mdmayfield

From what I'm hearing on that video, if you're playing it in the key of concert A natural, not tuned down like the original, you'd need a harmony system like this: A -> C# - major 3rd B -> D - minor 3rd C# -> E - minor 3rd D -> F# - major 3rd E -> A - perfect 4th F# -> B - perfect 4th G# -> ? (I don't think this note is used in that part)

A "dumb" harmonizer will just set a number of half-steps - so if you use 4 half-steps, for example, you can play an A note and have a C# note harmony which will sound good in the key of A major, but if you play a B note it'll play a D#, which will sound wrong in the key of A major. The "intelligent" harmony in the HD500 (and I believe is safe to assume will be similar in the Helix) relates to adjusting the interval you set to fit a diatonic scale. For example, an intelligent harmonizer set to "3rd above, A major" will play a C# along with your A note (a major 3rd, 4 half-steps), but will play a D along with your B note (a minor 3rd, 3 half-steps). That fits the A Major scale correctly. What you're asking for is above and beyond a basic intelligent harmonizer; you need the ability to not just shift major/minor of the same interval, but to actually customize the entire scale with a different interval on each note. That's not commonly found outside of a dedicated harmony processor. This is needed for the parts on that song because some intervals are minor 3rds, some are major 3rds, and some are perfect 4ths. Edit - When the lower part plays an A, the higher part plays a C# (major 3rd). When the lower part plays a C#, the higher part plays an E (minor 3rd). This is "intelligent" and handled automatically. BUT when the lower part is playing an E, the higher part needs to play an A (a perfect 4th). The intelligent harmony is set to "3rd above" so it'll intelligently play a G#, which fits the A major scale, but that isn't the part that was written for the song. That's why you would need the pedal, to switch from "intelligent major/minor 3rd" harmony to "4th harmony" during those notes.

If you're willing to take the chance of messing up your OSX installation, you can use this process to temporarily change your OS version to "10.9" - https://justindaigle.com/blog/2010/02/tutorial-change-mac-os-x-system-version/ Only do that if you understand exactly how to change the steps in the link to what's relevant in your case, have recent system backups, and are comfortable/confident in the Terminal. Put the system version back the way it was afterward to avoid later issues. Also, this might not work at all. Alternatively, and probably safer, if you're particularly adventurous, you could look inside the package contents of the Workbench installer to see if it has a .plist file that specifies the minimum system version, and just change that to 10.1 instead of messing with your system version. Try searching for things like "plist minimum version installer". Good luck!

Hey, that's me! Sure, the link is https://www.youtube.com/user/LoudnessWar

There are many reasons to buy or not buy a Helix, but if your entire purchase decision hinges on the harmony for this one song, I seriously wouldn't count on it. I find it extremely unlikely that they put in a whole section for choosing a harmony note for each chromatic tone. If I were you, at best I would figure on having to use the switch or pedal workaround to change the interval between a 3rd and a 4th.

The main thing I notice in those Axe firmware comparisons is that the excerpt from the Quantum firmware is about a dB or so louder. The average person is not going to hear that as a volume difference, but will instead feel it subconsciously as an undefinable improvement in quality. Regardless of what else if anything changed on the specific amp models tested, loudness is an essential variable to control for, to avoid completely throwing off the comparison.

Am I misunderstanding "killswitch"? I thought it was a mod some players did to their guitars to get a pulsating sound, like this:

Why on Earth would anyone buy a Variax Standard if you can get a $510 JTV...?

Unfortunately it wouldn't work as described, because the VDI connection uses a variant of AES/EBU digital audio. Simply disconnecting it would kill the audio, but reconnecting it would probably not respond in time and may have glitches. I could imagine (but don't have the knowledge or skill to construct) some kind of active digital FPGA thing that would be a "man in the middle" of the digital audio stream, muting it according to a switch. That probably wouldn't be worth the effort though. The most practical approach I could imagine would be to construct a little box with a momentary switch that puts a resistor in and out of the circuit. Wire that up to a 1/4" jack and run it to the Expression Pedal input of the Pod. If the resistor is chosen well, it will make the Pod think it's an expression pedal jumping between 0% and 100%. Assign that to a volume pedal as the first effect in the chain, and you've got yourself a VDI kill switch.

03 Jul 2015 24 Aug 2015 :D

Unfortunately, the Line 6 folks don't have unlimited time, money, or engineers... So one of the aspects of whether they spend the time/money to implement a requested feature is bound to be "how many people will use it." As a result, although it could be a bit selfish to downvote ideas you personally wouldn't use just because your circumstances wouldn't call for them, it does have the positive effect of giving Line 6 feedback about who would and wouldn't need that idea.

300% as expensive; 200% more expensive. :-) As for the thread, yes I plan to upgrade when the Helix comes out, but more because it looks really fun to dive into and play around with, rather than any pressing need. My HD500 is perfectly adequate for what I'm doing and I'm very happy with it. I use it direct to PA and created some 20-odd patches specifically for my show, so it'll be a gradual transition while creating new patches on the Helix. I've not owned a tube amp since 2004 and haven't really missed it for cover band shows. I like nailing the exact sound even if it gives up a little bit of feel, and while it was very noticeable with the XT series, the HD series feels quite good to play through. Not exactly like analog tubes, but just fine, and closer to tubes than the XT series. Plus, I'm convinced that it's just insecurity that bugs people when they don't have "perfect" tone. I find it more valuable to learn to deal with it and play through it. Certainly, nobody in the audience notices. Many times I've played through a PodXT Live to a PA speaker hidden inside a fake empty stage-prop "Vox AC-30", and received numerous compliments on "authentic vintage tube tone" after shows. People hear more with their eyes and their prejudices than with their ears... And whoops, I rambled off topic again. :blink:

I agree; if my test was valid, and it really does just have 1 ms of delay - or even if it's more like 3ms - any sense of "disconnection" seems much more likely to be from some other cause. The only time that small of an amount of latency ought to be perceivable is when it's mixed in with the 0-latency sound, causing comb filtering. As you say, sound travels only a foot in 1 ms; it's a lot shorter of a time than someone might expect. I can't speak for anyone else's experience, but it seems reasonable to me that some people might feel more "connected" to an analog amp than a modeler. I've had that subjective experience myself. But if the latency truly is only 1ms, then latency being the cause of the "disconnected" feeling does not seem plausible to me. I'm convinced it must come from something else. I've compared a friend's tube rig with my HD500 through a nice FRFR PA speaker, and I perceived a difference, but there are soooo many factors that it doesn't make sense to me to try to assume which one(s) cause that difference. It could be any combination of: - Accuracy of modeling (especially "sag") - Cab type and number of speakers (4x10 vs. 1x8 or 1x10) - Latency (though I don't think it's likely; 1-foot distance, as you said) - Speaker breakup on the traditional cab, vs. clean speaker playing the *sound* of that on the FRFR system - Different settings on the amp/amp model - Difference between which amp was modeled and which real amp is used - Placebo effect/confirmation bias - Dozens of other things I haven't thought of So while I did experience a difference, I feel like it would be a mistake to think that I know the precise cause(s) of that difference. There's no practical way to control the variables. That's like comparing a wood-paneled 1987 station wagon to a brand new hot-rodded sports car, then saying that the wood paneling is what's slowing down the station wagon, and if you just got rid of it, it could win a race against the sports car.

I just measured the latency on my HD500: 1) Split mono source in analog domain (here, an electronic drumkit set to an extremely sharp transient sound, single hits played manually a few times) 2) Record one copy through HD500 analog in (i.e. HD500 A/D) -> HD500 amp model -> HD500 analog out (i.e. D/A) -> computer interface 3) Record other copy direct to computer interface So one copy goes direct in to interface, other copy takes a detour through the HD500's in and out. I recorded onto two mono tracks simultaneously, so that the latency of my computer setup and audio interface was taken completely out of the equation. (Note: the HD500 was NOT connected via USB) To measure the latency of the HD500, I zoomed in all the way and determined how much I had to delay the direct signal to match the HD500 signal. I verified that I had the correct timing by checking all 4-5 of the hits I recorded. They all lined up perfectly (within a sample) once I dragged the direct signal to the right (delayed it) a little bit. My HD500 in this test, with the AC-30 model and several (bypassed) stompbox models, lined up most perfectly at 45 samples with my DAW/interface at 44.1kHz, which = approximately 1.02 milliseconds of latency combined in/out of the HD500. That's actually better than I expected; I was assuming it would be 2-3 ms. Perhaps others could try this same test to see if they get similar results, and we can compare notes.

That video from Andertons is funny and informative. The sounds are gorgeous, coming direct from the Helix. The video clearly shows the gap between patches - it sounds like between 750ms and a full second. (Much longer than the HD500 which I'd estimate is 150-ish ms.) For me, that's no big deal since I pretty much never change patches within a song: only between songs. For some people with extremely complex effects for different song sections, it might be a dealbreaker, but I'd bet that the majority of those situations can be worked around with judicious use of the multiple paths and the ability to toggle more than one effect or parameter with a single footswitch. Bummer about the 20-25 second bootup time; again not a big deal for me personally, but it sounded like at least one pro player in this thread has to wait to power their rig until like 1-2 seconds before the downbeat, so it wouldn't work for that person. EDIT: Apparently this was not the final 1.0 firmware. Who knows what optimizations may still be possible, or whether there's still debugging code or other things artificially slowing things down on the unit they showed on the video.

Hey Mike, if you do find yourself wishing for more than 8 effects in one patch, ask for ideas from the folks on the forum here. Depending on what you're trying to do, there is often some creative way to get (at least close to) the sound you want, using fewer effect blocks. Good luck!

That sounds like the most likely explanation to me. I bet that the specific songs and tones (and approach to palm muting, or not) that some of us use happen to never make this issue audible, while the combinations of tones & songs & palm muting that you and others use make it obvious.

Capdoogie, I notice that others have responded to this thread saying they have no issues with alt tunings, but it looks like you have been focused on the people who *do* have issues. If I had to guess, it sounds like you're hoping for a reason to save your money. :) It's at least partly dependent on your playing style and genre whether the Variax alt tunings will work for you or not. For example, playing rhythm and lead guitar on 90s-to-current covers, I have never had any noticeable bleedthrough or other issue on either of my JTV-69's, whether using drop D (for example, on "The Middle") drop Db (for example, "Shine" by Collective soul, rhythm and lead). Using acoustic sounds, I've seen no issues whatsoever playing songs in open tunings, drop D, DADGBD, or anything else. Cruisin2, I'm guessing that you must either: 1) Own an instrument that's got significantly more crosstalk than my 69; or maybe 2) Play with a lot of gain and be running into harmonic feedback weirdness; - For example, sustaining an E on the 2nd fret of the D string, with a lot of gain to trigger feedback - The distorted E note resonates the acoustically-tuned low E string which starts physically ringing on an E... - ...which is digitally tuned down to D, and sounds amplified like it's ringing on a D, which doesn't fit musically 3) Or, be using some particularly demanding technique that I haven't thought of. What do you think - could one or more of those things be happening? I'm really curious what the critical factor is that makes our experiences with the alt tunings so different.

I've seen this before with my K8. It seems to happen when the board has Phantom Power enabled, so I actually connect the Pod HD500's 1/4" out (which mixes to mono) to a DI box, send the DI's XLR out to the board, and run the 1/4" THRU from the DI to the powered speaker.

That's very strange... There shouldn't be an audible difference between 44.1 and 48kHz sample rates for anyone without superhuman >20kHz hearing. If you hear a noticeable difference on your setup, there's probably something in your sound card or OS that's doing poor quality sample rate conversion, and introducing artifacts. As far as the original poster, my first inclination is a volume difference that's being heard as a quality difference.

Ah, Variax Acoustic. Sorry, my mistake. In that case, I'm not familiar enough to say either way.

There is no reverb on the Variax. Reverb must be added as an effect using another piece of equipment such as a Pod.

A used Roland KC-300, 350, 500, or 550 is a great deal on price - well within your budget - and will perform really well for POD as well as electric piano, and even has multiple inputs so you can play both at once. One drawback is the size and weight - especially the 500/550 is around 70 lbs. and easily 2' x 1.5' wide x 2' tall. Otherwise, you would certainly get good results from the best PA speaker you can find within your budget. I'm absolutely thrilled with my QSC K8 and have used it gigging. If you don't intend to play out and don't need that much power, a studio monitor speaker like a Rokkit RP5 is inexpensive and will still get comfortably loud for home playing.

I think this is a conceptual leap with insufficient data. Personally, I would recommend doing what maxnew40 mentions above to narrow down the issue conclusively. That approach is more likely to get you to the resolution you need, as opposed to picking a *possible* cause and acting as if it is THE cause, when it's actually not yet proven.

Hang on.... This may or may not have to do with voltage. It's also possible that the cause is similar to this issue: http://line6.com/support/topic/7975-line-6-pod-hd500x-stuck-in-booting-screen/?p=65988 I've seen strange issues powering on the HD500 with a Variax plugged in when one of the electrical lines within the VDI connection is not solid (could be the plug-in on either side, or in the cable).