talonmm Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Every once in a while, my tones do really strange things with wahs. If I can't resolve the issue I will restart the tone building from scratch and the problem goes away, so my occasional issues are probably because of bad setups and not hardware. I am up to date on software, drivers and the editing program. Today I built a tone where I do the normal standard pedal setup. I do this on every single tone I build on my hd500x. That way, all tones behave in a similar way when I play. I place a volume pedal on exp 1 and a wah on exp 2. I leave both "on" and default to the volume pedal on exp 1 being selected when the tone starts. On today's tone build, when the wah is not on (because I am on exp 1) it seems I get a locked in wah sound. Locked in meaning it sounds like the wah is on and there's that well-known tone sound we hear when the wah is being used but not changing because the foot pedal is not being raised or lowered. The wah is not selected at this point and using the foot pedal does not change that locked in wah sound. When I shut off the wah using the editor software that fixed wah tone goes away. And when I switch to exp 2 the wah is functioning and sounding fine. No matter what I do I can't get rid of the wah tone in exp 1 unless I shut off the wah in the edit program but then I loose the ability to use the wah. I did not try to move the wah to a different footswitch button as that would defeat the purpose of standardizing each tone in my system. Changing wah models and/or moving the wah to different parts of the fx chain does not help. I'm baffled by this. Any thoughts on what could be causing this? I checked my other tones that work fine and the settings on the controllers and pedal options all look identical with the tone that's giving me fits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
talonmm Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 the first FX on the left in the chain (active or not) affects the impedance (ie also the guitar tone) circuit built in into the Guitar In input, and every FX has a different Z value.. if you don't like that changing impedance behaviour, the solution is to set the impedance to 1MΩ or 3.5MΩ (instead of "auto" ) in all your patches, or set it as "global" (into the system settings) to affect all the patches at once, and forget it EDIT: you have to assign the wah fx to the pedal toe switch manually, so when you'll press down the pedal to use the toe switch underneath, the wah will turn off/on Thanks. That would explain why I occasionally run into problems with wah pedals on the hd500x. I'm sorry to be so dense, but could you explain what you mean assign the wah fx to the pedal toe manually? I guess my first step is to choose a wah pedal under the fx section. Usually the wah will set up automatically to the exp-2 setting which is what I want. How exactly do I update the switch manually to help shut off the wah in exp-1. thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
talonmm Posted September 27, 2016 Author Share Posted September 27, 2016 From the Signal Flow View select the FX that you want assigned to one of your switches. Then Press and hold the ENTER button to display the Footswitch Assign screen. Use Multi-function Knob 1 to select the switch to which you want this FX Block assigned I suggest to download the advanced guide where you can find many useful info about how to use this device I much prefer to use the edit program on a computer than the controls on the unit itself. I did what you suggested, but used the editor instead. It seems I'm always fighting with the pod xd500 and 500x when using an editor. at first, the changes did not seem to change when I shut off the wah pedal on the fx screen, but eventually with the pedal off, I was able to engage it in the controller section and that annoying fix wah sound that caused me to start this topic was finally gone! Thank you so much, your advise worked! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt_Brown Posted September 28, 2016 Share Posted September 28, 2016 Yes, I prefer to use the Edit Programme but I got caught - luckily at a rehearsal, not a gig - when I needed make some changes and I found that I couldn't! Since then I've used the interface on the POD so I can fix things. OK, i use the interface for patch building but it's good to be able to do it on the pod too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
talonmm Posted September 28, 2016 Author Share Posted September 28, 2016 surely the editor is much more eye catching, incomparable for ease of naming the patches and transfer/copy them to other slots, and irreplaceable to save/load them to/from computers, and moreover if the device is placed on the floor and your back is not in pristine condition, it is the only reasonable solution.. unless I need to use the wah and/or to do some tap dancing on the footswitches, when I'm in studio, I place often the POD handy above a combo amp or on a small table, and I do all my tweakings and patch building directly on the device, and I'm quite fast, faster than when I use the editor.. and yes, as you said, another advantage is that at gigs, I always know where to put my hands in case of need.. also, the editor generally works well, but it has still a few flaws, and finally some particular settings are available only on the device.. on the other hand, a disadvantage of doing always editing on the device is that the physical buttons and controls do not last forever It must be nice to use the pod directly if it reduces the flaws and handshaking challenges of the editor. The editor is nice , but like you said there are some flaws (and dare I say bugs) in the editor. I find I have to constantly change tones and then switch back to the tone I am working on, or reboot the pod to determine the real sound that has been created and modified on a tone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brue58ski Posted September 28, 2016 Share Posted September 28, 2016 Here's the catch/trick with assigning the toe switch to anything. The expression pedal is two controllers in one, Exp 1 and Exp 2. When you "click" the toe switch, it toggles between them. Here's an example of the catch/trick. Let's say you have a Volume Pedal assigned to Exp 2 and the POD has Exp 2 selected. So right now the Volume Pedal works. You have decided to add a Wah and assign it to Exp 1. So you add the Wah and it is assigned to Exp 1 (FYI, the POD always automatically assigns the Volume Pedal to Exp 2 and the Wah to Exp 1 when your first select them). So now you click the toe switch to go to Exp 1 which controls the Wah and the Wah works. You then click the toe switch to go back to EXP 2 and the Volume Pedal BUT when you switch back to the Volume Pedal, Volume Pedal works but the Wah is still engaged at the toe down position. Why? If you look at your screen you can see that the Wah is still on, it's just not being controlled by anything anymore. It's locked at the toe position because that's where you had to move it to to switch to Exp2 to control the Volume Pedal No switch has been assigned to turn the Wah off. So,realizing your mistake, you go in and assign the Wah to the toe switch which will then turn it on and off as well as toggling between Exp1/Wah and Exp2/Volume Pedal. Great, now you press the toe switch to go back to the Exp1/Wah and WHAT?? It's not working!! Why? Look at your screen again. Even though you are now on Exp 1 and controlling the Wah with it, the Wah was turned off when you clicked the toe switch. This is because since it was on when you had the Exp2/Volume Pedal selected, when you clicked the toe switch you not only switched to the Exp1/Wah but you turned the Wah off at the same time. You are controlling an effect that isn't on. This is because it toggles to the opposite state it was in when you assigned the footswitch. Since the Wah was on when you selected the toe switch and you were on the Exp2/Volume Pedal, when you clicked the toe switch, even though you are now controlling the Exp1/Wah, you turned the Wah off by clicking the toe switch to select the Exp1/Wah. How do I correct this? Glad you asked. You have to pay attention to the state things are in when you select the toe switch. As in the case above, if you are on the Exp2/Volume Pedal when you select the toe switch to turn the Wah off and the Wah is also turned on, when you engage the toe switch to go to the Exp1/Wah, you also turn the Wah off since it was on when you clicked on the toe swithch to go from the Exp2/Volume Pedal to the Exp/Wah. I think this might illustrate this better. Here's how you started off in the above example Effect Controlled By Controller Current Status Assigned to Toe Switch Effect's Current State (On/Off) Volume Pedal Exp 2 Selected/Controlling No On Now, here's where you are when you put the Wah in Effect Controlled By Controller Current Status Assigned to Toe Switch Effect's Current State (On/Off) Wah Exp 1 Not Selected/Not Controlling No On Volume Pedal Exp 2 Selected/Controlling No On Now, click the toe switch and here is where you are Effect Controlled By Controller Current Status Assigned to Toe Switch Effect's Current State (On/Off) Wah Exp 1 Selected/Controlling No On Volume Pedal Exp 2 Not Selected/Not Controlling No On Wah works. But switch back and you're here again Effect Controlled By Controller Current Status Assigned to Toe Switch Effect's Current State (On/Off) Wah Exp 1 Not Selected/Not Controlling No On Volume Pedal Exp 2 Selected/Controlling No On Wah on but not controlled. Now if you assign the toe switch at this point you have this. Effect Controlled By Controller Current Status Assigned to Toe Switch Effect's Current State (On/Off) Wah Exp 1 Not Selected/Not Controlling Yes On Volume Pedal Exp 2 Selected/Controlling No On And here's your status after clicking the toe switch. Effect Controlled By Controller Current Status Assigned to Toe Switch Effect's Current State (On/Off) Wah Exp 1 Selected/Controlling Yes Off Volume Pedal Exp 2 Not Selected/Not Controlling No On So yes Exp 1 is controlling the Wah but it can't do anything since the Wah effect has been turned off. And if you switch back to Exp 2 again, the Wah is switched on but stays in the toe position since we have now switched to Exp 2 controlling the Volume Pedal. Notice also the Volume Pedal never turns off. It isn't assigned to the toe switch however It doesn't make any difference since when you move the pedal to click the toe switch the Volume Pedal is full on which is the same as it being off. Essentially you have to pay attention to which Exp is currently selected when you assign the Wah to the toe swtich. If Exp1/Wah is on, then you have to make sure the Wah is on when you select the toe switch. If Exp2/Volume Pedal is on, then you have to make sure that the Wah is off when you select the toe switch. Ultimatelly winding up with these two possible states when you click the toe switch. Effect Controlled By Controller Current Status Assigned to Toe Switch Effect's Current State (On/Off) Wah Exp 1 Selected/Controlling Yes On Volume Pedal Exp 2 Not Selected/Not Controlling No On Effect Controlled By Controller Current Status Assigned to Toe Switch Effect's Current State (On/Off) Wah Exp 1 Not Selected/Not Controlling Yes Off Volume Pedal Exp 2 Selected/Controlling No On Well I hope this helps someone. It is way longer than I thought it would be but I like to be thorough. Even so, I'm not so sure how well I did explaining it. If we were in the same room, I could show you this a lot faster than it took to write it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
talonmm Posted September 28, 2016 Author Share Posted September 28, 2016 some editor features are documented a bit so-so.. and others not at all.. maybe you don't know that every time you select a patch, its data are read from its specific memory slot, and loaded in a temporary buffer memory, every change you do to that patch affect only the data into the buffer memory and not the original ones still into the memory slot.. therefore the only way to make permanent the changes in the patch is to save them back to the original slot with the specific command.. the big difference between the editor and the device used alone and disconnected from the computer, is that the editor has unlimited temporay buffers, whereas the device alone has only one.. this means that into the editor you can change several patches in a given session, the editor will use a different buffer for each o them, keeping track of any change made to all of them, and you can make permanent the changes by saving all of them at once, or if you prefer you can save only same of them one by one, or you can reload/re-read the original patch/es data by using the appropriate command.. when using instead the device alone, since there is only one temporary buffer memory, if you want make permanent the eventual changes in a patch, you have to save it before selecting another patch, otherwise you'll lose everything you did on the previous patch.. the editor surely has some flaws, like not displying some parameters values, or the delay time not properly stored in the patch, etc... but luckily I never had to reboot the device to solve sync issues One of the two bugs I see often is when I make a change in the edit program and the highlighted tone become italicized and has the asterisk. I save the tone often by sending to the pod. Ideally you want to send the modified tone back to the pod as a single tone "send". This often becomes useless as the asterisk and italic type will still show as being modified. So then I have to send the entire set list to the pod for it to register the change and that setlist send is time consuming. Here's the second bug: It's critical that all my tones have the same volume so that when I play with the band each song has the proper volume mix with the other band members. I find that many times when editing, the volume of the tone I am working on becomes lower through the amp, and then I am not sure if that's my new tone that's way too low or a temporary bug. The only way to know for sure is to reboot the pod and reload the entire system into editor, or switch tones on the pod and then return to the tone in question. So what should take an instant seems to take a heck of a lot longer to finish modifying tones due to all the saves, and all the restores. My drivers and software all all current as per Monkey. This problem has been compounded recently by me trying to add about a 10db increase in volume in many of my tones and assigning them to a specific foot switch for my soloing (I don't think the problems have anything to do with the foot switch assignment). So it has become very time consuming and a headache to make sure that every tone in my arsenal is around the same volume and every volume boost is a similar volume match. Combined with the weirdness of the edit program, it's a challenge when the volumes drop off when using the edit program to modify tones. Eventually when everything seems to be perfect and I just use the pod to a dt amp, the pod works fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
talonmm Posted September 28, 2016 Author Share Posted September 28, 2016 Here's the catch/trick with assigning the toe switch to anything. The expression pedal is two controllers in one, Exp 1 and Exp 2. When you "click" the toe switch, it toggles between them. Here's an example of the catch/trick. Let's say you have a Volume Pedal assigned to Exp 2 and the POD has Exp 2 selected. So right now the Volume Pedal works. You have decided to add a Wah and assign it to Exp 1. So you add the Wah and it is assigned to Exp 1 (FYI, the POD always automatically assigns the Volume Pedal to Exp 2 and the Wah to Exp 1 when your first select them). So now you click the toe switch to go to Exp 1 which controls the Wah and the Wah works. You then click the toe switch to go back to EXP 2 and the Volume Pedal BUT when you switch back to the Volume Pedal, Volume Pedal works but the Wah is still engaged at the toe down position. Why? If you look at your screen you can see that the Wah is still on, it's just not being controlled by anything anymore. It's locked at the toe position because that's where you had to move it to to switch to Exp2 to control the Volume Pedal No switch has been assigned to turn the Wah off. So,realizing your mistake, you go in and assign the Wah to the toe switch which will then turn it on and off as well as toggling between Exp1/Wah and Exp2/Volume Pedal. Great, now you press the toe switch to go back to the Exp1/Wah and WHAT?? It's not working!! Why? Look at your screen again. Even though you are now on Exp 1 and controlling the Wah with it, the Wah was turned off when you clicked the toe switch. This is because since it was on when you had the Exp2/Volume Pedal selected, when you clicked the toe switch you not only switched to the Exp1/Wah but you turned the Wah off at the same time. You are controlling an effect that isn't on. This is because it toggles to the opposite state it was in when you assigned the footswitch. Since the Wah was on when you selected the toe switch and you were on the Exp2/Volume Pedal, when you clicked the toe switch, even though you are now controlling the Exp1/Wah, you turned the Wah off by clicking the toe switch to select the Exp1/Wah. How do I correct this? Glad you asked. You have to pay attention to the state things are in when you select the toe switch. As in the case above, if you are on the Exp2/Volume Pedal when you select the toe switch to turn the Wah off and the Wah is also turned on, when you engage the toe switch to go to the Exp1/Wah, you also turn the Wah off since it was on when you clicked on the toe swithch to go from the Exp2/Volume Pedal to the Exp/Wah. I think this might illustrate this better. Here's how you started off in the above example Effect Controlled By Controller Current Status Assigned to Toe Switch Effect's Current State (On/Off) Volume Pedal Exp 2 Selected/Controlling No On Now, here's where you are when you put the Wah in Effect Controlled By Controller Current Status Assigned to Toe Switch Effect's Current State (On/Off) Wah Exp 1 Not Selected/Not Controlling No On Volume Pedal Exp 2 Selected/Controlling No On Now, click the toe switch and here is where you are Effect Controlled By Controller Current Status Assigned to Toe Switch Effect's Current State (On/Off) Wah Exp 1 Selected/Controlling No On Volume Pedal Exp 2 Not Selected/Not Controlling No On Wah works. But switch back and you're here again Effect Controlled By Controller Current Status Assigned to Toe Switch Effect's Current State (On/Off) Wah Exp 1 Not Selected/Not Controlling No On Volume Pedal Exp 2 Selected/Controlling No On Wah on but not controlled. Now if you assign the toe switch at this point you have this. Effect Controlled By Controller Current Status Assigned to Toe Switch Effect's Current State (On/Off) Wah Exp 1 Not Selected/Not Controlling Yes On Volume Pedal Exp 2 Selected/Controlling No On And here's your status after clicking the toe switch. Effect Controlled By Controller Current Status Assigned to Toe Switch Effect's Current State (On/Off) Wah Exp 1 Selected/Controlling Yes Off Volume Pedal Exp 2 Not Selected/Not Controlling No On So yes Exp 1 is controlling the Wah but it can't do anything since the Wah effect has been turned off. And if you switch back to Exp 2 again, the Wah is switched on but stays in the toe position since we have now switched to Exp 2 controlling the Volume Pedal. Notice also the Volume Pedal never turns off. It isn't assigned to the toe switch however It doesn't make any difference since when you move the pedal to click the toe switch the Volume Pedal is full on which is the same as it being off. Essentially you have to pay attention to which Exp is currently selected when you assign the Wah to the toe swtich. If Exp1/Wah is on, then you have to make sure the Wah is on when you select the toe switch. If Exp2/Volume Pedal is on, then you have to make sure that the Wah is off when you select the toe switch. Ultimatelly winding up with these two possible states when you click the toe switch. Effect Controlled By Controller Current Status Assigned to Toe Switch Effect's Current State (On/Off) Wah Exp 1 Selected/Controlling Yes On Volume Pedal Exp 2 Not Selected/Not Controlling No On Effect Controlled By Controller Current Status Assigned to Toe Switch Effect's Current State (On/Off) Wah Exp 1 Not Selected/Not Controlling Yes Off Volume Pedal Exp 2 Selected/Controlling No On Well I hope this helps someone. It is way longer than I thought it would be but I like to be thorough. Even so, I'm not so sure how well I did explaining it. If we were in the same room, I could show you this a lot faster than it took to write it out. Well you just proved to me I am not going crazy. I don't believe I have ever had this problem before, until working with a specific tone that caused me to create this post. If seems to me, the people who designed the pod could have made this simpler, who would want to lock the wah in a single position and then not be able to access it? Thanks for explaining this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brue58ski Posted September 29, 2016 Share Posted September 29, 2016 Well you just proved to me I am not going crazy. I don't believe I have ever had this problem before, until working with a specific tone that caused me to create this post. If seems to me, the people who designed the pod could have made this simpler, who would want to lock the wah in a single position and then not be able to access it? Thanks for explaining this! I don't mind that it's the way it is because I find it to be very flexible in it's current configuration. BUT....PLEASE Line 6, don't make us have to just figure it out!!!! Please give us some instruction, if ya know what I mean. And I know you do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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