magpie

Rlblues, of course we can bypass the POD's IR cabs since many years way back in several POD models. It works perfectly to do that and load up your favorite IR's in the DAW and get the exact tones we want, not being restricted with a handful of stock IR's. I've done so for many years since the XT model I think. Gear is fun and sometimes I still use my HD desktop when not at home, also using software amp sims and I have recently moved from an axe fx 2 to a kemper profiler. By your replies it seems to me that you're not in any of these groups that I mentioned earlier, users who: -always use their own made IR's from their own guitar cabs. -only use third party IR's. -like doing eq tone matching IR's & exactly copy guitar tones from songs & recordings with DAW eq matching software like Ozone. Jay Mitchell's replies to mr logidy in post #111 contains many good points and mentions the inexperience of many users not knowing much about IR's at all. http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1392604&page=8 The biggest mistake is to buy that logidy pedal and only use the stock IR's. Instead load in your favorite IR's = endless of tone options. Again Line6 shouldn't focus on convincing those who never use any external IR's and are just fine with the few stock IR's and don't care much about it. Their goal should be to tap into the user group of all those who are mentioned in the list above who already have good knowledge about IR's. To that group loadable IR's is extremely important and a powerful feature that is 100% needed to get the desired tones.

Digital_Igloo, thanks for discussing this and I hope Line6 listens. There's a big world outside of this forum and if Line6 implemented support for IR loading it would be an enormous step up in competitive feature power and a win win for both Line6 and the consumers. The line6 forum might not the best place to ask about the IR features since it's the consumers on other forums that use other products that is your biggest target here who really use IR's. Ask the question and a start a poll on TGP and it will be answered! Line6 develops great products in the most competitive price range market where +95% of users can afford a product. Yes, the vast majority of average users will never know much about recording or the big importance of IR's, but the majority of pro's or educated hobbyists do use IR's in DAW or hardware and know how important they are. Cab IR's are far more important for the tone result than amp models since IR's offers almost unlimited tonesculpting. With IR loading implemented in the PODs the average joe can skip this feature and continue playing with stock IR's like before, but Line6 have now tapped into the market of users who; -always use their own made IR's from their own guitar cabs. -only use third party IR's. -like doing eq tone matching IR's & exactly copy guitar tones from songs & recordings with DAW eq matching software like Ozone. Notice that later this year the Atomic/studiodevil Amplifire desk/floor unit will be released with IR loading feature and several threads about it on the fractal forum have been deleted. Unfortunately Fractal are notorious for censoring posts/threads and ban members on regular basis that mention competitive products. Fractal knows the Amplifire will take some users from them because of the IR loading feature. It makes perfect sense for Line6 to implement this lower cost feature that is the most powerful feature for creating great guitar tones. It would be a good consumer boost for the Line6 company. Regarding IR resolution & sample lenghts. Several tests show extremely small differences (if any) comparing Hi and normal res Ir's and most can't hear any difference in blind tests. I'd suggest get the most common used resolution and lenghts, no need to go hi res at all. I don't care about the hyped Ultra res in the axe fx at all after comparing. The ultra res boarders to be false marketing, created as a closed format that can be markeded and it's proven by Jay Mitchell to have less resolution, unlike the marketing claims. He knows more than most about IRs and speakers.