DunedinDragon

This is why Silverhead emphasized the importance of having the signal going into the board isolated from the Helix master volume. The idea is the same whether you have a sound man or you do it yourself. If the signal level coming into the board is consistent for all the instruments and will remain that way, setting up the mix is very simple and requires very little attention throughout the gig. In our case when we gain stage during sound checks we set all the faders at unity. Then using the PFL button on each channel we use the gain to establish the correct level of the signal for each instrument relative to the other instruments using the signal meter. For example you may set the vocal channels to a peak of +2db over unity and the guitar channel to -2db under unity, and drums to a peak of unity. In our case we determine these levels based on the levels determined when we mix and master a recording. In this way with all faders at unity your FOH should be close to an ideal mix and you only need to adjust your board's master fader for the volume level you need in the room. Therefore any change you make in your stage monitor volume won't affect that signal level going to the board and the mix will remain consistent at the board. You may still have to adjust faders slightly on vocals if someone is singing lead and another is singing backup, but short of that we never have to touch the actual faders during performance. Doing it this way once you set your monitor levels, you won't have to make any adjustments typically because the mix going into the board doesn't change. Ultimately this reduces the need to make adjustments at the board throughout the performance because you've established your mix levels at gain staging time, and they won't change even if you turn up your Helix master volume.

I pretty much use the same settings as you do. I set the volume level on my DXR12 to noon, but I have my Helix master volume set to roughly 11 o'clock. I sometimes go a bit higher on my Helix master especially if I'm not going through a PA. But that's fairly rare, and even on the largest stages I've never even come close to noon on the Helix master. I use 1/4" Mono out to my DXR12 on stage and XLR Mono out direct to the FOH with an inline phantom power blocker on the cable. In my global settings I have my 1/4" out set to Line level, my XLR out is set to Mic level, and my Volume Knob Controls is set to 1/4" only. That ensures the FOH receives a consistent signal level via the XLR output regardless of what adjustment I may make on the 1/4" out to my DXR12 on stage monitor via the Helix master volume knob, and also ensures my signal is generally consistent with all other XLR inputs coming into the board and thus easier to gain stage. At home when I'm dialing in presets I set my Helix master volume to 11 o'clock and I have a 1/4" out going into a DI box in which I'm feeding a 1/4" cable to my DXR12 speaker, and an XLR signal into one channel of a small 4 channel Alesis mixer used solely for measuring the XLR signal level output as I adjust the preset volume. I have the gain on that Alesis channel set to noon and I try to adjust my preset's volume so that it measures roughly -6db on the mixer which is about right in line with my normal target stage volume. Once I'm at rehearsal or sound check I may do some "by the ear" adjustments within the presets but those generally are fairly small adjustments as our band has a pretty firm grasp on stage volume so there's not much change necessary. I've been using this process now for close to a year and it's very predictable across FOH systems as well as smaller venues in which we don't put the instruments through the PA.

Short answer ... yes. Longer answer, they provide the same functionality but provide the functionality differently than the cab blocks in the Helix. The Helix cabs have the ability to be modified with different mics and mic placements whereas IRs do the same, but each different modification is contained in it's own file and loaded up separately.

You didn't really specify if this is for home studio work or live. For studio work there's no question you would be MUCH better off with a full Helix as all of the connections you would ever need are right there for guitar, vocals, keyboard, bass, etc. I have one in my studio and one for live work. In the studio I leave everything plugged in..guitar, keyboard, vocal mic, headphones...and just change the preset depending on what I'm recording. There's just nothing easier. Live I use a DXR12 as my monitor. The same thing applies in that I can keep my guitar, acoustic, keyboard, and vocal mic plugged in and simply manage them within the preset. So going from a typical rock guitar song to a keyboard based song is nothing more than changing the preset and start playing. I've personally never felt lacking with just the DXR12 in any venue we've ever played and that goes from a club that seats maybe 180 people to indoor concert setups with maybe 2000 seats as well as outdoor events. Bear in mind, unless it's a smallish event or venue I go through the PA so the DXR has to only keep up with the stage sound, but that's never been a problem even on the largest stages. We're a 7 piece band and I never have my DXR12 volume turned up more than 12 o'clock and I've never turned up my Helix master above 12 o'clock either. Most of the time I keep my Helix master at around 11 o'clock. My impression is that if your DXR12 is getting buried by other instruments on stage you need to find another band with more professional musicians that know how to manage their volume and blend together better. You have to put things in perspective. There are MANY bands and DJs that use the DXR12 as their FOH speakers, so it's more than capable of working as a very powerful monitor. I have a DXR12 dedicated to my guitar, but we have three other DXR12's we use as our standard stage monitors.

Personally I always get a MUCH cleaner harmony if I place the Dual Harmony post amp...but then I'm actually setting the intervals to actual harmony intervals..not just octaves as in this case. When I place it before the amp I tend to get less articulation and definition to the harmonies...more noise.

I'm another of the converts from the HD500X to the Helix. I came over a few months after the initial release of the Helix. I now actually own two units, one for live performance and one for studio work which also serves as a backup for my live unit. There's a couple of additional considerations between the LT and full Helix worth mentioning depending on your situation. Everyone focuses on the scribble strips as that's the most visible difference between the two. What's not as visible but possibly more important depending on your use are some of the physical routing elements such as the Aux input, Studio quality mic input with preamp, additional sends and receives, and the headphone volume control. Without those pieces it would be much tougher (or even impossible) to do certain things, particularly when it comes to recording, but also in live situations involving multiple instruments such as acoustic guitar, keyboard, or vocals. Those may or may not be important to you but worth mentioning and knowing about them. This was the reason I chose to get a second full Helix rather than a Helix LT.

I think this is an example of expectation versus reality. You may be one of those people that wants to just plug and play and there's nothing wrong with that. The problem is that in these type of advanced modelers you have the option to make them into anything you want them to be, thus all the flexibility you see in inputs/outputs and designing the signal stream and so forth. In essence the general complexity you would find in a full professional studio is all packed into that unit, but you have to be willing to invest the time in learning how to use it. That's not for everyone. Those of us that have a passion for developing sound and are willing to spend the time understanding the signal chain environment with all the various amps, cabs, mics, mic placement, EQ, compression, and other effects as well as the pro level equipment necessary to exploit it tend to get the most out of it. But that may not be you, if you're more of just a plug and play kind of guy. You can go a long way with some of the patches provided with the Helix or with downloaded patches, but you first have to get your general rig setup correctly either with an FRFR style setup or with a traditional amp using 4CM. Even then you'll likely have to make some adaptations to the patches provided to match your equipment. If you're the type of guy that just wants to plug it in and play it, then this may not be for you.

The Yamaha HS series should serve you well. I have a pair of HS7s that I've used for years as well as Yamaha DXR12's that I use live, so I'm a big fan of Yamaha speakers. One thing to be aware of with the HS5's is that they are rear ported, which means you should pay close attention to the documentation regarding positioning of the speakers in order to get accurate bass response. I have mine set up in my recording studio positioned about 3 1/2 feet away from me at a 45 degree angle to my left and right at roughly ear height. This creates an upside down triangle with me at the bottom. The speakers are positioned roughly 2 feet from the wall behind them.

I'd put my odds on it causing damage myself. But I may be erring on the side of caution given it's a $1500 piece of equipment and damage from that likely wouldn't be covered under warranty.

Just for clarification, FRFR isn't about just running vocals. It's about what everyday normal people hear when they listen to the guitar through a normal speaker system in their car or a home stereo system or even a PA in concert. Some musicians prefer the big amp in the room sound and the Helix can easily accomplish that by doing as you're doing and routing into the return of an amp. But that's really more of a unique stage sound than a studio sound which is what people normally hear in everyday music. That doesn't make it better or worse, just different. And if that's what you like that's what you should do. I just wanted to clarify things a bit given your comment about vocals.

It may be a combination of things. The USB interface on Helix is a USB 2.0 type B which is used for a different purpose such as printers and external devices, in other words things that can be slaved off of a PC. It may be possible to get a USB micro to USB female OTG converter then use a normal USB cable like you would use with a PC for the connection to the Helix. However, I'm not sure whether Android would actually see the Helix as a viable sound device or not.

I think having the cab at the end of the chain in a traditional live stage setup is more of a practical design limitation, not necessarily the best for achieving the tone you're after. In the studio you can apply more exotic and proficient effects such as compressors, reverbs, delays, etc. at the end of the chain for a more natural effect. That's why there's a difference in studio and live setups...or at least there used to be. Not so much anymore in terms of large scale productions. That's part of what is so excellent with the Helix. I can bring studio quality setups into a live environment.

I'm assuming what you consider to be "bad" as harshness. Some of this could be related to the way you have your K10.2's setup. If you have them in a floor monitor situation you likely need to specify that in you mode of operation for each of the speakers. That helps to get rid of bass build up when they're positioned on the floor. But harshness may have more to do with how you have them positioned relative to you. These type of speakers are designed specifically to focus and project sound over long distances, so unlike traditional cabinets they will always sound harsher close up. The same as a PA speaker sounds harsh up close due to the separation of the horn and main speaker not having adequate space to mix together. You can position them further away, or what I do is position them behind me as I would a normal backline. That gives me a better feel for the sound they're producing. Another thing to look at is what kind of amp you're choosing. Some amps, like the HiWatt, are specifically designed to work well as a clean amp driven by OD pedals. But the biggest issue I've seen in this regard is trying to get too much drive or dirt. I guess my question in this regard is have you tried using some of the basic provided presets that come with the Helix to see how they sound through your system? This might help to isolate whether your problem is in your patch, or the setup of your speakers. My personal guess at this point is it's likely in the setup of the speaker since ALL of your patches seem to be affected. The most typical arrangement for these types of setups is to use a 1/4" line output (non-balanced) to each of the speakers, no modification to the EQ on the speaker other than setting the DSP mode such as Monitor, Studio, etc. If you have no DSP mode set on these speakers I'm not sure what the default response is. Read through the documentation and try out some of the modes to see if that helps. Generally those DSP modes make some pretty big differences in the frequency response characteristics of the speakers.

New systems don't have any IR's installed, so you're not missing anything.

I think we'd need a bit more info on this to give you any advice. I doubt we have anyone in here that doesn't do such things and we're all getting great tones, so maybe a bit more info about how your signal path is laid out and what effects/settings you're using. Also how your physical equipment is connected (FRFR, 4CM, etc.)

I can't say I really adjust much between the recorded preset and the live preset. I go through this quite often as I put together demo versions of original songs the band will be playing in order to help them get a feel for their parts and practice the song to that demo track. The preset I build for that guitar part is used when we take it live. But that may be due to the fact I'm not really focusing on building a studio version of the song as that would come later when the band records it. Not really sure if I'd adjust it then even.

Just so you know, you still don't have to duplicate effects. The first amp is the last thing on the path 1 and the 2nd amp is the first thing on path 2. Pre and Post effects are all there. You can even share cab and mic setups by placing them after the 2nd amp. It's not as sexy as the split, but it works fine.

You'll actually be changing from Line level to MIC level which is considerably lower in signal strength. Unless you're really cranking the volume levels inside your patch (including levels on the output block) it's highly unlikely you'll clip anything as long as your sound man knows how to gain stage your channel. This is one of the reasons I keep a small mixer with a signal level readout at home so when I'm dialing in my patches I know I have plenty of headroom. Of course it also helps to in normalizing the volume between my patches.

I have an Elite Strat that I use on some patches which are a mix of clean and mid-gain. Different amps and cabs than you're using, but one thing I'm doing that may be different is I'm not using a split for the different amps within a signal chain. Each amp, cab, mic has it's own setup in the signal chain but sequentially across the top and lower chain so they each have their own DSP, and I just turn one off and the other on. That way all of the parameters are individually adjustable. Works great for me.

Agreed...this is all about headroom and technique. I somewhat go about it in the opposite way in that I have the sound guy set my signal level to "lead level" so it matches up but sits just below the vocal levels. Then I control my normal playing levels more by touch and right hand technique. That way I know when I hit leads or fills they will sit nicely above the general mix of the band, but slightly below where the vocals have been sitting. Gives it a very "studio" quality blend onstage.

Did you download and install the HX Edit software on your Surface Pro? That contains the actual device driver for the Helix.

Naturally PAs come in a variety of setups, but the only thing that accurately represents most modern PAs is going to be a powered FRFR speaker as that's the most typical type of speaker used in today's market. I've never used an Atomic CLR, but I would assume it should be relatively close, but there are some differences in how DSP is used, compression drivers, and the general physics of a cabinet versus a long throw/wide spread PA speaker. I'm not sure it would be worth buying a powered PA speaker just to check this sort of thing, but it might be worth borrowing one or even renting one just to check out the difference so you would know if you need to adapt anything at all. In terms of your feed to the FOH I'd recommend using either a small mixing board or a DAW to normalize and level out the signal levels across your presets and snapshots using a signal meter (this is not the same as a sound meter). That way you can use global settings to set the XLR out to a Mic signal level and configure it to not use the Helix master volume. With that configuration you're isolating your FOH feed from the master volume which can still be used for your CLR (on 1/4" out) and you're sending a full signal level to the board in a normal expected way that the sound man can gain stage appropriately at sound check and all your patches/snapshots will be the same level. I'm assuming the "TILT" setting simply reduces the low end response characteristics of the CLR to account for bass coupling with the floor. I have a similar setting on my DXR12 but it really doesn't make much difference in terms of representing FOH given that most FOH setups are using subs with a built-in crossover of usually 100 - 125 HZ which isolates the very low frequencies from the FOH main speakers anyway.

I find the AKG Perception series to be a very versatile and true studio mic. The Perception P120 would be the low end which I commonly use, and the P220 on up to the P440 are on the higher end. Very easy to work with and adaptable to a range of vocals.

A lot of that can depend on what mode of operation you're using on the QSC speakers (Monitor, Live, etc.) as well as how you have the speaker setup to listen to it. Live powered speakers will always sound harsh if you're too close and standing right in front of them since they're made for long throw projection. If you're setting them on the floor, make sure you set the speakers to Monitor mode and you may also want to enable the High-Pass filter to around 100 hz to trim of low end bass that's not really relevant. Keep at least six feet of space from you and the speakers to allow the compression driver to mix well with the main speaker. Depending on the cabs and mics you're using in the setup you may also want to play with High Cuts anywhere from 4kHz to 10kHz to take out some of the brittleness.

Or....obsessing over equipment and cork-sniffing nonsense for 30 years while others have actually been making a living in the business for almost 50 years.... :huh: