Astaroth_CY

I think the refresh is a good thing. What I'm criticizing is the way Line6 decided to market it - they shouldn't have marketed it at all. It just makes it look like they've put in substantial research and development into this when in fact I'd estimate it took about a couple of hours to just change the production order to include the new processor instead of the old one. Most of the work would presumably have gone into the package design and marketing around it, which is absurd. You could even say the same about the HD500X. SLightly more substantial changes there but in the grand scheme of things it probably took very little time and effort to develop.

Most companies would not even have mentioned the product refresh, would not even have given it the X designation. They would have just started producing the new version under the same model number and gradually replaced the older one with it. It's so insubstantial. This is not a new product no matter how much you try to wring it out that way, Line6.

Did you do a settings reset? Save your tone bundle through HD Edit and reset to factory settings. Restore your tone bundle and make sure your settings are correct, e.g. you are using the correct output mode (Amp, Direct, etc.).

Yes, you will only send the guitar signal out, and will get each channel in each ear on your headphones, because that's how you panned them. The headphone jack replicates the panning that you set. You'll just have to make sure that Path A and Path B are perfectly separated all the way across the chain in all your tones so that you don't apply any effects or amplification to Path B. I actually never thought of this before, but you could assign Path B's Level parameter to a pedal controller, and adjust your own mix without having to have the sound guy do it for you! Also, of course this set up means that you can never use dual amps/dual cabs, or stereo effects. You could always buy a small 4-channel mixer and connect everything so that you're still able to end up with the same In Ear mix while using both Pod outputs and the XLR coming from the PA board.

Yes, read the top of this page.

Carrot-dangling is what I'm criticizing here. Unless the Experts have concrete information to convey to us, such as an update release date or a list of expected changes, they shouldn't bother doing this. I've expressed my satisfaction in response to the news that X updates will roll out to legacy owners like me, but firstly, there is no guarantee they won't run into issues and backpedal on that, and secondly, there is no timeline whatsoever. The update could come tomorrow, or it could come in 2015, or it could never come because L6 will decide to take all their developers off the HD500 and have them focus entirely on the next gen that is surely already in development. That will probably be decided by the X's sales figures. If nobody buys this thing, why would they bother updating it?

Actually, to be precise, it looks the same and has the same specs, but it has a brighter and slightly elongated LED. I'm sure it still flies off the socket if you sneeze at it though.

I think it's interesting that, when convenient, the X is either "not a new model, just an update", or "a new model".

Don't hold your breath. Just assume there will be no more updates, ever.

Progressively build identical patches on both until you hit the DSP limit in one machine, then continue on the other until you hit the limit on that one as well. Do this with various configurations, e.g. start off with two amps and add on tube screamers, or start off with one amp and add on pitch shifters, or no amps and add on '63 reverbs.

I run 100W per channel through two 10" 8-ohm two-ways and if I turned up my volume past 50% I think it might cause an earthquake.

Bigger cone means nothing if the speaker is crap. Pay more attention to the quality of the speaker and the cabinet more than just the size. Also, I'm not suire if by "juice" you mean volume, that is of course not related to the size of the speaker but the speaker's impedance (which relates to its efficiency) and your amp's wattage, and "more headroom" can easily also mean "more frequencies you need to worry about cutting".

10" will carry guitar just fine, but if you play 7-string or drop tunings then a 12" will help bring out your low end a bit. However, it also means your low end flab will come out more and you will clash with the bass more.

Could you please provide the sources of information you have for: - what processor the HD500 has - what clock speed the HD500X is running at This could be significant. If it's literally just an overclock of the same exact processor, HD500s could be easily overclocked with a firmware update to match the same DSP power.

Ah, never mind then. I remembered that leaked ad as if it was official. I retract my previous statement.

Line6 needs to provide actual evidence that it is in fact DOUBLE the processing power or they are in some deep lollipop with regards to false advertising... EDIT: Nevermind, remembered a leaked unofficial ad as official.

This. A lot of people have been suggesting new models or some quite drastic changes. I think that before Line 6 even considers doing any of those, they NEED to fix all this obvious stuff, especially considering that all the hard work has already been done for them!!!

Bands should EQ as a band. Ideally you would assign the most sonically adept person to man (or woman) the mixing board and balance/EQ everyone out. But, a good starting point for individual EQing is for the guitars to apply that high pass filter and that mid-range voice scoop, and for the bass to TURN THE DAMN THING DOWN. So, the answer to your question is both!

You won't really ever be able to make space for a keyboard because they usually cover such a wide range of sounds and frequencies. At that point it's just not playing over each other, or when you do it, make sure it sounds good. To add to Rewolf48's comment, I do think it's possible to have multiple guitars and a keyboard running a similar-ish sound and playing the same note if you want to strongly accentuate a note or create a "stark" soundstage for the drums to counter. However, I agree that this should be used sparsely, and if you are going to do it, get someone who isn't in the band to watch you practice and tell you whether it sounds good. I find that I like bands that layer sounds all over the spectrum to create the "wall of sound" effect such as Devin Townsend or Minus The Bear, but also enjoy hearing the intensity of doubled-up or tripled-up notes such as you often hear in American Metal or some unison solo runs in Prog Metal. Iron Maiden are a good example of combining both approaches to good effect, although sometimes I do kinda wish Janick would retire because his leads are frustratingly pointless.

Wait, seriously, you can hit the DSP limit on the X that easily? What a total joke.

Use the DEP Low Cut parameter, set it accordingly to whatever effect you are using in order to make room for bass while still allowing your tone to have low end body. Basically just tinker with it until the "boominess" goes away but it still sounds good with decent low end. Do this on a FRFR PA (ideally the one you will be playing through!) or else you're wasting your time. Alternatively you can use the mid focus EQ as a high pass filter, but personally I dislike it - look up meambobbo's guide on using it. To get out of the way of the singer's voice, I suggest you actually get a spectrum analyzer set up on a laptop (I suggest http://www.artalabs.hr/) and get your singer to sing a typical song. Look at the spectrum profile and see where their "natural" frequency lies (basically this would be a frequency somewhere in the mids for a male, high mids for female, and it would be the one that sticks out most prominently. you'll see lots of peaks, those are harmonics, go with the strongest one). Stick a parametric EQ at the end of your signal chain and scoop this out, once again scoop out enough so that it will leave room for voice but not cripple your tone, find the sweet spot. Even better if you are able to direct whoever is controlling the PA to scoop that frequency out for you, again you will need to optimize this BEFORE the gig. This is all stuff that takes a lot of work and you will need to re-do this often, but it makes a massive difference. The sound of a guitar, a bass, and a voice fighting for frequency space through one PA is very ugly.

Just keep in mind that the options you stated are just mono speakers so you're forfeiting the ability to have stereo effects. If your band is running front monitors then you'll also need to run to a monitor. Remember you can use both the line and XLR outputs simultaneously on the Pod. If the other guys aren't running front monitors then you won't need to either, although having played gigs both with and without monitoring, through miked and unmiked amps and direct to PA, you really can't beat direct to PA with your signal fed back to a front monitor. Takes full advantage of the Pod and you can actually hear stuff on stage.

Instead of spending a ton of money on a DT-25 or a really expensive active speaker, consider a small PA (powered mixer/speaker combo). This is the one I got: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Phonic-Powerpod-820---S710-PA-Package-502577-i1469199.gc You can find it even cheaper used (mine was $250 with pro coverage). Runs true stereo (unlike most small PAs around this price range), speakers sound great (and you can always buy better ones later), and has a really nice mixer on it.

Ugh, I was hoping they wouldn't do that. That's totally unnecessary.

Well, in my hands anyway and a few others who chimed in when I posted this back on the old forum, the Vintage Pre is useless because all it does is distort the signal. The only way to not have distortion is to have it at near zero gain, in which case it isn't preamplifying anything. On a couple of occasions I've asked for people to post their settings with the Pre if they've made a successful tone with it but haven't seen any yet. As for the synth-o-matic, it is just so erratic and near impossible to get it to sound good. There was a recent discussion about it. Once again, if you have a good tone that uses it to generate a synth sound, please post it. I'm confused. Isn't that exactly what I've done? That IS a list of items I personally find objectionable. That isn't a copy and paste, I wrote all of it. It's not my fault if it's a long list, there's that many issues! Coming up with a laundry list of fixes we'd like to see is exactly what this thread is about, so I really don't understand what you're saying. And yes, everyone would like more amp models, but that's clearly distinct from actual PROBLEMS with the thing. And, btw, you should use dual amps/cabs, it's great. If you use effects only, sell your Pod and get an M13.