DunedinDragon

The problem you're encountering is one of your preset setups uses an analog output (1/4") post D/A conversion while the other preset setup via USB is a digital signal. My typical live preset is gain staged based on the signal level as measured on the mixing board coming from my XLR output at Mic signal level. If I use that same preset on a USB it will be considerably lower on my DAW since it's a digital signal, but I can adjust it in a number of different ways. My most typical adjustment is to change the channel volume on the amp model which doesn't affect the tone to get it where I want it for recording levels.

The LT and Floor both have twice the DSP as the Stomp across two signal chains rather than just one, so there are many additional ways something like this can be done.

In case you haven't gotten the drift yet....here it is ONE MORE TIME: There is no such thing as a FRFR speaker!! There is no standard for it. There is no standard reference for it. It is purely a marketing term and means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in any measurable way. There are speakers that fall "broadly" in the family of what might be considered FRFR, but what you are ultimately talking about are powered, bi-amp design PA style speakers with some level of DSP driven frequency profiling across it's frequency response range. They are not all created equal, and you pay for what you get. In short, both the ALTO and the Headrush FRFR are at the bottom rung of capability when it comes to these sort of speakers because they're on the bottom rung of the price range. The don't compare very well at all with the more notable and recognized brands from EV, Yamaha, QSC or even JBL, and their performance reflects that. All that being said, that doesn't mean you might not be happy with them depending on your needs for accuracy and fidelity of sound and the type of tuning options you might feel you need. Personally I choose to invest in higher end equipment such as Yamaha or QSC simply because I can custom tune those speakers to different types of applications if I need to such as a floor monitor configuration, a live band PA, or a recorded music setup and their tuning will be optimized for such a thing. As in all musical equipment, you get what you pay for.

Honestly the only time I've ever used the acoustic sim is within a song that may have a short acoustic guitar section where I can get away with it. If it's anything more than that I use an acoustic. It's just never going to really sound authentic in my opinion.

In the over 7 years I've had my Helix I think I've only encountered having amps or effects dimmed out due to a lack of DSP a handful of times in a set of over 300 presets. Each time it was easily fixed by changing things around in the signal chains. But that's probably because I don't have any "everything but the kitchen sink" presets.....

Assuming your button 1 is defined as a snapshot, the easiest and most obvious way is to assign the gain block to a stomp rather than a snapshot. That way it just enables and disables the block like any pedal on a pedalboard. Snapshots are really designed for accomplishing multiple changes across different blocks. You could potentially do it with a stomp that's separate from your snapshot, however your snapshot wouldn't be able to detect the current status of the stomp as it just assumes the state of the stomp block based on it's status when the snapshot was saved. There may be other types of approaches but without knowing what it is you're actually trying to accomplish it's hard to make any recommendations.

Just so you know, the "massive sound" you're looking for really isn't a function of multiple cabinets like it is in the real world, but is generally associated with the mic(s) used and the application of early reflections on the cabinet model which simulates the room echoes/ambience. Multiple cabinets in the sense of a modeler will just mix the tonal attributes of the two cabs and their associated mics.

The way I handle this is I have each song as a different preset, so the song/preset is in a predictable state. Therefore I select the song which loads the preset in it's default saved state, and then start the song via the MIDI controller that starts the playback of my performance system (tracks and MIDI), the MIDI sequences are always in sync.

Personally I'm not sure Line6 added the Mic input with the idea of it being used live as much as a way to easily have the Helix operate as a full-fledged audio interface for recording. I have two Helix floor units, one in the studio and one for live performances. In over 7 years I've never used the Mic input for live..I just go to the mixer like everything else on stage, but I constantly use it in the studio. But in the studio I'm using it as I would any normal audio interface and adding effects, EQ, compression etc in the DAW. Although I can appreciate a solo act with just guitar and vocals using the Mic input live, for anything more than that you're adding a lot of complexity to a simple process where a mixer is really the perfect tool.

I suspect it's a lot more than the number of votes that determine what features will be added. The feature has to be consistent with what Helix is which is a modeler, not a sampler, or a synth. The feature needs to have a BROAD audience appeal not just a numerical following. Case in point, there are quite a few people that are into loopers and are very passionate about it, but it's not something that a large percentage of Helix users would necessarily appreciate or use. It has to be consistent with the architecture that's been established. Case in point loading HXEdit on a tablet or a standalone HXEdit are quite popular but are at odds with how HXEdit operates and would likely require a physical reworking of the electronics to operate not to mention a complete rebuild from the ground up of HX Edit. I could go on, but I think you get my drift.

If I read you right, what you're trying to emulate is a "momentary" action versus a "latched" action on a footswitch under a remotely controlled MIDI action? If so, that's always been problematic even using external MIDI controllers apparently because it's based on the presence of an actual constant electrical connection on the Helix so it only works through a physical press. I'm doing the same thing you're doing using a DAW as a Performance Management system, in my case Ableton Live. I accomplish this by simply making the footswitch which is defined as a normal latched footswitch and send the same CC# from the MIDI out track of my DAW. The first CC turns it on and the second one turns is off. Since those commands are sent in sync with the backing track it's very easy to get it timed accurately and turned off and on as if you were using it in a momentary mode. Here's an example of a part of one of our songs that demonstrates what I'm talking about: The top track is the MIDI track containing the backing Piano notes. The second track is the main MIDI out track used to control the actions on the Helix. FS E represents the actual CC command which sends the button press to a specific Helix footswitch. The first one turns on the harmony effect, and the second one turns off the harmony effect the same as it would be with holding down the momentary footswitch during that part of the song, but it all happens automatically in sync with the playback.

We've been assured by some significant Helix insiders that the Helix is nowhere near capacity, so that's not something I'd worry about. There's more than enough packed in there now to keep you busy for years. If you want to get a head start on seeing what's in there now I might suggest to purchase Craig Anderton's "Big Book of Helix Tips and Tricks" from Sweetwater. It's and extremely valuable and completely up-to-date resource on everything that's there and how to use it. And since it's a downloaded resource you'll continue to receive updates as they come out. Helix Big Book of Tips and Tricks

Those are the messages you get when the HX Edit version it's trying to load doesn't match the Firmware version on the Helix, but it can also occur when your computer security software won't authorize it to load, so check both of those items. Turn off any security and see if it loads.

I have an SG with P90s and it's far and away my most flexible and versatile guitar in my stable when it comes to rock or blues sounds. As mentioned above EVERYTHING is dependent upon what kind of output device you're using. If you go cheap you're on your own. In my rehearsal studio where I do most of my guitar work I'm using a Yamaha DXR12 so that I can better represent the live performance tone I'll be producing. If I were to approach a John Mayer tone I'd likely start with the Line6 Ventoux amp model through a HiWatt Fanes speaker cab using an R121 mic about 2 to 3 inches distance. Amp Settings: Drive - 4.5 HP Filter - 6.5 Mid - 5 Presence - 6.5 Depth - 3 Ch Vol - 4.5 Master Vol - 10 For boost/leads I'd put a Minotaur before the amp with Gain - 4.5, Tone - 7.5 , Level - 5.5 With a decent output speaker that should get you fairly close. Of course all bets are off on this if you're using Humbuckers.

My guess is that you aren't loading the appropriate driver for the Helix in your computers so they don't know how to communicate with the Helix. If it's a Windows computer it should be identified as Speakers (Line6 Helix) by the device manager. Generally this is done automatically by the download of the appropriate HX Edit install process, but if you didn't follow that procedure it may not have loaded correctly.

In my 8 years with the Helix I have never even been tempted to use someone else's presets for the same reasons cited above. There are so many factors that affect the tone that are outside the control of the Helix it just doesn't make sense. That doesn't mean I haven't examined and borrowed ideas from any number of YouTube postings in building presets of one type or another. That's FAR more productive than messing around with someone's preset using setting you don't understand why or how they were used.

His tone is less about the amp and effects and more about technique. He's palm muting against the bridge to get that unique xylophone sound. Other than that it's pretty much a slightly driven vox style amp with reverb and probably a bit of chorus.

Generally I don't differentiate between recording or live performance as far as the sample rate since it's pretty rare that anyone will ever notice the difference between the default of 48kHz and any of the higher rates despite many subjective opinions. If, on the other hand you are talking about actual frequency adjustments to the guitar between recording or live, I rarely differentiate there either. Given you have high quality live speakers and studio monitors you'll pretty much get a good profile given you don't go nuts with adjusting individual frequencies. For the most part I depend more on a proper selection of cabinet model and microphone selections and placements to get a decent basic tone and only tweek minor problems using EQ.

This is a pretty good overview:

I guess my only concern about using Native would be the potential load on the laptop during live performance. Ableton is actually pretty efficient in that regard, but even then I reduce all my MIDI tracks to static WAV files even though I could use the plugins directly just to ensure I don't encounter latency or other system issues when I have a large show with lots of songs. This is doubly important in that in order to maintain the ultra realistic performance characteristics of the backing instruments I pretty much only use sampled plugin libraries rather than syths, and some of those libraries are extraordinarily large and processor intensive. I also believe spreading the computational requirements among different processors aids in this regard (i.e. Helix Floor, DMX lighting controller, etc.). I do agree that the market could probably use a packaged turnkey system similar to what I've built as there's a pretty sizeable interest by musicians and bands in having a simple way to get into the backing track and stage automation business without having to have develop it themselves. If I were a younger man I might consider something like that and may eventually even try to get one of my sons to take something like that on as they're both engineers as well. But for now they both seem happy with what they're doing. I'm sure eventually someone in the industry will take it on. There's too much interest and money sitting on the table for that not to happen.

Generally speaking most people using 4CM are doing so in a live performance setting in order to have the various options of using that real amp along with Helix effects or other external effects, or using the modeled amps along with effects from Helix. The main key thing with a 4CM arrangement is you already have a real cabinet, so the Helix modeled cabinets or IRs don't really come into play and you wouldn't typically include them in your signal chain for any of your presets. It's important to understand that not everyone uses an actual amp and cabinet with the Helix. There are many just like me that don't even own an actual amp or cabinet and simply play the Helix direct through a PA, or direct into a PC for recording, or using headphones, or direct through studio monitors, or live powered speakers. But that's going to be very different use and simple setup and in that case you would take full advantage of all the Helix features including amps, cabinets, IRs, effects and so forth. But that's also a very different environment than using an actual amp and cab.

No mine is all coordinated backing tracks with 2 or 3 additional instruments added to those that are played live. I think if I were to do something like what you're describing I'd probably go with something like Max for Live as most people do in order to have spontaneous control and would tend more toward using live keyboard/synth rather than guitar.

I control everything on stage (Helix, lighting, Ableton Live) with a Morningstar MC8 MIDI foot controller. It provides a wide range of different actions such as those you've mentioned that can be defined individually. I originally imagined this might come in handy, but after two years I still haven't come up with any uses for any actions other than a simple press.

That's probably not much of a surprise to those of us that have been using the Helix in a MIDI environment for a while now. However the Helix isn't really doing much with the MIDI in your case other than passing it through to the iPad and responding normally to an external audio input. I think most of us have been using the MIDI command features of the Helix to control external devices such as a BeatBuddy or starting a track playing in the DAW which was what I was doing for a while. I've since abandoned that kind of setup and use my DAW itself to coordinate the actions of the Helix (select presets or snapshots), or stage lighting changes with embedded MIDI commands in conjunction with the tracks that are being played in a live setting. I don't depend on any external MIDI instruments as those would all be separate plugins in my DAW so I only mix the Helix audio output and the DAW audio output as separate channels on the mixer. In my studio I have a separate Helix floor unit that simply serves as an audio interface for guitar work, vocal work or keyboard work to my DAW, but all MIDI work from either my traditional keyboard or MIDI controller keyboard is done through direct USB connections to the DAW.

Of course. Any tone is possible. That's what a modeler does, so that's up to you. Plug your guitar into the Stomp and you can have the native sound of the guitar itself if you use an empty signal chain or add whatever you need to get the sound you want.