jabak

As I understand the somewhat sparse information on 3 Sigma Audio's website I'm using their acoustic impulses correctly. Their acoustic impulse libs comes with three flavors of impulses: piezo, soundhole and electric. The last one being the one optimized for electric guitars but I was not impressed at first. Maybe it takes some noodling to make them sound good. But the Piezo variants did a great job in my opinion and sounded quite well even with my nylon string equipped acoustic electric. But then again. I'm not 100% sure that I'm doing things the right way. Maybe the amp should/could be left out of the patch: guitar -> aux in -> reverb -> IR -> out. Anyway. Besides the acoustic IR thing I will do some experiments with the mix setting as well. But to be on the same playing field it would be nice to know how your patch is pieced together?

That was my reasoning behind using the acoustic impulses. I don't think the helix comes with any amps or combos designed for acoustic electrics so i just gave it a shot with acoustic IRs. I'm not sure my patch is optimal but compressors and noise gates seems to flatten the sound in a way i dont like so i took them out of my patches.

Good question and one that I asked my self when fiddling around with stock cabs. But it turned out that it actually changed the tone of my electric classical quite a bit and i liked it. I'm no expert but i liked the tone. I also tested a paths like this: Classical Guitar -> aux in -> reverb-> Archetype Clean -> various stock cabs-> out and: Classical Guitar -> aux in -> reverb-> Archetype Clean -> cabir IRs -> out. Those variants sounded good to me also. I dont know where I'm headed at but experimenting with the helix is really rewarding. I've not been able to find anyone doing electric classical patches with helix on google or youtube so i decided just to try it out for myself.

For the last few days I've been fiddling around with the exact same setup with an electric classical guitar though. Nevertheless I found some okay classical IR's (both piezo and point mics) and even tested the 3 Sigma Audio Martin D45 Impulse. I set the mix to 100% and it sounded okay to me. I did notice that the sound was more "trebly" with the mix set to 100% than for instance at 75%. Maybe your patch is different to mine? My path is quite simple: Classical Guitar with presys 101 preamp -> aux in -> reverb-> us deluxe amp (fender is guess) -> 3SA Martin D45 IR -> out to studio monitors. I have no idea if this is a good or bad way to create electric acoustic patches for the helix but it sounded okay to me. Any advice someone? I tested the Guitar In with PAD on but i didn't like it. The tone started to break up or something?? I dont know. I'll have to experiment some more to be sure.

I'm sure you are way better at tweaking the Helix than I am - by a mile. I've only had the Helix for a year or so. Before that I didnt really care to much about my tone. I used my POD UX1 with a goto patch and that was about it. Only recently I started making my own patches. But I must say it's quite rewarding and fun. best of all I've learned to trust my ears.

I kinda agree. The ambient IR is quite unique and i'm sure they will serve some purpose down the road. The sample you posted has an almost "live" feeling about it thanks to the ambient IR i guess. At first I turned to the signature mixes as well just to get at clear vision of what they are all about. The OR-4X12_SIG_05_TR stood out to me also. But i'm not intimidated by the number of IR's in the lib. Many of them are not to my taste - either to bright or lacking in the low end. But yes there's a lot of them and it's hard to decide. I spent an hour yesterday just cycling through fifty of'em.

Spot on IMO. Not that I didn't love the sound of my old Marshall Amp+Cab sound. But when I took the plunge into the digital domain and modellers I immediately realized that repro's of the "old world" tones was not my goal. New technology endless possibilities. I like the sound of both real amps+cabs and simulated amps/cabs. In my opinion there's no winner - just more options really.

Interesting concept. For me the Orange cab is a keeper. No doubt about it. They are not as polished as some of the impulses from Rosen or 3SA. Much more "raw" in a sense, just like the Helix cabs IMHO. But with the low/high pass filter in place they sound really awesome.

Okay. I've only tested the Orange IR's for about ten minutes or so but i'm impressed. Not only are the IR's quality stuff but the manual is top notch as well. The lib is quite comprehensive and may seem overwhelming. But in my opinion all those variations is equal to possibilities and nothing else. Take the Ambient ones for instance. Maybe not suitable for tight metal rhythm guitars but they could come in handy for eerie acoustic guitar sections. Just think endless possibilities. ​All in all I'm quite satisfied with them and they are certainly on par with Ownhammer, 3SA and Rosen Digital. The manual is where cabir scores a home run IMHO.

I agree. An excellent offer. I decided to give the Orange a try so i've just splashed out the 13 euros. Looking forward to test them tomorrow.

Ohh my... the download was corrupted so it's useless. Sorry about that.

I'll take it for a ride tonight.

I use the stock cabs just as much as IR's. But IR's from Rosen and 3SA can serve as a reference point and some impulse libs come with multimic options too. But the smoother workflow with built in cabs is a plus.

Thanks. I'll download the free ones and take it for a spin. Btw. I spend half an hour with my new acquisition, the PRS Stealth cab from Rosen, comparing it to the 3 Sigma Engl. In my opinion It's much more clear and defined in the mids and not so boomy. I'm no expert so don't take my word for it. Next up is comparing the 412 MES-ST V60 MDRN-0 to the PRS and Engl.

Could you possibly point out the exact Ownhammer impulse you are using? I've never used ownhammer impulses but spending $15 to get more options is a no brainer for me. Ownhammer has three or four mesa packs on their website so...

Totally agree. The Archon is the new king! Just purchased the PRS Stealth Cab 4x12 from Rosen Digital. Currently I use 3 sigma Engl 4x12 3A with the Archon and it sounds awesome. So does some of the built-in cabs admittedly. It will be interesting to see if the PRS 4x12 stealth cab will bring anything new to the table.

That was my intention exactly - not dual amps engaged simultaneously but just taking advantage of the snapshot feature to switch between two or three amps.

Have you noticed that when the Archon is selected in combination with a nice fat juicy Impulse response the options for adding a second amp to the same path "diminishes" a lot. The Helix editor turns red all over the place. So i guess without the bright switch option it's already punishing the DSP's. Or?

Well maybe Spinal Puppet arguably isn't that great, certainly not when compared to the Helix Amps in general, but for me it was kinda the only tool in a toolbox of less than good tools. But i'm just curious of how it would sound if it was remodelled for Helix. On the other hand with the addition of Archon our helix's offers a nice range of high gain amps with plenty of variation. Couldn't be happier really.

I guess you returned from the car wash yesterday and sat down to spend quality time with this monster? ;) Just home from work. Decided to try out a simple path: NoiseGate -> Stupor OD -> Archetype -> 3 Sigma Audio Engl 3A Impulse. Fiddled around with the depth param while chugging away. It does a lot for the tone. It thickens the tone up quite a bit but when set to high I think is starts to lose definition. Didn't mess around with eq but that could help. Also I spend a few minutes toggling between the Archetype and a few other amps using the same path. Actually I think the Line6 Elektrik is quite impressive too and sounds a bit like the Archetype. But from now on the Archetype is my new goto-amp that's for sure.

I've not had the chance to fiddle with the depth parameter. I did notice that Digital_Iglo mentioned it somewhere. But even without the depth param this amp is a metal monster for sure.

I cant believe i didn't notice this monster at first when scrolling through the release notes. I played around with it for a few minutes - no adjustments just factory settings. It's craaaazy!! You are in for a treat.

The options for making great metal sounds is getting better and better I think. Fatality, Doom, Elektrik, Archetype, the Cali's and to some degree the bogners also. Spinal Puppet would be a nice addition imho.

It just blew me away a few seconds ago when i tried it out using the SD-1 in front. What an amazing crunchy killer metal sound. Absolutely fantastic! That was a nasty surprise.

Personally i didn't know that the Archetype was a high gain amp until a few minutes ago when some kindly pointed it out. It absolute blew me away when i cranked it up just a moment ago! Yup it's metal for sure....