amsdenj

You can try using a sound hole cover when playing live. That's a common solution. Acoustic IRs can accentuate the guitar's resonance frequency and encourage feedback. Try blending the IR with some of the direct piezo. That might help too.

The buttons are suppose to be self cleaning. Try pressing the button multiple times and see if that clears it up. I have 3 that have been acting up for a while, but I've been tolerating them because I also don't want to send Helix in for repair.

I get my IEM mix from the PA, not Helix. We use an X32-Core with 2 SD16 digital snake heads. This provides 10 (5 stereo) busses and outputs for individual IEMs independent of the main FOH mix. That's the best way to go, maybe even if you can only get one shared monitor mix for the whole band for IEM use.

Well, I changed VDI cables, made some updates in my goto patch, and adjustments in the Variax neck, and now my sustain issues seem to be gone. I'm not sure what did it, but I couldn't be happier with the result: JTV-69S (Warmoth neck & SVL Daytona pickups) > Helix Floor > HX Effects (in the loop for extra effect switches) > Powercab 212 is really awesome. Thanks to Chris Buck and Jeff McErlain for great information on effects setup, gain staging and routing. This was very helpful too.

Helix is an integrated ecosystem: Variax at the front, Powercab at the back, HX Effects and HX Stomp in the middle. That's what's really different. Very few people can hear the differences in amp and cabinet models. And then there's Litigator.

I have used a Roland AC90 with Helix for rehearsals and jams. It sounds reasonable and is pretty convenient. But Its too small to use for most gigs, at least those that have a drummer.

When updating to 2.80, my Variax patch seem corrupt. I had to rebuild the patch. Never had another problem since then.

Another, perhaps more flexible approach would be to allow patches to “link” to other patches and inherit their configuration with the ability to override settings. Any changes to the linked to (or target) patch that are not overridden in the linking (or source) patch could be automatically inherited by all the linking patches. This makes whole patches reusable, not just blocks. And it would be very easy to implement as it is a common software pattern.

Most, if not all guitar speakers/cabinets are pretty directional, its the nature of a guitar speaker. In Flat/FRFR, the tweeter is on, but its screwed onto the back of the speaker and goes through a hole in the magnet. That adds a little acoustic loading, but is probably very directional too. Listening to a guitar speaker off axis is often a better sound. I use IEMs and couldn't get by without them. If I'm ever in a situation where I can't use them, I use custom ear plugs.

Assuming you are referring to Helix, controllable input impedance is only available on the 1/4" guitar input, it has no effect on VDI input.

The expression inputs to HX Stomp can be any combination of two expression or footswitch. So you can have FS 4 and FS 5 if you want. HX Stomp only has 3 snapshots, so if you have FS 4 and FS 5, you can have two footswitches with 3 snapshots at the same time. Each footswitch can control up to 8 things: effect bypass and/or parameter min/max values. Each snapshot can save values for up to 64 parameters. FS mode can be either stomp or snapshot. HX Stomp is an amazing piece of gear. Here's a great video: And another:

Litigator, keep the drive down for a pedal platform. Might need a little mid boost for single coil guitars somewhere in the patch.

If you have Logic Pro X, it comes with an Impulse Response Utility that I have used to create my own IRs with very good results.

I've updated, and have no problems. It took a while to examine all the 32 Bit apps I had, and delete them or replace them with 64 Bit alternatives. But once that was done, my whole studio (Logic) can up without a flaw.

You can get four foot switches, including one under the expression pedal (which can be used for anything). This is more flexible than three snapshots because you can get all possible combinations of those four foot switches, each of which can change up to 8 parameters. You can reduce the number of foot switches by combining things under one switch. For example, switching from a clean tone with a compressor to an overdriven tone that changes the amp drive can be done with one foot switch. You don't need a compressor going into a distorted amp because the clipping amp is already a kind of compressor. You can also save foot switches by leaving effects like delay and reverb on all the time. Its great to have multiple overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedals in you signal chain and control them all individually, stacking them for lots of tone and saturation options. But with HX Stomp, you just don't have the blocks or foot switches to do this. Instead, pick an amp model with lots of gain options, use a foot switch to switch between a couple of drive, high cut, bass, presence, etc. settings and then use your guitar volume to fine tune the saturation level. You can get lots of distortion tones this way with one foot switch, and no extra distortion blocks. I have found the forced simplicity in HX Stomp isn't really that much of an inhibitor to achieving serviceable tone and sometimes simplicity has its own value.

I don’t use IRs in Powercab, so I haven’t tested this. It was my understanding that in Flat mode, the XLR output was the same as the input. In Speaker model, the XLR output was a mic’d version (probably an IR) of the selected speaker. And in IR mode, the XLR out was the processed IR output, the same thing that goes to the Powercab power amp. That said, I can’t find that stated anywhere in the latest Powercab manual. Frankly, I don’t see a lot of advantage using an IR in Powercab other than 1) you don’t have a Helix or some other device capable of supporting the IRs, 2) you’re trying to save a block - especially with HX Stomp. But using an IR in Powercab isn’t really leveraging Powercab’s big advantage - Speaker Mode. In this mode you get speaker models (which I think are just simple EQ matching), and no microphone - so the sound is more natural, like an amp in the room. Even with HX Stomp, I’d use the Speaker mode in Powercab. I think they sound quite a bit better than a similar IR into Flat/FRFR mode.

We don’t know the exact relationship between the Powercab speaker models and what goes out the XLR outputs. What we do know is that there is a choice of microphone model and position. This suggest that the XLR outputs are using an impulse response to model the chosen speaker in a 1 or 2x12 cabinet. Powercab has all the technology needed to support this, so this is probably a good guess. For the Natural speaker model, we can only guess that Powercab is using an IR created from the actual Eminence speaker in the cabinet. That would not be difficult to do, and would be the simplest, most straight forward design. These are only guesses. In practice, it doesn’t really matter. If you like the Natural model, then use it. But you should always verify that the FOH is also acceptable, regardless of whether it is the same or not. Its probably good practice to rely on your ears, not on any technical architecture details, or how we might think things should work.

You can use a headphone amp such as Behringer Powerplay P2 Ultra-Compact Personal In-Ear Monitor Amplifier with Powercab. I use one for my IEMs driven from a pair of outputs from the PA for my own monitor mix. Use an XLR Y cable to adapt the two channels into the input expected by the P2.

I've had reasonably good luck with the rotary cab models in Helix. I do run them in parallel with the speaker model/IR, and do carefully blend the two. The rotary models in Helix are generally intended to run in the front of an amp, with a guitar level input. So if you have them after the amp, make sure you're not hitting them too hard (keeping all blocks near unity gain is a good practice) or adjust the headroom parameter. These rotary models also have some speaker simulation EQ applied, so you generally don't want to run them in series with a cab or speaker IR model as that will put speaker into speaker. Run them in parallel instead.

Well, all those reasonable arguments aside, I did get a Powercab 212 today. I really wanted the stereo, and think the extra weight will be ok.

Lots of players try various techniques to get fatter, warmer sounds out of single coil pickups. Typical Fender guitars with single coil pickups are pretty scooped, as are the Fender amps they are typically plugged into. This makes the guitar sound deep, bright and rich by itself (to sell well), but often doesn't cut through the mix. You need mid frequencies for that. A common, and simple solution to mids with Fender guitars and amps is to use a Tube Screamer in front of the amp with the Drive turned all the way down, Tone in the middle, and Level set for how hard you want to push the amp. Tube Screamers, and overdrive pedals with similar designs provide a mid boost around 800 Hz that fills in that Fender scoop to make the guitar sound fatter and cut through a dense mix better. Try using a pedal to solve your thin tones. That might work on Variax double coil models too.

Turning the volume all the way down on a Variax puts the guitar to sleep to save battery. When it goes to sleep, maybe the volume is no longer being controlled and returns to 100%. I'm getting this on my goto patch, and related patches that were derived from it. I'll try again with a new, simpler patch. Update: the volume change doesn't happen on Helix Floor, it only appears to change in HX Edit. So it looks like the bug is in HX Edit, not Helix.

Helix hardware also has A2D and D2A converters and also uses a computer to execute the algorithms. With modern computers, latency shouldn't be an issue. Remember, standing 10' away from a tube amp will have more latency than what you'll experience in Helix Native with a good computer. The biggest difference between Helix hardware and Helix Native is the quality of the HiZ input and A2D converters. If you have a good interface and gain stage it properly, you shouldn't see much difference. But Helix hardware is optimized for guitar, most computer interfaces aren't. The other difference is the auto impedance. That only work on the Helix hardware guitar input. So if your patch relies on it, then you might hear a difference with Helix Native.

I just noticed that Helix 2.82 (and maybe 2.81) with input set to Multi, JTV-69S connected, Variax volume on 10: Use knob on JTV-69S to turn the models on, the Helix Variax Volume Knob drops to 7.7.

I've used Helix for the last four years, about 30 gigs a year. I've never had a problem other than patches not working quite as I expected, and some unreliable foot switches. I had a lot more issues with my tube amp back in the day. And I seen a lot of people kicking wires to get their pedal board working.