gunpointmetal

Depending on what version of that Behringer speaker you have, I wouldn't expect to get much from it. We have a pair of 10s and a pair of 12s in our practice space and they're fine for music, but the slope of the crossover between the tweeter and the woofer seems kind of wide and there is a pretty noticeable dip in the 1Khz-2.5Khz area. ~700Hz to 3kHz is kinda where a lot of guitar amps have that "focus" and the friedman is definitely closer to the higher end of that. That crossover area on some speakers (the Altos, too) is definitely a hurdle with FRFR, because its in that range of the guitar's "voice".

Definitely as suggested, build your live volume patches at live volume. Even with a "full-range" monitoring source like headphones or PC speakers (which are probably going to sound awful for guitar tones by themselves anyways) once you start getting over talking loud/shouting volume the EQ character is going to change. Just like with an amp, what sounds good at bedroom volumes is gonna fall apart in the room at band volumes. I run mine through a couple different monitors in various projects (EV ZLX12P, Mackie Thump 12) and I don't think there's anything lacking in the mid-range. If you do have the time to upload a patch I'm sure a couple people wouldn't mind taking a look or adjusting it to try something different. IME all the tones are in there.

What are you hooking the Helix up to? What's in your chain? What guitar are plugging in to it? I've run my Helix through the returns of several nice high-gain amps (ENGL, MESA, MARSHALL) owned by friends just for lollipops and giggles and we've never had too hard of a time getting either spot-on or really, really close (as in different, but not bad) to matching the preamp tones through the same power amp. I run straight to monitors/PA for my live tones with both of my bands without any lack of mids or anything that's too harsh (unless I want it). Just like any other current-gen modeler, all the sounds are in there, there's just different paths to get them out.

If you're running a mono signal chain you can use both the Left and Right XLR output from the Helix at the same time and they send the same signal. A lot of guys seem to prefer using a DI box with the 1/4" outputs for FOH to avoid a possible phantom power buzz issue, but my experience has been that if you're playing somewhere where the sound system doesn't have individual channel phantom power 1) you're gonna need more stage volume and don't bother with FOH anyways or 2) the sound guy and the PA are a hundred years old and a DI rig is just going to confuse him anyways.

Yep, snapshots basically treat your changes like your really quickly cranking the knobs on a pedal, so if you have a shorter reverb decay on the second snapshot it will change the sound coming through the verb prior to the delay, just like a pedal would if you turned the knobs while sound was going out.

I think some people just really, really, REALLY love gear, and love having their analog rig, their digital rig, their hybrid rig, and that's totally cool and awesome. For me this stuff is tools I use to accomplish a goal and the better my Swiss Army knife, the less tools I need to have. I'm a total gear nerd, and probably know specs on lollipop I'd never even dream of buying, but at the end of the day, I want my rig to get me on stage fast, do everything I need it to do while I'm there, and get me off stage even faster. Adding more cables/pedals would not help me there.

Yeah, I went the complete opposite way. If I find a pedal I like in Helix, it makes me glad I DON'T have to go buy the real deal to get the sounds.

Is there something you can't get the Badonk to do? If that model is super important and you wanna ditch the rack, grab an old XT bean and throw in on your board.

Try the "AUX" input on the Helix. If the mic has a built-in preamp that may be your best bet, treating it like an active pickup.

This is where a "Compare" feature would be nice, at least in the editor.

I guess maybe post an example of the tone you're referring to? What I consider a modern metal tone IS that ENGL/5150/Boosted Mesa tone that is quite "hairy". For a lot of what I consider modern metal(BOO/Periphery/TLTSOL/ATB/Black Tongue), the tone on the record is almost ALL "hair" as you've described it and the bass guitar is doing most of the heavy lifting in the fundamental/note body area.

ENGL's are pretty hairy amps, too (based on what I'm understanding as your description of "hair"), whereas something like a Mesa or SLO would be what I would think of as "less hairy". One thing I like to do on the Helix if I like the gain structure but not necessarily the total sound of an amp model is to EQ before the model without boosting the gain to try and tame some of what I'm hearing. Maybe try an EQ with some of the 900Hz-2kHz dipped out before it goes into the amp model and see if that tames some of the the fuzziness you're not enjoying from particular amp models.

Max it, use the amp/speaker volume for settings. Then he can't complain. He's probably just mad your tone is so good.

Man, that "not so hairy" guitar would get completely lost in a live mix. The "hairy" guitar could use a a little low cut and it would probably sit nicely. OP, if the "not so hairy" tone is what what you're going for, just drop a LP filter at about 1.5kHZ, otherwise you'll lose all cut with other instruments. The recording doesn't sound overly "hairy" to me, but everyone has different ears. The "not so hairy" guitar frequency response looks like what I would expect at ear-level standing right in front of a 4x12.

If you're still within your return period, return it because they're not gonna update the hardware for this one anymore unless there is a major bug somewhere. As Phil_M said, making it brighter won't make it visible in the sun because of how the display works. If you want the step up from the XTLive, that's still the HD500X, or the HX Stomp, and even those displays are not gonna be awesome in direct sunlight. The Firehawk is more of a step to the side of the XT stuff. Also threatening a company on a forum with "FIX THIS NOW OR I'M RETURNING IT!" is hilariously petty and immature.

That's what preset changes are for. If you had to load a new amp model in each snapshot it would take as along as a preset change anyways, introduce gaps in the audio, and you wouldn't be able to have delay trails. Think of presets as being able to change out your whole rig with one button. You wouldn't be able to switch amp heads, cabs, and pedals without everything turning off. Think of Snapshots as being able to turn all the knobs on your rig simultaneously to exactly where you need them to make a different sound.

So Snapshots work with whatever FX/Amp models are already in a preset, and you can set just about every setting to do something different per Snapshot of a preset, but you can't change the amp model/FX models of a block from snapshot to snapshot. So you can't say, setup a preset with a Fender and OD and save that to snapshot 1, then have snapshot 2 be a Panama with a delay, unless you have the Fender, OD, Panama, and Delay already in the preset.

For the "dreamer" price, it would probably have to be something that could only load one or two amp models at a time (at least to get to the normal stomp pedal size and still have all the I/O it would need) and I just don't see them doing that. I think the HX Stomp is their version of what you're asking for.

Set up the patch so the WAH and volume are switched by the toe switch, making sure the volume is ON and the WAH is OFF when you make the assignments. Assign the VOL to EXP1 for the controller, and assign the WAH to EXP2. Now when you press the toe switch the VOL pedal will turn OFF (leaving your volume at full) and the WAH should turn on and be controlled by EXP2.

I guess I've never tried (I can't think of a real-world use for having my volume and wah on simultaneously), but I was under the impression that the toe switch always changed from EXP1 to EXP2 when you pressed it. I could be wrong.

And we're talking about using a cabinet on stage as a guitar-only monitor, so "spread" and angle of projection only matter to one person. If you're completely muting a channel in the PA and killing the room sound instead of just dialing it back to where its complimentary, you're a lollipop sound guy. It's not hard to back off a channel or high-pass so that the PA output still reaches the back of the room AND isn't overpowering the front mix. Sound guy's job is to make the band sound good in the room even if its not an easy situation, not dictate how the music is being made. To the OP: I've been auditioning monitors and playing through FRFR rigs for over 6 years now, in bands where the dynamic is LOUD. Where the crossover frequency sits and the slope of the crossover is almost as important as wattage for a guitar-only monitor if you're trying to maintain some of the tangible aspects of the guitar. A lower crossover will make the highs feel separate from the lows. Some cheaper PA speakers have the crossover as low as 1.8kHz. If you don't have PA support and need a lot of volume from your cab, one 10" PA speaker isn't going to cut it. If you're playing genres with more "classic" tones in a dynamic band and you're already running at a comfortable volume, you should be fine. Don't expect a 10" driver with a tweeter to "carry the room" the same way a 2x12 guitar cabinet would in a high-volume situation, though.

Actual volume and perceived loudness aren't the same thing. A fully-powered 2x12 cab will drown out a 10" PA speaker no matter how you position it, easily.

So you want the wah AND the volume pedal on? So you lower the volume and the wah simultaneously? You could probably use snapshots to turn the wah on/off and have them both assigned to EXP1. Not sure you can do that with the toe switch on the pedal though, as I think pressing the toe switch automatically switches with EXP pedal you're on. Assigning a Snapshot to the EXP switch...that maybe should be a thing!

You're not going to get a 1:1 replacement for a 2x12 cab with a 10" FRFR monitor as far as volume/air movement (unless you're underpowering/running your cab at moderate volumes). That 133dB rating is more than likely a peak transient output and no way reflects the continuous output, which is probably closer to 90dB (probably). If you're not playing metal with scooped-out tones or heavy distortion, that speaker will probably be plenty for most gigs, though. I would suggest getting it up on a pole to about chest/shoulder height for the tweeter versus having it on a tilt-back amp stand.

All good suggestions so far. Something else to consider is disabling Wi Fi/Networking when you're recording. Depending on the system and what background programs may be running Windows Defender is always scanning stuff and lots of programs have background processes that cease when there is no internet connection. This is all useful stuff, too https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/pc-optimization-guide-for-windows-10/