Jose7822

I hope you're right :-).

Add Keith Merrow to that list :-).

That video sounded better, in favor of the POD HD500, but it still has that harshness that (so far) I don't hear in the Helix. Good find though!

And where in the heck are you going to find a professional rock guitarist without ear damage?

 

Haha! I was just thinking about that when he said it. And it's not just Rock. Have you played with an 11 piece Latin band, with horns blasting right behind you? Ooh, joy!

I'm sure I'll like the Helix. I get good tones from the 500X, so I'm relatively certain I could get good tones from the Helix. I'd by lying if I said I didn't at least want a test drive...

 

But what does a "3-5% improvement" mean? Or a 30-50% improvement? What units are we measuring in? (I say we call them 'Eric Johnsons'...this amp is 3.147159 EJ's better than that one ;) ).

 

You can't quantify subjectivity. It will be just like everything else. Group A will declare Helix to be the best thing since indoor plumbing, while Group B will say they can't hear enough of a difference to justify the price jump from the POD HD...at which point Group A will tell Group B that their ears suck...and there will be weeping, and the gnashing of teeth, lol.

 

This cheeseburger is 5% better than that one...why? More cheese? Was one prepared by a vestal virgin? Some guys like Coors Light...I'd rather die of thirst.

 

Yes, each generation of modeling improves upon previous iterations...but trying to hang a number on the finished product is utterly meaningless. Maybe its just me...

I think you also read too much into my comment. All I was saying is that 3-5% is hardly generous. A generous (key word, "generous") change in tone, or what have you, would be more like 30-50%. That's all. No need to write an essay on it :-).

Hi DI,

 

I didn't specify since we already stablished that we were speaking of the rack version of the Helix (post #63), but it's never redundant to specify.

 

Thanks :-).

The reason why it was confusing is because you are asking about two different things. An effects unit with true bypass, as the word implies, bypasses it (the Helix in this case) completely, so it is as if you don't have it connected into the signal path. In that case you're guitar signal is NOT being processed by the DSP, and definitely not by the A/D converters, of the Helix which means there is no signal degradation, EXCEPT when dealing with long cable runs. So, in order to mitigate the signal loss produced by long cable runs, you need to insert a buffer into your signal chain. As I mentioned earlier, Helix has a buffered analog bypass. This is what the video posted earlier demonstrates. But, so far, we're talking about an analog path.

 

Now, since you're connecting the Helix via USB into your computer, true bypass or buffered bypass is of no consequence to you. It's only of consequence if you're going from the Helix into another device. Going into your computer via USB requires an A/D conversion, which is done by Helix' converters. Line 6 says that they go down to -123dB, but they gave us no reference or frequency. Hopefully they post the full specs soon with more info on the quality of the converters found in Helix. Like you said, you will have to wait and see how transparent they really are after hearing from others, or trying it out yourself.

 

HTH

Well, the way you phrased that last question wasn't very clear ("...at this point if the dry track sent over USB an actual dry track, or not?"). You have to admit that could be interpreted differently, especially since you were previously asking about A/D conversion :-). I do believe that the rack version of the Helix has a buffered analog bypass.

 

EDIT: For clarity sake, what I'm trying to say here is that if you're worried about the signal being negatively affected by the DSP and A/D conversion inside the Helix (which Line 6 has already told you is very transparent), then you do have the option to use the buffered analog bypass output to send to your audio interface (assuming you have one). Makes sense? Or did I still not answer your question?

Right, sorry I missed that. If you're hooking the Helix directly into your DAW via USB then you'll still have an A/D conversion done by the converters inside Helix. There's always gonna be an A/D conversion when sending an analog signal, your guitar's in this case, into your DAW. Does this answer your question?

It depends on how you hook up Helix into your audio interface. If you go out from Helix using the digital outputs, then you only have an A/D conversion from Helix into your DAW. That would be the ideal situation. Otherwise, you'll get unnecessary conversion.

 

HTH

A 3-5% improvement is not generous. Add a zero to the right of each number and now we're talking. Personally, at least from the clips I've heard so far, the sound improvement over the POD HD500 is VERY noticeable. If the rest of the amps display the same level of detail, I would even venture to say that Helix will be aurally comparable to an Axe FX II. Obviously, this is just speculation since we don't have much to go by just yet. But I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case. Looking forward to the comparison!

CLR are one of the best FRFR. Check em out :-).

Seems fine to me. I did do a few tests where I compared plugging straight into the amp versus, and there wasn't much difference that I could tell. As far as achieving unity gain, the only thing I did was turn the master volume knob on the Helix to 100% and set the effects loop level on the Helix to line. I didn't have to tweak the effects loop levels beyond that. This is using an Egnater Renegade, for the record. I may try to record some clips something during the next week.

Some clips of that would be great!!

Dear line 6. Why helix? I know this is not the idea website but, how about when you release something new, keep the same ideas and keep improing upon them.

That's exactly what they did with Helix.

 

 

For instance, you came out with the first pod, the bean. Then you releeased the pod xt nothing really changed other than you added usb amd what was it model packs? Personally i went from podxt to toneport ux and the model packs were the same, but then i stepped up to the hd500x and if was let down. It's like i thought i was getting more for my dollar same, effects, same amp's, cabs mics.... but what i got was, minus a few amps and plus a couple more effects

You have to understand that, from what I know, Helix uses a different architecture than past products. Most of the Amps and FX where done from the ground up, though some did get converted from HD to HX format. I guess Line 6 could do the same with past product libraries, but I personally wouldn't be interested since the modeling technique of those is inferior to the current HX modeling. Perhaps Line 6 could sell these as packs for those interest (given enough requests)?

 

Hopefully with helix you get the entire family of everything from the past all in one great big package. Bean/podxt/live/hd ya know? Some of us are very very pateint. It's like you jumped the gun with your IDEA website and released something too soon again.

 

I like shopping blindly sometimes in hope thinking i'm really getting something better, but i was dissapointed.

 

I'm trashing my ux1. Can i transfer my ux model packs to my hd. Thats how you should work. End of story.

I definitely don't see a rushed product with Helix. I mean, the final verdict will be how stable and bug free it is once it's out in the wild. But, from what I've seen so far and the amount of features packed into it, I highly doubt this has been rushed :-). And again, maybe if enough people want those previous sound they may add them to the Helix in the near future.

 

Take care!