dakrystal

It seems redundant to use another interface when the hardware is already present here

I get that and i have another couple of interfaces... But... Why? Why would they give it to you on one bit of kit and not another?

Ah ok. Im not using it for this at all. I use it as a zero latency recording and monitoring solution for guitar and Vocals. I do a lot of live performance with a DAW. relying on third party audio software is highly taxing on the system and causes great latency. This solves that. And... Sounds really good. And allows me to record with Fx Pre or post recording. It would be really smart for Line 6 to take a nod from Ableton and Native Instruments and implement full Midi integration\control. I see a lot of guys including yourself saying they want to see the DAW be able to change patches in the Pod. for me it would be much more advantageous to be able to send midi cc from the pedalboard to say... Ableton to engage recording, or activate the looper in Ableton. or to Control a Plugin Via Midi like Guitar rig or... LINE 6 Plugins!!! That's Right! You cant use midi from the board to do anything outside the board!? I'm almost certain they fixed this in Helix (could be wrong) but they don't do a firmware upgrade to the 500x. Why not? It's really kind of appalling!?

If you are talking about sending CC info from the computer to the Pod to cahnge a preset, It cannot do that ( why would you want to do that? )

the picture above alsows shows that my computer sees the midi ports on the POD. I can now connect a midi KB and send CC info to the computer

The Pod cannot function in this manner, unfortunately.

And understand It gives the computer Midi interface over USB

Guru, I believe you are just misinformed. Please refer to the picture I have posted of my MIDI Preferences panel in Live. Also Please refer to Page 9 Section 9 of the Pod HD500x Manual. The Section is USB audio, The sub-section is MIDI. I have Provided a picture of this also. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cr2tjm-3JT5LH-ui8pwRHQjrKbSQh1gI/view?usp=sharing

Your Pod is an Audio (and Midi) USB interface. Capable of 32 bit @ 96K. With Zero Latency input monitoring... And built in DSP ( you can record audio into your DAW without a delay and have effects on, or off and add them after the fact. )

Just to be clear all Midi capability of the POD as a controller (using the POD as a midi controller for Pod software or third party software) is done via usb you then can also use the midi interface on the pod to control or recieve control from whatever external Midi devices. But all midi communication between the pod and the Computer happen via USB when connected (audio too) :)

You can eliminate The Audio soundcard you are using because going USB from Pod to computer gives you a much higher audio quality ( 32 Bit @ 96K ) over the Spdif cable ( 24 bit @ 48K ) you also lose the midi control

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XVibpEoYhnQU3gutncKZIWR6vLC-VQ1F/view?usp=sharing

The HD500x shares audio and Midi I\O over USB. Go into reaper and select POD HD500x as an ASIO device you can now add Midi to your computer via the POD. All midi to and from the POD and Computer happen over the USB cable. The computer now uses the PODs Midi connectivity as well. It is the USB audio\Midi interface doesn't need a redundant one in between.

The Pod must be on in order to use it for anything

This thread is so cattywompus. let me see if I can set things straight... I take issue with a lot of what I read here but I want to address this post in particular. This unit is extremely ROBUST with feature and functionality. And it seems like you all are using it inefficiently. Guru you first mention that the initial problem with using the HD500x as an interface is that it needs to be on to hear any sound. This is true of any device. To hear said device it needs to be on. I use my Pod as an external playback device in Windows too. No issue as the Pod runs independently from the computer through the same master bus. And you can easily switch between playback devices within windows so you CAN very much multi task audio with this unit as an Audio Interface. You then mention there are other Audio interfaces that connect to your computer via USB (which is how this one connects to your computer...) Which have other goodies such as midi ports? These comments are extremely strange as the Pod HD500X is a USB audio Interface with Midi port goodies on it. yes you are terribly wrong. Yes you can have the Pod receive Midi from your Host sequencer... But the beauty of the pod Is that you can do the exact opposite. Connecting the Pod via USB allows your DAW to do the following. Use the Hardware I\O on the pod as its own hardware interface ( this includes midi ). Now what's so important about this is that when you record audio into a computer you're faced with latency. The pod does two things to triumph this obstacle. First it offers Zero latency input monitoring. This means you can hear the input in real time with no delay of the computer processing. 2. HD onboard DSP. you can record with HD effects with Zero latency into your DAW. If you use a software like ableton live this becomes extremely useful as a live performance tool. letting you record high resolution guitar and vocals with high definition models of amps and effects of everything from guitar rigs to $4000 opto leveling compressors. Although you very much can go digital out into a separate audio interface that's not what the spdif out was designed for. That's a highly inefficient use of the hardware. The spdif out was intended for use with high end digital PA systems like the BOSE that offers digital input. Adding more items to a signal chain makes that signal chain as venerable as its lowest quality part. This unit is extremely versatile. From a PA head to a guitar pedalboard, amp modeler, guitar preamp, vocal Preamp, Audio\Midi interface\Soundcard, Midi controller. its quite a bit to wrap your head around but once you do... its a vital component for any guitarist.