Pod Hd Pro Startup Glitch?

[jameshb]

New HD Pro owner here. Bought it used off eBay two weeks ago, received it on 11/8/13. Unit is in mint condition cosmetically, was packed in pristine Line 6 original packaging, even the shipping box was Line 6. I felt like I'd practically got a brand new unit, but after a week of testing it out, I'm a little worried about a glitch that has popped up.

 

This is my first experience with Line 6's HD series. I've had a POD XT for 10 years, so I'm very familiar with using the Monkey app to get updates, etc, as well as direct recording via USB. I already had the 4.2.7.1 drivers installed on my PC. I ran the Monkey app and it asked me to register the HD Pro, which I did. It showed firmware 2.10 being on the HD Pro. I downloaded and installed POD HD Pro Edit 2.23 and fired everything up. All looked good! Didn't have time to actually play that evening.

 

My signal chain is... Ibanez RG570 > POD HD Pro > KRK Rokit 6 G2 (via XLR).

 

The next morning, 11/9/13, I sat down and began checking out the unit. I went thru all of the factory presets. I actually thought that some were pretty cool. I could definitely hear a difference compared to the XT unit. Spent about 4 hours playing with just the factory presets.

 

The next evening, on 11/10/13, I downloaded some presets from Custom Tone to try out, found some pretty cool stuff.

 

The morning of 11/11, I wanted to go thru every amp, one by one, with nothing else in the chain, just to hear the amps themselves. I didn't even want to touch any settings for each amp, just leave them in their default state. I also had the Model Gallery PDF open to refer to for each amp. I started with the 1st amp, the Blackface Double Nrm. My first reaction was that the volume was very low and that the amp sounded weak, like something was not set right. The Master was already at 100%, so I turned up the drive to about 70% and the channel volume to 90%. Then I started to hear hiss and some very low freq humming. I shut off my monitors and put on my headphones. I went in to the setup and looked at the input setting. It was set for... Input 1: Gtr+Line L+Variax (Imp at 1m), Input 2: Gtr+Line R+Variax. I started changing input 1 & 2 to different settings and noticed that the signal got quieter as long as "Line" or "Mic" was not in the mix. Even "Guitar" had a bit of noise. "Variax" was the quietest. I ended up selecting input 1: Guitar and input 2: Guitar. The hiss was pretty much gone, but the low freq hum was still present. It's the kind of hum that you can barely hear and can't quite make out where it's coming from. I tried the "lift" switch on the back of the unit, didn't make any difference. I even unplugged my guitar cable from the POD as well as changing guitar cables, but it had no affect. I also unplugged the USB cable as well as changing it and even disconnected the cables to my monitors, but neither of those had an affect. Also tried plugging in the power cable to a different outlet, away from all the computer stuff, no difference.

 

I played around with that amp for about a half hour. I added a noise gate, which helped clean up the little bit of hiss that was still present. The hum was still present, I just figured it was caused by a piece of electrical gear, electrical wiring, who knows. It was barely noticable, so I didn't really care that much.

 

Moving on, I went to the next amp, the Hiway 100, which had the same low volume as the amp before. Again, I changed the input settings. I also adjusted the drive and channel volume, which resulted in hiss. I played that amp for 15-20 minutes and moved on. Next was the Super O. Made the same changes as with the previous amps and had the same results as the previous two amps. Didn't play that for too long, maybe 10 minutes.

 

Next was the Gibtone185. That amp sounded good. The volume was still a little low, but it was clean and full sounding. There wasn't any hiss. I didn't change the input setting. Didn't need a noise gate either. I don't even remember if the hum was still present. I was really enjoying that amp, I ended up adding a plate reverb and I couldn't stop playing. Didn't even change any of the settings on the amp itself. I played for probably 2 hours! I loved it so much, I saved it as a preset.

 

That's as far as I got checking out each amp. I took a break to eat lunch and when I came back I decided to check out some presets on Custom Tone. I fired up the POD and HD Edit and went to the Custom Tone site to downloaded some high gain presets. The first one I imported into HD edit went into USER 1A, which was where I had saved that awesome Gibtone185 preset I created a few hours earlier. I thought, oh crap, my first preset is gone! I figured out how to revert the 

process and my Gibtone preset was back. Whew! Then I strummed my guitar to hear that awesome Gibtone preset again and it was completely different! It wasn't clean and full sounding, it was distorted and kinda raunchy! I double checked POD settings and the amp settings and nothing had changed since I created the preset. I was kinda dumb-founded.

 

I started thinking, what the hell just happened? I wondered if the Gibtone185 was supposed to sound clean or have some distortion. I had never heard it before that morning, so I had no idea. I got online and found some samples of what each amp supposedly sounds like. All of the Gibtone185 examples had that mild crunch. So why did mine on the morning of 11/11/13 sound so clean and crisp? And why was the volume low?

 

I did some more research and came across a few posts on the Line 6 forum archive (such as this http://line6.com/supportarchivenew/thread/77958) about the volume of the HD Pro being low on startup and then being correct after turning it off and then back on. After reading them, I started to think that my unit must have done that as well. When I first turned it on the morning of 11/11, it must have been operating improperly. Once I turned the unit off to go eat lunch and then turned it on after I got back, the unit must have started up properly. In those posts about the low volume I didn't see any reference to distortion being normal or absent. In my case, why was the Gibtone185 lacking distortion that it is supposed to have?

 

Besides the research, I have re-flashed the 2.10 firmware, and did a system reset. I saved my Gibtone185 preset before doing that, although it actually sounds different than when I originally created it because I created it while the unit was in "glitch" mode!

 

I played thru the HD Pro a few times this last week and it seemed to be okay, although I'm concerned that there could be something wrong with it. That low volume glitch has me thinking that this unit is not operating as it should be, so how am I to be certain it's operating correctly when the volume is supposedly at it's normal level after I turn it off and back on. Without being able to test another HD Pro, I have no way of knowing. It would be great if I could check out another HD Pro for a comparsion.

 

This morning, the low volume on startup happened again. It booted up into my USER 1A preset, which is my Gibtone185 preset, it was crystal clean sounding, no crunch at all. I turned it off and then back on and it was back to the way it should be, lightly crunchy!

 

Since I bought this used, I don't know what my options are of getting it checked out. I contacted the seller and was told that he took delivery of this unit back in Dec 2011, and he had not encountered this issue.

 

I'm thinking about trying to rollback the firmware way back to 1.30 just to see what happens. If 1.3 is on the HD Pro, can I still use HD Pro Edit 2.23?

 

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them.

 

Also, every time I start the Monkey app it asks me to register the HD Pro. I did that already. I even removed the HD Pro from my account and registered it again, but the Monkey app still says that it needs to be registered.

[jameshb]

Just turned on the HD Pro about an hour ago. It started up in "glitch" mode (low volume) again. It started up in 1B "New Tone" preset, which is where I left it last night when I turned it off. The only items in the chain are a BF Double Nrm amp and a plate reverb, all amp controls at their default setting. That preset has the input set to the factory default of Input 1: Gtr+Line L+Variax , Input 2: Gtr+Line R+Variax. Guitar In-Z is at "1M". The Master on the front of the unit is at 100%.

 

This time, I wanted to do some testing while it's in "glitch" mode. I have my Ibanez RG570 plugged in to the front "Guitar" input. I plugged my Ibanez 540R in to the "L/Mono" Line Input on the back of the POD. The Level switch is set to "-10". I went in to the Inputs Setup and changed Input 1 to "Guitar" and Input 2 to "Line L".

 

Note: Both guitars have the same gauge strings (9-42), same tuning (E Std) same Dimarzio pickups (Tone Zone/bridge, Fast Track 1/middle, Air Norton/neck).

 

I strummed the RG570 and the volume was very low. I then strummed the 540R and there was no sound. WTF? I double-checked the connection on the back of the POD, which was good (in L/Mono). I also double-checked the Input Setup and Input 2 was set for "Line L". Strummed again, no sound. I went back to Inputs Setup again and tried all the options for Input 2 and noticed that I got sound when the input was set to "Line R". That's weird! The Inputs Setup for Line Input does not match what is actually connected to the Line Input on the back of the POD!!! The volume coming from the rear input was much louder, which I assume is the normal level. I played both guitars for a while to verify that each guitar was producing it's own signal independent of each other, which checked out good. The RG570 (front input) produced a very low volume, but the 540R (rear input) was loud and clear.

 

I then changed the amp to the Gibtone185, left the plate reverb in there too. The front input produced a low volume, hardly any crunch, sounded pretty weak. The rear input produced a louder volume, nice crunch, sounded pretty normal. In my post above, I mentioned that the Gibtone185 was very clean, with no crunch, when the POD was running in "glitch" mode. I now believe that was because I had my RG570's pickup set to the neck PU at that time.

 

I did some recordings of the difference in volume. I recorded the Gibtone185 amp with each guitar and with each pickup position. Here's are examples...

 

RG570 - Bridge PU - Input 1: Guitar (front of POD) http://jimnjen.com/misc/rg570-bridge-input1-guitar.mp3

 

540R - Bridge PU - Input 2: Line R (rear of POD) http://jimnjen.com/misc/540r-bridge-input2-liner.mp3

 

I'll do some more recordings of different amps and post them here a little later.

[jameshb]

More recordings while the HD Pro is in, what I call, "glitch" mode...

 

RG570 - Bridge PU - BlackFace Double Nrm - Input 1: Guitar (front of POD) http://jimnjen.com/misc/rg570-bridge-bfdblnrm.mp3

 

540R - Bridge PU - BlackFace Double Nrm - Input 2: Line R (rear of POD) http://jimnjen.com/misc/540r-bridge-bfdblnrm.mp3

 

RG570 - Bridge PU - JCM800 - Input 1: Guitar (front of POD) http://jimnjen.com/misc/rg570-bridge-jcm800.mp3

 

540R - Bridge PU - JCM800 - Input 2: Line R (rear of POD) http://jimnjen.com/misc/540r-bridge-jcm800.mp3

 

Since the two guitars have a slight difference in sound/output, I did this test...

 

RG570 - Bridge PU - BlackFace Double Nrm - Input 1: Guitar (front of POD) http://jimnjen.com/misc/rg570-bridge-bfdblnrm-frontinput.mp3

 

RG570 - Bridge PU - BlackFace Double Nrm - Input 2: Line R (rear of POD) http://jimnjen.com/misc/rg570-bridge-bfdblnrm-rearinput.mp3

[jameshb]

Update...

 

I turned off the HD Pro and turned it back on. The volume level seems correct now. Another thing that was corrected was the input setting for the Line Input on the rear of the unit, it now matches what you select in the Inputs Setup. That's really odd. I hope Line 6 sees this.

 

I'm a little bummed that I have to deal with this glitch. It seems like maybe it has something to do with the guitar input on the front of the unit and possibly the Guitar In-Z. Maybe it has something to do with having the guitar plugged in when the unit boots up.

 

Here are recordings of the unit in "normal" mode...

 

Note: there is a slight difference in volume between the front and rear inputs. The rear is slightly louder. At least the front is much better than it was in "glitch" mode.

 

RG570 - Bridge PU - BlackFace Double Nrm - Input 1: Guitar (front of POD) http://jimnjen.com/misc/rg570-bridge-frontinput-pc.mp3

 

RG570 - Bridge PU - BlackFace Double Nrm - Input 2: Line R (rear of POD) http://jimnjen.com/misc/rg570-bridge-rearinput-pc.mp3

[jameshb]

Just want to mention that the Output Mode has always been set to "Studio/Direct".

 

Hopefully somebody can shed some light on this. I know there has been some discussion on the Line 6 Forum regarding this issue, but it has been nearly 2 years ago.

 

http://line6.com/supportarchivenew/thread/77958

 

http://line6.com/supportarchivenew/thread/91057

 

http://line6.com/supportarchivenew/thread/88492

[silverhead]

Here perhaps is some info for your consideration re: the lack of response to your post. I noticed your thread today for the first time, and opened it. The sheer length of the first post dissuaded me from reading it in case the issue was already answered, so I scanned down further. I notice several additional posts by you with further detailed info and about a dozen relevant mp3 files.

 

I estimated that it would take me at least 30 minutes, probably longer, to thoroughly read, assess, and determine whether or not I have anything to offer. Then further time spent on composing a meaningful response. I can't do that right now, and likely never will have that kind of time to spend on a single post. So I thought I'd at least tell you why I am not responding.

 

If you can possibly start a new thread, and be short and concise about your problem, perhaps more readers will spend their time considering it.

 

Please don't take this the wrong way; it's offered in a spirit of helpfulness.

[jameshb]

I see your point, but I was just trying to be thorough because this issue, from everything I've gathered so far, isn't because I've simply missed something right out of the user manual. Since this issue is most likely something that the average forum member will not have the time to really dig in to, I opened a support ticket.

[jameshb]

11/25/13 update:

 

Since updating to 2.20 one week ago I have not had the low volume glitch at all. My HD Pro has been powered up about 20 times in the last week and has been fine every time.

 

I will mark this issue as "solved". Thank you Line 6.

[mborsini52]

I purchased my HD Pro X new from zZounds.com in December.  Immediately has the low volume glitch.  Once I discovered that it was in fact the POD causing the problem, I returned it to zZounds.  They sent me a new one, which happened to have the same problem.  zZounds told me they could not return it again because it was already past the 30 day mark.  I took it to a local service center Dirty Town amps in Lakewood.  They performed a repair which obviously did not fix the issue.  I then submitted the unit to Line 6 directly to be repaired in house.  Received it back from Line 6 with the same issues as before.  This has been going on for nearly a year and I have yet to get this problem resolved.

[BillBee]

Well that sucks some lollipop. Contact Line 6 and have your support docs ready (dates and the whos and whats) if they believe that a repair that they did was faulty they will usually jump on it like a mad dog. 

[joel_brown]

Did it have version 2.20 or higher installed ?