gunpointmetal

Yeah, and they made enough money from selling back-engineered stuff to buy big companies and now they sell probably the most used mixers for small-medium venues anywhere. 10 years ago, I wouldn't buy a Behringer practice amp. Today I have two XR18s, one for each band.

Just return it if you can and get a different one. It's not an inherent problem in the device or other people would have the issue. Manufactured electronics have issues occasionally.

I mean, the intent of the powercab isn't to be a traditional amplifier, its to amplify modeling in a way that still "feels" like amplifier. So it's all about getting the cab feeling, but still being as full-range as possible. I think to get that open-back sound and control it as much as you need to to make the DSP useful you'd probably have to do a closed back and throw a/a couple smaller driver(s) in the back. I don't there's really a way to change that sound field through a single output source. It's cool that they're trying to figure out how to to get all this "as it sounds in recording studio" tone to translate to a more traditional playing experience.

Been interested in this product since it was announced awhile ago (still looking for a smaller backup for the Helix) and the videos sounded decent, but I just saw a screen grab of the editor... Anyone else think this looks like a port of HX Edit? Starting to think these smaller Chinese companies don't even know how to have an original idea.

I’m no scientist, but the way I understand it is you can’t control the frequency response of the woofer easily in an open cabinet because the throw of the speaker is less controlled by air pressure inside the cabinet, so you can get it extending beyond its prime operating functions on transients/low frequencies.

How do you feel the volume compares to a 12" powered wedge-type speaker? And it's hard to say from the pics on American Musical Supply, but it is rear ported?

Two units in a row with anomalous issues, I think we're seeing the common denominator here, lol. From the video that sounds like electronic interference coming through the input and being amplified by the fuzz. The timing to the tap tempo is odd, but if its a power issue the light flashing could be part of the problem. No real options besides testing it on another electrical system with totally different guitar and output device, a support ticket, or a return.

Honestly, you're best bet is going to be to use the monitors for monitoring and playback if you don't wanna mess around with complicated cabling or plugging/unplugging stuff to switch speakers. Just out of curiosity, what is the advantage to using the PowerCab for monitoring during tracking? I'm assuming you're recording with some sort of IR/cab model on the Helix anyways, so you KRK monitors would be the most accurate as far as what you're recording and your playback/tracks you're recording to will sound better.

Speaker stand if you're needing it for any room support, wedge/floor position if you have a big PA/Large Room/only need self-monitoring, at least that's how I do it with my speaker. Putting it up gets better projection in the room, putting it on the floor means you can have it in front of you for personal monitoring. I'd set-up my tones with it up on the stand and the EQ flat, then dial back a little low end if you end up using in monitor position. I think I might have to grab one of these. My current stand is just over head height when its at its lowest.

open back pretty much means no FRFR because you can't control the speaker functions. Guitar cabs are also highly-directional. That's why a lot of guitarists think they have a sick tone and its actually shrill and harsh for people standing the front row. You don't know what your guitar sounds like out of a standard guitar cab unless you stick you ear in the speaker's beam.

I just want them to make the signal chain freely configurable. Don't need any different/extra slots, just need to move them wherever I want.

There's usually a lot more going on than a simple EQ filter (phase filtering, dynamic frequency dependent compression) in those karaoke mixes, and if you've ever used an automated one that takes album recordings and makes them into karaoke versions, there is ALWAYS some leak from the lead vocal unless its a really old stereo recording with no spatial FX on the vocals. You could theoretically have a hard LP filter with an extreme slope set at 500Hz (or wherever you deem it necessary), but its going to require a very careful touch to get it so fill in bass frequnecies and not sound strange. I see quite a few two-piece bands with a guitarist simulating a bass/guitar rig, but they're usually doing a on/off thing and playing single note lines where they need the bass and guitar to match up, or just dealing with the muddiness that comes from playing chords into an octave pedal. A multi-output pickup is the ideal solution.

IME experience with this, without a split pickup like a Roland or Variax, there really isn't a way to do this really cleanly like you're suggesting. Any harmonic information before your filter/split that reaches into the cutoff is going to be present, so even if you're technically fretting outside the range of your split/cutoff overtones/undertones may still be present and will be amplified by your "bass" rig. The only time this really works the way its intended for me (again, you may have better luck) is with single-note lines and just turning the bass rig signal chain off when I don't want any muddy/octave stuff.

If you're in Helix native you have to make sure your track is set-up with as a stereo track with your USB inputs (I'm guessing 1 and 2) as the available inputs, then click on the input block in native and assign it to the proper track inputs. I know this can work with both the hardware and software. I run a guitar and bass rig through both for demoing stuff at home or writing with my bass player. The Ouputs have to be panned L/R and the FX in use have to be Mono, AFAIK or can remember. The easiest way to do it in Native (if you computer is up to it) is to just run USB 1 on its own channel with one instance of Native and USB 2 on another channel with an independent instance of native, though.

Unless ProTools is incredibly poorly configured, there should be no reason to enable track monitoring in the program with the Helix as the soundcard. I'm guessing something isn't working between ProTools and the Helix as far as drivers or something. If you're on a PC, make sure you're using the Helix Drivers and not Windows/ASIO4ALL (the helix will show up on some systems with other than L6 drivers) and if you're on Mac I've heard some people needing the Mac driver for best use, even though technically it shouldn't be necessary.

I actually did audition it set-up this way at a friends house. It would definitely suffice in practice, as its about as loud as my Mackie FRFR, but there's no way it's going to keep up with my bassist and drummer in venues where there isn't PA support for the guitar.

Did anyone else do the survey? Curios as to what the responses were. For me personally, I don't need the speaker modeling, I just need an FRFR box that gets loud like a guitar cab. I would LOVE to see a 2x10 or 2x12 version, even if its just in mono (stereo out a single cab sounds cool for practice but isn't really necessary in most live situations) with two parallel I/O (allowing stereo to FOH off the cabinet or dual-mono for FOH/IEM setups). So far in auditioning the PowerCab models, they don't have enough push to really replace a guitar cab in a live-band situation for me. I need something that can carry a small room along side a loud drummer and bass rig when there isn't much for PA support and I don't see the single 12" PC/PC+ doing it.

And here you are, still talking about it a day later, tagging me on a second post for what reason? I can't imagine being so "soft" as to think someone disagreeing with you on the internet would be referred to as "stepping to you playing hard guy", especially when you took something so personally you had to respond even though nobody tagged you/mentioned you/asked you anything. Did you try the sample, or did you just come back to keep this extremely fun and enlightening conversation going?

This was pretty much my impression when I tested one out. My friend had a ENGL profile loaded up and I thought it was pretty dark for my taste, but moving the tone knobs more than a few numbers started to sound weird. More like boosting the highs/lows on a home stereo than on a guitar amp. Seemed like I'd be fighting for a long time to find profiles that fit my needs versus just dialing it in to what I want to hear.

Hmm... so if you're unhappy with another IR producers work... shouldn't that have the opposite reaction? :D Won't really comment on other people's work but it should go without saying that "not all IR's are created equal". I would gladly debate that we at ML shoot the most realistic, clean and authentic IR's and that's just because of the IR shoot method has been tried and tested and fine tuned for about 8 years and we've been a big part of the further development of the IR format into mic+di shooting and raw non-minimum-phase-transformed file formats. Still most of an IR producer's job is to know how to mic up cabs well and that takes years of practice. I've had a self-built 4x12 sized xyz-axis microphone robot for 3 years prior to Dynamount creating that xy-axis robot which is what pretty much every other IR producer is using. If you've ever miked a guitar cab you'll know that a guitar speaker sounds completely different if you f.ex. pull the mic straight up or to the side. The best mic positions are usually somewhere in-between "straight up" or "to the side" and most IR producers never even try those positions. Try the freebie and if it's not at all your thing then you'll at least know: bit.ly/MLSoundLab try the link the manufacturer posted, dur. If my mother was being asinine and entitled, you bet I would call her on it, and I'm pretty sure I learned the "leave the BS at the door" from my 'rents.

But you do have the chance to get an impression, and again, if my comments felt like a personal attack, that's on you friend. My conversational style isn't dependent on my location relative to a keyboard, just don't have time for soft language. Sorry, or something.

Yes, I'm his bodyguard, and you're obviously 14-15. If you felt personally attacked by my comments (as I didn't quote, or mention any specific post) might be time for some introspection. What is the Strawman argument here? There's a sample, if you don't have any use for that cab, or care to sample it to compare to other similar IRs, don't worry about it. Any IR freebie pack isn't going to included every microphone combination/setup, so giving you one versus giving you five isn't going to make much a of a difference, and if you find the one you like in a pack of five freebies, you're not gonna spend any money anyways. You guys talk like this guy owes you something other than what's being offered or you're somehow being bamboozled on a product you're not even buying.

So buy the other IRs. It's not that complicated. If you don't like the price, don't spend the money. ML has been getting major praise on a bunch of forums lately, and they think they have a killer product, so they charge accordingly. Since the IRs don't run in a specific program, its pretty hard to time-limit their usage for demo purposes. That's why a lot of VST amp sim manufacturers (including L6) have made their included/purchased IRs semi-proprietary. It's been seen A TON on other forums where people will buy Ownhammer IRs, rename them, and then include them in for-sale preset packages, and that's BS. I'm gonna try out the freebie tonight, because I'm already using MESA OS IRs, so I have a good comparison already. But complaining that you can't try the whole pack for free is kinda entitled and asinine.

Just like an amp, proximity, gain, and volume are the components necessary for natural feedback. I don’t seem to have a problem getting the expected feedback behavior out of my FRFR rig, but I’m also playing relatively high gain most of the time (5150/Archon/Modded 2204/HBE models with gain above 2, anyways). I just turn off my gates and let ‘er rip.

There are a thread or two on this subject in the Amps-Spider V forum here. Seems like plugging into the front with no amp/cab selected seems to work well. You do lose stereo functions from the Helix going into the front, but for live/loud playing stereo isn’t really necessary anyways. One person who a lot of experience with this setup has suggested and EQ setup to get the most from the amp. I’d recommend checking out that forum for more information. I’m actually looking into this for myself to have a more amp-like stage experience.