Jugghaid

outstanding job

I have run my helix through FRFR systems (I have a stereo pair of the EV ZLX series speakers), direct into ProTools, and through a variety of tube amps including Blackstar Series One, Egnater Vengeance, H&K Grandmeister, Blackstar HT-5, Peavey Classic 30, Fender Twin Reverb, Marshall JVM Series, Vox AC15, etc etc..... I think the longest it has taken me to set up a good usable tone was about 2 minutes through any of them. That's not all the final tweaking, but a good basic tone with a couple of effects. I invariably run all of the tube amps in a 4CM (or in stereo with 7CM + midi cable for the Series One). It just works better and offers a ton of flexibility. My main stage rig is the helix and the Blackstar Series One EL34104 for most of my tones running stereo outputs into the returns of the Blackstar and Egnater Vengeance amps into a stereo Vengeance cab so I have EL34 tone on one side and 6L6 on the other. I have tones using the Blackstar's 4 preamp channels and tones using the Helix preamps (and full amps minus cabs). I also do the same with my Bass rig running into a Mesa Prodigy. In this case I only use effects including disortion (mostly the Minotaur and the Darkglass modeler, but some modulation effects occasionally). I don't generally use the bass models into the Mesa amp, but I do for FRFR. All of this is stupid simple to set up. Maybe it's me because I'm a gear head and I know how to set up a proper signal path, but as a gigging musician, shouldn't you know how to do that? Helix or no helix, you should probably know which effects go where in your chain. So when I see people here stating that they can't get a good sound out of their helix, I can only think of a few potential problems. 1. They have it set up wrong (this is the most common, whether it is their connections or their signal chain). So ask questions and show examples of what you are doing. There are a TON of helpful people on here willing to give you the benefit of their experience, but they are not psychic. Show them what you have set up and what you are hearing. 2. They have a faulty unit (have seen that on here a couple of times). 3. Their definition of "good tone" is different than 95% of the rest of the world (seen that too). Again, post examples. People here will tell you if you are crazy or not. :D 4. They are "purists" trolling here to make themselves feel better about something.(we've all seen that too). Bottom line, this is NOT a hard unit to program or use. If you can dial in an amp or effects pedal, you can dial in the Helix. In fact it is a ton easier to use than the large pedalboards I used to use or even the TC G-System I used before getting the Helix. And you can get great tones from it if you know what you are doing. Way better than the earlier Pod stuff or the Boss/Digitech/etc modelers.

went with these: Problem solved,,,,,,,

Definitely

Unless I'm reading the manual wrong.... 18. EXT AMP 1/2 Connect to your traditional guitar amp to switch its channels or turn its reverb on and off. Use a TRS cable for dual operation (1=tip, 2=ring). Which is possible. I would still think it's possible to do this using a Y cable. Maybe possibly reversing the leads on one end of one cable.

You can set it in the control center to trigger tip, ring or both.......

TRS to Y cable to two TS cables into your foot switch jacks on the amps should do it I think. It will depend on your actual amps, but I think you can do that. The external amp control output on the helix is meant to handle 2 amps.

You do know who has owned Line 6 since 2013, right? :D

Very nice. These will be extremely useful.

Yes, you did. You bought a unit with 4 effects loops, a 60 second looper and a ton of great effects and modeled amps. That's exactly what you bought. I really have to laugh when people get mad because the piece of gear they bought doesn't have every single feature they wanted set up the way they wanted it. No company is going to make a unit that is all things to all people. It's literally impossible. We all have different wants and needs. And it doesn't matter if we are playing in front of 20,000 people or 20. If the Helix doesn't work for you, find something that does.

Then why did you buy a unit with 4 external effects loops? That, in fact, makes it EVEN MORE of an all in one solution. Being able to utilize other units with it is a massive benefit, not a detriment.

Not sure what you mean. He shows how to do a midi cc command. you have the availability to do several of them (6 I believe) for each snapshot. There is also MMC available (multiple midi commands). Maybe a book on midi would help?

Watch this video - the midi stuff starts at about 12:00. Near the end he shows to afffect midi CC changes.

If LIne6 keeps making products as good as Helix, I WILL buy more new boxes!! Seriously, this thing is command central for not only my guitar and bass rigs, but for my ProTools recording studio as well. This is by far the most useful piece of equipment I have bought in a long time and I'm an old guy. I'm 52 and have been playing for 40 + years. Every update with additional features to me is just icing on the cake. I would have paid the $1500 for this for the first firmware without expecting updates. Oh, wait, I did exactly that. :D

Interesting. Having the same issue. I'll try my Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinkys and see.

I have both. I have tube amps that I run in 4CM (actually 7, in stereo) and I have a pair of the EV ZLX-12P. They both have benefits. The FRFR setup is great and I can also run bass through it which is nice as I play both in one of my bands. Plus I don't have to lug around a 4x12 cab and 2 tube heads. :D Running a stereo tube half stack still sounds like the hand of god though. You just won't get the same "punch you in the chest" feeling from an FRFR setup you will from a half stack running a high gain tone. You won't get that thickness and the harmonic content you get from a real tube amp. It's close, and it sounds great, but there's a difference. For recording, running direct from my Helix into protools (I now use it as my interface) makes my life easy. It sounds fantastic as well.

I do this in a stereo setup. Basically what I run is a 4 cable into my Blackstar Series One 104EL34 head with a midi cable as well to change channels. I also simultaneously do the same thing into my Egnater Vengeance head with a stereo cable to control channel changes for that head. The output is stereo using the EL34 power section of the Blackstar on one side and the 6L6 power section of the Egnater for the other side. Then I run each head into one side of my Egnater Vengeance 412 cab so that I have a 212 cab for each side. This way I have 6 different actual tube preamps available to me as well as the preamps in the helix and I set them up as snapshots with the desired effects. Makes a very versatile stereo rig in one half stack

Also, I think I will wait a few for some bugs to get fixed before I update. Bummer too, as I really want to check out all the new bass stuff as I'm a bass player first.

I had the Grandmeister 36 when I bought the helix. They work well together. Midi control of teh head was very simple. I simply realized having something like 8 million possible tones was just a bit much. :) I got rid of the Grandmeister because i wasn't getting used as intended as I had several other tube heads I used the Helix with. Also, while the effects were good in the Grandmeister, they were not as good (or plentifuil, or tweakable) as the effects in the Helix. So they became basically useless as they were never used. In short, It was kind of redundant to have both together. But if you are a tone tweaker, you would be in heaven. I don't think there is a tone you couldn't get from that setup (or even moreso the Triamp, where you can switch up power tubes, but it's about $4k)

I use my helix in 4CM with several different tube amps and I switch between using the real amp sounds and sims ( I really like the Archon and Litigator models). But mostly for effects and the midi control capabilities. My current setup is with a Blackstar Series One 104EL34 in 4CM and also run in stereo through an Egnater Vengeance into a stereo 412 cab (also Eganter) I am not having any of the difficulties you are mentioning. I am not experiencing any degradation in the tone or dynamic response of the amplifiers whatsoever.

I'm a lefty and the only thing I do righty is play instruments. I write, bat, golf etc lefty. I think it's basically because in school growing up they didn't have any left handed instruments and taught everyone the same.

This^^^^ For me it's an even larger disparity as I use Helix with real tube amplifiers live. Currently I run my Helix in 4CM (6CM actually) into a Blackstar Series One EL34 head and my Egnater Vengeance (as a poweramp only) both into my Egnater Vengeance stereo 412 cabinet. This way I get all the tones from the Blackstar head and can switch channels via Midi, Also get the preamps from the Helix and I get some EL34 goodness and 6L6 goodness running in stereo. Tons of versatility and great tone as I still prefer real tube amps to FRFR for live use. However, for the studio, Helix Native makes a ton of sense to me. I use Protools 11. The ease of reamping alone so that I can really dial in the guitar tone and effects into the mix of the song in real time has huge advantages for my application is worth one hell of a lot more than $99. Using both together so that I can dial in anything and everything I want is perfect. I can use the 4CM capabilites of the hardware unit to get me physical amp sounds and I already have a bank of recording presets and a bank of live presets because I use tube amps live, so there is really no downside to me.

I use it with ProTools 11 and it works great. No latency issues whatsoever.

Check the input and output levels on your loop going to the Blackstar. You can adjust them.

I agree. Going through a real amp eliminates the whole "My sound isn't cutting thorough" problem. I have used my helix through several of my tube amps and while I generally use the Egnater Vengeance 1/2 stack live, it also works great with my Blackstar tube amps. Especially the HT-60 combo. The only thing I don't like about using it with the HT-60 is the channel switching on the blackstar is a pain due to the footswitch input type. On the Egnater it's a simple 1/4". So I just use the HT-60 for a crunch sound.