MonkeyXT

It may help you to keep in mind that the way it's meant to work ideally was actually conceived around the idea that the HEEL-DOWN position would be the OFF position. That can be flipped around - which I do, because I'm so used to engaging using the toe switch in toe-down position that it's more intuitive to me to keep it that way - but it makes the delay setting not as effective. There was a post about that from someone from Line 6, or someone in the know, which explained the facts around this. It might have been on The Gear Page.

zooey - have you tried to approach that tone using an Angl? The core sound of the ENGL model has a purity that seems to stick through even as the gain is brought up around it. The sounds I've dialed with the Angl remind me a LOT of what I heard in that clip - I like that sound... then you goose it with a cleaner type of drive (Minotaur is my go-to for that purpose) to tighten it up on the way in... Give that a shot if you haven't already - to add to the great info above, that is.

... I thought I'd heard this last evening. I'm going to experiment to see, but I believe I will be seconding this report.

I'd have liked them to have continued the bean format - it's been my favorite - but even at the HD-X revision, they apparently stopped being able to fit it into the existing form factor as I understand it, which is why there was no bean HDx (and I was running into the DSP limitations of the HD left and right, trying to make full use of the amazing capabilities they'd built into that version... the HDx certainly solved that...) That was a sad time for me; I didn't want the brain on the floor, specifically because I prefer a floor control situation wherein there is no audio signal going to the front - using the PODhd bean, I was able to keep the audio at the back (also thanks to my Line 6 wireless), and just the CAT5e cable with my shortboard plus extra EX1 expression pedal coming to the front. I also couldn't convince myself to get the rack HDx... but my friend Fulcrum had gotten a hint from a call to Line 6; they assured him that they were not only not abandoning that product segment, but 'be patient; we're working on something' essentially was the message given to him, with the Line 6 person saying whatever they could without really saying anything. That was a good day, hearing about that. Then Helix news came. Boom - wow! I think the Interface aspect is extremely important; I've been saying that for a while now. It would really compliment the software product(s) immensely - especially working in their analog impedance input circuit... and I continue to hope; something to allow remote control of Helix Native (like an attached Helix Control etc.)...

Well, that certainly will take care of it in style. I hear great things about the Mission solutions. One thing is for certain; you don't kid around with your 'bedroom rig' gear. Congrats on that. I look forward to hearing your report back on your results from the G2.

My pleasure. Nice deal - please update the forum on how the unit is functioning. Cheers

I looked up that amp; it does have an insert point / loop which would allow you to skip the preamp / effects section, and input right to the power amp. So that part helps a lot. I'm not sure what you could expect from the speakers; it's 2x12, so I'd expect it to be guitar-centric... but the fact that Fender included an AUX input for media players etc. suggests maybe it can reproduce a broader range... Otherwise the cab models will be fighting with the actual cabinet section of your Champ, and you'll likely wind up with mush. But... it certainly can't hurt to try. Otherwise you could consider running this scenario without the cab models on to see what you'd get. No matter what though, you're getting yourself one heck of a bedroom sound system! Congrats in advance; please update us on your progress.

... quite a ways to travel for me, I can say that much - you're in Arizona, if I'm seeing that correctly. I'm in Ontario. Canada. =]

I have enjoyed Diezel models on my previous Line 6 devices... I'd like to see them here; I found them unique on the PODs - a sort of 'cleaner' gain that I found quite useful. EDIT: corrected spelling of amp name - oops... and while I'm at it, adding a bit more of a comment.

You can mark it as answered too, I guess, in case others are looking for a similar answer.

Haha - that's excellent. (I mentioned encoders because I'm a Helix Rack/Control user, so the resets are done there on the rack) Glad that got sorted - you definitely don't want oddball behavior floating about behind the curtains ... Cheers

Are your encoder press-in functions working? Maybe one of the switches has gone bad, so it's not receiving the command to do the reset.

Welcome. Helix by itself will not power a cab; an amplification system is required (or headphones, but that doesn't fit your usage note above). Generally speaking, the most agreed-upon course of action is to run Helix into a full range, flat response (FRFR) powered speaker setup - which is much like running direct into a mixer board, and out through the PA speakers. This works properly for Helix and similar devices because it was made specifically to run direct in this fashion - the environment of amp(s), effects, speaker(s), microphone(s) and room ambience are all in the digital realm. So, if you scan through the forums and examine threads discussing the use of FRFR speakers, that'll get you a load of information to ponder. Spectacular results can be had using this method, and is a good bit easier to dial in than trying to 'neutralize' the inherent colorings of a guitar-oriented amplifier - seems a little counterintuitive, but it's entirely true; Helix will do the work of adding those colourings to your tastes. (It's possible to run into a full amp in various ways (see 4CM, 7CM for ways of integrating Helix with amps) but I think in your scenario, you'd do better economically to pair a Helix with a decent FRFR solution). Cheers.

Crazy enough to prompt me to test it out. No dice. Great suggestion though... definitely worth trying. I went further; I corrected the LED state within v2.21.0, exported that, and re-imported it as well... same result; came back in flipped. IMPORTANT DATA POINT; it seems that the ones which flip in my case invariably involve switching AMP & CAB/IR blocks on/off in toggle fashion - my other various function switches which switch other blocks and/or change parameters come in set to the same LED state as intended. This is at least some new clarity on this.

Experiment; put on a super clean setting with a 'tube' amp. Dial the bias all the way up. Dial it all the way down. Down; you hear 'less efficiency' (ie; quieter) and distortion come into play. Up; gets louder toward middle of adjustment, then gets a bit quieter toward the top of the range, but clarity improves along with that. I did this simple experiment using WhoWatt 100 with low drive (3.8) and master at 10 - biasx at zero for all of this also.

Regarding fresh firmware 2.21.0; According to the release notes; - In rare cases, multiple bypass assigned footswitches with custom names can have bypass states swapped upon preset import - FIXED My observation; not fixed. I have many patches with multiple-function stomps, and after re-import etc after update, they appear to all be swapped again.

I received a response via my Support Ticket today; essentially, it states that there's no way a bypassed block would have any effect on the sound. It's stated that this has been tested and found to be true. The response leaves me open to pose questions, which I will. But I have to say, my ears certainly disagree with this finding - as well as my trusted friend, who noted an audible different immediately on my demonstration of my observations. I REALLY need to do that hard-wired loop bypass experiment. And I'm forming various questions to try to dig into this a bit further. Far be it for me to 'challenge' the engineers responsible for Helix - but I feel quite certain that /something/ is going on in the background of the signal path which may account for whatever it is I'm hearing. ... I'd hate to think the cheese has slid off my cracker in this matter, but I'm willing to consider the possibility. ... but I gigged one of the 'compromise' test patches, and found my sound to be lackluster that evening.. and it was the same venue at which I did my FIRST (and extremely satisfying in terms of sounds/ease of use) gig using Helix.

... I just typed and then erased a post, because I am finding the whole thing still a bit confusing; I've scanned quite a few articles, and there seems to be some disagreement, or at least, differing opinion or interpretation, on how it all plays out. Here's one I read among many; seems to be pretty straightforward, yet seems also to favour Class AB amp configurations for their overdrive characteristics... http://www.guitarplayer.com/miscellaneous/1139/class-a-vs-class-ab/14204 ... I'm one to continually tell people to not worry about the names and the numbers on the knobs; just dial with your ears. If it sounds good and behaves as you like, then it's good. I did however want to get a better grasp of this aspect, and now feel a bit lost on the topic again =]

I'll weigh in on this, now that I've spent a bit of time at an experiment related to this topic. A little while back I decided to get a 10" FRFR to use at home - meant to help me dial in my sounds (especially the one(s) I use in my small live situations) without the need for the treble trim that seems to be required at the board. And higher gain sounds weren't sounding good. I wasn't terribly surprised; I have gotten a good long way with using my direct into computer set-up, which is hooked to a very decent broad frequency computer speakers.... but there's a definite difference, and rightly so. I didn't want to go full L6 and similar; way overkill for my needs, though I really wish I was able to splurge on something like that. But I want something less expensive, which I can ultimately double up on in order to work in stereo again at home, while also working the tones for FRFR. And my goal hasn't been for live monitoring and such, though it would be good to know that I have that option, should the need arise. The Alto TS210 is often mentioned and much-liked. So I've kept that in mind. But I also spent some time unofficially demonstrating Helix at my local retailer (Long & McQuade branch, for my fellow Canadians) and my contact there set it up with a Yorkville 10" powered speaker. Sounded great! Skip forward; I brought one home - a YX10P, which new in box is $470 (CDN); not super-cheap, but far less than half of the StageSource lines. I instantly heard what I expected at home; the need to trim the top end. Good sign; means this is responding similarly to my friend's live PA, which is a set of 12" Mackie powered speakers hooked to a very nice SoundCraft board. Very crisp setup; nice and clean, lots of headroom. But I couldn't help myself; I kept wondering about the Alto - so I found a retailer in the city that had one in-stock, and brought it home to try out. That was Sunday afternoon, and I got it home that evening to try. Great looking, simple, really nice. Hooked it up and ran the same experiments. The TS210 was back in its retail box and shipping carton by the late evening of that same day. For reference; the Alto here is pretty universally $329 new in box, compared to the Yorkville YX10P being $470 new in box. With that said, I'll spend that extra without hesitation; my result was THAT much better, cleaner, and so much better resembled the results I get live with my friends Mackie/SoundCraft setup. Compared to the Yorkville, I was surprised to find the Alto sounded 'messy' - looser in a way, and had an odd sort of boominess that I couldn't explain (primitive de-coupling done to keep relatively level playing field - see below). There was something in the midrange which translated very differently with the Alto - not as 'sweet,' over-all a bit 'harder' sounding. Makes me wonder what I would have thought of it, had I not had the YX in my ear already. Very surprising to me in all, with the great track record the Altos have with many other users. Yorkville is a brand which is very closely tied with the Long & McQuade music store chain. Yorkville Sound also happens to be the distribution and warranty handler for Line 6 in Canada. These products are available elsewhere in the world, though how common I don't know. But at least, I can say for my fellow Canadian modeller device users in particular, definitely give the Yorkville speakers a listen - I'm using it wedge-style on the floor, but with foam 'floaters' to de-couple (primitively, but adequately) and get a pretty 'pure' result. The depth is surprising to me, for a very compact enclosure and 10" speaker system. Its program power rating is 200 watts - I haven't had to push it hard to see where this type of wattage takes it, but at home I run it with quite a lot of gas still in the tank. Just my personal observations to date.

You are most welcome. Cheers

Hold the bypass button and then immediately push the control encoder knob for the parameter you wish to de-assign - that's the quickest way - brackets will vanish immediately. (I've accidentally twist-turned quite a few times....)

... that's not a good thing (momentary flip-flop). Yikes.

That's your perception of what you are; that's fair. I have my thoughts as to what I am as well, but I don't want to be a 'downer' here =] However, clearly you have two very important elements which speak directly to this topic (and doubtless, many others); ears sensitive to what's going on, and an engineer's mindset analyzing the information at hand. Your comments and references to other related info and topics has been immensely helpful in moving this discussion forward and in extremely useful directions. So, to paraphrase, you've got that going on =] Thanks! I just read through that, and gives many data points. I missed that discussion at the time, it seems... but it's the same food we're pondering here as well. A worthy read; and interesting to relive that point where the input Z went from global to per-preset. The person with the loop has a very interesting point about how that interacts... Much food for thought.

Interesting. I gigged my PODhd bean a fair bit (my gigs are very small affairs, and just sit-ins for me, technically... but I treat every situation like it's a stadium full of people. For my part, PODhd is loaded with available capability, but was handicapped by the lack of processing power to take advantage of all the massive available options (dual amps etc). I ran into that 'out of DSP' warning many many times. The release of the PODHDX made a lot of sense; largely the same device, but with the horsepower behind it to make full use of the capabilities built in. I keep my PODhd rig handy as my back-up, just in case. But, once you start using a Helix, you start looking at what you were using before in a new 'relative' context - but with that said, I was - and am still - quite happy with the sounds I get from my PODhd. It's good to know I've got that complete PODhd/shortboard/EX1 set-up ready to go. In fact, I had a complete duplicate of that as well - always leaving the one packed and ready to go, the other at my music/computer area ready to use there. I only traded away that second PODhd rig because of Helix. I keep a PODX3 attached to my guitar work-bench as my test sound-maker etc. I started with POD2, then PODxt, PODX3, PODhd.... then a gap as I bit my lip with anticipation while awaiting what turned out to be Helix. Whole new quantum level, but with enough familiar Line 6 panache to make it easy to dive in and start making sounds. I use zero outboard gear; just expression pedals attached to the control board, and a wireless (G50 for gigging, G10 at home), my guitar(s), and away I go. I do feel that I should've delved deeper into the impedance characteristics more with PODhd - I have a feeling I would have fared even better... I also feel that it's likely more of a 'thing' with Helix - the advancement of the technology that they're using to describe the fascinating push/pull world of music system signal paths and amps is so much more 'real' in comparison as Line 6 continues to hone their skills and push the modelling envelope. That chart above is very enlightening.

I'd be happy to have that reference material, that's for sure. I never did look at the HD500X User's Guide - I stopped at PODhd (bean). Truth was, I was sort of 'butt-hurt' that Line 6 wasn't going to do the 'X' upgrade to the Bean form factor (from what I gather, it simply wouldn't fit in the same general package size any longer...) and, though I kept hitting the CPU limitations over and over, I didn't want to go with a floor-based model. I've always preferred a separate controller (which is precisely why I have Helix Rack & Control). The bean was my fave - still would be in fact. At the time, though, my good friend Fulcrum called down to ask about the 'X' situation... and without saying so, the L6 person restored our hope by letting us know that they hadn't abandoned that market whatsoever, and in fact to 'wait for it' - a preliminary hint that Helix was coming. Meantime, Line 6 Support just let me know a while ago that my patches and info had been passed on to the appropriate department. I'm eager to hear back from them.