DSP intensive Helix effects on POD Go

[ElectroStrat]

Hi all,

I've submitted the following idea on line6.ideascale.com

 

Idea 5555 - DSP intensive effects on POD Go

The POD Go sound and user friendly interface are great.
However, the DSP intensive effects from HELIX (e.g. Cosmos Echo) are not available.
And this will probably be the case for other HELIX 3.0 effects.

It would be awesome to be able to use these missing Helix effects even if selecting one of them means fewer or no more blocks available for other effects.
And without compromising the streamlined interface of the POG Go, these effects could be visible only if a preference setting (e.g. "Enable heavy FX") is chosen by the user.

 

May be some of you will agree and vote for this idea.

[voxman55]

It was a conscious decision by Line 6 not to include these because the drain on DSP would be too much for Pod Go to meet the needs of most users. Perhaps if there are fx that would use a bit more DSP then I concur, but not if one fx would use up more than say 35-40% of DSP. 

[ElectroStrat]

Sometimes, there is no need for 4 effects. Just one or two special / iconic effects can make a great tone. "Simple is beautiful" like the simplicity of the POD Go.

[voxman55]

1 hour ago, ElectroStrat said:

Sometimes, there is no need for 4 effects. Just one or two special / iconic effects can make a great tone. "Simple is beautiful" like the simplicity of the POD Go.

True, and I concur it would be good to have the option. But if Pod Go was too good, the differention between products would be more blurred and Line 6 might hurt themselves by losing customers for it's more expensive products. 

 

Also, I think Line 6 might hope that a fair number of Pod Go customers will 'progress' to buy Helix (LT or Floor). If they put more into Pod Go they'd be losing some potential upgrade market. So I think there is some conflict of interest here albeit an understandable one. 

 

Personally I'd never ever buy Helix Floor simply because it's far too big and heavy, and I simply wouldnt need or want all that extra connectivity anyway.  I went for Pod Go because of its compact size, light weight, nicer display, and simpler operation and because it does 90% of what I want. If I ever did 'upgrade', the only thing I'd consider is a pre-owned Helix LT, but even then the used prices would have to fall further and unless I was back gigging regularly there really wouldn't be any point. 

[ElectroStrat]

On 11/21/2020 at 1:48 AM, voxman55 said:

Also, I think Line 6 might hope that a fair number of Pod Go customers will 'progress' to buy Helix (LT or Floor). If they put more into Pod Go they'd be losing some potential upgrade market.

 

I may be wrong but I don't think that many POG Go users will upgrade to the Helix LT or Floor given the huge price difference.

The HX Stomp and HX Effects are closer to the POG Go price wise.

The HX Stomp and HX Effects have more routing and input/output options (eg MIDI in/out) ... The POG Go has a built-in expression pedal and a great and simple user interface. They're different in terms of "hardware" and usage.

I've chosen the POG Go and I fully understand the limitation of a single effect chain and the lack of choice for mono/stereo per effect type for simplicity sake.

 

In the photography world, Fuji is well known to improve their cameras through firmware upgrades.

Their cameras differs in terms of hardware or physical features (dedicated physical dials, weather resistance...).

But for the same generation of image sensor and processor, the entry level and the high level cameras have the same image quality and features. The choice is based on the hardware / physical features.

 

I hope that Line 6 has the same philosophy as Fuji.

I hope the POD Go to have the same individual effects that the HX Stomp and HX Effects have and not be "locked artificially".

 

[acuba]

1 hour ago, ElectroStrat said:

 

 

I've chosen the POG Go and I fully understand the limitation of a single effect chain and the lack of choice for mono/stereo per effect type for simplicity sake.

 

I hope the POD Go to have the same individual effects that the HX Stomp and HX Effects have and not be "locked artificially".

 

 

same thoughts here... For me weight and size were main reason not to look at HELIX LT at all. I had possibility to get one secondhand LT model for new price of Pod Go, so I made my choice

[voxman55]

9 minutes ago, acuba said:

 

same thoughts here... For me weight and size were main reason not to look at HELIX LT at all. I had possibility to get one secondhand LT model for new price of Pod Go, so I made my choice

Similar - weight & size (and the nicer display) were the key factors for me too. I was tempted to go for a used LT but I'd be back to a bigger, heavier unit again and in my small den I needed something with a smaller footprint.  I was thinking of going for a Mooer GE300 but a big consideration was the much better customer support from Line 6.

 

However, and it's an interesting dynamic, there have been changes both ways - Some Pod Go owners have upgraded to Helix/Helix LT, but some Helix users have 'down-graded' to Pod Go too.

[acuba]

3 hours ago, voxman55 said:

Similar - weight & size (and the nicer display) were the key factors for me too. I was tempted to go for a used LT but I'd be back to a bigger, heavier unit again and in my small den I needed something with a smaller footprint.  I was thinking of going for a Mooer GE300 but a big consideration was the much better customer support from Line 6.

 

However, and it's an interesting dynamic, there have been changes both ways - Some Pod Go owners have upgraded to Helix/Helix LT, but some Helix users have 'down-graded' to Pod Go too.

I am very happy with my Pod Go. They promoted Pod Go as device having same amount of amps and fx as Helix. After latest Helix update it seem to be difference and old promotion does not effective anymore. I went away from Mooer because they have only 20 empty IR slots even for newest expensive GE300 model, 10 slots only for GE200. Mooer also released new amps, but there are no more empty slots to load them and no way to delete those, you don't use))) I am just afraid Pod Go will go same way....Hope they don't))) Probably we gonna get some additional stuff, except of pitch shifter our DSP can't process...For me, once again, money was not an issue, but weight and size. And for most of us too, I think

[voxman55]

Line 6 said Pod Go had MOST of the Helix models but not to expect all the Helix upgrades going forward...if you wanted these, Pod Go wasn't the unit for you and Pod Go wasn't a Helix unit.  So from that perspective I'm afraid that Pod Go is the poor relation and we are unlikely to get too much in the way of upgrades. Nevertheless, I hope Line 6 won't ignore Pod Go users completely and still tries to give us some enhancements, especially as the only firmware releases so far were only for fix bugs. Clearly Line 6's greater priority was Helix but now that it's released v3.0 perhaps now they'll focus on Pod Go a bit and throw a few things our way. 

[acuba]

7 hours ago, voxman55 said:

Line 6 said Pod Go had MOST of the Helix models but not to expect all the Helix upgrades going forward...if you wanted these, Pod Go wasn't the unit for you and Pod Go wasn't a Helix unit.  So from that perspective I'm afraid that Pod Go is the poor relation and we are unlikely to get too much in the way of upgrades. Nevertheless, I hope Line 6 won't ignore Pod Go users completely and still tries to give us some enhancements, especially as the only firmware releases so far were only for fix bugs. Clearly Line 6's greater priority was Helix but now that it's released v3.0 perhaps now they'll focus on Pod Go a bit and throw a few things our way. 

if you download comparison chart here on webpage you will see, that amp amount is same as all Helix products. It was...untill Helix update 

but I hope we get something new as well)

[voxman55]

I don't understand the point of your last post. No one is disputing the original comparison but Line 6 has not only made no promises that matching will continue, but has made it clear  Pod Go won't be getting all the Helix upgrades. 

[Rossco02]

Pod Go is definitely not a Helix and therefore will not get Helix upgrades....but I'd be very very surprised - given Line 6 commitment to its product lines - if Pod Go doesn't receive it's own regular updates. There are certainly a few immediate things I suspect they'll want to do in the first update just to "fix" a few things and make it more viable for gigging (snapshot and multi stomp naming for instance). After that I think you'll see steady occasional updates with additional amp models, new effects, tweaks to existing effects and possibly better ways to utilise stomp switches and disable/remove fixed blocks. You're right this is a lot cheaper than Helix LT etc.. but for many it's still an expensive unit. 

[voxman55]

8 hours ago, Rossco02 said:

Pod Go is definitely not a Helix and therefore will not get Helix upgrades....but I'd be very very surprised - given Line 6 commitment to its product lines - if Pod Go doesn't receive it's own regular updates. There are certainly a few immediate things I suspect they'll want to do in the first update just to "fix" a few things and make it more viable for gigging (snapshot and multi stomp naming for instance). After that I think you'll see steady occasional updates with additional amp models, new effects, tweaks to existing effects and possibly better ways to utilise stomp switches and disable/remove fixed blocks. You're right this is a lot cheaper than Helix LT etc.. but for many it's still an expensive unit. 

 

I'd be surprised too if Line 6 didn't begin to give Pod Go users some true upgrades, particularly bearing in mind the only firmware changes so far have been only to rectify glitches/bugs.  Sadly, so far there's been no indication from Line 6 of any upgrade coming.  Normally they'll 'tease' with some advanced notice albeit they won't give details.  It would certainly be nice to know if something is coming for Christmas or even early in the New Year.   Now that v3.0 for Helix is done and dusted, we can only hope line 6 is 'on the case' for its Pod Go customers. 

[Rossco02]

I suspect the timing of any release of new firmware will be inline with marketing/sales approaches.. every time they do something like this it generates lots of discussion and media interest AND consequently sales. I'm sure they will be working on Pod Go stuff but the release will be dictated a little by how they see sales going and whether these are still rising or have levelled off. Also I don't see a lot of people pumping ideas in ideascale. There was a recent article on Helix 3.0 and they clearly said they take steer and direction on changes from that site. You look at ideascale from a helix perspective and they have 100s of votes for particular changes compared to 10s of votes for Pod Go. That is probably indicative of how many people have it and that many are new to the Line 6 range.

[rosskoss]

I'm not interested in running a million things in my chain like it's possible on Helix. I stick to a few effects for my chain which is why I got the Pod Go (and it was a great $400 decision!). The Pod Go does 90% of what I want it to do and is set up the way I like it (wah, volume etc.)

 

However, I'm hoping that we can still get some of the updated amps (like Princess)! Leave it to the user to make the tradeoffs on what he can run given the limited DSP on Pod Go but do give him the latest, updated amp models (i.e. new amp models + any updates to old models). This makes a big difference to me - I want the power and incredible accuracy of Helix amp modeling - but I don't need the power, signal chain flexibility (and added cost!) provided by the actual Helix.