strabes

I use the global eq. HPF at 80hz, LPF at 10k. 2-3db narrow cut at 3k, 4db cut at 4k. Nothing too drastic and applies to any amp to help me stay out of the subs and limit the harsh frequencies. Just helps make it easier on sound guys, most of whom just leave my EQ flat now.

You must not be used to monitoring guitar amps through headphones. Way different experience. First of all, human ears perceive frequencies differently based on volume. Guitar cab on the floor will be much more bassy and a lot of the higher frequencies will miss your ears altogether due to the directionality of the speaker. This is why if you take your patches (or tube amp for that matter) to a gig with a cab mic'd up at full volume, although standing next to the cab it might sound good, what's coming from the mic in front of the speaker is going to be ear piercingly bright and probably thin sounding.

Can you post a picture of a preset that you're having trouble with?

Can you rename snapshots on the unit itself or does this require a computer? Searched online and the manual and couldn't find an answer.

My progression was: Pedalboard + Tube amp + cab Pedalboard + Tube amp + palmer PGA-04 power soak & cab sim direct in Pedalboard + Kemper direct in Helix direct in My tone was great with all of those setups, but they kept getting smaller and smaller as I get lazier and lazier. Now I couldn't be happier. I always monitor with IEMs and put my amps backstage though, so the amp in the room thing didn't matter to me. Going from a tube amp and cab to a modeler will be a big jump, but the tones you can get are limited only by your ability to dial them in.

RE: Global EQ. I just have mine set to an 80hz low cut, 10khz high cut, and a fairly narrow 3db cut at 4khz ("harsh" territory). Helps me get a lot louder before it sounds harsh. Works with all of my presets. Most of my presets I set to be very mid heavy with the bass and treble very low. Just playing through an FRFR and turning the volume up from conversation/bedroom level to gig level the difference in EQ in insane. The lows and highs jump out so much more, and it is shocking how a sound that was very dark at conversation level can be very bright at gig level.

Klons, tube screamers, and RATs are not transparent. The former two have a large mid push, the latter is relatively scooped. Of the drives in the Helix, and depending on where you set the cuts, the timmy is the most transparent drive in terms of least amount of EQ change. If you just want a clean boost to make yourself louder, put a gain block (in the volume section IIRC) after the cabinet. If you want more volume and gain, put a gain block before the preamp.

This is something I really worry about too. One time I heard a recording of a live set and my guitar was just piercingly bright even though it sounded really good at home. After that I started turning up the mids a lot and cutting bass and treble a bit and the results have been a lot better. For live I really think you shouldn't have your amp set up as bright as you can in the studio. It's tough to know exactly how it sounds in a full band mix unless you have a wireless unit and can walk around during check. I just know I'd rather have it be too middy than too bright.

So I've got everything loaded up like in that article and it sounds amazing. Can't believe it. Don't know how I ever played acoustic without this (luckily not very often - hah!)

I feel like a complete noob as I kind of am with the helix. I've got a martin IR loaded up, and I found a "studio tube pre" under preamps. I also found "LA studio comp" for compression. Is that what you recommend? I couldn't find vintage pre or vintage comp anywhere.

Care to share the preset? Very curious about this. I've already purchased the IRs I want. Been playing electric for 20 years but never much of an acoustic player.

Do you just make a blank preset with an IR? That's it?? Doing an acoustic set this weekend and dying to use these.

I have a related question. How do you rename snapshots on the unit? It's easy on the editor but I can't figure out how to do it on the helix.

No one in their right mind would dial in the helix to sound like that. The high end was awful.

How long of a cable are you using from your guitar to the amp? Are you plugging straight into the amp or do you have other pedals? The helix could be acting as a buffer, so the cable you're using from the helix to the amp is not rolling off the high end as much as it would if you were plugging your guitar straight into the amp with the same cable.

What about if you monitor with IEMs? I usually try to dial my tones in using my IEMs but I push the volume a little louder than I normally would. I think that gives me more of a feeling of what a loud speaker would sound like.

Played my first gig with helix last night. I'm just thrilled. Mostly used the AC30 top boost model with my tele and the amp tones sounded so good in my IEM mix. I've been a kemper user for about a year so I'm well acquainted with modeling and monitoring with headphones, etc. Picked up the helix to see if I could downsize one step more and I couldn't be happier, except for the reverb sounds on the helix are just ok, not mind blowing. But that's a small price to pay since I don't do a ton of ambient stuff. Definitely going to have to start making presets for each song though as I do use a lot of different delay/reverb sounds and I don't have time to adjust them between songs. It's so nice to have an all in one solution rather than lugging a separate amp and pedalboard several times per week. And I don't have to worry about pedalboard audio or power cables failing, having too many AD/DA conversions, latency, running 3 cables on the stage for FX loop, etc etc. I'm just using my shure wireless GLX-D directly into the helix. And the I/O and routing options are insane. The capacitive footswitch thing is just fantastic. Total paradigm shift. A couple of my buddies were very impressed with the tones, but were really skeptical about line6. I think the biggest thing holding back Helix (if you can even say it's being held back) is the Line6 name. People are used to decades of crappy line6 modeling, and it's going to take a long time to overcome that. I do have a question about stereo reverbs. Right now I'm splitting my signal to two cabs and routing those to the L/R XLR outputs. If I want stereo reverb, do I have to put the stereo reverb block before or after the split to the two cabs? Also, is there any way for me to be notified via email when there's a helix firmware update?