Friedman IR-X + HX Effects

[Jarick]

= WIN

Man this is a really sweet setup. It's powerful and flexible but fairly simple, has minimal menu diving and tweaking required, and sounds killer.

The Friedman does a fantastic job of giving awesome amp and cab tones without any tweaking required. There's no temptation to go in and mess around with anything, just pick the channel, turn the knobs, and you're off. MIDI channel switching is pretty simple from the HX Effects as well. I never did hear back about CC values so I just have the clean channel on PC0 and dirty on PC1. In Command Center you can send that signal pretty easily and it's been working great.

The HX Effects is really cool, as expected. I'm running the IR-X in 4 cable method using drive pedals from the HXFX in front and stereo post-effects. I find the drive pedals to basically sound the same as the analog ones I've tried, and the delays and reverbs are all fantastic. Might be my imagination but it seems like the HXFX sounds a little better than the Stomp used for effects only into my interface.

I've said it a million times but the only thing missing for me is a really good Eventide stereo pitch detune. The dual pitch block sounds weird and the chorus effects don't have the same vibe.

 

[dronerstone]

I've kinda been doing this for some time now, my at-home headphone setup is an HX FX with an expression pedal, a Model T preamp, and a Two Notes CAB M+.

Sounds just as good into a proper power amp or fx return, and I can imagine the Friedman is also really cool and comes in handy when it's used that way!

That said, I love how the routing possibilities and dual loops of the HX FX can do a lot of the lifting, while being easy to set up.

 

[EOengineer]

I've kinda been doing this for some time now, my at-home headphone setup is an HX FX with an expression pedal, a Model T preamp, and a Two Notes CAB M+.

Sounds just as good into a proper power amp or fx return, and I can imagine the Friedman is also really cool and comes in handy when it's used that way!

That said, I love how the routing possibilities and dual loops of the HX FX can do a lot of the lifting, while being easy to set up.

Why not use the HXFX IR loader vs adding the extra hardware via the Cab M? Running out of CPU in the HXFX?

= WIN

Man this is a really sweet setup. It's powerful and flexible but fairly simple, has minimal menu diving and tweaking required, and sounds killer.

The Friedman does a fantastic job of giving awesome amp and cab tones without any tweaking required. There's no temptation to go in and mess around with anything, just pick the channel, turn the knobs, and you're off. MIDI channel switching is pretty simple from the HX Effects as well. I never did hear back about CC values so I just have the clean channel on PC0 and dirty on PC1. In Command Center you can send that signal pretty easily and it's been working great.

The HX Effects is really cool, as expected. I'm running the IR-X in 4 cable method using drive pedals from the HXFX in front and stereo post-effects. I find the drive pedals to basically sound the same as the analog ones I've tried, and the delays and reverbs are all fantastic. Might be my imagination but it seems like the HXFX sounds a little better than the Stomp used for effects only into my interface.

I've said it a million times but the only thing missing for me is a really good Eventide stereo pitch detune. The dual pitch block sounds weird and the chorus effects don't have the same vibe.

I have a similar board but swap the Friedman with a Tonex.

An HXFX paired with almost any other amp modeler/profiling device makes for an absolute POWERHOUSE compact rig.

My other guitarist isn’t a digital guy. He tried this board in our silent rehearsal space and it left with him. He’s been using it for a year and I fell back to my Helix. There are a lot of guys like him who I bet would find appeal in the Friedman and HXFX as a best of both worlds direct/headphone rig they can not only live with, but enjoy.

That’s a hot setup.

 

[dronerstone]

Why not use the HXFX IR loader vs adding the extra hardware via the Cab M? Running out of CPU in the HXFX?

Not DSP, but running out of blocks, mostly due to a noise gate and parallel drives.

 

[kavooch]

Can anybody please tell me how to use the HX FX to control the IRX using midi? I can't figure it out

 

[Enchilada Jones]

Can anybody please tell me how to use the HX FX to control the IRX using midi? I can't figure it out

Not in front of my HXFX and don’t have a Friedman irx but I would guess if you know which CC number activates/ deactivates a switch oh the Friedman you could use that number and assign it a value of 1 for deactivate and 126 for activate. If the Friedman has presets you want to call up use PC instead of CC. (CC is continuous controller and PC is program change)

if there is a choice for toggle instead of value the pick momentary and toggle for the CC number you are trying to control

sorry, I’m hoping this gets you close, or aggravates someone who sees where I got something wrong and they jump in to save you from my weak contribution lol

on HXFX you have to find the ‘control center‘ page ( I think that is what it is called ) to assign these kind of things. I think you can also decide if every time you stomp on a new preset in HXFX will it automatically send a PC or not so you might want to look into that
im pretty sure you can make it so the preset number in HXFX isnt the same number sent to other devices…. So stomp on HXFX preset 5 might send PC number 55 for example in Friedman irx

oh! Rule number 1 make sure you are sending this data to whatever midi channel the Friedman is set to receive on! Some devices only have a single channel to work with, most let you pick the send and receive channel manually in their setup menu.
Something sending midi can send multipl devices the same or varying changes but only the changes pointed to a devices channel will get there, the rest just fly on by to get picked up by any device listening on the other channels you send something on

 

[Jarick]

I have not figured out CC values for the Friedman if it even supports it. I set up programs on the Friedman using the app, 0 for channel 2 and 1 for channel 1. Then on HX use command center to send PC either 0 or 1 to change channels on either preset or snapshot.

 

[drewdemaio]

= WIN

Man this is a really sweet setup. It's powerful and flexible but fairly simple, has minimal menu diving and tweaking required, and sounds killer.

The Friedman does a fantastic job of giving awesome amp and cab tones without any tweaking required. There's no temptation to go in and mess around with anything, just pick the channel, turn the knobs, and you're off. MIDI channel switching is pretty simple from the HX Effects as well. I never did hear back about CC values so I just have the clean channel on PC0 and dirty on PC1. In Command Center you can send that signal pretty easily and it's been working great.

The HX Effects is really cool, as expected. I'm running the IR-X in 4 cable method using drive pedals from the HXFX in front and stereo post-effects. I find the drive pedals to basically sound the same as the analog ones I've tried, and the delays and reverbs are all fantastic. Might be my imagination but it seems like the HXFX sounds a little better than the Stomp used for effects only into my interface.

I've said it a million times but the only thing missing for me is a really good Eventide stereo pitch detune. The dual pitch block sounds weird and the chorus effects don't have the same vibe.

Hello! I have the HX Effects and I'm considering the IR-X to pair with it just as you have. I noticed that the IR-X has a BALANCED out. Is that an issue going into the HX Effects? Did yo have to change the settings of the in/out of the loop to line level? Does that even matter?

 

[Jarick]

Not the best photo but I got a Metro 20 and mounted everything together. Powering it with the Voodoo Lab X8 and using a couple current double adapters. Works great!

 

[Jarick]

Hello! I have the HX Effects and I'm considering the IR-X to pair with it just as you have. I noticed that the IR-X has a BALANCED out. Is that an issue going into the HX Effects? Did yo have to change the settings of the in/out of the loop to line level? Does that even matter?

No issues with the balanced out, you can run it into anything just fine.

I think I would run the input and line out at Instrument and line in and output as Line levels. The HX Effects and Friedman both want to see instrument levels. I don't think it hurts anything either way.

 

[MachX]

Not the best photo but I got a Metro 20 and mounted everything together. Powering it with the Voodoo Lab X8 and using a couple current double adapters. Works great!

I am looking at this combination (having no experience yet with either) but trying to figure how how this could be wired up such that I could play through my amp and HXFX as usual and then switch to playing HXFX and IR-X through my amp's FX return (as just a power amp). And of course having regular pedals in front and in the effects loop. Any suggestions for a wiring diagram? I assume I need a splitter/switcher/looper in there somewhere... Can HXFX do that itself? Friedman's manual gets us partially the answer with regular pedals.

 

[cragginshred]

I am selling one of my 2 HX FX if anyone is interested.

Line 6 HX Effects Multi-Effect Pedal 2018 - Present - Black | Reverb

For sale is my gently used HX effects . Functions flawlessly. You may find a few light scratches but I didn’t see anything significant to capture in a photo.PM me with any questions

reverb.com

 

[Los-D]

= WIN

Man this is a really sweet setup. It's powerful and flexible but fairly simple, has minimal menu diving and tweaking required, and sounds killer.

The Friedman does a fantastic job of giving awesome amp and cab tones without any tweaking required. There's no temptation to go in and mess around with anything, just pick the channel, turn the knobs, and you're off. MIDI channel switching is pretty simple from the HX Effects as well. I never did hear back about CC values so I just have the clean channel on PC0 and dirty on PC1. In Command Center you can send that signal pretty easily and it's been working great.

The HX Effects is really cool, as expected. I'm running the IR-X in 4 cable method using drive pedals from the HXFX in front and stereo post-effects. I find the drive pedals to basically sound the same as the analog ones I've tried, and the delays and reverbs are all fantastic. Might be my imagination but it seems like the HXFX sounds a little better than the Stomp used for effects only into my interface.

I've said it a million times but the only thing missing for me is a really good Eventide stereo pitch detune. The dual pitch block sounds weird and the chorus effects don't have the same vibe.

Are you still rocking this setup? Seriously considering giving this a go.

 

[Jarick]

Are you still rocking this setup? Seriously considering giving this a go.

Super coincidentally, I just hooked the two of them back together this morning and have been playing through the power amp/speaker of my Boss Katana Artist.

They work really well together. The IR-X takes pedals really well and the HX Effects sounds really good along with it. I'm running it in 4CM with the IR-X in the loop of the HX Effects basically. So I can do things like compressor and boost before the "amp" and then post effects like delay and reverb.

The effects of the HX are pretty good. They may not be Fractal/Strymon but they would probably cover 95% of most pedal needs. The drives in particular are excellent and sound natural. HX Effects has some nice quality of life stuff too, it's super well built, it has scribble strips, lots of switches, just a nice pedalboard in a box.

Two things kind of bum me out. There's only four snapshots even though there are six switches, would have been nice to have those extra options. The other is that channel switching on the Friedman via MIDI has a little delay and if you switch snapshots, it changes effects before the amp. So you hear a little blip of effects sneak through like a weird noise.

 

[Los-D]

Super coincidentally, I just hooked the two of them back together this morning and have been playing through the power amp/speaker of my Boss Katana Artist.

They work really well together. The IR-X takes pedals really well and the HX Effects sounds really good along with it. I'm running it in 4CM with the IR-X in the loop of the HX Effects basically. So I can do things like compressor and boost before the "amp" and then post effects like delay and reverb.

The effects of the HX are pretty good. They may not be Fractal/Strymon but they would probably cover 95% of most pedal needs. The drives in particular are excellent and sound natural. HX Effects has some nice quality of life stuff too, it's super well built, it has scribble strips, lots of switches, just a nice pedalboard in a box.

Two things kind of bum me out. There's only four snapshots even though there are six switches, would have been nice to have those extra options. The other is that channel switching on the Friedman via MIDI has a little delay and if you switch snapshots, it changes effects before the amp. So you hear a little blip of effects sneak through like a weird noise.

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I really like the L6 effects but I do want to try the IR-X so looking for something that can serve MIDI controller as well.

 

[Jarick]

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I really like the L6 effects but I do want to try the IR-X so looking for something that can serve MIDI controller as well.

I think the issue is probably on the Friedman side honestly. I think I had the same thing with my Axe FX 3.