Mincer

Providing downloadable presets either by L6 or the artists (not crowdsourced by us) themselves seems like the easiest thing to do over the life of the device. Most likely both endorsed artists and L6 have a few patches to spare (even if it isn't their absolute best ones) and would provide these free (no new programming! no opening up legacy code!) to satisfy the 'you forgot about us' crowd. For companies I am/have been involved with, I absolutely had to provide demos, written material, patches, etc as part of my artist agreement. I can't believe L6 doesn't require that kind of stuff from its artists.

My guess is that making that deadline was more important than sqashing any bugs, rolling out X and non-X updates at the same time, sending accurate email notification, posting accurate facebook notification, providing release notes and adding an updated manual. Yeah, users could 'figure this out on their own' but I got caught up in the webpage loop trying to find info about the update (no release notes) and it kept leading me back to the HD home page. They have rolled out updates flawlessly in the past, but this one smacks of a rushing, skeleton crew that has more important things to do than roll this out correctly.

They never came out with additional presets (artist or otherwise) since the beginning, so I doubt they would start now. You'd think that a condition of endorsement that an artist should have to contribute, say, 10 patches. Nope, nothin.

In the US, the average price for the stock power supply is $40-$50. This is absurd. It is cheaply made (I am on my second) and I refuse to buy any more. I have never had to replace my power supplies on any other gear, either.

A rotovibe has a lopsided sweep, and I don't think there is anything on the HD that can nail that sound. Their Leslie sounds are not very good either.

Not only is it not stereo, but they included parameters for loop volume and loop feedback, but made no way to control these parameters with the expression pedal. Who would have thought people might want these parameters constantly variable?

I'm afraid I might be out too. The model packs don't interest me, and I had the HD since right after it came out. It was used on several releases and hundreds of live shows. I don't play metal, and own a Variax Acoustic, M9 and DL4 too. It isn't that the HD doesn't sound good...it can, although it takes lots of tweaking to get it right. I find I can get a much better, more open and dynamic sound faster with my M9 and a Tech 21 Fly Rig 5. I have replaced the adapter for the HD twice ( total is about $100 for the replacements!?!), and while the HD is built like a tank, the adapter is not. No more investing in the HD...no more hoping the looper gets expression pedal control (apparently that is impossible, although possible on the M series and DL4). I will miss powering the Variax, but that is what batteries are for. Most likely I will sell the M9 and HD and put it towards an FX8. The FX8/Fly Rig combo should be a great one when I need to go direct.

I have used it with the M9, but not the HD500. I love it with the M9. The gain staging on the HD500 is so weird though. I am sure it would sound great, you just would have to worry about distortion on the input. The resonance switch would work the same, though.

Ki own the SD pickup booster above, and while the HD can do the "boost" thing, it can't quite get the resonance switch thing. It lowers the resonant frequency of the pickups, so single coils sound more like humbuckers. There really isn't an eq on the HD that does the same thing.

I will agree that IdeaScale probably is used for future products more than current ones. Under 'effects processors', there is one idea (for sturdier switches) that was released. In the few years (?) that I looked at IdeaScale to see if *any* ideas for *any* effects processors were implemented, we have only one out of almost 1000 ideas. Of course it is easy to feel cynical about the HD- it might not be technically 'dead' but there is a whole lot more that is given priority for the last 2 years. BTW, last year's NAMM we were strung along a bit too, so it is hard to not be cynical about that either. I own a few other pieces of L6 gear (M9/13, DL4, Acoustic Variax) and while I will be at NAMM too, I am hoping I don't leave the L6 booth shaking my head.

The EOL-ness for the POD HD isn't the same as updates though. As time goes on, (and 2 years since the last update that didn't just fix bugs), there is less of a chance there will be anything substantial added, and more of a chance the manpower will go into developing something new.

HD owners were pretty disappointed at last winter's NAMM.

Not only can the M13/9 do it, but my old DL4 can. There is even a 'loop volume' parameter in the HD, but no way to assign it to an expression pedal. No idea how that one slipped through, but a lot of looping guitarists that love the DL4 and M series thought they hit the jackpot with the HD, but quickly returned to their old pedals. BTW, I brought this issue up in 2010 when I first got the HD, it never appeared in any update. I have been told various things like "it might make the next update" and "we aren't going to open the code of the HD500, as it might break something else- the people who did that don't work here anymore". Who knows. But I don't use my HD as much as I thought I would. Because. of. this.

I think that is how Amplifi and Customtone is structured, although they are user patches. This thread is about firmware updates and how every other device on the market gets them, but Line6 doesn't. Then Line6 comes back and says 'Yes, we are not done with the HD', although from the outside, it seems they are. Artist patches, which don't have to be from the artists themselves but programmed by the engineers on;y cost a small time investment. They probably already have several. This would keep people from jumping ship or thinking that their purchase was abandoned.

Many multi effects/preamps come with artist patches. You ask the artist for them in exchange for the gear. My point is that this doesn't take up engineering resources. It is a good stop gap until the 'just wait till you see what we have cooking' updates happen. :/

Can artist set lists be that hard to implement? I hear that Steve Howe still,uses an HD500, and there has to be more. Have any artist set lists ever been released?

It falls short on live use for me because you can't control the volume of the loop with the EDP pedal. Even my DL4 and M9 can do that.

I think the frustration is that there have been 29 released solutions according to IdeaScale, and most of those are not for the HD. After hundreds of submissions, weekly update emails from IdeaScale for a few years, and the last solution being from 8 months ago, it is easy to see that it looks like from the outside that the focus is more on other things. I think it is great that more updates or solutions will be available to us HD users, but i think you could easily see how many people could think that it was abandoned or re-prioritized. A lot has happened with L6 since the HD came out which leads to further frustration.

Does anyone know how many were implemented? I am talking an actual number, and which ones they are. Not what they are working on, and not what "might" come out, and I don't care about a future product that I don't own. I get emails every week from IdeaScale (seems like 2 years). Understanding how it works, as research for current and future products, I would just like to know what features made it into the HD500 over the last few years directly from crowd sourced suggestions.

Just as a question...since IdeaScale was implemented, how many of those suggestions made it into the current HD firmware?

While I am not bored with the HD500, I did find a better tool for the job (in a setup that includes an M9), and by better, I mean lighter, faster, easier to tweak and generally sounding better- a lot better- when I use IEMs live. I keep the HD for recording, and I am still curious about the development of the HD as I use it for $. Threads like this, and the weekly IdeaScale emails I get...can be frustrating, and I am not alone as I can see. I appreciate thoughtful comments by those who work for L6, though, because in the end, we all want a better product.

Yet these types of threads continue across forums, because an amp added 'a couple of years ago' seems pretty meek compared to the rate in which products used to be updated by L6 and products/features added to high-end digital gear by other companies. Hey, I really am not beating up on L6, but come on, you have to agree that the radio silence for a few years would pinch a few panties. Every week, we get an update email for IdeaScale, and I stopped clicking on the link because week after week, it looks like nothing is done. I know it was explained how you go over every suggestion, and how some can cause problems, but unless you are reading this thread, it looks like it is being ignored. There, that wasn't that hard. :)

I don't know if I'd call Line6 'Constantly improving their products', in the way, say other digital companies do. There are dozens and dozens of posts from people in other forums who bought the HD500, made suggestions, and haven't seen any of them implemented. Sure, we go back to the 'you bought what you bought' argument, but in the end, it is L6 that loses. While I still own my POD, I got a better basic sound faster with a newer product that is 1/3rd the size and half the cost. From the outside, it looked like the PODHD started great, then L6 lost some key people, had limited resources, and then decided to focus on newer products rather than the old. This is fine, but to ignore many people who complain about the lack of responses to customer feedback (try the new IdeaScale: this time we are REALLY listening!) and turning the obvious expectation back on the customer (know what you are buying, next time, pal) doesn't make me confident in the future.

But what if there are small, annoying things that were never implemented, like the ability to copy or paste settings in software or the lack of expression pedal control of volume for the looper. The m9 and dl4 had it, but not the flagship product. With other companies constantly improving their products, and forums full of people complaining about this exact thing, why pick L6 next time? I don't understand defending the lack of updates, saying that everyone who complains should know better. Funny thing is, I think now we all do.

The answer is kind of weak, as almost every digital product we use on a daily basis gets updated regularly. Either a company crowd sources ideas to sort through and implement, or they have people in house to do it regularly. Windows and iOS users never just 'get what you paid for' as they are updated as technology and Better Ways of Doing Things evolve. The reason users expect it is that we live with this idea that in the Digital Age, everything evolves. Line6 even crowd sources presets, and doesn't even offer additional artist set lists periodically, which wouldn't require any code unpacking. Let's face it, in computer terms, 4 or 5 years is old. Most of us don't use phones that old, so we can't be blamed when we spend money on a digital product touting to be revolutionary yet only is actually revolutionary on the day you buy it. I have plenty of analog pedals and amps and happily got what I paid for. I don't think you can throw an HD500 in the same catagory.