jorisgriffioen

Most amps have passive EQ circuits right? That would mean that they do nothing at maximum and bleed more signal to ground as you turn it down. If you want to "bypass" the preamp EQ, you would turn up all the tone knobs to maximum. Not sure about that and whether the Helix models that "correctly" but it's food for thought. It doesn't really matter much either way, whatever sounds good ... sounds good. ;)

ITT: DI still doesn't know what "user experience" means. Who cares that someone uses the wrong words? It's not their job to define the technical problem, it's the customer's job to tell you what task they find hard to solve. It's yours to translate that to technical specifications / changes or usability changes when the problem is user error. I find your attitude towards your customers very tiring. People can be entitled, they can be stupid, they can have the wrong ideas or be using the wrong words to describe something. It doesn't matter. In the end they are using the product and are feeling friction or are unable to do something they should be able to. There's a lot of energy spent here on trying to disprove what someone is feeling - as if that is possible - instead of on what exactly the cause of the issue is. The Helix is a beautiful evolution of UX for guitar, it absolutely beats the hell out of anything before it in terms of usability. If you want to keep evolving it and maintain that quality you really need to take your customers experiences more seriously.

It can easily do the routing and seperate tones for sure. The pitch shifting on the other hand will fall completely flat with chords, if you tend to stick to single note lines though it'll be fine (and maybe they'll improve it, but don't buy gear based on promises)

He's not the OP, how does that work?! I love by the way how the guys accusing people of trolling are actually being the biggest trolls. Wow. I thought this forum was better than Fractal's, but I'm beginning to have my doubts.

You're overblowing my statements into "ridiculous demands", that doesn't exactly help create a constructive discussion. I stated exactly what would satisfy me: about half the latency would be acceptable. Still not super awesome but fine considering the other advantages that Helix brings over the alternatives. I sent my Helix back (I wasn't kidding, it was unworkable :( ) so I can't test the snapshots at the moment. That said: I use 3, maybe 4 different sounds in many songs, so keeping that within one preset feels very limited (since DSP runs out quick when you want to use multiple amps). I don't think snapshots would fix my problem because it still assumes that everything can be built in a preset and doesn't expand the available DSP (obviously).

If this is true it would be awesome! Could you (or anyone) make a quick recording of some complex patches switching around?

Jezus some of the responses on here are pathetic. There is absolutely no way someone can not like this product eh? :rolleyes: More than enough post-purchase-rationalization to go around apparently.

Yay let's create some stereotypes to love ourself and hate other people by.

The most effective would be a sidechained gate that senses on the input but actually gates after all the gain. Kinda like the NS2 but then actually good. ;) The beta software on the GSP added that and it's heaven, you can build insane patches (DS1 on full gain into an SLO for instance) and it doesn't give a beep unless you want it to. :)

See it come to a fruitful conclusion. I'm still invested in the overall development of digital guitar effects. If Line 6 tackles this problem in this generation it will most likely not be an issue in the next and they can tackle other problems. That said: thanks for the useful contribution to the information and tone of this thread...

People will always want better stuff. But the request here hasn't been "WE NEED SEAMLESS PATCHSWITCHING AND ETERNAL SPILLOVER!" it has been "can the latency be reduced to an acceptable level?" There has barely been a question about how much lower would make it usable. The whole discussion is about it not being possible, workarounds and calling people that disagree with you trolls. You guys really need to stop making this discussion about the validity of someone's experience. You don't imagine a silence between patch switches, it's there. You don't imagine missed notes, they are there ... IF you play in a situation that causes them. Apparently a lot people here play slower music or at home or in a two-guitar band, I don't know what, but the fact that this isn't a problem to you does not make it a non-issue to everybody. This is product design 101 and as a community, don't you want the best out of the product you have? That being said, as I previously said: if it were halved it would make the product usable to me. My input is of course moot since it's going back, but still, I'm interested to see what others think about that? You can test it by making a recording, cutting in the silence and shifting the second bit.

It's actually based on the Fryette LXII. Not switching, stereo 50/50 watt, only 6L6. They couldn't use EL34s in there because of the heat they produce. (in a 1U box you don't have much space to dissipate that properly)

That is my setup, and I can tell you it rocks! And I don't need to tell you about the weight then haha, that RM100 weighs two moons!

Yes, I understand that it works for you and others, that is very clear by now. Congrats on having what is IMO the best modeler that currently exists. Enjoy! (seriously, I'm glad you have something that works for you) I'm not selling, using money-back guarantee. :) There are some other factors, lack of stereo IRs and not as much DSP power as expected, in the end this was the dealbreaker. Apparently modeling is just not where it needs to be yet for me. Luckily it's not in the sound quality but in "logistics" around it, so I expect that over time these things will def. be overcome. In the mean time I suddenly have a lot of money for pedals haha, everybody's happy ;)

Let's make something clear: the reason I might be edgy about this is because I really want it to be good enough. In almost every way it is. That is a huge feat, coming from the rig I described above. I really like this unit and respect Line 6 a lot for their design of it. No Fender for me haha, I need a tad more gain ;)

"The patch change is not "unbearable"" ... to you. To me, as explained many times now, it makes the unit literally unusable. I played a song yesterday and two notes got lost in the silence of the patch change. It is worse than other types of equipment, even worse than other equipment that Line 6 themselves produce. "Doing something a little differently" doesn't cut it, even though I think it shouldn't need a workaround like "pre-switching" of course I'd use it if push comes to shove, but even the workarounds are not acceptable (I can choose to miss two earlier notes ... profit?) If you're happy with it, that's cool. Seriously, it's a beautiful piece of kit. As for me: I've boxed the Helix up and am returning it next weekend. If an update drops in the mean time I'll be a (cautiously) happy man, if not the search continues... :(

I've only been testing it (had it for a week now) so the setup is not solidified yet, If Line 6 doesn't fix the latency it has to go as well, so I'm hesitant to even put too much effort into it. That said: you can do both. The Randall can work in several configurations: - One mono cab, switching between the EL34 / 6L6 sides (or whatever tubes you put in) - Two cabs, switching between the channels and cabs (one cab would be silent at all times... I don't know why you'd want this but it works) - Two cabs or a stereo cab, both channels active (basically just a regular stereo poweramp with different tubes in each side) It's a really good poweramp, even if you wouldn't use the channel switching it just sounds great. It's awfully heavy though.

Come on, seriously? You're trolling right?

The Helix preamp models sound great with my Randall RT2/50. Being able to choose EL34 or 6L6 for the different amps makes it fit even better. :) If the Powerstation fits in the bag that would be insane, you could walk in casually with an extremely powerful setup!

You will be able to use it with another controller. You will just still have to jump through the hoops of manually configuring everything (which you would have to do anyway with an Axe FX right?). The Helix controller is a much better experience though, it contributes a lot to the ease of programming.

More than two: yes (I've looked into it and it actually comes down to 3 to 4 distinct tones per song) Instant: no, just quick enough that it doesn't break the composition of the music

The trick to his tone is the MXR Distortion+, now we don't have that but there is the KWB, which is basically a clone. Setting that to sillicon diodes with medium gain, bit of extra treble and high volume ... that's pretty much it. Provided you're actually playing a strat or tele, that makes a world of difference. Try not to go for very high gain, he actually plays more in the crunch area most of the time.

Product Managers like DI are way better than us at deciding what solutions are the best option and how that relates to development time and Line 6's goals. It's his job after all and he has insights far beyond ours. As long as we provide information about what the issues are and how they affect us (and maybe do some suggestions) they should be able to make the necessary decisions, you can't make those for them. You're right, it's a tricky balance. I work at a startup so have a lot of experience with the feeling that you would like to have infinite resources to fix everything. ;)

You're talking about a tradeoff in logistical hassle, that is once again a red herring. Please read the comments again. The point made was that this technological limitation is "fine" because it changes the composition of songs for the better ... which is of course a ridiculous argument to make and completely misses the point.

No problem at all. In a rack rig with custom handwired preamps (Salvation Mods in Randall RM4), a two channel switching poweramp, GSP1101 for base effects and a rack drawer of effects with loop switcher. All controlled via a powerful midi controller. Very powerful and flexible, but damn big and heavy, this is the problem the Helix solves for me: it's one box and relatively small and light. Because progress never happens in your world? I'm using a rig with basically 1980s technology, 30(!!) years later I'd hope to be able to improve on that in some aspects. I notice, my band notices, we play with less enthusiasm, the audience picks up on that. Otherwise we'd all be playing on the bare minimum of gear, which not everybody does. You apparently are happy with that, I'm not, we are different people. Something else: I really don't understand the need for you and others to "prove" that this isn't an issue. I don't go around other topics that don't apply to me telling people that they absolutely shouldn't need that feature. It has been explained to death by now how this *is* a problem to us, the fact that it doesn't apply to your situation doesn't make a lick of difference for mine.