bobcoss

So so if you are in the middle of a song and have time based effects like a delay with repeats and a lush reverb, as long as trails are turn on, changing the snapshot will be seamless. If you have a guitar with sustain for miles, and you let that last amazing chord ring out at the end of the song ring out, and change the "patch", you are going to hear a short interruption of that beautiful chord. Bummer. But if you are using your snapshots instead, you can select the desired snapshot and the new effects will take effect, but no gap. But you might hear your fabulous distortion change to clean all of a sudden which might not be what you want.

Hi Al, I have both the Helix and the HXE. I mostly use the Helix now. You will be able to replace many of your pedals with the HXE. The overdrive/distortions are fantastic. You will likely not need the echoplex for a boost because of the wonderfull pedals modeled in the HX. I think the consensus is that you will want to continue to use your octaver depending on how you use it. There are some nice delays and reverbs that do polyphonic intervals however you set them. I am content with them personally. You only get 9 blocks in the HXE and it's possible to run out of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) depending on what kinds of blocks you are using. You can put the HXE Wah at the beginning of your chain and it will sound great. But if you have a Wah you like, that would be one of the pedals I would keep because because the HXE doesn't come with an expression pedal. Lets say you want to use your favorite flanger pedal. You can use a send/return block (uses 1 of the 9 avaialble) to insert it into the chain wherever you want. I don't think you will have any problems there. You can for example consider having your HXE path split into two sections. Here might be how It could look. Guitar -> Tuner pedal -> Wah Pedal -> T-Rex -> HXE In [ -> Facial Fuzz -> Tone Sovereign -> Teemah -> HXE Send ] -> Preamp Pedal -> Flanger pedal -> Phaser pedal -> HXE return [ -> Tremolo -> other effect block -> another effect block -> Digital Delay -> Tape Delay -> Hall Reverb ] HXE Out -> Favorite old Reverb Pedal -> amp guitar in. If you want to, you can use the 4 cable method to user your amp's preamp like this. Guitar -> Tuner pedal -> Wah Pedal -> T-Rex -> HXE In [ -> Facial Fuzz -> Tone Sovereign -> Teemah -> HXE Send ] -> Guitar Amp In Guitar Amp Send -> Flanger pedal -> Phaser pedal -> HXE return [ -> Tremolo -> other effect block -> another effect block -> Digital Delay -> Tape Delay -> Hall Reverb ] HXE Out -> Favorite old Reverb Pedal -> Guitar Amp Return Lots of flexibilitly. You can put your pedals anywhere in the chain. You are just limited to 9 blocks including the send/return block Bob

The output from the power supply is not very high, so you can make do with an inexpensive extension cord. I've used lamp cord type extension cords for mine from the dollar store because they don't take up much space in my bag and they are easy to replace. It's always good to have a good surge protector with any electronics you value but that's a personal acceptance of risk. I don't generally carry around a surge protector.

I did it once upon a time with my HD500 going line6 link panned to left, and 1/4 out panned right going to the effects return on a peavey classic 30. It sounded pretty cool. I got nice stereo effects. But I never repeated the experiment, and now I'm using Helix with 2 Headrush FRFR12 and my DT25. I think it's very doable.

I like McDonald's Hot Cakes personally. IHOP's pan cakes are ok.

My guess is "never". They haven't done a firmware release for HD since like 2015. I think you are stuck doing an effects loop with your Revv pedals but I would just stick them at the front of the HD and plug your guitar into one of the pedals. You shouldn't need a compressor with those pedals inline, and you could put one at the beginning of the chain in your HD for clean tones. It seems like the HD series is more or less a final product at this point.

Plenty of flexibility with the stomp. You can put a full amp in the chain and run it into a guitar amp, but it is probably going to not sounds like what you are expecting. As folks above had said, you might or not like the sounds. Some great options are: - Put a preamp model in the chain, and send the output to the effects return on your amp and get a lot of great sounding combinations. - Use the stomp as an effects only box with no modeling right into your amp - split the chain and send a full amp/cab/ir model to front of house, and just the effects to your amp on the backline. - Use the stomp as an amp in a box pedal for your pedalboard. Bonus, you get some great effects in your chain also! For the money, you get great flexibility, fantastic amp models and effects.

It depends on what you want to do with some of those other pedals you mentioned and where you would use them in a traditional sense. I am going to assume that you want to divide your HXE into two sections, front of preamp (FP), and effects that are after the preamp and before the output stage (BO). Lets say you want to use the spark as a clean boost before the output section of your amp, you could setup things this way: guitar -> Wah -> HX In - FP[ HX Heir Apparent -> HX Minotaur, Send/Return ] HX Send 1 -> pog -> Amp Guitar In Amp Effects Send -> Whammy -> HX Return 1 BO[ HX Vintage Digital Delay -> HX Glitz Reverb] -> TC Spark -> Amp Effects Return. On your HXE, the patch would look something like this [ Heir Apparent -> HX Minotaur ]-> Send/Return -> [Vintage Digital Delay -> Glitz Reverb ] I setup this change for you to show you can put your effects anywhere before and after the different HXE sections, and get the chain setup the way you want it. It is super flexible. If you had to, you can setup yet another send/return block in the HX and put more effects on your board that would be controlled by your HXE, but that just starts making things too complicated in my opinion. The order you want to setup your pedals is of course the determining factor. I just stuck the spark as a boost in this sample to show how you can have the following sections and put your pedals anywhere in the chain: Guitar [Pre HXE Pedals Section] -> [HXE Front of Preamp section-> HX Send/Return block ] -> [ other pedals before guitar amp] -> Amp guitar in Amp Effects Send -> [Pedals before HXE] -> HX Effects Return[ HX BO Section] -> [ Pedals before Amp Output Section] -> Amp Effects return. Hope this inspires you to some creative pedal paths. Bob

Near the end of your path add a "Y split" lock to open up path 1b. Put the effects you want in 1a and set the 1a output to XLR, and pull down 1b to output 1b, and set it to digital and specify your powercab parameters. If you need more blocks in the paths, you can have one of the paths above go to 2a and or 2b and set 2a to XLR, and 2b to digital. This is from memory so my "labels" might not be correct. You have to have at least one active block in your b paths after a Y split.

FenderFlame, you could always get an XLR adaptor to 1/4 and run that back to your effects return on the helix on another path and throw in effects and IRs to taste. seems like too much effort to me to send to front of house. I would just use the Helix amp/cab/ir to go FOH. You mentioned you would like to do this: Path one - Helix pre amp - DT25 via L6 Link. Path two - the signal from path one sent to Helix cab or IR to XLR out, FX send or 1/4" out to take a signal to a PA mixer. I did something like that Monday night to build a Wet Dry Wet patch with my DT25 and two Headrush FRFR212 speakers. I setup in path 1 with the drive blocks into a "Y split". I continued on Path 1a to my Amp/Cab -> stereo delay, and stereo reverb blocks. -> Output 1A was set to XLR. Path 2a I sent to the preamp block and then set the output to "digital" and there setup my topology for the DT25. You have to remember to pull down the return 1B from path 1A to the output 1A or it just get combined back into 1A. That's the best I can tell you from memory at work. Its very doable.

Wow. Good tip Steve! I missed that completely.

Good advice above. I recommend you look at the discussions and youtube videos about setting the level for your Helix output xlr or 1/4. I have my XLR output set to max by not being effected by the big output knob. I allow the big knob to adjust my 1/4 for backline adjustment. Also read up on gain staging so that you don't end up with digital clipping. Essentially, you don't want to push the input of your amp models too high. It can sound muddy, harsh, or clip weirdly.

My Ouija board says Spring 2020.

hmmm. 1/4 out direct to amp should be as stable a connection as possible assuming the cable is good. It wouldn't hurt to try a small "office" type UPS maintain power if you have one available. You might want to clip off the buzzer so it doesn't make nasty sounds when the power flickers..... I guess I don't have any other ideas. Good luck with troubleshooting.

Hi. I used mine live for 6 years and only had problems because of bad cables to FOH or folks screwing up the mix. I've never had problems with power before. I doubt the unit would just cut out sound, I would think it would have more catastrophic effects like seeing it reboot. But that is hard to say. There is no doubt that power problems will affect things on the stage, but in reality, the HD500(x) isn't using that much power. What are you using for output when you are playing with a full band? Direct to FOH using XLR, 1/4 out to a Direct box?, To an amp etc? I've had faulty Direct boxes, etc.

Yes. You can use it. There are some nice effects in the HD500 that will sound good with the Spider V. Run the output from the HD500 must to the guitar in, don't use an amp/cab model, and put your gate, compressor, distortion and modulation effects in the chain. Another way to do it would be to use the amp/cab models and set the output to combo amp. Pick a clean amp (or disabled) model on the Spider V if you do that. I recommend you use the Spider V's delays and chorus to get the best time based effects regardless of those solutions. My guess it isn't sounding good because of the output mode you are using on the HD500, and you are probably using an amp model on both HD500 and the V. you are going to have to read the manuals and play around with this a bit. On my 240HC, I have even taken the headphone output from both my Helix and HD500X to the aux in and used it as an FRFR amp. It sounds very good. You won't be able to use the HD500 to change patches on the Spider V no matter what you do, so you might as well get the control board and use the built in effects of the Spider V instead.

How about more details about what amps you are using, and what they have. What is it you want to acomplish? With only two amps, wouldn't you want to run stereo with delay and reverbs creating a nice wash in the left and right with the dry signal in the center of both?

You also might want to read about gain stages also. A common problem is that folks exceed the headroom of the unit and you get really ugly digital clipping.

Hi PJ, Yes, it's something that you need to pay attention too. In the global settings there are options to set the send/return to either Instrument or Line. I don't remember if the send can be instrument, and the return set to line. You would have to experiment. The levels can be set on the return so they don't cause clipping in your chain. I don't have any load boxes so I am limited in my knowledge there. But if the Palmer sends line level to the mixer, then you can run an instrument cable from the Palmer to the Helix. If the Supersonic/Palmer thing works well, you can set the gain to the clean/edge of breakup and just use the great distortion/overdrive models included in the Helix. I think you can get just about any kind of amp sound you will need for those shows from just messing with those and good gain staging. If all of this works out well, then you don't need to use the four cable method through the amp. But that is also an option albeit a bit more complicated. Regardless you will be using sends and returns in you patches, and it will become intuitive. I've used the 4CM with my Helix on the line6 DT25, and it sounds fantastic. Now I just run line6 link to the DT25 and use the preamps in the Helix and the amp/cab stages from the DT25. I've been "thinking" about using the XLR output from the DT25 in the same way as using a load box and then I can use CAB/IR blocks to get more control of my sound in Helix. Mostly just because I can. I only play out several times a month, and when I do, I send my output directly to front of house, and use in-ears for monitoring. I am super happy with the rage of tones I can get and the feel of the amps. I miss a small amount the "amp in the room" sound, but not to the degree of some of the folks who post here enough to drag my DT25 with me. Cheers!

There has always been latency between "presets" on the HD Series. Nothing you can do will prevent that. Enabling and disabling delay and reverb effects on the unit can be set to permit "trails" which will sound natural as you toggle them. We still have the same issue with the Helix today.

Sounds to me that the dunlop dvp4 is not compatible with the Stomp. I've seen that exact same behavior before on my Helix Heel 0, Middle 100, toe-0 with various incompatible pedals. There is a list of compatible expression pedals floating around somewhere. It's like the Pedal you are using is designed for the TRS usage, but the Stomp is not. You see in the diagram above, the Helix/stomp use a simple resistance circuit.

Hi PJ, It sounds really easy to me. The sound designer clearly thinks that the Head and load box are going to give some specific tone he is envisioning though I didn't hear mention of cabinet emulation in their design. So for those sounds, create a patch with a send/return block in it instead of a helix "amp" block, and take the send from the helix at instrument level to the input of the Fender head, and run the output at line level (or whatever the output is) of the Palmer to the return of the Helix, and connect the Helix output to the mixer. Put a helix cab or an impulse response after the block and can select that block and show the sound designer you are using the amp and dial it in however they think it should sound. I imagine it will sound really good. I don't see any reason to do a 4CM unless you really want delays and reverb from the Helix between the premap and the power section of the Fender Supersonic. Then you can use your patches for the specific amp models and effects you want and completely buypass the head/loadbox. Another option would be to use the head/loadbox and IR patch with the helix drives in front of the fender amp set to clean on the edge of breakup. You should be able to get just about any of the artist sounds (maybe not the jc120 cleans from a Fender Supersonic) AND use their gear. The Helix is amazingly versatile and I think you can accommodate everyone. I'm sure you will have lots of suggestions from others before this thread is done.

Some good advice above. I'll add to that saying, you can get great sound using 4CM. But it's only going to be great to the amp you are doing your return too. If you want to do some combination of wet & dry, with the characteristics of your amp, then do something like the following: Dry signal direct from MT15 through Loadbox speaker connection. Wet signal will have the character of your MT15 pre and power amp from your loadbox into HXE and you put stereo wet effects after the FX loop and output to your FRFR guitar -> HXE input, [effects blocks] [FXLoop] Send1 -> MT15 input, LoadBox -> return1 [effects blocks] [Impulse response for desired speaker] -> mono or stereo to FRFR amps. Make sure you use the high cut to remove some of the fizzies. I don't have a load box so I can't do your scenario exactly, but I have an old HD500 that I have used in 4CM to do something very similar and it sounds great. I have the HR FRFR 112 also. Bob

Very very very very old thread.....

No he usado el xt o x3. He estado usando el hd500 en vivo, and ha funccionado muy bien. He oido que es completamented diferent que el xt or x3. Ahora uso el Helix, y otra vez esta completamente diferente. Con esfuerza, el hd500 o hd500x suena muy bien. De vez en cuando conecto una guitarra al hd500 o hd500x, y toco y estoy contento con el sonido. Los modelos de amplificadores y parlantes suena diferente, but me gustan la calidad. sigue probandolo y pienso que vas a encontrar buenas tonos. Bob