Leaderboard

Did you make sure in the global settings that the Stomp is set to pass on Midi messages? You have to go to Global Settings > Midi/Tempo > Midi Thru > On, and Global Settings > Midi Tempo > Midi PC Tx > Both. Keep in mind the HX Stomp is not a midi controller. It can only pass on either its own program changes (so if you are changing from program 20 to program 21, it's going to pass on to your Multiwave Distortion pedal "PC 21," and there's no changing that) or program changes it receives from an external midi controller. You can't tell it to pass on to a second device "PC 2" unless you are selecting "PC 2" on the Stomp or you have a Midi controller sending to the Stomp "PC 2" which it then will also pass on to your Multiwave Distortion pedal.

They may use modern gear, but coming from the 80's they are not likely to abandon the tone from that era.... JCM800. That tone will be embedded in their mind, and they will dial in any modern amps in that direction. Keep in mind, these guys don't use the same tone for rhythms & leads.... they change it! You can't just set a rhythm and expect to use that for lead... Here is what I suggest... (thinking Whitesnake since you mention them a few times) Setup a basic patch.... from scratch so you don't inherit other attempts to fix it Insert a JCM 800 or the 2204Mod Dial in a rhythm tone.... try different mics and distances as part of the eq process If you need/want a reverb or delay, go ahead and add it to sweeten the tone. IMO... this is best done AFTER getting a basic tone. You should be able to get a great rhythm tone with nothing more added..... if you aren't, keep working on it. Once you have a great rhythm tone... time to work on the lead... Place a KLON or Tube Screamer in front of the amp. You do not need a lot of GAIN on the effect, certainly not more than half.. probably lower. Adjust the output level to be just slightly louder than when the pedal is off By default.... the KLON or TUBE SCREAMER is going to thicken the tone when you engage it, and make it a touch louder if setup as I suggested. This is perfect for leads.... it beefs up the tone and cuts through a mix. To sweeten the lead tone more.... engage a delay (about 350ms) with a few repeats at the same time as the overdrive. Keep the mix fairly low... just enough to blend the notes smoothly. Another trick used often by groups like this is a half cocked wah pedal for leads. Do a little research on that and try it out... but not until you get the basic tones up and running. You can try other amps.... but that era was JCM800 more times than not. I really suggest you START there! Same applies to the overdrives I suggested. Good luck

Hi, I was well aware of this change before I updated my Firmware. Someone had shown me a video of the fast scroll across the signal flow blocks while my Helix was away for a physical repair to the Joystick. What a novelty, I could hardly wait for mine to come back from the Service Engineer. I had been running through a lot of stuff for the first couple of days after installing 2.81 and didn’t notice any weirdness. Then this not responding to “click, select” came from out of nowhere. Bizarre. Multiple, reboots and resets changed nothing so I thought it could be that the hardware was damaged and regressed to 2.71 to check - all was as it should be. Good - no need to ship it back to the Service Centre. Now I am going to reinstall 2.81 and check out the thing again following the advice given above by MonkeyXT. This time I’ll try not to be as ham fisted with the encoder. I’ll report back later. EDIT: Update 3 hours later - BTW That's not how long it took, I had to do something else first. Simple reinstall of v2.81 seem to have squashed the "bug". I specify "BUG" because this phenomena sprang from nowhere. Things had been working just fine for a couple of days then - Joystick encoder malfunction! My main worry was that it was a hardware failure again. I now have it working, as it should, in both modes and I don't think my "Press, Click to Select" technique has been modified in any way. I will see how it works out from here. Extra special thanks to MonkeyXT for the tip.

Can't tell if its deliberate or not, but I can't help but swap the capitalized letters in the troll name - and I must agree with the revised name.

Yeah, I think I know what you mean. First, I'd get an idea of what the basic "character" of each model is. The Mahadeva model is sharp and not so high gain, the Cali IV Lead has a distinct "midrange bark" with unrefined, "feral" distortion, the Cali Texas has a very "classic album rock but with more gain" type sound, the Solo Lead is sort of mushy/spongey but with good sustain, the Placater Dirty tends towards darker tones with a lot of gain, etc.etc. One model you might want to consider for a very versatile high gain sound is the Archetype Lead- it's not too dark, too muddy, or too bright, but it can lean in any of those directions if you want to tweak it that way. Another decent combination for old-school, more mainstream metal/hard rock is to combine the Solo Crunch with an overdrive set low in the gain. Next up is familiarizing yourself with what each EQ bandwidth tends to affect. 250K cuts can cut a bit of the muddier side of bass, while a boost between 2K-3K can add a sizzly grind. With enough tweaking, you can EQ different amp models to have some crossover. Now in terms of the lead sound, you can assign a footswitch to boost a select mid-frequency with either graphic or parametric EQ; the latter's Q control will let you expand how much is boosted. Or you can slap a simple OD/boost like the Kinky Boost or Top Secret OD in front of the amp, for a little bit more definition and gain......or you can do both, and assign the OD bypass AND the frequency boost to the same footswitch. Hope this gives some more ideas.

I followed every single word and step as described in the sticky update post. I've got a install failure while updating to 2.8 (helix rack, with controller turned off). Also the updated stopped, for an error. Reboot in boot mode and tried again, the install does stop at 5% and fail again. Tried rolling back to 2.7 or an earlier firmware in boot mode, keep failing at 5%. Please help, this is a fresh unit with 3 days of life....

Thanks to all for the replies, I think the ones which mention changing / updating presets are spot on as I had chosen a user group rather than the presets!!! This I am thinking is what caused the rebuild!! Cheers all

BTW, I forgot to say - thanks for the reminder. Ben's site was in my bookmarks but I'd forgotten about him...

Yes, I know. Some of them are mine. Hahaahaaa!

Per the other comments here the rebuilding has been pretty standard after all the firmware updates but should only occur once. Doesn't matter if you restart the device one day or one year later, you will still get that one-time rebuild. Also as others have indicated, and this has varied slightly in different firmware versions, but loading a third party purchased preset or one from CustomTone, which may very well have been backed up with a prior firmware version, will cause only that preset to be rebuilt upon your next startup. There were even a couple of firmware releases where simply copying presets from one location to another would cause just those presets to be rebuilt upon the next restart. Totally normal behavior. If it is happening every time that usually indicates problems either with particular presets or with the firmware update and may require a backup, global reset, and reload of your old presets, or even rerunning the upgrade procedure. As always make sure your version of HX Edit is matched to your current firmware. Btw, just as a best practice it is not a bad idea to restart your device every time before a gig, especially if you have been loading presets from elsewhere. If nothing else you ensure it is working properly and if it needs to rebuild any presets you won't have to wait for them to do so at your gig. Usually doesn't take more than a few seconds anyway depending on how many presets you loaded.

Being a bit old school, I tend to take that approach: cranked Plexi for clean (guitar vol rolled back) and crunch (guitar vol full up) and step on an OD for lead tones. This is paying off nicely right now with the new Tone Sovereign / KoT pedal in 2.8x ... Lots of tone control there to 'pre-EQ' the amp as well as add boost, crunch or OD. I'm having no trouble getting the full gamut of tones from fat blues to screaming rawk out of the Plexi 100 head. Okay, not the modern high gain amps Paulzx was specifically asking about, but tbh I'm not sure what I'd do with any more gain than I'm getting - from a Strat - into KoT then Plexi. There seems to be more than enough to go around :-)

Preset 01A = PC#000 Preset 01B = PC#001 IF your device recognizes PC#s 000-127, then 01A = PC#000 IF your device recognizes PC#s 001-128 then 01B = PC#001 MOST devices that recognize PC#s 001-128 see PC#000 as PC#001 SOME devices have an offset function to force this. You'll need to RTM for your device to find out about this.

By the way, are you getting all your gained up tones through amps alone? I might be in the minority, but I still prefer amp/cab blocks for clean, mildly dirty/crunch and then one or two pedal blocks in front for higher gain/lead tones. I find this way I don’t have to spend as much time eq’ing for high gain stuff. I just pick the dirt pedal that is voiced the way I want. I also find it easier to get the type of clipping I want with the pedals. Sometimes more compressed, sometimes more open. Sean Meredith-Jones www.seanmeredithjones.com

Well, I do know that if you have updated your firmware it should rebuild the presets on first boot up. That's just to get the onboard presets up to the latest standard revision. After that you may find that, if you have added any new presets from HX Edit and they were in and older format, the next time you spark up the Helix it will rebuild the presets again. This time it should be faster because it really only needs to rebuild the ones that are not up to date. So, if you have changed a whole heap of presets or loaded 30 or 40 freebies from custom tone the they will need to be brought into line with the new format. If it becomes really annoying then turn off your Helix and hold down foot switches 10 & 11 while you power up the Helix. This forces the rebuild routine and when it's done then it should remember they are now up to date. After that it should only happen when you load up any older presets. That was a long way round, but I think you should understand it.

For my purposes, the limitations Lawrence lists aren't a big deal. So, for anyone in the same situation as me, here's a ZIP file with all Helix Native factory presets since Native 1.01, which was around Helix Firmware 2.20 or something. I've saved the .hlx setlists, saved out the individual presets in separate folders, and made a Master folder with all the presets. Anything in that folder named the same from version to version has only the latest iteration. I THINK I did this right. I restored factory presets after each Native update. I thought there would be more changes with each version change, but there were usually only a few new presets. Let me know if you catch anything I missed. I can redo it if necessary. Helix_Native_Factory_Presets.zip

Hi, As I noted previously, I spent most of yesterday afternoon going through every reboot/reset combination on the list. Plus I had done the "Upgrade existing presets to latest format" soon after getting the firmware installed and everything had been working perfectly until this Joystick thing manifested itself. The main worry for me was that the malfunction could have been a hardware failure, especially since it had only recently undergone a repair to a solder joint on the Joystick encoder. Once I had regressed to v2.71, I then knew it was not a hardware issue, phew, relief! My next plan of action would have been to re-install the latest firmware and see if the problem persists. So far, luckily it seems to be working fine once more. MonkeyXT's tip is worth knowing, although I am not certain that my touch on the encoder is any heavier or lighter, I'm just happy it works - for how long, who knows?

Thanks MonkeyXT, See update note above.

My pleasure. The other individual considered that 'solved' after that, having been able to get predictable and repeatable results, once getting used to the quicker press habit. Hopefully that works out the same for you. I look forward to hearing the result.

I think there is merit to both sides of this argument. Yes, the idiosyncrasies of human hearing require that the ears be used to match perceived volume levels. Also yes, some sort of reference is needed so that you are using your ears to set levels at a point that makes some kind of sense rather than just wherever your volume settings happen to land. For my part, I have a patch that consists simply of a 3-Note Generator that I’ve set to hit my DAW at -18dB. When setting levels in a new patch, I use that as a reference to set my squeaky clean level and then set other levels by ear with the squeaky clean sound as a reference. In this way, I know that my levels are in an appropriate range for interfacing with other equipment because my DAW told me, and I know that they will have the desired perceived volume relative to each other because my ears told me. It’s a process that helps the world make sense for me.

Hi, This is a valuable bit of information - thank you! I will update to v2.81 and see how it performs. I have to admit it did seem very odd because I had been playing around with 2.81 for a couple of days and it seemed to be working without problems. Then, out of the blue, I clicked on a modulation block to swap it to a delay and got no response to the click. I then tried many other selections and presets, reboots, resets etc, with increasing frustration that if felt that if the joystick was not actually broken then my annoyance may do the job. Initially my main concern was that there was nothing physically wrong with the hardware Joystick after having it repaired only recently. Reverting back to a known version of the firmware that showed the Joystick worked predictably indicated to me that this was a bug, Nothing to lose by trying again. Thanks once more. EDIT: Update 3 hours later - BTW That's not how long it took, I had to do something else first. Simple reinstall of v2.81 seem to have squashed the "bug". I specify "BUG" because this phenomena sprang from nowhere. Things had been working just fine for a couple of days then - Joystick encoder malfunction! My main worry was that it was a hardware failure again. I now have it working, as it should, in both modes and I don't think my "Press, Click to Select" technique has been modified in any way. I will see how it works out from here. Extra special thanks to MonkeyXT for the tip.

Hi, Yep, that’s what you get when you do a reset with FS 7 & 8 - That combination is to “Reset setlists to Factory, Keep IRs” To Reset Globals on a Helix Floor unit you need the FS 5 & 6 combination while powering up. Hope this helps A full set of reset options and other good things available from: https://helixhelp.com Note: if this link takes you to a 404 page, click the “Take me home” link.

Hello, I am very keen to try and keep this thread on topic about the issues I, and others, are having. I have seen a few other threads on these forums where someone mentions "gaming" and everyone seems to lose their minds about it and the thread gets off topic. Having said that, I don't really understand why using your PC for multiple disciplins would have any kind of detrimental effect on the system, and it certainly shouldn't be leading to issues like the ones I am having. Its not like I am editing music whilst gaming, I am obviously only ever doing one at a time. I have been gaming and making music on the same pc systems for over 10 years now and have never run into issues like this, this is clearly something to do with the L6 drivers in particular having some kind of problem. The fact that it happens during gaming may point to the cause of these BSODs but I don't think a solution should be "don't game and make music on the same PC". There must be a better solution to this problem.

Maybe "joy"stick is not quite the right name for it :-) Would be happy to see Line6 go to a recessed rotating dial surrounded by four recessed buttons in the next Helix iteration like the one Boss/Roland has used on some of its multi-effects and synths. Not only do I like the action better but it is pretty much flush with chassis so you don't have to worry that a tight fitting case might damage the soldering/assembly and disable the "joy"stick. https://www.roland.com/us/products/gr-55/

... you might find that pressing and releasing the joystick push function quicker makes it act predictably - it seems to ignore 'long' presses since v2.8x, and 'long' isn't all that long either.

I was able to point someone else in the right direction with what I believe is the same behavior as you're seeing here - I believe that with the new options available for the joystick control, some internal parameters for the joystick controller functions have been adjusted. Specifically, the push straight in to select. It seems that v2.8x instructs that device to ignore any 'long' presses - and its idea of 'long' is still pretty short. But, if you tap it in and release relatively quickly, I believe you'll find the control function will work predictably. If you're willing to re-update, maybe give this a try.

This assumes that perception is a fixed, measurable experience for everyone. It isn't...hell, it's not even fixed for any one individual from one day to the next, which renders most of this technical gibberish useless outside of a classroom discussion on acoustic physics. Perception is variable and notoriously fickle. Period. All the technical jargon in the world won't change that. But if you want to labor under the delusion that all of life's pursuits can be reduced to a series of equations and laboratory measurements, go right ahead... but good luck applying them in any meaningful way to every scenario out there in the wild. Nothing will ever be that neat and tidy... life is a mess. And since most of the us probably don't have access to the facilities at Cal Tech anyway, we'll just have to be content using Helix as it is... I'm betting this includes the OP, so that's how I answered his question. What he's asking for can't be done with the hardware as it currently exists, so indulging in technical hypotheticals, and theoretical possibilities accomplishes what exactly? Never mind. I don't care. If you've made anything clear from your incredibly condescending diatribe, it's that you have a serious need to be right about this, whilst simultaneously pointing out just how dumb everyone else is...so here you go: You're the smartest guy in the room. And you're right...it's perfectly plausible to spend the rest of your life in a lab with fancy diagnostic tools, and create a magic protocol that will provide foolproof, push-button volume leveling, metered to the eyeballs, and accurate to +/- 3 femto-decibels. I wait with bated breath for the arrival of Franken-Helix version 1.0. If you're taking requests, I want purple meters. I'll pay extra. I'm guessing L6 isn't gonna provide this for the masses though, so till yours is ready, I'll probably just go ahead and keep using the tools I was born with. It's worked just fine for me for 30-odd years of live performance. Almost forgot...I have an uncle who owns a uniform supply store... lemme know if your lab coat gets dirty. I can get them cheap. Enjoy your data crunching.

Oh HELIX, you so bad You so bad you make me sad Hey HELIX (clap-clap) Hey HELIX (clap-clap) Oh HELIX, you so bad Look how angry you've made Jan Hey HELIX (clap-clap) Hey HELIX (clap-clap)

The start-up progress red bar - absolutely. Glad it's there. .... in the menus though, I preferred seeing the dots for some reason.

Posted this a few days ago but as of 2.80 Line6 does not use the dots any more to indicate multiple pages for parameters. Instead there is a bar now with a highlighted portion that shows if the selection has multiple parameter pages. If the entire bar is lit there are no additional parameter pages, if it is partially highlighted it does. Doesn't make much difference either way but I actually thought the old method of using the dots was a more obvious and superior visual indicator. The dots for example indicated at a glance how many pages additional pages there were. Maybe I prefer it just because I got used to looking for it over the years but it seems like it was easier to notice and see.

Hey Bud, could you please add the word "Solved" to your opening post? Thanks and I'm glad its working now for you.

no

possible bug: when i start up my helix my expression pedal 2 is not calibrated right, like half way is 100% full toe is back to 35% again, i use it mainly for delay mix and feedback, I have to reload the patch again and then it is ok. it's not a big deal but u never had this issue with other firmwares.

That's probably what causes my rebuilds, the occasional Customtone preset that I DL.