DunedinDragon

I think the answer to "where do I start" reallly depends a lot on where you are at. In essence, how long have you played guitar? How familiar are you with different amps? How much have you played live or recorded? What is your intended purpose for the Helix? The answers to all of the above will determine where you start.

This trend seems to be getting more and more prolific. I noticed on the new Jeff Lynne ELO tour there wasn't a single amp on the stage. Personally I think this makes for a much more professional and bigger stage setup and production. They really aren't necessary anymore if you think about it.

Have you called Line 6 support and opened a trouble ticket? That would be my first action in this case.

I'm another one who still uses Sonar Platinum. I'm not sure what's going to happen with it, but as long as it continues to work well for me I'll keep with it. As far as the audio interface I use a separate Helix Floor as my interface which also serves as a backup for my Helix Floor I use live. As far as keyboard I use an actual keyboard, but I have used TruePiano in the past for MIDI based piano rolls. As far as virtual drums I've used EZDrummer in the past, now I tend to prefer Addictive Drums.

You don't really EQ based on a speaker. You EQ based on the source being fed into the speaker. Any modern powered PA speaker has already been tuned to provide an optimized response for any signal being fed to it. As Cruisinon2 points out, what's not always optimized is the source material and for that you need to use your ears to optimize it to what sounds right to you. Some speakers do provide contouring options to allow for idiosyncrasies in speaker placement and usage such as spoken voice over music, or placement vertically on a pole versus on the floor as a monitor. But that's a consistent change related to general usage. EQ corrections are targeted at the source material.

There's only one place that Line 6 uses to evaluate future updates to the Helix and that's on IdeaScale which is at https://line6.ideascale.com/a/index

I own a couple of KW181 subs, but I have them matched up with KLA 12 line array speakers for my FOH PA system. I've only recently encountered the KW front speakers and I have to say I'm pretty impressed. However they aren't as flexible in their adaptability to different uses as are the more popular k.2 series which has a wide range of DSP contouring options. The KW series is far better known as FOH PA speakers than as stage monitors which is where the K.2 seems to fit better. I'm not sure what you're looking for as far as EQ tips for the Helix. That all depends on what style of music you're playing, your output/monitor system, type of guitar, and the specifics of the signal chain you're using in your preset. If your using powered speakers such as the QSC series for your on stage monitors for your Helix, most people find they need to make some EQ adjustments to the high and low cuts of their presets to better simulate the response of a traditional guitar cabinet. My biggest point of advice in terms of EQ is to absolutely NOT use global EQ to make these type of adjustments. All EQ is really highly dependent on the style of music, the amp model you're using, how the amp is setup, the cabs/IRs being used, mics on the cabinets and the mic's placement. In many cases I don't even need to make EQ adjustments, so you're hurting yourself if you apply EQ globally where it can work against your depending on what's going on in different presets. If you want some good ideas of how to apply EQ I'd suggest you look at several of Jason Sadites YouTube videos for some practical ideas on the subject with different amp, cab, and mic setups.

It's very easy to get it on there...just go buy one and put it in a send/return. But I suspect there's nothing special in that pedal you probably couldn't achieve with one of the other compressors like the Deluxe Compressor with the right adjustments to the parameters.

Yeah...studio monitors sound like the right ticket for you. Take a look at the Yamaha HS-7 speakers. I've had mine for probably 8 years. They're pure workhorses and are extraordinarily accurate. It seems like I've been seeing them a lot on sale.

A lot depends on what you mean by "live". Studio monitors would be the optimal way to play at home with recordings. Once you start talking about jamming with others or in a band then studio monitors wouldn't be sufficient and you'd need something more along the lines of a powered speaker or cabinet. Both are well within your budget. But it's important to understand that you tend to get what you pay for in these areas. I have both studio monitors as well as powered monitors as I do both home recording and live performance. I'm a firm believer in getting high quality when it comes to speakers as they will account for a significant portion of what you can get out of the Helix as far as sound. I have a pair of Yamaha HS-7 studio monitors which run about $300 each or $600 for a stereo pair. For my live powered speakers I use a Yamaha DXR-12 which are about $700 new, but can often be found used. I use just a single speaker as stereo tends to be generally not as effective in live environments and is hard to get a decent stereo separation at least as far as the audience is concerned. The advantage you have with the Helix is that it can be used as your computer's audio device. Therefore you simply attach the speakers to the Helix and hook the Helix up to your computer via a USB cable and you can jam along with anything on your computer or the internet. The only thing you have to concern yourself with is what you're application is in terms of playing "live" so to speak.

Having your Helix master volume set below maximum will in NO WAY affect your tone or dynamics. This is the digital world and it only controls the line signal signal level. If you're going into the effect return of an amp, that's a pure power amp with no tone stack and should be providing clean power. It may have an effect if you have the helix master volume too low due to the well documented Fletcher Munson effect, but that has nothing to do with any equipment other than your ears. The VAST majority of us do not set our master volumes at max. We might disengage the volume control from the XLR going to the mixing board which will send a full signal to the board, but once that signal is gain staged at the mixer there's no difference between the inherent tone of that signal and the one you're using on stage. The Helix master volume has no relationship at all to the behavior of a guitar amp's master volume which does affect, in most cases, the tone and overdriven nature of the amp. We really don't need any more voodoo superstitions floating around when it comes to this technology....we have enough of them relating to tube amps.

That would the the Helix Editor version 2.60. To be clear, the download is separate from the install. You download the HX Edit 2.60 install program, then run the install program. Once that's finished you will have the Line 6 Updater program on your computer. Run that and follow the directions.

If you think about it the Helix actually is plug and play if you were to be plugging and playing into a bunch of different amps and effects everytime you plugged in. But it does look like you've caught on to the most important thing which is to select a level for the Helix master volume knob and work on adjusting each patch to get them to the same level. There's really nothing mysterious about it once you consider what "modeling" is really all about which is simulating the input and output effect of an electronic circuit on a given signal. Obviously a signal is affected differently by the circuits of a Fender Twin than it is on a HiWatt or a Marshall. So even with actual equipment you'd have to be making some adjustments to get them somewhat near the same level of output. There's no difference here once you get that paradigm firmly established in your mind. There's nothing wrong with simply making adjustments to the output block and I've done that as well occasionally. My personal preference is to start with the amp's channel volume as that won't affect the tone and most of the time that works out for me. Once in a while I'm just not that comfortable going that high on the channel volume and will defer to using the output block for some additional gain in signal level. I'm kind of in agreement with Cruisinon2 that an adjustment of 10 or 12 db on the output block makes me a bit nervous, but I can't specifically state it's going to cause a problem unless maybe you were to crank up the Helix master volume knob significantly. The one other place you can safely increase the gain on the signal without affecting tone is on the cabinet output. I used to use that when I first started, but now prefer to use the amp channel volume or the output block which one way or another has never failed to give me the signal level output I want. The thing with effects I've learned is to try and maintain the same signal level with the effect on or off. That of course doesn't apply in some cases to boost or distortion pedals for leads or sometimes compressors, but 99% of the time that's a good rule to follow so you aren't constantly driving your signal level higher.

There are several things to consider here. Every amp model is different in terms of it's volume output because the circuit measurements on the inputs and outputs are different on the various stages of the amp, and that is what's being modeled. This is why I use a signal meter to set mine consistently across the various amp models I might use. Ideally if you're not using the helix master volume for your XLR out you should probably also ensure you're setting it to Mic level line signal as that would be what's typically expected on most mixing boards. If you have it set at line level that may account for why some boards are having trouble gain staging it. As I mentioned in my above response, I set my master volume at 11 o'clock and measure the signal coming out of my 1/4" out targeting a consistent -6db on the signal meter. With my XLR set to Mic level signal no one has ever complained about not being able to gain stage it adequately. This assumes, of course, you're dealing with someone running the mixing board that understands how to gain stage a channel correctly...which can sometimes be a big leap of faith.

When I'm dialing in my presets I have my master volume set at 11:00. Like those mentioned above, my XLR out is disabled from using the master volume. However, that doesn't mean the signal level being sent to the board is always going to be consistent across all presets or snapshots. That's determined by the settings within the presets/snapshot, but having a consistent signal level whether it's going to your monitor or to the board is vital for maintaining a good mix. I do this at home by measuring the signal level of my 1/4" output through a small Alexis mixing board with my master volume set to 11 o'clock. I try to maintain a target of around -6db on the signal meters so I know my XLR out will have a consistent level as well. Generally speaking this 11 o'clock setting is about perfect for getting a good stage mix with the rest of the band with my DXR12 set to unity or 0 db.

There's a number of different techniques that people use in multiple guitar settings. The Eagles were masters at this because of all the guitars. The trick is to play complementary parts. I play in a dual guitar band so often when the other guitar player is playing a bar chord, I'll play an open chord or some form of inversion of the chord. Sometimes if he plays low on the fretboard I'll play high. Many times I'll just play accents to his rhythm, or another common thing is to change my strumming pattern. I might palm mute to his power chords or finger pick or hybrid pick against his strumming. And don't forget someone should be comping between non vocal phrases. The main thing is to not compete, but compliment. Sometimes, as Robbieb61 pointed out you may want to over power the chord together on certain phrases, but if you use your ear and are creative you can make the sound more interesting and big with just variations like I mentioned above. All of those fundamentals aside, I also try to adjust my tone so it's clearly different from his. Generally speaking that's fairly easy because we're using different types of guitars. With the same guitar you need to be a bit more creative, maybe using a brighter tone against a darker tone, or cleaner tone against a crunchy one.

Here's a quick little utility you can run that will help you determine what IRs are being used in what slots. http://dave-merrill.com/helix/hirb/

Just to be perfectly clear...If you're going into the amp and using your physical amp and cab, then you won't use the Helix amp, cab, and mic then you would only use the Helix for Effects. If you were going into the effects return portion of your 4CM, you would be only using the pure power amp part of your [physical amp, so you could use the effects and amp models in the Helix, but not the cabs or mic's as you'd be using the physical one. In both cases you would likely want to mic your physical cabinet.

The Helix Owner's Manual tells you everything you need to know about how to do it. https://line6.com/data/6/0a06439c975d5787c3e351aa0/application/pdf/Helix 2.0 Owners Manual - Rev D - English .pdf

Actually, that's what the Aviom system overcomes. Everybody has their own small mixer that's fed from the main mixer and they can mix their own personalized mix to their IEMs however they want.

You could possibly use a headphone mixer and a couple of 1/4" TRS cables to get what you want. Personally I think you might be better off putting more focus on how your efforts are mixing with everyone else in the band than concerning yourself so much with something that doesn't really matter to the audience, the rest of the band, or anyone other than you.

A lot of what you're experiencing is going to be affected by your output device. That being said if you're following the general template that Jason Sadites tends to follow you may want to consider different mic's on the cabinets. Jason tends to have a preference for ribbon mics, which I also prefer and work well in my particular setup with a Yamaha DXR12. But your setup may respond better to one of the dynamic mics such as the 409 or 421 or even the condenser mics, either of which will be a bit crisper on your low end frequencies. Possibly even a blend of a 421 and a ribbon might work well.

In the first case of using a DI to connect to both the DXR and the mixer, that would work fine and many people do it that way. In that case you wouldn't make any changes to the global ins/outs but you would lose the ability to isolate your Helix output to the mixer from changes you make to the Helix master volume. In the second case, if I understand you correctly, you would be using both Helix XLR outputs, one to service the DXR and one to service the mixing board. However unless specifically included blocks in every preset to ensure the output was in mono, you would be sending a stereo signal with the left side of the stereo going to the mixer and right side going to your monitor.

Well there are a TON of variations about different preferences on how to do this, so I can only tell you how I've approached this and why so you can decide for yourself what best fits. I have a very similar setup to yours in that I also use a DXR12 as my stage speaker. I go out of my L/Mono output on the Helix into the channel 2 line input of the DXR12 with the Level knob on the DXR12 set to 12 o'clock or 0 on the dial. This represents the point of unity on the amp in the speaker in which the amp is running at it's normal full state with the incoming signal neither boosted or attenuated. You could also run XLR L/Mono out to the channel 1, but there's really no advantage to it since it's going to be a very short run to the speaker from the Helix. I also have a set of DXR12's I use for stage monitors and in that case I use the XLR inputs as those can often be fairly long runs of cable. The main thing to consider is how you want to use the DSP contouring options and that depends on how the speaker is positioned on stage. In my case I have my speaker positioned behind me on a half height pole. This gives me the widest projection of sound so the rest of the band can hear me and is the best way to project into the audience if we're not running our instruments through a PA. In my case I have the D-contour setting to OFF and the High Pass Filter (HPF) set to 100 Hz. The HPF is just another way of saying Low Cut and helps get rid of frequencies not typical used by guitar. If you decide to place it behind you in a floor monitor configuration you may want to select the Monitor configuration on the D-Contour as that will mitigate what's known as bass biasing when monitors are placed on the floor. That's an artifact in which lower frequencies tend to build up with speakers in contact with the floor and the Monitor selection will correct for that. When it comes to running to the mixing board I'd STRONGLY recommend you send that signal via an XLR L/Mono out. The reason for this is that XLR signals aren't as likely to deteriorate or get noisy over long runs like 1/4" can. More importantly, not all mixing boards (at least reasonably modern ones) can accommodate a 1/4" input, but they can ALL work with an XLR input. One of the things that you have to be careful about with XLR outputs in this situation is what's called phantom power. That's a feature on mixing boards that provides power to certain types of microphones such as condenser mic's. If phantom power is sent on your line to the Helix, the Helix won't like it and will get noisy and sound weird. In my case I bought a phantom power blocker from Amazon for just a few bucks which I plug into my XLR out, and then plug the XLR cable into that to run to the mixing board. There are other ways to protect from phantom power. One being to run into a DI box and then to the board. But that's generally going to require using the 1/4" output which I already have in use for my on stage speaker, so I choose to go the route I go for other reasons as well which I'll also explain. I know you may not want to get too technical, but this is rather an important decision about how to use your Helix in a situation where you're going to a mixing board. In the global ins/outs of your Helix you can configure the signal levels to be sent out of both the 1/4" outs and the XLR outs. In my case I leave my 1/4" out set to LINE level output as that's what powered monitors normally work with when attached to a mixing board. You'll notice the XLR input of the Channel 1 on your DXR12 can be configured to use either Line or Mic level. The Mic level is what's normally expected if you plug a standard dynamic microphone into that XLR input on the DXR12. Otherwise it's set to Line level when used as a monitor from the mixing board. You'll notice in the Helix configuration you can also set the 1/4" output to Instrument level which would be appropriate if you were going into a standard guitar amp, which is not the case you're using. The important aspect of all of this is in the configuration of the XLR out when used with a mixing board. I set the global option on the Helix to send that signal as a Mic level signal to the mixing board as that's what most of the inputs on a mixing board are configured for. Additionally there is another option in the global Ins/Outs of the Helix called 'Volume Knob Controls' which defaults to "1/4 + XLR". This means the level you set on your Helix master volume knob controls the signal level on both the XLR and the 1/4" outputs. I change that setting to be "1/4" so that my volume knob only controls the signal level going to my on stage DXR12. In this configuration (along with the configuration of the XLR as a Mic level output) the Helix will send a full non-attenuated signal to the mixing board at Mic level. This allows me to adjust my stage volume via the Helix master volume knob without affecting the signal going to the mixing board and allows the sound man to gain stage the signal on his end independently from my on stage volume. This is important because once the mixing board is gain staged at the beginning of sound checks you don't want that signal level to fluctuate as it could cause clipping at the board. As far as getting XLR cables, I carry a reasonably long cable with me. What the venue provides can vary, but at least I have something in case they don't. Most often they will provide you with an XLR cable that's connected to one of the channels on the mixing board, but you can't always depend on that. As far as the L6 Link, that would come into play were you to be using a Line 6 monitor speaker as it's proprietary to Line 6 and isn't an industry standard such as an XLR or 1/4" out. I realize that's a lot of information to digest, but it should get you started. But that kind of complexity is part and parcel of having a system that's flexible enough to be used in a lot of different ways. And that's why there's no single best solution for how to set things up. I mostly have mine setup the way I do because aside from being a guitar player I've also had several decades of being a live sound engineer so I've tried to take both regimens into consideration in the way I configure my setup.

Are you using a Helix Floor or LT? I think what I'm getting is you can't seem to get a good mix between your backing tracks that are playing back and the vocal track you're recording. If so, that's one HUGE differentiator with the Helix Floor that you have a headphone volume which allows you to get control the mix of the vocal over the backing track. Otherwise you have to control that mix with the master playback volume output from the DAW. It's not as convenient but it will still work.