PeterHamm

btw, two-voice with the helix is da bomb. https://pietrosquared.wordpress.com/helix-2-voice-guitar/ Here's a sample with an electric that has a piezo.

I finally just put piezos in all my electrics and got rid of the ones that don't have it. I tried (just a little) to simulate with the electric guitar signal, but didn't even want to bother. Just didn't like it. That said, a piezo + IR in Helix makes for some amazing acoustic tones.

I totally understand (and used to agree with) this statement. Fact is, if I had to get by with my HD 500, I could. And I'd still sound great. Frankly, I'm not sure how high up on the priority list making a replacement for the 500X really SHOULD be with Line 6. That said... a 750-dollar version that had HX amp modeling, but the same HD FX and routing...? that would NOT be horrible.

The biggest problem with using headphones or IEMs instead of speakers is not EQ, imho. It is levels of compression, mix ratio for delays, and amounts of gain. But eq is an issue, too. There isn't, in my experience, a "fix" for this. You HAVE to do your final tweaks with a speaker if you want it to sound good through a speaker. Oh, and headphones for mixing? No. Just no. Simple basic mix start? Sure, final critical mix? Never.

"outside the range of human hearing". Hogwash. Maybe they are there, but that's probably true (depending on the human being measured) for a LOT of current pro headphones from AKG, AT, Sennheiser and others, but 7506s are NOT somehow a "gold standard". They are popular imho mostly because they are quite loud, and yes, they do, in fact, sound very good, and are comfortable for long stretches. I like them, but don't own a pair because I prefer other things. They're not bad, on the contrary... and I suspect they'd be a great match for Helix.

Yer thinkin' too much...

Headphones are always a compromise. Always. Because you're not moving air. That said, I've had good luck with my IEMs (Shure SE215s) and also with my Sennheiser HD 380s. But if you program patches with these and then expect them to sound right "live" through speakers, imho, you will always be disappointed.

Yes, you are correct, sir.

Thanks for that clarification. I do NOT deal with NDA's for a living and would add that if you are the kind of guy that breaks one, you may not go to jail, but you might, in fact, be a lollipop.

therein lies the problem. Between the price point of HD 500 and Helix is, I think, exactly one product, Amplifire, and it's kinda different isn't it.

it's getting confused in here. according to the manual, "GUITAR THRU OUT Passes the signal received at the front panel Guitar In with no A/D/A conversion." very simple.

It is exactly that, buffered, so that if you ran a longer cable, you would probably not experience noticeable signal loss.

I do very very little programming "at the gig". I might have my rack on a stand during a rehearsal, and definitely when programming, but during a "gig" (church service in my case) it's down on the floor, just as hard to get to as the floor unit is. And that's okay by me. Again, the editor made the HD 500 EASIER to program (in many ways, although I prefer the actual unit for about 90% of editing functions), but I suspect, because of the layout (especially those 6 multi-function knobs and some of the stuff you can do by soft-touching the foot pedals) I actually think people might complain that the editor is HARDER to use for Helix (except perhaps on touch-screens, which, alas, Apple is too stupid to implement). It'll still help with your back, though, won't it...

re-install the latest firmware if you can. I think this happened to me once on the rack. I couldn't duplicate it, but it never happened again and that was way before the final FW release for it.

With a loud band, you need at least a 12" driver on an FRFR, regardless of wattage, cause you want to move a lot of air. But, with a loud band (like loud enough where I get to wear ear plugs) nothing beats a nice big "real" amp or two. If I were doing that today, I'd get a tube power amp and 2 x 12 speaker cab.

Only based on knowing a few people in the industry and managing the keyboard at one of the larger music stores in the country back when Yamaha owned Korg.

yes, but L6 is owned by Yamaha, not necessarily part of yamaha. Years ago when they owned Korg, Korg maintained its own identity. You didn't see Yamaha SPX stuff suddenly make its way into Korg products. I suspect it's the same here, but I suspect that Frank and Eric and all the rest of 'em can't talk about it anyway.

It is not and never will be.

Yamaha does not micro-manage or "run" companies that they own, historically. You can't just put a bunch of Yamaha software engineers on a plane for California. I really doubt it works anything remotely like that.

Your tone will rawk so hard that she will melt with desire for your awesome manliness...

With all due respect... The QA and sales people are probably totally different peeps. The performance of one doesn't directly correllate to the performance of the other. And we haven't heard bunches of stories of this failure, so it's pretty safe to guess that it is an isolated occurrence. There are a lot of Helices out there in the wild now. It appears most people are having a trouble free existence with it. Honestly, no matter how well it is made, there will be an occasional issue and component failure. That is the universe we live in.

i can only speak for myself. If I set up a similar amp tone with a dirt pedal on both HD 500 and Helix, I can get them both to sound really great for most regular rhythm playing. So much so that if that's all you do, the HD 500 is plenty. Where Helix shines is when you back off your picking and/or volume/tone controls on the guitar. The dynamics of the situation. Helix cleans up exactly like a really great "real amp". Moreso than any modeling situation I've been in ever.

added emphasis and agreed +1000. Yes, I do understand not wanting to bend over (not an issue for me, I am using the rack), so I am sure that some of you will benefit from the editor, but honestly, with only a mouse vs. all the knobs, I think the Editor will be HARDER to use than the front panel on Helix. I'm convinced of it, but eventually, I learned that most things were quicker and easier on HD 500 once I learned where it all was.

I use two-voice guitars, used to be with HD 500, and now with Helix. Both work great. Here's a sample that actually ONLY uses Helix and the Vintage Model Pack (acoustic guitar model) for ya.