Line6 Tonecore

[Digital Larry]

OK, I know I'm behind the times.  Before I went crazy over the FV-1, I bought a Line6 Tonecore and extra module.  These have been gathering dust for at least 5 years.  One of the problems is that the version of Eclipse they used was tied to a specific 1.5 version of the JRE and would NOT work with later ones on your PC.  Another problem is that the stuff doesn't work with 64-bit OS.

Well,  just so happens that I have an old Windows XP disk installed in my aging desktop system, and I was able today to boot into it after about 5 or 6 tries.  And after about an hour I actually got the Tonecore DDK running and communicating with the pedal.  And then I got the Symphony Studio running.  And then I wondered "why am I bothering"?

Part of it is just curiosity of course.  And the other part is the desire to go beyond the limitations of the FV-1 with pre-built hardware.  Yeah I realize Tonecore's a dead end.  One of the things I wonder is whether learning the Freescale DSP coding has applicability to more recent chips from Freescale or other DSPs.  And there's also a sort of sick question as to whether it would be possible to adapt SpinCAD to crank out Freescale DSP code.  Of course it could, but is it worth it to do so?

Last question is whether anyone who got into this at the time it came out shared any code publicly. A 2 band EQ is of course useful but I've been goofing around with my restored M9 stompbox modeler and I keep thinking "I could do better than THAT" with respect to some of the models in there.

[Kingmafw]

Normally, I only read posts and following for some time the DSP threads (FV-1), but found your post quite interesting to reply.
I'm still asking myself the question why such great opportunity of Line 6 fails? Did it fail due to the profits, was it too complicated for a broad audience? Or was it too early released?

The idea behind the Tonecore was quite unusual for a commercial company and this thing is build like a tank and so great that you can interchange modules on the existing dock whether mono or stereo dock.

I own some pedals of this Tonecore series just to get into the DSP World, but the problem is at the moment the high costs of the shipping to Europe for the programmable module.

Line 6 won't probably release any software of this EOL pedal series. I only know a few companies who made their own modules – PK effects, Muzemazer and Red Panda for example...

Just use Internet archive and Youtube:
https://web.archive.org/web/20110207201012/http://pkeffects.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/PsiKTrOn
http://muzemazer.com/mmcv.html
http://redpandalab.com/products/tc-bitcrusher/

Another reality is that Freescale is bought by NXP and I can imagine that NXP (former Philips Semiconductor) is not interested in the Music business.

Regards, Arjan

[Digital Larry]

It's too complicated.  I may be able to get a VCF out of it but that's a fairly simple example to leave people with given the variety of things you can do with DSP.  How about a little delay?  How do you make an LFO?  I don't see any hints whatsoever.

[Zero]

Hi Larry

I'm pretty much in the same spot as you are... I've had my TCDK gathering dust for about 5 years now. To be honest, I bought it because it was announced to have a C Compiler. While I've coded assembler on several platforms, I guess my lazyness is just too big to jump into this platform - coupled with a virtually dead community. Who knows, maybe in 10 years? 

I'd rather spend my time exploring possibilities to do audio processing on a Rasperry Pie  or a OWL or a Mod Duo.

By the way, concerning old Windows installations:  You should consider installing Virtual Box. You can get a free, *legal* image of Windows XP from here:  http://dev.modern.ie/tools/vms/windows/
It's limited to 30 days, but you can easily extend it to 90. Using the VirtualBox snapshots and storing your data on the host computer, you can overcome the time limitation altogether.

I use this setup on a daily basis to work on DSP toolchains that require Windows XP. My host system is a Mac, and it all works like a charm, even USB programmers, etc.

Cheers,
~Lorenz

[Mark Hammer]

I'm still asking myself the question why such great opportunity of Line 6 fails? Did it fail due to the profits, was it too complicated for a broad audience? Or was it too early released?

Part of it was that Jeorge Tripps ("Mr. Huge") was the project manager for the Tonecore series.  I thought he did an excellent job.  Then, at NAMM, or something similar, he was approached by Dunlop, and made an offer he could not refuse (no horse heads were involved!).  That involved re-launch of the Way Huge product line, with much-improved distribution and marketing, in addition to development of MXR products.

In light of that, Jeorge jumped ship and left Line 6.  These things happen, and everybody accepts them.  I'm sure that everyone wished him well, and I was pleased to receive a note from him recently.  Unfortunately, as is so often the case in organizations, when there is a change of leadership, a lot of things that were important and active on Friday afternoon become old news and left to wither on Monday morning.

[aron]

Lorenz,


Can you tell me how you setup your USB ports? I have been using VirtualBox for years, but I remember having problems with the USB port. Also file sharing between the Macintosh and Windows. I've been considering going back to Parallels or VMWare but if you have overcome these 2 problems, it would be fine.
Thanks,


Aron

[Digital Larry]

I'd rather spend my time exploring possibilities to do audio processing on a Rasperry Pie  or a OWL or a Mod Duo.

Yeah, you're right.  The ONE THING about the ToneCore is that it's already a PEDAL.  As soon as you get into RPi territory then you have to add an audio interface and it starts to get too complex to put into a pedal.  As much I have devoted time to the FV-1, when I did some recording recently I used a rack fx box and some VST plugins.  It's an interesting balance between flexibility and convenience.  The FV-1, even with its limitations, can easily be used to create patches which defy easy explanation.

The OWL seems interesting, although pricey and these days some cheaper compatible chip will come along shortly.  But again it has the advantage of already being a PEDAL.  I do spend most of my working life currently with embedded Linux systems and something like that running Pure Data might be worth spending some time on.