DunedinDragon

After all of this discussion I have a theory here that maybe in your quest for the "amp in the room feel" you introduced compression through excessive gain somewhere in your signal chain. That would sound a bit more like amp warmth, but would limit the clarity and articulation, particularly if you pinched down the high cut pretty dramatically. I've done that intentionally in some cases when I want to get more of a smooth picking sound to emulate a Brian May style. Dialing back the gain a bit would likely restore the dynamics of the picking. The good news is you can still have plenty of gain and sustain without losing that dynamic with most of the higher gain amps with an FRFR setup.

I'm on HX Edit 2.52 and FW 2.53 which should be the latest.

Have you tried adjusting the Bias or Sag?

As long as you clearly understand what you're going to do as far as the upgrade you shouldn't have a problem. The biggest issue people are having is not with the updated firmware, but messing up the update process so their software is mismatched on different versions. In that regard you need to pay attention to the first step which is to backup your presets....which relates to your second question. You don't have to save your preset on CustomTone you can save it to your computer. In the HXEdit program you simply select the preset you want to backup by double-clicking it so that it's highlighted. Then up above the preset listing you'll see an area that says PRESETS and to the right of that is a selection that says EXPORT. Click on EXPORT and you'll be given a save dialogue box which will allow you to save that preset onto your disk drive. It will automatically be named the name you assigned it on the Helix and will be saved as a file with an .HLX ending in whatever location you choose. You can save individual presets or you can save and entire setlist of presets by choosing EXPORT from the SETLISTS area above the PRESETS area. That will save your Preset but if you want to save your preset you'll have to select the IMPULSES at the very top of that list to display all your IRs. You don't need to save your IRs if you still have the original IR you downloaded from the manufacturer. But if you happened to rename it, you might want to save it just to keep the same name. You do this by first selecting IMPULSES which will list all the IRs on your Helix, then you can select a specific IR and choose EXPORT at the top of the page and you'll again be able to select where you want that saved. What is important with saving IRs is that you need to put them back into the same location as they came from because the location number is what is used by the Helix to know which IR to use, not the IR name. For that reason a lot of us have adopted the process of renaming our IRs by putting a three digit number such as 001, oo2, and so on, in front of it to designate which slot it's supposed to go in. This makes it easy to restore IRs in bulk by simply selecting them all from where they are stored (given they're listed in sorted order), dragging and dropping them onto the IMPULSES list which will put them all back on in order in the right slots. The upgrade may or may not wipe out your presets and IRs, but it's better to back them up just in case. Once you've backed everything up you simply go to the support area and select the appropriate HXEdit program to download. The most current version is 2.53. Downloading and installing HXEdit will download all the other necessary files you need including the appropriate version of Line6 Updater. YOU DO NOT NEED TO SEPARATELY DOWNLOAD THE UPDATER. Once you've downloaded and installed the most current version of HXEdit, you can exit HXEdit and run the Line6 Updater (with your Helix turned on and connected to your computer). Once you sign in to the Updater it will show your Helix and the version it's on. Select the firmware version of 2.53 and follow the prompts. After it's done you'll have the firmware and the proper version of HXEdit in place and all should be fine. Make sure you're clear on how this process works and follow it and you shouldn't have any problems.

\ But would that work on the aluminum case???? Hmmmmm.....

Okay, let's see if I can remove some of the fog starting with snapshots and presets. The point of snapshots vs patches is to simply have a way to make complex changes inside a patch with a single stomp button action. Think of it as a super stomp button that can take multiple actions on the blocks in a patch. It's very important to remember snapshots only exist within a single patch. If you change patches the snapshots that you had in the previous patch go away and are replaced by the snapshots (if there are any) in the new patch. The value of this is there is no pause between the dramatic changes in different snapshots because you aren't loading a new patch. Because snapshots are a "special" type of stomp button, the Helix provides several different ways of laying out which stomp buttons are regular stomp buttons and which ones are snapshots. These are defined as part of your global parameters. For example you can have regular stomp buttons on the bottom row and snapshots on the top row, or vice versa. There is another special type of stomp button which is a patch change stomp. By default these are normally located on the leftmost buttons as "patch up" and "patch down" but can also be configured as sequential patch buttons along the rows on the Helix. What you can't do is intermix these stomp buttons at will. They have to be one of several specific types of layouts that are defined for the Helix. That's why you can't define one button as a snapshot and another button next to it as a patch change button. There are various ways around this sometimes using MIDI commands, but that's beyond the scope of what you're asking here. The bottom line in your situation is this, if you had a snapshot on a button and then changed to a different patch with another button, your original snapshot would be gone because you now selected a different patch. You would have to switch back to the original patch in order to have that snapshot available. Your best bet would be to have the preset containing your IRs that you use 80% of the time and the rockabilly preset as sequential presets in your setlist. Then to go to the rockabilly preset using the normal preset up button, and use the preset down button to return to the original preset containing your snapshots. DSP isn't bandwidth, it's Digital Signal Processor which is what is used to model the amps, cabs, and effects. It's not really related to snapshots but to the patch and each amp, cab, IR, or effect within the patch uses a differing amounts of DSP processing power and each DSP chip has a limited amount of processing capability. DSP processing capability is allocated for each block you add to a signal path in a patch so at a certain point you will begin to run out of DSP processing capability and certain blocks will be dimmed out and unavailable to add to the signal path because there isn't enough DSP left for it. This is why you see more complex patches using sequential layouts that go from the top signal path to the bottom signal path so they can take advantage of both DSP chips within that patch. This all comes back to what I mentioned in the beginning...although snapshots can exhibit some of the behaviors of patches, the basic unit of modeling is a patch. DSP is allocated based on the patch and snapshots are defined within a patch. Loading a new patch re-allocates DSP to that patch and uses the snapshots defined for that patch if any. If you get that concept down it will all make sense.

IRs really aren't divided up into metal or non-metal. The best you can do is get an IR of a commonly used cabinet for metal music such as an Orange, Mesa, Engl....or like a Celeston 4x12 Redback....things along those lines.

Actually I wasn't talking about our live mixer. I was talking about my testing mixer at home which I use to normalize my signal levels across my patches and snapshots, so that level is somewhat arbitrary. This just ensures I'm sending ample consistent signal strength so the sound man can gain stage it in any way he wants for his equipment.

I'm not sure what you're referring to as far as updating Global EQ, but I was referring to NOT using Global EQ for anything other than acoustic corrections for a room...NOT as a generalized approach to EQ'ing your patches. First of all it's unnecessary and secondly it's counter-productive given that each patch will require individualized settings based on all sorts of factors with the amp, cab, mic mixes and placements and so forth. Jason Sadites videos will give you plenty of good advise on this at the patch level. But to be honest in two years of using my Helix in live performances every week I've had no reason to adjust anything on Global EQ. As far as the built-in gate on the Input, I suspect that particular warning might come from people that don't understand how gates are configured. The built in gate has settings for threshold and decay so you can control it in the same way as you would most gates. I've used it on certain patches in the past when I had somewhat noisy single coil pickups with no ill effects and haven't had to use it since I've gone to noiseless pickups, but I'd take some of these "superstitions" with a grain of salt and determine it for yourself.

Speaking from the perspective of a sound man, unity is only important in terms of the setting of the faders for each channel. If gain staged appropriately the signal coming into the board will be mixed appropriately with the other channels and have ample headroom to account for momentary peaks as well as possible momentary adjustments on the faders if necessary to enhance the mix. That is literally the only thing important in live sound as it relates to unity. If you have your master volume knob set to noon, and you're making normal adjustments to channel volumes and not going crazy with additional volume and gain adjustments, you have more than enough headroom to ensure your signal won't clip coming out of the Helix. The higher you turn up your master volume the less headroom you will have and the more potential you will have for clipping the signal at the Helix. What IS important is that each one of your patches and snapshots present a consistent signal level to the mixing board so they can gain stage that signal one time at sound check and be assured of some level of consistency. And the only way to do that is to play normally through each patch or snapshot at your preferred normal master volume setting while connected to some from of signal meter and adjust your channel volume or channel output to present a fairly constant level so it can be gain staged consistently at the mixing board. In my case I have my Helix master volume set at 11 o'clock. I have the gain knob on my mixing board channel set to unity or 12 o'clock. I adjust all of my patches so the signal level measured at the board is -6db normally with intermittent peaks going briefly to -3db. Given that most boards clip at around +6db, that ensures that I'll have that same amount of headroom on my 1/4" output going LINE level to my FRFR speaker (which is set at 12 o'clock or unity), and on my XLR output going to the board at MIC level at maximum output since I have the master volume disabled on the XLR output. That leaves more than enough headroom to ensure the Helix won't clip any signals, and the rest is up to the sound man to dial in the trim or gain knob on the mixer to put my signal where he wants it to be. That's ALL that really matters....NOT unity. Unity is something the sound man will deal with.

Any basic mixing board will do that whether it's in a DAW or a hardware mixer. I personally use a small Alesys 6 channel mixer and use a DI box to route my 1/4" out to both my speaker and the mixer (the mixer isn't connected to any speaker). That allows me to use the signal meters on the mixer to help me normalize all of my signals to a consistent level to make it easier for the sound man to gain stage me at sound check time. This ensures all my patches and snapshots stay consistent throughout the performance to reduce any risk of clipping.

Chances are the transition to the Helix will feel pretty normal coming from the HD500 side of the house. The signal chain layout and different types of blocks will feel pretty normal although much more expanded and easier to navigate. That being the case, if you've been building your own presets you'll be comfortable doing so on the Helix as well. I will say there are some things that happen in the HD world that you WON'T want to bring with you. In particular the Global EQ. Although it's likely you'll need some form of high and low cuts on certain types of patches, you have plenty of ability to adjust that within the patch itself, and no adjustment is ever going to be consistent across different patches that use different amps, different cabinets, different mic configurations and so forth. If you want a really good place to start I'd HIGHLY recommend Jason Sadites series on building patches on YouTube. It's far and away the most comprehensive tutorial out there and will provide you with some of the best techniques for dialing in your patches on the Helix. In that regard you may want to think about whether you've got an ample home system to simulate what you'll be playing through at church. You mentioned headphones, but those can be somewhat tricky since many are meant for consumer use, not pro studio use. There are some good ones out there that are very popular with lots of Helix users such as the Beyerdynamic DT770 80 ohm as well as others. Otherwise you might want to consider getting some good studio monitors or, better yet, a FRFR powered speaker which will be the closest to the sound you'll be getting from the PA. I personally use a Yamaha DXR12 at home, but there are others that will do just as well. In terms of snapshots, they're very easy to use and understand...but also very easy to overuse as well. You need to spend some time and read about them and understand the limitations. Ultimately snapshots are limited to the DSP available in a single patch. If you have broad transitions that incorporate different amps or effects they can be useful. But whatever amps, cabs, effects, etc. are in the patch and are used in the different snapshots will count against the DSP limit within the patch whether they're turned on or not. Just something to remember.

I absolutely think the whole downloads page is clumsy at best and has been for some time. Probably the whole thing needs to be redone in such a way that it's not only more intuitive in it's search, but also can default to results that would eliminate the clutter of files that end up confusing people. Probably also a separation of release and installation notes from physical downloads as most other online vendors do to reduce confusion. I'm not so sure about the monitor profiles unless you're just talking about some additional presets. Given all the things that can affect a preset such as different guitars as well as different amp models, cabs, and mics I could see this easily resulting in numerous "I'm using an FRFR setup, but the FRFR preset sounds horrible" threads due to these differences. However, I agree that some form of "best practices" whitepaper could stave off some early problems. But then again, apparently there's a pretty decent sized population of users that seem to be adverse to actually reading things like a manual, so who knows if that would be useful.... ;)

Power surges associated with power outages could definitely affect it if the Helix isn't isolated in some way. It's definitely worth opening a support ticket.

Nope...it's something we've been asking for for a long time. Hopefully someone will come up with something.

Well...you're certainly all over the place but you haven't given us much information about how you set up the signal chain nor the settings you applied. Try it this way: Using a Les Paul with Burstbucker Pro II pickups -> Plexi Bright model (Drive 7.0, Bass 3.7, Mid 6.8, Treb 5.3, Presence 4.1, ch vol 6.7, master vol 8.0, sag, hum, rippl 5.0, bias 6.7, bias x 5.5) -> IR Celestion Redback 212 Closed back Hi gain mix of MD421 and 121, Low cut 130, no hi cut -> parametric EQ HighCut 12.5 Khz. There are a couple of other things in that preset such as a split crossover at 650 hz and a mix of reverb and echo, but that's the basic sound. I send that through a Yamaha DXR12 for stage monitor 1/4" Line level and XLR Mic level to a Mackie board that feeds a QSC KLA12 Line Array with a DW181 sub. It has an absolutely GLORIOUS full heavy rock sound. I typically have my Helix Master volume set around 11 o'clock with this setup. Dial that in and see what you get.

I'm not sure what you mean by more? More IRs? There's TONS of them. More videos and information? Just google IR and spend the next 20 years reading about them. IRs are fine technology and incorporate nicely into amp modelling, but they do what they do which is to capture sonic response characteristics so they can be applied to a given sound. So they are a bit static when compared to the dynamic real-time adjustments that can be made to the Helix modeled cabinets, mic and mic placements. This is why some folks refer to their searches for IRs as "going down the rabbit hole". A typical IR for something like a Mesa 2x12 cabinet may consist of 30 or 40 different files. Each file has a different variation of that cabinet such as a that cabinet mic'd with an SM57 located on the cap of the speaker, another file with the SM57 2 inches away from the cap of the speaker out toward the cone, and so forth. For each variation of mic, or mic mixes, and placements there will be a different IR file. If you don't know what you prefer as far as mic's, mic mixes, and placements you can spend a LOT of time searching through these files to find what you like. If you know what you like it's relatively easy to choose an IR variation and dismiss the rest. The reason IRs can't be used to model an amp is because they are static. You send a sound through them and the modify the sound in a static, but consistent way. Modeling an amp is different altogether because the sound and behaviors of an amp change dramatically when you change things on the amp such as master volume, gain, treble, SAG, BIAS, etc. You can't dynamically change an IR. You have to load a new IR to change the sound.

Probably the most important thing you need to know is to make a decision about what your physical setup is going to be. The Helix can adapt to most anything, but depending on how you physically set things up you'll need to understand what features apply and how they apply in order to get the tone you want. I've had my Helix for 2 years now and it's not my first modeler, so I've been at this modeling game for a while. The single most consistent problem I've seen in that time is people saying they can't get the tone they want (metal or not) when it actually turns out they were doing something that didn't make sense given the setup they were using. A classic case in point is using the Helix in conjunction with a power amp and cabinet using a modeled amp, cabinet and mic. Naturally it's not going to sound right because you have a modeled cabinet and mic feeding into a power amp and and REAL cabinet so you're coloring the sonic output multiple times before it comes out of the real cabinet. It will work, but it probably won't sound right. That's not the Helix fault, it's a fault with the design of the signal chain. All of the top end modelers are very powerful and capable machines, but they do rely on the user having a certain amount of base knowledge about the components in the signal chain (both inside the helix and external components) and how they affect the ultimate sound. I've always told people that the Helix is pretty much like having a portable, fully stocked recording studio. That's both a blessing and a curse for some folks.

Well you seem to be one of the very few having this problem. I constantly run through a myriad of different PAs as do many others here and it all sounds great. So it's not a problem with the Helix, it's a problem with the application of the features. But your first statement there really begs the question of whether you're actually gain staging the signal at the board. Your choices on XLR to the board are LINE and MIC if that's how you're going to the board and would best be set to MIC as that will match most of the other channels on the mixing board. If going 1/4" to the board you should be on LINE, not Instrument typically. Yes there will be a difference between the strength of the signal which is why it gets gain staged using the Trim or Gain knob on the mixing board. You should adjust this to ensure you have an adequate, but not too strong signal level being processed through that channel. Generally this gets done at sound check time. The sound you get going through a real guitar amp will be different because it's not a flat response type speaker like a PA speaker. But what comes out of the PA once you mic that guitar amp will be the same as you're hearing now given the same mic and mic placement on the cabinet. So what really matters here is the cabinet/IRs you use along with the mic or mic mixes and their placement. This is the same on a modeler as it is in the real world of mic'ing a cabinet. If it's too fizzy then use a warmer mic like an R121 and back it away from the speaker a few inches or choose an IR with mic placement that's further away from the cap out toward the cone. Choice of cabinet and/or speakers can make a pretty big difference as well as some are based on Celestion speakers, some are based on Jensen speakers, some are based on Alnico Blues and so forth all of which have different sonic profiles. All of this is a standard part of taking the sound from on stage into a PA system whether it's from a real cabinet, or a modeled cabinet and mic setup. If I were you, that's where I'd start. Once you get that sorted out you can massage the small things that need to be adjusted with EQ, but let the cabs and mics do their work first. My strongest recommendation is that you watch Jason Sadites videos on building a good tone as that will probably get you further than anything we could offer here.

I just did the update myself and timed it. The firmware update took about 10 minutes and the reboot and rebuild of the presets took another 5 or 6. Hopefully yours finished by now. It takes a while to rebuild 1024 presets especially if your computer is slower or overtasked.

Actually that particular joystick malfunction is common due to a single solder point. I had to send my unit in after about 12 months of use to get it fixed. It's a quick turnaround though. I sent it in on Monday and got it back on Thursday and haven't had any problems since. I wasn't the only one having this problem at least with the early batches of Helix floor units.

Well...this is what happens when you think you're playing like a Rock God but no one ever notices you...gotta get some attention somewhere I suppose... ;)

I hate to tell you this but you just wasted a lot of time writing about all the things you'd like them to add. They don't look here for such things, they look on IdeaScale where your ideas get voted on by other users to see if it would be worth adding. https://line6.ideascale.com/a/community/login

If I had a Helix and wanted a really functional looper I think I'd go for this rather than a Headrush for about the same price. https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/95000

I'm hesitant to add to this discussion since I'm not really a big user of a looper, although I have used simple ones in the past. But my take is that to really have a full featured looper you'd need a much more comprehensive set of controls than the meager set on the Helix. It seems to me that if I wanted to really be able to use a decent looper that might be an area that I'd be willing to buy an add-on unit and simply integrate it rather than either have to wait for a new version of the Helix or have to deal with a clumsy way of integrating the features into the existing hardware. But what would I know...I don't even use the one that comes with it now.