dacook2110

Hello. I am posting on this thread to direct people to a specific Ideascale Idea to suggest to Shuriken to make a left handed variant. If they can get a list of 50 south paws willing to make a pre-order commitment, then there is a chance that they will consider it. If you are interested in this, please up vote the following idea, and also leave a post with your declaration of interest on it. https://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Shuriken-in-left-hand-model/952757-23508 PS: just to respond to some of the points on this thread. I am also a keyboard player and have no trouble with playing keyboards as a right handed person does (usually chords on left hand, melody on right). but a right handed guitar never did it for me. It just never felt right, no matter how hard I tried to get on with it. When I got my left handed Variax 500 (one of those eBay purchases that I was going to out bid anybody on!) there was no looking back. Might left hand was just made for picking and strumming, I guess. 10 years on, I would love to keep my 500 as a backup guitar and have a more modern guitar with JTV electronics to go with my Helix. PPS: hope people do not think I am spamming the forum, I have picked the first few left handed posts I could find, hopefully to get the interest going again.

Hello. I am posting on this thread to direct people to a specific Ideascale Idea to suggest to Shuriken to make a left handed variant. If they can get a list of 50 south paws willing to make a pre-order commitment, then there is a chance that they will consider it. If you are interested in this, please up vote the following idea, and also leave a post with your declaration of interest on it. https://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Shuriken-in-left-hand-model/952757-23508

Hello. I am posting on this thread to direct people to a specific Ideascale Idea to suggest to Shuriken to make a left handed variant. If they can get a list of 50 south paws willing to make a pre-order commitment, then there is a chance that they will consider it. If you are interested in this, please up vote the following idea, and also leave a post with your declaration of interest on it. https://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Shuriken-in-left-hand-model/952757-23508

Cool. I was just looking at the M series effects list. There are some great "sounding" effects in there, that I can't wait to try. Kudos to Line6 for bringing these to the Helix. Now all I need is for Line6 to give in to guilt and FINALLY announce a south paw JTV, and that would really make my day ;)

Thanks for the reply. I'll have to keep an eye on it then.....

Hi, I am just wondering if you ever resolved this? I am on 2.30 and up until Christmas time the Helix worked flawlessly. A week or so back I had this problem, with the sound "stuttering first" then it went silent. Tried a few power on cycles. Nothing. Suddenly it came back. It has just happened again tonight. Exactly the same. In my case the tuner was detecting the input, but nothing on my outputs or headphones. I tried both my Variax and my Strat GK3/GR55 into the Helix to no avail. It was like this for ten minutes and then it came back to life. I don't recollect this happening before the 2.3 update, so is it a 2.3 bug?

No worries. I was hoping that my experience in using a live host would help somebody, which is what forums are all about :) If you have any specific queries, feel free to ask. There is also a fairly active Cantabile forum as well for the really tricky questions and the developer is pretty responsive to reported issues and feature requests. Cheers Derek

Hi. I have Helix, but also looking forward to having the power of it in software form; the same way that I had POD Farm 2 as well as my X3 Live. Pod Farm came free with the X3, so its a shame to have to pay extra for the Helix Native, so I have been waiting to see a price, and at $99 I would go for it. In some ways I can see the point of it, but in other ways I think is there a point, given the ease with which you can do revamping in the Helix Hardware? On balance, I think there is a point. For me, it is the ability to record using the Helix Hardware and then the ability to re-amp within the DAW to save switching between DAW and Helix Editor (e.g. When in the editor, I can't use DAW transport controls), and then have the resultant patch ready for live use. For those looking for something other than a DAW host for live use (e.g. I can see it as a back up if, heaven forbid, my Helix hardware ever failed, or for additional processing), then I can highly recommend Cantabile by Top Ten Software (easy to google). This is a VST host designed for live use, and it can do all sorts of dangerous tricks that a DAW can't. There are different versions with expanding feature set (as you go up the version tree), including a free LITE version which may be enough for some, but it is so powerful, I have the top end one. It will also run as a 30 day demo so you can try all features before committing. On stage I have used Cantabile to play backing tracks, host soft synths, cue DMX light shows, do complex MIDI routing and filtering and patch switches, playback samples triggered by a drum pad, etc. So it is well worth checking out. With regards to the "oh crap, I will have to start a program and then load a VST" comments about Helix software requiring a VST host, Cantabile can be set on startup to preload a "set list" which is a collection of songs, and when a song is selected, it will recall everything saved in it including VSTs and their settings. I.e. The two things I only ever do to my computer on stage after startup and log in, is to shut down the virus checker (WIFI disabled and you don't want on access or full virus sweeps kicking in when the software thinks the computer is idle (due to no user input!) when it is actually busy playing back files), and start Cantabile. Right now I am setting up for a small duo act, of myself on guitar and a singer, performing to backing tracks. I have set the Helix Hardware and Cantabile (with appropriate MIDI cabling) up as follows: 1) When I select a patch on Helix, Cantabile is listening to the patch changes and will select the relevant backing song ready to play back. 2) I have used Helix Command Centre to setup two stomp switches to send MIDI MMC START and STOP messages respectively to start and stop the Cantabile playback. 3) I have setup another Stomp Switch to a CC toggle to unmute a WAV file played back at the same time as the main backing track, which has my singer's vocals on. Which allows me to practice without her there. It's is muted by default, so not on during a show. 4) Cantabile is also programmed so that when a song is selected (by Helix patch changes) that it sends a patch change to a TC-Helion vocal processor to also select its patches. 5) During song playback, as well as the WAV file with the backing track, there is a MIDI file running in sync sending MIDI CCs to the vocal processor to change "Steps" within the song preset (different effects settings for different parts of the songs - e.g start and end of song is dry, step one light doubling for verse, step 2 harmonies for chorus) and also MIDI chords for the harmoniser to do its work. 6) In the future the MIDI track will also send cues to my lighting system based on the DMXIS hardware and VST. So, you can see, on stage, the computer can be tucked away (eventually it will be a "brick pc" inside my gig rack that houses the sound module, line mixer and IEM transmitter) and all i need to interact with is the Helix. Hope this is not too off topic, but it gives you an idea of what a powerful pairing that Helix and a PC running Cantabile can be! I am really pleased with the thought that has gone into the Helix hardware such as the Command Centre, which makes it a powerful MIDI controller as well as Guitar processor, which has allowed me to program this interaction between Helix and Cantabile! Now I just wish Line6 would consider a new left handed Variax model (you have to have a dream).......

Sounds great. Thanks for sharing. I need to watch in more detail.

Given the cost of the Helix, I went for a SwanFlight hard case for it. Not cheap, but quite substantial and a perfect fit, and confidence that the Helix will be well protected.

Hi, I am now the proud owner of a new Helix, and getting to grips with it. After a while messing about with the preets and the downloaded tones, I now need to think about recreating the tones I have in my X3 Live. I am aware that there is no automatic import and will need to build the patches manually, but I was wondering if such a thing as a map/chart of amps/effects models between the two exists, so you can at least start off with getting a chain of similar units together ready for tweaking. For example I have an X3 patch (which probably started life as a downloaded Steve Hillage patch from Tone Central) which uses the Killer Z stompbox, and haven't got the foggiest which of the Helix Distortion models is a good one to start with (I am pretty much a guitar newbie when it comes to knowledge of different amps/effects). I could of course go through them all, but on the old 80/20 rule, it would be nice to have some sort of reference where you know which amp/cab/effect on the Helix would get you into the 80% right ball park so you can focus on the tweaking effort! The corollary is that creating them from scratch will teach me a lot more :) but I would be quite happy if such a comparison list existed so I can focus on other things! Regards Derek