amsdenj

Don't give up playing live too quick. I'm going to keep doing it until I drop. I just need a lighter guitar and amp, and JTV-69S and Helix provide that. Life's a process, not an end result. Music and the gear that goes with it has contributed a lot of joy in my life. I've had to give up a lot in the last few years. Running was the big one in 2020 - had to get hip replacement and they say no running. I'm not in any hurry to give up playing live with the band.

Good video. We need these and associated documentation for all Line6 amps and effects.

I use snapshots when I need to change a lot of things for a specific purpose - usually to change Variax to an open tuning or acoustic model in the middle of an otherwise typical electric guitar tone. Otherwise I use stomp mode because it allows me to control combinations of effects live buy just pressing footswitches - just like a traditional pedalboard. For example, I have stacked drive pedals that I like to control individually, not in snapshots. This allows me to tailor the level of distortion in flexible ways depending on the situation and what I might like to play at the moment. It's nice to have both options and pick the one that works best for any given situation.

I wonder what are the technology limitations that prevent a Variax upgrade. Could be modeling skills - lost resources and intellectual knowledge. Could be processor speed limitations. But it could also be limitations of the overall process of capturing guitar bodies and pickups. It might be that Line6 has taken this technology to its logical limit, and simply adding more processing power isn't going to improve the models. The limitation might be in the capture approach itself. That said, I make very good use of my Variax JTV-69S. Its the guitar I play the most at home, and (when we had gigs) the one that got played most in gigs. There's lots of reasons for that, including the models. But to me, Variax still has a lot of value.

Princess has become my goto amp too, pushing out Litigator and Derailed Ingrid. I still like Litigator, but the Princess sounds and feels a bit more "real" to me, whatever that means. Princess has too much bass for my taste. But I can get a really good sound out of it and it takes pedals well.

I can verify that HX Edit 3.01 did not fix the Big Sur connection timeout problem. However, if HX edit retains window focus, the timeout does not occur. So with limitations, its still useful and works for me.

The Kemper and now the Quad Cortex profiling capability is a great feature to have. But a profile is a snapshot of a particular sound. Yes, the Kemper and Quad Cortex provide additional gain and tone controls - but these are layered on top of the snapshot, they're not modeling the actual controls of the captured amp. I'm not saying this is bad, its just what it is. Given that we often set a guitar amp at particular settings and don't change it that often, a snapshot might not be that limiting. But I personally prefer the Helix approach of modeling the amp from the inside out instead of the profile outside in. Its essentially building the amp, but from digital rather than analog components. Quad Cortex seems to do a very good job of accurately capturing a particular tone snapshot Let's even stipulate that it would do a better job of capturing a specific amp and settings than a similar amp model in Helix could produce. That's great. But Helix give me the whole amp, not just a snapshot that can be tailored a bit. Ultimately both are useful. So I recommend adding a Quad Cortex to your Helix effects loop along with your HX Stomp and HX Effects!

I think the XL is a great idea and if I didn't already have an HX Stomp, I would probably get one. HX Stomp, Pod Go and now HX Stomp XL have a fair amount of overlap and might start fragmenting Line6's own market. But given the Helix software architecture, and their ability to design and implement hardware devices, perhaps this is an easy way to broaden market appeal. Its often a delicate balance. For me, HX Stomp + MeloAudio MIDI Commander + optional HX Effects provide a more flexible solution. I can for example use the MeloAudio MIDI Commander for other purposes, including with Helix, in the studio, or with computer based amp modelers such as S-Gear. Anyway, its great to have options. I'm really glad I have an HX Stomp.

I use HX Effects with Helix in the effects loop. I also have settings with HX Stomp as a backup to Helix, but haven't had to use that live yet. HX Stomp standalone is also pretty useful with just some added MIDI control.

Not sure if you saw my response in the Helix forum. Helix Cab models and most IRs are models of speakers in a particular cabinet configuration (including open or closed back) and a microphone. Powercab speaker models are EQ curves layered on Flat mode, LF Flat voicing. Then the speaker is in a 1x12 or 2x12 ported cabinet, no microphone and no other cabinet simulation. So the same speaker in a Helix 4x12 Cab block won't sound the same as that speaker model in Powercab because the cabinet is entirely different. Think of Powercab as a powered guitar speaker in a 1x12 or 2x12 closed back, ported cabinet that has a few additional features: you can easily swap the speaker, can use it as a FRFR if you need that for acoustic, vocal or keyboard instruments, and can run IRs if you need that. To find equivalent Helix cab blocks or IRs, look for the same speaker in the same cabinet configuration with a pretty neutral mic. That might get you close.

I use my HX Effects to extend either Helix or HX Stomp, but got it originally to use with my old tube amp. That amp is currently in storage and hasn't seen a gig in close to 30 years. If I were doing a traditional pedalboard, I'd use HX Stomp for the size and flexibility. See

How are your ears? If you’ve been playing rock in a band for year, you probably have hearing loss, like many of us. For me, if the volume is down, I don’t hear the high end. If I just turn the level in the speaker or headphones up, then there’s the highs! Its just my ears don’t hear the highs at even moderately low volumes. Be sure to protect your ears by keeping levels under 90dB for long periods of time, and use IEMs as much as possible. I wish I had.

Read the post above carefully. Logic Pro only sends MIDI messages to plugins in Software Instrument tracks, not Audio tracks. You need to use a side chain input to get audio input into a Software Instrument track, and you need to use a buss on that track to send the audio output of Helix Native to an audio track for recording. The Software Instrument track only records MIDI messages, not audio.

I might try making a knob

I reported this issue in my Beta testing. I thought it was reported as fixed. The work around is to delete the amp block and add it directly, not from Favorites. User defaults should be retained.

The Powercab speaker models aren't the same kind of models as the Cab blocks in Helix. We don't know the details of how the Powercab speakers are modeled, but I suspect they start with the LF Flat base, and then add simple EQ curves to modify that frequency response to duplicate that of the modeled speaker. This would be easy to do because no IR is needed since the LF Flat speaker is already a guitar speaker in a cabinet in a room. We also don't know what's coming out of the XLR outputs in speaker mode. But I'd guess these are IRs of the modeled speaker in a 1 or 2x12 ported cabinet - which is what Powercab is. So they wouldn't necessarily correspond to any Helix cab block, although there may be some that would be close. If you picked a cab block with the same speaker in a similar cabinet (closed back, ported), then they should sound pretty similar to the XLR outputs. Fine tune from there.

I use HX Edit with Big Sur. It works fine as long as HX Edit retains the window focus. If it looses focus, HX Edit will disconnect after about 30 seconds. But clicking reconnect gets it right back without any loss or much delay. I haven't done any exhaustive testing, but I use it a lot and that's the only issue I've seen so far. I'd be careful about disconnecting during updates. I've done it, but make sure HX Edit retains the window focus until the update is done. Not sure it would be a problem if it disconnected, but I didn't try it.

It's actually just the volume control that gets in the way, mostly when I attempt to pick behind the middle pickup instead of in front of it.

I put it after the Wah block in Helix, second block in the Helix signal chain. That's because all the effects I use in HX Effects are front of the amp effects that typically go before distortion. This includes Mutant Filter, Rochester Comp, Kinky Boost, Script Mod Phase, Ubiquitous Vibe, and Gray Flanger - that is, all effects that modulate tone, and not frequency - those usually go after distortion.

USB cables can create ground loops just like audio cables.

If you bypass all blocks and set the output block level to 0dB, then the output meter on Helix is also an input meter. Are you using overwound or active hot pickups? Is your guitar clipping the input/output on its own? If so, you may need to turn on the input pad.

Powercab has a FRFR mode, but it might not work the same as a high-end PA speaker. Powercab212 is a 2x12 closed back cabinet. In FRFR mode, it's never going to sound exactly like a 4x12 cabinet, no matter what cab model or IR you use. Similarly, if you use the speaker models in Powercab, they're going to sound like those speakers in a 2x12 closed back cabinet - because that's what it is. So if you choose Powercab112 or 212, expect it to do a pretty good job on cab and IR models of 1x12 or 2x12 closed back cabinets, and to only approximate larger, smaller, or open back cabinets. If you really want 4x12 sound, you might need to either use pretty high end and large PA speakers, or use a 4x12 directly.

Truefire lessons?

Input gain knob turned all the way down doesn't sound right, you could have really low input. Helix Native bocks are likely expecting more input than you are giving them. With the Helix Native input slider set to 0.0dB, you should turn up the Scarlett input until you're seeing the input meter close to mid scale for normal strumming, and no peaks going into the red for hard strumming. Unity gain doesn't apply to inputs and outputs, only blocks that have and input, do some processing and produce an output. Unity gain is setting the level in these blocks so the volume is close to the same when the block bypass is turned off and on. This means the block is neither reducing or increasing the gain that much in the signal chain and will provide a reference starting point for gain staging your patch. Helix Native does not have global EQ, you could provide that with an EQ plugin following Helix Native in your DAW or plugin host application. An audio interface that has proper gain staging and matching input impedance should not change the tone of your guitar. So Helix Native should see a pretty similar guitar input regardless of the audio interface. Now different interfaces have different quality preamplifiers, and may not have high enough input impedance for guitar. But The Scarlett should be fine unless it's broken. Helix Floor does have a very good guitar input, with variable impedance, and lots of headroom, without the need for a gain control (other than the input pad switch which might be needed for some active pickups). But all of the tone processing is done in the Helix Native blocks and these are the same as the Helix Floor blocks.

macOS Big Sur disconnects after about a minute, but only if the HX Edit window looses focus. If you go away from HX Edit to another window, but get back within about a minute, it doesn't disconnect. I don't recall this behavior in Catalina. So I think this is an issue with Big Sur.