codamedia

I use stock cabs a lot in the studio... and that's exactly what I do to simulate the "center > edge" movement. For live use I really like a few of the IR's from Michael Britt so I've been using those instead of the stock cabs. I've done a bit of this myself from hardware... creating IR's of my old PDI-03 (Palmer) and Mesa Cab Clone. I've also captured my favorite presets from my Fishman Aura and JD Aura. It saves me from hauling all those around for my acoustic, banjo, mandolin and dobro.

When someone uses the term "IR" they are usually referring to a static IR. It's a single tone capture of "Cabinet/Mic/Mic Placement" and any combination of those. Outside of "low/high cuts" there is nothing you can do to manipulate those sounds. If you want a different mic placement, you NEED to create a new IR. That's why libraries come with huge amounts of files... every inch the mic is moved a new file is created. Some company's (two notes as one example) now offer dynamic IR loaders... and people make special IR's that can be manipulated with these loaders. With those you simply choose the CAB/SPEAKER combo you want... and within the one IR you can choose mics, mic position, resonance, reflections, etc... etc... NOTE: A dynamic IR cannot be loaded into a standard IR slot. They are created for specific loaders. EG: Two notes has their system, Celestion has their system, Fractal has their system, etc... etc... Line 6 Cabs fit in the "proprietary dynamic category" of IR's... but (IMO) with a couple glaring omissions. They don't give you the ability to move the mic from "speaker center" toward "speaker edge"... or angle (off-axis) the mics in any way. You also cannot add multiple mics to a single cab. IMHO... Although the built in cabs can sound good, it is their limitations that push some people toward the other option of static "IR's"... including myself.

Although I agree with you and prefer it set to "transparent" myself.... there are actually a lot of people that DO like that glitchy sound and use it to there advantage. That's the "real behavior" of most delay "pedals" on the market and going as far as the echoplex. Change the delay time... the glitch occurs until the initial repeats have exhausted themselves.

With I could help you... Steve Stevens is a monster, both as a player and in experimentation. He's created quite a niche for himself since those early "White Wedding" days. I remember taking instant notice when I heard "Flesh for Fantasy" the first time.... something very different was emerging. Those certainly sound like delay/modulation tricks, but I wouldn't know where to begin other than one thing... Some of it is the effect that happens with a dramatic delay time change. (Global > Preferences > Tap Tempo Pitch). I like this set to transparent, but when set to "authentic" delays will behave erratically when the tempo is increased and/or decreased dramatically. I am hearing "some of that" in those recordings. There might be some "digital whammy" use going on as well. But that is an effect I have no experience in, modelled or real.

Amen.... that is a great approach. I am a firm believer that those who struggle most with the Helix (any modeler for that matter) have failed to develop a core tone they are satisfied with first. They pile effect on top of effect trying to solve problems instead of going back to "Amp > Cab > Mic Choice & distance" to get it right. It all starts there! I look at it this way. You wouldn't set up an amp in your room then try to fix the tone with pedals. You would get the amp RIGHT, then sweeten it with pedals.

I can certainly assign the MIC option in the CAB to Snapshot... however unlike all the other parameters it is not "Control Assign > Snapshot" it is just "Snapshot" when you right click. I just verified that it works as expected.... and changes mic's with snapshots as entered. Are you sure you have the latest version of Helix Native installed? It should be version 3.11 (at the time of this post) Click on the question mark near the bottom left of Native and choose about... that will show you the version number.

Do not use the Global EQ as a foundation to create/edit presets on. That will create a never ending loop of tone chasing and frustration. Use it to correct a room, only when needed. Make your preset sound as best it can on the speaker you use the most (eg: the headrush). The better is sounds there, the better it will sound in headphones. If it sounds better in headphones than it does on the Headrush don't chase that sound... you will never achieve it. Tones created on headphones rarely sound good on speakers Tones created on speakers almost always sound good on headphones... sometimes better FWIW... I use in-ear monitors (ie: headphones) on stage at least 50% of the time. I never create a tone FOR my in-ears, or ON my in-ears. I create my tones on my speakers, and they ALWAYS work with my in-ears. The MBritt presets sound great. If you load those up with the corresponding/matching IR they should provide a fabulous starting point. Of course.. the guitar you use has a big impact on tone. Michael Britt uses a lot of single coils... Tele's, Strats and P-90 equipped guitars.

I appreciate the offering... but TBH it's not even close to what I am wanting. It is exactly what I expected it to be... a sustain machine that will feed back at lower volumes. Take all volume away and it just sustains, it doesn't feedback... (not with my guitars) I certainly play with a little grit, but not this type of gain... so applying this to my tone is very unnatural.

On that particular pedal you have many options... including "natural". Some of his examples are very synthetic sounding (the clean shimmer stuff) but some were also very natural sounding. A guitar cannot feedback unless it can hear the sound itself. So yeah, tricks are required on silent stages. That's the point. Your method (lots of distortion) just provides sustain, it still requires some volume (even if it is low) to actually feedback.... a feedbacker simulates that with no volume.

No.... not that. Clean guitars will feed back nicely (and naturally) when into a loud enough amp, and in a very controlled way. Think more like a hollow body into a loud amp. Take the stage volume away and that's a sound that is very hard to come by. Sometimes I can do that too, but is very dependent on the volume of the show... and how far you are from the FOH. Often things we cannot control.

I've had a Helix almost 4 years now.... and consider myself quite adept at using it. IMO it's like playing guitar.... there is always something new to learn :)

You are only inserting an IR block in your preset, not the IR directly. Highlight the block (once inserted) and one of the parameters to edit will be called "IR Select".... use that parameter to choose your IR.

FWIW... my current presets all run fixed impedance of 1M... which is why I said "that is what I would do". For 40 years my guitar has always seen a buffered pedal or a wireless.... aka, fixed impedance. The impedance of the effects downstream never mattered.... it's just what I am used to.

Maybe that works for you... but it would not work for me. I want the feedback to be as natural as possible to the tone I use, and "high gain" (maxed out distortion) is not it! A proper "feedbacker" pedal sounds much more natural with whatever tone it is being fed..... without added "distortion". I play loud enough on stage that I can often invoke feedback just as I always did.... but that all goes away when I am on an in-ear monitor system (silent stage). A feedbacker would be a welcome addition in those situations. There is no shortage of stuff in the Helix I have no interest in, but I would never begrudge anyone for wanting those features - or Line 6 for giving it to them. Just because I don't find them useful doesn't mean they aren't for others.

One thing I don't see mentioned yet in this thread... something you might want to double check? Make sure the LOOP you want to use for this pedal is set to "Instrument Level". Line Level can often make stomp boxes behave very differently than we expect. I also agree with everything mentioned already about the input impedance. That could very well be the problem. ^^^ this ^^^ is how I would approach that problem... I would just set the "off value" as a fixed position as well, avoiding auto altogether. (eg: off = 1M, on = 32k)

I think we are looking at "preset balancing" from different angles. Your global solution is great for changing a dozen presets equally in a moments notice. I'm not debating that, or questioning that in any way. But those presets would already be "balanced" by that point. My point is that when a user creates 2 or more presets that are already out of balance (eg: a Fender clean tone vs a Plexi Crunch tone, vs Vox chime, etc... etc...)... there is no global block that could possibly balance them - they need to be balanced individually with each other.

What is tough to understand is that the person asked how to "balance presets" which this does not solve. As you say above, adjust the channel in one and "all others follow suit". The volume differences "preset to preset" will still not be balanced. You provide a GREAT option for a live adjustment tool, but not for balancing presets which is what the question actually was.

Unless you touch the gain structure "prior to the amp" (or any compression).... tones will not change with levels, your perception of them might. Nothing beats "pre-preparation"... try to get the levels as matched as possible prior to going to a rehearsal and/or gig. Choose your method for fine tuning the volume.... will it be the channel volume on the amp, will it be the output block, will it be a gain block at the end o the preset, etc... etc... Try to be consistent with this choice.. it makes life easy as you move forward. Set the choice you make to be "highlighted" when you move from preset to preset so you have immediate access to it via the small rotaries. When you change each preset... if the volume is off - bend over and adjust the volume until it's right. Then hit SAVE! Repeat #4 as often as required. NOTE: Many (if not most) people will choose to have the AMP as the highlighted block. This makes sense as it places the "important" amp controls at your fingertips, just like having a real amp sitting behind you on a gig. Instant access to gain, bass, mid, treble, presence, & volume. Any changes you make can be temporary, or permanent depending on whether or not you choose to save.

I'm not sure about where you live... but I know around here I could easily trade my Helix LT for a BOSS GT1000... likely within a day or two of posting. I never would because I am very happy with the Helix, but you are not - so why wait for money. With a full Helix, you could likely even ask for a little cash or more product to sweeten the deal. Going through each patch and either adjusting the amp's channel volume or the volume of the output block. Unless Line 6 decides to add a global block feature, which IMO would be a huge game changer (not only regarding volume adjustments). Unfortunately they won't do that. I fail to see how a "Global Block" is capable of solving any preset level differences. Sure... it could give you the option to quickly adjust a level when changing presets (if needed) but that's not practical. IMO, the only way to balance levels is by doing it preset per preset, and to be honest it's not that difficult once you decide on a common method.

FWIW I play vintage spec guitar (ie: low output) and keep my pad off. I'm a country guy... clean is my bread and butter and I don't have any issues producing clean tones with the Helix. I have one guitar with hotter pickups... and it does increase "gain" (as expected) when used, but it certainly doesn't turn my clean tones into dirty tones. ^^^ this ^^^ is the first thing to check for.

Here is a quick 15 minute preset that "I would use" as a starting point for White Wedding. I used my Variax 300, set to the Les Paul model... bridge position. (don't count on the preset to call up the model... you should do it) If you use any other guitars... start with the bridge position and you should expect to have to adjust the amp tone and gain structure to taste. I created it on my Helix LT... it should be streamlined enough to fit on the Stomp if required. The basic chain... Arbitar fuzz... used only on the "fuzz shots" snapshot Plexi Bright Amp.... gain and channel volume change on snapshots 4x12 Greenback 20 cab... 121 ribbon at 6" distance Chorus ... used only on the "clean" snapshot Rochester Comp .... used to apply a studio finish quality to the tone Plate Reverb .... just to add some ambience to the part. There are three snapshots Big Chords.... Used for all the hanging chords, and shots in the verses Clean.... This is the arpeggio theme on the intro and solo seciton Fuzz Shots.... this is for the tiny little bit parts that answer the clean arpeggios. IMO... I would never switch off to this tone live, but I would use it to track the song in a studio for those bit parts. What's missing... I didn't apply the flange that would be used in the opening harmonics before the 1st chord kicks in. I don't have your speakers.... this is done on my studio monitors. Any/all fine tuning. This is a rough 15 minute mock up :) I hope this helps to steer you in the right direction.... good luck. White Wedding.hlx

I'll grab my Variax tomorrow morning and see if I can get you into a starting point. Steve Stevens was using a Plexi in that era (an early 70's model I believe).... so I'll start there. Hmmmm... I quite like the Plexi model in the Helix :) Goes to show we all perceive things a little differently.

IMO... Steve Stevens Rebel Yell tones were much more advanced compared to this album with "White Wedding". It's back to the very basics for these tones.... not much for effects at all. Even that clean tone has little (to nothing) for effects.... There might be a little chorus, but it would be very, very subtle compared to the Rebel Yell clean tones. What guitar are you using? That's a critical step in getting you in the ballpark for these tones.

Which guitar part? There are 3 distinct parts through the song... Overdriven... big chords Clean theme.... with a little reverb fuzzy/overdriven bit parts. IMO.... All tones can be (and likely were) done with a Plexi.... or a JCM800 with a relatively low gain structure. Add a fuzz for those little choppy bit parts. If you know how to dial in those amps those tones are readily available within. If you don't understand the Plexi model let us know along with the guitar make/model you plan on playing this part with. I'll can try to throw you a couple of settings to try.

@rd2rk.... Well, no luck. It seems that Line 6 used a CC# (69) that is normally reserved for "Hold 2 ON/OFF".... Studio One treats ON/OFF CC reservations differently than other CC#'s.... and has no way (at this time) to work around it. So it seems to be a combination of Studio One being overly strict in their implementation, and Line 6 being a little careless in there implementation. The end results makes it "fairly" incompatible for you... in regards to what you are trying to do. There are work arounds (the values I provide above) but that doesn't help with how you want to track it directly from the Helix. None of this will have any effect on me... but I can see why it would be frustrating for you. As for the OP @FAchterberg.... the step by step I provide "should work" for you. As I say, I've tested it several times and it does work on my machine from Studio One.