3.6 When ?

[kartikg3]

I certainly won’t ever complain on Line 6 about it. Putting profiling in something like the stomp may very well be an excellent idea in todays market… but I wouldn’t ever use it or ever want to. Maybe just me…

But yeah, because of this I don't really get the current love affair with the ToneX pedal and software.

That was me until a few days ago when I decided to see what all the fuss with ToneX was about. I spent a day (lol) trying to figure out how to make my HX Stomp double up as a pure audio interface to use with my DAW and have VSTs loaded. I started on this journey a tally after Line6 announced another sale of the Helix Native, on which I finally jumped, and eventually fell in love with the freedom! After I successfully got HX Stomp+Native to work, I got VST Amp modeling curious, got Amplitude demo and Tonex demo and WOW. That JCM800 man, I just LOVED it. I kept trying different profiles they have, and yes, I can now see (or hear rather) what the fuss is about. Profile captures some "photorealism" and "feel" (I cringe as I type that word here) that is really refreshing. I love modeling and Line6 HX models rock. But it's nice to have nicely profiled captured as well for that "uniquely real" flavour.

Then I stumbled upon NAM, which is an open source machine learning amp capyure and playback plugin, that is getting popular really fast with its community shared patches and captures. I tried it and loved it as well.

@Digital Igloo Line6 should definitely try incorporating something like that into the HX line, could unlock so much, esp. in this current trend of AI capture h/w that are sounding quite darn good.

 

[kartikg3]

That was me until a few days ago when I decided to see what all the fuss with ToneX was about. I spent a day (lol) trying to figure out how to make my HX Stomp double up as a pure audio interface to use with my DAW and have VSTs loaded. I started on this journey a tally after Line6 announced another sale of the Helix Native, on which I finally jumped, and eventually fell in love with the freedom! After I successfully got HX Stomp+Native to work, I got VST Amp modeling curious, got Amplitude demo and Tonex demo and WOW. That JCM800 man, I just LOVED it. I kept trying different profiles they have, and yes, I can now see (or hear rather) what the fuss is about. Profile captures some "photorealism" and "feel" (I cringe as I type that word here) that is really refreshing. I love modeling and Line6 HX models rock. But it's nice to have nicely profiled captured as well for that "uniquely real" flavour.

Then I stumbled upon NAM, which is an open source machine learning amp capyure and playback plugin, that is getting popular really fast with its community shared patches and captures. I tried it and loved it as well.

@Digital Igloo Line6 should definitely try incorporating something like that into the HX line, could unlock so much, esp. in this current trend of AI capture h/w that are sounding quite darn good.

TLDR: Adding NAM to the Stomp, if possible, could be high value low hanging fruit for Line 6. I am curious if their market research suggests something along those lines as well. Either ways, power to L6 and the Helix crew for keeping this wonderful line hot and full of value.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Not sure I'd add anything like that to the HX line if I was Line 6. I mean, it's sort of ageing hardware and at the same time they need good reasons to sell the next hardware line to their customers.

 

[James Freeman]

Easiest thing Line 6 can do that will yield the biggest tone variations is to let us use Preamp models with different Poweramp models.
I would kill to be able to use the Mark IV Preamp with the JCM800 or Rectifier poweramp with some effects in between, or the the Mark IV Lead channel with the Channel 1 Poweramp which is exactly like of a Mark IIC+ poweramp.

It's literally RIGHT THERE, no need to model anything.

EDIT:
Friedman preamp -> Rectifier powermp, brutality.
Plexi preamp -> diode clipper -> JCM800 poweramp, ghetto Jose mod.
Mark IV CH1 preamp -> Chorus -> compressor -> HiWATT poweramp, Dvaid Gilmour.
Rectifier -> Vox.
Vox -> Rectifier.
Twin Reverb preamp -> 5150 poweramp = 5150III clean channel.
Bassman bright channel -> Brit Trem poweramp = a better JTM45.
Virtual FX Loop !
etc.
etc.

Create your amp, mix match, experiment.

 

[James Freeman]

An innovative feature no other modeler does, many hours of fun with infinite new amp tones, very little extra work.
Sometimes I think Line 6 are walking on gold without looking down.

 

[Digital Igloo]

An innovative feature no other modeler does, many hours of fun with infinite new amp tones, very little extra work.
Sometimes I think Line 6 are walking on gold without looking down.

The big question is if and if so, how many others end up beating us to the punch.

EDIT: Oh, you're talking about separate preamps/power amps. Never mind, I thought you were talking about some nebulous "many hours of fun" features, which yes, we're working on.

 

[pipelineaudio]

Not sure I'd add anything like that to the HX line if I was Line 6. I mean, it's sort of ageing hardware and at the same time they need good reasons to sell the next hardware line to their customers.

Allegedly its as fast as the current hardware pretty much

 

[Lysander]

EDIT: Oh, you're talking about separate preamps/power amps. Never mind, I thought you were talking about some nebulous "many hours of fun" features, which yes, we're working on.

 

[James Freeman]

EDIT: Oh, you're talking about separate preamps/power amps. Never mind, I thought you were talking about some nebulous "many hours of fun" features, which yes, we're working on.

I'm having a hard time understanding that post, too many commas.

edit:
Working on separate poweramps?
That would be lovely.
Can't wait to build my own abomination!

 

[Sascha Franck]

Allegedly its as fast as the current hardware pretty much

Sure. But it's lacking of other things and sort of "plagued" with less than shiny, non fixable issues. At least I for one would not buy one of the larger versions for the latter reasons again.

 

[the-trooper]

Working on separate poweramps?

No, working on some "nebulous, many hours of fun, feature".

 

[James Freeman]

"nebulous, many hours of fun, feature"

A psychedelic 18 minute ambiánce reverb or maybe Autotune™?
yeah...

 

[pipelineaudio]

Sure. But it's lacking of other things and sort of "plagued" with less than shiny, non fixable issues. At least I for one would not buy one of the larger versions for the latter reasons again.

To be clear, I don’t believe a syllable of the dsp being as fast as current dsp (and please for the love of FSM let’s not get into a silly pedantic game of what exactly dsp power is), but from a cpu use standpoint, some of the profile players use significantly less cpu as a Vst than helix native running vitriol does, so it seems like it could be doable

Not sure what other really bad issues the helix has. I really love it but maybe I got used to work arounds and don’t specifically see the issues

 

[Sascha Franck]

Not sure what other really bad issues the helix has. I really love it but maybe I got used to work arounds and don’t specifically see the issues

For me it's the mediocre hardware. XLR out with PP issues, switches breaking, joystick breaking, incredibly bad visibility under critical lighting conditions. Add to this the worst of its class interface latency (requiring me to often flip flop interfaces when doing recording related things).
Oh, and for me the Floor and LT are too huge and heavy. They're just so big as to lose any suitcase, backpack and gigbag compatibility (the GT-1000 is just perfect for that and allows you to compensate for the lower switch count).
Then there's no global block functionality - something the next all-in-one modeler I purchase will have.

All this is too bad because basically, I like the platform. Editing is easy on Floor an LT (unfortunately almost horrible on the Stomp that I still use as a main thing of my board) and the plugin compatibility pretty much floats my boat.

 

[James Freeman]

PP issues

Oh no!

 

[SillyOctpuss]

All this is too bad because basically, I like the platform. Editing is easy on Floor an LT (unfortunately almost horrible on the Stomp that I still use as a main thing of my board) and the plugin compatibility pretty much floats my boat.

I find the stomp really easy and quite quick to edit on, even while using it live.

 

[GTR37]

Easiest thing Line 6 can do that will yield the biggest tone variations is to let us use Preamp models with different Poweramp models.
I would kill to be able to use the Mark IV Preamp with the JCM800 or Rectifier poweramp with some effects in between, or the the Mark IV Lead channel with the Channel 1 Poweramp which is exactly like of a Mark IIC+ poweramp.

It's literally RIGHT THERE, no need to model anything.

EDIT:
Friedman preamp -> Rectifier powermp, brutality.
Plexi preamp -> diode clipper -> JCM800 poweramp, ghetto Jose mod.
Mark IV CH1 preamp -> Chorus -> compressor -> HiWATT poweramp, Dvaid Gilmour.
Rectifier -> Vox.
Vox -> Rectifier.
Twin Reverb preamp -> 5150 poweramp = 5150III clean channel.
Bassman bright channel -> Brit Trem poweramp = a better JTM45.
etc.
etc.

Create your amp, mix match, experiment.

The problem is from a real life authentic perspective it’s not as easy as you might think
Everything can have an effect in the tone you have different voltages
Different B+ , different impedances
You can’t also successfully just Frankenstein a Vox preamp into a rectifier power amps , you would likely have to have access to a ton of additional parameters that are currently not available to the End user

 

[Sascha Franck]

I find the stomp really easy and quite quick to edit on, even while using it live.

Each to their own. But how's that? Almost all blocks have extremely relevant parameters on page 2. Why aren't they on page 1 as in Zoom land?
Also, you cannot completely switch off the capacitive behaviour of the switches so accidentally touching a switch will probably change the LEDs on/off status - an absolutely horrible UI mess.
And add to this that you can't switch off model selection for the lower right encoder - which is just driving me mad and another example of UI design fail (which L6 could easily fix but apparently don't want to).
Seriously, compared to, say, an MS-50G, it's almost horrible to operate on the unit.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Each to their own. But how's that? Almost all blocks have extremely relevant parameters on page 2. Why aren't they on page 1 as in Zoom land?
Also, you cannot completely switch off the capacitive behaviour of the switches so accidentally touching a switch will probably change the LEDs on/off status - an absolutely horrible UI mess.
And add to this that you can't switch off model selection for the lower right encoder - which is just driving me mad and another example of UI design fail (which L6 could easily fix but apparently don't want to).
Seriously, compared to, say, an MS-50G, it's almost horrible to operate on the unit.

I've never used the zoom and the stomp is the first modeller I've owned since a flextone ii. Like you say to each their own, I genuinely find it fine to use and almost never accidently select a block by hitting a switch.

 

[Sascha Franck]

almost never accidently select a block by hitting a switch.

I don't do that either because I've switched that option off. Still leaves other capacitive options intact, for whatever weird reasons.