FiveBass

Maybe Line6Tony or one of his bretheren will give this question some notice. A good answer might help them sell more HX Stomps.

Wow, rd2rk, that was a quick response! Too bad it's not what I am hoping to hear. So does the HX Stomp really respond only to Korg MIDI driver messages, and not Windows and Apple MIDI driver messages sent over the USB MIDI bus of the HX Stomp? Is HX Stomp not able to receive, discover, and use the HX Stomp documented CC messages transmitted across the USB Midi bus if the NanoKontol2 were connected to and powered by a USB cord to the HX Stomp? I am surprised that some sort of translation needs to take place, since the USB connections of both the HX Stomp and the NanoKontrol2 are documented as USB MIDI. That makes direct connection using a mating cable between the two seem like a natrural solution. Perhaps you or someone can explain the hitch up here, or even better to show a working setup like this. I'd really like to keep a computer intermediary out of the solution. Thanks!

Do you or someone you know successfully use the Korg NanoKontrol2 with the HX Stomp over USB? If so, what is the hookup and user experience like? I have scoured the internet and not found anything specifically about this. Please share information about cables and, if needed, intermediate hardware that has been used to get the two devices working together. I am interested in a fairly direct USB cabled connection between the two with few or no additional power supplies. I am not interested in anything having to do with DAWs or computers or software, except the Windows software that Korg provides for configuring NanoKontrol2. (Please do not reply anything like "No", "I don't know, but you could try ...", "I've done something similar, but not with the products you mentioned", or something hardly related, as those type of responses do not help.) Thanks!

Hi, pipelineaudio1. On the Firehawk FX, press the bank up and bank down footswitches simultaneously to enter or exit live edit mode. Live edit mode makes use of the knobs to precisely set parameters. Your friend can do live edits by pressing Function on the FBV 3 foot controller he uses with his 1500.

I have been using my FireHawk FX with my bass very successfully at church. XLR stereo out to a floor pocket works very well. Output level to the stereo 1/4" out is configurable. Set the Output Mode pushbutton for your setup. The online FH FX manual explains the options clearly. Read the manual before you buy so that you know what to expect.

"A rich person can play poorly with any instrument. A poor person can play richly with practice." - FiveBass The Firehawk FX is quite good for many people. Line 6 produced a versatile and very affordable unit there. They have added Firehawk 1500, which shows that there is customer demand for Firehawk and that Line 6 is commited to the product line.

Can't say much for guitar since I play bass (you know what I mean). I have a couple patterns for my custom tones with my instruments. Squelch 110, 191, and 272 to reduce harmonic ring (or 87, 247, 392). High shelf boost at 2.9KHz to maintain crispness. -76 or -48 dB gate does the rest. I did all the math tables and plots to arrive at the most effective open 2nd through 4th harmonics to dampen. The calculated numbers really shortened the time it took me to tune in the 4 band semiPEQ. I may be encouraged to try the math for regular guitar.

I am less than satisfied with the looper. I have given it a serious effort, and it is just not the easiest thing to control. One stomp button and color state indication does not work well for me. I cannot get my samples to align well at the loop cutoff. I especially do not care for the short sound replay when clearing the loop. These things pretty much limit me to use it for only brief exercises. I don't get much inspiration using it. The looper was not in the original firmware. It's implementation seems rushed and incomplete, like they simply wanted to be able to advertise it as one more feature on the FH FX. I am on 1.20 firmware. I would be pleased to find some looper improvements in the next firmware release.

The volume-after-tuning problem seems like a well known bug since the 1.20 update, as I have seen several mentions of it and experience it as well. It has become reflex for me to tap another tone and then back to the one I want after I exit the tuner. I am expecting and hoping to see it addressed in the next update.

I have seen this topic come up a few times before, and I have given some thought to it during the year I have had my Firehawk FX. Please don't take this as a shot across the bow, but I do not think that a global EQ is something that we will see in the pedal. It makes a lot of sense to me that it is available on the Firehawk 1500 amp because ... well, it is an amp. We expect to see some sort of EQ on an amp, even if it is just treb/mid/bass knobs. The Firehawk FX is used mostly in combination with a stage amp, house mixer, or studio system, where further EQ is applied accordingly. Because of this, it seems redundant to have a global EQ in the pedal, especially since the amp/cab modelling already includes a good range of tone control. I play bass, mind you, and not many of the canned tones on the pedal suit me. I expected that, and I knew I would need to create custom tones for my instruments to get the sounds I want. I started out on my FH FX like many people do. I listened to all the stock tones it provides. Then I experimented with each of the stomps, amps, cabs, comp and reverb. I found all the models and combinations that I would like to use, and then I got to work on crafting the "global" sound from the pedal. To get some good general settings, I seached out the best gate, EQ, and global volume settings that work with my instruments. I use the 4 band semiparametric EQ to squelch out ringing and heavy harmonics. Then I apply good gate settings that carry the notes through and suppress the unwanted finger action chatter. I have about 20 custom tones now. I have enahanced serveral of these over the year with variations on the amp/cab volume, presence, and tone settings. They are all stored on the Line 6 cloud - 68 at the moment. Each custom tone is adjusted to work with the single set of EQ and gate adjustments I set upon at the begnning. I do not need to worry about ever changing EQ or gate again. EQ is essentially "global". I keep 12 of the custom tones loaded into the pedal, and I regularly use seven or eight. I found that setting up in this way allows me to use all of my tones in any situation, regardless of whether I am using stage amps or a house system with floor wedges or IEM. I also found that I can keep the red/white/pink volumes at max and just leave them alone. I am just as interested in hearing about how other people use their pedals as I am in telling about how I use mine. I would be glad to here your experiences with this powerful affordable piece of gear.

Tythom, your idea is worthwhile noting, and you may submit it to Line 6 through a service they use called IdeaScale. You may go directly to the "Line 6 Ideas" page on IdeaScale via the URL, http://line6.ideascale.com. Otherwise, if you are on the Line 6 website, then click the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the page (at the bottom of this forum, for example). Then find the IdeaScale link in the Feedback section of the "Contact Us" page. Once you have registered on the Line 6 IdeaScale site, you may then post worthwhile suggestions that will go straight to the developers' ears. I have seen several great suggestions there make it into the Firehawk firmware and Firehawk Remote app!

Yes. The key there is "powered monitor". Set the Output Mode pushbutton to Line Mode (button out), and plug only into the left XLR and 1/4" outputs for mono (use 1/4" mono plug, not a stereo plug). Refer to the Output Modes section of the Rev E user manual.

GRP, your idea is worthwhile noting, and you may submit it to Line 6 through a service they use called IdeaScale. You may go directly to the "Line 6 Ideas" page on IdeaScale via the URL, http://line6.ideascale.com. Otherwise, if you are on the Line 6 website, then click the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the page (at the bottom of this forum, for example). Then find the IdeaScale link in the Feedback section of the "Contact Us" page. Once you have registered on the Line 6 IdeaScale site, you may then post worthwhile suggestions that will go straight to the developers' ears. I have seen several great suggestions there make it into the Firehawk firmware and Firehawk Remote app!

The 1972 Silverface Bass amp has been my mainstay for now with Line 6 4x12 cabinet.

Add me as a Red Lights of Death (RLOD) victim. The setup: Firmware 1.10, FH Remote v1.11. Samsung Tab S 10.5" with 32 GB and Lollipop 5.02. I have not used any borrowed presets from the cloud. The scenario: I used FX Loop in a preset. L-Send to my Korg multi, L-Return from the Korg multi. The preset had Gate, FX Loop, two Auto Swells, Amp/Cab and EQ. This was a new preset I had made and stored in My Tones. The RLOD happened during setup prior to pre-show warmup. I got the RLOD when I tried to switch from this preset to another bank or preset. I had to power-cycle the unit to get back to what looked like normal. It powered to this faulty preset. When I tried again to select another bank or preset, it would RLOD. Each time I power-cycled, Groundhog Day. It cost me five minutes to do a factory reset, pedal calibration and pull down the four presets I needed to use, including the one that had caused RLOD. I removed the send/return FX Loop plugs and re-saved that faulty preset with the FX Loop off. No problems after that. I still used that faulty preset during warmup (FX Loop off), and no RLOD bit me. I stayed away from that preset during performance. Overall time wasted, about 15 minutes. I'm cool headed and know how to recover, but I don't like that I had to go through it. I have read the two KB posts by Line6Tony at http://line6.com/support/page/kb/_/effects-controllers/firehawk/ about recovery and troublshooting. Interesting that bluetooth may play in. The bluetooth link is where FH has caused most other issues for me. Looking forward to a firmware update soon with the bugs fixed.

Yes! Firehawk can get an upright bass out of my five string electric! The best thing about Firehawk is that it has so much variety and flexibility, and the bluetooth remote editor puts it all together so effortlessly. Imagine having a room full of kit, patching and adjusting it all by hand. As with most effects for bass, it really depends on your instrument and how you combine the effects stages. The Firehawk even inspired me to rip the EQ-III preamp and battery out of my bass and jumper the pickups to the bal pot to the vol pot to the jack to go passive. I let Firehawk do all the conditioning now. I published GastronomyDN to Line 6 Cloud, which you can find in Firehawk Remote Tone Search. Let me present my GastronomyDN upright bass "tone", as Line 6 likes to call patch setups, like a no-bake cookie recipe. I'll give you the dry and wet ingredients and basic recipe. I will leave it to you to adjust the proportions to your taste. Get out the dry ingredients: the Gate, 1972 Silverface Bass amp, 4x12 Line 6 cabinet, and semi-parametric EQ. Then gather your wet ingredients: Octave Fuzz HD stomp, Jet Flanger mod, and Phaze Eko delay (optional Chamber reverb). Add them in this order with these relative proportions: Gate, with 100% decay and only enough threshold to cancel out ring and touchiness (-76 dB? I have Bartolini MK-1 pickups). Octave Fuzz HD with no drive, all bass, no mid or treb. Then Jet Flanger, maybe 1/2 mix, 1/3 depth, 2/3 Feedback, and I don't know what Manual does ... try 1/5. Follow with Phaze Eko, keep around 1/4 mix and feedback, 2/9 speed and 4/9 depth. If you like reverb, add it here. Chamber reverb will soften it up to float underneath other instruments (experimental). Amp/Cab is next-to-last, drive/bass/treb/presence at 1/2-ish, mid to 1/9, vol full, and cab sliders to the right (67 mic w/reflections). Use EQ next in line, boost low, squelch the open string harmonics. Note that EQ and Gate go hand-in-hand, even though they are at opposite ends of the chain. I use Vol last on the pedal, max range. Put Delay, Mod, Drive and Reverb on the footswitches (save with Reverb switched off, others on). I assigned one of those Mix sliders, maybe for Phaze Eko, to the FX knob. Can't tell, just looking at remote, not hooked up to Firehawk right now. It adjusts how crisp or chewy the sound turns out. Use your pickup bal as a vintage (bridge) / contemporary (neck) dial. Gets you from the 40s to this century.

Take a look at the Smart Harmony synth. It can octave 8th down or 8th up. Combine with Phaze Eko delay and Phaser mod for character.

Another possibility, if you are willing to consider it, is to use an external expression pedal plugged into the PEDAL 2 jack on the rear panel. This affords much more flexibility than just WAH, as other effects may be assigned to PEDAL 2 as a TWEAK in the editor. See the table in the "Configuring Pedal Functionality" section of the "Firehawk FX User Manual (Rev E)" Pilot's Guide if you are interested in learning how this works with an external expression pedal. Search the PDF version of the manual for "tweak" as a guide to some of the parameters that may be assigned to PEDAL 2. Once you get the hang of using tweaks, you will soon discover many parameters in the editor that may be assigned as a tweak to an external expression pedal.

I knew when I bought the Line 6 FireHawk FX in May 2015 that it is a newly released bleeding-edge product. Being a firmware-based pedal with mobile-app remote control, I anticipate that the initial firmware versions and app versions will be fairly basic - enough to get owners to make use of the product right out of the box. I have done a couple rehearsals and sets with the pedal, and I know I will be very pleased with what it will do for me. I already put on firmware v1.1 and updated the remote app to match. Nice to see the feature additions, and that the Pilot's Guide on line6.com was updated to match. Now, about the documentation. My pedal came with firmware v1.0.1. The Pilot's Guide that came with it is really just 11 pages of quick-start overview, and based on fw v1.0.1. It tells you where to find things on the pedal and in the remote app, and what pushing the pedal's buttons will do. That is all the documentation I got in the box. That's fine. So next I went to search line6.com for a fully detailed User Guide, User Manual, Technical Reference, App Notes, Configuration Guide, How-To Guides, Maintenance and Care Guide, etc. Welcome to Line 6. The Pilot's Guide is the only documentation you will find that is written by Line 6 for the FireHawk FX. FAQ does not count (sorry, Line6Drew). The FAQ is merely a brochure with a couple links to AMPLIFi specs and AMPLIFi Amp/Cab lists. So, rhetorical question here, where is the fully detailed documentation for the FireHawk FX? There is none. I scoured the line6.com web site, and there is no additional documentation written by Line 6 for the FireHawk FX. Line 6 does have a user forum for FireHawk and all their other products too. In fact, it looks like the intention of Line 6 is to avoid documenting the details, and leave it to a community of product users to Q&A each other for tips and tricks. So if I want to learn more about the details of the device and the remote mobile-app, I am left to ask around in the forums to find out what someone else has learned from trial-an-error, experience, or by-golly-I-guessed-right-I-think anecdotal information. I know that Line 6 employees will add a comment here and there, but this all just qualifies as Crowd Sourced Documentation. Really it is more like crowd sourced support. What could Line 6 include in full documentation? Well, to answer this, just go through the FireHawk FX forum, and there will be myriads of questions from owners asking about their pedal. They want to know more about editing, saving and recalling tone patches. They want to know the relationship between the items in the effects chain. They would like to understand what goes on in the individual effects that are available. They want to know how the big jog-wheel/button is used under different circumstances. I'll give just one for-instance here of an item that Line 6 could hire a technical writer for. The 4 Band SemiParametric EQ. We can all look up how a parametric equalizer works if not familiar with the item. But, can we look up how the Line 6 FireHawk FX 4 Band SemiParametric EQ works? If by that I mean can we look up Line 6 supplied documentation about how to use the FireHawk FX 4 Band SemiParametric EQ and understand how the controls will modify your sound, the answer is, "no". As the Romans would say, "off to the Forum"! I will take a stab, not with a pugio but with an example, at showing what Line 6 has not yet documented about this equalizer but should document. The 4-band semi-parametric EQ is based on any regular n-band parametric EQ, but with a piece missing. A parametric EQ lets a user define the low frequency and high-frequency cutoffs, and then lift or drop stretches of frequencies. The cutoffs are called shelves, and the intermediate frequency mods may be called boost and cut, lift and scoop, or peak and valley. These are just ways to adjust the volume of a sound in particular frequency ranges. The low shelf controls the frequency at which sound will start to be amplified. Below that frequency, the volume drops off toward zero. The high shelf does the same, but the control sets the high frequency volume drop-off. Above that frequency, volume drops off toward zero. The two shelves count for two of the bands in the 4 band parametric EQ. The other two bands are settable between low and high shelf settings. There are two of these bands, and this is where the "Semi" meets "Parametric". A regular parametric equalizer provides three controls per frequency band. These are Center Frequency, Gain, and Q. The Center Frequency control selects a frequency to raise or lower amplification around. The amount of amplification up or down is controlled by the Gain control, and is represented in decibels of gain (+/- dB). A +dB gain setting will increase amplification around the selected center frequency, and a -dB setting will decrease amplification around the selected center frequency. Now, about that missing piece of this parametric equalizer, the Q. Parametric EQs allow control of the Q setting for each band to define how wide a frequency range the Gain will influence above and below the band's selected Center Frequency. The FireHawk implementation of the parametric EQ does not provide control over the Q parameter, so it is not a complete parametric equalizer. The EQ band Q setting on the FireHawk is defined by a second-order algorithm that they programmed, and this produces a fixed and unmodifiable behavior of the EQ. The Q is the parameter that controls the frequency spread the band is. On the FireHawk FX SemiParametric EQ, we're not really sure how far below or above the Center Frequency is affected on each EQ band. In fact, the frequency range may vary depending on the Gain setting. A higher +/- Gain setting may pull the tent up higher (up or down), and the sides may stretch out with it. The result is that the user is left more to tweaking in the dark than knowing why a control setting would need adjusted. Line 6, please document Commenters, I gave an example here to demonstrate the need for good documentation. Please let Line 6 follow up and provide complete documentation for this product. Do not try to use this topic to add full documentation for them. Rather, use this topic to encourage Line 6 on our desire to have them support their products better through documentation instead of crowd-sourced support forums. Hey, if I 'documented' anything wrong in this post, then that is just more the reason that Line 6 should be providing full documentation of all the features in their products.

I am using Amp Output Mode to feed my bass to the FOH mixer rack directly - L/R 1/4" outs to dual channel direct-box. We're fortunate to have a beefy mixer rack to our Allen&Heath with inputs to spare. Really cuts down the hiss! Our stage has wedge monitors for the vocalists. All the instruments are mixed to IEMs for each instrumentalist. No amps onstage means a higher shelf for feedback to occur, and also keeps it clean looking. The final mix from the mains goes to the line arrays and subs that are out and away.