edstar1960

Things to try to reduce fizz: 1) AMP and DEP controls: - Increase BIAS value from default 50% towards 100%, the lower the value and the more pronounced the fizz will be - Reduce BIAS EXCURSION value from default towards 0% - Reduce the MASTER value from it's default which will reduce the amount of modelled power amp cross over distortion, increase DRIVE and VOLUME to compensate overall patch volume and distortion level 2) CAB DEP controls: - Reduce RESONANCE from default 50 to 0 - if you require some more "body" then increase slowly to re-introduce which also increases volume which also boosts low and high end due to fletcher-munson effect, so higher the level the more pronounced the fizz will be (dependent on amp/cab/mic combination). - Reduce THUMP from default 50 to 0 then increase slowly to get require amount of extra bottom end boost - Reduce ER level to 0 to remove any room reflections which will tend to enhance top end noise - Try a different mic, maybe one of the ribbon ones which have a flatter response and which won't accentuate the high end, (some of the mic's really accentuate the harsh top end) 3) EQ: - add an EQ fx at the end of the chain that allows you to select a shelf or a cut or a pass for both LOW and HIGH end OR if your output connection allows use of GLOBAL EQ, switch that on and set the HIGH shelf to about 7khz or slightly lower to remove all top end from the signal, set low end shelf to about 75hz or slightly higher to remove bottom end boom - try Vintage Pre with LOW and HIGH values of 75hz and 7khz - try parametric EQ with a narrow Q and sweep for the frequency that accentuates the fizz, and then reduce it by reducing the GAIN level within the fx to whatever value is needed to make it not noticeable 4) Use the SINGLE input approach (as suggested above by pianoguyy): - Input 1 GUITAR, Input 2 Variax (or whatever combination you need for your setup) - this will reduce the input signal hitting the amp by about 6db which will ensure you are not causing digital clipping to occur from having too strong a signal hitting the amp Summary: Try each of the above suggestions in isolation to see how they affect the overall sound and then try various combinations of each to fine tune the patch, remove the fizz, and find the "sweet spot" for each setting for each patch.

Interesting as I didn't authorise my computer, only my HD500. Worked fine in both HD500 Edit and HD500 for me.

Using the HD500 in Pedal Board mode (FS5-8 selected in Setup menu)..... Each FS can control an fx on/off, plus the Expression pedal switch can control an fx on/off and the expression pedal can dynamically alter values of multiple parameters on multiple fx so things change from min to max (heel to toe). For example if you have FS1 assigned to your distortion and FS4 assigned to DELAY. You press FS1 to toggle distortion on - then when you want to add the DELAY you press FS4 and you have your DISTORTION plus DELAY. If you want the DELAY on its own you can press FS1 to switch off DISTORTION. This gives you the control you want with the fx you want all in the one patch. The situation you have described can be achieved via standard patch change mode where each patch has your chosen combination of pedals switched on from the start.

Ah! So something that you and I did with our HD EDIT sessions on our PC's somehow produced the glitch. Good news that it has now fixed itself but perhaps a little worrying that it may re-appear and we don't know what has caused it. Interesting that you say the tone quality has improved by using MODEL setting on the alt-tune knob. That is the correct setting to use if you are not using the guitar control to produce an alternate tuning but it should not affect tone from what I understand. What did you have it set on before? I am guessing it must have been set to STANDARD because all the others are some form of altered tuning. I may have to try that to see if it does affect the end tone for me as well. My understanding is that STANDARD is used to force the guitar to play in standard tuning regardless of what tuning the loaded model may be set to, so perhaps it is doing a double process of the model unnecessarily and that extra processing is affecting the tone quality? Just guessing. When I get a moment I will see what difference it makes on my JTV via VDI.

Immediately after I made the purchase on the Line 6 website, I just launched License Manager on my PC. I already had my HD500 connected via USB. I logged in to License manager using my id and password that I use for my Line 6 account, and it immediately showed me the three bundles in a shaded box and next to the list was a button labelled "authorize" (I think - if memory serves me correctly). I clicked on the button and the bundles became unshaded and I got a pop up message telling me to power recycle my HD500 (power off and then on). So I did just that and then all the amps and speakers from the packs then became available for use within the HD500 and were listed in my amp options when I used HD500 EDIT. There was no download needed as I already had Line 6 license manager installed from when I last upgraded the fw on my HD500 to latest level. I did receive an email but it was just a confirmation copy of my order and was not required to install the bundles. I am assuming that your HD unit is registered to your Line 6 account ? If you have registered your HD unit and you are not seeing the purchased bundles when logged in to License Manager while the HD unit is connected to your PC via USB, then I recommend you open a support ticket with Line 6 to ask for their help. Good luck - hope you get it resolved.

Very interesting. So it wasn't me going mad at the weekend - it really did show the wrong list of model choices. If you power everything off and then back on again does the same glitch remain? If you can consistently recreate it then please raise a ticket with Line 6 support and report it to them so they can work on a fix. Thanks!

Not that I am aware of. The HD range has upgraded HD models of some of the X3 amps and now with the new HD bundles, it has include some requested X3 amps that were missing from the original HD line up and have now been ported to the HD platform. I don't think they will ever offer all the X3 amps because that would duplicate some of the HD range - so why bother when you can use the HD version.

Hi Dave, You are correct. I just double checked with HD 500 Edit in offline mode and if you choose 300/600 500/700 Variax pull down then you get the choice of F prefixed models or non-prefixed models (double the choice). If you select Tyler Variax then you get a choice of U prefixed models only. However, at the weekend I was setting up patches on my HD500 with my JTV59 connected (all at latest fw levels) and used HD 500 EDIT (latest version) to set up the patches and I went through and double checked the Variax control settings of a number of patches and although I had TYLER VARIAX selected in the drop down, I was still being shown the list of F prefixed and non prefixed models. I didn't think about it at the time that the F models were only available with the pre-HD firmware versions so I just accepted that was what was available under HD Edit. So maybe I hit a bug and didn't realise as everything seemed to work fine. I will see if I can recreate the situation today, because when using it in OFFLINE mode, there are definitely different model choices presented, and the F prefix ones don't show for TYLER. EDIT: OK - just tried it again and it is working as expected - no sign of F models when selecting TYLER VARIAX. Only see the U models. When selecting 300/600 500/700 then the F models appear along with non-prefixed models. Which means at the weekend , either I hit a glitch which has now fixed itself or I got myself confused and was looking at the wrong drop down menus. I had tried dragging and dropping some HD500X patches into my HD 500 EDIT window which seemed to work fine - they were converted OK - but maybe that caused the glitch in the display as I remember one of them had the 300/600 500/700 Variax selected and I had to change it to Tyler Variax. Anyway - bottom line is I can't recreate the situation - so everything is working as Dave described.

The email is just a confirmation of the order. It will be added to your online account immediately. Just connect your HD to your PC, then launch Line6 license manager, sign in, it will list the bundles you have bought, then you just click on the authorize use button, it will then tell you to power off, power on your HD unit, and then the amps will be available for your use. That's what happened for me on a Win 7 PC.

The 30% off was enough to make me bite - so I have gone for the fully loaded bundle. I would not be surprised if they do have another sale at some point in the future or even if they eventually offer the fully loaded bundle for free when purchasing a brand new HD500X at some point, probably just before they announce the next gen POD ..... No guarantees that will happen though ....... just guessing! :)

By pre-HD models are you referring to the X3 amps that have been ported over? If you are then I believe they are full versions BUT because they are from the X3 line and have been converted over they do not have the HD DEP parameters available as they were introduced with the HD models.

I think he may be referring to the amps that are from the X3 line when he says pre-HD, as opposed to the pre-amp HD versions of the full HD amps.

The models should sound the same - there may be slight nuances where a discerning ear could spot whether it's a 59 or a 69 because of the physical characteristics of the guitar such as wood and scale length and fixed bridge or floating bridge (trem). I have both and I think they sound slightly different but I also think it's a visual mind thing that because I am playing a different guitar it sounds different to me ...... I did try a blind test demo with one of the models and posted it in this thread: http://line6.com/support/topic/9712-jtv59-jtv69-v21-semi-5-comparison/ I can hardly spot any difference in the recordings so I think they do sound near identical - however - you may disagree and think they sound different - you won't know until you try them out side by side ....... but in my opinion the differences are not worth worrying about ..... the models are the same and are only different in as much as my playing style on each of the physical JTV is different ...... and of course the mags are very different but then you would expect that. Hope that helps.

Yes the alt tuning knob should be set to MODEL when using the 500x to force model and tuning when changing patch. "F" does mean factory preset and "U" does mean user. So you are correct. I agree it is easier to get a great tone using a standard guitar into the 500x. Using a JTV via VDI means everything is digital right up to the point the 500x converts it back to analog before the XLR or 1/4" outs. The JTVs have their own numerous nuances to get just right and although every JTV has the same digital electronics they don't all sound identical because the physical characteristics of each guitar and each play also has a major effect on how they sound. I suggest you try various connection methods and compare them to see if any are better. Also compare the JTV model with the standard guitar - see how they differ and then see if you can use Workbench HD to create your own custom model that more closely reflects the sound of the standard guitar with which you get a great tone easily out of the 500x. Also try the JTV using it's battery power going direct into a standard amp and compare each of the models - does it sound better and more realistic just like a standard guitar that way - or does it still sound thin and lacking? Unfortunately with the JTV / 500x combination - you have to master the JTV as well as master the 500x - way more things that can go wrong and cause things to sound bad if not set up or tweaked correctly. Good luck - you should be able to get your JTVs sounding very similar to how your standard guitar sounds when using the 500x - just may take some time and patience to get there.

Thanks Peter. :)

Great stuff Nico - thanks for sharing - very interesting and useful. One thought that popped into my head hours after watching it was regarding Craigs statement about guitar speaker cabs projecting the low and high end frequencies very weakly but the modellers reproducing all frequencies at the same level hence the common complaints of too much bass and fizz. Does this mean that modellers are just coded incorrectly because they don't reproduce this speaker frequency response effect correctly or is there some programming (hardware/software) reason why modellers cannot accurately reproduce the frequencies at same relative values as real guitar speaker cabs? I mean, it's all just software, and it's meant to be modelling the real world as accurately as the cpu hardware will allow, so why do they fail to reproduce the frequency response of speaker cabs accurately? Why do the end users of all modellers have to apply their own EQ to compensate for this issue? I am guessing there must be some very good technical reason why they can't do it otherwise it makes no sense to have left it as it is. :s Just my thoughts.

Can the de-esser from the X3 LIVE series be used in front of the amp sim in the HD500 as suggested by Craig Anderton? I guess he means between the guitar and the amp sim when he says "in front". ?

Thanks for the answer david.

I looked in the HELP menu's of Workbench HD but could not find the answer to this question. In Workbench HD, under the POTS tab, the CAPACITANCE field allows a value to be specified for the virtual capacitor on the virtual tone control. There are a range of numerical values reflecting commonly used capacitors but there is also a value called FILTER. Does anyone know what exactly does the FILTER value provide? Thanks.

Thanks for stopping back and sharing your experience. I must say that most of what you say in point (1) is what I have personally experienced and still do - it's taken me a long time to work out how to tame those issues from all the helpful advice I have had and found on this forum but I am still not 100% successful. I have always thought it was just me and my inability to get to grips with it because I have heard so many samples where people have produced great tones. I had the X3 Live before and I still have that as a backup but I must say I struggled to get good live sounds with that too but for recording it was easy - the HD500 also sounds better recorded but I can get better live sounds out of it but I have to spend time tweaking to get it right. I am really pleased that you are already very happy with the Axe FX II and hope it works out for you and look forward to any future updates from you. Thanks again.

I agree - I thought my unit sounded better after the upgrade - I should have added the word "apparently" to the sentence. :)

By default the Global EQ is ON. And with default settings there really is no audible difference with it ON or OFF. pfsmith0 has measured the actual difference though and there is a difference in extreme low and high ends between ON and OFF but not anything that should be discernible to the average human ear. But also remember that the existing fw code had to be optimised to ensure the Global EQ would fit within existing DSP available and again that should not have changed the sound of anything BUT the code has changed between fw releases. Some people have reported that their existing patches do sound different under the new fw - and most have said they think they sound better. Others have reported no difference detected. Hearing is very subjective. So maybe it is just in our heads or maybe there is a subtle change introduced with the combination of optimised fw and GLOBAL EQ that some people are picking up on. Don't think we will ever have a definitive answer but as long as things are improving then I guess that doesn't matter.

I can say that I have not had problems updating my JTV59 or JTV69 while connected with VDI to HD500 - and it seems to be more convenient and a much faster process when using the HD500 as an interface compared to the JTV supplied USB interface widget. Since they got WB HD working via the HD500, my JTV USB interface widget has remained packed away in a box somewhere.

I use JTV59 and HD500.

On a factory set HD500X you will get the supplied Line 6 Set Lists along with at least 2 USER SET LISTS at latest firmware level - but if it's the previous firmware level you will get 3 USER Set Lists. The User Set Lists consist of BLANK new patches with nothing in them. You use one of those patches to create your own and test things out. If you buy your own one, then one of the first things you should do is backup all the supplied patches, and then backup one of the Blank user set lists and one of the blank user patches which you can then use to reset things as and when needed.