amsdenj

Discard is probably a reasonable default. When changing snapshots during performance, you want the snapshot to set a predictable, consistent tone, that’s their primary purpose. During edit, you’d need to save every time you change a snapshot (just like you have to save every time you change a preset). And you have to do one more extra save at the end for the patch to be in the right snapshot when you select it. But that's not too bad. Just don't forget to do the save before switching the snapshot.

Some other differences between a JTV-69S and A Variax Standard: To my ear, the Standard single coil pickups sounded better then the stock pickups on my JTV-69S. I suspect there’s veriability here, so this may not be the same for other instruments The pickup selector switch is too soft and too close to the pickups on the Standard, so its easy to hit the switch by accident and unintentionally change pickups. JTV-69S switch is closer to where it is on a Strat, and has a much better, tighter feel. Its also easier to put the switch in the right pickup without overshooting. The Standard’s volume control is also too close to the bridge pickup and too high - it gets in the way of picking for me. JTV doesn’t have this problem The Standard’s tremolo bar has a lot of play in it and there’s no way to install a tremolo bar spring - the hole goes all the way through. You can wrap plumber’s tap around the threads to solve this, but it has to be redone every time you change the strings. JTV tremolo bar is excellent. The Standard doesn’t stay in tune as well - I tend to tune my JTV once a night and it rarely changes. The Standard neck is certainly thinner and this can be a plus if you have small hands. But that thin neck seems to be much less stable than the thicker, heavier JTV neck. I find the action on the Standard changes a lot with temperature and humidity, while the JTV is rock solid. I’ve come to like the JTV neck even though I have smallish hands. The Standard is a good utility instrument. But the JTV feels more like a quality instrument you’d keep for a while.

Helix and S-Gear are very different things, even if you focus on only amp and cab models. Helix mostly attempts to emulate existing amplifiers. S-Gear is certainly inspired by the knowledge gained over many years of amp development and tube characteristics, but is more focused on building modern amplifiers in the digital domain. However, if you compare some of the newer Helix models like Litigator and Carteographer, and use similar IRs, you’ll get tones that are more similar between the two. The other difference is who’s listening to and evaluating the models. Mike Scuffham does indeed seem to have unique ears. Ben Adrien is also starting to show his capabilities, and his models in Helix seem to show a lot of promise. I hope to see more of these in the future. Its wonderful to see that these two designers can do, and we are indeed fortunate to be able to enjoy their products.

Of course, thank you!

My global footswitch settings are: Touch Select: On, Preset Mode Switches: Preset/Snap, Stomp Mode Switches: 10 Switches, Snapshot Mode Switches: Auto Return, Up/Down Switches: Banks. The Helix manual says: "When set to "Auto Return," Helix returns to the previous footswitch mode after selecting a snapshot." I footswitch mode, I press F6 MODE, select a snapshot, shouldn't Helix return automatically back to footswitch mode? I have to press F6 to exit preset/snap mode to get back to footswitch mode, regardless of how Snapshot Mode Switches is set: Auto Return or Manual. Am I missing something?

I think the best way to get good tone is to focus first on the things that touch the air, in the direction of the signal chain. That means starting with the guitar - getting the strings that sound and feel right, using the right pick (heavier and rounder ends will be warmer), choosing the right pickup and making use of guitar volume and tone controls. The next most important thing is the speaker. Choose the speaker model or IR that is closest to the tone you are looking for. Then fine tune with the mic choice followed by adjusting the mic position. IRs can provide different positions relative to the center of the speaker: cap, cap-edge, cone and cone-edge. The further you get from the center of the speaker, the warmer the tone. Close micing will enhance low end due to proximity effect as well as high end. Putting some distance between the mic and the speaker will be a bit more mid focused and warmer. Then keep your FRFR pretty flat so that your different patches are the primary source of your different tones. FRFR tone control settings that sound good on one patch may not sound good at all on another patch. Its better to get the tone from the models, not the FRFR. Adjusting for different room situations can be done either with global EQ or the FRFR, whichever is most convenient. But I rarely do this as I suspect it might do more harm than good in many situations. Bottom line its hard to use EQ to address tone issues that originate at the guitar, speaker and/or mic. Get the source and destination right, and you will usually find less need to EQ.

Just save the patch in whatever state you want the Variax to be in and it will recall that way. My typical Gigging setup is a JTV-69S and either a Strat Deluxe, Les Paul, or (a really nice) Epiphone Sheraton II Pro. I use snapshots to control a couple of open tunings and an acoustic tone within the same patch. But I save the patch with the Variax Mags. In any case, the other guitar into the guitar input always works. I just have to remember to turn its volume down when I put it on the stand, a good habit anyway.

Suplication, now there’s a word you don’t hear to often. But it has a nice ring. Another thing is the clang tone can change over time. Playing seems to seat the piezos in the bridge better over time and this seems to impact the clang tone. It really does seem to improve with use. Heavier strings could accelerate this due to the higher pressure and wider vibrations.

I’d like to be able to load guitar models from Helix. But even more importantly, I’d like to see Line6 do a next generation of the Variax models. There was clearly a big difference between the 1.x and 2.x models - and not necessarily for the better in all cases. So it would seem there’s room for improvement in the modeling process. If these could be loaded as separate model packs, I’d even be more than willing to pay for them. I have 4 Variax guitars, so clearly I’ve bought into the technology. My JTV-69S is my main gigging instrument. Its light, plays well , is stable, stays in tune, and provides the flexibility I need.

This is very good advice, thanks.

Asking the sound engineers to set your channel flat is a must for getting consistent FOH tones on different systems. It turns out an electric guitar through a modeling amp isn’t that big a challenge for any decent PA system, it doesn’t require the lows of a bass rig, or the highs of cymbals. Electric guitar is pretty mid-focused, so any decent PA system should work reasonable well flat. Another option is to build your tones using a similar FRFR set flat. I use a pair of JBL EON610’s. If I can get a good tone out of these, then I suspect most any PA with better speakers will do just fine as long as its set flat. I also use the 610’s as my backline to provide some stage volume, and something for the guitar to hear (I use IEMs for my monitoring needs). So even if the FOH is challenged, you can provide some consistency with your backline.

I think what is happening is that after a firmware update, and the patches are rebuilt, the saved state of a footswitch that controls multiple block bypasses gets confused. I think it gets reset to the first block that it controls. But I’m not sure. The solution is to load your patches, touch the footswitch until the block is selected who’s state you want to reflect the footswitch status, then resave the patch. I thought this was fixed, but I see its till happing in the latest firmware updated.

I wish Logic would support the same approach to control surface mapping as MainStage. Its silly that all control surface settings are global and associated with the logged in user preferences. See https://jimamsden.wordpress.com/2017/12/28/creating-logic-pro-x-controller-assignments/ for more information on configuring control surface assignments in Logic.

Maybe a way to put this to rest is to assume 5 is a good starting point on a parameter that goes from 1 to 10. Then eperiment to see what the control does. One effective way to do this is to start with the control (any control) all the way down and then play, running the control up to various points and back down again quickly until you can find the point at which the control just starts to “do its thing”. If you can’t hear any difference on the control playing at various levels, speeds and dynamic ranges, move on - its not worth worrying about. If you can fined the point where a control just starts to make a difference, you might often find that going beyond that doesn’t change things that much. The point at which the control just starts to make a difference is often the point at which the amp response is the most dynamic. You might find that useful.

Regarding the difference between a guitar cabinet and a FRFR, the biggest impact is the mic position. Try this. With your Marshall 4x12 cranked, place your ear 1” from the center of the speaker cone. That’s not going to sound good to you at all (and would definitely cause hearing loss). That’s what a mic is going to hear and pump out of FOH with no EQ. That’s not realistic for micing a guitar cabinet, and for the same reason, its not realistic for a Helix cab model or IR. Having all that low end and fizz come out of the cab model or IR isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Its a lot easier to cut what you have too much of than boost something that isn’t there. So think of the high and low cuts on the cab and IR blocks as controlling what the mic hears in order to produce the overall sound you want. I’d recommend doing what you can with speaker, mic choice and position first, and then fine tune with high and low cut to get the final result.

The horn has a couple of purposes. First its to provide dispersion of your guitar tone so that more than just the few people that are right in front of it and right on axis get the high end. Second is to provide full range flat frequency response for other patches that say include acoustic guitar or mic inputs. Now to the high cut on cab and IR models. Although an electric guitar pickups don’t produce much above 6 kHz, and guitar speakers often reproduce even less, a distorted guitar with a mic pointed right at the speaker cone can result in substantially higher frequencies than that. Hence the fizz. This is not unusual for mic’d analog amps and cabinets. Microphone choice and placement are a real art for capturing a good electric guitar sound. And it usually takes some post EQ, compression, limiting, etc. in the recorded track to get what we’re use to hearing. Live this stuff doesn’t matter as much because its LOUD. But in headphones, or with monitor speakers at normal room volumes, it will matter a great deal. This is why you need to use high cut on Helix cab and IR blocks - to reproduce the whole signal chain.

The sound of a mandolin isn’t enough. It need to pay and feel like one too.

Use Workbench HD and lower the string volume. Generally the piezo pickups are pretty variable so its not unusual to have to balance the strings.

I put very nice pickups on my JTV-69S. If the models become obsolete, its still a very nice traditional guitar. That isn't true of the Variax 300 I still have. Not sure what to do with it.

I have had VDI cable seating problems on my JTV-69S and a Variax 700 Acoustic. The acoustic seems sensitive to the particular VDI cable, one works better than the other. The 69S has become more reliable if I make sure the cable is firmly seated. In a gig situation, its easy to plug in the cable and think its seated, but it isn't. The resulting errors can make it seem like the guitar works, but Helix control of the models failed for me.

Regarding comparing models with magnetics, sure they sound different. So would any two guitars of the same brand and model. Differences are good. I leverage the difference between the Spank model and the magnetic pickups of my JTV-69S to get different sounding Strats. That's more useful than having two that sound the same. Regarding VDI cables - better quality cables generally are more reliable, last longer, are more flexible, and result in less digital errors between the guitar and Helix. These digital errors (sometimes called jitter) can have a negative effect on the tone. The quality of an Ethernet cable determines the maximum transfer rate and error rates. Re: input impedance, I generally prefer to keep the 1/4" input impedance at 1M and not auto. This results in a bit more noise, but better response, articulation and high end. I don't use fuzz pedals that much, but if you do, then Auto might be needed, and VDI might or might not work well. VDI with Helix of course has many other advantages.

Try different body models. Masonic plank is a good option. You might need to lower the patch output a few dB.

My setup is a little different. I have the Helix output volume knob set to control the 1/4" outputs for my backline FRFR. The XLR outputs are fixed and maxed so I send a consistent, independent signal to the FOH mixer. We use a digital mixer, so I set the input gains closer to -18 to -12 dB. This ensures no digital clipping in the channel strip. Then i start with the channel faders around -18 dB (mid scale) so that there's plenty of room to adjust the mix, and the sum of the channels doesn't clip any of the output or master buses. Headroom is pretty important in a mixer, and an absolute must for digital mixers.

Using Helix with DAW metering through the USB interface can be quite helpful. Or you can use the input and output meters in Helix Native to gain stage your patches. By selectively bypassing blocks, you can get a pretty good idea how the patch as a whole is gain staged. This is important because each block is designed to work best with a specific input range. In the absence of any other information, unity gain is a pretty safe starting point - each block sees essentially the same input signal level.

I just use a meter in my DAW though the USB, or a dB meter on my phone.