CameronJ

Actually, upon closer inspection, I reckon the Stomp may also relegate the Keeley limiter as well as the MXR BEF. Edit: depending on where it sits in your chain of course...

Once the Stomp arrives, you’ll be able to get rid of the ms60b, potentially the Aftershock and maybe even the LS2

A single XLR socket takes up significantly more space than a single 1/4” socket, in both width and height. It’s like comparing an 8” speaker to a 15”. That kind of size difference affects the way PCBs have to be oriented and we go back to the point I made above re: cutting features. On the other hand, your comment about the Stomp being a case of form over function isn’t entirely inaccurate - the design decided the Stomp had to fit into the small upper pocket of the Helix backpack, which feels like a bit of an arbitrary design goal especially when you consider that it pretty much depends upon Stomp buyers being existing Helix (and therefore Helix backpack) users. I’d say that the vast majority of Stomp sales will be to people who don’t already own a full sized Helix, and of those who do, many of them won’t have a Helix backpack. So yes, in a roundabout way I do agree with you!

I do agree, or at least I did before I started fully geeking out on the details of this thing and realised there is almost zero unused internal space inside this thing. To add an XLR would have meant removing something else. And then of course people would be moaning at only having a single XLR making their stereo patches useless. Then to add a second XLR would have meant cutting something else again. Given the footprint the design team were aiming for it was simply impossible to do whilst retaining the featureset. 1/4” TRS jacks were by their own admission a slight compromise but I’d rather deal with that slight compromise whilst still having MIDI or FX loops for example.

To add some more info to the above, the level of the main outs and the FX loops are switchable but the main outs are tied as a pair and therefore you can’t, for example, have the left side of the mains at line level while the right side puts out instrument level. It’s either Line or instrument for both L & R sides of the main outputs. The solution is to run one side of the main outs to PA at line level and one of the FX sends set at instrument level for the onstage amp.

I have indeed clocked them 👀 but will have to refrain due to travelling circumstances!

To clarify - HX Effects and HX Stomp are quite different products (as has been covered all over the web) aimed at different areas of the market. HX Effects has more cumulative screen realestate, nearly 3x the number of footswitches, more flexible I/O, is a much more comprehensive MIDI command centre in terms of the kinds of messages it can send and isn’t limited to a fixed number of blocks. For musicians not bothered by the pedal’s dimensions who require the above but have zero need for amp/cab models, AUX input, a headphone amp or another audio interface, HX Effects is a more appropriate purchase. It isn’t as simple as “Stomp is a better version” Re: pricing, Line 6 intended for them to be the same price - and they are in the US - but obviously some price dropping/matching has happened between retailers over here hence HX Effects now being cheaper.

This.

This.

This is what I believe to be the case

I thought each channel of the TRS main outs was balanced independently? Hence the TRS per jack? Or am I missing something??

The ins and outs are switchable from the global settings menu to be running at instrument or line level, depending on usage context.

@Al Krow that Behringer looks to be a pretty spot-on clone of the Radial. Fair play, good savings there!

Very true. My personal favourite is the Radial Stagebug SB-2. Flexible, passive, reliable and tiny!

+2

The main outs on the Stomp are balanced - there is zero need for a separate DI box. The signal is exactly the same as if it were an XLR, the only difference is the size of the socket itself. The design team deliberately went the balanced 1/4” route as XLRs would have blown the footprint up. The sound man may give you a weird look when you hand him a TRS 1/4” cable rather than the expected XLR but just tell him to deal with it. His mixer will see no difference. Edit: @Jack you beat me to it!

Fair points there. If you don’t have a pressing need for amp sims/headphone amp/USB interface then you’re almost definitely better off with HX Effects. Having 8 footswitches and more screen realestate spread across the 8 scribble strips is gonna make the Effects somewhat more user-friendly than Stomp, especially if you’re likely to be using complex signal chains in a live context. HX Effects is a much more capable MIDI controller too since it’s capable of sending CCs (which Stomp can’t do at present). I’m totally with you re: not being made for multi FX. I used to own both a Line 6 M5 and Zoom B3 with little love for either due to the very reasons you’ve stated above. A year ago I’d have leaned towards HX Effects for its size and number of switches but my pedalboard and workflow are much simpler these days so there’s just no contest - Stomp will be ideal for me. I can actually see myself running one fully loaded preset 90% of the time and just using snapshots for variety within the patch.

I know what you mean - the only option really is to either connect a dual expression switch giving you the ability to turn on/off block #4 & 5 (still leaving #6 unswitchable individually) or connect a MIDI controller footswitches and map the CCs to be able to control all 6 blocks. I may do the latter when I eventually get a Stomp.

Indeed. It’s a really informative video!

Another quote from The Gear Page, this time a transcription from an interview with Eric Klein (chief product design architect at Yamaha/Line 6) regarding the development team’s decision to limit the HX Stomp to 6 blocks, despite the DSP chip being technically capable of more:

Quoted from a post on The Gear Page:

It would be neglectful of me to not post this:

They’re in denial.