gunpointmetal

Unless you're running Native out to a power amp and real speaker cab, they're two very different types of sounds. What works/sounds good in the room with a real cab might not be what works in a recording situation. Depending on the pickups and output of the guitar, there should be enough gain on the Panama model with it set at 3 for chugs and pinch harmonics unless you have some low output single coils or something. If you're muting is tight and it's not a noise from the strings between the bridge and the nut, and you're sure on your technique, there's gotta be something loose somewhere in the guitar hardware.

Pinch harmonic squeals? You can get those on an acoustic if you do it right! lol

Could be lots of things - loose pickup springs, trem springs vibrating, above-nut string vibration, loose string saddle height screw. If it's consistent across several guitars it might be a technique thing.

Simple Pitch isn't awesome at polyphonic downtuning because the stuff that happens between notes (harmonics, modulation) can confuse the algorithm. I could never get on with Drop/Morpheus type pedals for downtuning anyways, because once I got it loud enough to not notice the strings vibrating differently than the sound I was hearing I was drowning out my drummer.

Cables in general are a visual OCD person's nightmare, lol. Both myself and my bassist in one of my bands are cable-OCD. He literally pours over his guitar pedalboard weekly trying to eliminate extra things, find cleaner management, etc. At some point its just function over preference.

Get some 1" flex wrap and some heat shrink tubing, make a cable loom with both ends labeled. If you don't go in and out of the loop, those FX will just be in front of the amp's input. You could eliminate 1 cable by just putting the Helix in the amps loop and plugging straight into the amp, but then you can't put any Helix FX in front of the amp. The easiest way to eliminate cables would be to bypass the amp's preamp all-together, use preamps in the Helix, and run Guitar->Helix->FX Return of the amp head. Then it's two cables. Even with a "real" pedalboard you'd still need four cables to put FX in the loop and in front (guitar->pre amp FX->amp input->FX send to post-amp FX->FX Return.

I like to do it with a Snapshot that increases the amp channel level and boosts the midrange slightly.

Mine has been on the floor 3-5 times a week for rehearsal and shows, tracked two EPs, and get's used at home almost every night that it's not at a show/rehearsal since December-ish of 2015 and I haven't had a single hardware issue. I did have to tighten the expression pedal up after about two years, but outside of that (which I wouldn't call an issue, just regular maintenance) not a single issue.

You might just be missing that good old AMP IN THE ROOM sound. With FRFR patches, (I'm sure you know this) you gotta think of it as a full studio signal chain, then you gotta think about how many albums or even live sound is the guitar just getting a mic on the cab and that's it. Most will have compression, EQ, and various other "tricks" after the microphone to get the sound you're used to hearing on a record or a major concert experience. Without that, sticking a mic on a cab probably has some "ugly" stuff going on that an engineer or sound guy would fix further down the line. I would highly recommend and amp with an FX loop so if you do want to get more flavors in there, you can go 4CM or into the FX loop. If you want a "pedal platform" and not have to worry about multiple cables, maybe the HXFX would be a better fit than the STomp.

IT's just group them into stereo input for some dumb reason. Can you select individual mono channels from the track I/O?

Every piece of guitar equipment I’ve ever owned works best when I turn knobs until it sounds good.

I'd say if you can swing it, go with Powercab!

Are you playing through anything now? The biggest difference in playback systems is what you're expecting to hear. If you're expecting the experience of a live amp, studio monitors won't do it for you. If you want pristine "album-ready" tones to play through, monitors will do you well. The Powercab approximates a guitar speaker in "speaker mode" and can also be used as a full-range playback system, so it might be worth it if you wanna go back and forth between the two types of sounds. I'm personally not a fan of the HS series monitors for regular music listening, but they're great for mixing/reference.

Firehawk is purely FRFR device when used as an amp for the Helix, and its a "2.1" stereo system with a center woofer and side speakers. Powercab 212+ is meant to be more like a guitar cab in its projection with coaxial speakers (tweeter centered on the woofer) and offers speaker modeling built in. It's also way overpriced IMO.

You won't be able to do four cable method with the amp. There has to be an FX send/return or a Preamp Out/Poweramp In. Lots of "modeling" amps skip this feature because they include several FX already and it saves them a few bucks. Line 6 didn't bother with FX loops on the new Spider V amps, either. I still think that's because they didn't want anyone buying it to use as amplification for the Helix series since they're selling PowerCab and FireHawk amps for that purpose (at 2x the price, of course).

Kemper amp tones sound amazing, so do the verbs and delays. The UI is 15 years behind, and the fixed FX blocks plus limited FX numbers make me not want to do use one, just because I'd need a whole pedalboard anyways. That and the whole "we nailed it and we don't need new hardware, or an official editor, so we're just gonna keep pumping out the same hardware/software forever" mindset is the opposite of what I look for in an instrument/music tech company. If this came out at $750 (which would be a totally reasonable price) I might check one out, but at the same price as the Helix, it doesn't even compute for me. That and the idea that the Stage is less than just the toaster, even though its the exact some functionality as the Toaster+Controller (and no expression pedal....ok) makes it make even less sense in my brain.

Yep, we need an "internal Wave Pedal" like the Boss stuff has...and has had since the GT-10.

The firmware that goes onto the Helix doesn't care what OS you're using and I'm pretty sure the MAC editor won't even install on a Windows PC.

You REALLY have to push on the pedal to switch EXP1/2. Like I'm a 210lb dude and I couldn't do it without lifting off my chair from a seated position until I'd been using the thing for like a year.

I run a pair of those speakers as my monitors for both of my bands when we don't have backline or solid FOH and they're great! Clear and punchy even with my stupidly low-tuned ERGs. My bassist is a professional FOH engineer and he's been renting them from me when he's going into an unknown room with a house PA to use as monitors because they're so clean/clear as well as having very useful DSP options for use and position. If you're digging the Allure pack I highly recommend checking out some of ML Soundlabs impulse responses.

I know a lot of people will disable the cab and even amp sim all-together for clean/acoustic sounds. A little studio compression and a parametric EQ can do a lot to an electric guitar signal.

How's the battery in your guitar? If it's in all of your guitars, upload the patch here and maybe someone can give it a look.

I have my Helix on a pedalboard with a (soon to be chucked in the trash) G30 wireless, but my "gig kit" has a guitar stand, 5 extra instrument cables, 5 extra XLR cables, two single-channel DI boxes, a couple speaker cables, a variety of 1/4"-XLR/Speakon Adapters, a complete wired IEM rig that works off either of my bands' mixers, truss wrench, multi-hex wrench (because Kahlers are awesome, lol), a bunch of picks, and my Crate PowerBlock. It all fits a relatively small backpack and most of it never has to come out of the bag, but just about everything in there has been of use at one point or another, either for my use or another band we're playing with. Stuff like extra strings live in my guitar cases, and since I'm running a digital mixer/laptop rig with both bands (back tracks, samples, click tracks .... I know we're cheaters at something that isn't even a sport) I have my IEM receiver, earbuds, batteries, and an LED flashlight that clips on my string mute in THAT backpack. All that stuff gets used at every show, so I keep it separate from my "insurance pack".

Is there that sound on other patches or with clean amps. That really sounds like bad interference coming in your pickups, but if it happens with NOTHING connected except headphones, that's pretty strange. I had an old single-coil Peavey that made a similar sound whenever there was a fluorescent light or a computer monitor nearby, but that was definitely the guitar's crappy shielding/pickups.

I was definitely pining for a stereo version, but I have hard time swallowing the price that is exactly twice as much as the single 12". Oh well, maybe they'll put an actual FX loop on the Spider VI series and I can get the cab I actually want for a reasonable price.