DunedinDragon

On your Helix unit select the output block and you'll see a level meter displayed below it that should tell you how high your signal level is. You can use this to dial in the values on each of your blocks to make sure you don't clip. Depending on which delay you're using you may want to adjust the headroom value upwards. The thing that sticks out the most is having the Fender Twin maxed out on both the Master and Channel volume. In over 300 presets I've built I've never needed to do that on any amp. That probably leaves very little additional headroom for any other blocks. If you've given any additional boost in volume on either of the distortions, you're probably pushing the amp model inputs well over its limits. Bottom line, in the modeling world you don't need to push volumes to get tone or distortion. Back off the amp's channel volume and see what happens. There's ZERO doubt in my mind this is a classic gain staging issue.

That doesn't really surprise me at all. As much as musicians go on and on about the benefits of tube amps and the amp in the room stuff, that's not what everyday music listeners ever really hear whether it's from a recording or from a live performance where the amps are mic'd and sent through the FOH. They're used to the polished/finished sound rather than the room sound which they rarely ever hear.

The Helix probably doesn't need an update given that everyone seems to be doing fine recording with their Helix on 3.01 including me and I'm using Cakewalk as well. The same probably can't be said for your PC however, or the drivers being used in it. The first place I would start is to make sure that you upgraded the HXEdit program to version 3.0 per the upgrade instructions which downloads and installs the appropriate drivers on your PC to work with 3.01 as the "pfn_list-corrupt" can also relate to a faulty (incorrect) driver. Although the Helix may not need an upgrade, you PC very well might as that error can also relate to encountering bad segments on a hard drive. PFN refers to "Page Frame Numbers" list which is the computer virtual memory which is memory that has been paged out of physical memory to your hard drive, so it's not necessarily related to the physical memory in your PC. Believe me, if 3.01 were messing up everyone's ability to record, you'd hear a LOT more about it from a LOT of people. On the other hand, there are a TON of people that didn't follow the directions and first upgrade HXEdit before upgrading the firmware on their Helix...and have suffered the consequences.

I would absolutely agree that a send block shouldn't have much, if any, effect on the overall tone given the core signal path is gain staged appropriately. Obviously there will be a D/A conversion that happens which could be affected by a signal that's too hot, but that would apply to any number of blocks that might end up in the signal chain, particularly with delays which is why they include a headroom parameter to adjust for that. I find it interesting that the one response to your posting of your preset didn't appear to hear the same artifacts you're mentioning. I downloaded and inspected your preset although I wasn't able to play through it due to time constraints on Christmas, but I didn't see anything that really stands out to me as "weird" other than your fairly aggressive high cuts on your low and high cut block. I commonly play both my Strat Elite and the Tele Elite through a range of different amp models including the Fender Twin model as you're using. and I've never felt the need for such deep high cuts. Granted, I do all my high cut adjustments using a parametric EQ block which has a steeper rate of adjustment than does the simple high and low cut block. But even then I can't ever remember needing to cut belor 8khz, and normally I'm much higher than that. I do typically have a fairly minor notch applied to the 4.2khz area to alleviate some of the twanginess on heavier, more driven tones. But I don't see how any of those things would account for what you're describing. Of course "digital harshness" is a pretty objective term and can mean lots of different things to different people. Maybe after I get past this weekend I'll have a chance to load up your preset on my live Helix and try it out with my elite strat into my Yamaha DXR12 and see if I can make out what you're hearing and experiment with it a bit.

Well...that was interesting. It was already set to OFF. However in experimenting a little more with it I discovered that the cutoff of the Beat Buddy only occurs if I press an empty or unused snapshot. Simply renaming the snapshot apparently stops it from sending the PC and shutting down the Beat Buddy. I'm afraid my Helix is haunted now....but at least I have a workaround.

I've come across something I can't explain or correct, so I'm throwing this out there to see if someone has some insight on it before I get in touch with Line 6 Support. I'm using the command center to control my Beat Buddy via MIDI commands. A critical aspect of how I'm doing it is I'm using the first instantaneous command to send the program change to the Beat Buddy to select the appropriate drum song to match the song I'm selecting as a preset on the Helix. This works fine as whenever I switch to a preset the appropriate drum song gets selected for that preset on the Beat Buddy. When I examine the instantaneous command it all looks correct from within HX Edit with the program control message assigned only to the first snapshot button and operates correctly using the standard midi commands for controlling the drums assigned to the stomps. However, when I select the second snapshot (even if it hasn't been assigned anything) it still sends the same program change message and interrupts/stops the drums. The same holds true for all the other snapshots on my top row even if they're empty or unassigned to do anything. When I examine the other instantaneous commands they're all empty, only the first instantaneous command has the PCM defined. I've also configured to snapshots to discard changes just to make sure nothing weird is happening in that regard. Have I missed a step here or am I not understanding something about the command center?

THIS^^^^ is one of the most misunderstood areas in modeling regardless of what setup you're using as an output method. And you're exactly right as far as placement and your own positioning can make a huge difference. And it all really comes down to a lack of understanding about the differences in what an output system is designed to do. With PA style powered speakers floor placement can suffer from bass coupling unless your speaker provides DSP facilities for correcting it. Even when placed upright on a pole, PA speakers will sound harsh if you're too close to them simply because they're made for projecting over long distances. This is why you don't want to stand in front of a FOH PA system either. But with about 6 feet of distance it will sound more normal. The good news is that because they're designed with a very wide sound cone, you can stand quite a ways off axis and the sound won't change. Studio monitors are even more susceptible to placement problems and suffer greatly if not placed correctly relative to walls and the position of the person listening to them because that is what they're designed to do as reference monitors. Headphones run the full gamut of problems depending mostly on who they're marketed to. So many headphones are designed for recorded playback which causes them to add inappropriate tone coloration to live performance music. Even going through a traditional amp 4CM can be a problem depending on the amp and how the manufacturer has designed it in terms of signal level input. Beyond that it will also suffer from the same things they've always suffered from which is the listener's placement relative to the speaker cabinet for the same reasons that mic placements have such a tremendous influence on their sound. What I never imagined is how many people have such a limited amount of knowledge about the different speaker characteristics, so they naturally place the blame on the modeler...which really has little to do with it.

It's probably going to continue trying to rebuild your presets every time you turn it on simply due to the fact the Helix is now on FW 3.01 and recognizes it needs to rebuild your restored presets from an earlier version. My guess is that preset 433 is somehow corrupt, so I'd clear that preset and it will probably allow the rebuild to finish.

What he means is there are LOTS of Helix products and navigation on the Helix floor is very different from Helix Native or Helix Stomp, etc. You should have a digital manual that came on a thumb drive that explains how to do all the stuff you need to do, or you can download one from the Line 6 support site.

Sheesh....after looking at that list of updates I recall doing my first update which was for FW 1.10. How in the heck did I fall in love with such a primitive system??? LOL

I could see it to be useful if you're using it at home or at practice where there isn't any PA involved. But if you need to correct for a venue and you're using a PA, ALL INSTRUMENTS AND VOCALS WILL NEED THE SAME CORRECTION. Doing it only for your Helix would get your screwed up the moment the person running the PA runs a Real Time Analyzer (RTA) and corrects at the board for the room acoustics. You'll probably stick out like a sore thumb.

The good news here is there still are people that read the manuals!! I was beginning to think that was a lost art......

I've found Jason Sadites formula for acoustic guitars to be pretty handy and flexible. Some things have changed a bit since he made this video such as using the low/high shelf EQ rather than the split path model he's showing in this video which was what he was using before we got the low/high shelf EQ. But his use of the 3 band compressor seems to fit my needs much more than any of the 3 sigma IRs. Plus I can change it a bit so it works well when I go from flat picking to finger picking. I also use a Takamine G series acoustic.

I'm not sure I'd describe it as "playing around" as much as experimenting to find what works best. I've never specifically used a downloadable preset, commercial or amateur. But when I first began with modelers I have followed someone's directions from a video tutorial to get a good grasp of the basics. To me that's FAR more productive than simply dropping in a purchased preset without any knowledge of how things are working and then guessing at what you might need to do to get it to sound right for your setup. As far as professionally crafted, you won't find anyone doing a better job of that than Jason Sadites on his YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/JasonSadites/featured He also makes all of his presets available for download or for purchase, but at least you know how he did things and why and stand a much better chance of making your own intelligent modifications without the guess work. I realize it's not the same as dowloading and hoping to hit on the perfect preset, but sometimes knowledge is WAY more powerful than just dumb luck.

I don't think it's that respondents couldn't answer that question, it's more to the point that the differences are so many and so obvious that it's clear your research wasn't very deep. Are you familiar with the power of shapshots? Or how about MIDI control over external devices, or control of the Helix via MIDI controllers? How about split signal paths for parallel effects? How about the ability to use IRs, or the ability to use multiple cabinets, mic and mic placements? How about the flexibility of the USB recording interface for capturing wet/dry signals? How about the variety of input and output mechanisms for external effects, other instruments, voices, direct outs for PAs, etc.? The world doesn't begin and end with two amp models. Especially when you can't even explore the possibilities of those two amplifiers using different speaker cabinets and/or mics and mic placements. If you want to know the difference, here's my challenge to you. I have just ONE of my presets that changes from an electric guitar to an acoustic guitar for a given passage in the middle of a song, changes up a half step in key on the final chorus, and I additionally run a Beat Buddy drum machine from my Helix pedalboard during that song. When you can accomplish that on your Spider Jam, check back with me.

Even though I have a Helix floor dedicated to my studio as my audio interface, I have to agree that most of this type of equipment would be much more useful as a DAW plugin than as a block in the Helix. Even though I might route my keyboard, or vocals, or other instruments through the Helix into the DAW, other than guitar I'm more likely to want to use those type of studio facilities after I've captured the dry vocal, keyboard, etc. tracks. Many of these type of facilities are also more applicable to a mastering role across the entire mix than during the capturing process.

For myself that's not something I'd probably be that interested in. But I'm not a big effects guy either. I play guitar...not effects. LOL

Not very likely any time soon. As has been stated many times, Line 6 is owned by Yamaha, but is independent in terms of direction and management. And they prefer it that way. And it depends on what your definition is of "near future". Their development resources are all fully used on the current Helix, and there's nothing in the area of DSP chips that's anything close to game changing at present so adding additional chips won't alleviate unacceptable latency which would be introduced with more chips. I'm sure that day will come, but everyone that speaks out publicly from Line 6 tells us they're not running out of horsepower yet. But even if they diverted all their resources to a new Helix starting today, you have to remember the Helix was about 5 years in development...and that was just for 2 initial offerings of the floor and the rack units. It's a MUCH bigger family now.

So why not post this to Ideascale since that's the only place Line 6 developers will ever see it? They surely won't see it here....

You may encounter some limitations with the Headrush due to it's lack of DSP contouring depending on how you place the speaker as for as getting a reasonable representation of a HRD. If you keep it off the floor you probably have a pretty good chance with either the Deluxe, Princes, or even the Tweed Blues model. There may be even other non Fender models that could suffice. The weakest points of simulation will likely be the output device you use as well as the choice of cabinet/IR and mic models. Behavior-wise probably most of the Fender models would tend to be pretty close other than the twin.

I think one of the things people don't take much notice of in discussions like this is how broad the Helix line has become. Being among the group of early adopters of the Helix (which I refer to as B.S.B.F.H., or Before Snapshots and Before Full HXEdit), I think the user's thinking a next generation of Helix will be everything the current Helix is and more. And that wasn't even true of the Helix compared to the HD500X in a large sense. There were many things that lived in the HD500X universe that didn't make it into the Helix universe for several years which would also likely be the case in the next Helix universe when you think about the entire family of products now bearing that name as well as the breadth of capabilities we now have. As for myself I'm not sure I'd even be all that interested in a next generation of Helix. First, in the time I've owned my Helix I've never encountered any limitations I couldn't overcome. And secondly, at my age I may not be willing to continue gigging long enough to justify a whole new generation of equipment and resultant upgrades. For now I'll just bask in the warm glow of all the things the Helix can do and how much it's grown in capabilities over the last 5 years...which should be enough to keep me warm and toasty for a long time.

I have two Helix Floor units. One of them (the one I use for live performances) had a failure with the joystick after about 6 months. It was under warranty so I sent it in on a Monday and got it back fixed that Friday. When I called it in I was told it was a simple fix where a solder point needed to be redone. Other than that I've had no problems at all. I'm not sure about the serial numbers.

I wouldn't worry about it. He obviously didn't get my tongue in cheek response. Maybe because he's such "ME FIRST" person... I know he was responding to my post by telling me how great he is and how unworthy I am, but I'm old enough to not take offense. After all, this was coming from a great Italian recording and live musician and, as we all know, the last world wide popular Italian artist was...well...uh...never. Unless you count Opera....but I don't think Helix plays a big part in that crowd....

I'm with Codamedia on this one. What I think is you're completely out of touch with the frustrations a lot of us have endured for many decades (in my case 5 decades) using analog gear in live performances. But I'll play your game with you. Those that claim they can never get rid of their analog gear have: 1) Never been on a year long tour going to cities all over this country and others and tried to get an amp (or worse yet a Leslie) repaired before a show that starts in 4 hours when you don't even know where there's a music store or an electronics repair shop. 2) Have never played an entire show thinking they had a great sound only to find out due to any number of possible reasons it sounded like a cheap Montgomery Wards amp to the audience through the PA. 3) Because of stage setups you're forced to stand far off-axis from your amp and it sounds like you're playing under water. And when you try and correct the tone on stage, it then sounds like a buzz saw to the audience. 4) Had a wonderful sound only to go out 50 feet into the audience and realize no one can hear it because all they're hearing is the mic'd version through the PA. 5) Tried to have a nice Black Sabbath sound on one song, a Doobie Bros sound on another song, and a Earth, Wind and Fire sound on another song through a single amp and setup. 6) Have to lug all your gear up a tight circular stairway to get to the venue you're playing at. 7) Frantically tried to troubleshoot a wiring problem with your floor effects board before you have to start playing in 5 minutes. The bottom line, I think what you're going to find in reality is that the vast majority of us that are firmly committed to this technology have come from many more years of playing all sorts of different analog equipment and amps than you have, and that's why we choose the modeler. Because it fixes all the problems we've endured with analogue setups over the years.

That's the length of the IR. In effect, greater length, more detail, higher DSP usage.