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DunedinDragon

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Everything posted by DunedinDragon

  1. Well, I've played all week on the Anniversary pack from Celestion mostly on some bluesy type stuff (Eric Clapton, JJ Cale) with the Litigator amp and some funk (Blind Boys of Alabama) using the Soldano amp and I have to say I'm liking them more and more on these cleaner settings with my Strat using Lace Sensor pickups. I can't say I like any of the mix variations using combinations of the mic's, but the single mic mixes using the Royer ribbon mic, SM57, and MD421 are very impressive and very easy to pickup the nuances of the different mics. Because I tend to like my tones a bit warmer, I found I was particularly fond of the Dark, Dark2, and Fat variations in the closed back 2 x 12 and 4 x 12 arrangements. The difference I've noticed is these IRs tend to have a much more authentic tone than do the OwnHammers which, in comparison, feel a bit more processed. On some patches I like that processed mix sound, but on some stuff, especially blues, soul, and funk, I think the authentic less processed sound works better. They have a LOT of presence so if you minimize the effects such as reverb (as in the case of funk or soul) it really sounds very much like the amp is right there in front of you. All in all I have to say I'm extremely pleased with this collection.
  2. I'm kind of with silverhead on this one. It sounds to me like the USB dropped or was timed out at the computer which may have caused a lockup between the Helix and the DAW. I've had my Helix connected to the Editor for long periods of time with no activity and nothing like this has ever happened, but we've all seen some of the issues people have encountered with USB connections when upgrading if the USB is not a direct USB connection and is actually a hub. This leads me to think it's somewhere in the interaction between the USB port on the PC and the DAW...possibly the DAW being put to sleep by the OS which then kills the USB connection. From the Helix the only thing that could be done in this case is to have some form of alert that the USB is no longer active to alert you that the problem lies in the other side of the connection.
  3. Does your mixer not have a gain or sensitivity setting to adjust for line sensitivity on each channel? I understand the process you seem to be going through but it's at odds with the typical way one would gain stage a signal. What throws me off in your process is the "mic level tone generator". I'm assuming it's sending some sort of constant level signal, but no two mics or signals ever send the same level in actual usage. It varies mic to mic and singer to singer or mic'd amp to mic'd amp. We have four singers and four instruments coming into our board all on XLR. We adjust the gain on each channel to get the signal levels consistent across all channels while the person is playing or singing. That results in the gain knob settings being different for each channel and ensures all signal levels are relatively equal so each channel fader can safely be set to unity with plenty of headroom. That would be the typical way of gain staging on every mixer I've ever seen, but that depends on having a gain or sensitivity adjustment at the beginning of the signal chain to adjust the actual live input level for each instrument/voice. Or maybe I'm just not understanding the theory of what you're trying to do here.
  4. I played a little bit with some clean settings last night and this morning. My take is the Allure and Celestions seem to do much better with clean settings than they do with overdriven signals when compared to my OwnHammer IRs. They're both still considerably brighter and have less warmth than the OH's, but the Dark and Dark2 IR variations help with that a lot on the Celestions. The biggest problem I have with the Allure IRs is they seem VERY quiet when compared to both the OwnHammer and Celestion IRs. I'm not exactly sure why that is, but it makes them feel a bit more brittle with less body. Even making changes to the level parameter doesn't seem to affect it as much. Unlike the other IRs from OH and Celestion, when you scroll through the various Allure IRs there's not as much change in the character of the tone. Of course this may be comparing apples and oranges since even with the Celestion there are variations with different mics and different mixes whereas the Allure IR's are just the basic IR with no variations in mic or mic setup of mixes. But then again, they are free unlike the others, so you're getting what you pay for I suppose. My take on it at this point is I'll likely use the Allure IRs in combination with other IRs to give me some extra texture, but I'm not sure I'd use them by themselves as a single IR as that would probably require a lot of tweaking with EQs and such to get what I want.
  5. For the Bogner I used the OH 212 BOG-SH GLD+SLV OH2-05 For the Marshall I used the OH 412 MAR-CB EV-MIX OH2-05 Generally speaking the 05 configurations seem to work best with my Yamaha DXR12 speaker. On some of the brighter IRs like the 410 Spring Reverb I've gone up to the 06 and even 07 configurations to mitigate the highs. I find the combination mix of a Telefunken MD421-5 and a Royer 121 ribbon seems to work well for me.
  6. It's been a busy week playing around with the various IRs that came out. I downloaded the free Allure set as well as the free demo from Celestion, and even purchased one of the Celestion packs which was the anniversary model. I'm still working my way through them and making comparisons to my OwnHammer IRs but I'm starting to come to a few conclusions. I'm not saying they won't be useful in some cases, but the OwnHammer IRs have been my product of choice because of the variety of IRs it comes with. This has allowed me to find IRs in their packs that come considerably closer to the tone I'm after and has reduced the amount of time I need to tweek things to get the tone I want. I can't say that either the Allure or the Celestions have accomplished that as well as the OwnHammers have, but the Allures seem to have a bit more character to them than the Celestions and are therefore a bit easier to get the tone I want with less tweeking. As my test I took two different patches, one clean and one dirty using OH cabinets that have served me quite well. For the overdriven sound I used a Marshall 4 x 12 and a Bogner 2 x 12 and compared it to what I could find that would come close with the Allure and the Celestion. The Allure did a pretty good job coming close on the Marshall, but nothing really came very close to the Bogner. That's probably to be expected as the Bogner has a very unique character to it. To my ear the Celestion did an okay job on the Marshall with it's 4 x 12 Royer mic's Fat variation, but in all cases the Celestions seems pretty raw. They really don't specify what kind of cabinet they use so it may be by design they try to minimize the cabinet effect on the sound of the speakers in order to give you something more indicative of the difference in the speakers. I still have to do a little more work on the clean sounds to see how they compare, but from what I've seen so far I think both can be useful in some situations, and add a little wider choice for some patches. They're certainly easier to work with than the avalanche of variations you get with the OwnHammer sets, but it's in those variations that I've found IR's that really are dead-on for achieving the tone I want.
  7. I suppose there might be some folks that don't perform live and just do studio work that might opt to only have the software plug-in, but I agree it's likely to be a pretty massive memory load given all the features, effects and routing options. I think there will be some folks that are using laptops that may have a problem with it due either to processing power or memory. I hope Line6 does a good job of specifying requirements or they may have some very unhappy customers.
  8. Actually, if you don't do any recording then it's probably not of great benefit to you. As timster666 mentioned, it would be possible to leave your Helix at a rehearsal location and have the Helix Native on your computer at home to practice on. That's not the designed purpose for it, but it could be used that way. As zooey points out, Helix Native is a very LOOOOOOOOOOONG way away from the Helix editor. The editor is a very dumb terminal application that has no internal capabilities other than to access and modify features on a hardware Helix platform. Helix Native is really designed for people to have a software version of Helix that they can use in their recording environment with all the same capabailities as the Helix hardware. To give you a real-life example of what it's designed to do. I very often compose new material for my band. The best way to do this is to make a demo recording of the song and distribute it to them so they can learn it before our next rehearsal. That currently involves me hooking up my Helix pedalboard to my recording system to capture the guitar, bass and vocal elements of the track. I don't normally have my Helix connected to my studio equipment because it's primarily used for live gigs so I have it set up in a separate area for practicing and building patches. With Helix Native I'll be able to do everything right on my studio equipment, including building the correct patch for the song. Once completed I'll simply transfer that patch from my studio to my live setup with the Helix equipment and I'm good to go. That's the classic definition of what Line 6 was hoping to accomplish with this software. It doesn't apply to everyone, but it's a lifesaver and massive time saver for someone like me.
  9. I hear this complaint every once in a while, but I have a hard time relating to it. I find the reverbs and delays more than sufficient for my purposes. But then I prefer to hear the guitar more than the effects. :rolleyes:
  10. Nothing is "spec'd" FRFR. That's simply a street term we tend to use that applies across the board to all pro speaker setups. The ZLX-12P certainly falls into that category. More money might get you higher wattage and maybe some better DSP features, higher end construction materials (ABS thermoplactic versus plywood and coating), dual amps for lows and highs which results in less likelihood of the limiter kicking in at high volumes...things like that. Probably wouldn't make a whole lot of difference depending on how you use it.
  11. As for myself, this announcement just saved me $1,300 and lost Line 6 a sale of a Helix Rack unit. I'd been planning to buy a rack unit so I could keep it connected to my studio setup and not have to use my floor unit when I record demo's of new songs for the band. This will be perfect for my situation!!!
  12. As mentioned above, it's really about FLAT Response...which to me is really about clarity and articulation for the most part. The engineering that's being done on powered speakers these days is significant, especially in comparison to standard guitar cabinets (which is fundamentally a box with speakers in it). The DSP you're so fond of in the Helix for modeling is also used in powered cabinets to aid in getting greater precision in the sound regardless of placement. Also the cabinets themselves along with some of that DSP processing provides for less sound energy being lost and wasted into ceilings and floors and therefore achieve much greater sound projection over distance. One of the things you'll immediately notice in higher end FRFR speakers is you don't have any EQ knobs. The FLAT response is managed by the DSP processor and in the case of some speakers can be selected to respond like different types of cabinets. Bottom line, you're not paying for "hype" when it comes to these types of powered speakers. They're actually pretty awesome marvels of engineering on their own.
  13. A lot of older speaker designs don't really incorporate features that make life easier when using the Helix with a monitor such as the ability to apply a low cut filter or a setting to adjust for bass buildup when used in the floor monitor position. Also FRFR speakers and traditional amp cabs are designed very differently in that sound radiates in all directions from a traditional cab while FRFR speakers are very directional and are build for focused projection. Here's a few things to try to see if you can overcome some of these differences when building a patch. Make sure the speaker EQ is set flat with the volume setting, treble, mid, and bass are all set at 12 o'clock. You may want to consider setting the speaker in the vertical position off of the floor at around head or shoulder height to overcome bass buildup. Stand back from the speaker at least 6 foot to allow the speaker and compression driver room to merge the highs and lows adequately. In your patch set a low cut filter at around 125 hz, possibly even higher up to even 150hz depending on how bass oriented the speaker is. Also set a high cut filter, which can vary with the patch, and set it anywhere from 3800hz up to 8000hz. These highs can be mitigated in other ways as well rather than using such a dramatic high cut. For example, if you're using an IR that provides several variations of mic position, try using the variation that places the mic further out toward the rim rather than near the center of the cone. With stock cabs you can often reduce some of the harshness by setting the mic distance further out to 6 inches or more. Also make sure you have the master volume (big knob) on the Helix turned up to at least 40% to compensate for the Fletcher Munson curve effects at lower volumes. As Digital Igloo mentioned, some folks struggle with the sonic differences between a traditional cabinet and a FRFR speaker setup, and a lot of that could very well be due to not having a lot of experience listening to guitar tracks in a recording studio setup which is going to be very different from a traditional amp. Traditional amps tend to have more of a "roaring" quality whereas what you tend to listen to more in a studio is the articulation and clarity of the tone..even tones that are overdriven. Good luck.
  14. I do a bit of country but tend to use a Gretsch Silver Falcon for a more old school sound. I have done some more contemporary country as well using a Strat and I've found the Archetype Clean to be one of the better amps for that ballsy/fat sound. It's got a great full tone and responds well to compressors, especially if you're wanting to get that chicken pickin' kinda tone. The best combination for my has been to use a red squeeze with a relatively quick attack but a generous sustain before the amp. I've also occasionally used the LA Compressor after the amp and cab to give it a bit more meaty tone. The absolute key for me has been to use the OwnHammer 410 Super Reverb cabinet in the OH2F-07 configuration which they classify as a "fat" sounding mix using a Telefunken dynamic mic and a Royer ribbon mic in position 7 (slightly more than halfway between the cone/cap and the rim on the speaker. That's going through a Yamaha DXR12 powered speaker, so your mileage may vary based on what you're using for output and you may want to play a bit with the positioning of the mic's. Hope that's helpful to you.
  15. Can't you just take one speaker from the PA and use that by itself for a living room jam?
  16. I can certainly understand how bluetooth could be problematic in the Helix world. Heck, the USB connection lags quite a little bit if you have it connected and change setttings directly on the Helix interface. I've even had the Editor freeze up when I've changed a bunch of parameters on the Helix interface too quickly. I can only imagine how bad a bluetooth connection would be. Personally I'm not a big fan of bluetooth as it just tends to be slow and a bit flaky in it's connectivity. I suppose it suffices in consumer electronics due to it's convenience, but I wouldn't want to depend on it in pro situation. Personally I seldom, if ever, use the editor interface for anything more than saving and restoring presets. It does nothing but slow me down.
  17. The bigger question is....why would you WANT to????
  18. Lots of detail here but we're missing one of the key components. What physical gear are you using for output? That's going to have a certain amount of impact on the sound you're producing. I use somewhat the same approach as far as researching someone's rig as a starting point for my patches. However I'm not sure there's that much to be gained by trying to get as detailed in the setup as you're going with the separation of pre-amp, amp, and cab. I simply use a close approximation of amps and cabs which is more than enough to get me where I need to be. The rest is simply routing and placement of effects and EQ. Unless you have ears like a bat you or your audience isn't likely to be able to tell the difference. I think you can spend a lot of time tinkering with that type of stuff which really only serves to leave you with less time to actually play guitar. In the case you mentioned, I'd probably use a dual amp/cab setup using a soldano (for the cleanish marshal/twin sound) and a hiwatt. Split the path and use the type of split where you can designate how much signal goes into each setup and tinker with that until you get what sounds like the right mix. See how far that gets you.
  19. It's almost impossible to get a recommendation regarding IRs simply because everyone listens for different things. Ultimately you have to come to your own conclusion about what sounds right to you. Here's the process I went through with the free OwnHammer IRs to determine what worked best for me. The files contained in the free download contain variations in mics, mic placements, and mic mixes. The one thing I knew from having set up mics on my own amps over the years is I prefer the placement to be roughly mid point between the cone center and the edge of the speaker, so those are the ones I started with. I took at typical patch that had the type of sound I wanted and chose an IR for the cabinet. I then worked my way through the variations of mics and mic mixes loading the ones that had the right placement to get a feel for what they did and what I liked. I would simply load a new variation into the same IR slot and try it out. That allowed me to work through the variations until I found the one or two that I really liked and then load that into a permanent slot. Once an IR would be placed in it's permanent slot I'd rename that IR using the editor using a three digit number designating it's slot postion and save it into a separate directory reserved for my IRs. That way when I go through a firmware update the IRs can easily be loaded into the right slots and all my patches that use them won't be affected.
  20. To be VERY clear, the FIRST thing you download AND INSTALL will be the editor. If you're on Windows 10 it's possible that when you select the "download" button on the the page to download the editor, it may only download it which will then show up on the lower left hand side of the window. You then need to select the drop-down arrow on that box in your window to tell it to install the software. That will then install the editor, the audio driver, and the updater application.
  21. Interesting setup. 4 hours to load it, unpack it at the gig, and set it up. Play 4 one hour sets 4 hours to tear it down, take it home and unload it. 12 hours of labor that (if your lucky) equates to minimum wage. Sounds like a plan!!!!!!!!!!! :huh:
  22. ^^^^ Apparently home schooled..... :wacko:
  23. "Some guy twanging on his Les Paul or Stratocaster through a Fender. " Only a metal head would respond to a thread on the Helix by referring to videos of guys twanging through a Fender. And, oh by the way, a Les Paul and a Strat nor would a Fender amp necessarily be the right tools for many of the genres mentioned any more than a Fender would be the amp of choice for metal. How about old style country such as Chet Atkins or Merle Haggard? Maybe a Gretsch and a Supro, or Gibson amp might be a better choice? Or possibly some jazz like Wes Montgomery or George Benson. You really think they use Fender amps, or Les Pauls or Strats? I guess this all serves to validate the old addage: "When all you know is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail".....
  24. You can, however, run it direct into the PA and they can feed it back to you in the monitors, if the monitors are decent.
  25. Well that would certainly be a nice respite from the flood of metalhead videos on the Helix, that's for sure. If I had more time I'd probably take some of these on. But they all tend to be pretty complex if you want to do them right and completely. For example, there's not just ONE country setup. Modern country tends to have a different feel than traditional country, or even instrumental country like Chet Atkins. Same with blues and jazz. That's a LOT of individual videos for sure.
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