codamedia

I'm sorry your having problems... I'm just providing another view point of Line 6 reliability. IMO, I keep wasting money on extended warranty's I don't need :) I've had the original bean, the XT Live, the X3 Live the HD500 and now the HELIX LT... not to mention a few other smaller products. Not one single failure in 20 years of using their products. FWIW, I gig a lot and I do trust the products. Yes, I carry a back up modeler, but I also carried back up amps when I used amps.

Like the Floor, the LT is also 2 3/4". I have no issue with the spacing... That doesn't mean I never have a mis-hit.... but I'm to blame for those, not the spacing.

Have you tried restoring JUST the Global Settings? This might help if those became corrupt in any way. I believe on an HX FX this is it... Restore Globals: Hold footswitches 4 + 5 during start up.

Keep in mind the EXP jacks are dual purpose.... Expression Pedal OR Ext Amp Control Check your global settings for those assignments. They may have gotten changed to "amp control" in error.

When a block is OFF... the clean signal goes through. Just like a real pedal in the real world. If the drive is the only thing parallel you don't even have to turn it off. Just use the footswitch to turn down the SEND LEVEL (within the split block) to that path.

Please.... stop!

I get some good Brian May tones from the "Essex 30" rather than the normal vox amps. There is enough gain and top end to leave the treble booster out of the equation. It might not be "authentic" but I find it sounds great! Essex 30 Amp Change the cab from the silver bell to the blue bell With my Tele I turn the amp gain to 8. YMMV Make sure the MASTER is on 10 Raise the BIAS to 7.5 Start with "stock" tone settings... adjust if needed but you shouldn't need much. Season the tone with some delay and reverb as required. With those settings my tele sparkles with a nice clean (just a touch of grit) with the volume rolled back, but when I turn up full it becomes full blown Brian May lead tone. Everything in between is the grinding rhythm sounds (Tie You Mother Down, Fat Bottom Girls, etc... etc..) If I changed guitars I'd just alter the Amp Gain up or down accordingly to adjust for the output level of the guitar. EG: My strat has lower output, so I would raise the amp gain to 9 or 10. My Les Paul has higher output so I would lower the amp gain to 6 or 7.

Are you clipping the actual input... or just coming in way too hot for the preset? That latter is easy... this is how I approach it... which includes a simple "gain block" at the beginning of each preset. I use the same "live" preset for everything... it's complex in snapshots & stomps, but it's still just one preset. I also have about 5 guitars I may use.... and ONE preset is not practical for the "minor" differences between them. I create on my main guitar, copy..... then adjust for the next guitar. When I change guitars, I change presets - but it's just minor adjustments between each. The main change is at the input level.... then MAYBE a little AMP tone.

You dis Line 6 for a lack of hardware updates then reference the KEMPER in the same sentence? Kemper hardware is a lot older than the Helix hardware is. Even the relatively new "stage model" is just a re-boxed toaster! It's a great product, but that's the point. The updates are the software, not the hardware! Outside of DSP power (which will always be a moving target).... what exactly is the Helix Floor/Rack missing in terms of hardware specs?

I'm not hearing that... I just hear a fuzzed out guitar with a ton of sustain and some judicious amounts of whammy bar in places :) Aside from the core amp tone, I would parallel two fuzz blocks (don't run them into each other, that would just create noise) and add the Rochester compressor near the end of the path.

The studio is a completely different situation... not really part of what I think of as "creating presets" because it is often done on the fly and the engineer/producer have a big part of it's final outcome. As for live and home use... we've gone back and forth about this in past threads. The better you are at producing tones that "translate" between various speakers, the less you have to worry about creating "separate presets" for each environment. My live tones are the same tones I use at home. They have been carefully set up to sound very good through Studio Monitors, Stage Monitors, IEM's (headphones), FRFR & FOH/PA. Please note that I am not saying they sound the SAME in each... that's not possible and I don't waste my time trying. The trick is just making it sound "very good" in each. If that seems odd to you... take your favorite song from your favorite artist and play it through 5 playback systems. Home stereo, Studio Monitors, Headphones, in the car & through a mono bluetooth speaker. That song won't sound "the same" in each system, but chances are it will still sound VERY GOOD in each system. That's a very special skill that is worth learning... whether it's creating a guitar tone, or mixing a song.

You would be surprised at what a great guitar tone in a mix actually sounds like standing on it's own. Find some "isolated guitar tracks" on the net and listen for yourself. Most of us would never think of dialing in tones like that... yet we love those sounds on the recordings. I haven't heard "your tone" so it's impossible to make any direct suggestions.... but here are three common problems for not getting a guitar to sit nice in a track or mix. Too much low end. It sounds BIG on it's own, but it creates a mess in a mix. Dial it back and/or set some appropriate low cuts to the guitar doesn't interfere with the kick, bass and keyboards in a track. Don't scoop the mids... leave them in! Although it might sound "pleasant" on it's own when scooped, the guitar actually lives in the mid-range of a mix. If you take them out (even a little) then your guitar will become thin and lifeless in a mix. Don't add too much reverb. Unless you are using it as an effect (eg: surf guitar) then it should be applied naturally. You don't usually hear properly applied reverb... it just softens the part and sits it nicely into the mix with the surrounding tones. TIP: EVERY guitar tone that you love on a recording has studio compression applied to it. That is the magic sauce most people over look, and it is the reason many Helix users will apply an LA Studio Comp toward the end of their chain. Don't squish the signal, just let the gain reduction meter flicker while you play. This really refines the tone, like it does on a recording.

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.