kronda

Yes, this question comes up a lot around this Helix issue... I don't know the answer in general but Line 6 M20d mixer reportedly doesn't have per channel switches.

Also, this whole thread is a very good suggestion for the upcoming Line 6 products ;)

Ok, it's possible I took for granted something which is not true. To be sure, can we please even clarify here what it means "polyphonic pitch-shifting"? It seems to me the current pitch-shifting blocks which we have in Helix are quite alright when it comes to shifting whole chords, right? Or is the quality of this not enough for everybody and by requesting Line 6 to go "polyphonic" you mean to improve these? My understanding always was, that "polyphonic pitch-shifting" actually means "polyphonic harmonizing". So you say you want to shift by 2 "steps" in A minor, let's say, and if I then hit tones A-C simultaneously, it would shift it to C-E, that is a DIFFERENT chromatic interval for each of the tones (3 semitones for A to C and 4 semitones for C to E). But is there currently even any device in the market capable of that? It's very different to just a "capo" FX, which shifts your chord (all of its tones) up or down a FIXED amount of semitones...

I respectfully disagree with both of these. Ad 1) Somebody recently mentioned in some of the Helix forums that some quite old DSP units (not Line 6) have excellent polyphonic pitch shifting. So I don't think that the processing should be that overwhelming for Helix's DSP horsepower. Ad 2) Well, it kinda follows from Ad 1) that this shouldn't be that limiting but anyway even if polyphonic pitch shifting uses one of Helix's CPUs completely (and that's insane I think) you still have plenty left as you can do wonders with even just one CPU/path. I think it's rather about pitch-shifting algorithms. To be honest it doesn't seem (from past products) that Line 6 is really strong in this department (by choice, I'd guess). Modelling is their A game, some weird FX stuff also made impression but no "legendary" pitch-shifter yet. Hope they'll change this score with Helix ;) I'm just saying this for the sake of the argument. I am not heavy pitch-shift user but enjoy a nice FX trick now and then and recently just used whammy for some cool stuff so would definitely welcome a new toy like proper polyphonic pitch-shifting rather than a 5th flanger...

Well, my experience in mixing is that I always tend to make things worse when using multiband compression so for now I'm staying away from it. I definitely don't see me using it in Helix anytime soon... :mellow:

What a thread! I'm a long-time Line 6 fan (owning 5 products so far) and now I'm thinking about getting a used JTV (59 probably). This issue is really putting me off, naturally. I haven't decided yet but if I do I'll definitely try before buy and test this issue specifically. Thank you, guys, for pursuing this problem and sharing any possibly helpful tips! It's a shame that Line 6, being such a superb innovative company and having extremely helpful stuff engaging in various web forums, has these weird moments when they stop communicating completely when an issue occurs which really seems to deserve explanation and solution. My guess is that it happens whenever there is an actual ball dropped on Line 6 side and then the hard business rules kick in and all friendliness is gone even though I can imagine that some of the Line 6 guys hate it. And then we're left with whatever we bought, no apologies. This seems to be one of the cases, another was the incoming phantom power issue with Helix, complete let down, cannot be fixed. But there it is a design issue affecting all units (maybe just the early series, who knows) and a solution is not that inconvenient (phantom blocker). In case of JTV plink, I don't think it's a marginal issue in terms of units affected, otherwise Line 6 would probably fix or replace those faulty guitars. Still, the actual cause of the issue is really unclear - rewiring 5th and 6th piezos seems to suggest it's not the guitar itself, it's in the electronics/software, but then it doesn't make much sense why not all guitars are affected. Perhaps it's a combination - there really is a thing in the electronics/software which deals with this issue just on the 5th string (and for capacity reasons not on the 6th string) but perhaps if a guitar resonates on one (6th) string, it more probably also resonates on another string (5th). In that case it could possibly (kind of) make sense...

Variax Bass works with Helix via VDI and can be powered by it as well. There is no Workbench for Variax Bass so that's not an issue. In other words Helix provides full support for Variax Bass...

Cool, thanks! Sorry for no Workbench support but anyway I don't use it very often as there is not that much to do in it (compared to HD). Ad 2) Just a reminder of a functionality that was available on POD HD - one press of Tap Tempo restarted internal LFO. Very useful for me when playing live with our drummer who was using a click: POD HD presets had song tempo stored matching the drummer's tempo, I just synced the LFO with the drummer at the beginning of a song, no worries about messing up the tempo by multiple taps... Ideascaled here: http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/One-Tap-press-to-reset-mod-FX-cycle/824525-23508

Awesome update coming our way! Two questions please (though I'm afraid I know the answers): 1) Old Workbench (non-HD) support? (for my Variax Acoustic 700) 2) Receiving MIDI clock - will Helix receive "beat information" so that modulation effects with note-based tempo will start their internal cycle (flange/phase...) on the first beat in a bar? (I understand it's not that easy, just which bar do I mean exactly, right?) I suppose the answers are "no" and it's fine, I understand, just in case there is any info/reasoning about that available... Thanks anyway, looking forward to the update! (and Helix Native!!)

I'd say that an event like NAMM is just generally accepted to be a place to announce future products. So I wouldn't expect this pre-release infor to become a regular thing. But I'm not sure about the legal side of things, at all...

Awesome move! The days of my POD XT + POD Farm were the best, looking forward to it with my Helix... Out of curiosity - why wasn't there ever a "POD HD Farm" - HD amps and fx in sw plugin form? I've been waiting for that for years and when it didn't happen I wasn't really expecting Helix Native-kind of product... So glad to be wrong about that!

I've been using my Variax Bass with my Helix via VDI and no problems there. Same for my old Variax Acoustic 700. In terms of playing the instrument there have never been any issues. Configuring my Variax Acoustic with Workbench via Helix connection is a different story, not possible for now. I understand this upcoming firmware will allow to configure JTV Variax and Variax Standard with Workbench HD via Helix connection. Now how about the old Workbench (non-HD) and Variax Acoustic 700? It's no biggie, still have the old USB Variax interface but it would be nice. Or allow using Variax Acoustic 700 with Workbench HD...

Thanks for the insight, makes sense. I agree there is not that much to do with a touchscreen and I'm not sure how it would influence the price but it would just be handy (to a couple of us) in several scenarios. So you're saying the next Helix will have it... Any details you'd like to share? Kidding... ;)

I would probably just use the touch screen for selecting blocks, at least that's the only activity when I always think to myself "now I wish I was editing on my phone". I guess we have the editor for that but to be honest many other actions are better on Helix directly (assigning footswitch bypass, editing some parameters...) that tend to go constantly from Helix to editor and back. The only two things which are definitely better in editor are selecting blocks and typing text. And text input is quite rare so the touch display would possibly make me edit mainly on Helix directly... But thanks for the note about touch-enabled prototype, I'm glad Line 6 didn't just throw it off the table without trying. Thumbs up!

I guess it boils down to modelling quality - "Eleven HD Expanded" could be Eleven rack modelling either newly remodelled (in HD) or just somehow converted/ported (to HD). So it could be a new amazing technology or just a repackaged old stuff (but even then the HD-converted stuff could be good). The price doesn't help here, it's kind of in between... But I have to say that they put in some of the stuff which I cannot understand to not be present on Helix - e.g. a touch display (a joystick in 2015?) and 20min looper with unlayering. The displayreally might be a great selling point even though it doesn't seem all that great display quality wise. Anyway, seems interesting but not at all making me regret getting Helix 13 months ago...

Yes, I reported this bug in 2.10 and Line 6 support acknowledged and said it would not be fixed in 2.11, maybe the next one.

Ok, I'm officially confused. I thought the "MIDI CC to tap tempo" bug was fixed in pre-2.0 firmware, I used it in one of my songs for recording, I believe. Strange, maybe it was reintroduced with 2.0 or 2.1?

Moreover in one of the Helix firmware updates (pre-2.0) new pitch-shifting algos were released (replacing the current ones) but based on some complains from users Line6 decided to rollback in the next update. I think these were still not generally polyphonic but were supposed to handle all situations better. Just to remind and support the claim that Line6 are working on it...

Variax workbench integration New press-the-same-snapshot-twice feature doing ...something New versions of pitch shifting algos, hopefully one to stay One or two new FX models - I'd guess a filter and a modulation

You can get metronom/drum machine on your smartphone so just need a simple cable to connect it to Helix. Absolutely not worth occupying Line 6 guys' time IMHO. I agree with 2 - HX reverbs would be definitely appreciated by me. I generally agree with guitar stuff only but would also include some vocal-specific tools/fx - de-esser and vowel-formants-aware harmonzer/pitch shifter. That would be awesome as I currently use Helix for processing both guitar and vocal live. But I understand it's mainly a guitar processor so I don't really expect these to materialize and am happy with the current state of things...

To be honest the MIDI clock sync is often (as implemented in other products - e.g.synths) not enough as it only includes syncing the tempo value, not the cycle start. Which is fine for delay FX, but not enough for modulation (tremolo, flanger...). There you really need to resort to sending tap tempo MIDI messages manually, as noted here by mdmayfield. Which you can do from Ableton... So that's fine. I used to do this with POD HD Pro and it worked fine. However with Helix I still haven't succeeded: 1) First I found the MIDI tap tempo message described in the manual doesn't work - I reported that to the support who acknowledged it and it was fixed in 1.12 update, I think. 2) It seems there is a problem perhaps in Helix MIDI driver because when I try to send Tap Tempo MIDI command from Cubase to Helix over USB, Cubase crashes. I still haven't got enough time to investigate this. Perhaps it's because I had Helix editor running at the same time... Has anybody tried to send Tap Tempo MIDI to Helix? Either over MIDI cable or preferably over USB? From Cubase or another DAW? Results? Thanks for any info. I'm planning to look into this but currently busy finishing album demo...

Well, I saw enough of these reports of "my bricked Helix needs to be sent to Line 6". I cannot justify taking the risk of updating to 2.00 while I have upcoming gigs or recording. Which means... never I guess. Pity they didn't hotfix the tempo led issue when it came up, it's the only thing currently really bothering me in 1.12. Snapshots seem great but not essential. Anybody else thinks these problems with BIOS/firmware flashing and stuff are so 2000s...? :(

Thanks, Mr. Igloo! I may or may not be disappointed if this is just a "mostly bug fixes" release... or not. But seriously, what I want to say while reading through this thread: Thanks to Line 6 - for creating Helix and for your presence on these (and other) forums. Nothing is perfect but Helix might be one of the closest things to perfection that ever materialized. And the well-known impossibility to please the crowd shouldn't make you feel down. Ok, now let's get back to business: We want scenes! ;)

I don't know. I feel like not much is happening in terms of firmware updates but checking the history quickly reveals it's been only a little over a month since the last update which together with the non-beta Helix editor completed a feature requested by the users (the editor...) and also delivered many important bugfixes. So objectively I'd say Line 6 are doing pretty good in terms of updates. But yes, I want more - new features, new toys... :D If they deliver the long-ago-hinted-at "stupid fun" features in July together with a couple of new toys (and fix the tempo led bug) and it's really stupid fun, I'll probably say they're doing fantastic. Also from the notes about the development ("stupid fun" code updates had to be put aside for a while until the editor-supporting firmware was complete, then the new features where merged in again...) I feel that after this big chunk of work is released new toys might come a bit faster... But just to be safe, I don't know anything, pure speculation here... :)

Well, that's a scary one. Especially since I run both my guitar and vocal through Helix. But realistically, with software as complicated as in Helix it's just impossible to iron out all of the bugs. Possibly it could be a mains issue, as noted, or a failing hardware component in Helix... Thanks for the report and please keep us posted if you experience this issue again.