amsdenj

I don't disagree at all. I'm just saying don't let this issue stop you from using the tuner, warts and all.

Note that the dual harmony relies on you telling it what the key and scale mode is, it is not able to react to chords that shift the scale mode. For example, say you have a song like Back in the USSR, and you want to harmonize that relatively simple lead. That C chord is going to give you problems because it shifts the mode. You need an intelligent harmonized to deal with these situations.

Helix is an excellent audio interface, and the addition of Helix Native at a good price will be a real plus for guitar recording. But where Helix really shines is live gigging because of the simplicity, flexibility, reliability, and ease of use. There are lots of other less expensive options for recording. I still mostly use a good audio interface (Focusrite Saffire Pro 40) and S-Gear for recording, never Helix. When Helix Native becomes available, I'll add that with S-Gear for additional guitar recording options. The biggest revealation for me was understanding the impact of mic choice, placement and hi and low cut on cab and IR models in order to warm up the tone. I highly recommend reading the manual, multiple times to get the most out of Helix. Treat Helix (and Variax) models just like you would a real amp. Choose the patches that fit the song. For IRs, start with IRs of speakers you know and like, or those used by performers you like. That is, start with the music and song, and pick the technology that helps you get there. Learn from professional experiences with traditional guitars, amps and cabinets. I would recommend recording a dry input (USB 7 by default) and the Helix stereo output (USB 1/2 by default). This helps you commit to a tone turning tracking while at the same time providing the dry track for re-amping if something just didn't fit into the mix as you expected. Note that re-amping won't solve all problems because the tone you are monitoring while playing will inpact what you play. Also consider putting some sound in the room while recording guitar so the guitar itself can interact with the speakers. I've gone all digital with recording. No external pedals. Gain stage everything carefully, leaving plenty of headroom on the DAW channel input, mix busses and the master bus. Leave the final volume leveling to the mastering phase. See the recommendation above about having some sound in the room for the guitar to hear. But this is really a mix question. One rarely mixes in solo because your listeners can never do that, and changes that make something sound great in solo might not sound good at all in the mix. Typical issues are too much in the low mids, and overly wet effects. Re-amping is a good solution to these issues if you tracked with too much bass and too many effects. Note that many post-amp effects can be done in the DAW, not in Helix while tracking. A TS212 (or two) is an excellent option for live stage volume, but probably not a great choice for a mix monitor.

You need to be using WorkbenchHD, not Workbench (which is for the older Variax models). Helix will allow your JTV to interface with WorkbenchHD, to customize guitar models. But it does not yet support Variax firmware upgrade, you need to still use the old WorkbenchHD USB interface to do that with Line6 Monkey.

There is nothing really unique about a JTV paired with Helix other than one provides a host of guitar models while the other provides a host of amp models. Pairing a particular guitar model with a particular amp model wouldn't really be that different than doing the same thing with traditional guitars and amps. Perhaps the best approach would be to start with the music instead of the technology. Pick some music styles, artists and songs that you like. Listen and try to understand what it is you like about their playing and tone. Then go to YouTube and lookup the artist and song. Try to find a video of them playing that song. Look at the instrument they are playing, and the amp they are using. Look at what pickup they are using, where they are playing on the guitar neck and the shape of the chords they are using (the same note sounds different when played in different positions on the guitar). Go search for a rig rundown for the artist and see their approach to their equipment. Then use you JTV and helix to create patches that attempt to reproduce their setups. You'll find its not that hard to get pretty close. And by all means, have fun!

An older Variax (300) is a reasonable choice if it has the power adapter and workbench USB interface. The old models have their own unique tone, and some people like them. Its a low investment to experiment and see if guitar modeling is for you.

I use an external A/B footswitch to use two (actually three including Variax through VDI) guitars into Helix. I never play, or am in a situation where more than one gets played at a time. There are occasions where there's a guitar and bass into Helix at the same time during rehearsals, but the bass is active and is using the Aux input.

A less jumpy tuner is not necessarily a more accurate tuner. Guitar strings don't necessarily vibrate at exactly one frequency. There's lots of things that can make the tuning vary by a small amount, including the vibration of the string itself. Tuners that provide damping make it easier to more quickly zero in on what appears to be in tune, but the string is still jumping around, you just aren't seeing it. The Helix tuner could use a bit more damping, but you can do that pretty well with your eyes. I personally don't have any trouble getting my guitars quickly in tune with the Helix tuner. I simply apply my own damping judgment based on the situation the guitar is in, state of the strings, etc.

IEMs are a great way to control what you ear as well as how much. They can be the difference between saving and loosing your hearing. Here's a fiew quick points to consider. IEMs mixes should be designed to help you play and save your ears. They're not an effective means of mixing FOH while you're playing. Almost everyone attempting this will mix their own instrument/vocal too loud. There are three general choices for what you can monitor. 1. Your own hardware mix: use a small PA mixer or Helix with your own mic and instruments and use the headphone output to monitor that mix. 2. Take a stereo feed off the FOH using a simple headphone amp. Or 3. if your mixer has the capability (and most digital mixers do), create your own sub mix containing whatever parts of the band you need. The best option is 3, your own specific mix. FOH may not provide enough of your own instrument, or too much of everything else. Your own hardware mix may leave you too isolated. IEMs are like singing with your fingers in your ears, you get a lot of head sound. If you're playing and singing, make sure you have enough drums in your mix so you don't loose the beat while your singing. Stereo monitor mix sounds great, but try mono too, you might like it better and it might be easier to play along with. Be careful about the IEM levels. If the level is too hot, IEMs can do more damage to your ears faster than stage volume without them. I like to start with the headphone volume all the way down and I play part of the first song listening to just the bleed - the IEMs are just expensive ear plugs. Then I slowly turn the headphone volume up until the IEM output adds to the bleed, providing the missing high end definition. This produces the minimum IEM level. If your ears are ringing after a gig, the levels are too high and continued exposure may damage your ears. If you're using IEMs and stage amps, or at least acoustic drums, remember that FOH isn't the only thing the audience hears. Stage volume is getting mixed with FOH to provide what the audience experiences. This could be insignificant in arenas, or very significant in small clubs where people on the dance floor mostly only hear stage volume. You have to account for this when mixing the band, or in capturing recordings for the purpose of assessing what the band is actually delivering. The hardest situation to deal with is when you have a mix of monitoring approaches in the same band. In my band, myself and the bass player were the first to adopt digital amps, no stage amp, and IEMs. The other guitar player is using a stage amp and floor wedge as a monitor. We play a lot of small clubs, and our stage volume was unbalanced. So I added a couple of EON610s for my stage amp, and the bass player brought back his amp. Now only the keys has no stage amp. We keep the stage volume as low as possible, just enough to fill in the dance floor, and provide some physical interaction with our instruments. This is a compromise that adds some complexity to setup and mixing. But its the best we can do as not everyone is comfortable with IEMs.

Oops, iOS spell checker got me. Happens all the time.

I have a Tremolux style cabinet with two Eminence Beta 10-CX 10" coaxial speakers and ASD:1001 drivers for the high end. I drive that with a Hafler Transnova p3000 power amp. It sound pretty good but its a bit directional. But lately I've been using just a pair of JBL EON610s because the PA rack fits on it and I can reduce the band's footprint quite a bit by combining my backline with the PA (which I run). The computer sits on top of that. Very convenient and sounds great.

The cabinet an IR blocks both have low-pass/high-cut filters you can use for that. You can incorporate changes in high-cut with a drive switch, or link increases in drive with increases in high-cut on a pedal. I would note that S-Gear has Hi Cut in the power amp section that works similarly to sag. The harder you push the power amp, the more hi cut you get. With this you can set the drive into the amp to get the level of clipping you want. Turn the guitar volume down and the hi cut goes away giving you a nice clean shimmer. Turn the guitar volume up and you get more hi cut with nice warm clipping in the power amp. I hope some future amp model provides this feature in Helix. Now I'm thinking about adding a pedal controller that increases gain and high-cut at the same time to simulate this manually. I'd use the pedal instead of the guitar volume control to get pretty much the same effect. Hummm....

I love it that music is so situational. Unfortunately its really difficult to mind shift into patch tweak mode when your in the playing zone. Consider having someone else "mix" your Helix patches while you're at rehearsal. You focus on playing, they focus on getting your tone. Its two very different mind sets. Hard to do them both at the same time and in context.

I still have the Fender Showman amp I bought in 1968. Its been heavily modified over the years, but right now the Normal channel is pretty stock. I just put in a new output transformer, new tubes, news tremolo Optocoupler and two new Celestion G12-65 speakers in the 2x12 Bassman cabinet I used with that amp for many years. I can't get rid of an amp my friend Doug and I worked on so much. Doug's dead now, but I still have the old notes we took designing clipping units for that amp. I created front of the amp Helix patches for it, and have an old Lexicon MPXG2 hooked up to it out in the garage. I've experimented with a lot of stuff over the years. I'd love to gig with that amp and My Les Paul that I bought in 1969, just for old times sake. But I can't bring myself to do it, its too inflexible compared to a JTV-69S and Helix. How would I get those open tunings and acoustic tones? Frankly the band has moved beyond that old setup for me. That's too bad, but progress. Odd that the Variax and helix go to a lot of effort to reproduce what that old setup does. What's really different is that its a lot more than just one of those setups.

There's a simple way to gainstage something like Helix or HD500. Simply bypass all blocks in the patch. Then enable/bypass each one, one at a time and make sure they are more or less unity gain - the overal volume doesn't change that much between block on/off. If you need a block to do a boost, start by cutting the output level of the block and get the boost by removing the cut. Then uses the meters on your PA/FRFR to gainstage its input for no clipping, and adjust the master volume for how much sound you need in the room. Use the DAW metering (or simpler a SPL meter in your phone) to balance the levels between patches as needed.

I use the Masonic plank body model for Strat and Tele sounds. It gives more bite and sustain, and makes them sound more natural to me. You do need to set the global string levels so that the output from each string is pretty consistent. I use a DAW and accurate metering to do this.

I find stage monitors and drums are way too loud for my ears to manage. I have a lot of tinnitus, and a lot of hearing loss around 4K - probably like most guitar players. I can't tolerate a stage monitor in front of me, even with 15dB cut ear plugs. IEMs (Goralla Ears) are a must. I do still use a couple of EON610s for backline to give the guitar something the hear and to provide some stage fill for the audience and a couple of band members who haven't yet gone IEM. This seems to work pretty well, but is certainly a somewhat complex compromise. Without the IEMs I'd probably have to stop playing live.

An IR could capture the response of the Leslie horn and speaker, but not the rotational effect. That requires separate algorithms. We may find that adding those algorithms to traditional guitar speaker IRs could open up possibilities for new Leslie tones.

What we really need is dynamic EQ. S-Gear Wayfarer (and other amps) have a Hi Cut control in the power amp section. You can turn the Amp Drive up, and the preamp gain down to the point that you get nice warm clipping from the power amp. Then back off the volume control on your guitar. That high cut disappears when the power amp stops clipping, just like the sag disappears. The guitar becomes bright, sparkly and clean. But turn the guitar volume up, and as the power amp distorts, it sags more and gets more hi cut. This is the perfect solution as it lets you completely control the drive and tone with just your guitar volume.

I got a Mag-Lok for my new JTV-69S as I liked how the hipshot tremsetter works on my Strat Deluxe. However when I went to install it, I noticed the JTV-69S claw is somewhat narrow and the springs are too close together. The Mag-Lok U-bracket can be pushed in-between the springs, but the springs are rubbing on the side of the U-bracket near the claw. I'm afraid this rubbing will cause noise in the springs that will end up in the piezo pickups. Anyone have any experience with this? Is it really an issue? Do I need to get a wider claw for more spring spacing? Or is this not really a problem?

I use the Mode switch a lot. Helix is usually in stomp mode where the footswitches are used to control 10 effects. I press Mode to get four snapshots in the current patch and four patches. I'd like to see the Mode switch used more. For example, it could be used to switch to looper mode which would free up one more effect footswitch. Tap is useful for time syncing effects, and for quick access to the tuner. Seems like a pretty good design to me.

I have a Variax Standard and a JTV-69S. The Standard is ok, but not a great instrument. I liked enough to get the JTV which is a much nicer instrument in every way. I also have a 700 Acoustic that I use a lot. I too hope the Variax line continues to be offered and evolve. Having more physical guitar choices is great, but I would also like to see some evolution in the models, maybe even the ability to load new models from WorkbenchHD. I would also very much like to have access to the raw piezo outputs, no pickup or body model, so that I can use instrument IR models in Helix with my Variax.

Variax individual string volumes are controlled in two places, both of which can be accessed using WorkbenchHD through Helix. The first is the global settings. Use these to adjust for different levels coming off the piezo pickups. Global string volumes let you adjust for variation in the piezo pickup outputs in one place and apply to all Variax patches. The second place is in the patch/model itself. Use these to adjust string volumes to address variations in the modeled pickups, personal taste, or for some unique song requirement. Helix snapshots can change the Variax models, and you can use the two sets of custom models for these potentially unusual string volume setups.

If you ever want to consider a Variax guitar, Helix would be the logical choice.

Use two JBL EON610s for gigging and a Roland AC-90 when I need a small rehearsal amp. I had the AC-90 for a while and used it for acoustic guitar and mandolin gigs. Its actually pretty nice with Helix for electric guitar, and even bass if the volume isn't too loud.