leadtooth

Someone commented on huge tone issues with the Helix. I'll just leave this here...   Helix direct into Studio One 4 Pro using my BFR Axis Buckeye Burl.

I have had my Helix since March 9th. The only issue I have had is the vintage delay bug causing popping but that is a software issue and global. The unit has been stellar for me but I do have a tendency to really take care of things I own as well. I always use surge protection when operating, clean it often, and Glenn DeLaune makes a real nice display cover you can purchase.

50 here (playing since I was 7) with the Helix. I love this unit and have a hard time disconnecting from it when playing. I have some of Glenn DeLaune's patches and the new Bogner Xtacy is phenomenal. I can cover a variety of styles if I want to with it and it takes my buckers or single coils easily. The only "live" playing I do anymore is worship so for my all out shred fests I am jamming to my own party at home.

I have no desire for a board anymore and I have been a tone snob, tube snob, boutique pedal snob for years. To me the Helix is that good not to mention I throw my guitar in my mono bag and the Helix in its bag and I have all I need to go with tube tone for days.

50 years old, been playing since I was 7. Tone snob, tone chaser, tube fanatic. I have a ton of boutique pedals and power supplies and boards I be happy to sell to you. All I need now is my Helix and a simple backup with a DI box to PA for if/when the Helix goes down. I absolutely love my Helix and it's the first modeler that I have truly felt this way about. I can't get enough of it and the more I play it the more it sucks me in.

At my age with 26 surgeries under my belt (recent spinal neck with a titanium plate) I am done hauling massive gear around. it felt good this last weekend to carry my guitar in my mono bag on my back and the lightweight helix in the bag!

Not sure if I'm hearing the same or similar characteristics as you are depicting. Having just installed 2.20 yesterday afternoon, upon exploring the Setlist 1 and 2 Factory Presets, there was a lot of granular noise from the Vintage Delay in several of the presets. In one Preset having the Industrial Delay (I don't recollect which one) the extent of the noise was absurd.

 

I rarely use the Factory Presets, vastly preferring to cook my own, so these may have always been this way....

I am not using Factory Presets either. The problem is a known issue with the vintage delay (apparently been like this for some time). If you get rid of that and switch it it should go away as it did for me.

Simply put, Glenn is a standup guy. Humble, honest, always willing to take time to help if need be and he has a crazy schedule through all this. I cannot say enough good things about him and his patches rock!!! Take a listen to the new high gain patches he just did, specifically the Bogner Xtacy phenomenal!

Yea that's the issue the vintage delay. The reason I assumed it was global is that I was using it on several patches thus the same results. I appreciate all the replies and help thanks so much!

Furthermore, one of the patches from Glenn DeLaune that I mentioned I used in worship also had the vintage delay. Glenn fixed it fast and sent me the new patch. Just a shout out to Glenn; he is a great guy to deal with, friendly, genuine, and really cares about helping people.

Digital clipping sounds may be "enhanced" by all the delays and reverbs in an ambient preset, especially if trails are left on. Sometimes switching between snapshots (depending on what parameters you are changing), you could be slamming some of the "trails" with some new signal with a new gain characteristic from the new snapshot. Bypass all the delays, reverbs, and time based effects and see if it goes away.

 

Also do like DD mentioned above and just create a new dry patch to see if is still apparent. 

This is exactly where my issues is. I have isolated it down to a combination of mod/delay, vintage digital delay, and partical reverb. Separately they all work fine but when I mix them on a particular patch and combine tremolo and chorus I have the popping. If I turn off the trail delay and leave the others on its fine. Need to do more digging later today. Thank you all again for all the help I truly do appreciate it.

I use all these in combo for worship for swells with volume, ambiance, etc..

What's not clear to me is whether or not this popping and crackling happens if even if you're not playing...in effect there's no signal going through the Helix, everything plugged in, volume turned up but not playing.  I mention this because you said it almost sounds like clipping which would indicate it only happens when there is an active signal going through your rig.

 

I'm also curious about your reference to the worship patch being "scripted" from Glen DeLaune.  I'm assuming you mean you modified the patch in some way.  However since you also mention it happens, but just not as much with other patches this leads me to think about the signal being processed out of the Helix and into your Deluxe Reverb or even into your headsets.  In other words some aspect of gain staging of the signal that's off so that it's causing digital distortion.  Digital distortion is different from analogue distortion in that it results in noise, not really a clipping sound like you would have in an amp.

 

The fact that you're running into the preamp portion of your Fender Deluxe is also a question in this regard.  Since the Deluxe Reverb has no external loop input you have no way of bypassing the preamp in the Deluxe Reverb and just getting a pure amplification of the signal.

 

I guess the first thing I would check would be to take an empty patch and play through it and see if it causes the same effect.  This would tell you that there's some aspect of gain staging of your signal in your patches might be causing this problem.

Sorry I meant to say Snapshot. The one I use most for worship is the GD-AMBNT SNPSHT. I only get the popping when I am playing. If I stop playing and the Helix just sits it does not happen. This happens with different patches as well. I could understand the issue being me running direct into the preamp portion of the Fender at home, however, as I stated, I get the same result direct to the PA at church. As far as "cans" go I am referring to the PA headset at church as I do not like using the in ear. Everyone with "cans" or "in ear" can also hear it. I have tried other patches even just a straight out crunch build and I still get it. I will try to some suggestions you all have shared today and see if I can try to narrow it down further.

Thank you all for trying to help I greatly appreciate it.

I didn't see this anywhere in your original post, but does this happen with any other patches or just the one you use for worship?

If seems to be globall but is more predominant on my Worship patch which is scripted

From Glenn DeLaune. Could this be a EQ problem? Pulling straws at this point but just thought about EQ.

 

Sorry I thought I read Majesty, not Axis. That's where the electronics stuff came from. Yea doesn't like a power issue after re-reading. When you say its not the cables, then you have taken the ends apart and verified nothing is lose or touching where they should not when bent, correct??

Yes I checked my cables and I don't run cheap ones. I use Divine Noise cables.

Will another guitar (without all the electronics added) cause this issue as well? Elimination is the key to finding the source of the pops and such.

 

FYI about power noise, I've seen step-down transformers in the alley 3 houses down causing noise in audio electronics... Just saying that it could be coming for anywhere including Helix itself.

As I have stated it happens at home or at church through the PA 15 miles away no less. I am confused about "all the electronics added" statement you made as I have no electronics added. I am running direct into Helix and ..... please re-read my original post. I get the same effect using my strat with gen 4 noiseless pickups.

Bump:

Support ticket in still waiting for help. I cannot believe I am the only one with this issue.....

I may have heard this type of thing as well; need to spend some more time to see and will report back.

Thanks Monkey and anyone at LINE 6 can answer?

Thanks for the reply all. Nothing to do with power or ballasts and I don't have fluorescents in my home. Also, as I mentioned in my post, I DO have the pad turned on. Not sure what is going on....

Hello community,

I did a search and could not find anything on this so if I somehow missed it please forgive me for creating a new topic.

I am getting a intermittent popping/crackling noise out of my Helix running direct to a Fender Custom Deluxe Reverb (amp reverb and tremolo off) and also this morning during worship at church I had it running direct to PA with 48V Phantom off. I was also hearing it in my headset this morning and it almost sounds like a clipping of sorts.

I run the Helix volume at noon, use the expression pedal for volume, guitar pad is on as I am playing with my Music Man Axis with hot pickups. Anyone experience this issue or can help me please? its not my guitar, cable, or XLR cable. Thanks for help folks much appreciated in advance.

Popcorn popped, soda in hand. Waiting for the show..... ;)

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends,

We're so glad you could attend,

Come inside! Come inside!

I couldn't resist :)

My gosh to me that is just abysmal. No offense, to each their own, however, I would destroy strings with the way I pick. Give me my Tortex III .60's and I am blissfully happy. I could never get pick harmonics with that thing for sure. I had a friend that loved those custom stone picks. I tried it one day and it certainly felt like a rock although it was perty! (southern drawl', misspelling intended).

I imagine if you learn to play with this beast you could use anything but I have no desire to try. Good luck though!

My Helix is new, I am 50 now, been playing since I was 7. My ears are not what they used to be, I have had massive illnesses to deal with, and my life currently is stressful and short on time. I also play on the worship team at church. I needed some patches I could use right away that I found to be high quality and well made. Thus, I chose to buy Glenn's patches and I do not regret the purchases I made one bit. 

I will create my own patches that I will use mainly but that is something I need extensive time to do. I am not new to modeling and spent hundreds of hours trying to tweak the pods and HD's and coming up short in comparison to my tubes and pedal-boards. The Helix is finally a unit I am very happy with and I don't hear that digital tin sound. No matter the case, however, in the end its my money and I choose where and how I decide to spend it.

Glenn's patches are awesome by the way but I don't play metal anymore either. I do worship, blues, rock,  fusion, progressive, funk, etc. I can do all that with many of his patches. I have not tried Fremen's patches and recently just heard of them. I have not found any free patches to my liking but one which is a straight up dist/od setup with zero effects. Something I can easily make on my own.

you didn't try the fremen pack.?

Never heard about it until now.

I agree with your point that the versions being out of sync is confusing. L6 is working on a more smooth-lined firmware process so it should make more sense in the future. Regarding "unchecking" the drivers - You do want the latest driver, Editor, and Updater files from the 2.11 Helix app to run with the 2.12 firmware. These files will not interfere with the 2.12 firmware so you should go ahead and install them. Only running the Updater will change the firmware and if you are already on the 2.12 version you don't need to run the Updater. 

 

Thank you Honest for the reply. I am not sure why I thought the drivers were tied to the Firmware now that I think about. I know the Firmware comes specifically from the Updater. Again, I think all the confusion is the similarity between the two patch definitions. I will install those drivers now then. Thanks again for the solid information much appreciated.

I had a issue today with loading up some patches I purchased on a new unit bought from Sweetwater. The firmware Sweetwater installed was 2.12. What was really confusing and could be easily solved is if you folks would simply give the firmware and the editor different classifications. If not you should really have updated the editor to 2.12. It was confusing to have 2.12 firmware and 2.11 editor software.

I understand that 2.11 came out in December and then you released 2.12 in January. Still, creating unity and simplifying the process as explained below would be useful to your customers.

I realized after cautiously downloading 2.11 that I simply unchecked drivers so that it didn't mess with my firmware. With all your technology and ability one would expect a more streamlined process for your customers.

I've had mine for 3 days and I am simply floored at the capability. I have been playing for over 40 years and a tone snob to boot. I have disliked every Pod that I spent countless hours with and I was a diehard tube fanatic until now. The Helix is the first modeler to seriously win me over. If you don't mind spending a little cash go to Glenn DeLaune's site and by some seriously crafted patches. heck, go listen to them first and be amazed. He is the best at crafting them no doubt: 

https://www.glenndelaune.com/patch%20downloads.htm

He's also a really nice guy to deal with. I was so hesitant I waited a year to get my Helix and 3 days in I am already floored at the tones I am getting out of this beast. Can't wait to plug in direct and quit hauling gear back and forth. Spend some time with it if you don't want to spend money on crafted patches but I challenge you to create better then Glenn; good luck.