PeterHamm

I agree. BUT... do NOT use an amp+cab block. Separate them if you can, and you can. It only adds a moment to what you're doing.. Delays and verbs (spring verb especially) sound way better between amp and cab.

But... I hope that if there's any chance that development of the guitar stuff for Helix gets stifled that they don't make this a priority. Helix, to me, is for guitar and bass. To make it so that it does too many other things... then people will complain that they can't do 8 FX on their guitar while they do 6 on their vox because there is so much stuff in that chain that hogs CPU bandwidth. a separate dedicated vocal processor is, to me, a wiser choice for performing anyways.

For me, the Matchless, Channel 1 or Jump -> either the Dr. Z 2 x 12 or a dual cab with the Dr. Z on one side and the 4 x 10 on the other... is my go to... for every guitar and purpose... I will also use the /13, Shiva (gain WAY down), and Dr. Z amps mostly... but that Matchless is silly amazing. free acoustic IRs here. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1XgNa5vH3j1ZkVoTFJLQ241WTg/view https://www.dropbox.com/sh/f2qdh9jtcl6s5cv/AACRlEt-UVeLAhuvV4YwMY7Wa?dl=0 All derived, I think, from Aura, but work tremendously well. There may be others out there now. I'm so delighted with these ones I stopped looking.

There is no way to put IRs in there without using a computer, but you don't need the latest beta editor. You can use v1.04 of the Editor. But... Update to 10.11.4. It has solved problems for a LOT of people. 10.11 was a real problem with external USB devices until this update. Shame on you, Apple!

It is there because if your Cat 5 line is too long, the power can't flow through it. I have the 25' VDI cable powering it and there's no problem, but if it were 50' or longer, you'd need to power it. (Useful if you want to keep the rack at front of house but the controller on stage. It uses the same adaptor as HD 500, but most everyone will not need it. I don't. There's also a unused (at this time, for the user at least) USB port on Control. You do NOT use this to update firmware. It's handled by the Helix Rack unit.

There are gobs of external device problems with OSX 10.11.3. But 10.11.4 is out, you should update. A LOT of people are saying that totally solved the problems.

Maybe I'm the only person who only edits one patch at a time. SO much this... I admit it. I love that they gave us both possibilities. Easier to make everybody happy. I can go from 0 - finished patch on the unit in under 5 minutes now. Way longer for me on the editor. Ideally... both at once, like I used to do with HD 500.

I predicted this before I even had the editor. Mousing from one parameter to another on-screen, vs. twisting the 6 knobs on the actual physical helix. No contest. working on the actual Helix is much faster for most things. I do find that setting up a few things (assigning controllers for instance so that I can have two different states for my amp using an EXP) might be faster on the software, but overall, if you know the unit, it's way faster to create on Helix. In fact, it takes me (I measured) roughly half the time or less to do it on the actual unit. That said, the Helix editor is very very nice, and for those who have the floor unit, it'll be a back saver. If you are getting more satisfying results with the Editor, great! Keep on going. If it is faster for you to edit on the editor than the unit, I'm wondering, honestly, how that could be possible. But... different strokes...

Don't know, but I haven't been unable to make patches work separating them. If there's a difference, I'll bet it's very small.

the free IRs are really amazingly useful, and there's a crap-ton of them.

No. Simply. You can not. And, fwiw, this is one reason to never every create a patch with an Amp+Cab in it at all. There's no benefit to using it, since you'll never fill every slot. I figured that out a day or so in.

It is possible that you can set up ANY patch to work in all those configurations. Use an amp plus a cab for 1 and 3, set up a footswitch (or a duplicate patch) that disables them for 2 and 4. That said, I'd use the same amp every time when I practiced myself.

It is true. Can't speak for the OP, but for me, the built-in cabs (which, btw, ARE IRs) allow you to change mic, distance, add early reflection... imho, more useful than third party IRs. I've tried a few of the well-regarded free ones, but have found a couple built-in cabinets that work just peachy for me on everything. Dr. Z 2x12 and Bassman 4 x 10 cabs (especially the former) are the GOODS, to me...

Although I disagree with the last one of those statements I think... it sounds like we are kindred spirits. U-vibe... the my go to modulation most of the time, Matchless, just lately, the main and almost the ONLY amp I go to.

or the mini-series or comic book perhaps...

Well, for a lot of those amps, there are two versions of the amp that account for that for my use, normal and vibrato input (which is, in my experience, very much like having the bright switch on). I use that vib input for humbucker guitars and the normal for singles and I'm good to go.

My AKG K240s and my Sennheiser HD 380s both sound good, as do my IEMs (Shure SE215).

They are truncated. It's explained on p. 28 of the manual

Old Headphones start to sound brittle. You might not notice it on a Hi Fi, but on Helix, you'll hear the flaws. Also, if the headphones aren't high impedance, they can be a problem with Helix. Some of yours probably fit that description. They don't last forever if you use them a lot.

Oh, yeah, that's not enough. Wow, they still make something with that low res? It won't do it.

I am able to do either a totally separate acoustic and electric signal chain (complete with dual cabs, 2 delays on each chain, 2 reverbs, 2 modulations, and compression and preamps on each chain plus an acoustic guitar IR on the acoustic chain)... ...so, yeah. I've also been able to create a patch with two amps, gain pedals, 4 delays, 2 verbs, dual cabs on each amp, 2 modulation FX, and 2 compressors... so, yeah. If you need to do much more than that, buy a second one.

That is AWESOME! Glad they helped! When we all work together, things are great. More videos, guys!

Might be a display or system setting thing (like if you have really large fonts selected or some such), because there should be enough screen real estate on there.

what computer are you on? Even my MBP 13" gives me all the blocks and I can scroll to see all the parameters below.

Wow, thanks!