firehawk fx remote app is out. what do you think?

[devilinside82]

Hi guys

the remote app is finally available and therefore I hope that the firehawk fx will be released soon. I'm really looking forward to it because I enjoyed my short testperiod with the amplifi fx. I just had a short look at the app and I thought that the firehawk fx had more possibilities for fx than the amplifi. Seems that I'm wrong because both have the same amount of fx places except for the fx loop on the firehawk fx.

Furthermore I'm a bit disappointed about the lack of hd fx in general. I thought that there would be more hd wahs/delays et cetera.

I'm a guitar beginner (played my western and les paul on/off for 6years) and I'm still on the fence whether to buy the firehawk fx or the hd500x (which is cheaper here in Germany). Like I said, I really like the idea of editing my tones with the app but I'm not sure if I NEED dual amp simulations for the metal/djent tones I want to achieve...what do you experienced Line6 users think?

[mcbeddall]

I'm not sure if even the effects on the hd500 are "Hd" as they are all listed as m series effects which were out before the hd series, it has me confused, the distortions on the hd500 are listed as m series too but the Firehawk has hd distortions, does this mean the Firehawk distortions are an updated effect?

I'm off to download the app now

[silverhead]

Yes, any HD FX in the Firehawk are improvements over the m-series FX in the Pod HD units.

[mcbeddall]

Well that cleared that up rather simply lol thanks, I thought we would have heard more about that in the sales patter.

 

I had a quick look at the app and I gotta say I'm even more excited about getting my hands on the unit now, seems like there is an absolute ton of amps to try out and it seems so easy to use it could very well revolutionise the way I spend my practice/writing time.

 

A few things missing though

1)looper- £350 and no looper seems unfair when the hd500 is only a few quid more

2)eq- doesn't look like you can assign the fixed eq slot to a footswitch (i was hoping to switch it on and off in a patch for solo or intro work)

3)global settings- doesn't seem to be any? Output modes? Eq? Maybe they're not needed or I'm missing something?

4)pattern tremolo- I used to love messing about with that effect lol

5)bitcrusher, acoustic sim- I knew beforehand that line 6 don't really do a bitcrusher effect but if I make the switch to firehawk from my Zoom G5 the bitcrusher and acoustic sim are 2 effects that I'll really miss

[devilinside82]

Hi silverhead thx for the heads up! A line 6 rep replied to me on facebook and said that it would be possible to get a looper with a firmware update but that he didn't know if that happens. According to this rep the firehawk is less powerful than the hd500x and therefore we won't see dual chains in the future. Those two missing features are the only things holding me off from buying the firehawk although I possibly won't need them as a beginner guitarist. The looper could be "replaced" via a backingtrack...

[phil_m]

Yes, any HD FX in the Firehawk are improvements over the m-series FX in the Pod HD units.

 

Asking out of curiosity and not doubting you as I know you've actually seen the unit, but I was under the impression that they were using the HD moniker to set the M-series effects apart from the POD Farm ones. Have they actually "remastered" the M-series effects for the Firehawk? All the HD effect names seem to match what's in the M-series pedals and POD HD.

[silverhead]

You maybe correct. I'll have to double check that.......

[mcbeddall]

Ah that's interesting about the possibility of adding a looper, I only use it as a practice tool for working out solo's or riffs that fit over chords,like you say I may be able to provide a backing track myself, maybe I could record to my phone and then bluetooth the audio into the Firehawk

I never bothered with dual amps, I mostly play live gigs and I found that although dual amps sounded more meaty they also sounded more muddy when playing alongside my band but I don't use djent tones either and I appreciate it can help with that stuff, I only had my hd500 for a few months and to be honest the big selling point for me with the Firehawk is dialling the tones in quicker and it looks like they have me covered on that score so I can probably overlook the more minor quibbles

(just a note about the hd500 if you never used one before, they can be incredibly difficult to nail down the sound your looking for, before I bought mine I read all the threads about how frustrating it can be but I thought "hey I've pretty much only ever used line 6 modelling gear so I won't have a problem " I got burned, if you like tweaking it's like a neverending toybox, if you don't like tweaking it can deprive you of valuable practice time, there are almost too many variables and too many things to mess with, my old pod XT live by contrast was almost impossible to get anything to sound bad, everything sounded good through it but then I didn't have any control over the fx chain.

[mcbeddall]

Asking out of curiosity and not doubting you as I know you've actually seen the unit, but I was under the impression that they were using the HD moniker to set the M-series effects apart from the POD Farm ones. Have they actually "remastered" the M-series effects for the Firehawk? All the HD effect names seem to match what's in the M-series pedals and POD HD.

So would the pod farm fx be the same that were used on the old XT pedals?

[silverhead]

Asking out of curiosity and not doubting you as I know you've actually seen the unit, but I was under the impression that they were using the HD moniker to set the M-series effects apart from the POD Farm ones. Have they actually "remastered" the M-series effects for the Firehawk? All the HD effect names seem to match what's in the M-series pedals and POD HD.

I've asked Line 6 to clarify this for us and haven't heard back yet. However, after reviewing the information I have already been provided with I believe I may have misunderstood. I now think you are correct, phil_m. The HD FX in Firehawk are the same m-series FX in the Pod HD, just renamed to distinguish them from the Pod Farm FX.

 

While this information is not yet conclusive I wanted to correct any misinformation I may have provided as quickly as possible. I will wait for the official response from Line 6 and update you here when it comes. Meantime I think everyone should assume that the Firehawk HD FX are the same ones in the Pod HD, not an improvement.

 

Sorry for any misinformation, and thanks to phil_m for catching it.

[phil_m]

So would the pod farm fx be the same that were used on the old XT pedals?

 

More or less. They are named the same, although, there are some differences between them. I have the Amplifi 150 and TT, and one thing I noticed immediately with the delays in the Amplifi compared to the delays in the XT and X3 is that on the Amplifi I could get a smooth self-oscillation like I could with the DL4. On the XT and X3 that was never possible. The classic way to get the "UFO landing" sounds with a delay pedal is to max the repeats and then mess with the time knob. On the DL4, this is really smooth. On the XT and X3, it just glitches out. On the Amplifi, it's really smooth. I assumed the POD Farm delays on the Firehawk are the same as on the Amplifi.

 

Digital Igloo, the one Line 6 product manager who writes on the forums pretty frequently, said that the modeling engine in the Amplifi products is a tweaked version of POD Farm. So I assume any POD Farm stuff on Firehawk is the same tweaked version. Whew... a long answer for a simple question! :)

[mcbeddall]

Thanks really appreciate the info

[silverhead]

I've asked Line 6 to clarify this for us .......

... and here is the response:

 

The HD FX that are in Firehawk are exactly the same as the POD HD series and the M Series.  In both the case of amps and effects, we added "HD" to the names to distinguish them from the XT, but we didn't bother adding an "HD" if the name was already different.  IE - "Heavy Distortion" and "Killer Z" are both Boss Metal Zone models, and we didn't add HD to the name of the HD version since the name was distinct from the classic model.

 

Again, thanks to phil_m for noticing my earlier misinformation.

[bond19]

Where can I download the firehawk app for android?

[devilinside82]

Google play store

[bond19]

Google play store

Thanks, downloaded it and am monkeying around with it right now- wow- lots of amps! Hoping to get the hardware real soon.

[devilinside82]

Would be awesome to get an official release date for Germany but unfortunately Line 6 don't know or tell it by now :-( One German shop says April 17th, others say late June and eveb later :-/ The wait and playing with the app is killing me ;-)

[mcbeddall]

Same for all of us dude not just Germany

[devilinside82]

I know but(at least)Line 6 confirmed that they are shipping the units for the States since yesterday. Hope they are announcing something soon. Until then, podfarm 2.5 and rocksmith it is...

[mcbeddall]

Ah I didn't realise some we're already shipping, should be some YouTube reviews up soon then

[devilinside82]

Hey guys, it's me again. I Just messed around a bit with the app and realized that the "new" amps aren't included. I searched the internet but I couldn't find any info whether the model packs are also coming to the firehawk or not.

[mcbeddall]

I don't think they are, at least nobody has announced that they are

[bond19]

After playing around with the app a bit, there are a few things I would like to see:

 

For those without a variax guitar, the ability to raise or drop the pitch of a song for learning/practicing. I would also like to see an "instant tone save" button, right now you have to do a few extra taps, and go into multiple screens to save a tone after a search- this would be good for saving multiple tones on the same search result screen.

[mcbeddall]

I noticed you don't seem to be able to control the time parameter with the footpedal when using a delay,you can control all other parameters just not time for some reason

[ColonelForbin]

I'm still on the fence whether to buy the firehawk fx or the hd500x (which is cheaper here in Germany).

 

Interesting! The Firehawk is priced $50 less than the HD500x here in the States.

 

As for your question, I can't answer, but can point you in a direction to some additional research; In a word, will you ever anticipate using the Line6Link feature that is on the HD500x, but not on the Firehawk? To answer that question, more specifically, any chance you would buy a DT25 or DT50 amp and/or an L2 or L3 speaker rig?

 

Especially the DT; the link feature between the DT amps and the HD500x is definitely more involved than with the L2/L3 speakers - though you can save the L2/L3 speaker modes to the HD500x. The DT amps actually reconfigure themselves when linked, in a way that no other rig does.. And it's specific to the HD500x, using the Line6 Link..

 

Something to consider, since Firehawk is not yet out! Especially if you can try an HD500x used, linked to a DT - that would give you a better sense of what you want out it. Many, many folks are not going the 'L6Link route, which means that the DT and even the HD500 or HD500x are not a requirement.

 

I am curious to know if they upgraded the FX on the Firehawk; I was under the impression they were using the same basic HD and M class FX from the HD500 series, just reconfigured to remove certain features and add others. Wasn't aware they were also updating the FX quality - I would be surprised if they did, other than possibly convert them to a new architecture which may take advantage of certain sonic improvements not in the HD500x.

 

Curious to know the answer to that question! The HD500 fX are good, as are the M13 / M9, etc. But some are lacking, so any improvements are always welcome!

 

I just read through the Firehawk FX List; and they seem to indicate 'HD' FX models as referring to the HD500 / M13 / M9, near as I can tell. Then anything that isn't referred to as "HD" is from the XT / X3 / PodFarm era.

 

I am thinking it's the same for the Firehawk Amp List; they mark the HD models, vs the XT / PodFarm ,etc models.

 

Here's one Firehawk model that is odd they omitted from the HD500x series! Funny, they show a picture of an L2 / L3 style speaker next to the description..

 

Line 6 Variax Acoustic:

This model was created to allow Variax acoustic models to sound as full-range as possible through the speakers of typical guitar amps.

[bond19]

As I was looking through all the amps/effects and the weird(but similar to the original) names, I was thinking that a cool option would be if there is a configuration file that can be altered by the user to change the names of the amps, whether it is a nickname the user calls his non-virtual jcm 800 in the real world, or if you want to change the names of the amps to reflect the actual real names to allow an easier pick, when scrolling through the list. I am aware of copyrights of the names, and understand why the names cannot be used by a third party, just think this could be useful.

[ppiluk]

As I was looking through all the amps/effects and the weird(but similar to the original) names, I was thinking that a cool option would be if there is a configuration file that can be altered by the user to change the names of the amps, whether it is a nickname the user calls his non-virtual jcm 800 in the real world, or if you want to change the names of the amps to reflect the actual real names to allow an easier pick, when scrolling through the list. I am aware of copyrights of the names, and understand why the names cannot be used by a third party, just think this could be useful.

This is a good idea for the POD HD series as well. Not sure if its possible though.

[ricok987]

I remember having a Yamaha PRS keyboard once that had a song list of about 400 songs in it that due to copyright issues had incorrect titles.  The titles made more than half the songs useless because you couldn't figure them out.  Others were easy to figure (Born Running, AKA Born to Run)  Well, to make a long story short a user group user, that was real good at programming uploaded a file that changed all the song names to their proper title-and it was free-you just needed to load it into your keyboard!  All of a sudden I had a trove of new songs I could play!  I wonder, down the road if there is a savvy Android/Mac programmer that might do that for the firehawk amp list.  Remember, this is most likely a text file stored in the programming code somewhere.  All that would be needed is to edit the text. 

[bond19]

is most likely a text file stored in the programming code somewhere.  All that would be needed is to edit the text.

 

 

Exactly, I am gonna keep on this.

[ppiluk]

It would be very difficult to do this with an iPhone unless it was jailbroken. Apple has designed the iPhone with security first, often at the expense of customization, in mind. Apps on the iPhone are self contained units meaning the text file will be included in the executable file.

 

It would take decompiling the app, editing a file or code, recompiling the app and loading it back onto the phone. 

 

It would be easier to do with the Android app because Android is more open.

[bond19]

I should have clarified I am running android. Yes apple does not allow much flexibility for users to customize.

[bond19]

I was monkeying around with the android app last night to see how far I could go in changing the names, and pics of the amps/effects- appears the amp & effects pictures are .png files ranging from 2k to 30 k in size.  The names of the amps/effects are in in the format xxxxxx.model, where the x's are the type. example - amp.model, each amp will have a block of coding in the file, which has the name that is displayed in the app under the picture in the app.  The thing is, if you want to mess with this kinda stuff, you have to root your device, which I would suggest only people who know what they are doing perform this.

[bond19]

Finally cracked the box open and plugged my les paul into the firehawk. Went through the patches one by one, tried the tuner and the tap tempo, then mated it via bluetooth to my samsung galaxy tab. They communicated easily, and I was able to use my favorite music player to stream to the unit. A few thing i noticed, at least in my configuration, the stock patches are quite good, but there is a slight delay when switching between them. I also noticed when switching between a few of the high gain distorted patches, there was a kind of "swirling" sound which happened in the split second between the switching of the two. I really liked the variation of tones you get when switching cabs- i took a cheesy sounding distortion patch, switched the cab to greenback 25's, and the patch suddenly became a thick sounding monster. I like that the user patches start out with nothing in them, so you can start right at the barebones, choose your amp, cab, etc. until your sound takes shape. I do wish there was more user patch space on the unit, as I think I will need about 4 or 5 blank banks of 4 to arrange my setup how i like it, this means deleteing a few of the crazy sounding modulation patches, and moving others i want to keep into a different block- this seems like a time consuming task, but it is super easy to move them- all you have to do tap on the firehawk fx icon then tap on the "three lines" icon on the top right of the bank/patch screen, everything will turn grey, and each patch will have the "three line" icon beside it, if you click on that icon, you can drag it to wherever you want. Deleting was a bit more challenging, i did by way of saving a blank "user" patch to my tones, then tap on save to hardware, to open up the patch screen, drop it on the unwanted patch, then confirm. You will notice that the bluetooth device will not populate right away, sometimes it will take a reeboot (by the way the populating of patches takes a few minutes- at least on my device) to view the exact mirror of the patches stored on the firehawk. These are just a few things I have noticed after noodling with my firehawk for a couple of hours, I expect it will take up most of my free time in the coming days- I'm lovin' this thing!

[davebyers44]

The app is pretty nice. It didn't shut down a couple times but this being 1.0 version I expect that will change and improve. I thought the tuner on the firehawk was very good. Sounds pretty good also. App is pretty straight forward.

 

Dave

[gscott]

I like it so far, sounds goods and the app is great. One thing I have run into is that I tried using my variax without the battery and although it got signal, it would not turn on modeler. I could turn on manually and it is powered, but it would not switch models when using the Firehawk. Anybody else experience this or tried without battery. I did this b/c I need to know if my battery is dead, I could finish a gig. Also I am noticing some artifact when switching some of the patches, don't know if that's normal or not. Thanks!

[mcbeddall]

Go to the variax settings on the app, you can enable firehawk to control the variax there

[idbedave]

I notice that EVERY time I have to minimize the app or just flip to another app I lose connection. I check in settings and it shows connected but the app loses connection which means it needs to re-download all the tones again. That simply isn't the answer. 

 

I use my iPad for lyrics and chord charts for songs in a variety dance band. To tweak a sound it will be a major pain in the rear if I have to re-connect and download all the songs every time the app isn't the one in focus. L6 will this change soon? 

[bond19]

Hope for a software update.

[silverhead]

.... One thing I have run into is that I tried using my variax without the battery and although it got signal, it would not turn on modeler. ...

You need to connect the Variax to the Firehawk using the VDI connection. That's how the modeling is controlled. Bluetooth is used to send info from the app to the Firehawk, but the modeling info can't be transmitted from the Firehawk to the Variax without the VDI I connection.

[disciplejc]

My MotoX-II phone App works good, getting same issue with it disconnecting when anything else is opened and the app minimizes... There also needs to be a way to re-name My Tone patches... not just delete...

       Sometimes the little diskette to "save" does not show up when I select the cloud, only "share" choices. but the editing seems to work pretty good.

 

 My Nook will run the app but it doesn't work well, maybe it is too slow, it is not on the list of Android supported devices...