gunpointmetal

try the test patch, check you assignments. something is not set-up right.

Make sure you don't have the volume pedal and the Whammy assigned to the same EXP pedal, and make sure they are BOTH assigned to the toe switch, or whatever switch you are using to turn on/off the whammy.

As in the whammy turns off, or as in you're at unison pitch so it doesn't sound like there's any effect?

That's what I would suggest.

Honestly, I'd go for the biggest speaker you can afford or reasonably use in your space, just because you'll get a more accurate picture of your low-end. I use 5" drivers and they're fine for most things, but having more low-end would be nice. Apartment living and not wanting to completely drive my neighbors insane has kept me from buying one yet.

Studio monitors for recording tones, you'll get better detail than you will from lower-priced PA-style speakers. In that price range I'd say look at KRK Rokits, or Tannoy 502s. I was looking for something around that budget and ended up with the Tannoys over the KRKs, just because to my ears the KRKs have a weird boxiness that I don't hear anywhere else when listening to fully-mastered album reference tracks. You will have to dial in different patches for recording/live use due to volume, but I can get a pretty solid idea of my live tones at home, then do the minor tweaking at gig volume, which usually consists of shaving off a little more high and low end then I would for recording (even if I'm cutting that stuff out later in mixing, I prefer to track just a little fat and bright just in case).

Well theoretically, if the models are accurate any noise in the original will be in the model. Sitting in front of a screen at the time?

I would think whatever goes in to the PC in flat mode would be what would come out. It wouldn't make much sense to add speaker/cab modeling in that setup from a design standpoint. I'm not familiar with the HR, but I'm guessing that also has a pass-through output, so you could probably run it either way. Helix->HR->PC or Helix->PC->HR and it "should" sound the same or really close, although the HR and the PC probably sound a little different since one is coaxial and the other is separate horn/woofer. I just don't see flat mode behaving the same way as a guitar speaker, so the modeled speaker version might be more "amp-like". You could always tap off the Helix with a send before your IR to the PC and use the speaker modeling for on-stage sounds and use your carefully-selected IR/Direct tone for the HR and FOH, too.

You could always try using the speaker modeling in the PC if you like the stage look and don't want to worry about placement, since I have a feeling the flat mode will project a little different than the modeled modes, especially as far as high-end/cut. Might be something to take into consideration and get closer to the traditional cab on stage sound/feel.

IEM with two side-stage condenser mics. You can hear the stage (at a manageable level), you can hear the crowd/room (at a manageable level) and you can get your own mix on top of it. Both of my bands are running Behringer XR18 mixers with everyone on their own IEM mix that they can control from an app on their phones. Sound guys are stoked because we can set our stage volumes however they want, we're stoked because we can hear everything (including the room) and set our own levels, and we're double-stoked because when we go someplace with a crap engineer, we just give him the stereo out from the mixer and do it ourselves. But, you can absolutely run a "guitar only" monitor if you want to. If you're using the speaker modeling in the PowerCab you'd have to create a separate chain with an IR for your guitar wedge, or daisychain off the back of the PowerCab to the wedge, then daisy-chain off the wedge to FOH. If a knowledgeable sound guy is having you turn down that low, I'm guessing the problem isn't that the PowerCab can't keep up, its that you have it placed poorly to give you what you need to hear. Half the guitarists I see don't even know what they're FOH tone sounds like because all they hear is what their cab is doing from 10' away and 3-4' off-axis compared to the sound guy's microphone which is right on the grill in front of the speaker. If your guitar sounded like a fizzy mess in the wedge, that's probably what you were sending the sound guy to work with in the first place. That's not intended to be a lollipop, either. I've literally had this discussion with guys 30 years older than me who have been playing since before I was born, and a surprising amount of them never really thought much about where the microphone was going to send their sound out front, just what it sounded like where they were standing. I've watched several people even recently bend down to adjust a pedal, hear what their guitar sounds like "in the beam" and adjust the high end, then stand up, walk back to the amp, and RE ADJUST the high end back up at the amp.

I run Native on my DAW laptop with Windows 10 offline with no issues.

I wish I was making money doing it! My musical endeavors are basically art projects. But I'm not content to be "another local metal band" and that means that on the nights that nothing is scheduled between either project I'm gonna be programming lights, or building stage scrims, or working with the bassist/drummer on demoing new material, or hustling emails trying to book better shows, etc etc etc as well as practicing playing. Add in full-time work, sometimes part time work, my GF. I spend so much time working on "music stuff" whether its actually music or not, when I would have the time to tweak, I'd rather NOT do music stuff.

That's another that that is easy for me to forget about. Everyone's idea of enjoying all this gear is different. Some people really love playing through classic songs and dialing in the tones as exact as possible and never really worry about "creativity" and some people would never enjoy the instrument if they weren't actively creating something new (to them, anyways). Some people get to a point with their skill level where they can do anything they want, and that frees them up to explore other things surrounding the instrument, some people obsess over constantly evolving or adding new techniques and they're going to spend more time focused on the frets instead of the gear, or like me, they're mediocre players but can't stop writing music, so demoing, preparing for live play, running multiple creative projects takes up more headspace than focusing on micro-aspects of tone. It's all good, and its all different.

It's easy (for me especially) to forget that not everyone is as, uh, tightly scheduled, maybe? I have maybe an hour a day, two-three if I'm lucky where I can play guitar on non-rehearsal/show days and if I don't spend that time working on technique, or nailing down parts of new songs, I feel like I'm doing something wrong. An extra 15 minutes fiddling with amp/cab settings when nothing sounds wrong or bad and I'd be kicking my own lollipop about it. If the gear inspires you, use it.

That's pretty much what I'm saying. There's nothing wrong with tone-chasing, it's just not how I want to spend my time. I've never been one to care much about that 0.05% of a difference. And your ears are probably better than mine, lol. I'm usually mostly worried about remembering which notes to play! I don't really think its a matter of satisfaction, more FOMO (fear of missing out) and that some people really can tell and do care about that 0.05% of a difference. Some people get to use/try out a new amp and they go nuts seeing what it CAN do, whereas I immediately dial it in to sound like me, instead of exploring the options available.

The 200 amp list really only consists of about 20-30 sounds (if that), though. Just 4-5 variations/tone stacks of Vox/Marshall/Mesa/Fender-type sounds. I guess tone chasing is a fun hobby for some people though. I prefer to find something I like and play shows and make music instead of figuring out which of the 80+ high gain amps is going to get the exact perfect flavor of "British" distortion. There's nothing wrong with all the options, but from my experience/perspective, the dedication to minutia required to sort out the differences or even find a reason to sort out the differences is more of a time sink than anything useful.

This was kind of how I was feeling trying the AFX before I decided to stick with L6. Yeah, there's a tone of cool models, but most of them are basically Marshall/Mesa/Peavey Sound with a varying tone stack, and I didn't find anything I didn't think I could do well with the amps, ODs, and EQs in the Helix easy enough. I've never been one to suffer from option paralysis, so it's not like more models would be a problem, but 99% of the guitar sounds people know/want are in there with very little effort already.

AFX has like 80 models that all sound almost the same, just to have that many models. There are several L6 original high gain amp models (badonk being a port of the iconic Big Bottom that basically made djent), Modded 2204, HBE, Archon, 5150 (still probably the MOST used metal/core amp)... There are more than enough high gain options in Helix.

my bad... I SAID I SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE SPECIFIC. BLUES DENTISTS. B L U E S D E N T I S T S. LIKE THE GUYS WHO BUY HARLEY DAVIDSON MOTORCYCLES AND HAUL THEM ON A TRAILER TO STURGIS BUT THINK THEY ARE BIKERS.

I should have been more specific. Blues dentists. The same guys who buy a Harley, put it on a trailer to haul it to Sturgis, but consider themselves "bikers".

I get that, but they should offload it from the "Support" section of the site. Unless its user to user moral support or something. You can't even legitimately ask L6 a question here, and about half of the "experts" (no offense, you are always cordial and helpful when you can be) come off as old guys with too much time and expendable income instead of actual guitar players.

Yeah, except he's not a "spokesman" at all, he's just also a gear nerd who participates in forum discussions. I do agree that if he's going to talk about future developments over on TGP, all of that information should be provided here as well, but he has no obligation to provide any information, so it is what it is. On that token, though, I do find it hilarious that a company-run forum that doesn't provide any official support has the forum listed in the "Support" section of the website. Pretty good joke.

That's pretty much exactly how the convo goes on TGP, as well.

Well, without sounding THIS condescending... You should set the ASIO driver to whatever one you're using for the Focusrite (USB 2.0 unless you're using Thunderbolt, I would imagine) for both input AND output, then use the Focusrite software to mix for your monitors.

You would have to have bluetooth from the Helix headphone output to your Air Pods. Unfortunately bluetooth is not very good for monitoring purposes because it is not an immediate sound and you will feel very quickly disconnected from the instrument. Just get some wired headphones and connect it to the headphone out on the Helix and use the Helix as your soundcard.