DunedinDragon

I have the HS7 and I don't feel any low end loss at all. But what you hear out of any of these speakers is going to be highly dependent upon their placement within the room since they depend on a rear-ward facing bass reflex port to help deliver the bass frequencies. That means they need to be placed fairly precisely relative to a rear wall for the best results. As far as a single speaker, I can't answer that. I've only ever used these types of speakers in pairs as they work in a fashion similar to common stereo speakers. It might work fine with one, but if it doesn't sound full or big enough you could always get a second one. There are very definitely stereo effects that can be quite stunning in the reverbs and delays.

Those are two completely different products and serve completely different purposes. The HS series are studio monitors and are designed for close up, detailed listening...not at all for public performance. The DBR series is designed as a live performance speaker (think PA speaker) engineered specifically for covering large areas with a consistent sound whether you're off to the side or directly in front. That's why you'd use something like the HS series at home ideally and the DBR in live performances. However, I do have the bigger brother to the DBR which is the DXR and I use that for dialing in my presets at home which I play through the DXR at performances.| It's also important to consider you would typically have two HS studio monitors used for stereo. Stereo isn't that important in live performances since you can't easily maintain an accurate stereo image in a large unpredictable areas, so you'd probably only need to buy one and play it in mono. You could buy two and use them for stereo, but again that's not all that important in real world live environments.

If you really think a more traditional powered speaker might be more to your liking, I'd urge you again to not get caught up in the lowest price or highest wattage (because manufacturers tend to be not exactly honest in how they determine their wattage). There are clearly decent speakers at the low end but there are also a number of people that have encountered the natural limitations of them. Fortunately some of the higher end manufacturers such as QSC, Electrovoice and Yamaha have introduced some very respectable speakers at a mid-priced level while retaining many of the features of their higher end brothers. For example the Electrovoice ZLX series, QSC CP series, and Yamaha DBR series are about half the price of the higher end cousins while retaining the tone contouring abilities, built-in limiters and higher end precision crossover designs of the higher priced units and are therefore less likely to need to be upgraded when you find yourself in more demanding situations in the future.

Quite frankly I don't sit at my computer with my guitar plugged into my Helix so I'm not going to go through the process of setting things up to listen to your preset, but there are a couple of things that look odd to me. I listened to his YouTube version of the song since I don't subscribe to Spotify, but I assume they're pretty much the same. First, are you using a Les Paul on this? It's probably going to be hard to nail that tone without one since that was what he used on this based on the video of his live performance. Looking at your amp and cab selection I see you chose to use the Soldano crunch which is an odd choice for Knopfler since he has a pretty clean tone and I would suggest trying the Soldano Lead Clean and adjust the drive to give you just a bit of grittiness when you dig in as that's what he's doing. Everything else is crystal clean. You'll probably need to play a bit with the bass control on that amp if you're finger picking like he does as it's likely going to be too dark. On the live version of this song on YouTube it looks like he's using a Vox AC30 and he uses the middle selection of pickups on the Les Paul then switches to the neck pickup for his leads. That, combined with his fingerpicking style is why I say you'll likely need to roll back the bass on whatever amp you decide to use. I'd also suggest you use a mellower mic on the cabinet than an SM57 which has more of a harshness to it. Using the Vox you'll probably be closest with the 4x12 Blue Bell cabinet. Since you're only using one mic I'd maybe suggest an MD421 or a 30 Dynamic and move the distance out to 4 or 5 inches, which will change the highs and lows so you'll likely have to adjust your high and low cuts. That's about all I see at first blush, but that's also making a lot of assumptions about the guitar you're using and the technique you're using when you play.

It sounds like you just discovered the reality of modeling which is, the Helix is only half of what you need. Without a decent speaker system it's a great modeler that you won't be able to appreciate or hear. And when it comes to speakers, you get what you pay for. Most drummers with electronic kits wouldn't dream of using a PM-10. It's an anemic and overpriced drum amp for drummers that don't know any better, and it's certainly not a flat or neutral response speaker. Since you're only playing at home right now, the lowest price option would be some decent studio monitors, but I'd advise to not go cheap if you want to get a full appreciation for what your Helix can do. They won't be loud, but they will be precise. I'm personally a big fan of Yamaha speakers and the HS5, HS7, and HS8 are all popular options. I've had my HS7's for over a decade and they are absolute workhorses. There are cheaper options but you get what you pay for in this area.

It's going to vary based on your focus. If you're starting off focused on recording and studio work you would likely be best off getting some very good headphones and studio monitors. The Beyerdynamic headphone line is very popular with people doing modeling, particularly the DT770 80 ohm or even higher. Studio monitors are a little tougher because there are some cheaper ones that sound pretty good, but the professional ones will give you overall better performance if you have a room for placing them correctly. I'm a very big fan of Yamaha speakers and have owned HS7's for many years, but there are also some other very good ones in that price range. In all speaker situations you get what you pay for, and that will reflect either positively or negatively on getting the tone you want from your modeler. Once you start moving into live performance the range of options becomes much broader. Some simply plug into a PA and let the stage monitors or in ear headphones provide the on stage sound. Some, like myself, use powered PA speakers, or what's commonly called FRFR speakers so that I have my own dedicated on stage speaker along with my feed to the PA. From there you can go many different directions such as a FRFR system in a cabinet arrangement like the Line 6 power cab, to an simple power amp and traditional cab, or even a 4cm arrangement with a traditional guitar amp and cab.... all of which have pro's and con's. But that's all somewhere off in the future for you at this point, so just keep reading in the forums and you can begin to get an idea of what might suit you best.

I would like to interject at this point that your success in the amp modeling game will be equally depending on your choices for the output system you use as it will for the modeler. This is THE most commonly overlooked aspect of modeling. Investing in a high end modeler and then trying to save money on an output system is probably the most common situation that frustrates new users. I'd say set aside enough money and time for serious consideration of both if you don't want to be disappointed.

Actually the installation instructions from Line 6 are quite explicit about what and how to load everything and make no mention at all of the installer because it's not a part of the installation process. Even if you just download and run the updated HX Edit it walks you through the entire process of getting everything updated from the HX Edit installation program. It's pretty hard to screw it up unless you don't read the install instruction.

This is the one I use. Works great. I place it behind me in the backline and it easily fills the stage in a 7 piece band. Short speaker stand By the way, the Alto 308 IS a PA speaker as are all FRFR powered speakers.

Easy fix. Mount your powered speaker on a medium height pole, point it in the other guitar and drummers face and melt their eardrums. There's no way any 4x12 cab can compete with that...that's why we don't use 4x12 cabs on PA's. Just kidding of course...but get your speaker off of the ground so it can project appropriately and you're probably half way there.

My presets are built for the guitar I intend to use with it. For me it makes sense in that if the tone I want for that preset is based on a humbucker, changing the input still wouldn't make any single coil guitar sound like the humbucker. The reverse is also true. Different output levels is not what really determines the core tone.

It's pretty unlikely it would be a Windows 10 bug since there are way too many of us using Windows 10 with no problems connecting. It's more likely there's something configured on your PC or running on your PC that's interfering with the connection. Logitech devices are infamous for creating device interference with new device drivers. Just make sure when you're running HX Edit you don't have other things running...particularly when you're installing it.

THIS is an important piece of the information you can gain from watching Jason Sadites videos. You'll notice that he almost always uses a dual cab setup (that's a dual cab single block not two cab blocks). The reason being that most of what you hear in modern recordings as well as on stage concert performances are typically dual mic'd cabs. He kind of glosses over this in most of his later videos but I'm sure he has one out that goes into detail about his approach. He generally uses a dual cab block using one dynamic mic and one ribbon mic, which when blended together gives you a much fuller and realistic overall tone to start with. The key is to pay attention to how he tweaks the parameters that deal with mic placement as well as parameters such as early reflections to bring out the tone. I personally use IRs simply because they're easier to apply, but I've duplicated his approach with the Helix stock cabs and they come out very much the same as an IR configured with the same mics and placements. This is the one area where most new users are deficient in their knowledge and can make the biggest difference before you start monkeying around with EQ. Until you are able to get some serious output capabilities, you're likely to be significantly limited in getting the tone you want. The Helix is only half of the solution. Your output setup is the other half.

It's a combination of the cab, mic and mic position not just the cab. That all makes a significant difference in the resulting tone. I believe from what I've read Mercurial uses the RedWirez impulses so you'd have to do a bit of research to figure out what they're using in terms of the specific IR configuration you've selected if you want to match it. Or just make some similar adjustments on the stock cabs to behave in the same way as the IRs being used by Mercurial. Generally if you get the cab, mic and mic positions as well as other tweaks to the Helix stock cab close, you shouldn't need much in the way of additional EQ.

What cab and mic setup are you using in Mecurial Spark compared to the ones being used on the Stomp?

Quite honestly I got away from using the output block a few years ago because it kind of made me nervous and depend solely on amp model channel volume adjustments. That's always worked flawlessly for me, but it was more about my concern that the output block really exists outside of the modeled signal chain and interfaces directly with the AD/DA conversion, so I wasn't sure if it would work the way I expected it to all the time, whereas the channel volume always would. I don't know if that's actually true, but it made sense to me.

That's actually 4db on the signal meter which I'm not sure that's measured the same as SPL or is related to wattage because a mixer really has nothing to do with wattage, just signal level to whatever amp it comes in contact with on output, but it is noticeable. It's roughly the same as the difference between a lead vocalist and a supporting instrument in the mix. But I have plenty of headroom in my Helix signal, so it comes down to a difference on a typical amp model of having the channel volume set at 4.5 needing to be changed to around 5.6 or so.

I'm used to restoring my global settings, generally by hand because I know which ones I've changed from the defaults. Unless the update changed some of the defaults they should be fine. I'll look into that, but as I said it's not a problem for me as I can fix it easily by adjusting the amp model channel volume. Given some of the changes in 2.92 particularly with the compression indicator as well as the new EQ blocks I'm making adjustments anyway on most of my presets anyway so it's not really a problem.

I'm curious how these soundmen would handle it if they had a mic whose signal level was weaker than a mic on a different channel. Maybe then they'd find their way to the gain/trim knob on the channel on the mixer....which is why it's there.

Not really. I'm measuring from the XLR out which is disengaged from the Helix volume knob so it's sending a full volume Mic level signal. Since I can't say the signal level drop is consistent I'll just adjust the amp model's channel volume on each patch. That way the 1/4" out signal as well as the XLR out signal are both adjusted by the same amount. Like I said before, it's not really a huge deal. I was just curious if others have seen this.

Somewhat. There does seem to be a bit of an influence by the LA Comp in the last block than without it, but generally all about the same. Probably about a 4 to 6db change.

No problems at all with my Sonar Platinum. Works as it always has.

After not playing for a few months due to the COVID-19 adventure, we finally started up again last week. In preparation for doing so I was going over my presets (which were built prior to 2.92) and I noticed a considerable decrease in my output levels under 2.92 on most of my presets as measured by the signal meters of my mixing board. It's been easy to adjust them using the amp model's channel volume, but I was wondering if anyone else noticed this. I thought it might be an unintended artifact of the signal level warning lights on the Helix or maybe even the compression level guage.

If you want to really make a perfect copy I'd suggest you export the preset to your disk drive and import it in the different location. This is how I handle all of my presets and haven't had any problems moving between setlists for well over 4 years.

Nice job!!!