gunpointmetal

It really depends. I don't see a need for it live unless its going to be really wet as an actual effect vs some guys who seem to have a slight 'verb on all the time. IME most rooms have enough of their own reverberation and resonance that it's not necessary for depth or space and ends up muddying things up. I use 'verbs on some of my live clean patches, but its always more ethereal and noticeable as a sound design decision.

A big part of his tone comes from his really bright, clear, pickups. Maybe put an EQ in front with some of the 300-400Hz dipped and a slight boost around 2-3kHz. Another key is having strings that are WAAAAAYY too loose on the bottom end so half of the tone is string noise bouncing off the frets....

I was referring to the fact that he was sharing the PA with the vocals and everyone else is using dedicated amps. I run two 12" Mackie PA speakers just for guitar at rehearsal to have it "feel" like an amp along with the live drums and bass. A dedicated speaker for guitar is what I was suggesting to get the "feel" back in the room.

Second on everything suggested so far except for using the Global EQ to fix tone issues. Leave the global EQ alone and get your patches to sound the way you want on their own, then use the global EQ to adjust for minor room discrepancies from stage to stage. If you're using your global EQ to fix ALL your tones, then you get in a room where you're bassy or trebly, adjusting the global is going to mess everything up.

Used to be awful. They used all the money they made copying and reverse-engineering other company's stuff to buy some smaller companies making better stuff and their newer items are definitely more than a few steps ahead quality-wise than they were 5-6 years ago. Those powered speakers are seriously underpowered, though.

Wouldn't it be easier to have all your backing tracks set to output at a consistent volume or automate any volume changes/fades in your DAW? then all you have to worry about is setting the volume once to match your Helix throughput?

Just remember to bypass the IR into the amp if you're still planning on going direct of the Helix to the board.

If you KNOW that when you go to play out you're going to have a competent sound guy, you can get away with leaving your speaker/amp at the rehearsal space and just dealing with the lack of stage of volume knowing you're in the mix out front, but unless you guys are using in-ear monitoring, or everyone is going DI and you're all getting your own monitor mixes, DI into a floor wedge isn't going to feel like you're getting through the band on stage/in rehearsal even if you're tones are perfect and you are sounding right in a FOH mix. Having a good (relatively) Flat Response powered speaker isn't a bad idea with modelers anyways. What happens if you're playing a place that is small and the sound guy only puts vocals, keys and kick through the PA?

Is everyone else going direct and coming through the monitors as well? I ask because there's no way you're going to feel like you're keeping up with everyone, even if your tone is spot on, if you're monitoring through a wedge and everyone else has amps blasting (or even not blasting) in the room. I prefer to have a dedicated speaker for myself for rehearsal because I can turn up/down to match the drums and other amps and I can face it into the room like the other amps. Just another part of the equation to consider.

I guess I'm lucky. I found 4-5 I like for everything and haven't felt the need to change. I think I have maybe 40 of the slots filled. That seems like a lot of work. Awesome on you for figuring it out, though!

How do you know which slots you want which IR in if its not in the Helix? Are you simply grouping types of cabs, or making a mass change to patches?

If you're comfortable with your sound through a PA for rehearsal, flat should be a good starting point. If you can, have the bassist strum around the guitar while you check it in the room to make sure nothing is popping out or getting muddy.

The signal gets changed to Mono, but it does by combining the two stereo sides into one output.

Are you by chance running stereo delay/verb into a mono amplifier? Depending on your settings the summing of the stereo signal to mono could definitely cause a phase/chorus type sound.

So how 'bout some mixing sofware in the next Editor that lets us use the I/O like many other audio interfaces where we can assign each output i.e. - 1/2 are guitar, 3 is click, 4 is LFE, 5 is keys from separate tracks in a DAW...

It won't register the low A on my 9-string guitars, either...

probably

Somebody hook me up with the Beta team! lol, I mean how many guys do you have running this stuff through 8/9 string guitars tuned down to bowel rumbling territory?

Definitely electronic interference if you only hear it with the guitar plugged in and volume up, 99% sure its not a Helix issue. I've had to ask my neighbor (very politely, and he obliged) to move a in-home cell phone tower because he had set it up right above where I write/record and I was getting all sorts of fun interference all of the sudden. It can come from bad grounding the building, high-power wireless things like modems/routers....sucks you couldn't get it sorted.

Nonsense, there is no cab modeling on the FX loop inputs. As long as your cab modeling is OFF on the Helix (and you build copies of your FRFR patches that are tweaked for guitar speakers) you can just plug straight into the FX return and then use the Helix master volume for your output level. If you're trying to use the Helix as on stage amplification and still go direct to the FOH, you're best bet is going to be moving your cabs/IRs to the very end of the signal chain and using one of the FX sends just before the cab/IR to send the PB. Crate stated a long time ago that the original signal flow schematic was wrong and the only cab-modeled output was the XLR and then only if you went through the FRONT. I don't any benefit from trying to incorporate the PB preamp into the signal chain.

Your bass player is scared of new things, that is all. If he actually cared about putting on the best sounding show possible, he'd ALSO go direct and you guys would invest in a little digital mixer so you can run all IEM and get a small Dual-Main/Sub PA system for gigs where you need stage bleed.

That really sucks! I wouldn't be too happy either. Mine has seen dozens of shows and rehearsals in and out of the bag since I got it and I haven't seen any hardware issues yet, hoping I don't.

When did Slate go iLok? I have SSD and have been running it and adding sample packs for a few years now without an iLok.

I've known people running their entire home recording rigs on hacked software that was supposed to requires dongles, iLok, only work with certain hardware, etc. If someone wants a piece of software for free, they or someone else will figure it out.

I'm a few years out on playing a tube amp, but this how I remember it, having played through all of those at one point or another. Higher gain = Muddier Output pretty much universally. As far as the gain on tap in the Cali V model, I have no issues getting it to grind fine with my EMG-equipped guitars, but there 808x/909 pickups which might be a little "hotter" than what you're running. The ENGL and PRS models can be very tight even without an OD, but that modern metal tone is almost ALWAYS a low-gain OD with the tone boosted into a high-gain amp with the gain lowered for clarity.