lou-kash

In Global Settings > Preferences make sure to set EXP/FS Tip to FS4 and EXP/FS Ring to FS5. If it's set to EXP1/2, the switches won't work because the Stomp logically expects an expression pedal. Other than that, the Ampero Switch is a rock solid device that just works.

Das tönt zimlech schwyzerisch… :)

Meanwhile I have updated the Stomp to 3.80 using my MacBook Air running Ventura. All good, no issues. Back on the MacBook Pro running El Capitan, the Stomp v3.80 is still fully usable and even editable via HX Edit 3.70, just without the new amps/cabs/fx, as expected. Presets with new blocks will appear blank, so just make sure you don't overwrite those blocks when editing something else. Line 6 Updater v1.28 will recognize the device as well and offer the previously available firmware versions up to 3.71. So a downgrade should be still possible on unsupported MacOS (I haven't tested it!)

Probably by the same method as on unsupported MacOS: download the actual firmware file for offline use use the Line 6 Updater app to upload it to your device

Definitely! Neither have I. At the moment I'm only playing an acoustic upright bass, and all I need on my Stomp for that is a parametric EQ and a gentle noise gate. If I need the Stomp at all, that is… (In fact, all I need for band rehearsals at the moment is an "antique" Boss GE-10 EQ and an old powered Yamaha 12" PA box ;)

HX Edit 3.80 now requires MacOS Catalina, so if you have to update a device using an older Mac, you'd need Line 6 Updater. See:

So do I. But I'm actually trying to do more editing directly on the Stomp anyway so that I'm not totally lost when using it on stage… Yeah, that sucks if you don't have any Mac that can boot Catalina or higher. I've been keeping my old Macs at El Capitan for a reason, of course: Compatibility with "obsolete" Firewire audio interfaces. M-Audio FW410 from 2003 (!) runs only with some user-hacked drivers on El Capitan, but it continues to work after 21 years. Alesis iO26 works even up to Catalina but the software only up to Mojave because it's 32-bit only. On the other hand, last year I bought the Roland Octa-Capture to have an 8-channel USB interface compatible with Apple Silicon. A brilliant interface! And not only does Roland still keep its drivers up to date, they have drivers compatible back to OS 10.4 Tiger; hey that's from… 2005! (Heck, I still have a working PowerBook G4 that can run Tiger and Leopard) Summed up, El Capitan is exactly the sweet spot where I can do multitrack recording with four audio interfaces bundled as an Aggregate Device: iO26, FW410, Octa-Capture, and HX Stomp. That makes 18 XLR inputs, plus the 4 jack inputs from the Stomp. I expect the Stomp should still work as a USB interface on unsupported OS. If not, I'd simply downgrade back to v3.71. There's nothing in v3.80 that I need. (I wonder if they fixed the bug I have reported…?) I don't know, I'm not a software developer. It's just a "quarter-educated" guess based on my three and a half decades of intrepid poking into software directories that an average Mac user should usually leave alone.

Not necessarily. They just may have to resort to the slightly tedious and potentially risky manual process using the Line 6 Updater: I haven't tested it though so proceed at your own risk…

Yep, no go on El Capitan, requires Catalina. The reason being that according to its Info.plist file, v3.80 has been compiled under MacOS Sequoia Big Sur so the backward compatibility has shifted. Whereas last year's v3.70 was compiled under Catalina which is why it still was "inofficially" compatible with El Capitan, and theoretically even back to Mountain Lion according to its Info.plist (I didn't test it). Still, my old MacBook Pro mid-2012 can boot Catalina. So HX Edit 3.80 will still run on a 12 years old machine. Only my even older MBP 2008 – which usually serves as my mobile multitrack recording studio – is out of luck… Oh well, that's life. :D Now… to put things in the right perspective: Apple has just released the Logic Pro 11.1 update these days. Guess what the requirements are? Sonoma! And I'm out of luck here because I won't upgrade my MacBook Air running Ventura – an OS that's only two years old! – anytime soon. :/

"10.15" = Catalina Also, from the HX Edit download page: For what it's worth, HX Edit v3.70 still runs even on El Capitan although unsupported. So I'll check v3.80 for El Capitan compatibility soon.

Is it? Yes, I use it for guitars and basses. Of course. But I also use it in Logic Pro on Aux busses e.g. PolyPitch as a stereo doubler, or the Hot Springs reverb, or the RetroReel on the master bus. Now, Logic has enough great plugins built in, so that Native is not necessarily "essential". But if I were using another DAW I would likely make use of Native way more often.

Yes. Knob 1 on my Stomp has this issue since a year or two, sometimes making huge jumps back and forth, regardless the speed I'm rotating it. It takes some patience to dial the intended value, e.g. when using the parametric EQ where I want to use a specific frequency band. I haven't tried to fix it yet because I don't edit parameters directly on the Stomp very often. But I may try the aforementioned DeoxIT D5 to see if it helps Also, footswitches 2 and 3 are beginning to react slightly erratically, so those are also candidates for a contact cleaning attempt.

What type of contact spray are you using? Just recently I've discussed similar pot issues with a few engineers, and they strongly advised against the sole use of "classic" sprays à la WD-40 or Kontakt 60, exactly because the "fix" is only temporary. While one of them uses WD-40 for actual cleaning, afterwards he also applies a self-mixed fluid to lubricate the contact surface (I forgot which components he's using though). Another engineer recommends DeoxIT D5 as the only effective contact spray for this kind of cleaning, which is what I bought a few weeks ago and started to use it. As such though, I can't provide any 1st-hand experience yet.

Last Saturday I went to a gig with just my bass and the HX Stomp. The Stomp went straight to the PA via TRS-to-XLR adapter, and the sound guy feeded the sound back to the stage monitors. That was all. I haven't had such a clear and transparent bass sound on stage in a long time. Perfect. But as always, your mileage may vary, depending on the venue, the sound guy, and the music style you're playing. Other times I'm usually taking an SWR Workingman's 12 combo as my stage monitor, using only its FX return = power amp input. (Zdravím do Teplic, občas tam jezdím za kamarády z kapely Aku-Aku. :)

… the piezo pickup in my old acoustic bass guitar which the previous owner implemented the wrong way so that it now sounds like crap… Yes, sometimes things are so "fundamentally wrong" that the best way to fix it is by taking unconventional measures. For the above case, apart from the parametric EQ for finetuning, I have used the Multiband Compressor to radically suppress the frequence range that I don't want to be there. It works.

In Logic, you can also non-destructively increase the region gain using either the Gain tool or the Region Inspector.

Haha… ^ strike that. As of 3.71 I'm back at SVT-4. It's simply the most flexible amp simulation in there. It. Just. Works. That said, in the meantime I've been rather experimenting with various cab/mic blocks, and mic positions. All this makes a massive difference on a "good" (depending on one's taste) bass sound. But it should be fine tuned via a PA.

^ This might be the culprit. As noted above, creating an aggregate device via the Audio MIDI Setup app is the safer method, likely because (based on my "quarter-educated guess") the MacOS takes care of syncing both devices at the system level before even Logic has to deal with it. For what it's worth, I've been using the Stomp with Logic as part of aggregate devices for four years now, mostly without any issues. My recording setups include a 15" MacBook Air M2 with Roland OctaCapture as the second interface, but also a 2008 (!) MacBook Pro with a 2009 (!) Alesis and a 2003 (!!!) M-Audio Firewire interfaces as part of my aggregate device setup. It works.

Yes, Strats or any other single coil guitars have a relatively low output signal, compared e.g. to guitars with humbucker pickups. As I said: simply put the Gain plugin on top of the FX chain of the Logic track and add 10 dB to it. That's how I proceed all the time, whether I'm recording guitars or basses via the Stomp, or via my other interfaces using mics. Because the absolutely last thing I want is a digitally clipped signal that I can't fix. -20 dBFS is fine and doesn't do any harm whatsoever. :)

As long as you record in 24-bit, you can absolutely stop caring whether your signal level is "too low" or not. You can always crank it up with the Gain plugin in Logic, or any other plugin that has a Gain/Volume parameter. That aside, the unprocessed output level is "low" for a reason: When I slap my bass, especially with some active preamp EQ setting on the bass itself, I can quite easily reach something like -6 dBFS peaks in Logic. That's anything else but "low".

Never observed anything like that when using the Stomp and working with Logic. But on the other hand, I have also deliberately disabled USB MIDI in the Stomp Global Preferences, just to make sure it's never interfering…

I've been using my HX Stomp as a 4-channel mixer for an acoustic guitar, acoustic bass and two vocal mics already. No other devices involved, apart from a power amp and a speaker. It is possible, albeit admittedly awkward to set up, as I only have two paths on the Stomp, so each instrument/mic pair needs to be lined up in series, i.e. some settings will affect both at the same time. But… it's manageable because the Stomp has 4 analog inputs. Looking at the Helix LT specs, you have only 3 analog inputs (plus 1 digital Variax input), so you would have to combine two of your channels into one.

For the record… Yep, that's on a 16 years old Mac! Now rewind 16 years back to 2008 and imagine what you could do then with a 16 years old Mac from around 1992… (well, I even still have one from this era, a Macintosh LC475…)

Although officially unsupported, the most recent Helix Native version 3.71 still works on El Capitan, on a 16 years old Mac, nota bene: (I've actually updated this Mac to Native v3.71 only a few minutes ago, after noticing I still had "only" v3.60 installed. Silly me… :)

In theory, you could activate the unmuted tuner via MIDI while muting the guitar path only at the same time. I haven't tested this, so it's just a "thought experiment" that may – or may not – work on my HX Stomp.