ricstudioc

Assuming one of the bigger units - a)yeah, the signal is the same from mono to the L/R's. B) The way I always did it was to send XLR to the FOH, decoupled from the big volume knob - and the 1/4" to my stage frfr's controlled by that big knob. The house gets a constant send for the sound guy to handle, and you can jigger the stage level to suit your needs.

Yup, pretty much the same fail that I see. Given how many folks seem to update without issue I'm willing to accept that the problem is on my end (pending any revelations). But honestly I kinda like doing the local install, and having the file on a local drive. If I ever had a major fail the file is there to attempt to recover without depending on an internet connection.

A) No, my internet connection is rock solid, and in the upper third of what you'd call "fast". Don't know why I have this issue, every other bandwidth-hungry activity goes down without a blink. B) Interesting, didn't realize that Edit invokes the Updater behind the scenes, just assumed that Updater was kinda legacy and there for other products. So I've learned something today - thanks!

FWIW the last couple updates I've had issues (Win7 platform) - get signed in, start the process, get some kind of error message about the download. Rinse and repeat. HXedit updates just fine, it's when I try to update Helix that I get these. But updating HXedit also updates Line6 Updater - so I've taken to downloading the firmware file and updating thru the Updater. Smooth like buttah each time. Just for your consideration.

Like noted above - that's what I do. I generally have a clean amp and a dirty amp on one switch - light off is clean, light on is dirty.

Pragmatically - Helix has paid for itself many, many, many times over. It has vastly simplified my load ins/outs, and minimized the cartage toll on my poor tired back. Creatively - It's been remarkable, the sheer number of... everything... in Helix provides a damn near endless number of choices. Unrivaled flexibility in routing and I/O's and loops. Signal chains you'd never dare attempt in the "real" world. No chance that I'll abandon Helix at any point.

Well, the original GLX runs (apparently) exclusively in the 2.4ghz range, and that band is becoming notoriously crowded. Depending on the venue/crowd the wireless could have been having a hard time getting a clean lock. I run a G50 on my guitar, and an Xvive U4 for in-ears, both on the 2.4 band. Have never had any major issues (the bands mixer router also runs 2.4). Just a week back we played at a retirement community in the area - outdoor venue. When we got there for load in, they were holding a "Trivia" game where the players in the audience were using their smart phones to "ring in" their answers to the quiz masters laptop. There were like 100 people playing - and my first thought was "Holy sh*t, there must be an insane router to handle that many simultaneous wi-fi connections". And how many of those people had the presence of mind to shut down their phones wi-fi when the game was over? Sure enough, for the first time ever I had significant issues with my wireless rigs. Went to cable on the guitar, and just bit the weeny on the in-ears - the dropouts were just barely in the "tolerable" range. So don't discount the possiblity - 2.4 is becoming an LA freeway during rush hour. I note the new GLX+ can switch between 2.4 and 5.8, a much emptier band for now. This is L6's board, so I won't name competitors, but - based on a number of YouTube demos and in-depth reviews I've purchased two of the "dongle" type wireless units we're seeing more of these days. One in the 5.8ghz range, the other in the 900mhz range. Son of a gun if early testing isn't showing them to be dead on rock solid. The tech has advanced rapidly, "cheap" wireless isn't a joke anymore. And I only need, what, about 30ft? Punch line - I got both units, combined, for around $100. Dirt cheap to have not one, but two fallback units.

You know you can save the starting position of the pedal as part of the preset? When the preset is to your liking, set the vol pedal to 85% and save the preset. Everytime you call up that preset, regardless of the physical position of the pedal it will be at 85%, any touch will make it respond from there on. It's what I do (at about 70%)

It's always been my understanding that when you profile an amp, you're capturing its settings at that moment, and are extremely limited in how much you can edit that. i.e if you capture that Mesa at full grinding shred, you're not going to be able to clean it up just by lowering whatever gain control is available. You're not so much profiling an amp as you are capturing a particular specific sound. I personally prefer the modeling approach where the circuitry and responsiveness of the amp, through all of its control permutations, are available. Done well (thanks, Ben Adrian!) one can access a much wider palette of tones from a single amp model. Most of my presets are based on that concept, with a single amp's settings being changed to achieve varying results from clean to mean.

Not sure I'm gonna watch the whole thing, but now - that's an intro! Sounds great, cool lineup, tight as a snare head. Kudos! Well done.

*chuckle* Seem to recall not too long ago people were saying the tuner was a weak spot on the Helix. Take that, doubters!

Are you saying that with absolutely no blocks being used - amps, effects, nothing - you're getting distortion? Guitar into empty Helix into whatever audio system you're plugging into? Then you need to fall back to absolute basics - you're either radically overdriving the input into Helix- or the Helix output is slamming your audio device waaay too hard. Start there - guitar>Helix empty preset>amp/spkr. Choose a pickup on the guitar, roll the volume to about halfway - set the output volume on Helix to about 1/2 - if there's any input gain on your spkr, also about 1/2. What happens? If you're still distorted I don't know what to suggest - but if the signal is clean (tho quiet) then start changing variables. Get to where an empty preset is passing a clean signal, then start adding blocks.

Well - on the one hand the Helix already models, in great detail, the sound and feel of tube amps. If it didn't we wouldn't be having this conversation. So to just make it louder a digital amp would in many ways suffice. For many years my stage monitoring has been through a pair of Class D FRFR cabs, and I've been quite satisfied. On the other hand, there's never anything wrong (as a guitarist) with a nice warm set o' tubes. (Well, other than replacement costs, biasing concerns, heat, etc) There is, or can be, a certain organic quality from pumping the signal through a line of glowing hot power tubes, though as mentioned above Helix covers that quite well. Sounds like it comes down to your goal - and budget. Going 4CM is probably going to require a serious redo of your current programs, personally I'd just pump Helix through a straight up power amp - 4CM almost always implies you're going to use the real amps actual front end much of the time. If you're actually just getting together with some friends in a garage setting don't know how much extra bang you'd get from tubes/4CM With all deference to Line6, the early Spiders were not too highly regarded, at least as stand alone amps. If there's a power amp in on the amp (or FX return) I'd probably start there - Helix right into that input. No idea how it would sound, but you already have it, may as well try it. (See Final Note Below*) Might be surprised. Or dismayed. Are you aware that the MG100 is a solid state amp, no tubes? But same thoughts - Helix into power amp/FX return. A small stand alone tube power amp might be your most straight forward choice. **In any of those scenarios you're talking about using a separate speaker cab, and need to remember that your current presets almost certainly already have a cab as part of the signal chain. So you'd be pushing a "speaker" into a speaker - this has the potential to be a sonic nightmare. You'll need to keep that in mind - eliminate the Helix cab, or scroll through them to find a Helix cab the matches well with whatever external cab you wind up using. It gets complicated and can require a lot of fiddling around to find a sweet spot. As I said above I've been quite happy with a self-contained Class D FRFR cab - just makes Helix louder without adding much coloration of its own.

Well as I mention above, all of my devices are specifically purposed - I don't mix them up. Difficult to explain briefly. Also as noted, Edit and Updater would not load as the Line6 site wasn't resolving correctly (Just garbage on screen) However - In poking at the lappy, I noted that the browser I use was getting kinda long in the tooth - hadn't noticed because this lappy goes online for perhaps 5 minutes a year, and NEVER for casual browsing. Quick updates, then switch wireless back off. I updated the browser and tried again - this time after the first error I got to the L6 site (resolving properly) and got HXedit and Updater installed, but once again neither of them would "see" the update online. So using Updater I went for a Local install using the file I referenced above. Success! Btw I'd like to change the title line, indicate problem solved, but damned if I can see how to do that.

No. This PC is dedicated to its purpose, as is the music lappy. I'll resolve the lappy issue on it's own merits, right now I just want to make sure I have my ducks lined up to do a manual update. Think I'm good to go, but I'll wait to see if someone says "don't forget to....". Again, 12th commandment.

Howdy all - For reasons I have yet to ascertain, my always-reliable* music laptop has been unable to connect properly to Line 6 as regards the 3.5 update. Not my first rodeo, the last few updates have been flawless. But something's going on - I open HXedit, it sees the update, I sign in and choose a storage location - get an"unable to update" error which then opens a browser to Line 6 which fails to resolve correctly. Time after time. Note that this is NOT an "update problem" as others might report - I'm not even getting that far into the process. The problem is on my end. On my office PC, where I am now, I've been able to download the HXedit installer, Updater installer (that fails also) - finally found what I THINK is the install package for the Helix itself - HELIX_Floor_v3.50.0_0xec7605f09_bundle.hxf. Does that look right? Just want to be absolutely sure so I don't break the 12th commandment - "Thou shalt not eff up thy firmware". Thanks! *always reliable till now. Scratching my head as to the problem.

Only have a Floor, so take this with that caveat. And I'm not absolute sure on this, so won't feel bad if someone corrects me. As I recall, the main input on the floor is true analog - as such it reacts to/with the impedance loading of your pickups prior to going to digital. Send/returns are DAC reliant, basically digital all the way, and so not as responsive to impedance. This could make a significant difference in how an OD pedal responds - there was a near-civil-war on this point regarding at least one of the OD models in the Helix which ultimately resulted in the "first active effect" option being added regarding input impedance. Best suggestion - try it both ways, recording the results of each. Roll the guitar volume up/down and such while doing this. Then walk away for a while, come back and really listen - deep - to the results. Make your decision based on that.

Hmm - interesting question. Personally my IEM levels aren't all that high, don't really have to be when you have a good solid seal around the earpiece - you're pretty isolated. So can't say I've ever had a problem regarding that. That said - I don't know for a fact that our FOH guy isn't running limiters/comps on the mix busses. It's the ubiquitous X32 console so he certainly could be. I'm seeing him in a couple days, I'll make a point to ask.

Depends on your definition of "decent", I suppose. The band I "retired" from several years back asked if I'd get involved with a couple different "tribute" type shows they were putting together. Two hour, artist specific. But in the few years I'd been away they'd gone from zoned floor slants to in-ears. In the first of these projects I was only guest-ing on a few specific tunes - didn't seem cost-effective to spend +/- $1k for a few songs maybe once a month or so. So I poked around at bit, gave a try to the Xvive U4 system. Simple, rugged build - stated range is only around 90 feet, but how much do you really need? Started with a set of Shure 215's, wasn't impressed and after some searching/review grinding gave a set of KZ AS10 5 driver buds a try. I've now done a dozen or so shows with these - solid performance (absolute worst on some stages were a "walk through" dropout - split second) and the KZ's sound great, to the extent that 2 other bandmates now use them. Total price around $300. It's a mono setup, so if that matters yer out of luck. In fact the band bought an identical setup to keep handy for failsafe and/or guest players. Don't know that they're "audiophile", but they're certainly decent. It really is an amazing time to be a musician.

The Helix has a MIDI out/THRU - with a little configuration you should be able to daisy chain from Helix A to Helix B. Otherwise - https://midisolutions.com/prodqth.htm I've got one of these in one of my builds, works great.

Honestly curious - why? If they don't have any to SELL you, are they hoarding some to GIVE you? They've been out of stock for...months? A year? It's been a long time - and it's way beyond unacceptable by now. This is a critical part to a flagship product - and please don't tell me about VDI, the one project I use mine (plural) in is a show band where mobility is an absolute must and I'm wireless at all times. And I'm sort of an L6 fanboy - can look around from where I sit and see L6 guitars/amps/processors/wireless all around me. But the reality is I'm down (over the last few years) from 4 batteries on hand to 2, and one of them is getting weak. I'm going to need another, or two, all too soon. This needs to be rectified, soon.

Let us know how it goes. Like I say, I've been as happy as that proverbial pig, but I never make assumptions for others. Funny about "latency" - most folks will throw the term around, and it's certainly a real thing, but seems like folks I encounter don't grasp that it exists in the real world and not only digital. I tend to play large stages, call it 50ft or more wide. With sound travelling at 1msec/foot (variables apply) that means that the guy on the other side of the stage is taking around 50ms to reach me, with varying lower figures from folks closer to me. It's amazing we've ever been able to make sense of anything on a stage. The X32 console reports an in-to-out latency of about 1msec. Let's be pessimistic and call it 3 - so miked cab (?) to console to monitor return sits in that range. Let's assume some additional latency at my digital transmitter, maybe 2msec? My Helix 1/4" line to the mixer (after internal conversion) is analog. Add that all up and the band mix I'm listening to is maybe 4-5msec total from moment of creation, with my Gtr signal being 1-2msec off of that. Compared to hearing just the stage sound, the in ears (which bring everything to me at the same time) are a clear winner. BTW we record every show - I've never heard anything that would be called "latency" getting to the audience. They hear it fine, I hear it fine - winner! Good luck - have fun - let us know!

FWIW this is pretty much exactly what I do - I re-associated with a prior band for some special projects, and in my (several years) absence they had transitioned from wedges to in-ears as well as going from an analog board to an X32. I had picked up a cost-effective in-ear system (an Xvive U4, great bang for the buck), but literally on my way to the first gig I got nervous about trusting my personal guitar monitor to the sound guy. (Not chucking stones at him, Jesse is one of the best mix guys I've worked with. But seconds count on stage, and hearing myself clearly is non-negotiable). So I swung by a local GC on my way to that gig and picked up a little 4 channel mixer (Harbinger), big selling points were that it had 2 XLR ins and XLR main outs. Cost about $70. At load-in/setup I sent Helix XLR (mono) to the FOH snake - took the XLR monitor out from the snake into Ch 1 on my mixer I took the 1/4" out from Helix and ran it into Ch 2 on my mix. The Xvive transmitter is a dongle-sized dealie that plugs into the XLR out on my mixer. I then told Jesse to send me a general band mix without my guitar in it. So now beside me on stage I have the ability to control the relative band/me blend. Half a dozen or so shows in and it's been working perfectly, no noticeable latency issues or such. Kind of an "Aviom lite". Worth noting that I'm not a monitor snob - hell, when I was starting out stage monitors weren't even a thing. You had your Shure Vocalmaster columns out front and that was that - eventually PA systems got better and those columns became the monitors for a while. So I've always done just fine with what I hear from the stage itself - the whole in-ear thing is just icing on the cake. Don't need a perfect reference mix, just need a reference. Over these last few shows Jesse has tweaked my band mix to where it's quite good, but it was fine early on. But I have the final say as to how much of ME I'm getting at all times.

You say that like it's a bad thing... I'm seeing some possible upside, there.

Stylistically not in my wheelhouse - but that sounded great. Tight, crisp and punchy, very articulate. Low cuts were probably a good idea, I could envision the mix getting pretty mushy without them (though I'm sure the engineer applied some sonic surgery as needed). And the vid itself was fun - nice use of the old colorized stock. All in all, very well done! Keep going...