PeterHamm

You get more "Stuff" in some ways with Helix. flexibility, routing, I/O, number of blocks at once, number of audio paths, USB interface.

Global EQ is for "fixing the sound in the room". Nobody's setting will work for you unless they are playing with your hands through your rig with your guitar in your room. Personally I don't even use the global EQ. The sound man takes care of that for me.

Backup? No. not any more. Don't feel like it matters. If everything went totally south at my church Gig with Helix I'd probably just plug in an acoustic guitar direct and change the way I do things.

The AX8 is quite simply the best choice for a lot of people. It is not for me. Bad User Interface? I could get past that since it has a great editor. 200+ amps? Who cares, I only use 3, and mostly just one actually (Matchless1) But, for me, the big thing is that I NEED multiple chains (acoustic and electric and Mel9 pedal at the same time) and I use up to 5 separate delays (not all at the same time) in a given patch. I also like having the built-in USB interface, and I love having a solution that not only sounds AMAZING for what I do, but is so easy and fun to use that I don't even need the editor. You don't need that stuff and like the AX8? AWESOME. Get on the list and buy one! Then get out there and make awesome music, which the world needs more of.

I didn't know you could do that! Tip of the year!

And for many of us, this is not a "curse" of modeling, but a distinct benefit of it. Not all, but some of us, actually LIKE it this way...

Before you even download or purchase other IRs, you need to mess with speaker cabs (my favorite is the Dr. Z 2 x 12 or the Fender 4 x 10 on EVERYTHING and sometimes dual cabs with one of each) and with mics (dude, just go RIGHT to the ribbon mics and thank me later) and turn that amp master down a bit (you can add volume later in the chain if you need to). And yes, the /13 model in there is stunning, one of only 3 or 4 I use (right now all my patches are using the Matchless, but I like the /13 a lot, too). And frankly, one other guy in my church with a Helix is getting awesome clean tones from the stock Twin model, just tweaking the preset that has it and a couple FX a teeny bit. And check your input impedance.

I just thought I was doing something wrong. Thanks, guys. I'd notice it more if I changed patches more often, but I don't. I have been known to use one patch for an entire service.

There are a million answers to your question, which I don't totally know for sure I understand, but I think I do. Start with an amp block and a cab block (avoid amp+cab blocks if you're going to use FX) that is close to something you like. get the amp sounding right, mess with the cab block's mic and distance and early reflections, and slowly add from there.

Aw... shucks... seriously, some other folks have some great stuff in that one thread. But here's one I've been lucky to learn that most people won't do. I'm a beta tester for the rack (and we've been lucky enough to find some NASTY bugs that none of y'all have had to deal with, I hope) and whenever I get a new beta build, I start from nothing and re-build my favorite patches from scratch to really test it out. At this point, I have my own particular EQ points memorized after all that! I also, currently, am only using ONE amp for every single preset. The Matchless channel 1 (or Jump) into either a dual cab 4x10/Dr. Z 2 x 12 or just the Z.

pretty much.

If you're serious about this, put a powerbridge on your guitar, split the signal to stereo, and THEN you can have Helix make unspeakably gorgeous acoustic tones.

And the pedals with the toe switch work just peachy, btw. The mission pedal with the toe switch is ONLY needed with Helix Rack. I don't have one yet. I will soon.

The output of your path can be set to 2A instead of multi output. Then, you could, for instance, copy the cabinet block... and then paste it down in path 2A, and then go back and delete the cab block... Now, you can put more stuff before or after the cab block. You also want to have some fun with parallel FX. check that out. Just grab a delay move it up or down in the chain, and move the insert points, you could have parallel delays, or parallel comps, or drives, or what have you. You can also make a "super serial" FX chain using both paths split so there's basically 32 possible FX blocks between input and output. Don't use all 32... I can't imagine a scenario where you can run 32 different blocks and not have it sound like mud.

Did you do the all reset function after finishing? If so, that's what would happen. Need to check all your globals after an update anyhow.

I'll try to make a clip when I get a chance.

I have experienced that, but not every time.

Not my experience. Sounds a LOT like my real Leslie 145 I used to have.

shouldn't be a problem. I'd go out from Pro Tools to guitar input (electric guitar signals just sound best there), and temporarily send the patch's output to XLR only. Make sure you don't make a feedback loop in Pro Tools by accident. But... WHy not just temporarily use HELIX as your interface then go back to the way it was or create an aggregate device (if you're on Mac)?

In some of my patches, I use an EXP to go, smoothly, between two completely different amp states, changing reverb mix, delay mix and a parameter or two other things, all at once. that said, I recently discovered that I liked doing this better with a footswitch, so all my new patches use that. I've always been a guy that put a bunch of stuff on the EXPs ever since HD 500. Nobody should have Helix without hooking up 3 EXPs imho...

I use a hybrid approach. There are some things (most specifically anything that involves typing a word) that are easier in the editor, and when I'm setting up a footswitch to go between two states on an amp or verb or delay (or all of those) I find using the editor easier IF I can see the front of the unit at the same time (so I don't have to write stuff down). That said, if I could only have one or the other??? The Hardware by FAR! Those knobs and buttons are faster than using a mouse on a screen for virtually everything. But I have the rack, so even then I only have to bend over if I want to use the touch-sensitive footswitches.

I have found an interesting brute force solution for this. I just erase the preset (copy a new blank one over) and start again from scratch. It seems like a lot of work, but I find that when I make a preset, nuke it, and make it again, I do a better job the second time anyway.

Are you using the leslie with your amp cab turned OFF? That's important. I like the Leslie (especially the Fender and the 145) effects a LOT.

This is what I do, and I set a foot controller to change the speed of the leslie, too.

You can do this. I wouldn't. here's why. Love your audience. If you hear something totally different on stage from what they hear out there, you have little to no control about how good your amp sounds to the audience. so... either run through the guitar cabinet and mike it, or craft sounds that sound good to you through an FRFR. imho, ymmv, yadda yadda yadda...