Indianrock2020

Since starting this thread I've gone back to experimenting with the HiWatt ( WhoWatt) amp and read enough to be fairly certain we're talking about crossover distortion in some (older? ) Class AB amps. I'm firmly in the camp that thinks undesirable "hash/static" should not be part of a company's priorities when modeling an older amp. Increasing bias, lowering the amp master volume and cutting highs in a following EQ , speaker cabinet or IR helps considerably with this. I'm now going to find an amp that does well with cleans to moderate drive/crunch but is of a more modern design in the hopes of avoiding much of the crossover distortion. If I'm successful, it may end my constant switching of amp models "just to see what they're like." You can hear it pretty well at 03:30 into this isolated track of Malcolm Young --- isolated except sometimes you hear a bit of drums.

Is there anything unusual about the Fullerton Jump amp model that would cause a trailing "hash/static" sound after you strum a power chord ? This is as the main sound dies out. This patch is pretty standard for me with leading and trailing compressors but it does have a snapshot with Timmy (Teemah) into Heir Apparent into the Fullerton Jump model ( tried many different IRs which really didn't change this static sound as the chord dies out) A noise gate at the end of the patch didn't really fix it. Reducing the amp bias helped only a little bit. Fullerton Jump, based on* the classic 1958 Fender® 5C3 Tweed Deluxe (jumped channels)

Tried it again later in the day and it worked so just a fluke

Yes I was logged in.

My laptop is authorized per license manager and both my Helix Floor and HXedit are at 2.82 I logged into my Line 6 account from HX Edit. Earlier this morning I was able to load it into Helix Native on my other authorized laptop. If nobody has the magic fix here I guess I'll open a support ticket since I already spoke with the patch creator ( Jason Sadites )

Our PA is strictly mono and I run direct from Helix to PA out of the left/mono XLR output. So I decided to review my patches and found I often had the last block as a stereo LA Studio comp, which was often preceded with a stereo legacy reverb. The newer reverbs can be switched to mono. This isn't likely to cause a problem since the output is summing to mono, but I have heard of some stereo effects producing something unexpected when summed. Someone also mentioned that the summing process added 3 decibels --- if that is happening when I play live but not reflected over USB to my DAW, it would be nice to know.

Gunpointmetal -- exactly. Our volunteer sound techs ( 300-seat church ) don't really do any EQ, but I did set up high-pass filter on everything for them, mainly to get everything except bass guitar and kick out of the sub-125 hz range. Somebody said this on another forum I think he's on target: "Imagine that all the people are beanbag chairs. Beanbag chairs in a room, soaking up all the slap and brightness from your sound. They're basically room treatment that paid money to be there. Tune your sound to be too bright for the empty room, but good when it's full of meatbags."

Good idea but still there is the problem of checking it in an empty room without your band playing. Then possibly add to that an acoustically poor room and/or mediocre PA setup. I always play in the same venue but I've found that playing out in the room on a wireless when nobody is there just doesn't represent what the patch really sounds like in a mix. My mates give me good feedback when they're not playing ( sitting out in the crowd) which leads me to think the patches are fine.

Thanks for the feedback. We run Helix direct to PA and use IEMs for monitoring -- no amps allowed. I know that checking FOH from the stage is a bad idea -- I guess more than anything because you're not hearing (directly) what those speakers are sending to the crowd --- you're getting mostly reflections. Our six FOH speakers are up in a high ceiling, angled out and back, in a room that is roughly 68 deep ( stage front to back wall) and 90 feet wide. I don't think this is an "acoustically smart" room at all, so even walking the empty room on wireless and listening to FOH I guess I'm not surprised that what is acceptable with a room full of people and band, and is also good checked every which way at home, sounds a little unusual empty.

I know that checking your tone from the stage, trying to listen to the main speakers (FOH) is a mistake. Even walking the empty room on a wireless unit, playing and listening, may be a mistake unless you take into account that the band and dozens/hundreds of singing bodies will make a huge difference. But what is it exactly that makes this sort of testing unsatisfying or even discouraging? From the stage is it simply that you're just hearing reflections since you're not in line with any speaker? Out in the room, is it just that your reverbs and delays sound odd when your guitar is the only sound? I get good feedback from our other guitarists when they're sitting in the crowd and everything is running full tilt.

thanks Datacommando, that makes sense. What about the second question?

Have you ever noticed when you're playing swell /ambient stuff and you have effects like the Adriatic swell followed by the glitz reverb and as you play whole notes you're getting an even level but every once in a while with what seems to be the same amount of pick energy the volume jumps . Could the LA Studio compressor at the end of the path contribute to this? Have you experienced this and found a way to even it out? I have the latest firmware. May try bypassing the compressor at the end of the patch when using the ambient/swell snapshot. Second Question: what are the advantages of running some ambient effects in parallel --- say delay on the main DSP path and reverb in parallel. I understand that if the main path has no ambient effects, you can just adjust the Mix parameter rather than pulling something down into a parallel path. ( I run all mono )

How much DSP is used by a stereo return block? I'm guessing very low like a gain block. Not shown here: https://benvesco.com/store/helix-dsp-allocations/

Thanks for all the great information. I think I switched from 1/4 inch instrument level through a DI Box to XLR Line was because also play in a small band with no PA where I run straight into an Alto TS212 powered speaker. Didn't want to keep flipping the XLR out from Line to Mic and back again. Line seemed to work better for the powered speaker. Since there appears to be little difference in audio quality I'll probably just go back to using the Helix 1/4 outputs in the Presonus StudioLive Mixer venue.

Yes it is easy to get lost. I've been using a DAW or more often, the Orban Loudness Meter running on my laptop, to get patch levels all around -20db and that has worked well -- sound techs are happy with that. I do need to figure out why the Helix global level was set at +12 db but as I said, I think it was part of plan to avoid having radical gain bumps within patch blocks. Hopefully I can get that Global level closer to zero. Doesn't appear to be any great reason to stick with the XLR so back to 1/4 out at Instrument via DI Box. That also avoids the risk of somebody turning phantom power on.

If I can get all affected parties to the venue early some day ( church ) we need to test the two guitar rigs and get that single channel dialed in. The alternative is to move one of us to a spare channel, more complicated but possible. Starting next week I'm going to return to 1/4 out at instrument like I used to do and then see where the global EQ level needs to be so the channel trim for me matches the other guy's output. Currently the channel trim is 9 o'clock for me and about 12 noon for the other guy Mixer Channel 7 Trim

Correction I've been sending XLR at "LINE level, not MIC. I also have one thing adjusted in global EQ and that's a plus 12 db level bump. The reason I do that is so that I don't have to do too much boosting in patch blocks which seems to occasionally cause what I call "peaking clicks." Our mixer doesn't allow aux monitor sends to go before channel trim so the "sound tech problem" ( which becomes a problem for the musicians ) is that adjusting channel trim after sound check affects everybody's IEM mixes --- in my case this can result in air guitar or way too much loudness in my ears.

I've been sending XLR mic level over the past few months and our board doesn't really have a good way to pad that down so the trim has to be set fairly low on that channel..... also since other electric guitarists use that channel on other weeks they need the trim set considerably higher which causes problems for the sound technicians and other issues so I'm leaning towards returning to a direct box.

Older thread but here's my question : assuming the output levels from the Helix to the board are just fine and everybody's happy with that is there really a difference in the sound quality between the 1/4 inch outs and the XLR outs?

I "think" this may have been a byproduct of purchasing a patch that used stomp pedal mode and had amp drive assigned to a footswitch. Since I always operate in snapshot mode, I guess the amp drive was going to zero since I couldn't really see anything wrong with the variax settings. I did set the variax volume knob to snapshot based at 10 though, rather that leaving it alone. So I had to do that for each snapshot I planned to use.

My update from 2.80 to 2.81 was quick and trouble-free. One thing I'm noticing was probably there in the past but on one Helix patch when I went to another snapshot, the Variax volume went to zero even though the knob on the JTV 59 was set to 10. In the patch variax volume was set to change with snapshots ( bracketed ) and set to 10. Rotating the volume knob brought the sound back. If nobody else is seeing this then it's probably a patch I brought in from a non-variax setlist and it needs to be massaged.

One sample patch I created recently and try to use with the Seymour Duncan pickups mentioned in my post LionLamb.hlx

Anyone using the Seymour Duncan Everything Axe pickups with their Helix? Normally these are used on a strat with Lil 59 neck, DuckBucker middle and JB Jr bridge. I can't seem to get the gain staging right resulting in easy to obtain clean tones, but more difficulty getting smooth overdrive. Eventually with enough massaging of guitar knob positions, pickup height and some careful EQ work in the Helix I get close enough. Right now I have the input pad off and impedance on Auto. One question on the photo: I'm assuming the input pad and Global EQ Level come before the patch blocks, with master volume after the patch blocks. ( Master is set to effect digital out only )

The only reason I had to change from 1/4 Line via direct box to XLR Line was a desire to run 1/4 instrument level at home. So far our mixer/sound engineer is ok with XLR at line level. Another option is engaging the Helix Global EQ Level parameter, to reduce signal sent to mixer, as long as it doesn't require any patch changes.

I've been experimenting with XLR at Line Level direct to mixer instead of 1/4 Line via direct box, but it got me wondering about setting patch levels over USB to a DAW. I've been setting patches at around -18 to -20 dbFS and it's worked pretty well for consistency to the mixer. So if you make other changes such as going from mic level to Line level or turning off the Helix input pad, this will most likely result in the engineer having to change your channel input gain, but levels from patch to patch should still be fairly consistent, correct? And Helix input pad changes would require patch changes to get back to the -18 dbfs whereas changes in output from mic to Line would not. How about a change in Global EQ "make up gain" level? When I first flipped to XLR Line from 1/4 Line level, the engineer had to reduce my input gain from unity around 11 o'clock on the knob to about 8 o'clock. This is ok and sounds fine --- still gives him enough flexibility but I did think about engaging the Global EQ and turning down it's level parameter so he could set me closer to unity. I now use the 1/4 out at instrument level at home which is why I switched to XLR at the venue.