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I spent some time this weekend organizing and auditioning my collection of IRs. I used S-Gear as a plugin in Logic Pro X, and used Logic's Space Designer to audition the IRs. This made it easy since I could drag and drop from Finder into Space Designer and the IR would take effect immediately. Here's may overall approach: 1. Find some convenient means of adding and removing IRs very fast on your system. Drag and drop from the file system is best as it allows you to quickly audition IRs from different providers without having to load them into a plugin or hardware device. Its easiest to do this in a DAW like Reaper than on Helix because of the ability to quickly try different IRs. 2. Record a few loops with different levels of complexity and drive settings so you can try different things free-hand. Keep the loops very short so you're hearing the same musical phrase over an over. That makes it easier to compare things. 3. Decide on what kind of speaker you generally prefer, perhaps based on what your favorite guitarists use. For many of us, that's Celestion. 4. Decide on what kind of cabinet you generally prefer, 1x12 open back, 2x12 open back, 2x12 closed back, 4x12 closed back, etc. 5. Decide on what kind of mic you generally prefer, SM57 for more aggressive highs, LDC for more natural reproduction, ribbon for a warmer sound. 6. Decide on where you typically like to place the mic - say cap-edge, 2" The purpose of 3, 4, 5 and 6 is to establish a common comparison point that you think is close to what you might end up with. You'll compare different speakers with the same recorded loops, cabinet style, mic and mic position. This way you are focusing on just the difference in the speakers, keeping everything else as constant as possible. 7. What I do is create an "audition" folder for auditioning a bunch of IRs, and another folder called "Favorite IRs". Go through all your available IR folders from different vendors and create links in your audition folder to each of the speakers you want to audition, choosing the variation that matches your cabinet style, mic and mic position above as closely as possible. Don't worry about whether you got all those things right, we'll deal with that later. What you want is a folder of IRs of different speakers with everything else the same, that you can get to quickly and easily, add to your auditioning system (DAW, standalone-amp modeler, or Helix). 7. Start with the clean, chords and some clean leads loops. Turn on loop playback and drag and drop each IR from your "audition" folder into your DAW convolver plugin (e.g., Logic Space Designer) and listen to the loop. 8. Move any IR's you really like into your "Favorite IRs" folder so you can remember them. 8.1. Repeat the process with different gain levels in your recorded loops so you can compare the IRs at different distortion levels. Some speakers that sound good clean are too bright for distorted tones. 9. Repeat the process with your Favorite IRs until you have the ones you really like, maybe even in priority order. 10. Now go back to the vendor's IR folder and repeat the same process, but this time with different cabinets. Then do it again with different mics. And then finally again with different mic positions. You're starting with the things that most impact the tone, then zeroing in on the things that may have somewhat less pronounce impact on the tone. The idea is to narrow down a selection of 100's of IRs into a small set that you will actually use and that help you get your preferred tone. After I did all this, I sort of came back to one of my original favorites, Redwirez BasketweaveG12M25s. using a Royer R121 at cap-edge, 2". I also like the Celestion 4x12 G12-65s, especially since I have a pair of those in an old Fender Bassman 2x12 Cabinet. Frankly, many of the IRs sounded great, just different. And many of the differences were pretty subtle. For example, I made my own IR of my 2x12 cabinet with the G12-65s, and it sounds pretty close to the one created by Celestion in a similar cabinet. At this point I'm satisfied that I can pick a few out of my favorites, load them into Helix, start playing, and stop worrying that I might be missing something if I just buy another 100 IRs.

I don't have any quantified metrics (and I should), but I can treat myself as an an anecdote (and I know a collection of anecdotes is not necessarily a trend). I think there's a general trend towards greater articulation and control, whether its warm blues or heavy metal. Single coil and single pickups tend to provide a more focused tone since the pickup is seeing the string from a single perspective, focusing on the overtones that are prominent at the point where the pickup is placed. Combined pickups see the string from multiple places at the same time, mixing the signals create by the different overtones. This creates cancellations and reinforcements depending on the pickup position, construction, etc. The further apart the pickups are, the greater the difference between the overtones captured by each pickup and the more likely there are to be more extreme cancellations and reinforcements. This is typified by the sound of a Gibson guitar with both pickups turned on since the pickups are as far apart as possible. I find the tone to be a bit nasally, scooped, and results in a tone that less distinct then the other pickup selections. When this is distorted, especially a lot, it can become even more indistinct and muddy. I've also observed that in videos that feature Les Paul, you often see mostly neck and bridge pickups these days, while in the past, the two pickup combination seemed to be more common. For example, listen to old Mike Bloomfield tunes compared to Joe Bonamassa.

EXP1. I have updated to 2.12 and as with 2.10 and 2.11, the update looses all variax snapshot open tuning parameters and model selections.

I had a freeze during rehearsal this week on a patch I use almost constantly. Nothing changed in the patch. I do have a volume pedal in the patch, and I noticed shortly before the freeze that the volume was too low. I noticed the volume pedal had been turned down (I have it set to one lower the volume of input to the amp a small range for changing the amp drive). When I pushed the volume pedal down to turn the volume back up, I noticed it had no effect. Then I noticed none of the other switches or dials did anything. I had sound, but no interaction with Helix. Had to reboot. I'm wondering if this has something to do with the volume pedal issues others have experienced. This is very concerning as I can't have this happening during a performance.

Helix accessory - I love that! I have a '57 Les Paul Deluxe - it was a gold top with the small humbuckers. But I was into changing things when I was young, so it looks more like a Standard and has Tom Holmes humbuckers with split coils and stainless steel frets. Not that guitar looks, feels, plays and sounds fantastic. But you know what, I seem to be preferring either my Strat or my Variax Standard on gigs. I like all the sounds I can get - mostly acoustic. tele, Les Paul and Strat. And three pickups just provides a lot more tone options than two - especially given that the two pickup tone of a Les Paul seems to be falling out of style. So that Les Paul sits in the case a lot. Its real heavy. and I don't really want something to happen to a 50 year old guitar.

Nice post, thanks. I haven't tried these IRs yet, bought them yesterday. You and I have similar tastes I suspect so I'm going follow some of your suggestions and see how it goes. Will probably have to wait for the weekend though.

I too would rather see focus on quality and stability over new amp modeling. My Helix froze up durning rehearsal last night. No real explanation. The display was working, but there was no response from any button or pedal. Had to reboot. First time I recall that happening on a patch that I use all the time and haven't updated recently. Still on 2.11. I'd also prefer to see more emphasis on effects and improved speaker modeling as I think these both have a greater impact on available tones than adding another amp model. Going forward, I'd also prefer to see more new Line6 amp models like Litigator with more options for distortion voicing we can change. This is tube rather than transistor stomp distortion. Its time to move beyond reproducing the compromises of the past and start building for the digital future. I'm not saying I wouldn't be interested in additional replications of existing analog amps. I'm just saying that with limited resources, that wouldn't be my preferred priority.

Those Fender Showman amps had JBL D130F's in them. Those were pretty loud and bright speakers in their day. To get that twang, you might need to get a D130F IR. I have a Fender Showman from that era, and four JBL D120Fs (the 12") but I use Celestion speakers in that amp now - when it ever get played. It is set up out in the garage as we speak though.

I tend to like the warmer IRs too.

There is no way to move Variax 300 patches to JVT or Variax Standard guitars. You'll have to write down the changes you made and try making similar changes in your JVT using Workbench HD. That may or may not produce similar tones. Could be better.

I use a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 interface. I has two Hi-Z inputs and 8 mic inputs, plus many outputs and ADAT ins and outs. Helix is great for guitar-centered recording, but for more general home recording, 8 mic inputs could be more useful.

Ambience provided by high quality reverbs and delays sound really great playing by yourself, and in carefully crafted song mixes. I agree that Helix could stand some improvements here. I use S-Gear and Logic plugins for back of the amp effects during recording. However I don't really consider Helix a recording platform, its not flexible enough. Helix Native is a better option, but in that case I still have lots of ambience options in my DAW. To me Helix is primarily a performance device, and in this context Helix ambience options are perfectly fine. Less is more for ambience in live performances because it can really make mud out of a live mix. Its the performance that's the focus, not the ambience. That may not be the case for solo artists, but for electric guitar in a typical band application, Helix reverbs and delays seem more than adequate.

Its just probably a recognition that IRs aren't just about flexibility and options, they're about marketing. Maybe the Helix cab models are even better - IR models with some additional mic, position and other options. But that really doesn't matter in the marketing world. Its all about options, image and fantasy. Anyway, marketing or not, its nice to have the flexibility in Helix to add the IRs, and its nice to have a wide variety of IRs in the marketplace to choose from. Where is this going - its just the start. We're going to see a move from focusing on an overly saturated market for speaker IRs to a whole new market for acoustic instrument IRs. 3sigma is already doing this with their acoustic guitar, mandolin and upright bass IRs. This is just the beginning. Helix is a pretty good platform for deploying these new capabilities.

Some other advantages of Helix Native: Ability to use Helix front of the amp effects with S-Gear Use Helix Native with MainStage for integrated performance rig Use Helix Native with Logic Pro X (or any DAW) as a digital mixer for full band rehearsal in a box - supporting multiple guitarists and bass player (I do this with FCB1010's and S-Gear now and it really works). Really simplifies re-amping Supports automation of Helix parameters Helix on the road with something as simple as a laptop (does anyone travel without one anymore?) and Apogee Jam. Next - Helix for iOS!

If the system between the output of the amp model and the output of the IR is essentially linear, then it may not make much difference at all. You're putting the same input signal through the same linear block transforms so they should produce similar results regardless of the order. Now convolution is not linear, so it may make some difference where it is placed in an otherwise linear signal chain. Of course any distortion in the signal chain would have a big effect since its very nonlinear.

See that Dean ABG in the background of the video? What we need is IRs that make that ABG (especially a fretless version which I have) sound like a standup base. If you already have a standup bass and can play it, its not clear these IRs add that much. But being able to have IRs that convert an electric bass or ABG into a standup bass would be very interesting.

@rbum, you may find better results keeping the impedance matched with your guitar and using cabinet or IR low and hi-pass filters to tailor the tone, or use an EQ if you needs something more flexible. That is, get the most from your guitar, then adjust from there rather than throw thing away right at the start that you can't get back. That might provide more flexibility, especially using snapshots.

You wouldn't use impedance to get equal volume levels, that's what the pad switch is for. Impedance should generally be very high for passive pickups, less critical for active pickups. However if you want to faithfully reproduce certain pedals, you need to use Auto so the impedance is set to that of the pedal. This pedal has to be the first in the signal chain after the input block through for this to be effective. Personally I use 1M all the time. It keeps the guitar loaded properly so that you don't loose high frequencies.

Litigator, but I wish it had a bright switch.

I have seen some freezes, but its almost always a patch that didn't get migrated properly. This may even be related to presets with Variax models and tunings. I have not seen freezes in an otherwise stable patch that was dependent on how long the Helix is on. That sounds heat related.

Same here. It was a real pain to fix all my Variax patches in 2.10 and again in 2.11. I'll wait too.

Many of the bugs seem to be associated with the patch rebuilding process. It seems that when the patch meta-model changes (i.e., there are new parameters added), the migration of patches on import or patch rebuild is not migrating the patches properly. This is a typical area for problems in digital systems - install, update, and data migration. I think DI has indicated there will be some major changes in the Helix upgrade process in 2017, hopefully eliminating the need to do factory reset and restore all patches and IRs on future updates. If that is the case, it might explain why some for the bugs are filtering through the 2.x releases as the development team may be focused on what's next.

I had a Strat years ago that I modified to get all pickup combinations, with and without phase switching on the middle pickup. I found in practice it wasn't worth it. The out of phase sounds were certainly different but not pleasant and I never used them. The three pickup combination was also different but not that much and tended to lose some volume. I suspect that's because the middle pickup is wound in reverse and has its magnets flipped to provide hum bucking capability in positions 2 and 5. With all three pickups on you have two pickups in one phase and one in the other. That's not going to match well. What I did like is being able to getting the bridge and neck pickup combination to get the sound of a two pickup guitar. But as guitar styles have changed, this two pickup sound seems to be used less and less. It does have a bit of a nasally tone. I find I don't use it as much anymore, but do have that capability on my go-to Strat. Its a push-pull switch on the volume control. I didn't bother creating that combination on my Variax Standard though since I didn't use it that much. I'd rather use the Tele or Les Paul model for that when I need it.

Well there's something very wrong. I would try re-flashing the variax to restore to factory settings first. Then try directly into another amp, no VDI. It does sound like there's leakage from either the magnetic pickups, or some sort of cross-talk or feedback loop between the DSPs used to model the guitars and do the pitch shifting. This could be a cable that needs to be reseated in the guitar, a short somewhere, a cold solder joint or caused by some contanimation on the circuit board. You may have to send to Line6 for repair if re-flashing doesn't fix it.

There's two basic places to put a compressor in a guitar signal chain. The first is in front of the amp, often the first or nearly the first block in the signal chain. This compressor sees the raw input of your guitar and can be used to control pick attack, provide a bit of clean sustain, and even out small variations in picking and chording for a smoother, more glued together clean tone. When placed in front of a distorted amp, the compressor mostly changes the gain into the distortion which can change the coloration of the distorted sound a bit, especially for the attack. Use slow attack and fast release for smooth, natural clean compression. Use faster attack and slower release with really distorted tones to hit the distortion stages with a more consistent signal to provide a smoother, creamier tone. The second place is after the amp, closer to the end of the signal chain. The L2A compressor model is a good choice for this situation. A compressor after a clean amp will have a similar effect as a compressor before the clean amp (since the gain stages are not distorted, i.e.: linear). The difference is the impact the compressor can have on the after the amp effects. If you put it at the end of the signal chain, it can help glue together the delays, choruses, and reverbs that provide time and frequency ambience. For a distorted amp, compression after the amp can have a similar effect as the amp sag, but the dynamics might be a bit different. So compressors can play a key role in many different tone styles, in Helix or any other context.