patdixon

Mine's set to Log.

Exactly. And it's not limited to Helix or FOH systems. So many variables complicate this situation- Guitar / preamp / amp volume, stomp settings, EQ, FOH & other player's ability to listen and adjust on the fly. I appreciate every one of these responses, great info here!

Thank you everyone, great comments! It's comforting to know that it's not just me being stupid. I'll try some of these ideas and hopefully report back with an idea or two of my own.

Last weekend I did my first full blown Helix into FOH gig, worked okay - the sound guy said I had great tone. My problem is the level, mostly the OD/Dist were all over the place so I was doing a lot of dancing around between presets. I also tried an FRFR speaker at a friend's house & it was distorted. My most common amp model is a Marshall Plexi Jump / 4x12 greenback cab /57 with the gain below the factory setting. All I have at home for FRFR is a pair of Rockit 5s & of course some headphones but I understand Fletcher Munson & the danger of setting sound that way. Any ideas for balancing the low level / high gain sound at home vs. the high headroom clean sound live? It's almost like you have to fake out the system at home but it's not the same. Any tips/help very much appreciated. Since we use Iem's it seems that headphones would be the same but again, way different.

I must be the only one- bought an LT a year ago & average two gigs a month plus rehearsals - no issue at all with the pedal. The only thing I possibly do differently than some is I use auto-wah assign on all of the presets that need a wah. I seriously doubt that has anything to do with it (I ride the vol pedal constantly). Of course I'm knocking on wood since I said that :o)

This dude's 4cm explanation is very good IMO. I use an LT with a (higher gain than Fender) Blackstar combo amp but the idea is the same. I have some presets that use Helix amps and some that don't. You just have to get your hands dirty. Do it wrong a few times, then learn from your mistakes. There are no shortcuts.

Maybe I misunderstood the OP's comment- I have it setup to auto engage @ 5% pedal travel (assignable to any point you wish). It does stay in wah mode until you go back to whatever that point is, so if the kemper reverts to vol/exp at idle regardless of position then no, I stand corrected. Not sure why you'd want that; there are tones you get by cocking the wah at a cerain point.

...so does the Helix. I have two presets on my LT that engage the wah automatically. Don't know if the kemper comes with a manual, but the Helix does.

Yes there is and no (at least in my case) it won't.

BTW, Richie Castellano does a great vid where he shows how to overcome the LED switching reversed if that happens to you. I've got a link to it in one of my earlier posts.

I posted this same question when I first started, both here & on the Blackstar forum. It didn't hurt my LT at all & works very well. Got some noise but fixed that with a hum eliminator. Hope it works as well for you.

Update and PSA- I've been watching the vids & still plan to use more amp models; as one poster said I'm only using 10% of what the Helix is capable of. However, the noise @ idle issue mentioned above has been completely fixed! I had put a noise gate after the drive blocks but before the amp send/return fx loop. Putting it after the fx loop totally made it dead silent! Anyone who is using 4cm with a high gain amp should do this, in addition to the hum eliminator mentioned in Ronald Kasper's YT vid.

Thanks, a great wealth of info here!

I've been using my LT for almost a year now as mostly a stomp; only 2 songs use amp modeling. Noise issues at idle are making me change to 100% amp sims (the 2 I use are dead silent). Any tips / vids / tricks you can throw my way? I've got a pair of Rockit 5s to use for FRFR setup, any help much appreciated, thanks.

Here's the link- for the hum fix go to 4:50

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/nady-he-1-hum-eliminator Can't get to it now but there's a YT vid where a guy uses a hum eliminator with 4cm & Helix. Don't know if it will help you but it did me. Search YT for "4cm with Helix" etc. & you should find it. Good luck.

Great, thanks!

If you were going to add, say 3~4 db of clean boost to a preset without adding a lot of distortion how would you go about it? I've tried compressors, OD/Dist, no matter what I do so far I always get horrible sounding oblique bends (like the gain is too high), everything else is fine. Any help very much appreciated, thanks

Agreed. I'm in an apt right now while my house is being built; when I move in I plan to get some frfr speakers & simulate the live sound so who knows, maybe I'll get up the nerve to break the umbilical cord, etc! Then I won't even have to take a monitor (we already use 4 QSC wedges out front). Of course then I'm at the mercy of the foh guy...

I assume this can be done with the floor unit- it can be with the LT: 1. Save the preset in this state 2. Assign synth block to one fs; gain block bypass assigned to the same fs 3. copy both blocks above, assign to a different fs but with different settings (synth 2) I do this where I have, say a drive turning on / a mod effect turning off with the same fs. It can be a little daunting but extremely effective in doing what you want to do. Hope this helps...

I hear and understand you perfectly, just to add another flavor the Paul HIndmarsh YT vid "Helix LT- all you need to know" where he shows how to use the LT as a stomp directly into a combo amp is what sold me on it. I use 4cm into a Blackstar combo and Saturday a guitar player in the crowd said I had great tone, whatever that means. We all know tone is very subjective and a lot of things can affect it but it was nice to hear, since many guitar players are analog snobs.

I failed to mention that you have to use both returns to get stereo, ie; output from a cell phone, cd player etc. Thanks for confirming!

No big deal because my situation is temporary (in an apt while my house is being built). We all know the LT has limited in/outs but I believe I can still use one of the returns as an aux IN & control headphone mix/level globally with the big knob. The only way I can see to do this is by having a dedicated preset (or all of them if I chose) with a return block. I don't see any other way. Has anyone tried this? How did it work for you? Thanks

Not 100% sure what you're asking either, but with my LT I have one preset that uses a Helix amp/cab model (clean channel on my Blackstar) then others that use the amp's preamp gain channel with or without FX. The only way I found to do this is to use 4cm, which works great. The Helix also switches amp channels automatically by preset so I don't even have to think about it. I'd buy another LT in a second.

You could copy the preset, then replace the separate S/R blocks with a combined S/R block. If it doesn't worked you haven't lost anything. Glad you got it working.