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Unfortunately, the design engineers decided to dual purpose an output without understanding the consequences. The PHONES/DIRECT OUT provides a stereo signal to the tip and the ring of a 1/4 Jack when inserted into the connector on the back panel. This is fine for listening with headphones but absolutely WORTHLESS when connecting to any mixing console input. Almost all mixer inputs accept BALANCED audio signals and when you send a STEREO signal to such an input you will only hear the audio that is not common to either channel. Mostly it will be a really crappy, low level signal that is impossible to use to anything. The easy fix is to lift one of the conductors on the cable (tip or ring) and leave it unconnected to anything. A more complex fix is to combine the leaft and right channels to make a mono signal and put it on the tip of a cable sent to the mixer and leave the ring unconnected. WHY? Because BALANCED audio format is one of the coolest tricks around. A balanced output has the guitar (audio) signal AND the inverse of the guitar (audio) signal both on the one cable. Signal on the tip (or pin 2 in XLR) and inverse of the signal on the ring (pin 3 of the XLR) . When these signals are sent to a BALANCED INPUT, the signals are SUBTRACTED from each other to produce a signal with twice the gain. This is all done to eliminate the noise which will be a positive signal on both conductors. Say the signal is 2 volts and the noise is .5 volts. You get 2 - (-2) = 4 for the signal and .5 -.5 = 0 for the noise. brilliant stuff because it is so simple. So when you plug your DIRECT OUT into a balanced input (almost all mixers have balanced inputs) you get LEFT SIGNAL - RIGHT SIGNAL = almost all the good stuff gone! I was shocked that a great company like LINE6 would pass this off and even tell you tpo use the DIRECT OUT to record. Really a remedial design issue that should have been caught before they made the amps. peace

Hey guys, I've been playing the helix for a couple years now and I'm considering getting the power cab. Everyone seems to agree it's a more enjoyable/inspiring experience than the floor board alone. I'm curious if the sound that you send to FOH is also better. I know it's got the same mic emulation as the Cab Blocks in the helix. Does it sound any different or better? Thanks!

hi, How to i connect my Spider V 30 MK II directly to the audio Interface (Focus-rite) to be able to record the amp sounds directly to my DAW using the recording interface. I know there is a Printer cable to USB option but that requires me to change my cables every-time. I have other instruments and mic connected to Focus-rite recording interface. I need to be able to connect the AMP to the recording interface to improve the workflow. I tried the Phone out connector to quarter inch connector where the quarter inch cable directly goes to the recording interface but recording interface does not detect it be a instrument or Line in. Please suggest if there are options.

Im new to the hx fx and could really use some recommendations and help regarding impulse responses. I run my guitar through a bbe sonic maximizer and then through a vox Ac50 ( with upgaded tubes, and V30’s :) ) I run the hx fx in 4cm. My band rehearses D.I. Into the mixer ( drummer plays a roland TD30, so its really nice) but its still important for me to use the AC50 as the tone is incredible and regardless of the fact we all use “ in ears” live and in rehearsal im using a moderate amount of amp volume on stage and blending it with my D.I. Signal into the P.A./monitors. Thats why i was really excited to use impulse responses. Heres where i can use some help/recommendations and opinions. 1. Ive played around with placing the IR block before and after the Fx loop 1 block. so far I prefer it placed after, but i cant really tell much of a difference. Anyone have any info or experience with this? what is your preference? 2. I downloaded a bunch of IRs . I have some “speaker” ones (the allure pack) and those all seem pretty useable. One of the best results ive had so far is the V30 IR (from allure) I have the mix set to 100 and the volume somewhere around -6.5 -8.0 db I also find it totally necessary to use the low cut feature as the bass frequencies easily start to overdrive. Changing IR,s the confusion/frustration/doubt starts to set in. Heres some examples- Acoustic guitar resonace ir’s i have , including this hollowbody ir i have sound absolutely funky. Maybe they are crappy idk but its led me to believe that IR’s work best emulating something similar to your sound. I mean i run v30s out of my cab. So running a V30 IR after my effects loop block seems to make my D.I. Signal sound alot more like my amp and that is a wonderful result. but trying to make it sound like a jazz box, or a hummingbird acoustic, is experimental and probably wont yield good results. However, i did load a gods cab (its like a 6505 with a mesa cab and a sm7b mic) it needed a ton of low cut. And it really overdrove my signal easily. But at -8.0 db lvl with 100mix and a low cut, when i added a distortion, i got a killer sound. I mean awesome metal tone. some feedback or personal experience on this would be a godsend. 3. So to some it up into some more direct questions. whats with the overdriving? are some of these ir,s supposed to be distorted? where as some are just clean cabinet/mic “simulations” (or moments in time whatever you wanna call it) -8db seems awful low for a level setting should i be looking elsewhere? what kind of mix and level do you guys use? Is 2048 samples always better? Anything pertaining to using impulse responses with hx fx in 4cm especially settings would help alot. If in the end i can properly add an IR to all my presets resulting in my DI sounding more realistic and just having better tone altogether i would be very happy. just dont know if im doing it right.

Hi, I updated my firmware to 2.01 recently and not sure if this is related but my XML direct out is giving me nothing but hisss noise. I tested my cables with my Neuman and I have good input to my DAW. Any ideas? Thanks, Gary

I apologize if this was asked previously elsewhere. I tried perusing the manuals and searching the forums... For the last 4 years, I have been using Guitar Rig with Rig Kontrol live. Honestly, I might still be a happy user if NI would keep their products up-to-date and not discontinue their hardware. :angry: I can't do a live show anymore without experiencing bad audio drop-outs and worse. Time to ditch and look elsewhere... One of the cool things I was able to do with GR, however, was route speaker simulation (cab sim, etc.) to ONLY one side of the outputs. My common setup was to run the output with NO cab sim to my on-stage amp, and the output with the cab sim ON to the DI/PA system. The tones were just a little off from each other, but my stage amp has V30's, and so I'd run the V30 cab sim for the house line, and with a little EQ, I was a pretty happy camper. This became the better option, rather than A) Mic'ing the stage cab for the house feed (not a fan), and B] Running the cab sim ON to my amp signal (Redundant yuck.), or C) Using NO cab sim (horrible shrill line out). So obviously, that's my question. Can you, somehow, route the outputs on the HD500X in such a way where the speaker simulation is running to, say, the Balanced XLR output(s) - meanwhile the 1/4" amp outputs disengage any cab sim? Or...is there another option/configuration I'm not aware of that addresses this issue? Thanks for the help!

Hi, I'm just got my DT25 HD today. And I'm going to use the cabinet simulated direct out to my Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 audio interface, but I'm not sure which input to plug to, should I plug to line input or the preamp input of the audio interface? Thanks!

Forgive me if I'm posting this in the wrong section. After 10 years of being ont he sidelines, I'm gigging out again. I have the SPider Valve MKI and I love my tone in rehearsal. In a live venue, the tone turns tinny and harsh after about 25 feet out. I'm looking to mic the amp, but I'm wondering if I can use the direct out and run to the sound board. If I do, I'd still like to be able to hear my amp on stage. Does the DO cut the feed to the celestion speaker or does it act like a true cabinet extension? Thanks in advance, Matt

with the new firmware, is it possible to change cab and mic on the direct out? would be great if this was possible.

Hello everyone! I am about to buy a DT25 combo to use with my POD HD500. I read somewhere, when you connect both devices through L6 Link, HD500 USB out goes quiet and only works as a MIDI interface (no sound signal). I used to make my recordings directly from HD500 USB out to a PC USB and directly to a DAW (Audacity, Reaper, etc...). Is there any way of continuing recording digitally, while playing HD500 connected to DT25 via L6 Link? If not, my enthusiasm on that Amp goes completely down the drain and I might call the deal off :( Anyone could give me a hint? Thank you all! Miguel