amsdenj

Maybe that's what Powercab is. It provide a powered cabinet that you can plug any modeler into. That's more flexible than a Helix Amp would be.

Yes, that would work fine. The integration won't be as good as Helix 2.8 will be, but it will work just fine.

I have never had any problems with Helix Native running in Logic Pro X. Running Mac OS 10.14.3, Logic Pro X 10.4.4, using a Focuswrite Saffire Pro 40 Firewire audio interface through an OWC Thunderbolt 3 doc.

Guitar speakers are kind of unique. Although a round cone will produce the same dispersion over 360deg, that's maybe not the whole story. What happens is the low frequencies tend to go everywhere, and therefore small cones that don't move that much air will suffer from poor low end at high volumes because of this dispersion. All that wasted energy is lost. However, high frequencies in a guitar speaker tend to beam straight out and don't disperse that much at all. Contrast with a PA horn that loads the diaphragm differently, resulting in horizontal dispersion while limiting vertical dispersion, keeping the energy focused where the audience is. This is great for PA use, but maybe not so great for guitar performance use. This horizontal dispersion has the same effect on overall perceive loudness as the 360deg does for the lows on a guitar cabinet. The frequencies that would have been beamed straight out from a guitar speaker will now be dispersed horizontally by the PA horn, changing how these tones are perceived by the performer. This can make the guitar feel like it gets lost in the stage mix, at least to the performer right in front of it. It can also make the guitar sound overly bright to the performer because the high end is getting better dispersion than the guitar speaker so the performer will hear it better. But that's not necessarily good if you're expecting a nice warm, fat sound from your guitar. I think the issue is that what the performer needs for backline on stage, and what the audience needs to cover the room are quite different, and the same speaker/cabinet design can't do both very well. I've moved away from PA FRFR speakers for live stage/backline use to a Powercab Plus. This seems to be a nice compromise because the speaker models don't use the tweeter at all. So it sounds and feels more like a guitar speaker (which after all it is) to me, while still having FRFR capability for acoustic sounds and IRs I still want to use. Then I run Helix into the PA to support what's needed for FOH. I don't try to use the same solution for both.

I do use Helix with S-Gear, but only for front of the amp effects. I prefer S-Gear’s Mod, Delay and Reverb Things for back of the amp effects. And this keeps the signal chain simpler. I had been using S-Gear as my gig backup rig. But 1) Helix floor has been solid and reliable for the last 3 years, so I’ve never used the backup, and 2) I have an HX Stomp now. For recording, I use Helix Native with S-Gear, so I don’t need any complex routing, its easy to control with MIDI, re-amping is easy, and everything can be automated,

Also if you go with no backline, and real drums, all the people close to the band (i.e., the dancers on the floor in small clubs) will hear is the drums.

It also depends on what you're competing with in the mix. The other guitar player in my band is using a Fender Blues Junior. For such a small, low-power amp, its really loud, bright and narrow dispersion. I couldn't compete with that even using two JBL EON610's. But PowerCab Plus seems to match up with it better.

I just installed MidiWatch on my Apple Watch and used it to control my HX Stomp. It worked great and was easy to setup. I use it to change patches, change pedal modes between stomp and snapshots, to control a few key voicing parameters (drive, tone, level) and that one or two effect that often don't have a footswitch - usually chorus and delay. If you've got an iPhone and Apple Watch already, this is a pretty good solution. If you don't it would be hideously expensive for only this purpose.

A good solution is to set the main L/R output -3dB and use a foot switch to boost back up to 0dB. This doesn't require a block (works well on HX Stomp) and makes sure that you aren't adding any gain, only removing a cut, to reduce the chance of downstream clipping. Using the channel volume is ok, but this changes the gain into any effect blocks that follow the amp block. I prefer to keep all the blocks pretty close to unity gain and do the boosting by removing a cut at the end of the signal chain. This way I'm sure that the lead boost isn't going to do anything but boost the volume, and all the blocks are getting an input that's hopefully close to their sweet spot. That said, you might prefer to have a lead boost that also adds a bit more distortion. A Kinky Boost block in front of the amp is a nice way to do this. Another option I've used is to set min and max drive levels with a footswitch. This is a different kind of lead boost, one that changes the volume and distortion voicing at the same time.

I was using two JBL EON610s as a backline with Helix and JTV-69S. This was OK, but sounded a bit overly bright/harsh, and could get boomy when I was stuck in a corner with the speakers on the floor. I found these to have a pretty dispersed sound, which I suppose is good, but tended to make my guitar disappear in the mix with the drums, bass, keys, etc. I'm using a PowerCab plus now and find it works better. Bass coupling with the floor isn't as bad with a speaker more designed for guitar, and the tweeter isn't as bright or dispersed as a horn, so it sounds warmer and more natural. There's a low-cut switch that can compensate for the floor too. I don't put it on a stand because I don't what the volume in my ears. That said, I have to use IEMs as my ears just won't take any loud volumes at all without ringing badly for days. If I don't use the IEMs, then I use professionally made -25dB ear plugs. These work well too. So I don't really get to hear my backline. It's mostly there for feel for me, and to provide some acoustic coupling with the guitar to provide better sustain. Its also my stage amp for dancers up close to the band in small clubs. I'm overall pretty happy with PowerCab, and will make good use of 2.8 when it comes out to get better integration in my overall Line6 signal chain. I also tried going amp-less and only using IEMs. But that won't work in small clubs because dancers up close to the band don't hear any guitar if its only coming through the PA. You can use a front-fill speaker, but then you might just as well use a backline. And either everybody or nobody can use this approach. You can't mix and match as people up close will only hear the drums and whatever instruments have a stage amp. I also tried using a wedge monitor in its side as a front monitor. That was the worse setup. It was too loud, harsh with that PA horn, and just didn't sound or feel right. Then the wedge monitors tended to reflect off the back wall and competed with the PA while introducing phasing issues. And there was no front fill for the dancers.

If you're on a Mac, and you have Logic Pro X (and why wouldn't you?!), Logic comes with an Impulse Response Utility that makes this pretty easy. See the doc for instructions. It's pretty easy. Note however that there's generally more to it than what's shown in the video above. First there's the cabinet, speaker, mic and room variation. The room will have a big impact on the result, especially as you move the mic further away from the cabinet. Second, many of the IR production companies do other processing on the IR, to phase align them, maybe adding some EQ, Z-modeling for dynamic impedance, and possibly other things they don't tell is. I've made a few IRs in my garage, and I have to say I was pretty happy with the result. So if you have a speaker you love, try capturing an IR so you can use it with Helix.

The gig on Feb 15 with Powercab Plus when very well. As usual, I was stuck in a corner, Powercab on the floor, and the PA sub is partially in front of my amp. So I expect a little too much low end, and account for that with low cuts. I used Powercab in FRFR mode and my usual Helix patch with an IR. It was great. I did have a bit of a problem getting loud enough, but that's not unusual for me - I always try to do my part to keep the tempo and volume down for live gigs. I also use IEMs to protect my ears. So I didn't really get to hear the Powercab. But audience feedback was good and I'm sold on Powercab. Next gig I'll push it a little harder. But I don't want to us a stand or anything that would expose me to too much backline volume. My ears just won't take it.

In LF Raw (or speaker model Natural) mode, you're getting the raw Eminence woofer only in a closed back cabinet. If you want to get a bit of the low cut you'd get from an open back cabinet, you could try turning on the low-cut switch. That won't do exactly what an open back cabinet would do because of the reflections from the back of the cabinet hitting the wall and bouncing around. Open back cabinets have their appeal.

This is what I had in my notes: Guitar input: Auto, 10K, 22K 32K, 70K, 90K, 136K, 230K 1MOhm Aux input: 10k Return input: 1M Ohm if the loop is set to instrument and 10k Ohm if it's set to line level

The same footswitch can control multiple block bypass states. For example, I use this to control two delays in my common patch: one is a quick slap-back with no repeats, the other is a more complex, richer, longer delay delay with repeats, modulation, etc. One footswitch toggles between the two since I use one or the other all the time. To do this, you simply assign the same footswitch to different block bypass states. Then use the bypass button to set the blocks in the starting state you want, one off, the other on: for example, slap-back on, long delay off. Save the patch. Then pressing the footswitch will toggle the bypass state of both blocks, turning the slap-back off, and the long delay on.

The things I’ve struggled with the most with Helix is controlling the high end out of cab and IR models, and controlling the woffie bass with PA speakers as a backline on the floor and in a corner - where I usually get put for gigs. In the studio its entirely different. Good studio monitors (I use Yamaha HS8s), and Helix effects in front of S-Gear is to die for. Live gigging is more challenging. I haven’t used Powercab live yet (next gig is 15 Feb), but I’m hoping it will naturally tame both the low end boom and the high-end ice-pick simply because its an “enhanced” guitar speaker, not a PA speaker used for guitar. I’m going to start using Powercab the same way I used a par of JBL EON610s in the past - in FRFR mode. I still think Powercab provides a more natural guitar tone in compared to PA speakers. But I haven’t been able to try it live yet. I use IEMs or high-end ear plugs during gigs to protect my ears. So I’m a bit challenged to really know what that Powercab is doing. Here’s hoping its going to tame those lows and highs a bit for a more warm, inviting guitar tone.

With HX Stomp, use an external tuner to free up the FS3 unless you also want to have a tap tempo. I don’t bother with HX stomp tap tempo as in many cases its not that necessary. Leave the reverb on all the time, then you don’t need a footswitch for that. You can often do that for delay too. That leaves two footswitches for effects, and one for looper.

If you already have a pair of PA monitors you were using (I still have a pair of JBL EON 610s), and you need a big sound, why not use the PA monitors with one Powercab in a wet-dry-wet setups?

Powercab and the ASM 10's are both FRFR, but a different kind of FRFR. They're both optimized for electric guitar by having the woofer being essentially a coaxial guitar speaker. A tweeter is added to provide high frequencies for typical guitar speaker IRs and acoustic guitar tones. If you use these for vocal monitoring, keyboards, or bass, you might be disappointed compared to reasonably good PA speakers. But for electric guitar, they might be just what you need. The difference between ASM 10s and Powercab Plus is the ability to set Powercab plus to Flat/LF Raw or Speaker mode/Natural to just use the woofer without the tweeter as a traditional 1x12 cabinet. I don't know if the ASM 10 can do that. Powercab Plus also has a level control on the tweeter so you can flexibly control the FRFR high end, something that modeling amps tend to struggle with. Powercab plus can also provide different speaker models by applying specific EQ processing on top of Flat/LF Flat mode. But Powercab plus and Helix are just getting started. The integration between Variax, Helix and Powercab covers the whole signal chain. To me, this is hard to beat. Sure there are things that might sound better if you optimize each one. A vintage Les Paul will sound better than the Variax Lister model, a vintage tube amp will sound better than Helix, a 1x12 with a Celestion G12-65 will sound better than Powercab Cream - at least for the one thing they all do best. But the combination in an integrated system has the advantage of simplicity, flexibility, ease of use, broad tone range and reliability that might be a lot more meaningful than subtle tone differences that are totally lost in the mix in in most live gigging situations.

Impulse responses are linear, so it should matter too much whether the effects are between the amp and cab block or after the cab block. Stereo/mono limitations are probably more of a factor. I think the Powercab Plus's ability to have speaker models that are (I think) just EQ to change one guitar speaker to sound like another, is the real advantage of Powercab. You get amp in the room because Powercab is based on a guitar speaker, not a PA speaker, and doesn't need a mic model to sound like a guitar speaker.

That will come in 2.8 this spring.

I think it's reasonably clear, but the names could be more descriptive. Flat/FRFR is pretty clear, use with Helix Cab or IR blocks. Flat/LF Raw says it's just the woofer, no EQ and no tweeter. The question is, what does that mean, and how does the name Flat/LF Raw tell us what it means? I think it's just what it says it is, you're getting the woofer only, and there's no EQ processing. What goes out of the XLR outs is the same thing that goes into the input, there's no additional processing. So what is that good for? You're getting just the Eminence speaker with no EQ and no tweeter. That's pretty much a guitar speaker and the core of what makes Powercab different than a PA speaker (whose woofer isn't a guitar speaker). I think Flat/LF Raw is the same as Speaker Model/Natural, except for levels, what goes out the XLR outputs. Flat/Raw XLR output is the same as the input. Speaker model/Natural lets you select a mic model. How best to use this is an open question. If you have a Helix amp block, but no cab or IR block, and you have no need to sending anything through the XLR output, then Flat/Raw would be a good simple choice, treating Powercab like a traditional 1x12, closed back guitar speaker cabinet. Flat/LF Flat is less clear. Its again just the woofer, no tweeter, so there's no way this is "flat" since there's going to be a lot of high end rolloff. Maybe this is useful as a "flat" guitar speaker that doesn't have the characteristic mid hump that most guitar speakers have. This might be useful as just a different guitar speaker tone. But possibly its broader function is to provide the base tone upon which the speaker models are applied to get the modeled result.

Try using a thinner pick with a sharper point.

Maybe, but from the Powercab manual: FLAT MODE - Essentially full-range, flat-response, and equivalent to the signal being sent to a front-of-house mixer. This mode is most helpful for simple plug-and-play compatibility, letting your amp modeler do all the work. Voicing – Selects the final post-processing EQ and crossover settings for the speaker system. FRFR - Uses the high-frequency compression driver with a flattened frequency-response EQ for full-range operation. LF Solo - Uses only the woofer with no EQ applied, allowing it to be utilized like a typical guitar speaker. LF Flat - Uses only the woofer with a flattened frequency response EQ. This voicing is used for the Speaker Mode.

https://jimamsden.wordpress.com/2018/06/19/wet-dry-wet-setup-with-helix/