markman87

This amp model is soooo touch sensitive. I love it, and what an amazing addition they made to Helix with that one. I love putting my guitar volume knob on 8-9 and play without a pick. Has that clean dirty balance that is so great. Definitely one of my favourites :)

Yeah... I still make most of my money playing but a two hour drive between shows is a good day, you know? 4-6 is not uncommon, and sometimes it's 8-10. I don't tour anymore but I play with a few regional acts that do nice rooms... corporate events, banquets, casinos, etc. The driving is brutal but that's what you do if you wanna make money these days.

 

My thing with the $$$... we don't want people getting the idea that what we do is not worth anything.

 

Can anyone talk about how the Lonestar model works with strat pickups? I'm getting kind of excited about all the good things I'm hearing. I should have my Helix Wednesday.

Love it with my strat. It has low output pickups. you'll not be disappointed :)

I need to try the LS. I've been geeking on the placater all weekend!

 

Well, the BE 100 is also crazy good. Better than I had anticipated! Love it with the gain at 2 and then switching from BE to HBE mode! Awesome :)

I bought my Helix in part bc of the promised updates and consider it part of the deal. If they stopped the updates I wouldn't get rid of it (at 2.5 - at 1.0 i would have in a heartbeat) , however I would feel I had been misled. I realize they wont update it forever, but if they had never updated it from v1.0 I wonder how many would have bought it? I sure wouldn't have. Just my .02 worth. It's good you appreciate the updates, And do too, but I stand by "it's built in to the price" how else do they pay their people for the "free" upgrades?

Yeah, that's true. I see your point more clearly. And Line 6 did say they would be expanding on Helix. DI explained that new hardware stuff they make also pays for those things (like the HX effects will pay for some updates, the LT paid for some of the updates and so forth), so it's not only the first sale they made when they sold us Helix. Of course updating with new firmware will also allow them to sell more Helices going forward, because it gets more attractive with each new release. So in that way, it's a win win!

 

So expecting updates for some time is not out of line as long as one doesn't expect something super specific. We don't know what's coming, only that something is coming :)

 

Thanks for your explanation!

 

Btw, the Lonestar is fantastic. Going from clean to overdriven in such a smooth way. Takes pedals very well (both overdrive and fuzz) :)

Nothing in life is "free" you paid for that update when you paid for the Helix. imo

I respect your opinion but I disagree. I mean they could choose to not release anymore now, and Helix would still be worth more than the price of entry. But I appreciate that they continue to add content and functionality to an already great product. :)

If this paradigm of some legacy effects using as much or more DSP is consistent I have to admit I would really like to see some more meat & potatoes HX mono reverbs added like a "Spring" and "Plate". I don't dabble much with ambient stuff and for the most part just need a boring old but great sounding couple of "standard" reverbs that will get used in the bulk of my presets. I know it is a little early given the banquet that was just laid out for us but I would love to see a couple of these basic reverbs come to the Helix in HX mono versions. For what it is worth it is the awesomeness of finally having some new HX mono versions that inspires me to want a few more traditional reverb types of these added, especially if they will actually use less or the same amount of DSP as the legacy versions. What version of the new HX mono reverbs would most people consider to be closest to an old-school "spring" type of reverb?

I'm positive they'll be adding more meat and potatoes HX versions at some time. They just needed to cover the "massive sounding" ones first. :)

I was quite disappointed when i checked the change log and it was not mentioned that the auto on/off function of the expression pedals was fixed. With 2.30 it bypassed my wah block unintendedly, even though I had set it to 1s wait time. Problem was that if I reached the heel position for e.g. 5 times for only 200ms, this summed up to 1s and bypassed the block. That way the auto engage function was pretty much useless for me.

 

I checked it again with 2.50, and now it's working as expected :-) I'm very happy. Obviously this went under minor bug fix for L6 (and maybe code wise it was). For me it's even more important than new amps, reverbs, etc.

 

Maybe you found some other improvements or bug fixes that were not explicitly mentioned, that you want to share?

I've read that they optimized the use of the DSP, so now you can fit a bit more in the presets. That's also great! :)

What will happen to Legacy effects that duplicate FX already in the Helix? For example the Tycobrahe Fuzz (Tyoctavia Fuzz in Helix and Octave Fuzz in Legacy). Will there be two instances? What will the difference be? Any clues?

Yes, one in the legacy folder and one HX version. Could sound different and the older likely uses less dsp :)

Sounds crazy good. Fantastic amp (and not to mention player!)

A new firmware update (2.20) is due this month, so you might want to think about waiting and doing that one, or just be prepared to do it once more if you prefer to get the newest right away (I do ;))

 

Have fun, and welcome!

Yep, I finally updated to 2.12 a couple days ago and the Litigator along with the 2 Archons are phenomenal right out of the box, no tweaking required. The Archons have become my goto amps for my clean and high gain band patches. The amount of gain on tap for the lead and the "head room" on the clean is fantastic. The Litigator's responsiveness to the guitar's volume knob is quite exceptional also. You can definitely cover a lot of ground with it.

 

Is it just me or does Line 6 seem to be getting better/more refined with modeling on each subsequent firmware release? I'm getting pretty pumped for 2.20 for all the 4 string goodness coming our way.

I feel the same way. as if they're perfecting their craft with each update and amp model. I think it's awesome that they're focusing on the bass players (and people like me that fake on a bass from time to time). It will also be very cool to see what comes after 2.20! :)

Haha. Sorry about that. Americanism coming out in full effect. I'm in the Atlanta GA area.

Unfortunately I'm in Europe. Don't mind the floor and wouldn't mind the rack :)

 

But hope you get what you're looking for :)

I read where (direct quote) "Native seamlessly integrates with your Helix rack or floor-based unit".

 

Whats that mean exactly? Run both at the same time? Swap patches between Native and the editor?

 

Can someone explain this integration between the two units better please?

 

Thanks...

Yes to both questions. I don't know how it would work with the latency of Native, but I saw it discussed by some thegearpage. You could let the plugin handle the reverb and delay effects and use the hardware to take care of the amps, cabs and drives and build a massive rig ;)

 

You can share patches, though I think there will two ways to run Native:

1) full resources mode: use as many effects and amps as your system allows – the patches won't transfer to your Helix without a lot of greyouted stuff.

 

2) limit the amount of stuff you can use in Native to what's possible on hardware: this is useful if you want to make sure you can share the patches between the two, and get a more consistent sound from studio to stage.

 

I think they'll make it optional. It wouldn't make sense to limit Native capabilities.

agreed. I just need to find someone who wants to do it!!

Where are you located? US, Europe, Asia? :)

Yeah, the thing with the LFO is that we essentially already have it. You're using an LFO to control the oscillation of the Chorus (rate) for example. It just needs to be instructed to control other parameters. A "freelance LFO". Lol

So maybe not that time consuming to implement? Cool. It would be awesome and be a welcome for creative use :)

Well, I do see a couple of advantages to that approach. If you don't have to use an EQ to match the sound of an amp, it does free up some DSP for other effects you might want and it eases the work in patch creation if the amp is already there. It's just that there are definitely other aspects of the Helix that are equally important and are still waiting to be dealt with. Firmware updating for one and as others have mentioned, the effects need attention too. I've put up some ideas on Ideascale that I would love to see implemented as I think that the Helix needs to have more creative options on its effects side. I'm not talking about specific effects, but controls for modulating the effects. LFO, Randomizer and ADSR parameters added to modulate time based effects would be super cool, I think. The Randomizer is especially intriguing to me for modulation effects as the exact and mechanical ebb and flow of say, a chorus effect, would be much more interesting if the rate and depth and even the waveform could be subtly an predictably varied by a randomizer. I hate to use this word but it would make modulation effects sound more... "organic".

Yeah, I totally agree that there's other things to focus on. I know a lot are wishing for LFO.

 

I imagine that some things will take a lot of time to do and others a shorter time.

 

So while they're working on say HX reverbs they might at the same time be working on modeling a couple of amps.

And while they are working on polyphonic pitch effects (just an example) they can release some cabs etc.

 

So I don't think this is mutually exclusive.

 

They've could've released A LOT more amps, imo, if they hadn't worked on 1) an editor, 2) snapshots, 3) midiclock, 4) Workbench etc ... but I'm glad that they didn't. I think they've provided the right mix of functionality and content, very balanced. So I think they should just keep up with what they're doing already. Either way I'm excitedly looking forward to the updates to come :)

Me too, especially the Archon. Its stellar for metal.

 

I was just stating that since we got those recently, and the one in Feb.. that I would rather their next amp not be high gain. For instance with the update following the one we get in Feb, (let that be a good clean, or slight break up amp) but it would really nice to have the XTC by year's end, or perhaps Fall. It is a highly requested amp.

 

There is still some more high gain ground to cover before it gets too redundant.

Yes this was point. They will continue to model different amps for different styles of players. Maybe we could take a Marshall or a Fender and "mod" them with eqs to get close to a Two rock or Friedman etc, but many would probably prefer to have the specific amp modeled instead. So a few more amp models wouldn't hurt ;)

I don't know. I'm just excited to see what's coming. The thing is, many are wishing for a few models, and often it's not the same models. I probably wouldn't have much use for a XTC or a Engl amp, but would love to see a Suhr Bella, Tone King, two rock or a Milkman amp. So everyone's got different tastes, so they have to release more amps in my opinion, especially since I think they're getting even better at it (Matchless, Mark IV, 2204 Mod, Litigator, Archon to name some of the awesome amps that have been released the past year).

 

Now whether they should release something else first, I don't have strong opinion about that. We already know that the next firmware will provide new functionality and a lot of updates for the low end lowers (bass amps and effects looks seriously dope!) and that the whole update / IR mangement will get easier once Helix Native is released.

 

I think the next major thing would be bringing the Reverbs up to HX-level. Now if they could make something like a EHX B9/C9/M9 mashup I wouldn't complain ;)

I suppose there might be some folks that don't perform live and just do studio work that might opt to only have the software plug-in, but I agree it's likely to be a pretty massive memory load given all the features, effects and routing options. I think there will be some folks that are using laptops that may have a problem with it due either to processing power or memory. I hope Line6 does a good job of specifying requirements or they may have some very unhappy customers.

There will be a free 15 days trial period with the full software, so people should get that and test it out before reaching for the pocket.

It sure did. ;)

I do enjoy a good surprise, though :)

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." – Western Union internal memo, 1876

 

:)

:D

 

I'm apparently a sceptic. Really surprised. I'm mostly a home player these days, but I can't let go of Helix floor.

http://line6.com/helix-native/

I'll eat my hat. That really took me by surprise!

What!!!! And here I thought the big thing would be the IRs or reworked cabs. Are you kidding me!

hmm we had official word that there is no update coming at the moment..i thought.

No, we had official word that we wouldn't be able to download any new firmware by the time of NAMM. Maybe it'll be ready some time after NAMM, but we'll know more about what's coming, and also, it'll explain why Line 6 has waited to implement at "smoother" way of dealing with the whole backup / update process. I hope that we're all wiser later today ;)

It's Helix as a plug-in.

Trust me on this one.

 

Possibly other announcements too but not sure about that.

Haha. Doubt that Helix will be available as a plugin, but certainly cool stuff heading our way ;)

Thanks you guys. Not only is this exciting and great news, it might save me some cash in purchasing any new IR's while seeing where things go. Those new Celestions sounded tempting. Just a few hours to go before we find out the whole truth I guess!

While I'm sure the other offerings from different companies are worth it, I've been waiting to see what Line 6 would do with the cab modeling in Helix. I've pretty much only used the stock cabs except a couple of free IRs, but I'm interested to see how the new ones will be implemented:)