mattbarden

I'm having this same issue with the usb firmware update on my 500X. At least I know it's a problem on Line 6's end and not mine now though.

There doesn't seem to be a download for the USB firmware itself, I see flash, edit and all that stuff but the one I need isn't there. Is it a subcatagory of one of the other selections by chance?

I just got the 500X and was able to update the flash but when I try to update the USB firmware from 1.01 to 1.04 it keeps giving me errors saying "0xfd from server - Internal server error" and to retry but keeps coming back with the same thing. Once in a while it tells me I am disconnected from the server too. I have everything registered and authorized. Any help?

Really appreciate all the help and suggestions, you have no idea how much this helps! As a guy who's only background in music was being a vocalist it has been a HUGE undertaking to learn all the necessary instruments and equipment for what I want to do, which is your good old fashion metal! Along the lines of Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, Ozzy and the likes. It's been about 7 years now and for one guy to learn from the ground up how to play guitar, bass, digital drumming on midi keyboards, running DAW's, mixing, mastering etc I'd like to think I've done pretty well thus far but there is still much to be learned. If only there were other musicians in my area that shared my musical goals...man would that make life easier! I can't even begin to explain how long it's taken just to be happy with my primary sounds, I've tried so many different pieces of gear it's unreal. Line 6 has been great for an apartment dweller who can't use loud tube amps and I'm really happy with the HD series. I have the original HD500 now, I used to have the XTL, X3L and tried countless competitor's products too but they always came up short for me. Toontrack's Metal Machine has also been a godsend, big props to Sneap and Tempesta on that one! Again, thank you so much for the help, you're all awesome!

Thanks for the tips all! I had made a similar post in Reaper's forums a while back and signed in after I made this post to find someone responded and recommended trying Acoustica's Mixcraft and just loading the VST's that come with it into Reaper. I've been toying around with the demo for a few hours and honestly their sound bank isn't too bad for the price of admission.It definitely lacks a bit in adjustment options inside of Reaper but they don't sound too bad out of the box. You do get a few other goodies too like, eq's, compressors, limiters and so on. I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on it but I'm curious if anyone else has had any long term use with their plugins? I'm hoping they could tide me over until I can justify the price of the full version of Kontakt, which is my dream plugin. Any thoughts/actual user based experience? Thanks again!

First off, I love Reaper. With it I find myself using Protools less and less. I wasn't even aware of it until a few years ago poking around the forums here. I've been learning how to use it ever since and it's been working great for me, plus the price is excellent! The only thing I really use Protools for anymore is crafting ochestral sounds since Reaper has none of these built in. I'd honestly like to sell off all my Protools stuff and just use my POD HD as an interface with Reaper to simplify and streamline things. Does anybody know any good cheap (or even free) VST's for these sorts of things? I know KVR Audio has a slew of free stuff but there is so much to sort through. The only add-on VST I have in Reaper currently is my EZDrummer with the Metal Machine expansion (which is awesome btw if you haven't tried it yet) so I'm covered for 95% of what I do. But sometimes you just need a little extra sauce you know? I mainly need orchestral sounds, mostly string sections (or even individual string instruments, I can make the separate parts myself if need be), a few horns, some timpanis and other assorted percussion like chimes. Anybody come across anything good that might be helpful for a one man band trying to write an album? Thanks all!

The amp sims I remember having the best luck with were the Bomber, Criminal and Spinal Puppet. I probably used the Bomber more than anything and I still do on the HD. Be careful with the drive on that one though, it has way more than you will ever need. I wish there was a magic setting I could give you but unfortunately there isn't. To start building patches I would always just set the amp sim as close as I could without any effects (maybe a screamer if anything) and then would use the parametric eq to fine tune. Hope this helps and happy jamming!