Anderton

Consider giving the following a try, it's an excerpt from Chapter 4 (Poly Block) from my eBook on the Heilx. I use Helix a lot to do pseudo-Nashville tuning. One day it hit me that the only reason the two top strings of a 12-string are doubled is because of physical limitations. So, I wanted to come up with something that had the vibe of a 12-string, but also, had some of the octave-higher top two strings mixed in subtly. The green text has no special significance, it just refers to other presets included with the book. The Poly Capo is transposed up an octave. Hope this helps! Gourmet 12-String The Gourmet12-String preset (fig. 4.13) wraps processors around the Poly Capo to produce a rich, bright, big 12-string sound for stereo or mono. It’s optimized for the bridge pickup, but other pickup positions work too. This is based on the LayeredNashville preset. However, the sound is more like one guitar than layered guitars, because the second EQ (Low/High Shelf) doesn’t emphasize the highs as much. Also, to give a 12-string’s characteristic shimmer, the Dual Delay toward the output adds subtle modulation. The crucial difference is the Simple Delay that precedes the Poly Capo. With a physical 12-string, there’s a slight delay (around 20-25 ms) between hitting the main string and its associated octave string. The Simple Delay emulates this effect. Your ears identify this as part of a 12-string’s characteristic sound. Figure 4.13 For a synthetic 12-string sound from a digital effects processor, this preset comes very close. For live performance, only some blocks are suitable for footswitching. All the blocks before the Mixer are essential parts of the 12-string sound. The post-Mixer Delay and Reverb are good candidates for footswitching. One (or both) compressors can also benefit from footswitching. Then you can call up sounds that are more or less compressed.

Here's an excerpt from the latest version of my eBook, The Big Book of Helix Tips & Tricks. Hope this helps: Auto EQ (fig. 2.56) Transposing higher gives a brighter sound, while transposing lower gives a duller sound. Auto EQ compensates for timbral changes that happen when transposing pitch. With Auto EQ = 0, there’s no compensation for timbral changes. Higher values apply more compensation (reduced brightness when transposing up, increased brightness when transposing down). Figure 2.56 Auto EQ in action. The top image is the original waveform. The middle image transposes the original waveform up +12 semitones—note the increase in high frequencies. The lower image shows how Auto EQ reduces the high frequencies of the transposed audio to be more like the original waveform.

I develop HX Stomp presets in Native, and rd2rk's advice is spot on. If you ever want to emulate how different input impedances affect your guitar, I wrote up a simple DIY project that lets you do that.

Thanks for the tip! I did remove an image that seemed like it would free up enough space and rewrote the accompanying comment, but apparently it wasn't enough. Probably what would be best is to write up tips presented here as an article on craiganderton.org, where I can post pictures and audio examples with impunity :) Then I can just link to that.

Sure! In the audio attachment, I'm playing in E but it's being transposed down 5 semitones to B. (I had to use an older account because I ran out of space for attachments, but it's me). See what you think. -5 Semitones LowTuning.mp3

Here's an example of an HX Stomp preset I use for low tunings, with the Poly capo settings. The preset uses bi-amping to balance the high- and low-frequency Amp sounds. Path A handles the highs, while Path B handles the lows. Fitting all this into 8 blocks requires two amps that don’t need much processing power, and uses stereo EQ to simulate a cab (not a stock Cab). Using preamps instead of amps would have freed up more processing power. The output Mixer can pan the two Amps for stereo imaging. A stereo Simple Delay provides a stereo output that collapses acceptably to mono. However, deleting or bypassing the Simple Delay for mono-only outputs sounds slightly better. In terms of customing, deleting the Simple Delay allows using the Line 6 Electrik, Litigator, or Badonk for one of the Amps. If you remove the Compressor, now the Essex A15, both A30 Fawn Amps, Matchstick Ch2, Placater Clean, and Line 6 2204 Mod Amps become available for one of the Amps. If you also remove the pre- and post-Poly Capo EQs, several more Amps become available for one of the Amps. Your choices for the other Amp remain limited. It take some strategy to shoehorn all this stuff into HX Stomp. but it's doable. (Note: For those of you who have my book, this is described in Chapter 4 on Poly Block processing, and is LowPreset.hlx in the Free Files folder.) Hope this helps - HX Stomp can do a lot more than you might think at first.

My solution is using EQ-based cabs, and selected preamps instead of amps. Those two techniques cut down dramatically on processing power, and with proper editing, sound almost the same as using a conventional amp and cab.

Cool, constructive feedback is what will guide future updates. For me, this recalls my days as a studio musician, and interacting with a producer who would indicate what he or she wanted me to play. Of course, I can't take care of all users at all levels and all requests; the book is geared more to intermediate-to-advanced users. Fortunately Helix has been around for so long there's already lots of material available for those starting out.

Thank you for your interest! Please note an example is attached, but to clarify: The book is not just about describing effects parameters. Out of the 320 pages, there are about 135 pages devoted to effects parameter descriptions. For example, although individual amps and their parameters aren't described (at least, not yet), there are three chapters about different ways to create presets using the amps (e.g., bi-amping, multiband processing, how to conserve processing power so that power-hungry amps can be put in parallel, etc.) and one on cabinet techniques. For an example of some of the kinds of techniques presented in the book, please see the article Creative Ways to Get Even More Out of HX Stomp. The book expands on the topics included in this article. I'm on the fence about whether to include the legacy effects. They've been around for so long, are fairly standard, and are often earlier versions of later/better effects included in Helix. I think including material on getting the most out of Snapshots, which the book doesn't do currently, would be more useful to more people. Helix is so deep I have to prioritize topics based on a) what people will find most useful, and b) what hasn't been covered elsewhere. The Fluid Solo web site already has an excellent description of amps and pictures of the base models. I do plan on covering amps at some point, but selectively - i.e., concentrate on the differences in the tone stacks, how ripple, bias, and similar "mystery" controls affect the sound, and parameters that are unique to specific amps. Bear in mind the book is already 320 pages long and took a year to write. I'm concerned about keeping it as focused as possible on material that isn't available on the web, in YouTube videos, or in the manual. For example, there's a chapter on using Helix as an audio interface, and how to aggregate it with other audio interfaces. The updates are like software. Owners of the book get "point" updates for free (e.g., like software going from version 1.1 to 1.2). If the changes are so extensive it needs a new edition, like software going from version 5 to version 6, then existing owners can get the new edition at a reduced price. However, I assume there's only so much that can be done with Helix - it's not going to do something like turn into a DAW! I doubt there will be a need for a new edition. The kind of updates Line 6 has been doing would fall under the "free update" category. The main reason for updating is to keep the book current for new buyers, so they don't get stuck with something that's obsolete a week later. Giving free updates to existing owners just seems like the right thing to do. Note that I've been using this publishing model with eBooks written for PreSonus for a couple years now, and all except for two updates were free. There are typically one or two updates a year, but Helix is different, because there will need to be an update when Line 6 releases new effects or amps. As to providing an example, I've attached a PDF of the Multi Pass Delay description, but I'm reluctant to do so because the descriptions are all quite different. There's no "representative" example, because what needs to be covered depends on the effect. Some do pretty deep dives, like showing the harmonic distortion components graphically for the three different switch positions in Teemah, or the frequency response curves for the Retro Reel effect choices. Others are more applications-oriented, like the Sweep Echo description. Many of the 230 included presets are paired with parts of the book, so you can load the presets into Helix/HX Stomp/Native and hear what's being described. Also, common parameters are described at the beginning of sections. So for example, I could post an example of a modulation effect, but you might think some parameter descriptions are missing, because they're included in an introductory section with common parameters. So, in addition to checking out the PDF, I have two suggestions: 1. The video linked to at the top gives a good overview of what's included. 2. Sweetwater's inSync online magazine will be publishing excerpts of effects parameter descriptions. The first excerpt has already been submitted, so it will be published soon. It includes parameter descriptions for the Cosmos Echo, Horizon Gate (which isn't really a gate, but a dynamic filter), and the Teemah distortion. It's designed to be a representative cross-section of the types of descriptions found in the book, which will give you a better idea of how the effects descriptions are handled. There will be additional excerpts included in inSync in the months ahead, especially when there are updated features to cover. Hope this helps... Multi-Pass Delay.pdf

There will indeed be free updates for registered book owners (you download the updates when they're ready from your Sweetwater account). I've done several eBooks for PreSonus, and all of them have been updated at least once, so you can expect the same here. The only downside for some people is that the books are download-only, because updates wouldn't be feasible with print. (Also note that if a book changes so much it becomes a new edition, existing book owners can get it at a reduced price.) If you want to see the way Helix effects are handled in the book, inSync is going to publish an excerpt later this month. Also, Metallikid asked on this forum why the Retro Reel seemed to reduce highs and add bass, so I put some info from the book in the Retro Reel thread. The book goes into more detail, but the post will give you an idea of how much I enjoy going down rabbit holes :)

Hmmm...I tried to reproduce this issue. Unfortunatley I don't have a Fireface for testing, but I sent a test tone into the Helix, and hooked up the XLR outputs to a PreSonus 1824c interface. I got the same input signal at the interface regardless of whether the output block was set to Multi or XLR. Has anyone else experienced this issue? Is there some step I'm missing in order to reproduce it? I do recall some posts about how if phantom power was enabled and you used the XLRs, the level dropped. Could that have anything to do with it

Are you running the XLR out into a true balanced line input, or using unbalanced XLR?

At the moment, the book is available only through Sweetwater because they can keep track of who bought the book, and make sure buyers are eligible for the free updates. What country are you in? There's probably some obscure legal reason. I'll ask Sweetwater what's going on.

I think he just really likes the book...my video, on the other hand, is definitely an ad :) It's really gratifying to know people are finding this useful. It justifies all the time I put into it. I'm also happy that Sweetwater bought into the model of doing free "point" updates. It takes some of the pressure off me for keeping books current - I can just add on to the existing one. In that spirit, I'm open to suggestions for anything you'd like to see added to the book in the future.

I'm really glad you've found it useful! My hope was that it would inspire people to come up with their own signature sounds.