Line 6 HX Stomp

[silky smoove]

My Stomp just arrived. It’s currently updating to the latest firmware. For anyone using a similar setup, the Cioks Crux connects without issue to the Cioks Hi5 Mod power supply, and the included 3050 adapter works perfectly. Not a cheap way to power it, but if you need to save DC outputs on your Hi5 or DC7 this does the trick.

 

[thisSNsucks]

Ok. Let me frame the question a bit better. I want to be able to produce a reasonable facsimile of a modern pop synth bass type tone similar to the songs I posted, for live performance in a 5 piece band. Can HX Stomp do that? With an individual synth effect or stacked effects? I’m not interested in attempting to exactly recreate the studio magic here - just looking to help make drunk people dance

thanks!

Short answer is yes. You’ll have to stack a few effects to get there though. I’ve gotten pretty damn close to the synthy tones on a few Madonna, Miley, and MJ tracks with the stomp.

Oh and I was able to fake the bass part on Genuwines “pony” recently too, big accomplishment here. Lol

 

[silky smoove]

Initial testing with the Stomp has been mostly positive.

The good: My Helix Native preset transferred onto the Stomp with ease and worked very well with just a little more tweaking. The build quality is quite high with good positive feedback on the footswitches and pots. Updating to the latest firmware and using HX Edit were both smooth and painless. Despite some reports I had read on Reddit, the headphone output works well, has sufficient gain to drive my IEMs, and is perfectly quiet from a noise perspective. Since I'm using a Sonic Research ST-300 Mini in front of the Stomp for a tuner I don't need footswitch 3 to function as tuner access. I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to change that footswitch to perform other functions, which in my case just means three effects are accessible in stomp model. I was also pleased to see how easy it is to customize the names and footswitch colors in HX Edit despite some older Reddit and Line 6 forum posts complaining about how hard it was. Evidently Line 6 heard those concerns and added the functionality, which is a great sign from the manufacturer. Surprisingly I got rid of the BOctave processing block from my original preset as I quite like my 3Leaf Octabvre Mini placed ahead of the Stomp. With three footswitches for effects I ended up with a pitch shifter for transposing down to either Eb-standard or BEAD (haven't decided which will work better for me), an overdrive, and a chorus, all of whicih will work in tandem with the analog octave-down and envelope filters that also live on my board.

The bad: Always remember to save your patch in HX Edit, otherwise changes that are showing up on the Stomp won't actually stick. I learned that the hard way when I stopped tweaking to go grab dinner, only to come back and realize that none of my changes had been saved.

The ugly: Adding an FX loop insert in HX Edit works well, but the actual results when putting my 3Leaf Audio Proton V4 in the loop are another story entirely. With the pedal in front of the Stomp it sounds like it always has, which is fat and funky. In the loop it's as if all the bottom end from the pedal just disappears. I tried adjusting the send and return levels as well as the mix, and nothing seemed to resolve the issue. I'm uncertain if it's the stereo send, which I would assume defaults to mono if a TS cable is inserted just like the main outputs, or if there's an impedance mismatch although I would suspect that would be a difference in level and high frequencies as opposed to bottom end. It's very odd. I wanted this pedal in a loop after the overdrive block as I prefer the sound of an envelope filter after any form of distortion as opposed to before it. It's possible there are some settings for the FX loop that I need to modify in order to get more predictable behavior. For now it's living in front of the Stomp despite the fact that it's in front of overdrive as a result.

The yet to be determined: My Pinstripe MISO arrives today and I have a gig tomorrow night. I'll report back on how well that combination works, but thus far all signs are pointing to this being a great setup.

 

[Mayo Fan]

With the pedal in front of the Stomp it sounds like it always has, which is fat and funky. In the loop it's as if all the bottom end from the pedal just disappears.

I hope to test my mono FX loop tonight with a Cog T-16. I'll let you know what the outcome is.

 

[richntiff]

Short answer is yes. You’ll have to stack a few effects to get there though. I’ve gotten pretty damn close to the synthy tones on a few Madonna, Miley, and MJ tracks with the stomp.

Oh and I was able to fake the bass part on Genuwines “pony” recently too, big accomplishment here. Lol

Thanks! Stacking fuzz, octave, chorus?

 

[silky smoove]

I hope to test my mono FX loop tonight with a Cog T-16. I'll let you know what the outcome is.

I’m now wondering if the Proton inverts the polarity of the signal to function. I’ve had effects in the past that did that and would not properly function in a loop.

 

[Naigewron]

I’m now wondering if the Proton inverts the polarity of the signal to function. I’ve had effects in the past that did that and would not properly function in a loop.

If you put the FX loop block on a separate path, you can flip the phase on path B. Worth testing, at least to see if that's the issue.

 

[silky smoove]

If you put the FX loop block on a separate path, you can flip the phase on path B. Worth testing, at least to see if that's the issue.

That’s an interesting idea. I was just reviewing the manual to see if there was a global setting for flipping the polarity of the FX loop, but there’s only a setting for instrument versus line level signals. I’ll make sure it’s set for instrument to see if that makes a difference, and will try your idea of an inverted polarity split as a test piece if that doesn’t work.

 

[SteveC]

Initial testing with the Stomp has been mostly positive.

The bad: Always remember to save your patch in HX Edit, otherwise changes that are showing up on the Stomp won't actually stick. I learned that the hard way when I stopped tweaking to go grab dinner, only to come back and realize that none of my changes had been saved.

...thus far all signs are pointing to this being a great setup.

I've been using mine foe a few months now and I'm mostly happy. I love the size and options available, even if I don't use it all. Also, the convenience of all my stuff on a Nano+ and all powered by my CIOKS DC7 mounted underneath.

Yeah, save frequently for sure.

I think it's a great set up as well. Not perfect, but nothing is - unless you are willing to spend a lot of money and have a pretty big board. I think the compromises are worth it and in the end, not many people can tell the difference in sound - especially in a mix at a venue after a few drinks and some dancing.

 

[silky smoove]

I was just reminded that I’ve got a fly date this weekend. I’m going to build a “fly date” preset that’s my usual preset plus the BOctave on footswitch 1, the Obsidian 700 on footswitch 2, and the tuner on footswitch 3. I’ll throw that and my MISO in my Gruv Gear Bass Kapsule along with my Dingwall Super J, a couple cables, strap, a toothbrush and my clothes for the trip. It should make the logistics of fly dates much easier. I only do a few a year, and they’re always a hassle, but this should be a nice simplification to better allow me to just enjoy traveling to play music.

 

[Mrblackbeard15]

That’s an interesting idea. I was just reviewing the manual to see if there was a global setting for flipping the polarity of the FX loop, but there’s only a setting for instrument versus line level signals. I’ll make sure it’s set for instrument to see if that makes a difference, and will try your idea of an inverted polarity split as a test piece if that doesn’t work.

Are you mixing any clean signal? The fx loop will have a small amount of latency for the conversion back analog, enough to cause phase issues. I use a dirt pedal in the fx loop with no issues, but I stick to using the clean blend on the actual pedal.

 

[silky smoove]

Are you mixing any clean signal? The fx loop will have a small amount of latency for the conversion back analog, enough to cause phase issues. I use a dirt pedal in the fx loop with no issues, but I stick to using the clean blend on the actual pedal.

I am not using a clean blend on the FX loop send, and the pedal doesn’t have a clean blend. I want it 100% wet regardless. Good point on the latency. Even small amounts of latency can introduce adverse phase shift problems. This doesn’t sound entirely like a phase shift issue, but that might be a component of the larger concern.

 

[JKos]

Even small amounts of latency can introduce adverse phase shift problems.

If it’s not being mixed with the original signal, there can’t be a phase shift issue.

 

[silky smoove]

If it’s not being mixed with the original signal, there can’t be a phase shift issue.

Excellent point

 

[thisSNsucks]

Thanks! Stacking fuzz, octave, chorus?

usually some sort of phaser in there too. Sometimes I’ll use more than one of each kind of effect too. There are no rules!

 

[silky smoove]

Ready for its maiden voyage tomorrow night, then just the Stomp and the MISO are hopping on a plane for a fly date three days later. My hopes are high.

 

[odarellmc]

Ready for its maiden voyage tomorrow night, then just the Stomp and the MISO are hopping on a plane for a fly date three days later. My hopes are high.

View attachment 5235948

Just now realizing the stomp didn't have an XLR out..

 

[silky smoove]

Just now realizing the stomp didn't have an XLR out..

Yep. Hence the MISO. There’s much debate online about the merits of using a line isolator, such as the MISO, versus a passive DI, versus an active DI, versus a TRS to XLR adapter. All I knew going in was that the MISO and its stereo sibling the DISO seemed to get overwhelming praise when used with the Stomp, so I decided to give a shot to a company that, to me, was previously unknown. It passes the output to XLR without any apparent drop in signal or loss of fidelity, and the ground lift switch works as expected. I’ve not tried the thru output yet, but considering both 1/4” jacks can be used as either a 1/4” input or a 1/4” thru output in either direction, my suspicion is that it’s a simple signal pass-through duplication of the input signal. I’ll try it after my gig tomorrow night, which will be ampless to IEMs.

 

[SteveC]

I’ve had great luck using a 1/4” to make XLR with my Stomp. I just recently added a tube DI.

 

[Mayo Fan]

I’m now wondering if the Proton inverts the polarity of the signal to function. I’ve had effects in the past that did that and would not properly function in a loop.

The FX loop sounded just as good as direct in my case. I started out with the IMA Ultimate DI preset and added some drive assigned to FS1, the loop assigned to FS2 and the tuner on FS3. No lack of punch or low end on the FX loop. The loop contains a T-16, Broughton Maestro and Anadime Bass Chorus (my basic synth sound).

Nice board on that Temple. I've been eyeing them for a while, very tempting.