amsdenj

Did a gig last night and use the XLR outputs to the PA and the headphone output to my stage amp. The stage amp is a Hafler Transnova P3000 stereo power amp going into a ported Fender Tremolux cabinet with two Eminence 10" coaxial speakers for FRFR. The reason I did this is so I have separate controls on the Helix for what I'm sending to the PA and what I send to the Hafler. This worked great. One TRS cable from the Helix headphone output into cable splitter at the Hafler provides a simple, stereo, convenient and useful setup. Guitar tone was great using a Strat, Les Paul or Variax Standard.

Did you try moving the mix on top of the split?

You might just try changing to a wider nut, getting the frets leveled (they aren't that finely tuned from the factory) and doing a good setup on the Variax Standard neck. That can result in a much more playable guitar.

Here's a quick way to check neck nut height: one at a time, press each string down between the 3rd and 4th fret. Then tap your finger on the string over the 2nd fret. There should be just enough gap between the fret and the string that you can see it, and you get a nice ping when the string hits the fret. Note that nut height is only part of the story, how it's cut can make a big difference too. The angle should be cut so that there is a smooth flow from the nut to the string winding pegs. Some people prefer to set string height with a capo on the 1st fret to eliminate any issues with the nut height. Perhaps a good practice is to do the neck relief and nut height first, then set string height. Doing them in that order ensures they are all correct. However, nut height does not address the issue I'm having with the G, B and E strings on my Variax Standard because this happens on fretted notes too. And I have the action adjusted properly so that there is minimal fret buzz. It seems more like pickup variability to me.

Helix models sound good enough that most any amp and effect combination that fits your overall desired tone architecture will probably sound pretty good without a lot of tweaking. That definitely wasn't true of the 500X. You could tweak that thing forever and keep thinking you're just one more tweak away from the tone you want, but you never quite get there. Helix models sound enough better that almost any patch close to your needs will sound good enough to inspire you to play. Different patches sound different, not necessarily better or worse, and that can be inspiring. What's tempting with all those models is to spend a lot of time on different models and effect combinations and settings, and forget to actually play the thing. Or you can have so many different tones that your listeners don't know who you are or what your "tone brand" is. There's no identity in all that variability. I've found that I tend to use one Helix patch per instrument. Certainly mandolin, bass and acoustic guitar require very different patches. But if you look at my patches for these instruments, they're all organized basically the same way with similar effects playing similar roles assigned to the same foot switches. I tend to use the Deluxe bright amp most of the time into a composite IR that's pretty warm. That works great with my Strat. But with my Les Paul, I might switch to a Marshal style amp and an a brighter speaker IR since the guitar is quite a bit darker. I have each patch gain staged to get the range of tones I need. Then I focus on what I play and what I contribute as a musician to the overall sound in the song, including the tone. I rarely change patches unless I change instruments. I'm getting a little distracted these days with this new Variax Standard. Hopefully that will settle down soon.

I put my Helix in the bag pedal up and facing the front of the bag (away from the back straps). That way I have a good hand hold for getting it in and out reducing the chance of dropping it. I also put it in the bag from the top, not flat, letting the weight of the Helix push itself into the bag. I carry all cables associated with Helix in the Helix bag so that the cables associated with a device are with the device, not mixed up with cables for other devices in some big cable box. Same with all the powered PA speakers. Their cases have pouches that contain their power and XLR or TRS cable (we use TRS for our monitors). Grab a speaker and you have everything you need to cable it up. That makes it easer to do parallel setup (assuming everyone in the band pitches in).

I'd say it was setup if it also occurred with the modeling off, but it doesn't on my guitar. It could still be setup if its a problem with the angle or string pressure on the piezo, but that would seem like a design problem since there's not that much choice on a Strat style bridge.

I have a Variax Standard that I use with Helix. My intended use was as a backup guitar and for quick changes between songs to different guitar tones, including acoustic, and some open tunings. It does that. But it doesn't replace my Strat or Les Paul. My overall issues are: The nut is cut too narrow putting the strings too close together. This can be changed and its on my TODO list. I don't know if its my instrument or a problem with all Variax guitars, but the three plain strings (G, B, E) don't sound right to me in any of the models. They don't respond properly to pick attack, have a sort of "banjo" or overly resonate tone, and don't sustain properly. I have adjusted the pickup volumes using Workbench HD, they were all over the place. I can balance the strings, but they still don't sound right to me. The models are ok, but not great. I suspect the audience wouldn't notice the difference, but I do. So it effects how I'm inspired to play - both the tone and feel of the models, and the physical feel of the instrument are OK, but not inspiring. My Strat and Les Paul are both very different and almost play themselves they are so nice. In particular the acoustic models aren't that good at all. My old Variax 700 acoustic has much better models of the same instrument. The tremolo isn't great, but OK. I had to wrap the bar threads in plumber's tape to address a lot of play in the bar, but that seems to have fixed it ok. A Hipshot Tremsetter might be a good option to install to improve the tremolo. I have one on my Strat and it really works as advertised. It seems like the "POD XT" version of guitar models - I want the "Helix" version. To that end I hope Line 6 will provide a Workbench HD option to get the raw piezo outputs so we can use guitar body models in Helix for more modeling flexibility. This could open a whole new set of features for Variax and Helix. Overall the Variax Standard does what I expected it to do, but not more. I'm still struggling with whether to bring my Les Paul to gigs, or just the Strat and Variax. What I like about the Standard: Its much lighter than my Strat, so that's helpful for an old guy on a 4 hour gig. The magnetic pickups sound pretty good to me The open tunings work great but I wish: The tuning light would stay on like the model knob does so I can see what tuning its in and remember to reset it That a quick push of the tuning knob would toggle to/from standard tuning like a push of the model knob toggles between the magnetic pickups and the guitar models. I use open-G a lot and that would provide a quick way to turn it on and off Its an all in one solution for the gigging musician for different tones that are likely good enough for most audiences

What I was suggesting is a more general solution that uses the MODE switch to support multiple MIDI configurations in the same patch. The looper is then just one special case.

Another option is to invest in one or two subs for your PA if you're using this in a live situation. That what our band did. In small clubs we go without stage amps and run everything into the PA. The bass player just uses a sans amp direct box and gets the high end from his EON610 monitor mix and the low end from the main subs.

Whatever it does, on my Variax Standard, it 1) doesn't do much and 2) doesn't do anything when the alt tunings are on.

I use a Roland AC-90 with Helix at rehearsal. It works very well.

An update: I found the tone control does have some (minimal) effect through VDI on acoustic models, but not if the alt tuning is on.

The MODE switch could of course detect whether there is a Looper block in the patch and skip the Looper mode if not. The idea is to maximize the number of stomp foot switches that are available for performing in a song while also making Helix more consistent. Stomp, Preset and Looper are clearly modes - they all change what all the foot switches do. They should all be accessed using the fixed MODE switch. Any foot switch should be able to be configured to send MIDI messages in any mode. Stomp mode already does this. Preset mode sends MIDI program messages. Looper mode doesn't send anything. This is inconsistent and inflexible, unnecessarily limiting Helix as a MIDI controller and does not have functional parity with HD500X. Then I would like to see additional MIDI modes on the MODE switch to program foot switches with additional MIDI messages that are not associated with any blocks or programs in Helix. These would be used for additional MIDI control of other devices through Helix. For example, iPad apps like Loopy HD, SongBook, and SampleTank (when using a MIDI guitar controller such as the Fishman Triple Play).

Anyone noticed that the tone control, which is suppose to control mic position, makes little effect on Variax Standard acoustic models when using VDI into a Helix? They seem to work properly when using the 1/4" input, but not when using the VDI input. The tone controls work fine on other models, they just seem to have no effect on the acoustic models. Maybe I need to see how they're configured with Workbench HD.

The looper switch sort of works the way on the HD500X. Part of this suggestion is to have this functionality on Helix too so you don't need to use a stomp footswitch to get to the looper. The stomp switch basically wastes a footswitch just to do a mode switch that could just has easily have been done with the MODE switch. The idea is: 1. add a Looper block in your patch - usually at the end of the signal chain, just before the output, and usually stereo. 2. To get to the Looper, press MODE. Press MODE again to get to PRESET, again to get to stomp mode. No need to use a separate footswitch to get to looper mode. 3. In looper mode, the other 10 footswitches control the looper and sent their own configured MIDI CC messages - allowing Looper mode to also be used to enhance the number of footswitches available for MIDI control. 4. Preset mode is unchanged 5. Stomp mode is unchanged except there's no need for a looper stomp footswitch, and there's no need to overload the available 10 footswitches to control both Helix block bypass (or parameter changes) and MIDI control since the looper mode can be used instead Another possibility is to add further MODEs, say MIDI 1 and MIDI 2 with different configurable MIDI messages. This would make Helix a great MIDI controller without compromising the foot switches we need for stomp blocks. There can't be too many modes, because cycling between the modes would take too may presses.

The market for acoustic IRs appears to be limited at the moment, and there may be a good reason - pickup variability. How the acoustic IRs are created is essentially by creating an impulse response of a guitar body by tapping the body and capturing the pickup response and the body response with a mic, at exactly the same time (so they are phase aligned). Then an algorithm is used to essentially "subtract" the piezo response from the body response and save that as the resulting IR. Then when you play your acoustic guitar through the IR, you get only the body response, not the contribution from the pickup. Under the saddle piezo pickups do sound quite a bit alike, but they aren't the same. So a different pickup in a different guitar won't exactly match what the IR is expecting and the resulting tone will be different than the intended body tone. In addition, the pickups may be phased differently and might make the guitar sound worse rather than better. Magnetic pickups don't sound at all like piezo pickups, so the same acoustic body IRs don't generally work well for both. Fishman and Mama Bear have taken different approaches for dealing with this variability. You can send your guitar to Fishman and they'll create a custom IR for your guitar you can load into your Aura. They also sell built in acoustic guitar preamps that have the compensation for that pickup and guitar in the preamp. This is a great choice, but not something we can put in Helix. The Aura body images are a proprietary format in order to protect Fishman's Intellectual Property (IP). Mama Bear provides an input voicing control that can compensate for different pickups. If you know what guitar you're going to use, and have access to a Fishman Aura or DTar Mama Bear, you can find the input setting and body image that works best for you, then use Logic Pro X's Impulse Response Utility to capture an IR for Helix that will reproduce that tone. However, I'm not sure about the moral/legal implications of doing this. Fishman and Mama Bear have put a lot of effort into creating those models and hardware devices. Creating IRs from them and giving them out, or much worse, selling them, would seem to be a somewhat questionable practice. That's why I've been reluctant to post any of the IRs I created from my Fishman Aura. I have no problem using them in my own Helix since I did buy the Aura. But giving them out, not sure about that. Maybe it's OK, but maybe not.

EQ for electric guitar is a bit unique because of the typical amount of distortion we use. Where you adjust the EQ, before and/or after distortions blocks can make a huge difference. Generally cut lows and boost highs before distortion and boost lows and cut highs after distortion. Cutting the lows before distortion removes the mud that happens when the low frequencies are clipped and overwhelm the mids and highs. Boosting highs befor distortion doesn't have much effect on the distorted tone since the highs are just clipped. But it does effect what happens when you roll back the guitar volume control as the distortion is reduced and the highs come through. More on the reason for this coming up. You want to do just about the opposite after distortion. You can carefully bring the bass back up to compensate for the cut you did before distortion. This won't add too much mud since it's not being distorted. It's often unnecessary to bring all the bass back since this can start causing mix conflicts with the bass player and keys. Then you cut highs post distortion to reduce fizz and ice pick that results from the distortion in order to warm the tone a bit. Now why boost highs before distortion just to have them clipped? It's so that when you roll back the guitar volume control for cleaner tone the highs will come through because the boost will compensate for the high cut after distortion you needed to reduce the fizz. This doesn't work exactly, you can't completely compensate for cut/boost pre distortion with boost/cut post distortion, and you might not want to as the tone and song might not need the balance. But it can be useful for getting a wider range of applicable tones from the same amp settings.

A very simple solution is to expand the current mode switch. It currently has preset, stop and looper modes. First simply have the looper model also send MIDI CC messages like the HD500X did. This would free up another whole set of footswitches. But then expand by have user defined modes where the 10 footswitches can be programmed to send different MIDI messages without changing the patch.

DI, you could read these as demand-side view of the HD500X looper, or you could read them as a need for additional features that have little to do with the looper. 1. disabling the looper is about having a dedicated switch to looping even if that block is not part of the patch. This is a request for more flexible mode switching. 2. another request for more mode switching, any number of modes for any purpose within a patch, including possibly looping. There's no need to hard-code the loper functions. 3. looper as an optional block - sure, just like any block, why make this a special case? Helix does some of these from the perspective of the looper, but doesn't address the need for configurable mode switching.

I tried making a couple of my own speaker IR a couple of weeks ago. These are made in my garage, so there could be some additional "color". I used some blankets in front of and behind the speakers to minimize reflections and reduce the noise. But its not an ideal environment. I used just two mics, an old SM57 and a AT4047 condenser mic. they are both positioned at cap-edge and about 1.5" from the front of the cabinet grill. That was convenient and easy to setup, and tends to be what I typically pick. I'd use a ribbon mic closer if I had one though. The first cabinet is an old Fender Bassman 2x12 cabinet with 2 Celestion G12-65 speakers I recently installed. That cabinet has an open back I made to slightly reduce the bass, and provide better room sound for the drummer. The second cabinet is my friend Nate's early 60's Tremolux which has a closed back, un-ported cabinet. It has the original Oxford 10K5 and is really a wonderful sounding amp and cabinet. I love the bias tremolo!. Anyway give these a try if you like. They sound pretty good. You can really hear the difference between the open and closed back cabinets. G12-65 AT4047 cap-edge 1.5 in.wav G12-65 SM57 cap-edge 1 in.wav Oxford 10K5 AT4047 cap-edge 1.5 in.wav Oxford 10K5 SM57 cap-edge 1in.wav

You'd need to add a gain block of some sort after the USB input, then control the gain in Helix.

Note that getting 120 sec from the Helix looper has two compromises: 1. Its mono - this doesn't work well because the looper often should be at the end of the signal chain, recording all mono before the amp effects, the amp and cab models, and all stereo after the amp effects. Then when you play over the loop you can change anything for the layered parts or while playing. You can't put the looper in mono in front of the amp model unless the model is very clean. Otherwise the distorted amp will distort the sum of the looper output and what you're playing. That won't sound good as the loudest signal will effectively duck the other signal. 2. At 1/2 speed, the resolution and tone is degraded - basically the looper is skipping every other sample or something similar to save memory. This degrades the tone. To me the minimal duration design parameter for a looper should be able to support full fidelity, stereo loop of a typical song verse or chorus at a relatively slow tempo. 120 sec is probably a good choice. That means Helix looper needs 4X the memory it has now. See Best practices for performing with a looper for additional information. Generally loops should be kept very short when played live and have minimal layers. Otherwise they can become distracting. That said, I still wish the Helix looper was 120 sec, full fidelity, stereo.

I don't like the feel of the polyweb strings. They feel like they are going to slide or roll under your fingers when you add vibrato. The nano web strings feel more natural. Don't know how well they would work on piezo pickups. May depend on what Line6 used or assumed during modeling.

I tended to agree until I actually used the Variax Standard at rehearsal. The Spank model came through the mix much better then the same model on my Variax 300.