Indianrock2020

Thanks. The alt-left-click was in HX Edit. I had been assigning a variax model and found I could use the guitar toggle switch ( and rear knob ) to change models, but what I wanted was for the guitar model to change to something specific when I activated the snapshot switch on the Helix.

For many/most of the parameters in a Helix Preset, you can "tie" a setting to that snapshot by Alt-Left-Clicking the parameter. A pair of white brackets then surround the value ( e.g. Delay Feedback) . Then if you save immediately, when you choose that snapshot, the delay feedback will change to setting you chose. So you can have feedback change with each snapshot as desired. Can you do that with the Variax model?

Looks like that works, one at a time. Apparently when you load a bank somebody created for you ( bank being a group of 5 models ), it always loads into Custom 1. Or the one created for me came from Custom 1. The bank in question can be found in a link below this video.

Is it possible to load a bnk file into a specific location in Workbench? I have Custom 1's slots already loaded with other modifications but the bnk file I want to load seems to only go there when I open it.

I want to limit use of my Helix Floor unit by editing patches with Native some of the time. Just getting started ( Helix arrives this Friday ) but I'm hoping I can record some clean tracks of my guitars, then load those and the Native plug-in for experimentation. Ultimately final tweaking and volume leveling would be done on the floor unit. Studio One Artist ( my copy ) doesn't load 3rd party VST plugins and Audacity is 32 bit so might have to look at Reaper. There is also something called VSTHost I know nothing about. And this free one that purports to handle vst plugins: https://www.tracktion.com/products/t6-daw someone is going to ask, why limit use of the floor unit: call me anal but I did have a footswitch go out on my HD500x so I'm just looking for creative ways to limit the time spent on that $1500 device. ( which will obviously be used live )

Was this a fib? "And with more DSP power, tour-grade footswitches and a higher contrast display, HD500X is the best POD yet.â€" https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Line_6_Announces_POD_HD500X

Yeah. I said the Helix was a step up to a new level not just a successor... I'm not going to debate whether the 500x was a new product or not, it was released in 2013. 300% price hike would only seem abnormal if Helix was merely the next version of 500x and not a major step up

I've decided to upgrade to Helix -- no date yet as $1500 has to budgeted. The 500x came out summer 2013. We can't just look at Helix as the "successor" since, regardless of how much investment went into it, not many things out there go up 300% in 4 1/2 years. Right or wrong it has to be viewed as a step up to a pro or semi-pro product. If you're average guitar, amp or pedal was $500 in 2013, 300% inflation would take it to $1500 and I don't think we're seeing that.

Well that is interesting. I'm probably missing a lot of perfectly good tones by going dual amp in every patch and using just the "recommended" combinations. I suppose the phasing / mismatch between certain cab/mic combinations is either audible to you, or ( even if there ) it isn't and you don't need to worry about it. Or it's only audible in headphones, not a band PA mix.

Not at all surprised that patches work on one set of guitars, speakers and ears aren't popular in other environments. At best it might give a new person an idea of how to set up patches. As far as Meambobbo knowing a thing or two about using dual amp/cab, I don't question that. I think he does gravitate towards the heavy stuff but a few of his dual cab/mic combinations work well for me on lighter rock styles.

Odd that you can't attach patch files here. Anyway I've created dual amp/cab patches on my 500x plus noise gate, OD, compressor, delay and reverb without DSP problems. With Meambobbo's suggested cab/mic combinations, he takes into account phase issues that crop up -- you'll see he specifies adding an effect in one amp path on some to fix the phase issue. I just use his recommendations that don't call for the extra effect. What I'd like to explore before getting something like the Mooer Radar is testing the improvement of a free external IR in a DAW program ( Reaper? )to see if it would really help me enough to justify the purchase. See WhomShallIFear and VolDualControl patches I just put on customtone. https://line6.com/customtone/profile/Indianrock2020

How many of you have tried these dual amp/dual cabinet/mic combinations and discovered you may not need external IR or things like the Mooer Radar? http://foobazaar.com/podhd/toneGuide/cabsMics#dualCab-faves

You're probably right, but there is a huge amount of talk and hype out there about helix. I may be like a diabetic who hangs out at the donut shop to much. :-)

I don't know if it would make a difference in production costs but most of us probably only use 2 or 3 amp models and a fraction of the effects. Same for the cab/mic options. Who really needs stuff like ring modulator? I get that costs go up over time, but a doubling or tripling of price makes one consider going back to a few pedals into amp sim pedal into cab emulator pedal. Don't get me wrong, I love the ability to save patches on a song by song basis and how my JTV variax melds with the POD. Just not going to be spending $1000 on an LT or $1500 on a Helix. How many own a Chevy they bought new for $20,000 4 years ago are going to go out and buy a $60,000 car today?

Many of us here have had our PODs for a few years now and are considering what's next. But, the jump from a $500 HD to $1,500 Helix is too much for many non-professional players ( and we are a huge market segment -- look at how many church players use them -- arguably where the vast majority of live music is happening). The argument that Helix contains the equivalent of $10k or more amps etc doesn't mean anything to me since I would never buy the real amps either. Is Helix V2 going to be $2500? Why not create HD500 V2 that might only have 3 amps ( vox, fender, marshall ) an assortment of mics/cabs, AND imported external IRs as an option. You can still have the add-on amp packs. Maybe some other feature Helix has that would have high-value for those looking to replace/upgrade a $500 POD HD, and sell it for about the same $500 range?

I have been looking at some like this Mooer Audio Radar Speaker Cabinet Simulator Effect Pedal

LOL I've managed to stay married for 46 years, happily, by paying attention to my wife's feelings not likely to change that now ..I am getting some useful responses over on the Facebook forum with regard to adding pedals in the effects Loop

All true, practice more, accept "good enough for casual use, as is," etc. Now that I'm retired I have more time to tweak but even less interest in dropping $1500. I just discovered the magnetic pickups on my JTV59 Variax so there's another route to explore ( discovered as in, been using the modeled guitars since that's what the thing is known for ). But since I have the time, and probably approval from spouse to make minor purchases like an external OD pedal or cabinet IR device, I'll probably explore those directions. Maybe I should start marketing my patches :-)

Ok the hype is all about Helix but for many of us who play a couple times a month, it's hard to justify that price. So I've already done a lot of creative patch tweaking, read much of the Meambobbo guide, added the vintage and metal packs, learned how to tame some of the overdrives with parametric EQ and run dual amp/cab to get new/better tones. What's left, that doesn't cost a fortune, besides adding external drive or delay pedals in the effects loop or before/after the POD? I run direct to PA -- at home, earphones or a full range powered speaker.

Ok 100% magnetics blend means no modeled pickups or body. as far as "If you also set the model's output to zero, then all that's left is the mags" that still isn't clear. The only two places I'm aware of in workbench to set model output to "zero" is reducing each modeled pickup's level to minus 18 DB ( as far down as it will go ) or set the "preset" volume to zero --- seems like that last one would make this Custom model in workbench have no output at all. There is one more volume setting under strings:

"modeling mix" are you referring to the Level for each pickup ( which can go to minus 18db and no further ), the magnetics blend percentage or the preset volume? ( all of those are set in workbench )

I'm hearing enough good things about the JTV on mags alone that I'm going to try setting my pod input source to "preset." As pointed out, not a big deal, just needs to be done for each patch. I've had it set to Global and using modeling JTV guitars exclusively with a pretty wide variance from patch to path, song to song. But time to try out the mags. I don't use any knobs on the guitar other than volume/tone ( which are simpler, less likely to develop issues, than the other knobs )

I'd prefer to leave the POD's input as GLOBAL, since setting it to preset is one more thing to do on each patch and one more thing to keep track of. I'm weighing the advantage of creating a custom guitar model in workbench that is as close to 100% non-modeled JTV as possible, versus using the POD setting that says guitar source is PER PRESET. Normally the POD's source select, in my case, is set to global and I specify Variax ( models ) so as I'm creating patches the POD always expect me to be using one of the variax guitar models. ( not variax mags which is a separate choice ). If the custom guitar model I talked about creating in workbench would be virtually all JTV then I'd leave my pod set to global/variax input. But since you can't specify in workbench that your custom model use the JTV's actual body, not sure the two options would to be equal.Manage

Best way to try out 100% mag pickups? The goal is to use the VDI cable and use ALL JTV, body and mags for a given patch. I can do this in HDedit on my POD HD500x by changing the source selection to "preset" instead of global and then specifying variax mags. Then if I want the next patch to use a modeled guitar I have to change the source to variax -- normally source selection is global so I always use variax models. The other way would be in workbench, setting a custom slot to magnetic pickup volume 100% --- what's not clear is whether I also need to dial the modeled pickup output way down. Even then, the guitar body is a modeled body since the JTV's own body is not one of the choices.