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If you’re going to be playing longer songs, a looper may not be the right tool. First it takes too long to lay down two or three tracks if the loops are long. This can be annoying to your listeners. Second if you make a mistake and have to undo, you’ve got to wait a while before trying again, making it take even longer to lay down the loops. I’d use backing tracks for longer, more complex arrangements. We have a couple of local guys here, one that specializes in looping, and another who uses backing tracks. Both are very good an great entertainers. When you focus on them, their vocals and both are good guitar players, you don’t really notice that much difference between the loops and backing tracks.

You can use the same footswitch to control more than one effect to change them at the same time. But if you want control of more effects, you can use two expression pedals get control of up to 8 effects. I use one for Wah and another for UniVibe. That leaves 6 footswitches for other things.

That’s not released, coming soon.

With some careful editing, you might be able to clone blocks from Helix to Helix HX directly editing the JSON source files. Ideally copy/paste block should work across the two editors.

I have found that for live performance, almost always less is more: less reverb, less distortion, less delay, less low end and most important of all: less notes. A simple signal path will sound good and is easy to control during performances. Things that sound great by themselves often don’t sound good in a dense mix or in a small club situation where the band is essentially saturating the room. Music needs space to help distinguish the notes, tone, harmony. Helix is a large part of that overall dynamics in how the patches are setup.

Here’s a simple way to get an idea how much compression you’re getting, and what it sounds like. Setup two paths in Helix that are identical, but except for one has a compressor at the beginning of the path. Hard pan them left and right, and run them into your DAW so you can see the DAW meters. With the compressor off, you should se exactly the same levels in the left and right channels. As you start lowering the threshold (or increasing the sustain), you start seeing the impact of the gain reduction in the channel that has the compressor. Vary the attack and release and see how fast the gain reduction happens, and how how fast it recovers. Listen to how that impacts the tone, especially the pick attack, and rapid notes in succession. Try using the makeup gain to get the same overall level from both channels. Then play and see how the two still sound different. You can see how they behave by looking at how the two meters respond differently.

Great video. I saw you mention on TPS you were going to do this and was looking forward to seeing the result. Very nice. Its cool that we took such different approaches to wet-dry-wet setup. That’s a great way to explore different options.

I got interested in Wet-Dry-Wet setups and captured some notes in Wet-Dry-Wet Setup with Helix.

What you need to do is save whole presets as "templates". These have not only the effects and parameters you commonly use, but also their positions in the signal chain and footswitch assignments, colors and labels. Copy the whole preset, then just edit the preset to add/remove what you want to change.

What a great thread! @DunedinDragon, @HonestOpinion, @cusionon2, @codamedia, thank your all for such thoughtful and helpful contribution. You guys a just great! I use a Helix and JTV-69S for gigging. I don't have large hands or long fingers, but I've become pretty fond of that fat JTV-69S neck. What I like is that it is stable, doesn't require truss rod adjustments for inside and outside gigs, stays in tune and fights me a little, making me play better. I had to put on a wider bone nut, and did change the pickups to SVL Daytonas. Now I can't stop playing that guitar even through I bring other much nicer guitars to gigs. Re the models: I changed the pickups because I knew I was going to be using this guitar a lot on gigs. I like to use a lot of different sounds, including open tunings, slide and acoustic tones as well as different electric tones. But I needed a fail safe base guitar tone I could rely on, and the JTV-69S stock pickups just didn't deliver. I also have a Variax Standard and I thought those pickups sounded better, although I don't like the guitar nearly as much. So I invested in the SVL Daytonas from Jerry Amalfitano. I liked these so much I put another set on my Strat Deluxe. If you're gigging mainly with an electric guitar, and need an occasional open tuning, single vs. double coil pickup tone, and/or some acoustic tones, Variax with Helix is unbeatable. I was using a Variax 700 Acoustic for acoustic gigs, but switched to using my Martin 00C with some acoustic body IRs in Helix for those situations where I'm playing mostly acoustic guitar and mandolin. This just fit the gigs better. I do have a Dobro, and if I want that sound on a recording, that's what I use. But I have used the Dobro models in an open tuning on that Variax 700 acoustic for an occasional live tune that needed it, but wasn't the focus of my role in the band. Its easy enough to get a tone that close enough for a live gig, but its much harder to get an instrument that plays and feels right to inspire you to play. A Variax can often provide the tone, but the feel is an entirely different issue.

Whether Helix is right for you or not depends a lot on what you're trying to do. If your a professional guitarist like Matt Schofield or Andy Timmons with your own signature tone, then probably Helix is for you (although I'd really like to connect with Matt and see if we could create something he would like in Helix). If you're looking for something for home use and don't mind using a computer and setting up some MIDI control, its hard to beat S-Gear for quality, tone, ease of use and price. I can't recommend it enough. I have Helix Native, and S-Gear is till used in most of my guitar recordings - but with Helix Native effects in front of it! But if you're like a lot of us and are semi-professional or a weekend club band doing a few gigs a month and playing a lot of covers, there's nothing that comes close to Helix and a JTV-69S in my opinion. I have lots of nice vintage gear (I'm pretty vintage myself). But Helix and a JTV-69S with SVL Daytona pickups are my goto gigging rig. I keep bringing other guitars, but rarely ever play them. And I love Helix for the flexibility, tones, ease of use, reliability, quite setup, and cool factor. Now if you're worried about getting the wrong modeler and missing out on some magic tone - stop worrying! Helix, Kemper, and Axs-FX are all different, have their advantages and disadvantages, probably will sound different but are all great gear. Any of them can really do the job if you spend the time connecting with them and building your sound.

I’ve never used a Kemper, but they seem to have a good reputation for reproducing amp tones. Kemper and Helix are very different technologies. Kemper does an outside in simulation of an exiting amp, while Helix does an inside out implementation of an amp using digital components. Both of these approaches have pros and cons, and likely will produce different results even when modeling the same amp. That said, two amps of exactly the same model often sound different, so this could be part of it too. There are also differences in how the digital components are implemented, and limitations resulting from DSP architecture. S-Gear for example also uses digital models of electrical components to build amplifiers, and its amp models do sound very good compared to anything. But I think the decision on what rig is best for you needs to be based on more criteria then just subtle changes in amp tone that perhaps few people can hear, especially in a mix. If you’re a professional guitar player and are fortunate enough to have a signature tone, then Kemper is probably the best way to take that on the road. If you’re a weekend gigging musician and need a simple, reliable, flexible end-to-end solution, I think you’d be hard pressed to find something better than a good JTV and Helix.

Helix Native has input and output meters. So its pretty easy to use them to gain stage individual blocks and patch levels. Doing it by ear in Helix floor is probably good enough in most situations. Line6 has done a good job keeping Helix gain staging simple, and removed a lot of complexity in patch setup and UI. The guitar input has enough dynamic range that there’s no need for an input gain control, and its rare to need to use the input pad switch on except for unusually high output guitars. Then if you balance each block in the signal chain so that the bypass and effect on levels are pretty similar, you should have no significant gain staging problems and little risk of digital clipping. Give yourself plenty of headroom in the PA input channel strip (shoot for between -18 and -12dB with peaking a -6 at most) and there should be no problems. There’s perhaps not much need to make it more complicated then this. Where gain staging can get more complex is in how you gain stage multiple distortion pedals into the front of a driven amp. This can become a muddy/fizzy mess if there’s too much distortion feeding into distortion, even if you’re a long way from digital clipping. Maybe I’ll focus on this in my next blog post.

Re: stereo vs. mono: there’s a compromise. You can run mono effects in front of the amp, and then use stereo effects after the amp, typically for chorus, delay and reverb. Depending on the effect, most of them can be configured to be “mono compatible”. That is, if you isolate only one side, or the other, or sum them both to mono, the overall tone doesn’t change that much. So if you avoid ping-pong effects, or things that put significantly different things in different stereo channels, you can get some benefit from the stereo effects while avoiding audience presentation and positioning issues. Whether its worth it or not is another question. I run stereo all the time (into the same PA speakers), but never rely on it for any specific tone. It just adds a bit of depth. I also use two JBL EON610s for my backline, and they’re stereo too. These provide some front of the band fill, and give me and my guitar something to feel. I also use IEMs mostly to protect my ears. Re: setup: those subs can make a big difference. Generally you’ll want to have a low cut between 80 and 150 Hz on guitar. If you do that, the subs won’t change the tone much. But if you don’t and you set the tone stack for a nice bass thud, it could get pretty muddy when you add the subs.

The BlueSky is certainly richer in these videos with more high end. That might sound better with solo guitar, but it might not fit as well in some mixes. Helix reverbs in general seem pretty dark. Not sure why, but I don’t think that’s any limitation of the hardware. Might be the preference of the modeler?

Note some pedals might have a bit of jitter in them that could possibly cause auto activate.

Because it s lot easier to get rid of unwanted high end then it is to get it back when its alaready gone. I like having the option.

My mother always told me “If you don’t have anything positive to say, don’t say anything.” Good advice, but not always. We sometimes need to feel a right to assert our own boundaries. @cruisinon2, you are a valued contributor, I never miss your posts. I found your response to be constructive. There can be quality and connection issues with Variax. I think properly serviced and setup, these instruments are pretty reliable. I have four Variax guitars. The Variax 300 was the most unreliable because of an intermittent short between the shield and one of connector pins. Tape fixed that. I’ve had one piezo pickup go bad on my Variax 700 Acoustic. I use a JTV-69S for every gig and don’t even think about its reliability. Its never been a problem other than not seating the VDI cable completely. My Variax Standard neck is pretty environment sensitive. So I don’t gig with it anymore. Avoid thin necks. The feel great, but tend to be less stable.

Best thing to do is to establish a reference and then compare the pedals against the reference. A good reference might be you tube amp’s drive/lead channel. If you like that tone, see what you need to do with the pedals to reproduce and expand it. Pedals can provide a lot of flexibility compared to using an amp’s drive/lead channel. You usually have a lot more control over the distortion voicing - often with bass cut before distortion and treble cut after. Experiment. Its often possible to get similar sounds from different pedals by changing the clean amp settings.

To me the biggest difference can be summed up in one word: Variax. I’m old school. I Still have a Les Paul, Strat Deluxe and Fender Showman amp. But a JTV-69S with Daytona SVL pickups and Helix is by far my preferred gigging rig. Open tunings and acoustic tones are a must. Variax delivers. Helix provides the Variax integration I need for gigging.

Things I’m missing in HX effects (that probably could be implemented) Access to guitar input block with impedance and noise gate (like in Helix) Access to output block to change output gain level (to avoid having to do it in a block) in order to control how the amp is pushed HX Effects is 1/2 Helix (one DSP instead of two), so why not 16 blocks on the path instead of just nine. Certainly it can’t be just a UI restriction (three buttons, three blocks visible in the signal path view) Ability to go to snapshot mode without having to switch to preset mode and press preset up/down at the same time. Stomps and snapshots should be really easy to access in a patch. Don’t waste a footswitch for looper - you have to use the mode switch to get out of looper mode, why not use the same switch to get into it. I need all the effects controls I can get on the footswitches, especially since there are only 6 (8 if you use the expression pedals to control block bypass). But that said, its breathed new life into my old Showman amp. I plan on gigging with this at least once this year. I need to change how I play a few songs that require open tunings and/or acoustic tones. But that’s ok. I don’t mind playing songs differently.

Zapier interface to Helix app to support integration with Apple Notes or Evernote might be more flexible. I need my notes to be searchable.

I have a Helix that makes all these things a lot easier and can directly drive a FRFR. I use HX Effects in front of my old Fender Showman amp. For that, it is perfect. And what a sound this combination makes.

The strings you want to change need to have their controller set to snapshot. Otherwise the tuning is for the patch as a whole, not individual snapshots. This is an easy thing to forget.

It does, but I haven’t figured out what to use them for yet. Adding a speaker model in an effects unit designed to go into a guitar amp isn’t useful. You could add acoustic body images, but that doesn’t make sense going into a guitar amp either since its not a FRFR. They’re too short for reverb IRs. Anybody found a good use for them? What I’d like to see is IRs that could change a Strat into a Les Paul, or model the delta between different magnetic pickups to make a pickiup sound like other pickups. That could be quite useful in a front of the amp effects pedal. But I don’t know of anyone who makes those.