xavierb

Nope you can't... changing models I would be OK with, the pickup selector resetting the tone/volume control to be tone/volume controls is what sucks.

Preset Variax Lock Control is set to "Tone Knob" - as soon as I change the pickup selector (also happens with the model selector, but that's OK I suppose) the tone "resets" to being a tone control. Same thing with the volume knob.

I'm a JTV89F user, Helix is running the 1.06 firmware.

Turning the model knob on the Variax unlocks the tone and volume knobs on the Variax, so they revert to their normal function. I guess the workaround right now is have a separate preset for each Variax model you're planning using.

I think it's a bug, here's my ideascale entry to fix it - it drives me nuts as I like to switch pickups during from one solo part to another, but it doesn't seem that it bothers enough people, I only got 7 votes so far :(

As someone who has similar experience in IT you must have missed all the sans and blade chassis I've seen bricked by bad firmware updates

As you should know. It's impossible to account for ever single permutation. And IBM, HP, Microsoft and Apple have VASTLY more resources for doing this kind of thing and they still have issues like this with Firmware (we lost a couple of surfaces last week with Firmware updates). I don't think it's as boggling as you do to be honest

As someone who's updated my Axe FX 30-50 times (there's firmware update about 2-3 times a month) without a single problem I think it's very poor experience to end up with not one but *two* Helices with firmware update problems, the first one being completely bricked.

There is (at least was, maybe it's fixed now?) something wrong with their firmware update process, I'm also in IT and I have updated BIOSes for hundreds of various devices (including SANS and blade chassis) and the only time I ended up with a bricked device was because of of a power outage.

Anyway, I hope v1.06 is the last time I have any issues with a firmware update :)

I ended up returning Helix at the store, the new one worked for the last 3 firmware updates. Eventually tried to upgrade to 1.04.3 a couple of days ago and the firmware failed - but I was somehow able to got back to 1.04.2 and decided to leave it there for now.

 

Updating the firmware on Helix is definitely not a foolproof process in my experience :(

Just a follow up: I was able to update to v1.06 and it worked first go!

How about some specs (does it have a USB port? What about MIDI?) and a price? The website has none of that info.

Here is an example this is after a minute or so

Notice how re-setting the driver re-syncs

I know my buffer is at 128 it's the same st any setting

 

I get a very similar problem on Windows 7 - lots of crackles and pops while playing and recording - it makes the Helix pretty much unusable as an audio card, I only use it when I want to record my variax so I can get the mags and the emulated dry sound.

Now I've noticed that it works fine right after a reboot, but if you leave the computer and switch off (did not unplug first) the Helix then turn it back on (while the computer is running) that's when it happens. The only workaround (if you can call it that) is to reboot - and *then* it works fine. I rarely reboot my computer, next time I do I'll run more tests (like try to switch to another audio device before turning off the Helix) and report what I find.

I'm having the same problem with the 1.04.3 update. Did you find a resolution? (If this isn't solved quickly next week, this is going back for a full refund)

I ended up returning Helix at the store, the new one worked for the last 3 firmware updates. Eventually tried to upgrade to 1.04.3 a couple of days ago and the firmware failed - but I was somehow able to got back to 1.04.2 and decided to leave it there for now.

Updating the firmware on Helix is definitely not a foolproof process in my experience :(

Now it has happened to me twice that the helix has Frozen when scrolling through presets. 

Am I the only one this has happened to or is it a software bug ?

Seems to happen all the time if you use the preset wheel, roll quick enough *and* the Helix app is running.

Line 6 had two options:

1. Delay Helix's release until the full editor is done.
2. Don't delay Helix's release until the full editor is done.

Note that there's never been a "3. Don't release a full editor" option. No one at Line 6 has ever argued—or even suggested—that Helix shouldn't have an editor. The ONLY point of contention is that a full editor isn't available at launch, but that's really common in this industry.

I think the reason you're getting a lot of comments on this is because it feels like the general concensus amongst the line 6 employees is that the editor is not really necessary (or a priority) since the interface is so good. Granted, the interface great - the best (to my knowledge) amongst this type of devices currently available on the market. Again yes, it was the correct tradeoff not to wait for the editor to be done - but a desktop editor is still desperately needed for some (including me) of your users, and an actual barrier to buy for some of your customers.

The other thing that was a better on the HD500x is that you could easily switch the looper from pre to post with one knob, with Helix you have to move the block around. It's more flexible but in practice not so great as you often want to switch between using a looper pre while tweaking your sound, yet use the looper post for you know... looping some chords. Being able to have multi looper blocks (even if only one is available at once) in one preset would be a way to get around it.

Sounds good, the one with the GHK IR is remarkably better.

Just wondering... Where do the TBmix and Kmix IRs you've got in that zip come from?

If you want to have some presets that just use the current Variax model, and some that change it, you set the Variax Settings parameter to Preset, and select "Don't Force" on the presets you just want to use the current model. For other presets, you select the specific Variax model and tuning you want.

OK, that's great - and that works I noticed that tone & volume *also* have "Don't Force" which is awesome. As deadlocked said the "Per Preset" vs "Global" IMO belongs to the global settings, but I will submit an IdeaScale and see if anyone agrees - and that's really a minor thing.

So the real report (and that's not really a bug, unless that's some kind of change in the default?) is that most of the global presets in v1.03 have their tone & volume set to 0 instead of "Don't Force".

Surely that can't be right... That's the *only* control within all blocks that behaves that way!

If that's how it's supposed to be, how do you program the Helix to "use whatever the variax is set to right now" within one patch, then "force to this variax setting" in another?

Firmware 1.02 got that right, that's a regression/bug. And that's separate from most factory presets having Variax tone/volume to 0, which is another problem.

Looks like 'Global' is just a flag that will override any Variax settings that are stored in each preset. It's most probably saved within Helix internal memory like some of the params found under the Menu button.  It's not being saved within the Preset, nor Setlist or Bundle files.

This "Don't force" flag, should be saved along with the preset and should mean "use whatever the variax is physically set to right now".

Firmware: v1.03.0

Global Settings: None relevant

Bug: Preset doesn't save the "Variax Setting" within input block

1. Go to a preset that has multi inputs set for path A
   
2. Go to path A input, next page, set "Variax Settings" to "Preset"
   
3. Save the preset
   
4. Set "Variax Settings" to "Global" but do not save the preset!
   
5. Go to any another preset
   
6. Come back to the original preset
   
7. Observe that "Variax Settings" is set to "Global" even though that's not what was saved!
   

This is major pain, unless you set one preset to "Global" - for every factory preset the tone/volume are "reset" to 0 for the Variax!

Firmware: v1.03.0

Global Settings: None relevant

Bug: Changing the "Variax Setting" doesn't change the edit icon

1. Go to a preset that has multi inputs set for path A
   
2. Go to path A input, save the preset
   
3. Go to another preset, come back in
   
4. Next page, set "Variax Settings" to "Preset"
   
5. Note that the "E" icon on the top right corner doesn't show up
   

Even better... keep the same settings (at least the ones that are common) when I change amps or cabs - I would love that!

Should be a setting, especially given that if you click on one of the 6 knobs (something you can do if you want to manually anyway) you can go back to the default for that value.

When it [the editor] is available, it is really just going to mimic what's on the Helix's screen.

I think that's mistake. A desktop has more screen real estate, use it. For example, why should we still have pages when you can should all the pages a once? That way we can have the master *and* the tone controls all at once for the amp block for example...

Also, keyboard shortcuts for moving blocks around and modifiiers for tthe various settings (i.e. +/- then shift +/- for increment of 10 - something like that - and those modifiers should work with the mousewheel) would be *very* welcome.

Here's the IdeaScale entry for it:

   http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Global-CAB-OFF/790043-23508

Bump, it's not clear in the docs.

Yep the Helix foot edit is awesome, I know what you mean editing presets using the Axe hardware I used to hate it at first, but I found that once you force yourself to spend a couple of hours (instead of using Axe Edit which is way easier) it's not so bad.

But yes, live editing is definitely one of Helix's strong suits.

Just thought that I would add that I compared my Helix with my Axe FX running the Quantum (1.01) firmware, and all my presets use Ultrares IRs. To try to simplify it seems to me (I'm not a tone buff - I only got 7/10 on the Helix challenge) that I hear more "complex" stuff going on (particularly distortion wise) on the Axe side than on the Helix side - this said I'm not sure that those differences wouldn't get lost in the context of a mix. I haven't done a proper blind A/B test yet, this is me using the same guitar in the 2 devices with similar presets, so it's not a very rigourous or fair test. I also noticed that the Axe responds better when using the volume control on the guitar than the Helix, even though I very rarely use this myself.

Add an entry to IdeaScale, I'll vote for it :)