DunedinDragon

Again, I think a lot has to do with the tone and somewhat with the speakers. My studio monitors don't reproduce the top end nearly as much as my stage speakers, but it really became obvious when I went to some Eric Clapton style clean blues and also with some funk stuff...both relatively dependent on highs. I was just using a standard, off the shelf 10' cable by the way.

I had great hopes for this as so much has been made about it being as good, if not better, than using a cable. Well, I'm here to say that's not anywhere close to the truth, at least as far as using it with the Helix and an FRFR speaker. I suspect if one were using a standard amp and guitar cabinet, or even if they were playing higher gain tones, they might not notice the lack of top end resonse. I know I didn't when I tried it on presets that were a bit more overdriven. But as soon as I hit a clean sound, every bit of the sparkle vanished from the sound. It was actually quite easy to A/B the comparison since I used a longer cable to attach the base unit to the Helix. So I'd simply unplug the cable and use it to compare the response, and it was undeniable. I've used G50 wireless before and gave up on it for two reasons....replacing batteries, and loss of frequency response. Apparently this is still the case.

Back in my HD500X days I was a big advocate of using Global EQ to trim off the highs and lows as that was the easiest and quickest solution. Over time I've learned a bit more about natural speaker response and have come to the conclusion that hi-cut and low-cuts are not the most natural way to deal with boominess and shrill highs. Traditional guitar cabinets have full frequency range response capabilities, but the response across that frequency range is not flat. It drops off significantly at the low end and the high end. It doesn't drop off abruptly as it does with a low-cut or high-cut filter. Instead it gradually diminishes. The best way to achieve this same response it to use a graphic equalizer at the end of the signal chain. Bear in mind that most PA systems that use sub-woofers already incorporate a low-cut crossover typically at around 125 hz, so the guitar effectively already has a low-cut applied to it as it doesn't produce much of anything at that range unless you are using an octave effect. But that's more of a natural cut than the abrupt cut from a low-cut filter. So again, the final graphic EQ in the signal chain still seems to be the best approach. Another reason to be cautious about globally applying cuts is that the frequency profile of your patch is highly dependent upon the cabinet you are using, the microphone you apply to that cabinet, the distance of the mic from the cabinet, and (in the case of some IR's) the placement of that mic. So often you can achieve a tighter low end and less brittle top end by simply changing the cab, mic, mic distance or mic placement. Once you've done all of that, if you're still having issues with the frequency response, use the final graphic EQ to adjust out what still needs to be addressed on the highs and lows. It may be a bit more work than just using a global hi-cut and low-cut filter, but I'm MUCH happier with the results approaching it this way as it sounds and feels much more natural.

I guess I'd always assumed the Dual Harmony effect would only work on guitars, but who knows? Maybe it just duplicates and re-pitches the input whatever it might be. But that would be the effect you'd have to use to accomplish the harmony parts. Just set the key (major/minor), the interval, type of scale and give it a try. Let us know if it works...

Here's my easy fix. Each patch is designed for a specific guitar. Of course, I do a patch for every song, but each song has a specific guitar that I use for it. Since each patch is designed for a specific guitar, I never have any problems with the differences in the guitars. Works every time...

I know the GR-55 does polyphonic tracking, but it's purely a fixed interval rather than a scalar interval which would require knowledge of the key major/minor for accurate harmonies relative to the tonic.

The only real-time polyphonic tracking HARMONIZERs I've ever seen required an input from a rhythm guitar to determine the key. The HOG and POG are really just octave effects with some added on phasing. Maybe the poster was using the dual harmony as an octave effect?

Just listening to the sound and breakup characteristics I think the Bassman tweed might come closer than the Deluxe.

Actually, the simplest way would be to use it as a direct box taking your 1/4" out from the Helix into the A channel and using the thru (or Aux out) to your stage amp and the XLR as a direct out to the PA board. That's how it's designed to be used anyway.

Congratulations. If you're already used to the ProHD you probably won't have much of a learning curve. I've had mine a while and I'm still learning some new tricks and such...but that's part of the beauty of it...

Yeah I'm not sure how or what the memory and operating system scheme is on the Helix, and I doubt L6 would be very forthcoming. However, I'm not so sure a whole lot of convenient memory constructs like those available in PC's and smartphones really applies. I would suspect things like memory management and and general operating environment functions are far more austere and probably more similar to real-time environments (like avionics, medical equipment, manufacturing automation, and such) than the generalized computing environments that most people are familiar with. Just a guess on my part simply due to the need to minimize latency. If so, it's not as much about the amount data, but the operating system code for storing, managing, accessing it and using it that also has to be built and take up memory space as well. It's not like they can send out a software release that increases the hardware memory in the unit.

I'm not sure we're talking about "radically" different presets. A lot of my presets are pretty similar but blocks and signal chain are fine-tuned to the sound of a specific song. In fact, the complexity of the large switching matrix and parameters is something I prefer not to have to deal with during a performance, and I think that can be a factor as well. The vast majority of my presets have one, and sometimes two pedals enabled for use because I only assign things I will be needing to change during that song. Some of them have no pedals enabled as all the effects/amps/cabs are set perfectly for the entirety of the song and I won't be needing to engage/change anything during the song. The way I look at it, I'm there to play guitar, not play my pedalboard.

To be honest, I haven't found anything in your list that has been an impediment or encumbrance to me. I could maybe see the value of being able to store and recall some different global settings, but I'm not sure I'd want that to be stored using the onboard Helix memory and potentially affect/limit memory that could be used for something else more productive. Depends on how much it would take from the unit. Recallable globals stored externally via the editor might be useful. But I'm only guessing whether I would actually end up making use of such a thing. Most of what you've pointed out might make more sense as Editor capabilities rather than onboard capabilities and not constrain the limited amount of onboard memory. I might agree that we don't need a whole bunch of amps, but I do think there's room for improvement on some of the effects. Not so much quantity but quality.

I'm probably one of the few folks around here that didn't get excited about snapshots when they were introduced. That's because I tend to create presets specific to songs rather than have a preset that I use across multiple songs. That appears to be the main difference. Silverhead is correct in that there is a short lag time between switching presets which can cause problems within a song. However, it doesn't really affect me because there are several ways to change the settings within a preset by assigning multiple effects/blocks/amps etc. to a single footswitch in order to toggle them, or use a controller assignment which is kind of like a macro button to tweak individual effect or block parameters. I keep expecting to run into situations that require me to use a snapshot, but so far I haven't needed it since I've never run into a situation where I needed to switch patches in the middle of a song that I can't handle with these other facilities. I think if you're more prone to want to use presets as a way of dealing with different types or genres that are used for multple songs, snapshots might be a more efficient way of doing it.

Just to clarify my statements about guitar harmonies, I was referring to things like dual and triple leads and using the Twin Harmony effect. I do several songs in which I'm doing double and triple lead harmonies. Like many here in the past I've used foot pedal harmonizers and have typically used them before the amp. What I found with the Twin Harmony effect is it seems to work okay in front of the amp if it's relatively clean like in a country song. If not it leaves a lot of residual artifacts in the signal chain. For something more like a Brian May (Queen) lead with lots of overdrive, it's much cleaner and precise after the amp and cabinet. Either way it tracks perfectly. I'm not sure exactly why this is other than the possibility that if you send a dual or triple signal into a higher gain setup such as a distortion pedal, the distortion pedal may not really be prepared for that much signal. But the Twin Harmony appears to take whatever signal it's receiving and split it into the harmonies regardless of the tone and effect of the signal, so it's cleaner toward the end of the signal chain...at least it is for me. The way I use it for dual guitar leads is I simple set the third harmony to the tonic (base note) and it seems to blend quite well.

One key thing I've discovered in building presets (especially if you're using FRFR speakers), is to audition different mic's and cabinets with the amp of choice before you start adjusting EQ. A lot of times a mic or cabinet change can fix the problems you're hearing on the default cab. Related to the above, I'm also moving away from using global EQ to manage the brittle highs and overbearing lows on FRFR speakers. Because of the variety of cabs and mics and how they respond, I've found it better to simply do any high and low cuts on the cabinet rather than a one time across the board cut. It seems to be a lot more controllable that way. If your doing a dual or triple guitar harmony with the harmonizer, place it after the amp and cab, but before and reverb or delay. You get a much cleaner and authentic sounding multi-guitar sound.

I'm kind of with Phil_m on this one. The only time I tend to use a compressor for live performance is when I'm finger picking on the Gretsch just to get a touch more articulation and to even out the individual notes. Flat picking seems to take care of itself most of the time.

How many amp models does one need in reality, that's always been my question. For sheer numbers of amps Kemper would be the choice. But then you have to weed through which ones are really good and which one's aren't. For me, if I have a handful of good, serviceable amps I have no problem getting the tone I need for anything I'm likely to play. And I cover a lot of ground from soul, funk, blues, r&b, rock, country, and jazz. So far I haven't run into anything that made me say, "Oh man...if I only had an amp sim of 'X' I could really do a great job on that song.

Technically speaking, those students clearly not stupid....just distracted. And there's certainly a lot of truth in how the educational system revises curricula in an effort to make it "better" and in fact, end up making it much, much worse. The way I look at it, "stupid" is something you're born with and can't help, and is something any decent person would be compassionate about. "Ignorance" on the other hand is a choice one makes. You might think of it as intellectual laziness. In any case, you "choose" to be ignorant......kinda like the guy that shows up on this forum asking questions that's clearly covered in the manual....oops....did I that that???!!! I thought I was only thinking it..... :o

And therein lies the problem currently....

Oh my...who would have thought this topic would have been so politically charged?? It is, however, a fascinating example of how each generation that comes along thinks they have the single answer to all of mankind's problems. Of course it never really pans out because it almost always, as in this example, requires a global change in people's core value system in order to be implemented (or as Aldous Huxley's might refer to it as "group think"). Good luck with that. The world's religions have all been trying to do that for thousands of years...and of course it's been tried through enforcement several times by people like Hitler, Stalin, and Ho Chi Min. Of course it never works, because we're humans and we can't even come to a consistent core value system belief of whether tubes or solid-state amps are better. :lol:

Sometimes I leave the default mic settings if it matches well with the song, but some of the default choices do seem a bit odd to me given the typical use of the amp/cab. Like most everyone else I find myself migrating many times to the 57 and the 421 because of my familiarity with those two mics and what they will sound like. For condensor mics I trend toward the 414 and the 87, and ribbon mics (which I rarely use) I tend to go to the Royer.

I'd go along with something in the input portion of the signal chain. Have you tried changing input to Auto out of curiousity? Personally I'd start with a standard configuration of the input block and try running the guitars through a clean amp model like a twin with no gain and see if still shows up. If it still shows up in that situation I'd start believing there's something out of what on the Helix itself.

I'm not sure I'd worry too much about the big box stores. They're struggling just as much if not more than the mom and pop places. There's no way they can compete with the inventory and rapid shipping of Amazon, Musician's Friend, Sweetwater, etc. I can't remember the last time I bought a cable or accessory from any local music store. Actually one local mom and pop store has found a great niche for himself as a guitar/amp store specializing in used equipment and is a direct dealer for smaller companies like G&L guitars. He's the place to go to for decent luthier and amp servicing, while Guitar Center and Sam Ash are struggling to keep inventory on the shelves that people want. May be a foreshadowing of what works in local retail in this internet age. I have to laugh when GC or Sam Ash folks tell me they don't have it in stock but can get it for me. I just tell them, "well heck, I can do that all by myself"!!!

I don't see L6 under Yamaha as being terribly different from most other major vendors whether it be Gibson, Fender, Bose, et. al. All vendors set the allowable street price (which is different from suggested retail) at a specified level (that's why they're the same regardless of online or at big box stores). Any type of promotional discount is determined ahead of time (how much and for how long) with the manufacturer. Yamaha may be a bit more restrictive in this area than was L6 as an independent company, but certainly no more restrictive than most such as Bose or Gibson. And clearly no manufacturer is likely to offer promotional discounts on any item where demand is much higher than supply as it is with the Helix, but that loosens up over time as it did for the HD500X. Since L6 equipment is manufactured and distributed from the US, the price lift has little to do with Yamaha other than some shipping costs. Most of that are individual country tariffs and taxes. That's why it varies from country to country. If you're in a country that uses a VAT tax system, you'll likely get hammered more if you buy it locally because the product went through more hands (each entity paying their portion of the VAT) than if it was shipped directly to you. But if the whole capitalism/government tax thing bothers you, feel free to construct a Helix on your own. :rolleyes: