markcockerill

I'm highly delighted to report that 2.81 has fixed what was for me, a show stopper. I posted a video on another thread clearly showing a significant delay in turning on and off 4 effects attached to one stomp switch. All 4 effects now switch on and off simultaneously. I have a hunch that this was down to some issues in processing grunt and was causing the delay in switching IRs etc in snapshots. The whole system under 2.80 was slowed down by the upgrade. Normal speed has now resumed which should effectively cure a lot of similar problems that I had experienced. What I believe is also a crucial step, make a backup of your system and presets while you've got 2.7 as I definitely had to perform a global and setlist recovery for my Helix Floor to work correctly. Hope this works for you guys

Yes, I did exactly that. I read and re read the instructions very carefully before performing the update and all my patches were restored correctly and rebuilt from backup. I gave Helix every opportunity to do a correct job of patch rebuilding. Since I have now rolled back and successfully restored everything, the speed has returned and I'm a very happy chappie. At least I can gig with confidence. I really do hope Line 6 will see my video and fix the issue as I really did like what they had brought to the table in 2.8. Thank you for your reply.

First time I have uploaded a video so I hope it works. The video shows how slow the Helix has become after the upgrade. All effects switched on and off simultaneously prior to the update. I noticed the anomaly at the weekend gig and had to hit the boost button a second before the solo to counter the time difference. I will have to roll back as I'm not prepared to gig with it as it is now. Brilliant piece of kit and the upgrades are terrific but this delay issue is serious for me.

I know I said I'd report back in a week or two but now it's over a year and though I still have the same PC, it's pretty much always kept up to date with all my software. Still I have the audio drop outs on the X3Pro. I can be watching an embedded video in Facebook and bam!!, audio gone until a reboot. Lately, I've been using a Tascam audio interface for Cubase work which works flawlessly. I don't hold out much hope for a fix any time this century from Line6 but it really would be nice to know that someone actually discovers the issue and/or resolves it. Does anyone know if the lifetime fix for X3Live applies to the Pro? Like I said in an earlier post the X3Live went back to L6 for the hardware upgrade and worked fine ever since as an audio device. Regards

I'm 56 and still gigging in a band and a duo. Been playing since xmas 73. I jumped on the L6 wagon from the Pod2 era and still use X3 pro at home for recording and HD500 for FX in amp loop for gigging. I'm no longer using my DT50 head and 4x12 cab, preferring now to use either of my two session amps, 75 or 90. Keep rockin dudes

I wouldn't rule out the known issues that effect X3 Live and in my case the Pro too being the same reason for failure of your Bean. In my case it was resolved by adding another internal USB2 card with an NEC chipset. My current PC motherboard is a Gigabyte board with 10 USB2 ports on the back and two more up front. None of which were stable with the X3, either Live or Pro. Obviously this won't help you if you have a laptop.

It's not just the X3 Live, my Pro has had this issue for years. I have recently installed an internal USB 2 card which seems to have cured the problem once and for all. I'm not saying it is the solution for everyone but thus far has worked for me. Cost me 10 quid including postage.

USB card arrived yesterday and installed. Spent a few hours last night in Cubase working on a new song with no issues. Spent an hour this morning before work doing same with again no issues. Maybe early to tell yet but early indicators are encouraging. I'll report back in a week or two. Regards

I have ordered a PCI USB 2 card, cheap and cheerful, I'll give that a go, you never know.

I have exactly the same issues as the original poster. Had it all the time I've owned the Pod X3 Pro. I had my X3 Live updated by Line 6 and never caused any issues since, although the Live has never been used as a sound card. My Pc is more or less exactly the same spec although mine has more ram and a Gigabyte board installed with 10 USB ports on the rear and two up front. I can use the front ports with my Pod HD500 with no problems at all apart from some hiss but I only connect it to sort set lists, I prefer to program the HD500 sounds on the fly in live situations. The X3 Pro remains the best studio device Line6 have developed by far (in my opinion) but the dropout issues have always been there and only cause frustration if I let it. I don't lose any work in Cubase as a result of X3 pro seemingly losing it's connection but the only thing available for me to continue working is to save my work and reboot then change the asio driver back to X3 once back into Cubase. It's not ideal but the X3 Pro does not always fail, even during lengthy sessions. The X3 pro can sometimes stop delivering audio when using any program or game or stream so the problem of audio dropout does not appear to be isolated to X3 Live alone. Over the years I think I've used every USB port and a few versions and reinstalls of windows. Currently using Windows 7 64. Windows 8 just ain't gonna happen. It is usable? Yes, probably 95% plus reliable, just not quite perfect. But like I said, It's the best kit there is for what it does.

I own and still play a Vetta 1 and a DT50 head and 4x12. But still I like to gig with a Solid State Sessionette 75. It sounds fantastic to me and while there isn't a valve in sight it sounds as sweet as any tube amp I have ever heard. It really is all to do with the transformer and high efficiency speaker interaction which this amp has albeit the Sessionette has been Retro upgraded by the original inventor Mr Stewart Ward himself. DT50 is a crackin amp but lives in my garage.

I see how you could be confused. I am hooked up via the Line 6 Link and that is the whole aim of this excercise. To program the DT50 then midi cables are required and disconnection of the L6Link while I do so. Pain but necessary.

Update to the reverb issue. My findings~: Both PodHD500 and DT50 head are programmed with exactly the same reverb. I sent all cc messages from HD500 to DT for each of the reverb parameters. With the HD there is a little tone sapping but not much and appears to my ears to enshrine the whole guitar sound with reverb. With the DT, the tonal aspect of the reverb is exactly the same however, the reverb almost seems additive and sounds like some of the natural sound of the guitar is pushing through, maintaining tone. So, I maxed out the reverb mix on both and sure enough you can actually hear a big difference between the two in what I have just said above. My preference is the DT50 reverb but that's the only one I'm stuck with in a live setting unless I spend some serious time programming the HD500 with midi presets just to change reverb settings on the amp. In my view, reverb is just a nice effect to have subtley in the background and not which should be too bold and open to scutiny anyway. So that closes the chapter on reverb. If anyone wishes to continue to comment with any aspect of my findings then please feel free. Next stop, tone. I'll be looking for that nice clean tone that doesn't sound weak and feeble but has a glassy tone suitable for strat and paul guitars. Any suggestions regarding which amp model people prefer would be useful along with suggested amp settings.

I left it a bit late to reprogram the reverb in the DT50 head but its done. The parameters are exactly the same as in the PodHD500 for the reverb. Problem now is I can't play it any louder than whisper quiet to compare the sound of reverb from amp to Pod. I'll crank it in the morning.

Nice to have you watching over us Mr Silverhead

I'm pleased we cleared that up. Perhaps reading the manual would make good bedtime reading. Before I move on with the rig I would appreciate thoughts on how the reverb appears to effect the sound differently in both cases, admittedly they were both different reverb models. Tonight I will program the amp with exactly the same reverb spec as is in the HD500 for the purpose of this exercise and report back whether I still detect a difference in nature of how the reverb layers into the sound. At the moment, something doesn't sound right with one of them. My guess is that some will prefer one over the other.

Ok, many thanks for the reply. We're up and running. I hooked up the DT50 via midi from the HD500 and reprogrammed the reverb to Particle verb as it is very extreme and not mistaken. I programmed a room reverb into the HD500 on my patch A with only the amp model and reverb engaged. Checked all cabling and both devices are up to date. Removed midi leads after every event of programming and restarted both devices Reverb knob on channel A of amp does not control HD500, however, all other knobs do. both reverbs are working independently of each other. I reprogrammed the amp to have no reverb midi CC 37 value 0 Reverb knob on amp still does not control HD500 reverb mix. Reverb on the HD500 works as it should. Could someone repeat my method so far and post their findings. I need to know if I have issues which may or may not be responsible for my long term grief.

Today, I have a dream. I brought the dream rig back into the house and decided to have one more go to set it up perfectly once and for all. It's been in the garage for months as I just could not get the system working well for live work and went back to analogue pedals and more recently back to the Vetta. This time I intend to build Rome in as long a time as it takes so I am starting with just the basics and slowly day by day adding and experimenting until I fully understand the system inside out and become more expert than an expert. I'm rather hoping that some of you reading this will be feeling the pain too and join me for the ride with your help, tips and ideas. Here is my mission, Create just 4 patches in one bank on the HD500, 1 clean, 2 different crunch and a distortion. Use the top four switches to add in up to 4 stomp effects on each patch F1 to F4 Each patch will have a wah at the front and volume pedal at the end. At home I will use the JTV69 at it can easily represent all the guitars I normally use live without having to empty the gig van. I am using a top notch DMX cable to connect the HD500 to DT50 and regular short guitar cable from JTV to guitar. I have no need of VDI as I use G30 wireless live. I gig in a successful 70's glam rock band and I need sounds to cover songs from the nice clean of Maggie May to the singing sweet sound I need for All The Young Dudes, I also need to cover the twang of Tiger Feet to the warmer crunch of T Rex stuff. You get the idea. Easy hey? you can bet your arse it isn't. So this is the perfect rig for me right? Now I will point out at this point that I am quite a minimalist when it comes to effects as my ears are very sensitive to crappy effects and whatnot getting in the way of good natural tone. I truly believe that what I have here is a system to model amplifiers and as such that's pretty much how I intend to use it with just enough subtle effects being available to keep the rig from being too dry and dull. I'm truly blessed that I have an excellent drummer with a DW kit and a bass player with excellent gear and my guitar sounds need to sit in the mix beautifully balanced in frequency range coverage and volume to the rest of the band even when the singer plays 12 string. Now, I am fully aware that what I hear from the amp here in my music workspace will not translate directly to the stage but I'm hoping that once I am finally happy here that I can at last take the rig to a rehearsal, give it a tweak or two and see if I really can improve over the Vetta. I know the DT50 head and 4x12 cab with my analogue pedal board sounds amazing. I know the Pod HD500 for recording sounds excellent and responds well to playing styles and capable of all patch/FX selections required for live use. I know the JTV 69 is an all round great guitar especially for recording though still sounds great live. So why can't I make all three blow me away when I use them together at per their intended purpose? Day 1 All hooked up. Master volume on the DT50 head at 3 oclock. Open HD Edit and start with a bank of 4 blank patches. Patch A clean At this stage I have selected the BF Double Nrm Pre ( I will try others over the weeks ahead. I have 4 FX slots available before the amp model and 4 slots after the mixer selection to play with. This will be the same on all patches. They are set up in perfect order in the FX editor selection, Slot 1 at the top through to slot 8 at the bottom (no confusion in reading order of effects from top down which equates left to right. Issue 1 (gonna need some ideas and thoughts on this one) REVERB I like a little subtle reverb on all my patches so after selecting the amp model, reverb is the next thing to choose. Note: When I programmed the DT50 head via midi to work as a stand alone amp with my analogue pedal board I programmed a room reverb into the amp on channel one. Sooooooo, now I have added a cavernous reverb to my clean patch on the PodHD500. When I use the reverb on the HD500 I get cavernous reverb but if I use the reverb knob on the DT50 I get room reverb. Is this supposed to happen? This is the killer for me. If I add reverb with the knob on the amp not only is it a different type but the reverb sounds like it is just layered over the top of my guitar sound whereas the reverb on the HD500 sounds like my guitar is immersed in lushness which I prefer. Can someone add anything here? Tomorrow, I will reprogram the amp with midi to have the same type of reverb as the one I have selected on the HD500 and will then come back and let you all know if there are still any differences in behaviour. I feel this is too important an issue for me to understand before I move on. If anyone does reply, can I just ask that we work on each issue in a linear fashion, the complicated stuff is miles ahead of us. Many thanks for reading and I hope that over the next few weeks this thread can grow into something we can all share in building to at least understand our rigs and share with others. That is my dream.

He's quite correct. I run my DT50 head master volume virtually flat out in full power mode, it is the best setting in terms in sound quality even though channel volume can be what seems very low indeed. I worked that one out very earlier on and I ain't about to change any time soon. Good luck.

You are probably right Phil in every respect. I know of only one other person other that myself who has a Vetta. For him it is his only amp and although I have the JTV69, HD500 and a DT50 Head and cab, I still get real world satisfaction from playing a top notch strat into the Vetta. I understand the rocket ship technology of the Vetta has probably put many a player off but compared to the "dream rig", the Vetta is so much easier to get good workable sounds from in a much shorter amount of time. It still turns heads. Armin mod is an absolute must. What a great shame indeed. Still the world best ever amp for me.

I only use a variax acoustic model for recording so in that respect my Variax 700 acoustic still cannot be beaten by any version of JTV. I started work on a new song the other night (I usually play acoustic first) and played around with the JTV69 acoustics with FW 2.0, I soon picked up the 700 and the pleasure was instantaneous. The volume difference is astonishing for one thing, I cannot possibly use the JTV and expect any kind of quality acoustic guitars sound going on in the mix. I suppose if all I created was just acoustic only based songs then it would be a different matter but once I start layering all manner of sounds the definition of each instrument is no longer a huge issue. All I want to do is pick up an instrument and play, I don't have the patience any more to constantly mess about with stuff. Only my opinion mind.

Ditto

I'm still waiting for a FW upgrade for my Vetta 1, any idea when that might be available? I'm pleased I kept the HD500 as was the easiest way to return my JTV back to 1.9. I'll hang on to it in case they fix the Strat models in FW 2.01. I'm playing around with other gear at the moment, feeling a bit dissillusioned with Line 6 over the last year. I think they are spending more money on very clever marketting to make as much money as they can out of us and believe they are not really follwing the same ethos they once had. If they were, then I'd be on a Vetta Mk 12 amp with firmware 190,002.013 and it would be the best amp in the whole world, ever. Actually, it still is a good amp and frickin amazing if one has the Armin Cab Mod. My opinions of course.

Again, it's only opinion but the JTV69 I have with all previous updates to 1.9 needed no work at all from me in WB to have a reliable gig worthy guitar. Ok, so there are some minor issues with specific string levels in some of the models but still on the whole, plug it into any amp as I do and or pods or G5 or whatever and it plays and sounded just fine. I had the V2 upgrade installed for 2 days and the absolute need to have to use WB to resolve issues like volume balancing across guitar models is ludicrous. I gave up using HD500 for anything live because of the serious amount of time involved in getting everything balanced and sounding great. My opinion is that Line 6 have ruined the strat, it sounds no where near as good as the stock pickups on my 69 or indeed my real strat. I would never use the 69 with V2 and I ain't in any mood to start messing about in WB to fix was wasn't broken and I doubt I could get anywhere close to a strat anyway and why the hell should I have to. If I took my 69 out to a gig or jam and asked for opinions on my new strat sound they would roll about laughing. I'm not normally so anal about things but playin guitar is my life and the people who know me know that too and this stuff is important. Sorry to sound a tad negative but I'll hold out now until Line 6 bring out a fix which I strongly imagine they are on with as we speak given all the concerns raised on this forum since the upgrade. I love being a guinea pig, well sometimes.

Ditto, I have an old Korean 69 and exhibits the same problems. The strat has completely lost the Knofler sound. Most of the models sound worse, strat, semi and jazz especially. I'm rolling back.