amsdenj

I too have no problems with 2.81 and use a pretty complex patch. 2.8 had its share of issues, and that's unfortunate. But it's a big change that needed to be done to enable the future, and getting in our hands is the best way to ring out the bugs that are too hard to find in automated/manual testing. Overall its about value. Defects reduce the ability of Helix capabilities to deliver value. But to me 2.8 has improved value even with the defects. I'll happily give Line6 the time to clean things up, and have confidence they will do so.

Try using Derailed Ingrid. Trainwreck is similar to Bassman but with more gain. Its a great amp for HX Stomp since you can get great distortion tones by just attaching a few parameters to a footswitch (amp drive, bass, presence, cab high/low cut, etc.) without having to use any distortion blocks.

You could also use Audio/MIDI Setup to create an aggregate device.

Try using Workbench HD to change the body model to Masonic Plank.

I have been struggling with the VDI vs 1/4" issue for a while now. I use a JTV-69S into Helix. I use VDI almost exclusively for reduced noise, powering the Variax, and MIDI control. In a typical gig, I use mostly the magnetic pickups (SVL Daytona which sound wonderful), and only occasionally use models for open tunings, acoustic and an occasional double coil tone when I don't have time to change guitars. This works great and is very convenient. But I can clearly hear a difference between the VDI and 1/4" for the magnetic pickups. The VDI tone is thiner and brighter. I could address that with EQ. But the biggest issue is the VDI seems to have a lot less sustain, almost like there's a gate in the VDI signal path. This is all magnetic pickups, no models. I've noticed similar lack of sustain in some of the models compared to the magnetic pickups, but have been able to address that by changing the body model the Masonic Plank. Anyone else noticed a difference in sustain between VDI and 1/4"? I can't think of a reason for this other than the A2D converters are in the guitar for VDI and in Helix for 1/4". The other possible difference is the impedance the actual pickups see might be different between VDI and 1/4".

See the spect at https://line6.com/powercab/. 212 produces 131dB while 112 produces 125. Two 112's would probably be about the same loudness as a 212 as the configuration of speaker area and power would be the same. The differences would be: Two 112s would be more flexible: you could position them differently or use only one in tighter situations, or use one to backup the other The 212 is about 11 lbs heavier than a single 112. With two 112s, your could at least carry one at a time The 212 uses Neodymium magnets to keep the weight down If you typically play in larger venues, or need to play pretty loud, the 212 might be a better choice. But two 112s would be more flexible.

If you run Powercab in FRFR mode, you can easily amplify two different inputs. Guitar inputs will need amp and speaker models, so as long as you do that you should have no problem. Powercab is intended to be run clean, the distortion comes from the amp models, not Powercab. Run this way, the Powercab should be completely linear and will easily amplify whatever signals you put into it. It will be mono, but everything will come through, just in the same pan position.

I think yes to both questions. But check the impedance and output level of your load box to be sure it matches powercab input. I've never used a Headrush FRFR but have lots of experience with JBL EON610s - I used two for a couple of years with Helix. PowerCab is a bit improvement as its designed for guitar, no PA vocals. PA speakers disperse differently and the JBLs were somewhat scooped in the mids, not a good thing for guitar.

The tweeter is only on in Flat/FRFR and IR modes.

Jeff MeErlain gets a great fuzz tone in starting around 6:20. I haven't been able to reproduce this in Helix. None of the fuzz models in Helix seem as smooth and controllable as that Jesse Davey King Tone Silicon Fuzz. But maybe I just don't like fuzz. Jeff gives a nice lesson in gain staging in this short, but very informative video. He really know is stuff. See his courses on TrueFire if you want more information. They're great.

Helix floor and HX Stomp fill in the range nicely for me. I wouldn't want to give up any footswitches for a medium sized Helix, and when I want small, HX stomp is it.

Got the RC5EE050V cable today. Seems to work great and maybe picks up less noise when close to a computer. Its stiffer then I had hoped for, but that’s probably what’s needed for a quality cable.

I've gigged multiple times with 2.81, and made lots of patch changes. All seems pretty solid to me.

Try global reset: power up with foot switches 5&6 pressed, just in case something got messed up. To avoid digital clipping, set each block level or amp channel volume so that the block is close to unity gain - sounds just as loud with the block bypassed or on. Then make sure your playback device isn't clipping.

POD doesn't have impulse responses or high cut in the cab models if I remember right. That's probably your problem. You're using the speaker to tame the highs instead of a high cut. Try Flat FRFR mode, but turn down the tweeter in Powercab global settings.

I ordered RC5EE050V. I'll let you know how well it works.

Is a good general rule. But some amp models require additional consideration as they have different gain structures. Preamp up / Master down will emphasis preamp distortion which is often asymmetric, produces more even order harmonics, and a smoother, less aggressive distortion with minimal sag. Any distortion from Preamp down / Master up will usually be from the power amp which is often symmetric, produces more odd order harmonics, and a harsher, more aggressive distortion with greater potential for sag. If both are up, you get a mixture of both preamp and power amp distortion which will mostly just have more saturation, the power amp distortion will contribute most of the tone. However, the position of the tone controls in the signal chain can have a big impact on preamp distortion. If the distortion is before the tone controls like Marshal amps and Litigator, then the tone controls will control the treble ice-pick/fizz of the distorted tone. It can be difficult to get a good clean tone from this configuration because you have to run the treble low to keep the distortion warm, but then when you turn your guitar volume down to clean up the, the tone will be muffled. Other amp models have the tone controls before the distortion. These model give you better control of the clean tones because you can keep the treble turned up when it goes into a clipping stage without creating more fizz. However, these amp model often don't have a lot of control of the tone after distortion, so they can be pretty harsh. Some other amp models have two drive controls and these might support distortion stages before and after the tone controls, and one or the other might have a bright bypass cap. These amps can be pretty flexible. You can of course change a lot of amp parameters with a foot switch or snapshot to get even greater control of clean to distorted tones. But if you need a lot of control of your tone, from clean to very distorted in the same patch, its often easier go get the distortion using multiple pedals in front of a clean amp. Each pedal can play a role in the signal chain. Since each one usually has drive, tone and level controls, you get a lot of shaping of the distortion tone and a lot of saturation control through stacking. Try Guitar > Fuzz (OCD) > Distortion (Minotaur - with low drive, high level) > Teemah!. All blocks off is your clean tone. Set using the neck pickup, and use the tone control on your guitar to adjust for the bridge pickup. It's easier to remove high frequencies then it is to add them. Then use Teemah! to get your on the edge of amp breakup tone. Teemah! is great for this because it has bass cut before distortion to reduce mud, and treble cut after distortion to control ice-pic/fizz. It also has symmetric or asymmetric distortion with the Up/Down switch. This pedal is often left on all the time and cleans up very well with the guitar volume control. Minotaur provides slightly more aggressive distortion and the Tube Screamer mid boost that we're so use to hearing. By itself, this is a different distortion than Teemah! by itself, and these two pedals stack very well to produce yet a third level of distortion. The low drive and high level emphasizes the mid hump of Minotaur and pushes the Teemah! harder to produce more distortion. But since Teemah! is later in the path, its flexible tone shaping has a greater impact on the overall tone. The more you stack in front of it, the more saturation and sustain you get, without having the overall tone change too much. Finally a Fuzz in front of Minotaur can provide a thick, smooth, high saturation and sustain tone with a lot of tone shaping control. It can be tricky to get a fuzz to sound good by itself, but stacked in front of Minotaur and/or Teemah! you have a lot more control. Jeff McErlain has a great video explaining all this. See https://youtu.be/iK2b5LwcxrY. He also has a great TrueFire course on guitar effects. I highly recommend checking this out if you want to get the most out of your effects.

The problem is the line6 VDI cables are way too long and the quality of the recent ones isn't is good as the older ones. I have two of these. I was looking for a shorter, high quality, very flexible option. Klotz seems like a good option.

Another useful trick this reminded me of is a way to improve sustain on guitars with bolt on necks. The trick is to slightly loosen the neck mounting screws while the strings are under tension. This will cause the strings to pull the neck tightly into the body cavity, making better contact. Some people think that can improve sustain.

I have also noticed on my JTV-69S that the bridge pieces do indeed move (down). Vibrations during playing appear to make the small Allen screws used to raise and lower the bridge to screw in, lowering one side of the bridge saddle. I have to adjust them every couple of weeks.

Json Sadites has recommended these cables. See . But I'm not sure which one to get. Is this the correct cable: https://shop.klotz-ais.com/26665-rc5eeb.html, or do we need the double-shielded version: https://shop.klotz-ais.com/7896-rcbee.html? Anyone know where these can be purchased? The Klotz store seems to be for business not personal sales.

Powercab x12+ has three modes Flat Mode - has three voicings that select the final post-processing EQ and crossover settings for the speaker system. XLR out is the same as the Powercab input (for all voicings) FRFR - Uses the high-frequency compression driver with a flattened frequency-response EQ for full-range operation. The tweeter is on, XLR out is the same as the Powercab input. Use when cab or IR models are provided before the Powercab input.Good for acoustic instruments. LF Raw - Uses only the woofer with no EQ applied, allowing Powercab to be utilized like a typical 12" guitar speaker. Tweeter is off. Use with no IR or cab processing at the input. LF Flat - Uses only the woofer with a flattened frequency response EQ. This voicing is used as the normalized basis for the Speaker models. Essentially each Speaker model is an EQ added to LF Flat that reproduces the sound of the modeled speaker. Tweeter is off. Use this for a different guitar speaker sound. Speaker - each speaker model adds EQ to to the to the LF Flat basis to reproduce the sound of the speaker model. XLR output is a cab model that matches the speaker model, and includes a mic model. Tweeter is always off. This is probably the mode that leverages the unique features of Powercab the most to provide the amp in the room sound. It is actually a guitar speaker in the room with no mic model. Use with no IR or cab processing at the input. IR - uses IRs on the Flat/FRFR voicing for additional speaker selections. XLR output includes the IR processing. The tweeter is always on. Use with no IR or cab processing at the input.

Other than some occasionally unreliable footswitches, my has been running well for four years. I did have one scribble strip replaced, but that's it so far. Helix seems as reliable as other gear you regularly setup, tear down, transport and step on.

HX Stomp into a single FRFR like Headrush, JBL EON610, etc. is a simple and flexible setup. I suspect one reason we have trouble getting consistent tones out of setups like this is dealing with too much mid-scoop. Fender amp (and model) tone controls and Fender single coil guitars have a lot of mid scoop. This creates a nice deep, bright, rich clean tone. But it can be really hard to get that tone to cut through a dense mix, and distortion can be muddy and fizzy at the same time. PA speakers can also add more mid scoop. If you put the speaker on the floor, you'll get a pretty big bass boost due to coupling between the woofer and the floor. And the horn can be pretty bright and less directional than we are use to. Guitar is all about the mid range. This is why a tube screamer work so well with Fender Strats and amps - it provide a big mid boost that recovers some of those scooped out mids. So if you're having trouble getting a good, consistent tone out of HX Stomp and a PA-speaker FRFR, you might explore controlling the mids by bringing the bass and treble down a little. Try to do this physically first - with the cabinet placement in the room. Use a stand or speaker pole to get the speaker off the floor to eliminate that bass coupling. Position the speaker so the high end is focused where you want it. If that's not enough, then the next place to look is cab/IR low and high cuts. As you cut lows and highs, you are actually focusing more on the mids. With EQ its almost always better to cut what you don't want then it is to boost what you do want, its called subtractive EQ. Boosts can sound less natural and create headroom problems. If that's still not enough, you might try using global EQ to tailor the tone for the room. Some additional more focused EQ cuts and boosts could really make that simple FRFR sound great. Use references with a guitar amp tone you really like to find a good baseline tone, and then use global EQ to make slight adjustments for particular situations. The thing I like about modeler into FRFR is the flexibility. You can get a lot of tones out of a simple setup including acoustic tones. I use a Variax and FRFR is a must for me. I also play acoustic guitar and mandolin through Helix and FRFR is necessary for that too.

There are lots of ways to reduce DSP demand without significantly sacrificing tone. The first thing to consider is the context. If you’re playing solo electric guitar, then you need a lot of tone options and control. Don't use HX Stomp for this, use Helix. But if you're playing in a band context, then the focus should be the song and the mix, not necessarily your individual tone. In a band/mix context, all the complex tonal subtleties from complex blocks and patches either get mostly lost in the mix, or can actually degrade the mix because they make an overly complex sound that competes for too much space or is indistinct and doesn't cut thorough. Less is almost always more in a live mix when it comes to effects. The next is stereo/mono. Stereo blocks take twice as much DSP as mono blocks. So avoiding stereo can save a lot of DSP. Stereo sounds great by yourself. But in a band/mix situation, it offers little benefit. If you're using a stereo backline, then you might hear the stereo, but your audience won't - the speakers are just too close together. If on the other hand you're putting your stereo guitar through the FOH, only a few select people in just the right position will hear it, that's why most FOH systems are run in mono - to ensure everyone hears the whole mix, no matter where they are positioned in the venue. If you really need stereo and lots of blocks, use Helix not HX Stomp. But most of the time you might find mono is just fine and can in fact help clean up live mix issues. Also, if you do use stereo, there's no point in using a stereo block in front of any mono block (e.g., any amp model) since it will get summed to mono anyway. That's just a waste of DSP, and the summing a stereo block to mono can have a negative impact on it's tone. Next there are ways to eliminate blocks, not just to get under the 6 block limit, but to preserve DSP. The OP introduces a couple of good possibilities. Chorus and Flanger are really quite similar effects. The difference is in the length of the delay and amount of feedback. With the flangers in HX Stomp, there's often enough parameter control to produce a pretty good chorus tone from a single block. You can switch between flanger and chorus by using a footswitch or snapshot to change the parameters and save a block. Another great example is distortion. The OP tried to get the distortion from the amp model but wasn't successful and had to add a distortion block in front of the amp. Often the reason amp distortion is insufficient is because there's not enough tone shaping after the distortion. Most distortion blocks provide tone controls that shape the voicing of the distortion. This can be critical to achieving the right tone, and is something where amp blocks are typically more limited. But with HX Stomp, there are lots of ways to voice distortion with an amp block that can provide the control you need without requiring an additional distortion block. You can control up to 8 parameters with a stomp footswitch, or 64 parameters with a snapshot. I prefer footswitches because they are "stackable". With HX Stomp's 3 footswitches, I can control any combination of three things. With snapshots, you only get three different snapshots. For distortion voicing in HX Stomp, I use a single footswitch and set max and min values for amp block drive, bass, treble, presence, and cab low and high cut. Drive (and maybe master) control the amount of saturation. Bass and treble are used for EQ into the the distortion, reducing bass at higher drive settings to reduce mud. Presence, and cab low/high cuts control the voicing after the distortion, lowering the cab high cut to reduce fizz and ice pick. I've found with a little work, you can get really great distortion tones out of just amp models and one footswitch. Finally there's block choice. Sure there are some great effect blocks in HX Stomp that sound really cool and have a lot of control. But these complex blocks tend to use a lot more DSP. You might find that a simpler block produces a similar tone but at much lower DSP usage. In a band mix, the simpler block might actually sound better.