Funny thing happened, I've played the same one preset for a week now

[zooey]

After getting it to a pretty good place, I've been tweaking it a bit, exploring some alternate fx, but mostly I've just been playing.

 

This is new, and it's a really good sign. Means I'm beginning to "trust" the Helix. Before this, I respected its capabilities, loved the UI, and had enjoyed it very much in headphones, but after switching to the Alto FRFRs I bought a while ago, me and Helix weren't really at peace. I felt like I was fighting with it to some extent.

 

I expected to be building a bunch of presets, like I did in Amplitube (which I love, but haven't played since Helix), but no, I've just been refining this one, and Playing Guitar, like I've done since 6th grade,

 

Cool.

 

 

EDIT: I misspoke, speakers are Alesis Alpha 112s, a bit more info below.

[vmoncebaiz]

HA. That's awesome.  I'm sure that's the biggest compliment to all of the people who have put work into it for the past few years.

[roscoe5]

You're good with Helix and the Altos though, right?

[zooey]

You're good with Helix and the Altos though, right?

First off, sorry, I misspoke about them being Altos, they're Alesis Alpha 112s. According the the third post in this GS thread, they're supposed to be an improved version of the Alto TS112a. A bit further down he A/B-ed them, with mixed results. I got a pair of them new off eBay for under $400 shipped a while ago, and AFAIK there's nothing very comparable for that kind of money. Stereo, certainly loud enough, reasonably transportable.

 

Far as how I'm doing with them, that's a bit more complicated. Part of what hung me up at first was not trusting their frequency response in some absolute sense, and that's still more or less true. An iPod through them is too bright, and there's a peak around 80-100hz or so.

 

I considered setting the global EQ so I liked commercial records through them, and spent a fair amount of time and emotional energy worrying about "what if I like my sound on stage but it sounds awful through the PA?".

 

But really, every PA and room will sound different. PA probably has some sort of smile curve EQ, because people like that sexy punch in the chest, and that artificially hyped high end detail. The sound will change as you walk around the venue, because physics. The FOH person will be used to dealing with that, and with guitar sounds the player likes on stage, mic'd up with some not-flat mic, and they'll make whatever you send them work in the mix best they can. I can't get rid of all that variability, and don't want to ruin my life getting lost in that hall of mirrors.

 

In the end, I've pretty much ducked the question. I'm just trying to get my rocks off in the environment I'm actually in -- pair of Alpha 112s in my not very big and very low ceiling-ed but somewhat treated and pretty dead basement "studio", playing by myself. Sounds different when I move around, even in that relatively small space. -- on/off axis, nearer or further, louder/softer, yadda, the realities of real-world sound distribution and psycho-acoustics.

 

I have an IK ARC System 2 that I might try to do something with at some point. Can't use the compensation plugin without a computer, so you'd have to look at the suggested curve on screen and try to match it with Helix's global EQ. Anyway, while you have a choice of different listening environments to emulate, none of them are a live PA, much less any specific one in a specific hall, and... wait, hang on... hall of mirrors again...

 

Bottom line for now is that I'm treating this pretty much like any other amp, trying to make myself happy. It's working :)

[PeterHamm]

I also use VERY few patches.

When I first got Helix, I made 4 or more patches for each guitar. As I learned its workflow, I realized I didn't need that. Now, maybe only two. 

[zooey]

Well, I wasn't saying I'll never create another patch ;)

 

This one has two different ODs, so clean(-ish), crunch, and pretty wailin', but I'm sure I'll want other completely different amps and/or cabs too. The thing that struck me was that I was just playing, not fishing around for patches as much, just using it like an amp.

[roscoe5]

Great info zooey. Since I've yet to go FRFR in any price range or solution, this type of discussion is very valuable to me.

 

It would be interesting to see and hear compensation the IK ARC software processes and if the results are pleasing to you in your studio basement.

 

I swear I saw a video (can't find the link off hand) where someone was using a computer plug in that analyzes a micd cab and applies a curve or response to bring any speaker or cab to a flat response. Complete speculation, but you might be able to capture and IR of the plug in and put it in Helix. Of course that would be yet another IR in the signal chain eating processor.

 

I don't have ARC, but maybe it dies something similar.

[zooey]

There's definitely other software that does something like ARC, at least in the frequency domain. ARC uses a licensed system that also does some time/phase correction, not quite sure it it manages to measure that, but that's what they say.

 

Kind of embarrassing, but I bought ARC on radical sale several years ago, and I've still never used it. I really should take a run at my DAW monitoring setup, which is what I got it for of course, but somewhere around that time I stopped recording much, and fell into just playing guitar (and a bit of keys, which I suck at but enjoy sometimes anyway).

 

For studio monitors, which stay in the same place in the same room, taming that setup's peaks and troughs is clearly a win. For a guitar rig that's going to move around, I'm less interested in those small-scale anomalies, more thinking about general frequency balance. That relates strongly to the speaker emulation you choose to target, which leads down the "what is reality" rabbit hole I'm trying to avoid thinking about. I got very mentally stuck for a while, feeling like I shouldn't do anything until I understood where my speakers stood in relation to some abstract idea of a PA, really trying not to go there again. Making sounds I like right now is much more fun :)

 

Anyway, if I do try the ARC thing, your idea of making an IR from the ARC result is interesting, but like you mentioned, DSP usage is likely to be an issue, Yet another reason why I'd really like something in Helix's form factor that ran VST plugins.