Patches vs. Banks

[croSSed]

Hi. I'm trying my best to get out of my 500X what I want to get out of it. I have been working with it to get the tone and FX for one song, namely Rush's "The Spirit of Radio". In this song there are a lot of FX switching, and amp tone going on, I thought the best way to create what I was looking for was to assign the sound I wanted for each section of the song to separate banks. E.g., for the intro there is one sound, right? To get into the body of the song is another, a slightly different amp tone, different FX, etc. So, I programed 16A for the intro sound I want, and then I programmed 16B for the verse sound I wanted. I discovered this does not work because the sound cuts out momentarily when I switch from A to B.  :(  So, I tried doing all of everything I needed in one bank. Well, that's too complicated. Multiple things must happen at one footstomp. Is there a way to get my device to not cut out momentarily when switch from A to B to C to...?

[Punkyboy]

set the pod to fs1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

press save to enter setup and change the ABCD to fs

Now you can add what you want on each switch

ex: drive on fs1 , comp on fs2, chorus on fs3, etc...

 

 

 

 

PB

[DunedinDragon]

The cutting out of sound momentarily between different patches is a normal situation on every modeler I've ever worked with.  That's because it has to unload the DSP for the current FX and amps and load the next ones for the new patch.

 

There are other various ways to approach this within a patch including multiple signal paths and having multiple FX or even amps assigned to one footswitch.  The documentation provides a good description of how to go about such things.  Suffice it to say, modelers tend to favor staying within one patch per song.  That's not saying you can't do it otherwise if you can live with the slight delay.

 

By the way, to help other people with understanding what you might be saying, it seems you're using the term 'bank' and 'patch' interchangeably.  A patch is typically controlled by the front four footswitches whereas changing a bank requires you to first select the up and down buttons to select the bank, then one of the front 4 footswitches to select the patch within that bank.

[croSSed]

Thank you both for your input. After quite a bit of tweaking I have found a satisfactory sound for "The Spirit of Radio". Rush is almost nowhere to be seen over in the Custom Tone part of the community. I will be adding to that for any who wish to achieve very close Rush tone. The tone for the aforementioned song that I have come up with is more like the "Exit Stage Left" tone than the studio "Permanent Waves" tone. Peace out! More to come...

[Antman74]

I used to be able to change patches on my Digitech rp500 with no lag or sound loss. I use the hd500x in fs 1-8 mode but the sound loss switching from one patch to another was my first noticeable negative.

[croSSed]

I used to be able to change patches on my Digitech rp500 with no lag or sound loss. I use the hd500x in fs 1-8 mode but the sound loss switching from one patch to another was my first noticeable negative.

I like running it in 1-8 mode because of the additional patches. What I don't like is that you have to go into the menu screen to switch to a different preset. That screen is so small and difficult to read, not to mention you have to bend down to change it. I might have to bring a laptop with me to gigs and be running HD Edit the whole time so I can more easily switch to a different preset.  

[toonsms]

Either I am misreading terminology or something is amiss in this topic. The thread title says it all. I use the foot version.

 

- setlists contain banks of presets. I have one for guitar and one for bass.

- switching patches requires a dsp memory reload so it is not ideal in a song where there is continuous playing through the patch change.

- In 1-8 mode you get all 8 switches to turn different stomps on and off.

- in 1-8 mode, to switch patches you simply tap the bank down switch with your foot (the first tap does not swith banks yet) and then tap a, b, c, d. To switch patches in that bank.

- in 1-8 mode, to switch to a patch in another bank, tap the bank up or down twice and then a, b, c, d.

- if you arrange your banks and patches right you should not need to view the screen to move around to dramatically to get to the next needed patch.

- if seeing the patch number, letter are a problem standing up, switch to the large patch name view. I am very near sighted and this works for even me.

- rather then dialing in complicated single song variances across patches use the stomp boxes on and off with 1-8 setup.

- you can assign more then 1 stomp to a switch

- now that you are simplifying yoir tone variants with 1-8 you get more out of a single patch meaning in a bank you get more out of a, b, c, d switching without switching banks.

- keep other options one bank away so they are easy to switch to without viewing screen up close or having to use a knob with fingers.

- switching set lists is rare for me using this approach. This is the only time I have to get close to a screen.

[DunedinDragon]

There's no doubt many of us had to change our approach from our previous rigs to account for the delay between patches.  I commonly used different patches within songs when I was using a Mustang IV, and it generally worked very well.

 

But I'm not married to only one way of doing things.  With the range and flexibility the POD provides I was easily able to accommodate vast differences within a song without having to resort to patch changes or even changing to 1-8 mode.

 

But I guess it's unthinkable to some people to consider taking a different approach than what they're used to.  Thank goodness everyone doesn't feel this way or we'd still be riding to work in a horse and buggy....

[cruisinon2]

Do I like the gap? No...but it's not the Matterhorn. There are plenty of ways to camouflage the changes. Dual amp patches, using the expression pedal to smoothly transition from one tone to the other should take care of 90% of these issues. So many amp and fx parameters can be assigned to the expression pedal, I rarely need to switch patches mid-song anymore. And has been noted already, virtually every modeler on the market will suffer from this problem to some degree...work with what you've got.

[Cobdog]

I find the (very short) delay when switching patches to be of little importance to me. I prefer having multiple patches per song. Because of DSP limitations, this set up allows me to cover a wide variety of tones & effects, guitar models (Variax), volumes & tunings (Variax) in any given song without having a programming and/or tap dancing nightmare, never mind having to remember whats what when playing live. You want me to remember EIGHT buttons ? sheesh !

I specifically & religiously use > A-Clean, B-Rhythm Crunch, C-Solo, D-Special (Acoustic etc.) I do the same with my FS assignments in any given patch > FS1- Drive/Dist, FS2- Modulation and so on.

 Most songs only require 2 patches, but some, LIKE Spirit of the Radio in my opinion would require 3. 1A-Intro, 1B-Rhythm/Clean, 3-Solo

 That way i always know what to step on without looking at a 31/2" screen from 6' away. I set my screen view to show me bank & patch only, & mark each song on my (paper) set list for stage with the bank # & patch letter i'm using to start the song.

 It just brings some consistency & predictability to my switching, and takes away a lot of guess work during a performance, especially if your bands song list is always changing on the fly. If any of you have worked with a lead singer, you'll know what i'm talking about. :D  

[croSSed]

toonsms - You are exactly right. I'm still getting used to using this device and I forgot about being able to scroll along using the arrows on the far right. Duh. Yes, that works.

 

Cobdog - I actually came up with a very passable "Spirit of Radio" sound using 2 footswitches as you describe. FS 5 is the intro sound; turn it off and I have the verse sound. FS 6 is the solo section. I actually posted this to the Custom Tone side of things. I also posted a patch for La Villa Strangiato that is REALLY close to the studio version, at least to my ears. In that one I use 4 FS's: Distortion, Analog Chorus, Hall 'verb, and "slap back" echo. In addition to the amp model I chose I'm running a small about of chamber 'verb, and volume pedal.

[toonsms]

toonsms - You are exactly right. I'm still getting used to using this device and I forgot about being able to scroll along using the arrows on the far right. Duh. Yes, that works.

 

Cobdog - I actually came up with a very passable "Spirit of Radio" sound using 2 footswitches as you describe. FS 5 is the intro sound; turn it off and I have the verse sound. FS 6 is the solo section. I actually posted this to the Custom Tone side of things. I also posted a patch for La Villa Strangiato that is REALLY close to the studio version, at least to my ears. In that one I use 4 FS's: Distortion, Analog Chorus, Hall 'verb, and "slap back" echo. In addition to the amp model I chose I'm running a small about of chamber 'verb, and volume pedal.

Cool. Are you using the bean and not the floor model? If so It might be worth adding the shortboard. I'm not 100% sure but I believe they work together and makes switching patches easier.

[croSSed]

I'm using the floor model. There's an HD 500X bean?

[toonsms]

I'm using the floor model. There's an HD 500X bean?

I don't know honestly. Rack exists. Not sure about bean.

I just don't understand switching banks with the manual interface whan you can use the foots witches on yhe left. Up and down. Combined with the large patch name view I can get around with my feet. I don't use a bunch of patches in a session and I group them close to each other.