bjnette

LOLOL must be a lotta fun then

Says alot to sell HD soon after Helix. No going back!

Hope HElix drops the price or keeps it the same so I can get one soon. Now for some fodder to create some social commentary music about. Ever watch a TV sitcom and feel less intelligent for it? Evidence of deliberate dumbing down through Education is undeniable if you look at literacy levels over the past 100 year. Here is one interview;

It will be interesting to hear comparisons after some of you guys have gotten down pat the capabilities of the Helix.

Normal pricing policy is to recoup the initial manufacturing costs very early on and then make a profit. Once market saturation has occurred only then does Sales Promotion "buy it now's" take effect and pricing comes down. This is wise business practice. It is a mistake to introduce a product at a price and then increase the price even as little as a year later. It causes a knee jerk reaction at the detriment of the price hiker and needs to be very well promoted ahead of time to avoid stagnating sales. It is better pricing policy to keep the price unchanged for as long as possible at least 5 years. The sales will increase. The effects of inflation or increased material costs are absorbed by the slightly over priced introduced product line. It is only after the product has recovered the startup manufacturing costs and made a long term profit that the price then comes down which actually increases sales all over again. I feel the case with the Helix before price hike; it is well priced over the HD500x and near on par with the boutique manufacturers. (Kemper and Fractal manufacturer little else in comparison to Yamaha.)

Why not record via the HD500's USB. Up the HD volumes to get the level around -6db. On your monitoring roll that back to get the level you want to hear.

Dust covers is a good idea. Bleachbit LOLOL

Anyone putting tempered glass protectors on the screen? What ones fit the best?

You mean reflash to the latest firmware for the bonus material? As it seem to read if you don't upgrade there is bonus material!.

While there is no meter on a Fender Twin the Helix is so much more than just the Amp alone. It is essentially a mic'd in the studio listening in the control room into your PA or interface route. If there is a danger of clipping en route then meters would seem a good idea or at leas a clip meter. But it might be the case that the Helix internally has a floating point that wont clip regardless (like 32bit float) and simply clippers it at the DAC stage. Totally guessing. The question is? Can you get the Helix to clip? If so, there should be at least a clip meter.

Cool

I got enough to buy the Helix but it is just too expensive to justify here in Sydney. If I was in a working band then it would a tax deduction. And I'd be taking time off work to play with it. Oh well, such joy; even to lust about getting one! You Lucky dogs you Helix owners!

I have explored most of the Amps pretty we'll but still to get fully deep with the FX in a similar way. I have my favs and I go for simplicity to help otherwise it can get mindboggling with endless possibilities.

HAHA gotta agree while it is nearly always good to have more with the HD500 I'm not so sure. I have all the model packs but seem to stick with just a few favs most of the time. But if you want more amp models here is a great tip I use when I want more. Save your preset bungles and get most of the sets completely blank. Load in each amp one at a time and tweak just the Amp until it is as good as you can make it on its own save in that bank. Once you have gone thru all the Amps go back and start adding any FX you like for dynamics, in other words design your patch and save it to a new bank leaving the amp ready for new patches if desired. If you like using just the Pre models then follow as above. This way you can get inspiration as well as satisfy the lust. After a while you'll have some Gems to save. swapping out Amp models in some fav patches can reinvigorate.

I am unqualified to answer but I am well informed and the consensus seems to be that fractal have an abundance of amps and FX and mindboggling tweakabilty. I see it used on Tour with well known players where it is 95% used for it's one or two quality FX switchable on a pedal board or by Tech person and incorporated into a rig. It is early days for the Helix but the quality is up there and the tweakability is a delight. No Menu after menu never used or rarely used. No need to have 250 amps to scroll thru to get one good to go. The presets are where too many players live on other top devices where Helix can be created easily. Best of all the Routing like navigating is leaps and bounds ahead.

Sounds like a class that should or could be a webinar and we can ALL attend.

Still enjoying mine after nearly 4 years. I find a good pair of studio monitors sound as good as a good pair of Studio headphones. Even a good pair of powered PA speakers would give you the volume if needed.

thanks for the WARNING! When I got my HD500 I was having so many days off I wasnt earning enough to live. But somehow I got by. My income went down for years. There is a correlation between time spent on playing guitar and making music and income for me. I am a sole trader and if I have hard days at work I dont feel like getting on guitar. I need to be well rested for guitaring. But as I have a Herlix in my sights I have hardly been playing any guitar and you guessed it, well over $10k per month now and hitting $15k. I also need to move house. I know what I am like and once I get the Helix my income will crash, probably for about a year and I'll just subsist out of necessity. doing the bare minimum to stay afloat. LOL too true! While not a great business choice, there is JOY and there is HAPPINESS and isnt that what we are really striving for a successful balance. (I tell myself this now but once I am gob smacked with the Helix my priority will change. to really justify the purchase I tell myself I'll start playing live again. LOL)

Great resurrection

Wow. that sure is a thorough option being able to assign s/pdif level matched to the mains if desired. Being able to increase the digital output would be of use for very high end interfaces for high res recording unless zero matches a midpoint volume on the main out volume?

On the POD HD 500s the s/pdif can be attenuated from it's default zero under a global output menu. The normal unattenuated output is equivalent to the master volume being fully open. Not sure on the Helix. s/pdif would be a feed off from the Analogue to Digital Converter chip only. It being digital can go into your interface with a coaxial s/pdif input; or a toslink to coaxial converter will be needed to connect if toslink. You can control this as you have stated. It looks like the Helix also can act like a multi interface into your computer and DAW and back if desired.

I bought a 27" monitor to lessen the need for magnifier specs. Very annoying, cannot read .10 and .12 on an A4 page , so I feel for you. I have complained about VSTs being too small to read like T-racks and plenty of others over the years and while a larger screen helps a bit still requires me to go for larger fonts in Win7. I really think they should just be a zoomable window.

My old PC thru in the towel a while ago too and not replacing till after I have move house myself. I also might of answered my own question with this until making some measurements. Firmware code within the confines of the processing chips used equates to the internal processing resolution followed by the ADDA converter circuits. The input dynamic range is really how quiet the preamp is and how much signal it can take. (there is more to this as anyone who have good mic/Inst. Pres. knows.) The analogue side of the DAC is also a consideration. This is really an expansion circuit. A few specs would be good. Line 6 aren't the only ones not giving all the info as fair enough any manufacturer can make measurements, it is the reference or compared data that makes it useful. The good thing is preamps can be made very quiet, clean and cheaply. This is what is wrong with them; lacking mojo present in quality Amps. Which raises the problem of would it be too noisy to use an actual Amp input circuit albeit with some noise reducing trickery? One soon sees why the cheap clean pres get selected. It would be nice to know what the specs are.

Helix has 123db at the guitar preamp.

For sure two, but it could also be all you have registered