alfi27

Alright, so the Helix goes back to the shop today. Thank you for your answers and help, it is really a pity that I could not get it to work for me... :(

I have tried everything on the list. It sounds significantly better via headphones, great actually. I tried to reset all of it a couple of days ago, and now I did it two times again, but there is no difference compared to before I reset it. Just cannot understand why it is so great via headphones and so trash via my (really good) monitor...

Wow, that is exactly my experience with the Helix as well... Maybe I should try to get a replacement device before I give it up then. Thank you for sharing your experience! For the records, I have also tried absolutely everything but I cannot get it to sound good for anything but clean tones. Should really not be that hard to tweak...

The norwegian krone is really weak these days, so I am afraid I cannot let it go for less than 1650$ + shipping... Do not know where you are located, but if it is outside the EU the shipping might be quite expensive as well, but I can check it if you are interested.

As I wrote in another thread, the Helix sounds great through my EVH 5150III's poweramp and cab, but I just cannot get it to sound right with the built in cab sims or even the IRs (which is how I intended to use it). Really hate to say it, but I am going back to Fractal and selling the Helix... I have spent a week now tweaking for hours every single day, honestly it is making it less joyful to play guitar, because I almost never play and tweak all the time. I haven't gotten much closer to a really great tone during this week either (except a great clean tone from the factory presets). Even with the old Axe FX I could make a simple preset with an OD in the front, amp, cab and maybe an eq in the end of the chain and it would sound freakin' great with minimal tweaking. This is not a "hail Fractal Line 6 sucks" post, I am just sharing my experience and how/why the Helix does not work for me. I hate the fanatic Fractal fanboys just as much as all of you do, but I cannot deny that Fractal makes great stuff... The Helix is a great piece of gear as well, just not for me.

I have made another new discovery: the Helix sounds EPIC through the poweramp of my EVH 5150III 50w and the EVH 2x12" cab with Celestion G12H30s! That narrows it down the cabs then, I guess I am doing something terribly wrong there...

I think the biggest problem with the factory presets is that they have zero or not sufficient cut in the highs... As soon as I applied a high cut at about 7-8khz in the global EQ most of them sounded much better. However, I still cannot get the Helix to sound as good as my (old) Axe FX Std, I find it really hard to tweak to be honest. I think I need someone to educate me, because I am soon running out of things to tweak... :unsure:

Alright, so I have been fiddling around with a few eqs and tweaked a bit more. It sounds better than ever through headset, and it also sounds better through the CLR but there is still this "plasticy" quality to the tone... It sounds alright, but I am not "there". Bought a high quality XLR cable to use with it as well. I have also downloaded a few presets from the Customtone site, and all of them sound like trash honestly, especially through the CLR...

Apart from a few black screens and crashes, there is one annoying bug and one small, quite insignificant I bug I have noticed so far. When I create a dual cab block and I want to change the cab to the left, the right one automatically goes back to the 1x12" cab on the top of the list... So if I am going between, for instance the Marshall 1960 T75 and Bogner Uber T75 cab (I usually run same cab, different mics in this block) I have to start from scratch everytime, not just flick the wheel a little bit on both cabs. Quite annoying actually, because I like to tweak and experiment with different cabs and settings. The small bug has been mentioned before kind of, the pixel problem. I have only noticed it when I use the Royer 121 mic, there are a few pixels of the numbers that are missing on the top. If I change to another mic and then go back, all the pixels are there.

Sorry if this has been answered before, but I do not have the time to go through 29 pages... 1. The high and low cut in the cab block, do they cut before or after the cab? 2. Why do the high and low cut in the cab/IR block affect the tone differently compared to a dedicated EQ block? 3. Is there any plans of expanding the amp/cab-collection, and do we have to pay to get them eventually?

Thank you for your answer. I tried it, and with high cut on both the IR and the EQ block it sounds really muffled and dull... Without the EQ it is better, but still quite muffled. The thing I do not understand is: I never had to fiddle with high and low cut on the Axe FX... I put a distortion/OD in the front, then a Marshall amp with a 4x12" V30 cab and a graphic EQ with a slight mid boost and it sounded godly! Strong lows, very present mids and a little bit smooth, but not in any way lacking or fizzy high end. I really want to like the Helix, it is a great piece of gear that sounds great with headphones, but with anything else? Not so much... Some of you might wonder why I just do not keep the Axe and get rid of the Helix and stop whining, well; I want a floorboard that does not need any excessive hardware. The Helix I can just pack in a bag and go. But I am not giving up yet! Jar1zx said "with a few settings changes it sounds really good ", it would be very nice if you could share these settings, in detail! Thank you :) EDIT: looks like I have been scammed all these years... The amp in the Axe FX has a high cut on 6k and low cut on 10hz... I feel like such a noob right know :lol: I figured that it would be much easier to adjust the global EQ instead of putting an EQ block in every single preset. Cannot say that the high cut in the cabs and IRs affected the tone that much really, but I am not finished tweaking (will never be probably..)

Alright, I will try setting it to auto. I have tried using a single unbalanced cables, then a single balanced one and also two unbalanced. Cannot say it made a huge difference really...

Alright, so I got myself a Line 6 Helix to replace my Axe FX Standard. It sounds really great with headphones, even better than the Axe, but when I use it with the CLR it is a major dissapointment every time... The tone is harsh, fizzy and it sounds plasticy, almost like the HD500 sounded on the CLR but a little bit better. However, I expected much more. I have even tried a few IRs from Redwirez, and experimented with a hell of a lot of mics and distances. The factory preset «US Double Nrm» is great, really nice clean sound, and I can get quite good low gain and medium gain sounds from the Plexi Brt-model as well, but the high gain sounds are trickier.. A highpass filter/high cut actually makes it worse, which is really strange. It even sounds better on my H&K Lucas PA system, I had to apply a low cut filter. No need for that on the CLR... The Helix has the last firmware version as well. I tried to change from Line to Instrument in the I/O menu, and it actually sounded a lot better... Significant less volume, but that harsh high end almost disappeared. What's the deal, Line 6...? Hope you guys have something to address this issue. The CLR sounds magnificent with the Axe, and even playing music from the computer through the Helix...