DunedinDragon

You're certainly not saying anything unique for those of us that have been here a while. At least your answers came pretty quickly after only 25 years. I started playing live in 1968 so I know a few things about heavy amps and lots of gear. At my age it's MORE than just a blessing to have one piece of gear that handles all my guitar needs...AND keeps improving year after year.

Yeah...you must have responded before my edit of my original post when I realized the Helix does have some of that stuff now.

That would be a good approach as long as you didn't mind allocating it as a slot in your HELIX signal chain, but I would bet a lot of people wouldn't be too keen on having to do that particularly on the Stomp where it's so limited. I've often thought it might be nice to have a MIDI object that could be added to the signal chain, individually configured and each of which could control any number of different MIDI devices based on it's on/off state or even the value of the pedal. Almost like snapshots for MIDI devices.

Unfortunately there's really no such thing as a "MIDI driver"...they're just different definitions for what a device is capable of and there's no real standard there in order to import it. But it can be managed as a MIDI dictionary that's compiled and maintained as part of the Helix firmware or separately as data in HX Edit. I think the most ideal situation for the Helix would be similar to the way things are implemented in the Morningstar series of MIDI controllers. You would pre-configure in global settings what MIDI devices you want to control and what channels they're on. When you select a MIDI action in Helix you would have the option of selecting the action you want it to perform from a drop down menu in which you select the the device, and the specific action to perform then you simply enter the appropriate value. Unfortunately the Helix's MIDI implementation is very rudimentary so it doesn't really allow multiple commands in a single action. So there's still a lot of room for improvement in the Helix for being a viable, full-fledged MIDI controller.

Well...that's a bit better than me. I remember 1972. my first year in college, as one long session of black light posters and lava lamps.....

Okay....finally after re-reading all the responses in this thread about 10 times I think I may be closing in on what the OP might be distressed about...so bear with me. No one in the world would ever argue that MIDI is not an arcane protocol. That doesn't mean it's not useful and quite powerful in what it can accomplish. I think it's safe to say that those defending MIDI here long ago encountered and mastered an understanding of this arcane protocol, but a new user's viewpoint is probably not overly different than what we all thought when we first encountered it, or even when we first tried to understand the MIDI implementation used in the Helix, which I will agree is somewhat confusing when compared to the rest of the MIDI world. Let's take one example. Many DAWs and many peripheral MIDI controller units have incorporated a way that a DAW can, through the process of discovery, configure itself to respond to a specific MIDI command being sent to it. For example, yesterday morning I was working with a Kontakt sample library for a pedal steel guitar I had configured on a track in Ableton Live. On that Kontakt interface I right clicked on the pedal steel volume knob on the screen and it gave me the option of setting which control on my Launchkey MIDI controller I wanted to use to control the MIDI value for the pedal steel volume parameter in the DAW. I turned the knob back and forth a few times and voila..that was configured so that I could manage that parameter when recording and playing back that MIDI track in the DAW. Ableton Live itself does most of it's configuration in the same way when dealing with controllers or input sources. So it's really not so much about the MIDI protocol as it is about the configuration of how those MIDI configuration interactions are handled. Is it possible the Helix could have a similar way of discovering how to control or respond to a peripheral unit? Probably. My guess is it would take a fairly serious commitment on the part of Line 6 to do such a thing, but it's not something that's out of the range of what the Helix or any modeler is capable of. It just hasn't been a priority in the guitar modeling world. It's been much easier to just implement in the old way of a human being doing the research and keying it all in because that's pretty much the way it's always been done. Even if it was nothing more than maintaining a dictionary of MIDI commands for various common peripheral equipment you can simply pick from to configure it in the same way as Morningstar MIDI controllers do, that would still be a major step forward. Certainly MIDI 2.0 will simplify this type of interaction, but it is, in fact, in use today through some fancy interface trickery.

I'm not sure what you're expecting. Certainly the options for keyboards are considerably greater than for a guitar, but the same can be said for any stringed instrument simply because they're stringed instruments and not a keyboard which is, by definition, is a note based instrument. The same can be said of horns and woodwinds. There are, of course some obvious alternative such a Variax guitar which has a method of providing more of a note based alternative for input and therefore is able to provide better note control for doing things like special tuning, stringed instrument simulation or even direct MIDI input and even some MIDI based guitars. But MIDI was based on keyboards and therefore MIDI will always be more advanced and readily available in a keyboard design. But it could also be said that you're only seeing the things you're used to seeing in your specific area of music interest and not truly seeing the wide range of MIDI options in the marketplace that have exalted MIDI well beyond any other technology out there. For example are you aware there are a number of guitar sample library plugins for your studio DAW that can be used with a simple keyboard to produce a note perfect simulation and/or MIDI notation of any type of guitar riff or chord in any style or technique by simply playing it on a keyboard? Because they're produced by meticulously recording the response of different guitars in a studio they literally duplicate the sound made by a classic guitar, acoustic guitar, les paul guitar, tele, strat, gretsch...any thing you would like to record. These are NOT synthesized sounds, but actual recorded sounds and are available for almost any instrument you can imagine. For example I have such libraries that produce both sound and correct playing techniques for a 40 piece orchestra, a pedal steel guitar, a country fiddle, a hammond B3 organ, a harmonica, a jazz horn quartet and many others. The 21st century options are out there if you're willing to expand your horizons. By the way, I'm 69 and it's certainly not constraining me in approaching these flashy new things.... Kontakt guitar sample library

You can move any preset anywhere by just pressing the Save button on your Helix one time. At the bottom of the display the Helix will ask for an acknowledgement of where you want it saved and you can use the knobs to select the different location and then press Save a second time.

Generally speaking the USB output is intentionally low so you have plenty of headroom in your DAW to increase the volumes if necessary. There is an option to increase the output level of the USB in global settings, but it's really easier to just manipulate them within the DAW to set them where they make sense in the mix.

It depends on what I need to do. I do all my editing in HX Edit. I can clear out what's in the setlist and start from scratch dragging and dropping exported presets from my computer directory, or I can just drag them around in the setlist if I want to change the order. Or simply drag a preset from my PC directory over the one I want to replace, or add to the end of the list. It's all very simple operations using HX Edit. I keep all my exported presets in a single directory and I can order them alphabetically or by modified date. I even have some presets that are the same song but customized to different guitars. In those cases I just add the guitar to the end of the preset name. It's really a very flexible way of working and pretty much unlimited.

There's no memory burden other than the total limit of setlists you can have loaded at one time. I also do a preset for every song, but I don't copy them over and over. I keep every preset exported to my computer hard drive individually and build them into a setlist as needed. There are times I may have more than one setlist loaded if we're doing different shows together on the same weekend for example. But setlists are pre-allocated storage on the Helix so the only thing that's actually loaded into working, active memory on the Helix is the preset you're currently using in a song.

Line 6 has never been very forthcoming about WHAT they do to fix a problem, so I can only offer my guesses on this. But that parameter was something that was added to several of the Delay effects a few releases ago in response to user complaints about intermittent clipping on some of the delays. To my ear it's not digital clipping just standard clipping associated with cropping the tops off of the signal. Delays and Reverbs are both infamous for being DSP hungry effects so I can only assume it was a matter of allowing you to increase the DSP allocation in certain instances on some of these effects to alleviate that artifact without affecting the latency of the processing. That way you only have to increase the DSP allocation in those particular circumstances rather than in all circumstances.

Typically crackling like what you're describing is associated with recording and the buffer size being too low or the bit size being too large in your DAW. The reverb and delay may be a different situation and you may need to increase their headroom parameters on the second page of the parameters.

https://line6.com/data/6/0a020a4112b165fb6a3fe41663/application/pdf/Helix 3.0 Owner's Manual - Rev E - English .pdf

Although I have to technically agree with everything you said I still have to take into consideration the range of setups people use their Helix for. I honestly can't remember the last time I even looked at my Helix volume knob because it's position is inconsequential to me since I go direct to the mixing board via XLR and depend on my floor monitor for my stage mix. But not everyone has, or even wants, that kind of luxury. I can see certain situations where I might be playing with a less than desirable PA system and I might want to augment their speakers with one of my own from on stage. Certainly there are plenty of solo and duo acts that still depend a lot on the Helix volume knob for dialing in their performances. I would hope that by the time someone is playing in a more sophisticated live environment they already know the ins and outs of how to gain stage their Helix consistently to work with a decent house PA.

A couple of big differences here could be related to signal level differences between XLR and 1/4" and the differences in how signals are handled in modern digital mixers and in older analog mixers. There's a significant difference between the XR18 which is a modern digital non-amplified mixer with digital pre-amps that can accommodate a wider range of signal level inputs and outputs from either a XLR or 1/4" input to be used with powered speakers, and a last generation Peavey amplified mixer with separate XLR and Line inputs which typically are used for different signal level inputs and outputs an amplified signal to passive speakers. You didn't say what signal levels you're sending on the XLR and 1/4" outputs from the Helix. Typically they're both set to line level by default, but I always set my XLR to Mic level (which is a lot lower than line level) and leave my 1/4" output at line level. But in your case it's hard to predict what's going to be correct because of the differences between the architectures of the two mixing boards. It's very possible you're getting an overdriven signal at the Peavey preamp stage. You said it's not showing clipping, but unless you select the PFL button on that channel you wouldn't see the preamp clipping. Given all the differences in the setup it's really impossible to guess what's happening in this situation without a LOT more information.

I think I've been setting my volume knob at full volume for at least the last 6 years or so by disengaging it from my XLR output and setting my XLR output to Mic level in global settings on my Helix. I control my volume levels so it's consistent across all presets and snapshots by adjusting the channel volume of the amp or the output block in my presets. The soundman sets the appropriate level he wants from my Helix for mixing with all the other instruments and the last thing in the world he should ever want or ask for is for me to send more volume. He's completely in charge of that at the mixing board using the trim or gain knob on my PA channel. Any change on my part will throw off his mix with the other instruments. That's what gain staging is all about at sound check time and is how all PA's work. All I ever need from him is how I need him to adjust my levels and the band mix in my monitor. It's all very simple and there's no need to complicate it.

Actually all of this stuff is specifically covered in the instructions for downloading the update posted at the top of this Forum. Next time just follow the instructions there and you should be fine.

It's no mystery here. When you can't add something it's because you've run out of DSP in that particular signal path. Each thing you add to a signal path uses a different amount of DSP and amps and reverbs tend to be some of the heaviest users of DSP. At a certain point Helix will start dimming out components which are ineligible to add to the signal path due to the lack of DSP to support them. So it's not about complexity as much as it is about what is in that signal path. You could probably do what you're wanting to do by having your signal paths be more representative of your real world setup rather than two almost duplicate signal paths. In other words you have a single path that contains all the main components you want in BOTH situations, then branch off to the second signal path to add only the pieces that are needed which are particular to the XLR going to the mixing board such as the amp model, cabinet and possibly some EQ. That would make more sense in any case because you don't want what you're sending to the audience to be a completely different sound from what your sending to your stage.

What concerns me is that you state you did the upgrade through the Firmware updater. But if that's the case you could very likely have a mismatch with the version of HX Edit and the firmware. The command and suggested method of updates is to follow the update instructions and use HX Edit for the upgrade of HX Edit, the device drivers and the firmware all in one place.

It's going to be tough to get the intro tone and then the crunch tone with a single guitar and get them to both sound exact. The intro is definitely a Tele with a very clean amp such as a Fender twin or even Jazz Rivet 120, but the crunch part is coming from the Guild and is very dependent on the humbuckers he's using through one of the more modern boutique style amps like a Soldano, Matchstick or maybe a Cartographer. You could cheat it a little bit on the intro if you're using a humbucker guitar and go clean through a JC 120 using the bridge pickup, but it won't be exact. I think if I were going to do it I'd just use a Archetype clean and then boost it with something like a Teemah pedal for the crunchy tone. That would probably be the easiest route.

The better thought would be to post this to Ideascale which is where Line 6 goes for determining what they'll be working on because they don't frequent this forum.

I can only guess but it may be one of two problems. Obviously text display is a function of your operating system, not the HX Edit program. So my guess is there could be a disconnect between the firmware version installed and the HX Edit version (they need to be the same level and confirmed in the Help/about menu item which lists both separately). Or if they're in sync there may be a problem with the computer operating system you're using linking up correctly with the Helix drivers which would normally be avoided by doing the reset described in the installation instructions after downloading and installing the HX edit and firmware.

Although PA's are all different, the sound is generally consistent if they're using more modern DSP managed speakers which are the ones that dominate the market. For the last 6 years or so I dial in all my presets at home using a Yamaha DXR12 which gives a pretty solid representation of most modern PA systems, but there are other options that work well also such as QSC K.2 series or Electrovoice ZLX series and many others. But you want to select the appropriate contour for live performance and place them as if they're PA speakers meaning up at around chest level and given a clearance of around 6 feet or more to allow the sound to blend between the horn and speaker. I rarely ever have to have to make any adjustments for PA's unless they're much older equipment or are bargain basement powered mixing boards with passive speakers. In those cases I just bring my own modern powered speaker and place it behind me on stage to fill in the deficiencies of the PA. One of the problems you can run into with using studio speakers is they're HIGHLY dependent on the positioning of the speakers in the room and the position of the listener to give you a good, thorough representation of the sound. I have my studio setup with Yamaha HS7's and my live presets tend to work quite well on them, although almost any recorded image is going to require a certain amount of tweaking to get a good recorded mix with the other instruments.

Signal meters are very useful at dialing in a consistent signal range across all your presets. This is very handy when you go to record or play live in getting your signals gain staged at the mixing board consistently. This is always my first step and then I make minor adjustments depending on the overall loudness in comparison across the presets. I personally depend a lot on the built in signal meter and gain reduction meter on the Helix to get my signals consistent and generally target around 60% on the signal meter and mostly between 3 or 4 db of gain reduction. That pretty much gets all of my presets in the same ballpark and only minor "finishing" adjustments after that. I first primarily use the channel volume on the amp model for adjusting volume, then I move onto the output block rather than take the channel volume down too low. Using a final compressor like an LA Compressor can be very useful at reducing the spikes in your signal levels so you can maintain more fullness in the body of the tone. I pretty much gauge lead levels totally by ear but it typically maybe only needs 3 or 4 db increase if the tone is significantly different than your standard non-lead tone. This keeps everyone happy including the guy that's running the mixing board. Chances are if you're using a fairly strong overdriven tone you won't need much if any compression added to it.