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Problem when switching between presets HD500X


BuckeyeTodd
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I have my HD500X running through a Stagesource L2t via digital XLR. The problem is, when I switch between presets there is an obvious "break" in the signal. I have tried  not using the ABCD format, and this eliminated the issue. The problem is I switch back and forth quite often between clean tones and crunchy tones during many songs. I haven't been able to find/create a tone that keeps the clean sound I like, with the ability to add in a high gain effect to it that I also like. Any suggestions?

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I have numerous situations that require switching between a clean and crunchy tone and have always been able to address it within a single patch.  As AlexKenivel pointed out, just create your clean tone first.  Then you can add the crunchy tone by simply adding/subtracting effects which I can typically accomplish through one button press.

 

For example, I have one preset that uses a clean amp with reverb and a tremelo.  My FS1 has a Tube Drive and the Tremelo assigned to it.  By default the tremelo is on so when I press FS1 the tremelo turns off and the Tube Drive turns on.  When I press it a second time the Tube Drive turns off and the tremelo turns on to return to the clean setting.  Visually when I'm in clean mode the light on FS1 is off, when I'm in crunchy mode the light is on.

 

If it's a more complex arrangement you can do the same thing using a single footswitch to toggle between two signal paths with two amps.

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My high gain channel is pretty hot, I've messed around with building my own tone but so far everything I've created really sucks....

I have never tried using dual paths, is this difficult to do?

It's no different than creating a single tone. You will have two isolated signal chains within the same patch...one clean, one dirty. Assign the channel volumes for each amp model to the expression pedal, and you can morph seamlessly from one to the other. Almost all of my patches are set up this way. No drop-outs.

 

The only time it gets dodgy, is if you rely heavily on multiple FX. You're still limited to 8 FX blocks, so you have to pick and choose what fx you want with which tone. Having 2 amp models in a patch eats up more DSP also, but I've made it work quite nicely 98% of the time.

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It's no different than creating a single tone. You will have two isolated signal chains within the same patch...one clean, one dirty. Assign the channel volumes for each amp model to the expression pedal, and you can morph seamlessly from one to the other. Almost all of my patches are set up this way. No drop-outs.

 

The only time it gets dodgy, is if you rely heavily on multiple FX. You're still limited to 8 FX blocks, so you have to pick and choose what fx you want with which tone. Having 2 amp models in a patch eats up more DSP also, but I've made it work quite nicely 98% of the time.

Is it possible to assign one amp to a footswitch, so that it can be turned on and off?

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Is it possible to assign one amp to a footswitch, so that it can be turned on and off?

Never tried it, but its not really gonna solve your problem anyway. Turning the amp model off will leave just the raw guitar signal, plus whatever fx you have in the chain, which is gonna be just as jarring as switching between clean and dirty patches. Not much tone to speak of either, with just raw guitar and fx.

 

Dual amp patches are quite versatile, and using the expression pedal to morph between them gives you really smooth transitions, no "pops", no drop-outs. You'll have to fiddle with it for a while to get the volumes right between clan and dirty, but in the end it's worth the time.

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Is it possible to assign one amp to a footswitch, so that it can be turned on and off?

 

yes. i use this on a dual amp setting to toggle in between amp/paths (clean and driven amp). unfortunately, the switch between the 2 path is not seamless. if you are continuously playing, you will hear some sort of sound disturbance (not sure how to describe this) as you switch between the clean and driven amp.

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  • 10 months later...

Hey Alex,..... yes, old post revived....

 

So like many before me, I have discovered the ugly truth of switching between a heavy-distorted Metallica style crunch to a crystal clear clean channel.  

Changing presets has the obvious mute/dropout..

Downloaded your patch up above, but even just the click between clean & dirty on FS1 still has a rather ugly transition when going from dirty back to clean... it's an audible glitch... made worse if i had delay on at the time.

 

Wondering how folks are getting around this.... the expression pedal method?

Can anybody walk me thru setting that up?

 

Thanks,

Dan

 

 

Check this out:

 

www.line6.com/customtone/tone/1964873

 

By default it's set to clean. Hit FS1 and the clean amp turns off and the dirty amp turns on.

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Wondering how folks are getting around this.... the expression pedal method?

Can anybody walk me thru setting that up?

 

Thanks,

Dan

You'll need a dual amp patch. Clean tone in PATH A, dirty tone in PATH B (or vice versa, doesn't really matter). Assign the channel volume parameter of each to the expression pedal. Heel down (the "minimum" position) for the clean, and toe down ("maximum") for the crunch.
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Is there a way to assign the channel volume parameter other than the expression pedal?

I'm using this live and want to midi-trigger all my effects, including clean/dirty.

I was hoping not to involve the pedal just in case i happen to accidentally step on it... 

plus i'm not sure how to assign a midi event to pedal up/down.

Any suggestions?

 

I do have a clean channel amp on top, and crunch on the bottom, was hoping to just assign FS1 to both of them while one toggles off the other goes on.

But then i discovered the dry signal bleeding thru... wah.

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set at zero the bypass volume parameter of both amp models

Thanks Hurgh,

I found that out shortly after my post.

So now my issue is, there is still a pretty nasty little sound between switching from crunch to clean, specially if I had any effects on crunch.

what I have found much better sounding is the expression pedal method switching between the 2 amps!

This is really cool.

However, I need to control that via midi, and I cannot yet figure it out.

Googled and trolled here but no idiot-proof instructions yet for how to select the expression pedal level via midi.

 

Dan

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Thanks Hurgh,

I found that out shortly after my post.

So now my issue is, there is still a pretty nasty little sound between switching from crunch to clean, specially if I had any effects on crunch.

what I have found much better sounding is the expression pedal method switching between the 2 amps!

This is really cool.

However, I need to control that via midi, and I cannot yet figure it out.

Googled and trolled here but no idiot-proof instructions yet for how to select the expression pedal level via midi.

 

Dan

 

The only way to control a block's parameters are to assign the parameter(s) you want to control to one of the expression controllers. Then, for midi control of the expression controllers, you'll want to send CC1 for EXP1 and CC2 for EXP2, with the values going from 0 to 127. What are you using to send midi data to the HD500X, a DAW?

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I'm running Cubase 7 on a MacBook Pro.

I've been able to send midi program changes, bank changes, and FS on/off messages.

 

But the pedal is giving me trouble.

I tried assigning control 1 and control 2 to my same midi channel I'm using, sent a change thru Cubase and the expression pedal light stayed where it was... no change.

 

Having similar trouble assigning the toe switch to engage the wah wah.

If I click the toe switch then expression pedal 2 (where I routed it so the green light = wah) kicks in and the wah works.

But if I send a midi toe switch signal nothing happens.  Not sure what I'm missing.. but in theory both of these *should* work right?

I should be able to create a midi controlled ramp-up for the expression pedal to nicely transition from amp1 to amp 2?

What am I missing?

1. Expression pedal 1 selected to control amp path. (Clean A / Dirty B )

2. Send midi CC1 with value of 127 to emulate pedal all the way down (or up).

 

Anybody get this to work?

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I'm running Cubase 7 on a MacBook Pro.

I've been able to send midi program changes, bank changes, and FS on/off messages.

 

But the pedal is giving me trouble.

I tried assigning control 1 and control 2 to my same midi channel I'm using, sent a change thru Cubase and the expression pedal light stayed where it was... no change.

 

Having similar trouble assigning the toe switch to engage the wah wah.

If I click the toe switch then expression pedal 2 (where I routed it so the green light = wah) kicks in and the wah works.

But if I send a midi toe switch signal nothing happens.  Not sure what I'm missing.. but in theory both of these *should* work right?

I should be able to create a midi controlled ramp-up for the expression pedal to nicely transition from amp1 to amp 2?

What am I missing?

1. Expression pedal 1 selected to control amp path. (Clean A / Dirty B )

2. Send midi CC1 with value of 127 to emulate pedal all the way down (or up).

 

Anybody get this to work?

 

I use Reaper in Windows 10, so sorry I can't help with Cubase 7.

 

But, as long as you have a parameter(s) assigned to an expression controller and want to control that controller via midi, it shouldn't matter what state the onboard pedal is in, so you shouldn't have to worry about toggling the toe switch, unless you want to use the physical onboard pedal.

 

However, for toggling the toe switch, you'll need to use CC59, using any value from 0-127. The value doesn't matter as it's just a toggle.

 

It seems you've pretty much got how this all should work. So if you're using EXP1 to morph between amps (using channel volume from both amps assigned to EXP1), then from Cubase 7 send the HD500X CC1 with values 0-127 (or 127-0), with the values spread out over time, probably 1 sec or less. I imagine that in Cubase 7 you could make your own custom curve too, instead of just sending the data in a linear fashion. And indeed, make sure everything that's communicating is using the same midi channel.

 

I haven't tried any of this with the HD500X I have, but I have done this with my Helix successfully, which is essentially the same for remote control, other than Helix not needing a separate usb-to-midi interface.

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Will try it all again when I get home.

Either I missed something obvious or there's a glitch in my unit.

...or maybe passing expression pedal up/down value isn't midi assignable on the HD500.

Will post results.

Thanx for feedback!

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SUCCESS!

 

Not sure what it was I missed, but it does indeed work!

Cubase now triggers EXP 1 to emulate my foot going down (or up) on the pedal and successfully switches from clean to dirty amps in a gloriously smooth crossfade!

 

MUCH better than a FS button that toggles back & forth with a nasty little noise.

 

Does anybody happen to know if there is a way to achieve this on the small red POD (X3?) to do this?

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SUCCESS!

 

Not sure what it was I missed, but it does indeed work!

Cubase now triggers EXP 1 to emulate my foot going down (or up) on the pedal and successfully switches from clean to dirty amps in a gloriously smooth crossfade!

 

MUCH better than a FS button that toggles back & forth with a nasty little noise.

 

Does anybody happen to know if there is a way to achieve this on the small red POD (X3?) to do this?

 

Glad you got it working.

 

You mean the one still sold that's called the Pocket POD? If so, it sure doesn't look like it. In fact, none of these bean-type devices have any midi capabilities.

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Thanks,

 

Hey, I don't suppose you could look at my other post about not being able to midi switch between expression 1 and 2 could ya?

 

Basically trying to send a midi signal to toggle the toe switch to engage the wah so I don't have to force stomp it.

 

I have the toe switch set at midi 59, I send midi cc 59 signal and it DOES turn on the wah!

BUT it doesn't switch the expression pedal over... so it doesn't "wah".

Tried to include a toggle message on EXP 1, and EXP 2, and both... either nothing happens, or both lights go on, but it never just toggles to EXP 2.

Is THAT possible or am I missing something?

 

Thanks

Dan

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Thanks,

 

Hey, I don't suppose you could look at my other post about not being able to midi switch between expression 1 and 2 could ya?

 

Basically trying to send a midi signal to toggle the toe switch to engage the wah so I don't have to force stomp it.

 

I have the toe switch set at midi 59, I send midi cc 59 signal and it DOES turn on the wah!

BUT it doesn't switch the expression pedal over... so it doesn't "wah".

Tried to include a toggle message on EXP 1, and EXP 2, and both... either nothing happens, or both lights go on, but it never just toggles to EXP 2.

Is THAT possible or am I missing something?

 

Thanks

Dan

 

I think you may have run into a bug. I just tried what I think it is you want to do. I sent CC59 (value doesn't matter) from Reaper through a cheap usb-to-midi device to the HD500X. I get no response from the HD500X. Both the LEDs do eventually light up though, so something happens. The midi activity log in ReaControlMIDI shows the message was sent (B0 3B 7F [CC59] chan 1 val 127). To confirm the midi communication works, toggling the footswitches works fine, and controlling EXP1 (CC1) and EXP2 (CC2) works fine, although don't look at the HD500X's screen as it doesn't seem to update in real time. Both EXP1 and EXP2 can even be controlled at the same time. I'm assuming you want to just toggle the onboard expression pedal so that you can use it manually with your foot? Otherwise, you can automate whatever is assigned to EXP1 and EXP2 via midi.

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Correct, I just want it to trigger the toe switch, which works fine when I step on it... so I can just focus on "Wah-ing" without worrying about actually clicking the switch.   Yeah, it's lazy... but less things to worry about while playing.

 

But alas... it doesn't seem to work.

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