DunedinDragon

Generally speaking FRFR powered monitors tend to work best when kept at 50% (little chance of clipping or limiter circuits kicking in) and that's more than loud enough to not have your ears fool you about the sound. I create my patches with my Master volume level on the Helix at 50% and try to target (using a sound meter) around 80db as my sound pressure level (SPL). That pretty much gives me a very accurate picture of what things will sound like on stage. I may have to turn up my Helix Master Volume a bit to around 60% once I get on stage, but everything stays very consistent as far as the sound. At 80db of SPL I try to stand back from the speaker about 5 or 6 feet with the speaker roughly at head level to hear everything blended clearly. I've never really played witht monitor level and the Helix volume level like what you're talking about. I've just known for a long time that 50% tends to be about optimal for me on both the speaker and the Helix (as it was also when I was using a POD 500X). You may have to come up slightly on your speaker volume if it's a bit underpowered, but most of them nowdays are pretty loud at the settings I'm talking about.

I'm always astonished at how quickly and easily my presets come together...and how great they sound. It's a nice change from all the tweaking I had to do on the HD500X to get the sounds I wanted. Every week it seems I learn a new trick the Helix has for me that let's me really explore new tones and effects.

You shouldn't need anything more than a sound meter application which will just use the microphone to determine sound pressure levels (SPL). For that you don't even need to be connected to your IPad. I just use one I have loaded on my phone.

I doubt you'll run into any struggles from the dual connections, but you may introduce some latency in the recording process. Not a problem if it's within bounds and you're monitoring source and not recorded signal. The other potential might be some signal to noise issues through the Mesa head that you might have to tame with a noise gate. Personally I prefer to keep things as simple as possible in the recording process to get the cleanest and most articulated recording I can get. It's really easy for things to get mushy.

This is the kind of thing that baffles me. Of course everything works fine on older versions of Windows, but not on older versions of the Mac. One is an open system and one is a closed system. L6 can easily test on the various versions of Windows, but has to purchase different hardware to test older Apple versions. This isn't an L6 problem, it's a problem with Apple. Don't ask L6 to compensate for Apple's corporate policy of abandoning their user base if they don't upgrade.

I too have started a love affair with the Matchless. I can't say I've used the jump model, but the clean and crunchy versions are miraculous quick answers to a number of different needs I have. I used the clean just this week to put together a funk preset, and I was blown away with how well it responded. The problem I'm going to have is trying to convince myself not to use it all the time.

This characteristic has really paid off in my case. Because we play a very wide range of styles (rock, jazz, R&B, funk, blues, country, rockabilly, etc) and I use different guitars based on the style of the song, it's just more practical for me to use a different preset for each song. Subsequently I end up creating a LOT of patches. Some are just duplicates with different names, but I'll ultimately end up with around 60 different patches. I was hesitant to move to the Helix at first because there was no way to easily duplicate (convert) all my HD500X patches. But because the patches are so easy to create it's turned out to not be that much of a burden. Not to mention the improvements I'm able to make because of some of the routing options.

This isn't a high school election (you vote for me and I'll vote for you), and I'm tired of seeing these kind of threads taking up space here. Submit your idea, and if other people like it they'll vote it up.

I've got a pedaltrain board full of effects over in the corner gathering dust. Even when I went to the HD500X I was perfectly happy using those effects once I got them dialed in. I suppose if some effect that was really unique came my way that I couldn't emulate I might try it, but otherwise it's just added complexity and more things to go wrong. But it's better to have the capability and not use it, than to not have it and need it I suppose. It's not like ANY effect is ever going to make you a better guitarist. I'll still have the same skills regardless of the effect....

I agree with resisting the urge to fiddle. I look at my patches and I think, "well that doesn't look very complex, maybe I need to do more". I'm trying to kick that habit though. Maybe we need to start a group....Tweekers Anonymous :lol:

I doubt that it's just me, but having come from the HD500X world it seems like my presets are coming together MUCH faster than before. Some of it may be due to the interface, but it seems to me like I'm spending a LOT less time on the amps and most of my time is working with constructing what else needs to be in the signal path and where it should sit. I notice if select the right amp (and sometimes cabinet) the sound I want is pretty much dead on. Maybe a few tweeks with EQ and drive parameters, and I'm where I need to be. From there it's just adding compressor, reverbs, distortion pedals...whatever I need to fill it out and I'm done. What I've also noticed is that if you start off with the wrong amp, you can spend a LOT of time trying to dial it in. You're better off going to a different amp and seeing if that works better right out of the box. This didn't seem to be as much the case on the HD500X, but I'm assuming that's because of the accuracy in modeling of the amps in Helix. Over the last couple of days I put together four patches. Three came together in just minutes, but one (using the Tweed Blues (Bassman)) just wasn't doing what I needed it to do, and that was what I had used for this patch on the HD500X. I finally selected the Matchless CH.2 and had it perfect in minutes. I guess I will need to get a lot more familiar with the sounds of the different models so I don't waste time. At any rate, HUGE KUDOs to the L6 Helix team. I know you probably get tired of the whining from the users about wanting this or that, but you've got one happy camper here.....

EXACTLY!!!! I think the marketing people have taken over and in trying to appease a generation of millennials that expect everything RIGHT NOW have unleashed a torrent of inadequately designed and tested software products that are about as stable as jell-o.

I've don't really notice any beaminess on stage from my DXR12's, but I have them positioned about 6 feet behind me so that gives it enough time to resolve into a more natural sound. At home I tend to stand back from the speaker at about the same range in order to get that effect. Any closer and I will get that beaminess and the ear fatigue.

I would be a little skeptical on the 300 wattage rating. Manufacturers seem to be taking a lot of latitude in how they rate these. The reason I say this is the cabinet appears to be similar construction to a typical FRFR powered speaker with closed enclosure, a bass driver and compression driver and all the normal DSP stuff that comes in those types of speakers. Most of those types of speakers tend to have a bit higher rating. For example one of the more popular FRFR speakers for modelers is the Alto TS210 which has a rating of 550 watts continuous and 1100 peak. It's probably still more than enough for most bands unless you're playing with a bunch of folks that like to bust eardrums. But if you're going through the PA, how much volume do your really need on stage?

Boy, am I glad I'm not in THAT band!!!! :wacko:

Well you're exactly right. There's a much more fluid definition of Beta when it comes to corporate development. And that's driven largely by whatever department or entity is footing the bill for the product development. In some cases I'd say there never really is a "formal" release..just an ongoing series of improvements in a base piece of software. Commercial software really only gets paid once the product ships, so things are quite a bit more stringent. This is especially true when your corporate buying customers have thousands of desktops to deploy it to and there needs to be some level of version control across the enterprise in order to manage their support costs. Although technically the editor is a commercial product, it's a FREE commercial product so a case could be argued that it should be more like an ongoing series of improvement like some corporate products. It's really up to L6 how they want to handle it. I'm not put off either way since I'm not really invested in their editor other than for saving and restoring patches. As long as they don't break that, I'll be fine. I would still think L6 has to look at the support costs that come along with keeping track of which bugs and features are related to which release so they can support the customer base which will undoubtedly have a hodgepodge of various versions of the editor if they were to treat this as an ongoing product improvement exercise. I suspect that's what's playing into wanting to "lock down" the features at some point so they can move onto new features for a future release.

I'm not sure what development world you're coming from, but in 3 decades of working in commercial software development for arguably the largest software company in the world that's never been the case. Beta testing is the very last phase of testing after unit testing and integration testing. The sole purpose is to achieve stability in usage scenarios that you can't account for in a controlled laboratory testing plan, and is the last step before release. There's no doubt some of that feeback will flow back into the development cycle for consideration into subsequent releases. But new features, by definition means they must go back through design, development, and then the entire testing protocol. You're right in saying you want users involved in the design process, but that's at the very start of the product cycle. Adding features at this point is just asking for instability. That's the point of gathering feature feedback during the beta as, at least in my experience, where you're beginning to develop the feature list for the next release.

I wouldn't get much use out of such a thing personally. Whatever changes I need to make come at rehearsal or sound check. Once the gig starts it's too late to be modifying stuff whether it's by foot or by tablet. I've used a tablet before and it ended up being one more thing I had to get hooked up and didn't use. With the ease of use on the Helix, I can make the changes at sound check or rehearsal just as quick as any tablet.

The 'Support' and Downloads areas of the board are your best place for this information. Just specify Helix as the product and whatever operating system you have and you'll see all the release notes and updates to download. The latest is FW 1.12 http://line6.com/software/index.html

Yep that's the issue. I guess I'll check and see if it's still in the works to be fixed.

I'm not sure. I just got the Helix with 1.10 loaded and upgraded it to 1.12. So my only real exposure has been to 1.12

Am I missing something? I can set the tempo for a patch at a specific BPM, but the LED doesn't flash at that rate when I select it. I can't seem to find any setting that controls that. It's clearly stored with the preset because when I edit it after selecting the preset it's where I set it. The global value is set to per/preset. Global tap tempo LED is on. Is there some additional setting I'm missing?

I would suggest that if the looper time limitation is enough to make you want to return your Helix, the Helix was probably the wrong thing for you in the first place. Believe me there will definately be someone ready to buy the one you bring back since they're in such short supply. Go save yourself some money, buy a JamMan and an effects box and be happy. The looper limit is the least of my worries. I'd prefer Line 6 spend the time on more amps, cabs, and effects. Those are the things I'll get the most use out of.

It tends to go two basic ways. Either direct into a powered monitor or powered cabinet, or powered studio monitors; or otherwise into the power amp portion of a standard guitar amp using the return loop effects on the amp typically. There are other more exotic arrangements, but that's mostly what people tend to use.

This is the one I ordered and is coming in tomorrow. From what I understand it's a great bag. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/M80PedalTour