Cross-platform UI for POD 2.0

[liet_]

Dear friends,

 

I'm pleased to announce version 0.4.0 of pod-ui, a cross-platform tool for controlling POD2.0 modelling app. It's an open-scource app available for Linux, Windows and MacOS. Please check out the release page and download the binary for your platform. I'm just one guy with one POD and would genuinely appreciate feedback, especially from Windows and MacOS users.

 

Currently, the app supports controlling POD in real-time as well as loading POD patches from the device and storing them back to the device. I would love to add lib and l6t file loading in the future as well as support for other Line6 device.

 

The pre-compiled binaries on the release page include sentry support, which means that if and when the app crashes, a crash report will be uploaded to the cloud. Otherwise the app does not collect or send any data anywhere else.

 

- liet_

[gbline62016]

OMG this is amazing. I randomly started using my POD 2.0 again, and still love it. And, as a Mac user (Big Sur) I love this software as well. Great job and thank you!

[queisser]

Awesome, works great with my PocketPOD. I was playing around with Vyzex and the UI is a bit weird on my laptop. I like this a lot better and maybe this will even give me a reason to learn some Rust so I understand the code better.

 

Thanks for this!

[ballzar]

Looks good.  I'll give it a shot in my OSX Monterey studio over the weekend.  Have been looking for something

like this for a while.  I still love the old bean.  especially the clean tones.  thank you!

[liet_]

Dear friends,

 

I'm very excited to announce the release of version 0.6.0 with Pod PRO support. As usual, head over to the releases page to download the new release and take it for a spin.

 

The internals of the app have been refactored to allow a module system, which means that we'll be able so see more hardware supported soon. I know, the app already kinda works with Pocket POD already by the virtue of POD devices talking the same MIDI, but it will soon support the device fully and properly since I have a Pocket POD device sitting on my desk ;) Hopefully, this will make Pod UI more relevant to a wider group of people...

 

Among other fixes we also have a proper high-DPI/Retina display support for MacOS, which means no more grainy and aliased fonts! Also, another issue seen by some Mac users, where an amp model drop-down received an out-of-bounds value and crashed the MIDI thread is now fixed.

 

Please don't hesitate to report issues at the github project issues page.

 

- liet_

[gbline62016]

Thanks for the update! Ill check it out asap. Love to see this as I still use my pod 2.0 daily.

 

Cheers

Gasper

[liet_]

Hot on the heels of the recent release comes a fix, version 0.6.1.

 

Somehow I spent too much time working on the software and too little time actually testing it with my POD 2.0 device, but something was just not sitting right with me concerning the earlier "... an amp model drop-down received an out-of-bounds value ..." fix. Sitting down and turning the knobs made me realise that I had the original POD (as in POD 1.0) list of amps and cabs with only 28 amp models instead of the 32 POD 2.0 device supports. That is fixed in the new release.

 

Also, the showing/hiding of the presence knob for POD Pro now follows the same logic as that for POD 2.0 (and how Line6 Edit does it).

 

Ceers,

liet_

 

[liet_]

Dear friends,

 

Please welcome the version 0.7.0 with proper Pocket POD support. head over to the releases page to download the new release and give it a try.

 

Besides the already-mentioned Pocket POD support, there was a whole bunch of bug-fixes and usability improvements. Version 0.6.0 broke the little panic indicator that comes up when one of the app threads crashes. It has now been fixed. Device auto-detect when there is 1 MIDI input/output port has been fixed. Delay time indicator was showing an incorrect value and the value loading from/storing to the program dump was incorrect. Fixed now.

 

Most importantly, when changing the amp model or effects type, the app now requests a program dump from the device much like the official Line6 Edit & Vyzex apps. This is due to the fact that making this changes also may switch cab model, reverb type, etc. Now the UI should correctly show current device settings!

 

Please don't hesitate to report bugs over at the github pages. A user kindly offered his testing help with his PODxt, so I guess that's what we're aiming for next...

 

Cheers,

liet_   

[liet_]

I'm proud to announce a new release, version 0.7.1 with multiple usability improvements, especially for Windows users.

 

The new version adds extra logic to work around what seems like buggy PocketPOD MIDI drivers that would leave the app hanging if it is closed while PocketPOD is sending data.  It also addresses the "Autodetect" and "Test" buttons functionality in Windows.

 

As a last thing affecting stability of all platforms, I've rewritten the MIDI message parsing code to be more resilient against non-Line6 SysEx messages. The parser doesn't make any assumptions anymore and therefore doesn't crash.

 

As usual, head over to the release page to download the new version and take it for a spin.

 

Cheers,

liet_

 

[gbline62016]

Awesome as always! Thanks for the update!

[liet_]

'Tis the season to be jolly. Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!

 

 

Please welcome pod-ui version 1.0.0 with PODxt/PODxt Pro/PODxt Live support. What started as a feature request on the project's github issue page, with a lot of back-and-forth of MIDI message dumps, turned into a major rewrite or pod-ui culminating in this release. Big thanks to Eirik Z - this would not have been possible without you!

 

This release also brings improvements for current users of pod-ui: device auto-detect has been improved, high CPU usage during test/auto-detect has been addressed, the settings dialog now stays square on top, etc. I noticed errors still being reported for older versions of pod-ui in use, so now there are in-app notifications of new versions.

 

As usual, head to the releases page to download the new version and give it a try. If you have other POD devices with MIDI sockets and don't mind doing some testing, do get in touch, I'd love to expand the list of supported devices...

 

Cheers,

liet_

 

 

 

[gbline62016]

Nice! Thank you very much!

[liet_]

There are many more legacy Line 6 POD devices we can add support for with relatively low effort -- Bass POD, Bass PODxt family, Floor POD Plus. I don't have any of these devices, but if there is anyone in these forums that has one and would like to help the project, please read https://arteme.github.io/pod-ui/pages/how-to-help.html#how-to-help and get in touch.

 

The full list of devices I'm interested in adding support for can be found here: https://arteme.github.io/pod-ui/pages/devices.html#devices.

 

Cheers,

liet_

[cabell64]

Wow. I've been looking for something like this forever as a Linux user. And an appimage to boot.

 

I guess it doesn't work with the l6t files?  At least now, I can at least edit what I got.

 

Thanks.

[liet_]

On 1/16/2023 at 9:23 PM, cabell64 said:

Wow. I've been looking for something like this forever as a Linux user. And an appimage to boot.

 

Ha-ha, this is music to my ears! I'm really glad this thing is useful to people.

 

L6T support is definitely on the wish-list. Back in '21 when I started toying with the idea of pod-ui, I dug into the L6T file format and got lost in the weeds. It's practically a SoundDiver .lib file with a few quirks. I'll definitely have a go at it again soon-ish unless I find some more legacy POD devices to support ;)

[liet_]

Dear friends,

 

Please welcome version 1.1.0 of pod-ui with multiple bug-fixes, especially for PODxt users. The app now correctly updates the UI when the "effects" knob is turned or when one of the effect drop-downs is changed in the UI. A couple of v1.0.0 regressions has been found and fixed as well: the selected MIDI channel was not being used and the PocketPOD MIDI quirk was not handled correctly.

 

You will also be pleased to know that the on-disk size of the app has been greatly reduced thanks to optimized release build.

 

Keep on rockin'!

 

[Gascat]

Hi Liet_

 

This may sound pathetic, but I am struggling to know how to load and save patches from my POD 2.0.

 

Do you have a basic user guide or PDF that can help me get up and running with it?

 

Best Regards

Wayne

[liet_]

Hi Gascat,

 

I'm glad you're using the app. Yes, there's a user guide over at https://arteme.github.io/pod-ui/pages/user-guide.html, I hope it clears things up. You should be able to load the patches into the app, modify them and store them back to the device. If, however, you mean saving patches from POD to a file, and loading them back, then that's unfortunately not supported yet.

 

BR, liet_

[liet_]

Hi Gascat,

 

Of course I may have gotten ahead of myself and you may be having connection issues. To connect the POD 2.0 to the PC you'd need either a sound card with a MIDI port or a good USB-MIDI cable such as M-Audio USB Uno https://www.thomann.de/gb/maudio_midisport_uno.htm, unfortunately most cheap Chinese clones that look like https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003373147519.html will not work because they don't transfer SysEx messages correctly (if at all). Let's start here.

 

Once you've connected the POD to the computer, you should be able to just run pod-ui and it will auto-detect the device and download the patches. If this doesn't happen, them maybe you have MIDI problems as above. You can still connect to the device manually -- click on the gadget icon in the title bar and select the MIDI ports manually. Select "POD 2.0" and "omni mode". The app will try to connect to the POD again, but if that doesn't happen, try turning the knobs in your POD. If the controls in the app change similarly, then you definitely has the MIDI-USB-SysEx problem above. If that doesn't happen, that means that the computer is not getting even the basic MIDI signals. Try swapping the MIDI cables around (I could never figure out from the first go, which one goes to "MIDI IN" and which to "MIDI OUT") and repeat the process.

 

If the app is still not responding to anything, drop me a line. If the app responding to some controls and not the others, or something else fishy is going on, do drop me a line. I might've broken something that used to work while making new features.  

 

 

BR, liet_

[gbline62016]

Hi, I'm on MacOS Ventura 13.2.1, using POD UI 1.1.0, (POD 2.3 kidney bean) and I've noticed the shortcut Cmd+Q, or the menu option to Quit, doesn't work. The only way I can quit POD UI is to press the red dot in the top-right-corner of the program. 

Just a heads-up! Everything else works great, thanks again for the software.

If I notice something else, I'll reach out!

 

Gasper

 

[liet_]

Dear Gasper,

 

Thank you for the bug report. I'm not a macOS-native myself, so I easily overlook issues that someone that is used to a Mac workflow would spot. There is a library I could use to integrate with macOS dock & menu bar better. I've added this to the backlog, https://github.com/arteme/pod-ui/issues/32. I'll address this for v1.3.0 as v1.2.0 is going out for a release in a couple days with some long-overdue bug-fixes: https://github.com/arteme/pod-ui/milestone/6?closed=1

 

Keep the bug reports coming ;)

 

Sincerely,

liet_

[pasdiane]

Hello liet_, 

 

it is possible to get from the app the midi parameters of the configured sound?

 

I have a midi controller for my pod 2.0 and this will be very helpful for me. 
 

thanks in advance!

-pasdiane

[liet_]

Dear friends,

 

Please welcome the long-overdue version 1.2.0 of pod-ui with multiple bug-fixes, especially for PODxt users. The major bug fixes include the loading of programs that was broken for PODxt users after the initial data load. Another big issue I've seen is pod-ui crashing on encountering NUL-character in the program name loaded from the POD. Both should be fixed now. Program name editing now updates the corresponding program grid button right away and there are no more surprises when adding a space at the end.

 

It is now also possible to load/save a different program (for example, open 1A, modify it, save it to 3B; or while modifying 1A, reload 1B from device).

 

Next on the list is better macOS integration as discussed here previously and, hopefully, reading/writing L6T files.

 

Keep on rockin'!

[josepqr]

 

 

great, is there an installation guide for dummies? I want to install it on a MAC

[liet_]

Thank you for your interest! Installing on Mac is pretty straightforward:

 

1. Visit https://github.com/arteme/pod-ui/releases and check for the latest release available for Mac. At the time of writing, it is v1.2.0;

2. Download pod-ui-v1.2.0-osx.dmg from the release page;

3. Double-click on the downloaded DMG file, which opens the DMG archive;

4. Drag Pod-UI from the opened DMG window onto your desktop or into the "Applications" folder;

5. Ta-da, the app is now installed, you can start it by double-clicking the Pod-UI application icon.

 

Some times, it doesn't start on the first double-click (right after the install), try again. I'm not a Mac native, so if anyone can explain this phenomenon to me, I'd be much obliged.

 

Cheers!

[msalloumL6]

Liet, I love my Helix Rack but recently dusted off my Pod Pro and am anxious to find an app that will load and transmit L6t files.  I see that this is something you are working on.  Please let me know if this might happen in the near future or if it is simply a wish list item.  Appreciate everything you are doing… 

[liet_]

On 7/2/2023 at 3:16 AM, msalloumL6 said:

Liet, I love my Helix Rack but recently dusted off my Pod Pro and am anxious to find an app that will load and transmit L6t files.  I see that this is something you are working on.  Please let me know if this might happen in the near future or if it is simply a wish list item.

 

Thank you so much for you interest. I've been hoping to work more on L6T support in the summer, but currently I'm recovering from a hard drive crash where I lost my Windows VMs, Line6 Edit, Sound Diver and a whole bunch of code... I guess this is a teachable moment -- take backups, commit & push often :D Realistically though, I think we won't see L6T support till Christmas. I know there is a lot of interest in this, but there's quite a lot to figure out about the format still.

 

Cheers!

[sargue]

Hi!

 

I've just bought a second-hand PODxt, my first Line6 product. I'm just beginning with my guitar so I thought to start with a cheap modeler/effects just to learn and practice at home.

 

Then I discovered that there are lots of custom presets for the PODxt here (https://line6.com/customtone/browse/podxt/). My next doubt was, how to load those to the POD? So looking into the Line6 website I've discovered this forum, went to this section and boom , an wonderful open source app. Amazing job @liet_ !!

A couple of questions: so your pod-ui app will allow me to load presets from that website into the PODxt, right? I've also read on the forum I need to connect it using MIDI, not the USB interface, correct?

 

By the way I'm really sorry to read about your data loss. I'm a developer myself and I'm really obsessed with backups and data integrity. Not just for code, but for everything else. We live in a digital world, more so by each day. Simple manual backups once in a while aren't really enough anymore. I use a combination of local backup, NAS, cold backups and cloud (Backblaze).

Anyway, again, thanks for your work on that nice app. I hope I can use it soon. Let me know if I can help somehow.

[liet_]

Hi @sargue!

 

Thanks for checking out pod-ui! Unfortunately, pod-ui doesn't load presets from files to POD devices. Yet. I know everyone is really looking forward to it, but for now you're only able to have all the knobs and switches all in one place on your screen. Granted, editing the presets on the PODxt device is much simpler than it used to be <insert old man rant here about how the things used to be ...>, but dare I say that the device is way more usable than POD 2.0... Either way, you get the controls and preset management, but not the loading. Yet.

 

For what it's worth, I've not had serious issues using the USB interface. When I started on PODxt support, I found that the Linux driver was broken, but the patches to fix it have long been accepted and I've not had to use the MIDI interface since. The macOS driver can be a bit iffy and ever so often loses connection to the PODxt. My Windows 7 VM works just fine with the USB interface as well. I can't vouch for Win 10/11, I've only done some rudimentary testing with it.

 

Cheers!

 

PS. Yes, the backups are essential. I'm glad I had most of the personal data backed up - locally and in the cloud. But now I have a routine in place for the weekly full HD backups B)

 

PPS. If you're interested, both pod-ui and l6t-rs can use some love so we get l6t-file loading done sooner ;)

 

[sargue]

Thanks for your kind reply @liet_, 

 

After posting my message I discovered I cannot download presets from the Line 6 website I linked on my original message. It turns out you need some kind of registration that I don't have, as the POD is second hand.

 

So no rush, I'm taking it easy. I'm still learning lots of things about the POD and digital audio in general. I want to test pod-ui eventually, looks really good.

 

Thanks for your hard work.

[liet_]

@sargue, I'm not sure I get what you mean. The login to CustomTone is the same as this forum. At least it works this way for me -- I log in here and navigate to the link you've provided where I  can download the tones. Some give me L6T-files, some give error 404. My PODxt is not registered, but it is authorized. Maybe that counts for something, but the same way I can download POD HD present, for example, for which I have no hardware or activation.

 

Then, of course, you're faced with a problem of how to load the L6T file to the device and that's why you came here. For now, I think your best bet is a Windows 7 VM with Java 8 and Line6 Edit. That would also help with authorization if you chose to upload modelpacks to the device.

 

Cheers!

[sargue]

I fixed the problem for the CustomTone website. Indeed, I used the same login for the forum and CustomTone. But when I clicked to download a file it said it required a registered product or software purchase. I have none on my account. I tried to register the PODxt but I missed an invoice and date of purchase as it was second hand.

 

Much later I tried again and I ignored the field about the invoice. I just entered the serial number. Fortunately, it worked! So now I can download presets from CustomTone.

 

Now I need to find the time to try drivers for Win10 and the PODxt and see if I can use your software. Currently, I don't have any MIDI interface.

 

About loading the presets you say "Line6 Edit" is my best bet. I'm confused about all different sofware options. The legacy support page for PODxt has several references to sofware (Gearbox, Pod Farm) but no "Line6 Edit". It is a bit confusing, I bet due to the product being discontinued.

[liet_]

Dear friends,

 

It's been a while! Today I'm proud to announce version 1.3.0 with POD 1.0 and Bass PODxt family support. As usual, there are bug-fixes that are especially interesting for the PODxt people.

 

Keep on rockin'!

[liet_]

Happy New Year, dear pod-ui users,

 

It's been a while since the last release, which means that it is time for a new one. I present to you v1.4.0, which comes with a few minor improvements and fixes. First off, proper macOS integration finally means that the "Quit" menu items (both application menu and dock) actually close the app. Second, tempo controls added for PODxt and Bass PODxt devices. Finally, the Linux build was broken in v1.3.0 and is now fixed. Please head over to the releases page to download the fresh release.

 

I am also proud to say that L6T reading and writing work has been proceeding nicely and a version with patch loading is not very far away....

 

Cheers! 

[gbline62016]

Great! Thank you and happy new year!