codamedia

As you have learned.... no, there is no way to do that on the Helix. FWIW... I always have two copies of my presets. One with the "AMP/CAB or IR"... and the same one without. Here is a very basic example of how I set up my presets... Preset 1A - 4B might hold all my "live" presets with amp/cab models. Presets 10A - 14B is an exact copy... but with the amp/cab models disengaged. Using HX Edit.... setting up that second set of presets only takes a few minutes - but of course that would be dependent on how many "live" presets you actually use. I don't use very many, so it's a practical solution for my situation :)

As with any sort of pitch shifting... the actual guitar doesn't change so if you can still hear it in any way, it will not sound right. Put on a set of headphones so you can only hear the processed tone, NONE of the natural tone from the guitar. As for the MIX... it MUST be set to 100% or the natural and effected tone will mix together... you do not want that. A mix of 42% (as shown in the image) will sound terrible.

To hear the actual noise the loop itself is generating... just put a jumper cable in the loop and turn the loop on/off. THAT is the noise produced by the loop. IME, there is a slight increase of "hiss" but not much. Any noise beyond that is being created by the items you have in the loop, or you may have introduced a ground loop. These are the general rules, but there are exceptions. Know your gear! INSTRUMENT level is best for "STOMP" effects.... LINE level is best for RACK effects.... An AMP Effects loop can be instrument or line... consult the manual The input of an AMP is instrument level

As @phil_m says... check to see if there is a bright light coming in from the right (or should I say wrong) angle. That has caught me many times, but only in sunlight myself. Another possibility... check how you have your EXP set in the global settings. GLOBAL: The setting will always read the current position of the expression pedal when you go from preset to preset. For volume pedals, this is very useful. PRESET: The value of the EXP will be stored when you press save, and will ALWAYS be recalled to that value (possibly 0) regardless of where the actual position of the pedal is. SNAPSHOT: Similar to preset... except every snapshot will store it's own value. In the case of PRESET and SNAPSHOT... even with the EXP toe down, if it was saved with a lower value, that is what will be recalled until you move the EXP pedal. IMO... the safest setting is GLOBAL. The current pedal position dictates the setting without (or at least with fewer) surprises.

FWIW... The first thing I adjust is the drive setting. It is rarely set where "I want it" for my guitar(s) and personal taste. There nothing FLAT about setting everything at 5 in amps. Every amp model is very different... and although some might sound decent with 12 O'clock settings, many will not. The tone stacks in each amp behave very differently... and are often highly interactive with each other. RARELY is 5 a flat setting on any amp. Although it is highly subjective, Line 6 had already given you many of the standard "starting points for the amps you load. But that starting point will sound very different depending on the guitar you are holding. No... the channel volume is quite transparent compared to the master volume. Use the GAIN and MASTER to shape your tone, then set the CHANNEL Volume to set the level. By turning down the master to 5 you have neutered the "power amp tone" of many of the amps.

40ms is pretty extreme, but yes, there is "natural latency". Considering notes can be pushed and pulled by a certain tolerance.... 40ms difference is not out of the question during a live performance.... in a studio that might get tracked again to be a little tighter... but it will rarely be "dead on". For reference... with a mid tempo strum on an acoustic, 40ms is close to the time difference between the sound of the low E and high E ringing out. It's natural in that context, but would sound a little off as part of a double track. Latency is a term I prefer to leave to software and hardware... it's always late from the original... the "delay". Humans can be early or late... it's a big part of what makes us sound like humans rather than machines.

Our priorities are very different.... there is no "just for the hell of it" in my vocabulary when it comes to core tone. I might add an <effect effect here> for the "hell of it", but not my core tone. As for multiple guitars.... IMO that's irrelevant. There are many ways to work around that one. Can you show us a picture of your preset(s)... or share a couple. I'd love to see what you "normally use" without the POLY PITCH, then what you feel you are forced to use with the POLY PITCH. With the Helix Floor, you should be able to have both great tone, and POLY PITCH.... you just might lose a couple bells and whistles along the way. If your presets really are required to be that complex, then something like the Digitech DROP (as mentioned by @cruisinon2 in the first reply) will likely be your best option. You can also change intervals within a preset with a little planning by using snapshots and/or stomp buttons.

There are many places volume can be adjusted in a preset besides the obvious blocks that you insert. Check the output blocks on each preset If there is a SPLIT path, then you need to check BOTH the SPLIT and MERGE settings If all effects are bypassed... the SPLIT still happens unless you actually turn it off. You have mentioned the input Z... but if you have that set to AUTO then it "may" change from preset to preset depending on many factors. Make sure you test with a FIXED setting. Admittedly I never use "analog bypass" so I don't have any direct experience with that.

Which device do you own? Helix (LT/Floor/Rack), a HX Stomp, or an HX Effects? Your hands are tied with an HX, but you should be able to work around it with a HELIX... and a little creativity. With my LT I'll admit that I couldn't just drop a POLY PITCH into any of my presets, but splitting up the presets to make room would not be a problem for me. Under no circumstances would my tone be jeopardized... my convenience "might" be. I would prioritize my needs... then re-structure my presets accordingly.

This is not difficult to do yourself... providing you have a DAW. If you own Helix Native it is particularly easy... just insert it on a track and pump some pink noise through it. If you don't own native you need to route some pink noise through the Helix, then view the results in the DAW. Most DAWs can generate pink noise and will have an EQ or Spectrum monitor to view the results in. I had to do this with the HD500 I owned prior to a Helix.... mostly because Line 6 got silly in the HD and most of the EQ's only had % values, you had no idea what frequencies you were adjusting let alone by how much. I'm into using my ears, but that was ridiculous :)

Why don't you ask the person that offered the preset download? EVH would have used a 4x12 Marshall cabinet. You can insert any 412 and it will get you in the ballpark. Doesn't have to be an IR.... you can use a CAB Block. Granted - having the IR used for the preset would be the best solution, again... but that's on the "author" of the preset, not the helix or it's IR management. Just to be clear... The author of the preset should have explained which IR was used. If it's a commercial IR they are not allowed to share it with you, but they should still tell you what they used so you can decide to go buy it if you want. Even if HX Edit did/could tell you the name that doesn't mean it would solve the problem. Every preset pack has hundreds if not thousands of IR's.... names are cryptic, and often users will change the name to something easier to remember. It's much easier when the authors simply tells you what they used and where they got it.

According to the Stomp manual (I use an LT so I need to reference the manual).... CC49 through CC53 are assigned/reserved to emulate FS1 through FS5. I could be wrong, but I don't believe you can re-assign the "footswitch emulation" values... but you should be able to assign a CC (that isn't reserved) to any effect block.

I might be stating the obvious... I just want to make sure it's not being overlooked. If you are monitoring both the XLR and 1/4" outs at the same time.... then whatever you are monitoring through is "summing" those parts. If you change the output to XLR only... then the 1/4" outs are no longer in play - which should "lower" the output. How much it is lowered is dependent on how your device "sums" it's inputs. If you are just monitoring the XLR outs, then the volume should not change when going from MULTI to XLR. I just verified this with my LT... absolutely no difference.

I wouldn't advocate this approach... but to each his own. I prefer to avoid any/all EQ correction unless absolutely necessary rather than have it part of my routine. Get a great live tone then learn how it sounds at low volume.... use that as a template moving forward. Over time you will get decent at it... .but ultimately it is best to create sounds at the volumes you will play. If I DID approach it with EQ.... I would create a "loudness" curve in the global EQ and turn it on while at home/at low volumes. At a gig I would simply turn it off. I would not attempt it in reverse... and most certainly would not toggle between two "opposite" curves. That's just my 2 cents...

Ahh... my bad. Thanks for clarifying this....

On the HELIX, assign the delay MIX to the EXP, not the LEVEL.. You are assuming that every unit works the same :) I'm half kidding, it's a common error we are ALL guilty of. Different company's do things differently & we need to adapt from gear choice to gear choice.

If they come up as reserved... it would mean they are used somewhere in the preset already. Is this preset built from scratch or is it a third party preset. Unless it is yours it very well might be assigned by the person that wrote it. You should be able to remove those assignments which would free them up for you to use as you want.

Until Line 6 provides us with a separate power amp block, there is no way to chain a true "effects loop" within he Helix itself. The closest you would get (visually) is by inserting the "AMP MODEL > ALL EFFECTS WITHIN LOOP > CAB MODEL".... BUT, that really won't yield any audible difference than just placing the effects after the cabinet model.

We are not privy to such information. You will have much better luck opening a support ticket and asking Line 6 directly.

Everything looks right... Are you using the right cable for the Mission > HX ? Since it's the L6 mission, it should be a TS cable, not a TRS. (ie: use a regular guitar cable)

@spaceatl... FYI: it wasn't really your response that prompted mine... it's a pattern I see in both this thread, and through the forums that people are creating different presets for different "full range" speakers. (eg: monitors, headphones, FOH (PA), Stage Monitors, FRFR, etc... etc... ) I think people get hung up on the fact that it doesn't sound the same from "speaker to speaker" or "speaker to headphones". For me that is not the goal because that goal is not achievable. The real goal is just to make it sound good/great on everything it gets played through.

Well... you're not likely to turn a Les Paul into a Strat or Tele..... but you can certainly lean it in that direction. Try this to get in the ballpark.... Tilt = Bright 100 (yes... full) Center Frequency = 1.2K Level = -3 (to take a little gain off the pickup) From there... tweak the Center Frequency to get the split point that works best with your pickup... then back off the "TILT" if it's a little too bright. If you don't want to simulate the volume drop of a single coil vs a humbucker, don't cut the "Level" at all.

Exactly... I've done a fair amount of studio work over the years so the concepts and goals are quite familiar to me. I use that same approach to creating presets.

I must be in the minority. I would never imagine creating/tweaking tones for different speaker sets. I create my live tones in my home studio (on two sets of monitors, at relatively high volume) and the core tone translates without further adjustment to the FOH, Stage Monitors, IEM's (headphones) and FRFR (when I require it). This would imply that there is a fault with the headphone amp... I'll have to let others offer their opinion here because I don't use the headphone output on the Helix.

I don't think that's "why" they made the Tilt EQ, but it's one of the many practical uses of the Tilt EQ. Here's another trick... try placing it toward the beginning of the chain and use it to shape your guitar tone coming into the Helix. I can get convincing humbucker tones from my single coil guitars and vice versa. For general use... it's a really subtle/simple EQ for tone shaping. I don't think you are alone.... I think the majority of users haven't quite realized how powerful this little eq block is.