bloodychoir

Good thing the auto filter replaces everything with lollipop.... well, nearly everything  :lol:

Selective auto-filter, forum laughably lacking in filter options. We have pretty rabid possums here but that badger sounds fearsome.

But DI correct, enough silliness and sorry for my part in it.

Ha! Sorry, bloodychoir. Sarcasm is harder to read when posting responses in 200 threads across two dozen forums. Cheers!

Not a worry, it's an amp that often gets derided, and I was alluding to that, but I've always wanted one. A one trick pony which, if you happen to dig chorus, is a very nice trick. Look forward to dialling it in!

Yes—it's called "Jazz Rivet 120."

I was actually joking, but that's quite exciting

Ahem. So does this thing have a Roland Jazz Chorus or have I blown a couple of grand? Anyone?

 I also enjoyed some of your review. Naming desirable features and a massive array of fx and amps not yet available is fine, but characterising the company that just put four years into the thing and hopefully got the all important basics right, as coming up short in so many ways seems excessive. 

The good

Helix has arrived

The bad

It has not arrived at my house yet

The ugly

...

I'll certainly chime in with what I hope are some helpful opinions when my unit arrives, I certainly won't be calling anyone abusive or idiotic. That would be...abusive and idiotic. Back to people reviewing their Helices and the features they have only just discovered,
the lucky ones who have them already, yeah?

The "Good, the Bad And The Ugly" is a reference to the title of an old Western movie, I wouldn't get too wound up about it. Can you honestly say you would not like to see some more models and effects on this unit?  Or is it easier just to snipe at others in your user community who are asking for something that would benefit you (assuming you even have this unit). The topic I posted my review in was for the express purpose of requesting reviews of the product and was not started by me. A useful review usually contains both positive and negative unless the subject of the review is absolutely perfect. I don't expect the Helix to be perfect within the first few weeks of its release. It is however damm impressive! "I can't believe" that with such an extensive review you choose to focus on and criticize me for one small part of it that most members of this community are aware is an issue. The list of things in my review to love on this unit contains many more items (15 items in "THE GOOD" section and only 1 item in "THE UGLY"). Just because a shortcoming is documented does not mean it is not an issue, and in this case, happily, one that can be addressed. Balanced reviews are helpful and often lead to product improvement.  I am trying to give honest feedback in hopes that a great product can be even better. If you can't stand to hear anything negative you are welcome to skip over my posts or only submit glowing reviews of your own. I think it is awesome that Line6 inspires such loyalty that anything but blowing sunshine up their lollipop immediately inspires people to attack those who make suggestions on how to improve the product. Just seems to me you are undermining something that will ultimately benefit all of us. No flame war intended!

Admirable sentiments, I'm going to suggest that it might be the many points under BAD that lead into UGLY and the tone that got a few offside.  I expect it to be a remarkable thing and from the sounds of it they've delivered. And there's always Ideascale.

If you want to create an aggregate device, you'll be limited to 48Khz sample rate which is what Helix can run on in class compliant mode until we create a mac based audio driver.

 

USB channels 7-8 are dedicated for reamping, so you can send to those channels from your DAW to re-amp the signal. But yes, it was designed to be the audio interface for that scenario. Check the Global Settings -> Ins and Outs.

Thanks very much, I don't have a unit yet but that sounds dandy, rarely work above 48 anyway. Though by all means dig in on the driver dev!

Hi, wondering if anyone has yet tried to configure the Helix with their existing audio interface to create an aggregate device in core audio? I ask because the reamping feature is a huge one for me but I wonder will I need to choose the Helix as a sole interface in order to use it for this purpose? While it's very cool to have an interface built in there's no way it's replacing my Metric Halo, and it'd be great not to have to continually swap.

There may be a very simple approach to this that I'm missing but I've got a cold and I'm pretty dim at the best of times. Thanks for any help

for people looking for a more robust solution: the L6 Product Specialsts have two different cases that we are currently using:

 

1: Pedal Train PT3 - fits/works fine (and has wheels) - downside is that with only the board and HX the case weights ~48 lbs, which can make it tough when you have to drag it around in an airport

 

http://www.amazon.com/Pedaltrain-PT-3-HC-24-Pedalboard-Hard/dp/B0051G3ZNM/ref=sr_1_2?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1444416066&sr=1-2&keywords=pedaltrain+pt3

 

 

2: the SKB i-series "gun" case - much lighter than the PT3, downside is that you have to cut the foam (it is not cubed), so have a sharp cutting tool and take your time.  

 

http://www.amazon.com/SKB-3I-3614-6B-L-iSeries-Inches-Layered/dp/B004ZX64DU

Regarding the SKB, looks great and the first Amazon reviewer included helpful pics of his own containing a machine gun...land of the free...but something I'm wondering about this one and a couple of the other wheeled cases people have put up is there are no mentions of an extendable handle. Unless it's just something the manufacturer bizarrely fails to mention, would this not mean that you'd need to crouch to pull the thing along? I'm really missing something I know, but help a slow person out.

I am just wanting to play a backing track while playing guitar. The USB music is via iTunes.

I will say the software update seems to have helped. I can actually hear real music. I think my head is getting in the way now.

Can I ask have you got another audio interface plugged in? Sounds a little like warring sample rates which can happen sometimes, especially when iTunes or QuickTime enters the equation. There are still funny behaviours in core audio - I'm assuming you're on a Mac of course.

So far yours are the only bad technical issues I've read about, it would be extremely unfortunate for you to receive two defective units, almost unbelievable you'd think. You did get a replacement very quickly though!

So I've got one on order, end of October. Looking forward to it but still a bit rocked by the price. Even at the US retail of $1499 we're paying AU$300 more than the conversion, and now there are people reporting prices as low as US$1089 after a simple price matching between distributors. That's AU$900 less than what we'll pay here. Global economy... This thing better do my laundry.

On a related note if anyone in Australia or NZ has seen the audiobuy.com.au or .co offers of zero tax, zero import and way lower price on the Helix, I won't slander but do your own research, Whirlpool is your friend.

Dude, it's all good. You can believe.

Cheers

Good stuff, thanks

Ha! No, but keep an eye out for "Scare Campaign", very tasty take on the shift from traditional horror to torture porn and snuff and the role of social media in facilitating, among other things...MURDER!!

Which might constitute promo spam now that I think of it. They're independent...and I know at least one of them has a Variax.

Yep, and because Helix responds to MIDI CC over USB, you can automate parameters from your DAW. B)

Very cool. Scoring a horror film soundtrack recently, that would've been a wonderful option to have.

That's kind of one of the main points in re-amping, isn't it? But, yes, sure, you can apply whatever effects and amp model you want to the dry signal after it's recorded.

Yes, yes it is. I was asking just in case there was a strange, but not unprecedented, limitation whereby you could only set the desired parameters and let it roll, not manipulate live. Of course, as I said, it was probably a silly question, but if you don't ask you don't get. I currently use a Radial EXTC, i'd love it if the Helix was as easy and fun to revamp with as that little box. Thanks for the reply.

Which begs the probably very silly question, it will be possible to tweak your fx till heart's content while reamping?

This is actually one of the very few things that makes me thing about buying helix.

I miss the reamping feature so much that I had with the X3.

It's a big one. Potential for so much fun real time manipulation of dry tracks. This has me more excited than the live possibilities. Just need to hear some clean amps and cabs

I'm not against them making clips. It's just that I don't recall any product like this where the manufacturer has gone through and released the type of clips being asked for. They're not hiding anything. It's just they have limited resources, and I imagine that they see doing those sorts of clips as having a limited impact. Eventually, when the Helix is released the floodgates for clips will be open, and there will be an overwhelming amount out there.

I appreciate that Phil, and please know that this is in good faith, but several of these threads have had calls from several potential buyers (pre-orders, early adopters!) for this simple thing. At best it's underestimating the potential clientele for this - studio based remixers, long time touring musicians, producers, and probably the amplifier zealots with increasingly bad backs, ears and limited space - who haven't been nearly convinced in the past but feel like maybe the tech has finally arrived (that may be a lot of people given how many I know in the industry who really gave the 500hdX a shot and quickly moved on). At worst its using those oddly limited resources to put very expensive rouge on another pig's cheeks. I'm in the former camp, why don't Line 6 prove me right?

And you know that flood of clips will be 99% crap audio or engineered to make the player sound rawkin dude. Unadorned strums and picked notes, five minutes without wankery, without fx, just a few amps and cabs, couple of different axes, maybe even a Variax!, direct to interface, is all that's needed.

Honestly, I don't really know what magical things people are expecting from clips. I've heard awesome clips from every generation of the POD, and I've seen different people do A/B tests where people couldn't tell the difference between the POD and the real thing. I've heard horrible recordings of real amps. So much of this depends on the person playing. Each of the amp models in the Helix can provide a wide range of tones, so even if they would record dry samples of all the amps, that's only a snapshot of that amp for a particular tone stack setting, using a particular guitar. It's still giving a very limited view of the overall capabilities of the unit.

Dry Deluxe Reverb with a strat and a les. That's about as generic as you can get and covers a lot of territory for a lot of people. Why is that whenever several people begin discussing the dearth of dry amp sounds in the "metric ton" of videos out there they get either pilloried or diversionary responses like this one? Nobody asked for "magic", and nobody, at least here, warranted a condescending run down of what not to expect out there in silly consumer land. It's $2500. I want it to be great. I will buy it if it is. I want more, naked, proof, and I'm willing to be patient. The amp/cab is the basis, from there we can use our imaginations because lollipop knows we've heard the lovely fx.

Mind blowing to have 8x8 as a bonus feature! A question that somebody might have an answer to just by chance, how does it play in aggregate with another interface within Apple's system? To put it more clearly has anyone added it to another interface to create an aggregate device, for eg a Metric Halo 2882 for 16 ins? Theoretically it should work fine plug and play but there's always been issues from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Definitely—there are a metric ton of Helix clips and videos out there—far more than for any other pre-release MI product I've ever seen. It's just easier for some people to complain than it is to Google, ya' know?  :P

 

"But, but, but... Line 6 hasn't made me a custom video with exactly what I want to hear yet!"

Except that there are no vids with more than a few seconds of dry clean or slightly driven amps. The direct audio from the above Soundcloud has ping pong delay and reverb all over it and is 95% hi gain or fx. And when he gets to the Twin especially it sounds grainy and legitimately horrible. It sounds like a bad emulation of a Twin on its last legs. I choose to believe it was his choices that showed off the worst of that setting - flubby hitting etc. maybe he was trying to show how you could break up the Twin naturally? I hope it sounds better than that. That he spent so little time there makes me fear the worst.

I'm not complaining for the sake of it, and clearly many others are after the same thing, we want to be convinced because it looks like the Holy Grail for studio and live - if it can't pull off the feel and sound of a classic clean dry amp it is not the Holy Grail.

just a quick opinion..

 

good and clear explanations by Paul in his demo, but regarding the tones delivered by this device in this case, I much preferred the ones given in the Sean's demos..

 

I liked some FXs which are really cool, and also some amps demoed, but I didn't like the introductory track sound, neither some bass strings farting tones on some amps like as an example with the twin.. reminding me some HD tones when dialed badly..

 

regarding the unit look, generally I would really like it, if it was not for the pedal which looks like a petrified cleaver or slicer..

Agreed as well. So much time on the hi gains, which sound nice enough, especially if you're in a Ratt cover band, but so little time on stuff like Deluxe, Twin, Vox. And they didn't sound great at all. They sounded accidentally driven to an ugly point and while I really like this guy he seemed to go out of his way to make them ugly with his choices. This is perplexing. Please turn off the ping pong delay and the verb and strum a damn chord on a dry amp! It's such a thrilling prospect and the fx are sounding very close which is close enough, just need that one honest clip and I'm there.

That said the fx and amp list is exciting, it will be great to hear some of those emulations stripped of the honey glaze. Love to hear the VB2, especially if they listen to the calls for a freeze pedal. Fun times

Still a ton of reverb and delay... just let the amps breathe man!

 

Don't get me wrong, I like to hear more samples, as I'm probably going to just walk into GC and buy it and make up my own mind then, but I'd love to hear some Les Paul clips.  Why does everyone use Fender-style or shredder guitars.  Plug a Les Paul in, and let's hear what that does.  Are you listening Line 6?

 

Yes, yes they are.  I believe.

It's all still lipstick. I just hope the pig is a natural beauty in the morning. And it would be cool to hear a Duo Jet or a Ricky or something, definitely something more Gibsony, agreed. All sounding a bit early 90's boutique hair metal to me. Nostalgic but a bit nasty now.