Leaderboard

I had over 50 years of playing with tube amps and personally going all digital has given me all the things I could never accomplish effectively with my tube amps. But that's probably due in large part to playing a very wide range of styles from blues, to rock, to jazz, to rockabilly, to funk...etc. So for me, bringing a polished studio sound into the live environment was what I always strove for and was never able to achieve effectively with tube setups, especially when it came to mic'ing the amps to achieve that finished studio sound. For me, this was a one stop shop for getting what I've always wanted.

Hey Guys, Today I go over the lead tone I use with my Line 6 Helix. The tone uses the Line 6 Badonk amp model paired with Owhammer Impulse Responses. I go over the settings as well as demonstrate it in a mix. Thanks so much for all the support.

I can pretty confidently say I've found no reason over the last 4 years across a pretty wide range of FOH setups and venues to adjust anything globally at the Helix. First, it would affect every preset and each preset is different both in style and in use of the various guitars that the preset was designed for. Whatever you might adjust in terms of high or low cuts or any other EQ for that matter can just as easily be done on a preset basis and not interfere across other presets with different sound requirements. As far as the FOH, whatever they may need to adjust for the room it applies equally to all instruments and voices due to the acoustics of the room. I have no problem with them doing that, but my attempts to adjust for acoustics of the room would only compete with or impede whatever RTA process they're using with their sound system. Other than that there are a few of the more modern digital systems that do incorporate preset assignements for different types of speaker systems. Again that's a global adjustment that affects all inputs but in my experience it really doesn't change the basic nature of the signal I'm sending nor the way it mixes with the band. It just tends to refine the overall characteristics of the PA in a fairly moderate manner. I can't say I've been surprised at all by any of the various PA systems making my sound different than what I expect when I go out and listen to the mix during sound checks. The only time I've ever run into any problems is with much older PA systems that use older analog centralized amps and passive speakers due to the the mid range dropoff that happens with non DSP driven crossovers. But we really don't play in situations that use those type of systems anymore. As far as what I listen to on stage as our stage mix will have some slight differences from the FOH, but I wouldn't say I listen to my guitar louder than other instruments. There's really no reason to IMO. Getting an accurate stage mix is the first step in getting a decent FOH mix and I'll leave it up to the PA to do the heavy lifting when it comes to volume. But everyone is different in that regard. My job is to blend with the music and not stand out other than for leads or color fills and most of the time that requires no interaction from the FOH mixing board because I've already adjusted for that in my preset. I only mentioned the contour options as a way to adjust for differences between a floor monitor and a raised vertical monitor. I don't use mine that way as I mentioned I always place mine vertically and therefore only use the contour setting for live sound, so I'm getting the same response characteristics as if it were it being used as a FOH speaker.

Tone Sov / KOT is brilliant, no doubt. But don't forget in all the excitement to try the Heir Apparent. After some careful thought, I swapped out the TSov for the HA on several patches. Sometimes less is more. Sometimes not :-)

Hey guys, first off, thank you so much to everyone who replied—I so appreciate your help as I try to get to the bottom of this. So nice to not feel alone and crazy. Although I know this is a weird and vexing issue and I’m super confused. I’ve taken your advice @datacommando and I’m opening a ticket with L6. @Kilrahi, yeah! The Floor Helix model I borrowed was my buddy’s both of us have used helix respectively since 2015 and I love the platform. It’s just weird that we’re both listening to our units in the studio and other locations like “what the heck, why is that ringing/noise floor that high!” I think it’d be super helpful for me to send a sound clip and an visual EQ readout of the noise, so I’ll do that ASAP here while I’m getting it sorted out! I know it sounds crazy, but with all the troubleshooting I was doing, I thought it might be a Helix platform issue vs. just hardware since the noise occurs across both the physical units and Native which are now sharing the same core architecture since the big update this year. Honestly, I’m just in over my head and my most likely culprit is a ground loop right now. I’ll send a reference clip ASAP. thank you all again!!!

I'd consider the Helix Stomp new for $599. It sounds a lot better and is easier to use.

The actual OP was from 2016.... most are now responding to a later post by @jesseadamwilson ... Until this "single post" user returns for follow up it's impossible to help him. It's been 4 days now since his post... so I'm not so sure he actually wants help. Did anyone visit his bands web site?

The OP doesn’t mention, but I also was wondering if he is the only person hearing this phenomenon Tinnitus?

It does not... one is the left channel, one is the right channel. If you swap the cables between L/R input, the L/R output will swap accordingly. Only matters if you expect certain sounds to be panned left or right.

There's a global setting (as of v2.8 I believe) that allows you to specify that rotating the joystick knob will let you navigate left/right along the signal chain and select the adjacent block rather than changing the model selection of the current block.

New pack available, for Helix v 2.82 ! 36 presets for djent and modern prog metal (20 normal presets with 8 snapshots, 16 dual amp stereo presets, to mimic double tracking), which works for 6, 7 and 8 strings guitars. Also included are 9 user cabs, and a detailed tweaking guide, should you want to adjust something to your specific instrument, or just personalize the sound. Get it here : https://fremenpresets.com/downloads/helix-djent-prog-metal-pack/ The snapshots of the 20 main presets are as follow : 1 Rhythm 2 Gated Rhythm, for those ultra syncopated riffs 3 Radio SFX (the “telephone” sound) 4 Lead 5 Clean 6 Clean with delay 7 Clean with modulation 8 Clean ambient (much more delay & reverb) I didn't make a proper demo yet but in this video, I reamped some DI tracks by Sarah Longfield and Nolly through Helix Native, using those presets/ I'll now focus on a classic rock pack, using "classic" instruments : GiBson Les Paul, SG & ES-335, Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster

Have you tried it with other Helix users who are happy with the unit to see if they hear the same problems you do?

Hi Jesse, Firstly, this is a forum of Helix users, very occasionally a member of Line 6 staff may chime in on a discussion, but this issue could be beyond our scope. I for one have not experienced the thing you describe in the 4 years of owning and using my Helix floor unit. After looking at the extensive list of things you have tried, I feel that I must agree with “crusinon2” and his comment above. This seems to be so complex it would probably be the best idea to raise a ticket with Line 6 Customer Support. Oh, yeah, there are a couple of things in your test list, that really are inexplicable. You have bulleted these points: I've tried multiple HELIX units entirely (both rack and floor models never been used in the same place prior both running on current firmware) I've tried HELIX native (latest version) I fail to comprehend how this is something due entirely to your Helix, because you have stated you have tried multiple units. Then you mention that you also are experiencing the identical noise problem with Helix Native - that defies logic as it is software running on a different hardware platform. That makes no sense at all. I have no no doubt that you are experiencing something extraordinary and I really do recommend that the best option would be to give it to the Line 6 technicians and let them solve the problem. There are many thousands of Helix users without any issues - instead of suffering, get it fixed ASAP and join the fun. Regards and good luck.

One thing that might make sense for new hardware is if they go down the path of polyphonic synth/pitch shift and the current processors can’t keep up

15 stomp boxes? You playing guitar, or a pipe organ? Actually, I think some organs have fewer pedals than that...;)