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I have never seen a TC electronics G system. But I suspect you could easily integrate it with Helix using MIDI. However, there's perhaps a fair amount of overlap between Helix and the G system with Helix providing the amp and cab models as well as additional effects. You might find that Helix meets your needs, perhaps using an effects loop for your existing pedals.

If you are on Mac OS X, and have used the latest version of GarageBand with some success, the Logic Pro X and MainStage are apps you should consider. Logic is a full professional DAW with GarageBand being a very limited subset. Logic is very easy to use, has a great UI, lots of wonderful software instruments (including electric pianos and Hammond organs), the Drummer instrument, and much more. The And the price is no longer a barrier. To me, Logic Pro X is essentially a gift from Apple. The only issue is that Logic is not cross platform. If that is something you need, and many of us do, especially for remote, collaborative recording, then Reaper is probably the best choice.

See these two blog posts: Creating a Helix Acoustic Guitar Patch and Creating an Creating an Acoustic Guitar Impulse Response for Line6 Helix.

We buy lots of things we never use. Then keep buying more trying to find something that has enduring value.

I think that's an excellent idea, essentially using the Helix preamp models as gain stage blocks. The Divide by 13 might be a good choice for this too. I've used this on a patch too. My take is less is more. So I start with the simplest signal chain, the least amount of distortion, limited reverb, light on the depth for modulation effects, etc. that works for the song. Then let the tone of the instrument come through and and don't clutter up the sound so much that what I do with my hand's doesn't even matter. I find things like the Studio Tube Pre and the Valve Driver can be use to simply add a gain stage to an existing preamp with a little voicing control for the added distortion. Another whole preamp works too but can be a bit much. I consider this a bit like what's happened to the music industry. Everything is hyped to death to sell, but not to actually listen too. Too many tracks, too much EQ and compression on individual tracks, drums don't even sound like drums anymore. Then put all that through a mastering process that kill dynamics and just makes everything loud. That impresses in short doses, but there's no life in the music. Many times the musicians contributing tracks have never met and never played together. There's little or no interaction in the songs. This is low cost production and sells well. But no one wants to keep listening. Let's not be afraid to make music.

Getting a good distortion tone starts with gain staging. It may be hard to get a range of different distortion tones from Clean, Blues, Crunch, and Metal from one amp or pedal. But combining them together in stages using different blocks, models and tone adjustments can give you a lot of flexibility on the amount and color of distortion and sustain. One thing that's important is to use the least amount of distortion (effects, etc.) you need for the song. This makes things simpler, produces the best tone, and gives you a place to go in the next song. Music needs space. Start with your desired clean sound, using the neck pickup on your guitar with the guitar volume and tone all the way up. This is your inital, set point amp tone and something you'll need to be able to go back to. Once this tone is right you'll probably notice that it's too bright for the bridge pickup, creating too much edge, or an "ice pick" tone that unpleasant after listening for a while. Don't change the amp to fix this since that would break your neck pickup tone. Instead roll back the tone control on your guitar to warm up the bridge pickup a little. A lot of people never touch the tone controls on the guitar, or only use them for slide. But the bridge pickup tone control is actually pretty useful. Next add a gain stage for warm, just on the edge of breakup, Blues distortion tones. As distortion increases, base has to be cut to prevent a muddy, indistinct sound that competes with the bass player, and treble needs to be cut to avoid fizz, buzz and ice pick. But since a Blues tone isn't that much distortion, you can often get this from the Drive control on the amp. Assign a footswitch to the Drive control and assign a controller to set the min (clean) and max (blues) Drive distortion levels. In this case, the drive is increased to add some amp distortion without changing the tone. Be careful to minimize the amount of distortion or it will get muddy and bright quick. For a Cruch sound, you'll need a bit more distortion, which will require some base and treble cut. I like to use the Studio Tube Pre for this as it adds a nice tone of its own, and has the Drive control for increased distortion and the low cut and high cut you need to adjust the tone. Use the Sensitivity control to adjust the amount of distortion that can be produced by the Studio Tube Pre. Set Sensitivity to Mic for greater distortion, Line for cleaner tones (the Drive can be set higher without adding any distortion). I use Mic for this application as I want more distortion. Other options for Crunch: Valve Driver, Minotar, or ProCo Rat. I know the ProCo Rat is intended for high distortion levels, but it actually cleans up very well by turning the drive down and adjusting the filter for the desired high end. I think this block increase bass cut with increased drive, which is just what you want. For Metal or more agressive tones, I like Compulsive Drive (Fulton OCD). Screamer works well too. Use the tone control to adjust the high end. If it gets too muddy, try adding a Low and High cut EQ filter in front of the distortion, and link the low cut to the distortion footswitch to cut closer to 80 Hz when the distortion is off, 160 Hz when it's on. Now you have four distortion levels, all off for Clean, and each block on/off for Blues, Crunch, Metal. Now you can start combining stages to get even more tones. For example, I like to combine Blues and Crunch together for a more aggressive blues solo.

I get the same problem running Helix into S-Gear standalone through USB. So it's not Logic Pro X. I did some more experimenting: Helix connected to Early 2011 13" MacBook Pro version 10.11.2 through USB System sound output device set to Helix Audio, System sound input device set to Helix Audio Playing back music with VLC (or iTunes) to Helix and through my FRFR amp Music playback is fine, left it running for a long time, no issues, static, noise, etc. But note, Not playing any guitar and Helix is not attempting to provide any input into any Mac OS S amp. Start S-Gear standalone app with S-Gear preferences Audio Device set Helix Audio (input and output) Start with S-Gear Buffer Size set to 128 (9.6ms) - note for most other interfaces I have this set to 32 on this computer for 5.6ms latency Play along with VLC - no problem initially, then a few clicks and pops, then finally audio gets very fuzzy with digital distortion Increase S-Gear buffer size, audio cleans up, for a while, and then start getting bad again Increase S-Gear buffer size again, same result. Eventually buffer size is maxed at 1024 and there's no way to get rid of the digital distortion It appears there is a timing issue with Helix when it is used for input and output at the same time. And how long it takes to reach the digital distortion seems to depend on how big the buffer size and latency are. This would appear to be a timing drift related to buffer size. If Helix is used for output playback only, there doesn't seem to be any problem. Its only when an app uses Helix as input and output that there's a problem.

Well said and I completely agree. Also Line 6 should get credit for very well done documentation.

I think it might be those USB3 ports on the MacBook Pro.

There's another thing to consider - what tone are you trying to achieve, and is using two amps the best way to achieve it? Using stereo effects after the amp model into a stereo FRFR can provide depth without requiring two amps. Choosing the right Cab model or IR can have a huge effect on the tone of a single amp. You can use a PC to blend multiple speaker IRs, EQs, impedance curves, etc. into a single IR that can be imported into Helix that blends multiple speakers, mics, mic positions, room mics, etc. You get all this from one IR. Try using a stereo Cab model with a single Amp model to get the same tone you might have achieved from two different amps. Use one amp an two IRs. Another options is to use different patches for different tones to focus on the amp model(s) you need with the specific effects required for the song. I too wish Helix had unlimited DSP power, but it doesn't. That doesn't mean we can't get lots of interesting and wonderful tones. I like to keep the patches a bit simpler, and focus on the instrument, speakers, FRFR amp and of course, what you're actually playing.

If you're experience harsh tones from Helix into you're amp's effects return, it might be because of the Helix blocks you have configured, or it might be that your guitar amp's effects return isn't flat and is doing its own thing to the tone. If that's the case, you'll have to experiment with EQ in Helix to compensate for the amp's characteristics. This is perhaps why a FRFR is the best choice - its predictable - full frequency, flat response. From a guitar amp, its hard to predict what you'll get. For example, you don't know what voicing compensation the amp designer did after the preamp to compensate or complement the preamp and effects that come with the amp. That may or may not work well with Helix. However, there's enough capability and flexibility in Helix to do almost anything you might need. It will just take some experimenting and work to create your unique patches. But that's part of the fun.

When Helix is used into the power amp input or effect return of a guitar amp with its own guitar speaker cabinet, you don't want to include a Helix Cab model because then you have a guitar speaker going into a guitar speaker. Although there's no rules and you should do what meets your need, this generally will not sound good at all. So typical signal paths would be: 1. Helix into a FRFR amp: Guitar > Helix guitar input > Helix front of the amp effects > Helix Amp and Cab models (or speaker IR) > Helix back of the amp effects > Helix Output > FRFR amp (or PA). See Creating a Helix Electric Guitar Patch (updated) for details. 2. Helix into guitar amp power amp and cab Guitar > Helix guitar input > Helix front of the amp effects > Helix Amp or Preamp (no Cab model or speaker IR) > Helix back of the amp effects > Helix Output > Guitar amp power amp or effects return. 3. 4CM - Allows you to use your guitar amp's preamp as a block in Helix Guitar > Helix guitar input > Helix front of the amp effects > Helix Send > Guitar amp input > Guitar amp effect send > Helix Return > Helix back of the amp effects > Helix Output > Guitar amp power amp or effects return. Note that there is no Helix Amp or Cab model in this case because your guitar amp is providing both. You are just using Helix for effects, and have flexibility about where you put effects before or after the guitar amp's preamp. A guitar amp (model) into a real guitar amp might work, but in that case you're just using two guitar preamps in series. People have done this, but its generally not needed with modern amps or Helix. Note also that other then the inclusion of your guitar amp's preamp (and therefore no Helix amp or preamp), you are still using your guitar amp's power amp and cabinet as in path 2. 4. Helix as a pedalboard in front of a guitar amp. Guitar > Helix guitar input > Helix front of the amp effects > Helix back of the amp effects > Helix Output > Guitar amp input. Again, there is no Helix preamp, amp or cab model because that's all provided by your guitar amp. Helix is only used for effects into the input of your guitar amp. This puts all the effects, tone, phase, distortion, modulation and ambient effects, into the guitar input, like you would with a traditional pedalboard. See Using Helix as an effects pedalboard for details.

If you want to go straight into the front of a clean amp, and use Helix as a digital pedalboard, see this post. Using Helix into the effects return or power amp input of your amp lets you add Helix amp models (but no Cab model) and have effects before or after the amp - your guitar amp is only used to provide the power and speakers, Helix does everything else. Using Helix with 4CM allows you to position the amp's preamp in a Helix block position, allowing you to include effects before and after the amp's preamp. Whether this is useful or not depends a lot on you amp's preamp. It may overlap with functionality you can get nearly as well in Helix already.

Yes, but if I had the effect bypass mapped to a footswitch, I wouldn't need MIDI control. This is for patches that have more independent effects functions then available footswitches. Bypass as an available Patch Edit Mode parameter would be another options, but MIDI control for bypass should be provided too. "Helix Edit just around the corner"?!

I've just completed another post on using helix as a pedalboard in front of a clean guitar amp. This worked out well for me and opens up other possibilities for Helix as well as breathing new live into my old Fender Showman amp. Showman Vibarto.hlx.txt

I've been creating the IRs specifically for Helix, using 48 kHz and 16 bit, and ensuring the IR is trimmed and cropped to 2048 samples with a short fade at the end. Most acoustic instrument impulse responses are likely to be pretty short, not like the long delays in a cathedral. So 2048 samples should be more than enough.

Based on thing I learned from Joost's SVR patch, I've updated Creating a Helix Electric Guitar Patch (updated). This version uses a Studio Tube Pre for the Drive gain stage, another for warming the tone after the amp and speaker models, and an LA Studio Comp compressor at the end of the signal chain to add its unique color. The blocks are also reorganized a bit to level the DSP load on the two paths, and to put most of the mono locks in Path 1 and stereo blocks in Path 2.

I agree with Peter, Helix makes it easier to design a patch that covers more tone variation making it less necessary to have different patches for different songs. See my blog post Creating a Helix Electric Guitar patch for a discussion on two approaches to creating patches: Stomp Mode: get the most out of each patch, Preset Mode: create a different patch for each specific purpose.

I had the opposite experience. Helix doesn't seem to like the USB 3 ports on my 2012 MacBook Pro. When I go through a USB 2.0 hub plugged into a Belkin Express Doc connected to the computer through Thunderbolt, I have no problems. The latest versions of El Capitan seem to work better too. There may still be USB and audio problem in El Capitan.

A preamp voiced for acoustic guitar, acoustic guitar body IRs, a Dumble, a Two Rock, more boutique distortion pedals, especially The Royal Blue - Mad Professor, Free the Tone SOV.

Well, I looked into this a bit more, starting with using the iOS MIDI Designer Pro app to create a live, remote, touch based UI for Helix. You could create a similar UI with Apple MainStage. I created a Palm Pilot app for POD2.0 similar to this many years ago. Since Helix is USB Class Compliant, it works fine as a MIDI hardware device for any CoreMIDI app in OS X or iOS, and it worked flawlessly with MIDI Designer Pro. You do have to connect with a USB cable (no Wifi or Bluetooth wireless connection to Helix), and have to use a Camera Connection Kit for iPad, but that's not really much of an issue, and the connection is reliable in any setting. But I discovered a few issues in creating the MIDI Designer Pro UI for Helix. There are very few default MIDI controllers setup for Helix patches. There are dedicated MIDI CC messages to emulate the expression pedals and footswitches, and to control the Looper. But unlike the older POD devices, there are no fixed, dedicated MIDI controllers for any blocks or parameters in a patch. As a result, unless there's some hidden Helix API that Line 6 hasn't yet announced or published, there is no reflective way to discover what's in a patch, and the MIDI controllers have to be created for each patch. This basically means the UI to control Helix live would have to be created for each patch. I'm not sure that's all that practical or useful since it would take a lot of manual editing to setup the MIDI controllers for all the parameters of every block, and the UI would be different for every patch. I can think of a few work arounds that might help. Setting up the MIDI controllers could be done by manually editing the .hlx JSON files and copying and pasting the controller assignments from a template patch to each of the other patches. Of course the actual blocks and parameters will likely be different so this could require a lot of manual editing. But editing the JSON file is likely faster than doing the edits directly on Helix. Develop a consistent patch template that uses a common pattern for blocks and block positions within a set of related patches. This would allow the same MIDI controllers to work consistently across patches and would let you use the same UI for many similar patches. Export the patch from Helix and do the reflection and editing on the JSON file. Then Import the patch back into Helix - the is how the HD500 editor works. Its essentially batch, not live editing. Another problem I ran into is that there doesn't appear to be any way to control block bypass from Pedal Edit Mode or MIDI CC message. I think this is an oversight and hopefully something Line 6 will address in a future update. But as a result, you can't toggle bypass mode on a block in pedal edit mode, and you can't toggle bypass on a block using a MIDI controller unless the block is assigned to a footswitch (where you use MIDI to emulate the footswitch, not to toggle the block bypass). So this was pretty limiting. I was hoping to use MIDI Designer to control bypass on blocks that don't have footswitch assignments (because I ran out of footswitches). So this leads me to believe Helix is like the POD HD500, you can only create limited, MIDI controlled live editors for parameters, and they are patch specific. To create a rich UI editor, you have to use batch mode, and the editor has to be based on the .hlx JSON file. This is the idea I introduced above. Doing the Helix editor as a Web Service would have some advantages: It would require nothing to be downloaded in order to edit Helix files Should work for any browser or mobile devices Could be used to browse patches of tones in the Cloud Could upload and download through Helix making it easy to submit and audition shared patches. This is similar to BIAS FX Tone Cloud. Unfortunately I have to go back to work Monday and will have limited time to put into this. But it would be a fun app to write and I think would be very useful. If anyone at Line 6 would like to discuss this in more detail, I'd be happy to contribute.

Impulse responses depend lot depends on the selection of the speaker and cabinet to capture, the technique and gear used to do the capture, and the ear of the person doing the capturing. For example, S-Gear comes with a number of carefully chosen Redwirez IRs. In a recent update, Mike Scuffham created a few of his own IRs, some using similar speaker models to what was available from Redwirez. I think Mike has an amazing ear for guitar and it shows in these speaker models. To me, its hard to tell sometimes which IR model is "better", in many cases they're just different. You can waste a lot of time trying to pick the best one, only of find the next time you try you'll get a different result. Here's some guidelines to consider: Use only 16 bit, 48 kHz IRs for Helix (don't depend on Helix to convert them) Pick a small set of speaker IRs to audition based on what's typically used in the amp your using, for your style of music, and your guitar (single or double coil pickups make a big difference). I started with Robben Ford and Matt Schofield's live rigs because I love the tone they get. Get the speaker choice right first, or at least a very small set, using a Neumann U87, CapEdge and 2" for a relatively neutral, uncolored mic. Then zero in on the mic and mic position For the very small set of chosen speakers, pick a small set of mics: an SM57, Neumann U87, and Royer R121 will sound quite different, the other choices can be pretty subtle. For each mic, pick a small set of mic positions, CapEdge being the most typical For each mic position, pick a small set of distances from the cabinet: from say 0" to 4" with 2" a good starting point Import the IRs into Helix using some unused or expendable IR index slots Audition in a typical live setting. What works well at low volumes by yourself might not work at all in a gig situation, a lot depends on volume level, feel and how the speaker fits in the mix. Audition by using pedal edit mode to increment and decrement the IR block while playing. Try a range of songs, pickup combinations, effects, etc. Get a feeling for the whole, not just one specific thing. Keep notes on each IR, how it sounded, how it felt, whether it was muddy, fizzy, scooped, articulate, etc. so you can remember how they compared. Use a table in Evernote to capture your notes If you still can't decide which IR to use, try this simple selection process: Select an IR Compare it with each other IR until you find one you like better Replace the first IR with that IR and repeat the process until there are no IRs that sound better. You now have your favorite - but possibly only for that situation. Getting the right IR can have a big effect on tone and feel, perhaps nearly as important as the guitar. But much of the variability between IR models will be lost in the mix, and imperceptible to your audience. So don't worry too much if you can't decide which one you like best, probably may choices are good and are just different. And don't worry too much if you keep changing the IR in your goto patch, its likely the change will be subtle.

I've create a blog post on creating a Helix acoustic guitar patch. This shows the potential Helix has for acoustic instruments through creative use of Impulse Response blocks. Taylor 314ce - Soundelux E.wav Acoustic G-XT.hlx.txt

I am trying to create a MIDI remote controller for Helix using the iOS MIDI Designer Pro app. I Can get Helix connected, and can send CC messages just fine. My issue is that like the Pedal Edit Mode, there doesn't appear to be any way to control a Block's bypass state. The only parameters that are selectable to map to a MIDI controller are the block parameters, bypass is not available. Is there some trick to map a MIDI CC to a block bypass?

Amazing Slowdowner from Roni Music is an iOS and Mac OS X app that's been around for a very long time. There's a Windows version too. It lets you slow down or speed up almost any kind of audio file without changing the pitch. You can also change the pitch up and down if the track isn't in tune with your guitar. You can set start and end points for looping making it easier to learn phrases. IRs are stored wherever you put them. However, they are not exported in index order. As a result, after you do a Helix factory reset, and loose all the IRs, you have to import them all back in in the same order or your patches will have the wrong IR index. This is because the patch Impulse Responce block only stores the IR index, not a location independent link to the IR (like the IR name). You can load the IRs above into any index position, then go edit the patch to change the IR block to the block number where you imported them. This will be correct for your system until you have to reload and possibly reorder all you IR blocks again.