billlorentzen

I bought an IRig mic a few months ago and liked it, but I was not convinced of the road worthiness of it. It's a very light and insubstantial piece. I was also worried about feedback. I ended up returning it, mainly because I wanted something more permanently and solidly attached. I made a short recording of a few styles of playing and put it on soundcloud. https://soundcloud.com/billlorentzen/irig-acoustic-demo . I just listened to it again and I think it sounded pretty darn good. I might get another and try it again. I'm somewhat underwhelmed with the sound of the Taylor IRs used in helix with my acoustic and the piezo output. I'm still tweaking it, but I hear artifacts I don't like. It might be a smart thing for L6 to explore this area of acoustic IRs and see if they can perfect it for helix. Lots of potential buyers have and use acoustics with lousy sounding piezos!

Hey Jim, did you mention the Gear Page having a section with free IRs for acoustic guitars? I read it somewhere in, then went back and couldn't find it again. If so, do you remember how to find them on TGP? I searched "free IRs", but couldn't find anything. Thanks! BTW, your site and posts are great, a valuable community service.

I brought my HD500 to my first couple gigs, then I forgot.

The op was sept 2015. We can stop trying to help this guy I think.

I've used this for my pedal board since the late '80s, and still going strong. It started life as a keyboard case. I had it modded with appropriate internal material and swapped the fixed hinges for removable ones, and now use the lid section as the base. Super durable and protective. It will undoubtedly last the rest of my life!

Have you tried the /13 amp - the same one you own - set up just like yours? I use a bunch of different amps for clean with my super strat, depending on the tone I want: the /13, the Gibson, the Dr. Z, the SLO, the Shiva, the HiWatt. Personally, I don't use the Twin, although it sounds ok with my semihollow. If you can't get the amps clean enough, try putting an EQ with a drop in gain in front of the amp. Make sure the sag is all the way off, if you don't want any compression.

I agree, the exp ped does not seem a great design. Mine is defective, right from the factory - no amount of lubrication is going to stop it from rubbing on the face plate. IMHO it seems to have too much mass, especially for wah. I got used to the long throw on wah several modelers ago, but the weight of this one is not helpful for the slinky, subtle stuff. Maybe when I get one that works properly I'll feel differently.

Nice track. You might want to try the Gibson amp for something like this. It has a beautifully well-ballanced tone and can break up just a smidge on double stops for a vintage solo sound, just as an amp from the period would have. In fact I use it for a lot of my clean tones, whether I want vintage or not - it just sounds pretty.

Mine is about 1/32, so a little closer. It definitely can rub, I'm afraid. I also wish it was a lighter piece of metal. I prefer a light feel in my wah. With the extended throw of the pedal and the weight it's a bit of a chore to play a whole tune on wah. Being a guitarist is so hard. ;-( I got a blister on my little finger, too.

I'm really happy to hear you aren't having exp ped issues. Hopefully my new one will be perfect too. I tweak with studio monitors that give an accurate picture, so my patches sounded better, if anything, in the PA. Because I was coming from the Pod I started out by emulating the patches I used most, which was helpful. Another thing I do is set levels playing along with real tracks. This lets you get your rhythm levels and lead levels just right so they will work in a mix. Still, I had some patches too loud, but they were really easy to fix on breaks or even between songs. That's one of the great features of helix, having control of the output levels so easily.

I've had Helix for a few weeks and finally got enough patches created to cover one of my solo gigs (I play electric with backing tracks on these gigs). For the most part it sounded great, and I really liked the improvements in amp detail and responsiveness over my HD 500. It probably doesn't mean much, but I also made my highest ever solo gig tip money last night (and the wife approved). Besides wanting the better amp and fx modeling, I bought Helix because after several years of steady gigging, my HD500 is getting pretty tired and occasionally unreliable. One area that has me concerned on Helix is the onboard exp pedal. Mine has several problems, and after reading some of the threads here, I know I'm not alone. I think this is something L6 better address ASAP before they put too many more units out there. I'm waiting for Sweetwater to restock so they can swap mine for a new one, but based on the design, I'm not sure a new one will ultimately solve these issues. Mine has three problems: 1) if I set it to a comfortable tension for wah, it won't even stay in the heel back position - it dips forward about 10% from gravity alone, and I think it's gonna really fall on a stage with drums and bass cranking; 2) the friction throughout the throw is inconsistent, with smooth patches and sticky ones; the side is way too close to the top plate and with just a little lateral pressure it rubs. One of these would be a problem, but all three is serious. Pedal aside, I sure do love the /13, the DrZ and the Gibson! Not surprisingly, those were my favorites in the HD as well. I also like all the improved effects. Nice job, guys! PS. Please fix the pan law in the splits!

Let me start by admitting that the Helix verbs are pretty weak (I'm an audio engineer and I've owned and used many top of the line dig. verbs), and I use them as sparingly as possible. Solution? I would think developing original reverb algorithms for Helix would be a ton of work. Doesn't L6 make a digital mixer with (presumably) pretty decent reverbs, and aren't L6 now owned by Yamaha (who have made some OK verbs since the '90s), and doesn't Yamaha own Steinberg, who also have some quite nice verbs? At the risk of sounding glib about the programming and the corporate politics, wouldn't it be easier and way more cost effective to borrow some of these? Since a good verb is very processor intensive, maybe offer both the HD verbs and the more detailed ones, so we can choose to use the good stuff when we really need it.

I use hardware mostly because I don't always have my computer on, but I really should use the editor more now that it's working so well, because I can hear better when I'm front and center with my studio monitors.

Precisely.

I use exp on every patch to change from my rhythm sound to my lead sound. Generally this involves cranking up the amp, changing EQ settings, sometimes introducing a distortion pedal (by panning onto a parallel path), increasing delay mix level, and any other tweaks I may want. Sometimes I use two different amps (one cleanish and one dirty) and "pan" between them. I developed this because on some gigs I'm singing 95% of the time, and I hated having to squint down past the mic at the buttons to change patches for solos, etc. My foot can find the exp pedal without even thinking about it. I quickly realized several other advantages: no patch change lag; much quicker acces to louder tones so one can add a louder line any time, instantly, without looking, in the middle of comping; and ability to use sounds in between low and full volume. If you want to set up a patch like this and try it out, I suggest you start by taking two existing patches you use for rhythm and lead, and writing down settings for one of them and add it to the other one. It's a bit harder to create both sounds in a patch at the same time. For a couple decades I was a big rack Mesa Boogie guy. I used only rack fx and a Bradshaw switcher. I hadn't used a floor pedal since '85 or so. I thought I had the POWER, but exp pedal is way more powerful and I don't think I could ever go back.

That would be an excellent improvement.

As to your first question, I'm not doing it to create a stereo output. I'm doing it to allow me to use the expression pedal to pan between two paths with different things on them. I only use it for things that don't have a mix control, such as distortion pedals, amps or speaker cabs. All my patches use the expression pedal to go from a rhythm sound to a lead sound, so this is vital to my way of performing. I tried your idea of controlling at the merge point, but that doesn't work, I'm afraid. Give it a try - you'll see what I mean.

I'm not trying to bore y'all by pushing this issue - I'm bumping it, because I think it's important. Some day maybe you'll thank me (or not). ;-) If you're wondering how it might affect you, ask me!

I did another test with two identical splits, one on each path. This shows a +12dB bump in the center position! Line 6, you have to realize that this demonstrates that there is no pan law in effect at all (0 db pan law yields +6 when left and right summed). https://youtu.be/OZMPKErosnE I have one patch with two splits in it. The first is for a distortion pedal and the second pans between two speaker cabs. I hope you can imagine how a 12 db bump affects panning across these splits. Please implement a - 6 pan law. This will benefit all helix users, as it will keep our signal levels consistent when we use splits, regardless of how we use them.

Ok, yeah, I take your point! Even the drunks I play for seem to avoid my zone of "don't f&$k with me" around my pedal board. Also, my pedals are mounted in the lid of a flight case, so they're protected with a sturdy 1.5" lip.

I don't know. I'm not sure I know what you mean. Are you saying keep them separate and output discrete L and R from the unit?

This a recent thread I started on this panning issue, which gives quite a bit more data on pan law. http://line6.com/support/topic/20248-pan-law-option/

This video demonstrates how panning (pan law) across A/B Split paths in Helix gives a 6dB increase in volume in the center position which is not optimum for live use with the expression pedal (or much else, for that matter). From what I was able to determine, there is no pan law in effect at all; a 0 dB pan law gives a 6 dB boost in the center position, which is what I measured. Digital Igloo indicated that a -3 dB pan law is in use, but I didn't find that. I really hope Line 6 will give this due consideration, and change to a more useful pan law, such as -6, which would give neither boost nor drop in volume in the center position. https://youtu.be/nevPesfpGgM

If you can't demo it locally, I suggest buying from a retailer with a good return policy. You can't really explore something as deep as helix in a music store anyway.

So, I could turn my helix into a bass pedal!