amsdenj

Today's Generative AI and Machine Learning is mostly recreating things that already existed as captured in their training sets. That's great for making this content more readily available and reusable, pending IP rights issues. The AI models can possibly produce some interesting new results based on validation errors and hallucinations. But AI can't currently create Line 6 Litigator, one of the best amp models in Helix. So an interesting question to explore might be: How can AI help someone like Ben Adrian be more creative, innovative and productive to produce the next new products that could be fed into future training sets to progress the industry? Or will AI just reduce the need for creative engineering while the product owners maximize profits from products of the past, saturating the market with the same things over and over?

Helix cab models and IRs typically model close mic'd speaker cabinets. What the mic is hearing is very different than what you would hear in the room because you don't have your ear right up next to the middle of the speaker cone. At least let's hope not! In the studio, this was the only option for capturing a guitar amp and works well because it gives the mix engineer lots of additional frequencies they can play with to fit the guitar in the mix. This almost always requires significant high and low cuts for focus the guitar in the mids and keep it out of the way of other tracks. The same is true with live mixing in FOH, but is often much more difficult to control. So if you give the FOH engineer this wider frequency range, then they have the flexibility to adjust as needed to fit in the mix and address room characteristics. But this puts additional responsibility on the FOH engineer and they often have a lot of other things to deal with. So you might want to give the FOH mix what you think is your best tone so if they do nothing with the EQ, it will sound ok. Different situations may call for different approaches.

Your initial diagnosis may be correct, the overall volume is going down because of phase cancellation. That would show on the mixer meters and in your IEMs if your backline is out of phase with your FHO speakers. Flip the phase in Helix or at the mixing desk and see if the problem goes away.

As far as I know this is not published. But I think the woofer is an Eminence coaxial speaker that has a frequency response typical of a guitar speaker. At least in my experience LF Raw sounds pretty similar to a Celestion Creamback. Frequency response is likely somewhere around 70 to 5K Hz

Not sure why you want to try to make Natural sound like Raw, why not just use Raw? But if you did want to do that, you could record a loop in Helix, then play back and record the output in a DAW with the Natural and the Raw in separate tracks. Phase align the tracks, then use a tone matching plugin like the EQ in Logic Pro to help you find the EQ curve.

Amps with two drive controls and a master give more control of your clean and distortion tones. Amp configurations are different, but it is often the case that the first drive control will have a bypass cap. Keeping that control on lower settings and getting the gain from the 2nd control will give a brighter tone. Keeping the 1st drive higher and the second drive lower will give the same amount of gain and distortion, but will sound darker. Keeping the master lower and the combinations of the two drives higher will give preamp distortion instead of power amp distortion which generally will sound more compressed and can be more complex with even and odd harmonics caused by asymmetric preamp distortion. With modelers, you get get power amp distortion at any volume level using the amp level control. So that's more flexible than you can do with a real amp unless you use an isolation or load box. Try this: Set the master all the way up and adjust level for consistent output level. Turn up drive one to get the tone you want. Then turn drive 2 up to get the amount of distortion you want. This will be power amp distortion. Then switch to lower master and higher level to get the same overall output and again use drive 2 to get the amount of distortion you want. This will be preamp distortion. Then decide which one you like better. Of course, you can mix them. But the downstream power amp distortion will dominate the tone with the up stream preamp distortion just adding more saturation, exactly like stacking distortion pedals.

A good input level into a digital interface is between -12 and -18 dB. The key is to avoid digital clipping on peaks. So -20 dB with a single coil pickup is probably fine.

Sounds like you don't have input monitoring turned on in the track. So you only heard sound when armed for recording.

Cab blocks or speaker models using FRFR can sound harsh. The reason is they are captured using close mining techniques on the speaker, often close to the cap or cap edge. If you put your ear up close to the middle of a speaker cone, you'll find it sound pretty harsh. What we're use to hearing is something much further away and off axis. But far-field speaker captures don't work well because when you play then back through a FRFR in a room, you hear the room twice. The solution is to use EQ to adjust the tone of the mic'd cab. This is why the default hi-cut for cab models is 8kHz. This takes the unnatural edge of the speaker IR. So this isn't a modeling error, or an issue with Helix or its cab blocks. Its just the nature of how speaker IRs are captured. Attempting to model how a speaker works without using ML or IR captures would be extremely difficult to do because of the complexity of the physical aspects of the speaker. Maybe someday.

Try turning off the cab model and use Flat/RAW. Then Powercab is just a powered guitar speaker. I find this gives a natural sounding 2x12 guitar speaker.

I use two outputs, one goes through a cab block to FOH and IEMs, the other no cab block into Powercab 112+ or 212 (depending on the gig) always in Flat/RAW. I find I really like the sound of the Eminence speaker. So I treat Powercab as a 1x12 or 2x12 powered guitar speaker in a closed back cabinet. I don't try to make it sound like something it isn't. That's speaker configuration works well for me in a gigging situation. Powercab is a really great platform for use with any modeler. I find it convenient, reliable, easy to use, very flexible, and sounds great. It's perhaps not the best FRFR since the speaker is a guitar speaker, not HI-Fi, and the tweeter is coaxial which limits the high frequency dispersion a bit. I wouldn't use it for bass for example. It could probably be used for keys, but might not be that great.

I got one from https://warmoth.com/guitar-necks for my JTV69S. It worked great. Really improved the guitar. I play it every day.

Onboard IRs are more significant with HX Stomp where saving the block is more important. If you put non-linear blocks after the IR block, say Retro Reel, or a compressor, then there will be a difference if these come after the IR in Helix, or before the IR in Powercab.

macOS aggregate devices used to be a little unstable, but Core Audio has been much improved over the years and I have no problems with them now. I also use Loopback to create very complex virtual devices for connecting audio applications together. It works very well to and can do the aggregate devices too.

A better option might be to use a reactive load box with a line out into the Powercab input. Then run Powercab in either Flat/LF Raw or any of the speaker models.

Paul, the band is Moonlight Rescue Band, see Facebook. I also play acoustic music with No Worries, see Spotify or Apple Music.

I think we expect guitar amps to sound a certain way for an application, PA speakers to sound a certain way for different applications, and HIFI stereo speakers to sound a certain way for yet another application. PowerCab is attempting to cover all those different applications with its MODE/Voicing. To me, FLAT/FRFR is ok for gigging situations for acoustic guitar. But it can't reproduce the sound of 4x12 or bass cabs in Helix. You'd need a lot bigger FRFR to come close to that. If you're trying to get a good 1x12 guitar sound from a modeler, Powercab in FLAT/LF Raw does that pretty well. It will sound a lot like a typical 1x12 guitar amp. This is what I'm looking from Powercab, it's the application to which I am applying the product. I think it works great. And for those occasions where I need a FRFR, Powercab is good enough for gigging situations. Not perfect, but good enough. I like that flexibility. For other situations, if a 4x12 cab block in Helix into Powercab FLAT/FRFR sounds good, then I'll use it. I don't really care if it sound like AITR as I know that's impossible. The question is simply does it sound good for the application.

Using a cab or IR block with FLAT/LF Raw is putting a guitar speaker into a guitar speaker. That's going to sound pretty dark. But maybe that's what you like. Typically you would use cab or IR block into FLAT/FRFR and no cab or IR block into FLAT/LF Raw. I've never found a very good use for FLAT/LF Flat. For any acoustic instrument or keyboard, FLAT/FRFR would be typical. But for something like a Fender Rhodes, you might like FLAT/LF Raw because we're use to hearing that into guitar-like speakers.

To get hum canceling with neck and middle or middle and bridge on a Strat, you need two things: 1) the middle pickup need to be reverse wired out or of phase and 2) the magnets need to be flipped N/S to S/N up on the middle pickup. That puts the string motion back in phase, while leaving the voltages induced in the pickups from external fields out of phase and cancelled. You can use a compass to check the phasing of the magnets.

I have Powercab112+ and Powercab212. I'm very happy with the functionality, tone and convenience. The 112+ is used on every gig. Like @rd2rk, I do prefer the flexibility as I use Flat/LF Raw mode most of the time and only user FRFR for acoustic tones.

For a JTV-69S, the bridge should be level and somewhat off the guitar body, say 2-3 mm. You can use the bridge height off the body to somewhat compensate for neck angle issues, but a shim in the neck pocket could be a better option. You can also use bridge height to normalize the bridge saddles off the bridge plate when setting to correspond to the neck radius, say if the bridge saddle screws are too low or too high.

A good example where this feature would be useful would be when using chorus. Sometimes you want the chorus in front of the amp, or before distortion, and sometimes after. I generally prefer stereo chorus after the amp and cab to preserve the doubling and mixing in a linear block. But if you want to get that Clapton chorus tone, you need to put it in front of distortion, with just a bit of chorus to give the tone depth. For Helix, the solution is multiple blocks or different patches. I believe all the current modelers are similar, you can't change the signal path configuration in a patch, you can only turn blocks of and on.

I would only add that Flat mode with LF Raw voicing works really well with modelers. The Eminence speaker in Powercab is actually a pretty nice guitar speaker. Use it in Flat/LF Raw with no cab or IR block in Helix and you get a very nice amp in the room sound. This is how I use Powercab for backline stage volume, and I use a separate path with a cab block for IEM and FOH. Don't be afraid to turn it up, and use some treble.

I don't rely on being able to see the display to know what snapshot I'm in or what blocks are bypassed, the foot switch lights are enough. Same for HX Stomp and Helix floor. Then I setup all patches using the same general foot switch layout, so that I know pretty much what a foot switch will do in any patch. For example, the drives and modulation might be different in a patch, but the same foot switches will control them in most patches. Then I actually practice against backing tracks to simulate gig mode to make sure I can get to the right tone at the right time while singing. This often involves pickup changes on the guitar and changing the guitar volume (which I do a lot). I consider this part of playing my instrument and practice these moves too. And of course it's different for different guitars, have to practice that too.

I guess we all knew this was coming, but it still saddens me a bit. Variax was a really innovative product that I would like to have seen be more successful. I still have two Variax guitars, a JTV69S and a Variax Acoustic. Both are excellent instruments in in perfect working order. I don't gig with them anymore as I wanted to focus on playing my other guitars. But I use the JTV69S every day for practicing and for rehearsals. It's light, has an excellent replacement neck with stainless steel frets, SVL Daytona pickups and plays as well as any guitar I've ever played. So I'll keep it, and maybe use it for quick open tunings or baritone occasionally.