mdmayfield

I don't know either, of course, but to me that seems not only plausible, but likely. :-)

The JTV and Variax use the same shaped connector as an Ethernet (RJ45) cable, but they don't use the 8 electrical lines in the same way. There's: - Ground/earth/shield - AES type digital audio (stereo/2-channel: models + mags) - MIDI in - MIDI out - DC Power If one of those connections is broken or interrupted (probably the audio in your case) then you get weird behavior. The connection could be interrupted at: - Internal Pod circuitry - VDI jack in Pod - RJ45/Ethercon plug on the first end of the VDI cable - Cable itself - RJ45 plug on the other end of the VDI cable - VDI jack in Variax - Internal Variax circuitry (** especially the Molex / plastic multi-pin connectors **) If you're experienced with repairing electronics and your JTV is out of warranty, you may want to open it up and reseat the plastic multi-pin connectors. I had a weird issue with a Variax 300 that was caused by dirty connections internal to the Variax connectors (which I cleaned with an eraser): http://line6.com/supportarchivenew/thread/83687 I hope that helps, Matt

Yup, pretty much everyone has them. I think everybody buys them precisely because everybody else has them, so that there's a decent chance of finding familiar headphones when visiting a different studio. I don't like them very much; most pairs I've heard (used to run a computer lab with a couple dozen) have a very unpleasant resonance around 2.5kHz - play a one-sample "click" through them and it sounds like "tinggk" at 2.5kHz... But, they're common and worth getting to know.

I find that the dynamic range of a typical acoustic sound is much wider than that of a typical electric sound. So sometimes it's both too quiet and too loud... That said, I personally don't use amp models on acoustic sounds unless it's for a special effect. One thing I do sometimes is to put a compressor effect early in the chain. I'll set the Threshold quite high (so that it doesn't compress anything but the very loudest peaks), and adjust the Output to match levels with other sounds.

I'll just stay out of the OS debate (I use Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, and OS X, and I don't think any of them get everything right), but it seems pretty clear to me that this is the real reason there are many audio apps on iOS and practically none on Android: http://superpowered.com/low-latency-audio-android-ios/ My main phone at the moment is a Galaxy S4 with a custom ROM. Audio latency if I try to run an amp sim app is like 200+ milliseconds - utterly and completely unusable. On my old phone, an iPhone 4, I could run an amp simulator and play to backing tracks with the same latency as on a decent audio computer. Google has been trying for two or three years now to improve this, but as yet there has been very little in the way of real-world progress. If Android had had low-latency but high-performing audio as a priority from the beginning, I think we would have equal representation in music apps now.

"You get what you pay for" - well, it depends... $20 headphones: $20 quality $100 headphones, brand A: $20 quality, $80 for the brand name $100 headphones, brand B: $85 quality, $15 for the brand name $500 headphones, brand X: $120 quality, $380 for the brand name $500 headphones, brand Y: $400 quality, $100 for the brand name I don't have specific brands in mind for those, but it's a jungle out there.... don't believe the hype, and don't believe your ears too much, either, since they tend to be attracted to silly "smiley" EQ curves. Personally, in the studio, I have Sony MDR-7506s, but don't particularly like them; it's just that everybody I know also has them so it's a consistent reference. I also like the AKG 240s, and have enjoyed a pair of Ultrasone HFI-650s for the last 10 years. Then for my desk job I wanted an extra pair of closed over-ear headphones, and tried the $20 ones from Monoprice. They're not great by any stretch, but are reasonably OK. At least every penny of the $20 goes to quality and not brand name.

...And as far as practical advice to minimizing your time at rehearsal messing around with settings, at home you should try to err on the side of: - More mids than you would expect; and - Less gain than you would expect. If the tone has just slightly too much midrange and not quite enough gain/distortion at low volumes, it'll probably sound about right at high volumes. If it sounds "fat/full-range/lots of lows&highs/lots of gain" at low volumes, then it'll probably sound weak, and disappear into the mix, at high volumes.

I sort of recall seeing those settings. If those are the right numbers, then you'll end up with very close to "unity gain" (same volume) through the FX loop. That'll guarantee that at least one strictly technical aspect of your patch is close to optimized. But that doesn't guarantee anything about the tone actually sounding good in any particular context. As Tboneous says, you still have to test it in the context you need to use it in. In my opinion, things tend to go smoother when you optimize technical stuff like the FX loop levels, but it takes a lot of time and experience to understand the rules (and the times there are exceptions). And even then, if the technical stuff isn't exactly right, if it's close enough things will work fine. As long as the technical stuff is "in the ballpark," in my opinion, the art of setting your EQ/tone knobs and choosing the right amount of distortion for the job is more important than optimizing levels, as far as creating a tone that's appropriate to the song/gig.

That's been my experience too. A couple years ago, out of the 4-5 Guitar Centers in the Twin Cities, MN area, there was only one (the one in the ritziest area) that even had a single JTV physically at the store. I don't think it's there anymore.

One other thing - you might know this already as well, but the Tone knob behaves differently on the JTV Acoustic models compared with the electric models. On the acoustic models, the Tone knob is like a "mic position" knob, so there are a variety of sounds you can get by moving it around. Then you can save the precise position as part of a JTV preset.

Hi Charles, and welcome, There are some cool Variax Workbench HD presets on those sites jandrio linked. If you're looking for EQ and compression, though, you're probably better off looking at Pod HD500 presets. As you may know, a "preset" is basically the digital equivalent of writing down exactly where all the buttons and knobs are on a piece of gear. So, because the JTV does not have any onboard EQ or compression options, it's not possible to store EQ or compression as part of a JTV preset. Since the HD500 does have those models, presets for it can include info like "In the 3rd effect block, put a Studio EQ model with its Highs set to xyz and its Lows set to abc." I hope that helps - thanks, Matt

Because of that, I don't think that the specific A/D converters probably cause the tonal difference. There have been blind tests where audio engineers and musicians (let alone the normal population) couldn't tell converters apart. (This was in context of ABX'ing 44.1kHz 16-bit with SACD, and no one did significantly better than chance.) But.... Passive pickups change their tone a lot depending on the capacitance (strongly correlated with length) of a guitar cable. I wonder if a very short guitar cable would make the 1/4" output closest in sound to the VDI.

I would suggest trying this: Input 1: Variax + guitar Input 2: same Then use the Model Select push-in switch on the Variax to select models or magnetic pickups. I've found those settings to be the closest match between 1/4" and VDI on my setup.

The volume level of many of the guitars is quite a bit lower in JTV 2.x than in previous JTV/Variax versions. In my experience, that's what causes the "thinner" sounds. Without tweaking any patches on my HD500, many of my sounds are completely ruined after updating the JTV to 2.1. BUT after increasing the amp gain or inserting a boost pedal model to compensate, I actually like the 2.x sounds better than the older ones.

It seems to me that the issue is in the HD itself, where there are "select from these <20 choices" parameters, and then there are "smooth variation between 0-100%" parameters. All the EQs that name frequencies in Hz are the "few choices" ones. It makes sense to me that they wouldn't be able to change it on the HD screen itself, BUT it shouldn't be nearly as difficult on the desktop HD500 Edit, where you have plenty of memory and CPU to do the conversion live to the display...

Unfortunately, the reset feature was removed: From http://line6.com/support/page/kb/_/guitars/james-tyler-variax-guitars/james-tyler-variax-general-faq-r31

Most of the models in 2.0/2.1 are quite a bit quieter than the models in 1.9 and before. That will end up sounding tinny, weak, sustain-less, etc., if you simply use the exact same patches or amp settings as in 1.9. On the other hand, if you adjust the amp gain or pedal controls to compensate for the quieter Variax models, you may find that you actually prefer the 2.0+ models; at least, that's what happened to me. I had a couple dozen HD500 patches dialed in perfectly for my Variax 300, and they worked just about as well with the JTV at firmware 1.9 and lower. With 2.1, many of the patches sound terrible, because the guitar level going into the amp is much lower. After turning up the drive and tweaking the EQ a bit, I'm growing to prefer 2.1. As with anything, this is all up to your own personal taste and preferences, but as far as my own experience, I found that the lower volume was the only thing ruining the sounds, and after fixing that issue, they were an improvement over 1.9 to my ear.

:-) Thanks Silverhead. Actually I had done this when I first bought it a year and a half ago (it's one of the early JTV-69s). So now I'm trying to fine-tune the amount of paper in the knob, but am concerned that it might still be the actual electronic switch at fault, or a loose connection or something. Also, I'm now convinced that was the issue. I have another JTV-69 which has never had a problem, and tried plugging it into my HD500 while holding down the Model Select knob. Sure enough, the symptoms were identical.

I think I might have figured it out. While playing the JTV tonight, I turned the modeling on and off with the switch on the Model Select pot, and suddenly the guitar went into the "save" mode with flashing blue LEDs on the tuning and model knobs. I think that something is physically sticking in the switch on the Model Select pot, and when the Variax is powered on with the switch depressed/closed, it will not start up properly. After a time (minutes or seconds; it's not clear) the internal switch connection must pop up, and become open again. At that point the instrument behaves normally. I'll do a little more experimentation, but I'm pretty sure that's the problem. Do you know if there's a replacement pot/switch available? It looks like this might be it: http://www.fullcompass.com/product/450983.html I've done several Variax 300 transplants and am pretty confident in my repair skills, but would like to have the option to replace the actual part. Thanks, Matt

I tried one more time tonight to reflash the JTV. For some reason, Line 6 Monkey recognized it and I was able to install firmware 2.10. It's completely a puzzle to me because I haven't changed anything since last night, when it refused to recognize it no matter what I did. Either way, it seems to be working now, though it makes me uneasy for the next update...

Azur, Thanks for the reply. I've tried that already, unfortunately. Before this serious "brick" situation, I was able to do a couple firmware flashes that got most of the way through but then failed. So there is not an issue with the Line 6 Monkey software installation on my computer. I also tried other computers, some of which I freshly installed L6 Monkey. At various times, I removed the battery and attempted to flash with the HD500 interface (powering the JTV via VDI) instead; no luck there either. I'm mainly trying to determine: 1) Is corrupted firmware the likely situation here (I think so) 2) Is it technically *possible* to brick the firmware? (I think so) Or is there some kind of "safe boot" in ROM after all? (If so I'll keep trying, but if it's possible to brick it I'm pretty sure it's bricked) 3) What exactly would a service center do - reflash with a special hardware flasher? Replace the flash storage, or the mainboard? Send it to Calabasas? How long does the process take? Thanks, Matt

Edit: This seems to have been a big "jump to conclusions" on my part. After testing, I'm convinced that the whole issue was due to the Model Select push switch being stuck down, which prevented the JTV from booting properly, and may have had an intermittent connection during the firmware flash, thus powering down (or going into custom tuning mode, or who knows what) and throwing off the flash process. Hi all, I opened a support ticket on this, but I thought I'd check with you guys to see if there's anything I haven't tried. Although, if you look at the list, you'll see I've been quite thorough (I *really* would rather not have to take this in somewhere to be hardware-reflashed): - There was an error during firmware update from 1.9 to 2.1 - After this, JTV-69 will not start up (no modeled sound; no lights on model knob or tuning selector) - I hear the JTV power relay clicking when plugging in 1/4" cable with a battery installed, or VDI from my HD500, so the hardware seems to power up but software does not boot - It seems that the firmware update must have failed in the first of the 3 writing phases (write, reset, write, reset, write) which I assume is the core boot code used to load firmware updates - As best I can tell, the JTV is fine hardware-wise, but will no longer boot at all - Variax Workbench interface goes green on the Variax side when connected (and a 1/4" cable is plugged in to power on the JTV), but JTV not recognized by L6 Monkey - Have tried combinations of three different computers, USB cables, Workbench cables, HD500, two different Workbench USB interfaces. None recognize the JTV. - Model and tuning knobs do not light up when powered on - No audio goes through the VDI cable to the HD500, and the HD500 doesn't recognize it (no options on Variax setup screen) - Audio *from the magnetic pickups only* goes through the 1/4" cable - I assume that this means there is now no way to update via VDI MIDI, and its flash memory needs to be reflashed directly by special hardware at a service center. I'm so disappointed and frustrated... :( You'd think that in a device like this, they'd put a tiny bootloader in ROM that could always be used to re-load firmware into the flash memory no matter how many times (or where) it fails. Or am I misunderstanding something? Thanks, Matt

Usually, the adapters (wall warts) say somewhere on their bodies. They will say something like Input 110-240V AC, Output 12v DC 1000mA (just an example - I don't have mine in front of me) and if output is DC they should show a polarity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarity_symbols In my experience I've seen 4 important output attributes in a power adapter, and as long as the first 3 match exactly and the amperage is equal or greater, it should work fine (as long as the physical connection is correct): 1. AC or DC output - this has to match or damage to the equipment can result 2. Polarity (if DC) - this has to match. It's also easy to switch (flip the wire connections to the small output plug) 3. Voltage - This needs to match since the adapter will "push" its voltage on the equipment. Too high voltage = damage to equipment, too low = possible damage, won't work right 4. Amperage - The piece of equipment will "pull" the needed amperage from the adapter. Too little amperage in the adapter = overheating, damage, melting/fire hazard of the adapter. Sufficient or extra amperage in the adapter = no problem.

Davec69, This may be a little late... but from the sound of it, I doubt that it's a software problem - it seems more likely to be hardware. I have done some 300 transplants, and from what I recall and could tell, the 5-way switch works by connecting or disconnecting some little resistors. Then some other part of the electronics senses the amount of resistance, and uses that info to tell the processor which position the switch must be in. It could be that either something is physically wrong with the switch, or that one of the 3 tiny square resistors on the switch circuit board has gone bad. Good luck, Matt

I suspect it doesn't track at all, in the guitar synth sense. From the look and sound of it, it probably uses something similar to their POG technology to synthesize the extra harmonics (octaves, 5ths, etc.) based on the input without having to "know" what pitches it is at all.