amsdenj

My band uses an X32-Core for the PA, so my backup is Helix Native since we have to have a computer anyway. The SD16 that feeds the X32-Core on my side of the stage has a High-Z input that I can use. This is routed into a MainStage concert that has Helix Native as well as JamOrigin MIDI Guitar2. This runs into a pair of aux inputs into the X32-Core through its USB interface. There would be no MIDI control, but I could get by without stomp control if needed. For longer periods without Helix, I would use my Apogee GiO for I/O and MIDI control. But I don’t bother bringing that to gigs as a backup. I was initially concerned about the reliability of the X32-Core and Helix. But its been 3 years now with gigs about twice a month, and no problems.

I think you’ll have better luck with Helix cab models and IRs. The woofer in a PA speaker isn’t a guitar speaker. Its designed to provide a fuller range in the low end so that with he horn you get closer to a full frequency flat response. There’s a lot of physical magic in good guitar speakers that aren’t necessarily the result of high quality components, full range components.

The differenence between EQ and compression is that EQ is static while compression (can be) dynamic. By this I mean that when you use EQ to cut lows and highs (to give more mid focus for guitar), those EQ setting effect the guitar signal regardless of the volume. Quiet passages will get the same tone shaping as loud passages. But often, that’s not what we want for guitar. When the guitar is turned down, we want a more scooped tone with low and high end boosted to give a nice full rich clean tone. As we turn the guitar up, and add distortion, we need the opposite: low cut to reduce mud, high cut to keep the distortion from being too fizzy and ice-pick, and mid focused to help make the louder leads cut through the mix. Now this could be done with a multi-band compressor. You could set the threshold and ratio for the low and high bands to compress more as the guitar is louder, providing the desired mid focus. But this doesn’t work well in practice. Partly this is because there’s likely a fair amount of distortion in most people’s clean tone. This is needed to give better sustain, and add some high frequency content the electric guitar just doesn’t produce and the typical guitar speakers are challenged to reproduce. This is kind of what an exciter does. If you put the compressor before any of this distortion, then any dynamic tone shaping it might do will be partially lost by clipping that comes after the compressor. If you put the compressor after this distortion, then it doesn’t see the guitar’s dynamic range as much and therefore doesn’t have as much to work with, limiting its overall effect. So the solution might be, don’t try to do this automatically with a multi-band compressor, do it manually with multiple distortion pedals into a clean amp to give you the tone shaping and dynamics you need. Use the gain staging of one to three distortion pedals into the front end of a gained up amp, plus the volume control on your guitar, to get a really wide range of dynamics and tone that are completely under your control. Where I think a multi-band compressor might be really useful is for mostly clean tones that have a wide (clean) dynamic range. Think of a Strat into a Twin Reverb. You could use the multi-band compressor to tame some of the lows and highs as the guitar volume is turned up, hitting compressor harder and making a more mid-focused tone. But once distortion is introduced, this may not work that well.

You could be dealing with phase cancellation. When you split a signal into parallel paths, and process them differently, they will eventually combine. If they are out of phase, then there will be cancellations. That can be a useful part of the desired result, so its not necessarily bad. But it might not be good either. Make sure your IRs are phased aligned. If they come from different providers, they might not be aligned and this could cause undesirable cancellation.

I was a long time user of JBL D120F. I have four of them in storage I’d love to find a good home for. I used them years ago in two 2x12 cabinets. But they were a bit harsh and loud for the style I eventually started playing. I have tried the Redwirez model and it seemed to reproduce what I remember pretty well. Their IRs are quite good, I wouldn’t hesitate to use them.

The simple secret is turn it up. Helix will sound a lot more like the original amp if the SPL is similar. You can’t get great guitar tone out of anything that’s quiet. The tone and feel comes from moving air and is totally subjective, something evolution contributed to keep us alive.

The mid-focus frequencies for guitar are between 400 and 2k Hz expanding to between 120 and 5k Hz. But this is pretty subjective, just a rough guide. Generally guitar fits in the mid frequencies, out of the way of the bass, nice and distinct/articulate, and not ice-picky bright. Let other instruments in the band fill in these other frequencies. Note that distortion adds a lot of high order harmonics that contribute a lot of high frequency content that wouldn’t otherwise be there. Controlling the bass into distortion and the treble after distortion is the key to managing guitar tone. This is why Teemah! Is such a nice pedal. Bass cut is before clipping, and treble cut is after clipping. Plus you can choose symmetric or asymmetric clipping which helps voice the distortion. I always thought the only way to get a great woody/warm guitar tone was with a pushed poweramp, just the right magic speakers and an open back cabinet (to reduce muddy bass). Then I heard Matt Schofield. He gets a fantasticly warm tone out of a Strat with single coil pickups using a mostly clean amp and multiple gain staged pedals. Check out the great interview on That Pedal Show to see how he does it.

I put a Super-Vee Mag-Lock on my Variax Standard and JTV-69S. The reason is that I’m an occasional tremolo user, but prefer a hard tail so then bends on one string have no effect on other strings. My Strat Delixe has a Hipshot Tremsettter and I really like it on that guitar. The Mag-Lock works well on the JTV-69S. It makes the tremolo bar a little stiff, but I don’t mind that. If you really like smooth, easy tremolo, this probably isn’t for you. It doesn’t work as well on the Standard because it trends to exaggerate the play in the tremolo bar. You’ll need more plumber’s tape, and will need to change it more often.

One more thing to add to this topic. Above I talked about preamp and power amp distortion. There’s some flexibility there for voicing the distortion. For example, the presence control will boost highs when the power amp isn’t clipping, but has almost no effect when it is (because the power amp has no remaining gain to process negative feedback). If there are two gain controls, then often at least one will have a bypass cap that can boost highs when the control is turned down. This can be used to control distortion voicing depending on which gain stage is contributing the distortion - the first or second. But this is pretty limited. Of course you can use EQ after the amp to do most anything. But for simplicity, you can use an on the edge of distortion amp for clean tones, and pedal distortion blocks in front for a lot of flexibility. That’s because most distortion pedals have tone controls that can be used to sculpt the distortion voicing in very specific ways. And turning the pedal off removes them from the signal chain. Some modern amps with multiple channels and tone voicing switches can also do this. But distortion pedals often have more flexibility. Its also easy to stack them for even more control

Adding to this: sometimes too much choice isn’t a good thing. If you record dry, then of course you can re-amp to do anything, and Helix Native and/or S-Gear are great for this. But when you mix, you can get stuck re-amping forever trying to find that elusive tone. I’d suggest a compromise where you spend the time getting the tone the performer wants and needs to play the part, then record the dry and wet tracks at the same time. Then you can use what was recorded for the performance and if there’s something really wrong, you can still go down the re-amp route. Getting it right at the source is the first rule of mixing. And one more thing, try to record electric guitar by monitoring though actual monitor speakers so the guitar physically interacts with the amp. This has a significant impact on tone, sustain and feel, and really influences how one plays.

My guess is that they’ve reached some modeling and technology limitations that are barriers to significantly improved Variax models. There’s also the experience from moving from the 1.x to 2.0 HD models. Some people preferred the old models and that create a lot of discussion that probably didn’t lead to increased sales. Its possible that the same thing could happen on the next “improvement”. But its also likely that Line6 has been consumed with other things including becoming part of the Yamaha Guitar Group, and the Ampeg acquisition. This is likely a big deal. Let’s hope there’s room for Variax improvements in the future. I’ve made a big investment in my JTV-69S with new pickups and new neck. But I don’t feel bad about that, new models or not since its easily my go-to gigging guitar.

I have Helix and HelixFX. I use Helix routinely for acoustic because I generally play three instruments in an acoustic setting: acoustic guitar (sometimes Variax 700 Acoustic), mandolin and electric guitar. So Helix provides all the inputs I need and tones. Helix FX is really best used as front of the amp effects for a traditional guitar amp. Either can be used for acoustic guitar because you can include acoustic body IRs which I always use. Looping is also a consideration. Basically its a question of what you need now and what you might need in the future.

I use Logic Pro X, and find that it has the capabilities and ease of use I was missing from SONAR. But I think cross platform is important for collaboration. That leads to Reaper or Presonus Studio One. Note that even though you might be using the same DAW, you might not have the same plugins. Plan on worst case importing raw tracks and creating your own mix. Conversion between DAWs isn’t really viable, and probably never will be. There’s no motivation to do it, and its pretty complicated. Regarding interfaces, any modern interface will do a pretty good job. They all have reasonably good preamps, and relatively low latency. That’s a big change from 5-10 years ago and is a real blessing. So get an interface that has the audio and MIDI inputs you need for tracking and don’t worry too much beyond that. Helix Native and S-Gear are necessary plugins for guitar. Cerberus bass amp is also wonderful.

In summary, stand out in the mix by: focusing on what the song needs from section to section, making sure what you and everyone else is playing reinforces the song. Do this from the perspective of the whole, in addition to your particular part play something different than the other guitarist, do this as part of your band’s arrangement of the song. Sometimes less is more. use a different guitar or different pickups. In a two guitar band, having one guitarist use double coils and another single creates a nice complimentary contrast between mid focused and scooped. Use neck vs. bridge pickups, there’s a lot of tone variation there that can help distinguish parts use different amps and cabinets to compliment sounds use EQ to cut/boost each guitar at complimentary frequencies: boost guitar one at the same frequencies you cut guitar two. A little goes a long way beware of low-mid buildup, everyone’s competing for those same frequencies. Low and high cut can provide mid focus without adding volume to cut through a mix. beware of what sounds good by yourself, it often won’t sound good in a mix. Set patches and play in context. But most important, stand out by turning everything else down at appropriate times. Be heard by cutting what’s not needed rather than boosting what is needed. The latter leads to volume escalation that ends up in one loud jumbled mess.

I usually use IEMs and have my own mix from the PA. I do this in part because I really need to control the volume or I have lots of problems with my old and damaged ears. Recently however, the band played an out-door event with a vendor provided PA that couldn’t support our IEMs. I sent Helix to FOH using the XLR outputs, and used the Helix 1/4” outputs to feed my on-stage FRFR, a pair of JBL EON610s. My monitoring solution was to use my IEMs as ear plugs to protect my ears, and take a stereo feed off the EON610 outputs to my P2 headphone amp. I turned the volume on the P2 up so I could just bearly hear my guitar in my ears, just putting back a little of the high end lost from using the IEMs as ear plugs. This is by no means ideal. But it actually worked pretty well. I personally don’t need to hear a lot of vocals to do my lead vocals and harmonies. The bleed from the monitors and hearing my voice in my own head with ear plugs is fine. It takes a little getting use to, but I’ll live with that over loosing my hearing. So my point is that sometimes things that aren’t ideal can work pretty well. Don’t be afraid to try things and compromise. But most importantly, protect your hearing, you might need.

Here’s another idea. As you pick harder and the guitar puts out more output into either a distortion pedal or amp that’s breaking up, it would be nice if the bass going into the distortion is cut, and treble coming out of distortion is cut to give a nice mid boost - cutting flub and ice pick. That way as you turn the volume control down on your guitar and the amp cleans up, the bass and treble are automatically turned up giving you that nice rich clean sound. Two multi-pass compressors could do this, one before the distortion and another after, each set to do the opposite of the other.

I found a work around to get 1/2 speed (and 2x the loop length) using the 1-button looper. Here's the steps: Configure a block with the 1-button looper and assign a foot switch Save the patch Touch the foot switch assigned to the 1-button looper to select that block turn the block select knob one click clockwise to select the 6-button loop block press the loop foot switch to get the 6-button looper foot switches press the 1/2 speed switch turn the block select knob one click counter clockwise to select the 1-button looper - you'll still see the 6-button looper foot switches. press foot switch 6 to exit looper mode save the patch The 1-button looper will now be in 1/2 speed and the loop will be twice as long

Try using the Double Take modulation effect to get a bit of comb filter. That can create some resonances you might like. Otherwise use a parametric EQ and sweep around to find the frequency that provides the resonance you're looking for.

If you use two speakers in your FRFR for stereo, and set them right next to each other, there will be minimal stereo separation for you and almost none for the audience hearing your stage amp. But that doesn't mean stereo is not worth doing. It will provide some space and separation that will make your sound be a bit fuller and less muddy, simply because each speaker isn't trying to handle everything the same way. I run stereo and really like what it does for the overall tone. I do not use Helix for vocals. Get a vocal processor if you want to do that. TC Electronics makes some nice affordable vocal processors that work well with guitar. I have a Harmony-G XT, but don't use it since our PA (X32-Core) does what we need, and the band has 5 signers, so we don't need harmonizers. My goto patch also uses most of the Helix DSP, so there'd be no room for vocal processing. With two FRFR speakers, you can angle one in towards the center of the stage to provide guitar for the band. An open back guitar amp works best for this. But with two speakers, you have some flexibility on how you point them. I don't bother with the speaker polls because I use IEMs for my monitors. The FRFRs are for stage fill and feel, not my monitor tone. And I wouldn't want the pointed directly at my head in any case because that would risk hearing damage. A FRFR will generally have much more dispersion than a guitar cabinet. For a backline, you may not need them pointed at you - and I'd be worried about hearing damage in that configuration anyway. You need to take that seriously. I lived in denial in my younger days only to learn the consequences for tinnitus and hearing loss later in life. Don't do it.

I generally use a small number of presets that represent my own general tone groups: acoustic, low-gain, mid-gain and high-gain. I tend to use the mid-gain patch for most songs, and use the volume control on my guitar to clean it up when needed. All of these patches have similar effects in the same position in the signal chain and assigned to the same foot switches, with the pretty close to the same name. These are the effects I use 95% of the time. There are however a few songs we do that require pretty different configurations. One starts with a drop-D 12-string acoustic followed by a Les Paul slide tone. I use a separate patch for this song. Another song uses MIDI Guitar 2 in MainStage for a horn section that I play in one part of the song. Footswitch 7 turns that horn section off and on, but otherwise its my mid-gain patch. I probably have less than 6 songs that need really song specific patches. I can generally get to these by using 4 stomps/4 snapshots and just banking up and down to find the patch. I use 10 stomp mode, and within each patch, I can get at the effects I need similar to how one would use a traditional pedalboard. I use 4 snapshots in the patch for unusual things that require more changes: standard, open tunings for slide (I use a JTV-69S), quick acoustic, and Leslie. So my approach is to develop my own core tones, and use a minimum number of patches in a given gig. This keeps Helix from becoming a distraction while providing my own interpretation of the songs. Then I minimize the number of song-specific patches I need and keep them clustered closely in a set list so I can get to them quickly if the song comes up.

I use two JBL EON610s in a backline configuration. They're on the floor because I need to put the PA (X32-Core) rack unit on top. Using the EON610s as a backline like this provides a great stage amp. They're light and sound good enough. I can easily point them so that one is straight out and another tipped into towards the center stage to provide some guitar to the band members who don't use IEMs (we're 3 out of 5 so far using them). I use them in the Monitor configuration in order address the bass boost that results from coupling with the floor, and the fact that I'm almost always stuck close to the wall or corner. I use IEMs in order to get better control of my own stereo mix, and protect my ears. So I'm getting my tone out of the IEMs, not the backline. But there's still some low end bleed from the 610s. What I like about the backline is the feel, not the tone. There's a thud on low notes and a physical resonance with the guitar that's missing if you only have IEMs.

I had this problem with my Variax 700 Acoustic and a new Line6 VDI cable. My old cable works fine. There appears to be some variation in the connectors and that seems to be enough to cause problems in some cases.

A couple of general observations: something that sounds good quiet will likely sound good or better when turned up (but watch for low end buildup) - the reverse may not be the case something that sounds good on speakers will likely sound good in IEMs - the reverse may not be the case So fine tune your patches at gig volume and through the typical FOH FRFR you're going to get, and it will probably sound fine in your IEMs.

Here'a another way to set Helix compressors. If you want a really squashed tone as an effect, set the compression ratio (in there's a control) high, say greater than 5:1. Use 1.5-3 for milder compression Start with Sustain at 0 or Threshold all the way up - i.e. no compression. Set Attack to be as slow as possible and release to be as fast as possible (if the compressor has them) so that these will contribute to minimal compression and have the least impact on the guitar tone At this starting point, toggling the block on and of should make no difference. Next play and start turning the sustain up (or the threshold down) until you notice some loss in volume. This is an estimate of the gain reduction. You can watch the meters on your PA input if you want to actually measure the overall gain reduction or use a dB meter, most phones have apps for them. Toggle the block on and off to help get a sense of the amount of gain reduction Keep playing and start reducing the attack time until the pick attack just starts to get washed out, then back off a bit (unless you want that effect). This gives you the fastest attack possible without killing the pick attack, articulation and note dynamics. You'll notice some additional gain reduction. Start increasing the release time until the compressor sounds smooth and there's no odd pumping or the compressor seems to follow the tempo of the song. This will depend on how fast you're picking in a song. You want the release to be as slow as possible to give the most sustain, but fast enough so that the pick attack of notes played fast don't get cut off. This will probably also increase the gain reduction. Finally set the makeup gain: adjust the level control so that the toggling the compressor on and off doesn't appear to change the overall volume This will help bring the guitar for forward in the mix and will even out picking dynamics. It will give the guitar more sustain and a nice feel without being overly obvious. Of course if you're looking to use compression as an effect, keep turning the dials until it does what you want, maybe using the above steps as a starting point, but going beyond the limits in each case to see what it does. Another thing to consider is compression before or after distortion. A compressor before distortion won't do much because the distortion is already clipping and there's no gain left for the compressor to work with. A compressor will tend to keep the tone in saturation a little longer. A compressor after distortion isn't going to do too much either because the input is already clipped and there's no dynamics left for the compressor to work with. Worst case is it will allow more distorted pick attack through if the attack is slow and this could add to fizz/ice pick. A compressor with additional makeup gain can act as a boost. If its before distortion, this will increase the distortion saturation. If its after distortion, it will act as a volume boost. But there are probably better blocks to use as a volume boost, you don't need to use a compressor for that. I put the compressor early in the signal chain, before distortion since I mostly use it for clean or on the edge of break tones. A compressor works great in this case, keeping the amp closer to breakup and giving a warmer sustain. One last thing to consider is amp sag, which is essentially a compressor in the power amp section. What's different about sag is that it works as a compressor even when the power amp is heavily distorted - in fact that's when it works best. Keep the master volume turned up and drive turned down to control the distortion to maximize sag and how the overall amp feels.