PeterHamm

They are both great. If you have to have the sound of Fractal, you can't miss with AX8 I'm sure. You just might wait a while. I need the flexibility of a box like Helix, and AX8 wouldn't give me dual paths, nor would the Axe II plus foot controller be anywhere near my price range.

I have a footswitch in some patches to turn on rotary, and it simultaneously turns off the cabinet for the amp. Golden.

One of my EXPs only changes from clean to dirty on the amp. Yes, I can do it on a footswitch, but so far, I like it better with an EXP, but I don't mind short throw for that. So... the Mission gets that duty. We rack users will always be envious of that awesome built-in EXP on the floor unit, btw.

The workflow and ease of use are significant reasons to go with Helix. I am lovin' the sounds, too, but the workflow and flexibility are off the chain.

What OS is your mac running? OS X El Capitan is a known problem with EVERYBODY's hardware.

I have used a Mission EP1-L6. Works nice. not my favorite pedal. I also am using a really really old KORG EXP 2. IT works well. And I have an old Ernie Ball VP Jr.. It works well, too. With the volume pedals, you just connect a standard guitar cable from the EXP jack to the OUTPUT of the volume pedal and... voila... an expression pedal it becomes! So, see what you have around, it might work.

The DT25s are available at a great price right now, and the combo of that with the HD 500 is amazing. If you can use a real amp, it's a fantastic option.

Helix works better for me. HD 500 is also excellent, especially for the price. They are both winners.

I'm using the 1/4" output to a DI. volume knob always at full for simplicity's sake. I monitor with IEMs through a Behringer system. Works fantastic. Compared 1/4 through DI to direct XLR output when I first got the unit. Went the way I did because I have gobs of DIs around anyway, and because there was no difference in sound whatsoever and this way, if phantom power is on on my channel I have no issues. Did the same with HD 500 but there 1/4" output sounded better to me.

I am pretty sure, knowing about the Helix Rack since about that time, and being "in the loop"... that I know EXACTLY where the issue lies. I am not violating NDA by telling you this. If they had known that you'd still be waiting in February, I bet they'd have told you. I know for a FACT that they did not know nor think that. Even the beta units got to us later than they thought they would. I also think I know exactly where another (external to line 6) part of the issue lies, and that is with a boneheaded OS update from a company that is supposed to be beyond doing boneheaded things by now <<cough cough... apple El Cap sucks... cough cough...>> There were other issues that can't talk about (which are obviously gone now, and they might have talked about it, I don't recall) that delayed the box, again... beyond what Line 6 expected and beyond what they would have told you in November. So... you want more transparency? I think you have all that is humanly and corporately possible, at least in terms of ship dates. They might have been better off not telling you there was a Helix Rack until it was in stores... I don't know...

I don't think there is any new official info about ship dates in either of those threads.

...not as much as broken promises would. For a publicly traded company with responsibilities to their owners/shareholders/parent company, the transparency they've had with us with regard to ship dates on these products is astoundingly good, imho.

With respect... You didn't want the Helix Rack until everything worked, though (I know, I'm a beta tester for it). Otherwise you'd be saying "Line 6 needs to fix this stuff before it gets out the door" which is what they've done. AX8 is an alternative to the Helix floor, and it's a good one (no, for many people it's a GREAT one), but the waiting list for that is a mile long and LIne 6's manufacturing capacity is probably far greater. VEry few AX8s are in the wild yet. How are they better? I'm pretty confident that the Rack is done in terms of initial firmware. I wouldn't be surprised if they have either already shipped out to dealers or are about to (no, I don't "know anything". They don't tell us about ship dates). So... this current date that GC is guessing at... it might actually be right! Sweetwater also says February but doesn't say a date.

I would put the volume pedal after distortion, compression, eq and even amp (if you separate the amp and cabinet like I do), but BEFORE time-based FX (modulation can go before or after). That might work better, too. Also, I have 3 totally different kinds of volume pedals with my Helix. And I've found that the one that works best for me for volume (VP JR.) is the one I use for guitar volume and I use the other for parameters and such.

Also, make sure you have no USB hub between your computer and your Helix

I also got around it by making patches (usually with only one amp) where I can use an EXP to go from clean to dirty AND add a distortion pedal of some kind. I almost never switch patches within a song.

I think 1.06.1 is rack only but the same fw.

they ran out of "1" blocks in their toy box.

I think you are more often going to be selecting models than moving them, so I think it's probably in the right place. But then we all have different workflow. It would be cool if it were changeable...

Go download 1.06 (it's available now) and my patches should work now!

I do wonder how much of the hiss problem for SOME folks is a simple impedance mis-match. running a hot level into a channel with a lot of gain turned up is a recipe for hiss...

It says 02-19-2016 right now.

Because, like other devices (Kemper for instance I believe), the whole phantom power issue is too often looming it's head. It's not just this unit.

Might be related to the myriads of problems that El Cap users are having with external USB devices (even, in some cases, simple memory drives).

The only cable that is really problematic will probably be the one from the guitar to the input on whatever is first. The rest of them are buffered and will not suck much tone. That said, if it were me, and I didn't KNOW I was going to use modeling, I'd get an M13 and an M9 used. put one before and one in the loop. Know that an HD 500X will get you similar functionality, but the M-series is so awesome to use with amps that's what I'd do. And your english is fantastic.