Line 6 ... Behind the Scene's / Open Day

[BenIfin]

Really cool behind the Scenes look at L6 ... with a nice part comparing their real Friedman to their model of that same Friedman.



Ben

 

[laxu]

This is a great video that is frutstrating to watch because the cameraman is like a seasick sailor. Can't stay still one second, constantly panning and zooming and moving around with autofocus going haywire.

Pretty cool to see some of the tools Line6 uses:

 

[DieSchmalle]

 

[DrewJD82]

These are awesome!!

 

[LP59]

It's worth watching the video just to hear DI's story about the origin of the name Line6 .

 

[la szum]

Loved both of those. Just watched.

 

[laxu]

If only the engineers at Line6 had just gone "hey, the HX Stomp is too small, put a larger screen and more encoders on it and we can fit the rest inside." Every time I try the HX Stomp I immediately get frustrated by how awkward it is to use compared to the full Helix, but the Helix Floor is a no go for me because of its size. I need Helix Desk!

Ben Adrian's comment about people wanting someone to curate sounds instead of people figuring things out on their own is interesting. While I'm pretty good at figuring out how to use building blocks to make something, at the same time there's just times when all I want to do is play and have someone give me a pre-chewed solution that requires minimal effort to do the thing.

I think that's something that Strymon for example does so well. The other night I was comparing the Strymon Flint V2 I bought from Japan to the SA Collider for the spring, plate and hall and I could sit on both sides of the fence which one is better, but the Flint's tones for plates and halls were just like "it's there, that's it" right from the start whereas the Collider needed a bit more tweaking to find that sweet spot where it isn't overbearing, too bright or dark but just blends in nicely. I think that's good about Fractal mod/delay/reverb effects too, a lot of them just need lowering the mix a bit. With Line6 effects I often don't end up quite liking the default settings and figure out my own.

 

[Jarick]

Really cool videos. Appreciate seeing the work these guys put in and are willing to share.

 

[DieSchmalle]

 

[Stone]

Seems they indirectly answered the direction they will be taking
Focus on inhouse modeling And Appeal more to the younger beginner crowd

 

[Digital Igloo]

Seems they indirectly answered the direction they will be taking
Focus on inhouse modeling And Appeal more to the younger beginner crowd

The video was shot before POD Express was announced so at least part of our ramblings spoke to that product.

 

[Stone]

The video was shot before POD Express was announced so at least part of our ramblings spoke to that product.

Ohh my observation was not in any way negative,
It sounds like a very good outline for a future roadmap, but again I was only speculating

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

If only the engineers at Line6 had just gone "hey, the HX Stomp is too small, put a larger screen and more encoders on it and we can fit the rest inside." Every time I try the HX Stomp I immediately get frustrated by how awkward it is to use compared to the full Helix, but the Helix Floor is a no go for me because of its size. I need Helix Desk!

Ben Adrian's comment about people wanting someone to curate sounds instead of people figuring things out on their own is interesting. While I'm pretty good at figuring out how to use building blocks to make something, at the same time there's just times when all I want to do is play and have someone give me a pre-chewed solution that requires minimal effort to do the thing.

I think that's something that Strymon for example does so well. The other night I was comparing the Strymon Flint V2 I bought from Japan to the SA Collider for the spring, plate and hall and I could sit on both sides of the fence which one is better, but the Flint's tones for plates and halls were just like "it's there, that's it" right from the start whereas the Collider needed a bit more tweaking to find that sweet spot where it isn't overbearing, too bright or dark but just blends in nicely. I think that's good about Fractal mod/delay/reverb effects too, a lot of them just need lowering the mix a bit. With Line6 effects I often don't end up quite liking the default settings and figure out my own.

Serious question: Do you sit down to a blank preset every time you play or what? I'm terrible with preset management and even I have a couple of go-to setups in each platform of modeler I've got that I am more than happy plugging in and playing. I hate the Stomp UI, but the form factor more than makes up for it. I'll take the current size/price/form-factor over an improved UI that degrades any of those things.

 

[Digital Igloo]

Ohh my observation was not in any way negative,
It sounds like a very good outline for a future roadmap, but again I was only speculating

Oh, I figured as much. Just adding a bit of context.

 

[Stone]

Oh, I figured as much. Just adding a bit of context.

BTW DI, without divulging anything, can we speculate on the roadmap for PowerCabs?

 

[Digital Igloo]

BTW DI, without divulging anything, can we speculate on the roadmap for PowerCabs?

Yes, you can certainly speculate.

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

I think we are currently at a crossroads. The modeling world has now successfully imitated almost all existing amps (apart from a few that I would still like to have #model.more.ENGL.), now it's time for digital gear to emancipate itself from the analog role models and go its own way. I for one would be delighted to see more and more of Line 6's own creations!

 

[BenIfin]

I think what D.I says here is *brilliant*



Its the reason I want "a" great tone that i can make use of as opposed to, what I have often said, is the never-ending "fools-errand" of the "perfect Vox model" or "perfect Plexi model" or "perfect DLX model" etc.....

I think what is often forgotten is that all those great past/retro-tones were/not only great -but- they were like nothing that had come before them .... and as such inspired millions of players.

Surely as a musical amp civilisation we didnt just "stumble" across the 3 basic holy grail designs 50+ years ago only to be stuck treading the same sonic territory for ever more (?).

Its probably the single best thing in the Helix ... their original Amps ... and the Boss GT X and Original Amps ... they all all dont sound "actually like" a particular amp .... but they are just to damn easy to set up and use and sound f%cking brilliant.

Anyway ..... just my 2c.

Ben

 

[BenIfin]

I think we are currently at a crossroads. The modeling world has now successfully imitated almost all existing amps (apart from a few that I would still like to have #model.more.ENGL.), now it's time for digital gear to emancipate itself from the analog role models and go its own way. I for one would be delighted to see more and more of Line 6's own creations!

If I could quote Mr Big from Sex In The City ..... " abso-fucking-lutely " !!

Ben

 

[laxu]

I think what D.I says here is *brilliant*



Its the reason I want "a" great tone that i can make use of as opposed to, what I have often said, is the never-ending "fools-errand" of the "perfect Vox model" or "perfect Plexi model" or "perfect DLX model" etc.....

I think what is often forgotten is that all those great past/retro-tones were/not only great -but- they were like nothing that had come before them .... and as such inspired millions of players.

Surely as a musical amp civilisation we didnt just "stumble" across the 3 basic holy grail designs 50+ years ago only to be stuck treading the same sonic territory for ever more (?).

Its probably the single best thing in the Helix ... their original Amps ... and the Boss GT X and Original Amps ... they all all dont sound "actually like" a particular amp .... but they are just to damn easy to set up and use and sound f%cking brilliant.

Anyway ..... just my 2c.

Ben

Many of those great tones of the past are basically happy accidents from people misusing their amps in a "hey, this distortion thing isn't that bad, it gives some nice sparkle to my clean tone!" Even the grand-daddy of driven guitar tones - the Fender Bassman - is a bass amp that sucked as a bass amp because it didn't have a lot of headroom before it started distorting.

But now we have this pantheon of established great tones as showcased by our favorite artists, so anything that goes too far outside that framework tends to get rejected by the buying public. It's the same thing with custom amp models vs modeling all those established classics, and all the amps derived from them.

That's the real uphill battle Line6 faces - how to convince people that their custom models are just as worthy of standing up in that great tone pantheon as say Friedman, Bogner, ENGL, Diezel etc modern amps that have become accepted as household names. IMO all the newer Line6 custom models sound just great, so it's not a sound quality issue - it's a perception and marketing problem.

I hope Boss is brave enough to go for completely custom models for their next flagship unit. They're already halfway there and removing the arguably not so great classic amp models would remove all "ugh, it doesn't sound exactly like the real thing" comparison and it becomes a "well, I really like how the Boutique model sounds" discussion where the sounds are evaluated on their own merits.

I'd love for Line6 to go that direction, but I don't think they can, and neither can Fractal. The "models all these real amps/fx" paradigm is a huge selling point for both brands, whereas Boss is still "free" to go for totally custom models because the expectation from them is very different.