives me a migraine. Best of luck in your quest, though! :)

You shouldn't have trouble getting a clean tone with either of those amp models. But without knowing what else you've got in the chain, what you're monitoring with, etc, it's a guessing game. Are you running into either the front or the FX return of a "real" guitar amp, or straight from the Stomp to a PA? You might have the output level inadvertently cranked in another block before the amp model. Could be lots of things...

I'd wait till it hits 300, then sell...;)

Harrumph!!! ;)

There will forever be problems associated with using patches created by someone else...but this is true of any modeler, and has nothing specifically to do with the HD500. There are numerous variables that come into play when creating tones...the guitar, pickups, playing style, the output method that was used ("real" guitar amp/cab, FRFR speaker(s), headphones), and especially the volume at which the tweaking was done. The moral of the story is that just because you come across a patch that claims to emulate a particular artist or song, there is absolutely ZERO guarantee that it'll sound like that on your end when you load it up. You might get lucky once in a while, but most will leave you scratching your head as to what sort of recreational chemicals led the guy who dialed it in to conclude that it sounded just like Joe Satriani. You will likely find yourself downloading dozens (if not hundreds) of tones, just to find the one or two that you can actually use without extensive modifications...ask me how I know, lol. It's an easy rabbit hole to fall into, and an EPIC time waster. In the end you will inevitably conclude that you'll get to where you need to be much faster if you just do it yourself. So the bottom line is this: Get used to creating your own tones. You can try others' patches to get a general idea of how it's done, but no modeler is a "plug and play" device. They tend to have a learning curve which can be rather steep, depending on your familiarity with modeling in general. And some of the older devices are much less user friendly and not quite as intuitive as the newer stuff. It's gonna take some getting used to. All that being said, there's nothing inherently wrong with what you've got...just don't expect instant gratification, 'cause that ain't happening no matter what device you choose.

Nope...PM's are not an option on this forum. But I'm sure I'm not the only one curious about what "~$80" actually means, so let the negotiations commence! ;)

Nobody hangs around here in the "Lounge"...honestly, I don't know why it's even here. Post this is the Spider V forum...it'll remain largely unnoticed in here forever.

Lol...it is a mystery, isn't it? All they have to do is pipe 1's and 0's from one end to the other. Shouldn't be that hard. And like you, I've still got several 1/4" cables that I've had since college that work just fine. I only know because they're emblazoned with the House of Guitars logo (Rochester, NY) which I'm amazed is still legible after all this time, well over 30 years ago at this point. Wow...what a depressing realization that is. ;)

I'm not gonna say its impossible...however, a wise man once said "The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to clog the drain". And while it's quite likely that somewhere, some intrepid soul has probably tried to daisy-chain multiple wireless units in the manner you suggest, but for the life of me I don't know why you'd bother. It's just one more thing (and a wildly unnecessary thing, while we're at it) that can go on tilt and ruin your night. It's one more battery that you have to keep charged all the time. Plus, given the "clear line of sight" these units need to function properly, it's a good bet that any obstacle (namely you, or anyone/anything else on stage) between the the unit transmitting from the pedalboard to the amp will cause a drop out at some point. Latency may also become an issue. I love playing with a wireless...but you're the only one who benefits from being untethered...your pedalboard doesn't give a sh*t, lol. It sits still all night long, regardless. Just run a cable from the board to the amp, and duct tape it down like everybody else...;)

In a word, "everything". FRFR speakers and traditional guitar cabs are completely different animals. Any tones that you've created with one, will sound completely different through the other. You have great deal of EQing in your immediate future. The good news is, you'll only have to do it once.

If you're using a USB hub, get rid of it and connect Helix to your computer directly...the hubs tend to cause problems.

Post this is the Helix forum. Putting anything here in the Lounge is basically screaming into the void. Nobody's gonna see it...

Nothing "artificial" about that. That's old school stupid... as real as it gets. We've all been there, lol. Bob Ross used to call them "happy accidents"...;)

Lol, indeed. AI, the new HD. And so much of it BS... but who wanted to risk being the last guy walking around without hi-def boxer shorts? ;). Madison Avenue has always loved a good fairy tale. Hang the right badge on your product, and you can sell snow to an Eskimo...but I digress. That being said, if AI shoelaces can tie themselves, sign me up. :)

Somebody stole the Fetzer valve, send it back... :)

As is the case with most pitch shifting algorithms, the farther away the altered pitch gets from the original source, the uglier things get. Small intervals are generally OK...half-step, whole step. But the more you stretch it, the more artifacts creep in. By the time you're in octave territory it's usually a mess...so the farther up the neck you're placing the "virtual capo", the more craptastic the results will tend to be. It is what it is...minus a substantial computing revolution, pitch shifting algorithms will never be perfect. Also, if the guitar's intonation isn't spot-on, that'll throw things off too. And even then, "perfect" intonation doesn't really exist because string tension increases in both directions the farther you get from the 12th fret. This causes notes to be pulled progressively sharper the closer you get to either the nut or the bridge. Thus, creating a pitch shifting algorithm for any fretted instrument is difficult because we're never really 100% "in-tune" all over the neck in the first place. A properly intonated guitar is really just "close enough for jazz", as it were, lol. Unless you go the squiggly-fret "true temperament" route...but I get nauseous just looking at those things.

That's because there were never that many in the wild to begin with. Comparatively few were willing to fork over the exorbitant asking price...if they sold 2% as many units as it's Korean counterpart, I'd be surprised.

You'll have better luck posting this in the POD HD forum...few will see it in here.

I've been using one (mostly) cheap clip-on tuner or another on stage for as long as I can remember. Never fails, easily visible on a dark stage, no toggling in and out of tuner mode or engaging a separate pedal. And unless you're jumping around like EVH in his prime it ain't going anywhere. Just roll off the volume knob, tune, done. Through more years than I can count, I can recall exactly one instance where it fell off the headstock. And the cheapo Snark tuners you can get for about 12 bucks are just as good as the fancier expensive ones. I probably wouldn't use one to set intonation, but for tuning up between songs they work just fine.