ricstudioc

It's the battery - there's some sort of thermal safety in them. Go back thru my posts around 3 years and you'll find details of the experiments I did. I live in Phoenix and found out about this fairly quickly. It seems like it takes 45 minutes or so - starting from "cool" - for the safety to kick in. I've had good success in keeping my batteries in a cooler on stage - slap one in, do a set, put it back in the cooler while bringing out the next one for the next set. Doing it that way I haven't had a shutdown since....

Always #2 here - interesting.....

Agreed, from experience.

A simple one band parametric eq - even if only accessible thru workbench. Be useful to take some "woof" off of some models, or add a little bite to others. And yes - some updated/choice of models....

That's what I was thinking, also. Probably the only way to get discrete A and B outputs from the XLR's.

Ha! I was reading down the list and thinking to myself "he's missed the "drums must never stop" gag". Sorry I underestimated you - I need to work on my patience. (Though YOU need to work on your sequential numbering...) :rolleyes:

First, impulsive response - to steal a phrase from one of my bass players' T-shirts: Ef you, you Effin' Ef!!. (His t-shirt isn't cleaned up for family consumption...) (but I DO love it - and he's a big guy and can deal with the offended....) More thoughtfully - While I think Robbie and AGuy are on the right track, jbu makes a good point. Are you using a PA only at the moment? No cabs (FRFR assumed) of your own right now? I'll give your guy this much - point sourcing on stage CAN be an issue, folks just get used to hearing things from a certain perspective. (Not that he shouldn't learn to adapt - but it is what it is) And if you're not typically running your own sound system, monitor mixes can be hit and miss. Also don't you want a discrete source for your sound - a cab you can lean into for that feedback? From the git-go I've used a pair of FRFRs, typically in front of me in floor monitor configuration, tho my band has discrete monitor zones. Smaller places I've just set'em up in a backline - something like the Alto TS210s have more than enough power. So - mix and match per need. On second thought - nahhhh. Go with the first, above. He's being a weenie... Send him any of the zillion Youtubes of gigging pros who are using Helix (or AxeFx, or Kemper), and tell him to get into the 21st freakin' century.

Sorry to hear about the problems - but yeah, Frank & Co. rock for support. In the early days of synths, the "Moog wheels" were kinda the standard for such controls - but then certain companies, particularly Korg, starting putting out synths with multifunction joysticks. They always made me nervous, so I started cutting down paper towel cores to size and putting them over the joysticks when casing them. Ultimately switched to pvc couplers - more rigid. You might give that a try, if only to see - if the cardboard core looks to be compressing (assuming you cut it down correctly) then there may in fact be insufficient clearance in the case. Just a thought...

The bassist/keyboards/gtr in my 'lil toss-off project kept raving about the sounds I've been getting out of my Helix - showed up one day with an LT, absolutely loves it. Bass-wise he's getting everything from audiophile full-range clean to Jack Bruce-thru-Marshall buzzy, it all sounds great. Guitar wise he's got an actual AC-15, and he's dialed in a patch that he swears is indistinguishable from the real one. He stays busy, lotta playing with various P&W thingies, he now says that other players in those projects are taking notice - and the word speads....

I always carry several DI's, both passive and active - I NEVER assume that some random sound guy is going to know more than I do, or be as prepared. Basically I carry all my own power and cabling - if the house has their s*&t together, great - if not, I've got it covered. Once and once only I've experienced the low-level noise from Helix being phantomed, it was on a board with grouped phantom, a quick reassign took care of it. I have some Behringer powered cabs that I typically would use their XLR pass throughs to send to the board - found out they didn't like phantom, and labeled them accordingly. 1/4" to my stage FRFR's, XLR to the board...

Alto TS110A's, a pair of them - all applications. 20x13x12 @ 25#.

Cogent analysis - couldn't agree more, well said. Hah - in the late 80's Keyboard mag did an interview with Stewart Copeland, drummer from The Police who by then was doing soundtrack work and such. They asked him about the impact of sampling/sequencing and the like, he responded that the downside to it was that now anyone - without putting in the years of practice and experience - could put out a musical object that was plausible at first glance, but wouldn't hold up under scrutiny. I've always liked his use of that word - plausible...

The advent of quality modeling, V drums, and such put the possibility of near-studio-quality live mixing within reach. When you don't have to cope with all the complexities of a sound source in a space - frequency pile-ons, cancellations/reinforcements, low/lo-mid mud, and all that - you can spend a lot less time "correcting" and a lot more creating a good mix. I occasionally still do FOH at festivals and such, in the course of a day I've gone from a band with a wall of full stacks, bitching about the monitors ("hurguhdur", indeed), to a "silent stage" group totally DI'd - and they sounded amazing. And I'm not a "silent" guy myself, I run my Helix FRFR - but I run the cabs like floor monitors, firing back up at me. Minimizes direct sound off stage and gives our FOH tech a fighting chance. He loves Helix....

As others have noted, you want the sound guy to be yer buddy so do what you can to accommodate him - hey, at least you've got advance warning. Having said that - as an FOH guy for many - many - years, if someone shows up at, say, a festival gig w/lots of bands and says "Do you mind if I just go direct?" I'd jump on that in a heartbeat. GIve me more control, eliminate tons of sound off the stage...? Hells yeah - plug'er in, pal...

To my knowledge (spanning some 47 years in audio), although there may in fact be AES specified parameter guidelines, actual implementation is totally arbitrary. So happens I have my DAW fired up, a quick glance at 3 different paras show 3 different top numbers - 10, 12, 20 to be specific. So don't obsess over one-to-one relationships here, just assume that "10" is as tight as it's gonna get. Is it as tight as the "14" you're used to working with? Let us know...

You own a Dumble, don'tcha...?

For me - this. Had the HD for a couple years, and was still trying to dial it in right up to the end. Way too many eq tweaks and deep diving fiddly bits to get to the tone. Helix - I pulled up an amp, tweaked the existing eq's (without having to add others) and got busy. Day and night - and each successive firmware update has just smoothed things out even more.

As above - it depends, you just need to try it and see what works. Line level is significantly hotter than instrument, so you'll have to see what makes the amp return happiest. ... got me curious, I checked the manual and they're not specific if they're using -10dbv or +4dbv for their line level standard. Given the pro nature of Helix I'd guess +4. That seems pretty hot for an amp return - start with volumes low!

I'm using a C9 - chose it based on reviews and such that seemed to lean towards it more than the B9. Quite happy with it - nothings perfect, but it's got some good sounds and tracks well if you're careful about picking and such...

:) Thanks - I've also got a Key9 on the shelf, seemed the least effective to me, just not a lot of articulation/clarity. As memory serves, don't you have a Mel in your lineup? If so - do you find the fixed vibrato to be a tad annoying? My only gripe about it, there's some very useful stuff in there, but that vibrato starts to wear after a while. I find myself either mixing it a bit lower than I'd like, or running it thru delays to blend it together. Other than that, each of the 9 boxes has their uses....

Currently all 4 - Pog/C9/Mel9/Synth9

Wait - they're not sending out new potentiometers, and a roll of solder? .........damn, I gotta go unplug the iron - gotta run......

Another vote to get this squared away/streamlined - not undoable, but a bit of a guessing game. I suppose if they released updates every week or so I'd have it down pat, but months apart (which is fine, get it right not fast...) and I have to reacquaint myself with the procedure each time. Well.... yeah, kinda....

Well, I'm north of 60, and just stopped playing out regularly at the turn of the year - but in the last year I put around 100 gigs on my Helix. If you were happy with the X3 yer gonna be thrilled with the Heilx - it's the first of many modelers I've used that finally got it no-shiite right - sound, feel, interface, it just rules. Clear your calendar - you're gonna be kinda distracted for awhile. And welcome to the family, have fun!

A year+ on mine, probably 100 or more gigs - absolutely rock solid. That said - it IS an electronic device, with it's core operations based in software - so "ya pays yer nickle and ya takes yer chances". But one reason I bought in in the first place was, after waiting six months or so from release, I was amazed at how few problem reports I was seeing. L6 really seems to have gone the extra mile on Helix - and it seems to have paid off.