amsdenj

I found some ADSR control in the old Variax 300 by changing just the body styles. It seems the Variax Standard doesn't offer as many different guitar bodies, but I don't remember for sure.

I just got a Variax Standard to upgrade my old Variax 300. Unfortunately I have to send it back for repairs - it won't connect to Monkey, and doesn't reliably power the board when plugging in the 1/4" jack. It worked briefly once, but never again. I found the 2.x models less inspiring then the old non-HD ones in the 300. The Tele doesn't sound nearly as Tele, the Spank isn't as spanky, the Les Paul models sound a little dull. I was going to experiment with Workbench HD to see if there were some changes that would brighten the guitar up, but can't connect. Overall the Variax Standard is a reasonable instrument, not great, but playable enough. My old Strat has stainless steel frets installed well, and plays like a dream. I don't expect the Standard to be able to match that. The Standard's magnetic pickups seem pretty good, that was a pleasant surprise. There's a lot of play in the wammy bar, possibly because the spring is missing. And the instrument is more difficult to tune and keep tuned than my Strat. But I'll give it a go once the repairs are done and hope this can provide the flexible backup gigging guitar that I bought it for.

This is probably caused by inference between the strings and the magnetic pickups. This is a typical problem with Strat-style guitars with 3 pickups. You can try lowering the pickups a little. Try finding the point where the interference just starts. This will of course change the tone of the pickups. Its a compromise that is typical of this guitar configuration.

I have Line 6 Monkey and Workbench HD installed on Mac OS X 10.11.4 and they seem to be running. I have the Variax USB interface plugged in and there's a green light on the USB side. I have the VDI cable plugged into the guitar, and a 1/4" cable to turn on the battery, and have pressed the Guitar Model Switch and see the LED lit up (in red). But The Variax USB interface flashes read on the guitar side, and the guitar won't connect in Workbench HD or show up as selectable in Line 6 Monkey. Any ideas?

It's a mixed bag. Some effects appear to have been translated from the HD series to Helix (e.g., reverb effects), while others are new. I find the HD distortion effects to be of limited use, but the Helix distortion effects seem wonderful. What this means in practice is that Helix can actually replace a traditional analog pedalboard, while I never thought the HD effects could. They're ok, but just not that great. There are a lot of other HD effects that haven't yet been included in Helix. It's unknown if, when or how this might be done.

A realistic organ or other synth patch requires a MIDI controller and tone generator. I have a Fishman Triple Play MIDI pickup on my old Variax 300 and use this into MainStage with S-Gear, BIAS FX and the Logic/MainStage software instruments. Helix can be used as an audio/MIDI input device for this and provide additional effects. But you can't get real organ sounds without a computer or some kind of tone generator. I have an old Yamaha MU80 that could be used the Helix effects loop, but getting MIDI inputs into that is much harder that using the Fishman Triple Play and MainStage. There may be other MIDI tone generators that would be more convenient, including an iPad. I don't use MIDI that much live to bother with though, and when recording, I usually use a keyboard.

That's probably just a ground loop in your system.

Helix is easy to use and has a wide range of great tones. You should give it a try.

Computers have already caught up to and perhaps surpassed what dedicated hardware controllers like Helix can do. For example, a MacBook Pro running MainStage or even using Logic Pro X as a digital mixer can pretty much run a whole band with S-Gear plugins for multiple guitar players, bass amp, all the effects you'd ever want, software instruments, etc. However, there's a few issues with this approach: The software is getting better, but still isn't that reliable, especially regarding sleep/wake with audio/MIDI devices The UI isn't that convenient for live use - although Logic Remote on an iPad helps The connections aren't gig hardened S-Gear is missing front of the amp effects, and the BIAS and Amplitube effects don't quite match S-Gear in tone quality to my ears anyway. We're hoping Mike Scuffham is working on this. You still have to have a MIDI controller Its a complicated thing to set up and maintain (but I kind of like that part) I had good luck integrating my HD500X into this hybrid guitar modeler/computer setup, mostly because of the additional footswitches I could get by using the Looper as a footswitch mode switch. But the front of the amp effects in the HD500X were't that great, so this wasn't an ideal solution either. Helix has much better front of the amp effects, and better audio and MIDI I/O. But as of yet, it doesn't send any MIDI messages in Looper mode - so that cuts the number of available footswitches in half compared to the HD500X. I'd like to see a continuation of this hybrid/integrated mode where the foot pedal on the floor focuses on a local, hi-resolution touch interface, with lots of I/O capability and wireless audio, MIDI, and display back to something like a Mac Mini computer. The display should be a general purpose interface to the computer, something that might leverage the continuing evolution of OS X and iOS to unify the interfaces and apps. The challenge will be getting this to be simple enough that it just turns on and runs reliably without the flexibility making it impossible for most people to use it. Then there's the expense... I have used a computer based setup at a few live gigs. When it works, its great. But Helix is much simpler, easier to setup, more reliable, and isn't nearly as distracting. Since Helix, I only use the computer setup for recording, never live anymore.

If 4CM isn't working for you, it might be your guitar amp or its settings. You could try using Helix as the whole front end connecting Helix output to your amp's effect returns. Then pick and preamp model in Helix that's closer to what you're looking for. You could also try two amps in parallel with one set cleaner to give the punch and another set to be distorted to get the sustain. Beware of too much sag for metal. That can take the punch out of your guitar.

When using 4CM, you would generally not use any amp model, preamp model, speaker model or speaker IR in Helix. Rather Helix is providing front of the amp effects, those that go before amp tone controls and distortion (compressor, wah, phasor, Uni-Vibe, distortion) into your guitar amp. Then you come out of the preamp output/send from your guitar amp back into Helix for after the amp effects which are often stereo (chorus, delays, reverb). Then back into the effects return of your guitar amp with provides the power amp and speakers. If you used an amp or preamp model in front of you guitar amp preamp, you'd have two amps in series. This can work and has been done in the past - sometimes called "Jump" settings. However, its putting two sets of tone controls one after the other, both providing a lot of treble boost to provide voicing for an electric guitar. That could be a bit much. If you're looking for a lot of distortion, you might have better luck gain staging a number of distortion blocks in Helix before going to your guitar amp input, and/or using channel switching in your amp if it has it and you like its preamp distortion tone.

Your PA input should have a gain control to set the input gain. This is not the fader, that comes after the gain control. It's likely too hot. To gain stage Helix into the PA, turn the Helix output volume up almost all the way. Then go back to the PA and adjust the input gain so that there's no clipping. Use the input meters on the PA to check, a good level is -6 to -3 dbFS. Now go back to Helix and turn its output down until the PA input meter reads closer to -18 to -12 dBFS. This is the typical range you should be shooting for. It gives plenty of headroom so if you have a louder patch or have to turn up your Helix a bit to get your level up over what the sound guy give you, you can do so without worrying about clipping. If you're using a digital PA, you want to really be sure to avoid clipping. Same goes for computer DAWs. Digital clipping is never a good thing. This simple approach to gain staging should get you close.

Absolutely agree. I updated the post to include this critical component.

The amount of bass you can get out of a speaker configuration depends on: 1. How much power you drive it with 2. How much total surface area you speakers cover 3. The free air resonance of the speakers 4. The displacement capability of the speaker 5. The resonance of the speakers in the cabinet 6. Whether the cabinet is ported or not Ultimately it's all about moving air at the frequencies you want to produce. Generally it's easier and more reliable to use more, smaller speakers. This distributes the load, keeps the speakers closer to their linear region, has better coupling between the voice coil/magnet and cone, and has less problems with distortion caused by odd displacements in big cones. The volume of are moved depends on the surface area and displacement capability of the speaker, and the power you put into the speaker. But speakers are somewhat magic because of all the physical variables. So it takes experimentation to get the cabinet that meets your needs. I use 2 10's in a rear ported enclosure (the size of a Tremolux cabinet). It sounds fantastic with a 5 string bass. But its not going to move a lot of air in a big room.

Not sure what you mean by "send the same messages as to which they respond". On the POD HD500X Looper mode sent dedicated, fixed MIDI CC messages. Are these also the MIDI messages to which they respond? I used Looper mode to essentially double the number of footswitches. When not in Looper mode. The foot switches were used as stomp switches. When in Looper mode, I used the fixed (and different) CC messages to control the MainStage looper, or recording in Logic Pro X. This way I didn't have to give up the stomp switches in a patch in order to control an external looper app or DAW. I hope eventually Helix will either send similar fixed CC messages, or better allow user specification of MIDI messages for all Helix footswitch modes.

Agreed. I my case I just happened to have the Belkin Express Doc for other purposes.

Yes, I am connecting Helix to a USB2.0 hub connected to a Belkin Express Dock which connects through Thunderbolt to the computer. So I'm bypassing everything related to the USB3.0 hubs. This seems to work without any problems for USB audio, MIDI, Updater and Helix app. So I really think it's that USB3.0 port that's the problem - causing some timing issue that make Helix think it's loosing the connection. Note that it's only the Helix app that looses the connection when connected to the USB3.0 port using OSX 10.11.4. USB audio and MIDI now work fine.

Belkin Express Dock

I believe this issue is with late 2012 and beyond MacBook Pros late beyond with Retina displays and USB 3 ports. I don't think these play well with Helix USB 2 ports. OS X 10.11.4 seemed to fix the Helix USB audio I/O issues, USB MIDI seems to have always worked ok, but the Helix App does not connect reliably in USB 3.0 ports on Mac OS X. The solution appears to be using a USB 2.0 hub into a USB three or Thunderbolt port. At least that has worked reliably for me.

I just use Evernote

Actually the IRs are much more flexible since you can mix them before uploading to Helix. For example, Redwirez comes with mixIR2 which support 6 IR blocks with multiple IRs in each block. Blocks can be mixed and panned. You can pick different speakers, mics, positions, and include other IRs that are in series or parallel. These are best developed in a DAW, then loaded into Helix.

Agree with @mikeskb. Having your own personal powered monitor is very useful for lots of things. I use a JBL EON610, they sound pretty good, are light, don't take up much room and aren't that expensive. Get 2 if you can so you can have stereo, or in a stage situation, use one for your vocal and FOH Helix monitor, and the other as the other channel of Helix behind you. Surrounded by tone! Since you have the Fender Blues Junior (not a bad small amp), you could experiment with using Helix for front of the amp effects, especially at rehearsal, which is the best place to experiment. See this blog post for some ideas on how to do that: https://jimamsden.wordpress.com/2016/01/04/using-helix-as-an-effects-pedal-board/.

I'd be interested in your take on the best cabinet model as I generally agree with your other observations.

As I have posted in related threads, this seems to be a problem with Mac's that have USB3 ports. Use a USB2 hub on these computers and you should have more success.

You could do this by saving the presets, editing the resulting .hlx files (they are just JSON) and loading back into Helix.