miguel_lopez

absolutely right! I said Helix needs lots of tweaks(in a positive way, I'm not saying is difficult to get a great tone, I'm saying it's a precision divice with response behaviour that needs more work) now, on the other side, real amps may do this work without extra effects; there was one gig I played with an Instrument Rental Studio amp(a boogie) that was incredibly modified and there was no need for extra help for high gain, overdrive and distortion then, a good amp-tech may do this job and you'll be playing direct front with only your guitar if that's the purpose modelers, reverbs, wah, compression, etc... is something else, but high gain only with an amp by itself is possible; that's why I really would like Line 6 works on this. No extra stomp flavour required or needed. Have you tried PODxt the Spinal Puppet model? the high gain in this "amp" is sufficient for what VROLLING is asking for. I still use it a lot. thanx for reading and for your great ideas and sharing info

great posts! lots of fun! laughing loud! I never thought history villains became too scary over time I don't understand how goofing causes lots of replies but when serious comments, observations and help requests are totally neglected thank you very much for your support and history lessons I think I will wait till Helix develope a serious high gain tone and see if I really need an extra piece of gear(axe8) and this doesn't mean I'll get rid of my precious HELIX

sorry, in my country we have more unspeakable names and trust me they are evil; those history characters are cartoons comparing these local guys, but since this kind of analogies are hurting feelings let's keep the sense of humor out of Helix science. THANX FOR READING AND UNDERSTANDING

Thanks for reading. The idea of showing enthusiasm for acquiring gear is the same as getting different guitars. Accoustics: nylon, steel and parlor boxes. Eléctrics: fender, gib, ibz, variax. So having more options is an individual call. You may be tolly satisfied with your gear n' licks you play. I need to go further and helix is definately not enough and before I do the production in my music creation process there are more important elements than a single piece of gear that I work with more attention. Please don't missundertand my strange sense of humor. I'm just trying to say that after several discussions it's been said that fractal has better high gain tones than Helix. And I insist, I bought it for the clean stuff I use. Then, I need Axe FX so I can be completed in my personal digital needs. Trust me, I'm more a musician than a gear collector. Actually, I'm a classical guitar player, composer, arranger, I Write music for orchestra and also I really enjoy this modern technology that has helped me to develope my music skills.

welcome aboard, professional gear requires much more work and tweaking; it demands more experience and guess what??? you may need more stuf before n' after your HELIX there's no such a single music divice enough to get what you wanna hear be patient, you are in front of one of the most outstanding technology, when you get at this level there's no plug n' play simplicity anymore

I'm terribly SORRY if I hurted your feelings, you are absolutely right, not a good analogy, please help me to say it better: "imagine I'll have HE-MAN and LION-O" instead of those villians mentioned above. But we have to admit Helix NEEDS a serious high gain tone and I really would like to have an original Line6 invention instead of modeling any existing amp or brand.

I bought Line 6 HELIX more for the edition applications and cristal clear tones 'cuz I'm more a clean channel guitar player and fx tone freak, which I consider the PERFECT unit to do that. On the other hand, YES, I think HELIX is not working for high gain tunes at all; that's why I still use PODxt models and try to combine it with Helix.(or my real deal rig: real amps such as Randalls). I'm very close to get the money to buy a Fractal unit, then I will be UNSTOPPABLE. Imagine having Hitler and Cesar in your tone rig!!!

Actually PODxt has something like this "no mic"; when you wanna play thru your power amp(return) you set this up this way: pre-amp model-speaker model-no mic(and even room if you may need so). I still use this feature A LOT in my room for practicing and trust me, it sounds really nice. It depends if you want to colorate a bit extra your real speakers. Having tons of options in my studio I found extremely nice those experiments like V30(real) modeling a 75(with PODxt no mic), it results in some 75 with more presence since a real V30 has a lot of mids, so imagine it...

...and I thought nobody was gonna answer to this post =) a little bit of my story: Bassicaly I'ma a very rare case of classical guitar player who got into the net of a spider called Line6 I studied classical music professionally and my first amp-guitar combo was a PODxt/Variax 500-700; I could NOT be happier in my entire life when this treasure came in my hands nowadays I own 40 REAL electric guitars(all of them totally modified) and 8 tube and solid state amps carefuly set up a decent pedal train and tons of devices to make a dream tone rig even I own a professional recording studio so the transition from ONLY nylon strings(and ONLY classical music) to PODxt/Variax to REAL DEAL to Helix has been such an incredible experience I just think Helix is something NEW to me; but I still need pots in the Helix software(at least the option) thank you

thank you very much for your kind replies, again even the volume/tone controls in your guitar are interactive/intuitive enough I'm thinking by now more in the transition we are all having in this brand new format with lots of feautures we didn't find in other gears; but an amp is controlled by pots. (and I'm trying to choose carefuly my words not to incomodate other's opinions about this "new feauture") but I really miss a 0-10(0-100%) pot control to set my tone effects NEED this too I think about the MXR 10 band eq as a 'car stereo' device(I own two: front and send/return; is a must in my gear) but all stomp boxes are tweaked by 0-10 pots!!! I'm gonna do my job: trying by force to get USED to this new wave of interactive software desing feautures and if I can't handle it, then I'll try to contact Line6 management to BEG for this feauture in some future update thanx for your support

thanx for your kind replies! Have you ever worked with music(sounds) editors? I work with cubase. In the preferences you can adjust how sensitive you need the commands response(controls/pots/sliders); in Helix, instead of pots(if this is not possible to change the software) setting 'sensibility' to the commands would be awesome too thanx again!

remember the transition from BETA -VHS - VCD - DVD- BLU RAY??? let's say HD is DVD and Helix Is Blu Ray 3D!(special edition)

is it possible to set parameters of any kind as a potentiometer behavior instead of levels by percentage as it is in helix software? since all controls are bassicaly a roller pot from 0-10 we all are more used to "see" the pot in a position instead of a percentage is there a way to change this view? or is there a possibility to ask for Line6 to get this application in the nex FW update? thanx for reading

well, That's a whole story the first time I heard about the appetite for destruction tone just blew my mind the legend comes from the modified amplifiers by Dokken's ingeneer (Lynch's) it's been said that amp was returned to IRS and got lost then Slash contacted this ingeneer and modified those Silvers for a qhile, unfortunately in the ST LOUIS riot they got shredded, and also unfortunately there were not diagrams to rescue them or even the interest in restoring those destroyed pieces of gear Slash said in a guitar magazine that it was very difficult to achieve that beautiful tone againg when they were recording the Use your Illusion stuff... Since they were working with one of the best rock industry producers, (Mike Clink) they worked more in the production, microphoning placements and room, than the amplifier itself Slash said also the best tone was recorded in the song "right next door to hell" according to his memory (memory fades) it was a jcm800 V30's sm57(lovely placed) tons of reverb(can't remember if digital) and don't forget he played a les paul copy(dry mahogany, aaa maple top, aliuminium tailpeace and abr tune-o-matic bridge(not nashville) ORIGINAL alnico II seymour duncan 11-49 earnie ball, monster cable, RAT stomp, very hard strumming, jack daniels, marlboro, tons of the Hustler's catalogue and many other stuff wouldn't be polite to post in here, but that'll do it. I've also noticed myself that it will be very close to get the tone we want from any of our favorite music with HELIX (I could even do the same with only my PODxt) but don't forget the albums are remastered as a final recording process(and you may notice that when you get that required tone youl'll be missing something... that something is the remasterization) good luck!

"the older you get the younger you feel" -that's absolutely right!!! I know exactly how it feels!!! (and I'm just 36)

yes, SR, that's right! W-O-W !!!

so, everything is under control; let's update with NO fear thanx!

Hi: thank you very much Mr DeLaune(my pleasure) as well as HonesOpinion very useful information... it's been too much noise about the upgrade issues due to the prcedures and the extra-bugs coming from each latest FW... at the point, we, foreign users are a little affraid to spoil our beloved baby Helix >.< ... I was so cold sweat the first time I did the procedure, but since I also memorized the steps I did NOT have any issue during the upgrade Since I'm more a song writer than a guitar player for giggs, sessions, or anything close, I practically use Helix for basic tones and not precisely advanced applications(some of these are adviced in this forum that are accompained with bugs n' stuff, so as the Eb droping action) So bassicaly I'm not forcing all the "creative" functions to know if a bug may appears. The only odd thing I've noticed ONLY ONCE was in the original (out of the box) version the delay trails were still there and dissapeared by turning off the unit and turning ON back again. Nowadays I set my Helix in the 2.0 FW more for the new tones than the "bug-fixing" feauture; I still don't use those tricks to find if there's a bug getting in the way... questions: 1.- if I upgrade to 2.01 and have certain malfunction(if that may be a bug) will this malfuncion(bug) be fixed if I repeat the same installation procedure? 2.- I've noticed when some user finds a bug in his unit, other users DO NOT have the same issue and they have the same FW... what causes this difference?... and how do you fix it? thanx for reading

OK so let's upgrade to the latest FW... if I find bugs using the same parameters that where working fine in the previous configuration and then I re install the same lates upgrade, will this fix the bugs?

thanx for your valuable advices! it seems there's something with the digital process and USB relationship that's NOT working; windows versions are a total mess and those USB units are not working with some USB 3.o or something like that it's a hardware defect but indeed it's also the procedure that's not precisely clear for those folks not familiar with computers n' stuff I've been thinking these days and reading carefuly this forum several times before I decide to upgrade my unit from 2.0 to 2.01 Since each unit seems to have its own issues I will wait until all those bugs even from 2.01 version are fixed. <--- this may be my "advice"

how could it be possible? how is that some units present certain kind of issues and some others don't? I'm a minimalist Helix user... so how could I know if my unit has these mentioned bugs and issues? is there a test for errors?

so, do you recomend update this new FW 2.01?

how is that possible??? those guys dissatisfied with modelers MUST quit go for real deal... but I warn you: YOU MUST BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WITH THE TUBES it's NOT only the tube-amp, but the TUBES if you cannot get real good tubes you'll sound poor and try to learn how to set up by yourself until you are SATISFIED with the bias configuration also get real cables also get amazing cabinets/speakers also get real guitars also get great pickups also get a professional guitar set up also get great stomps also improove your music training then share some samples with us I'm not sure what it is but there's something in the digital world that does NOT work with some musicians; that's OK I love both extremely extreme I love my analog pedals, my real amps, my real speakers, the real world of a cab full cranked breaking my ears and tearing down the walls, but since this tiny bitchy Helix box just came into my hands I could NOT avoid to make a great ORGY with my real divices and mix it so perfectly with this digital voice I also warn you: both worlds are VERY complex

back the days when I had only a bunch of PODxts I remember a particular gig I set up for my band using only PODxts thru a PA and a very powerful speaker set... that modest gig was a SOLD OUT evening the people who could bot get into the bar that night stayed out and close to the place since it was totally possible to hear our music cuz it was really loud lots of them told me how great and even better than real amps those PODxts sounded that night I remember I left someone else to played my gear that same night, and I placed myself near the audience and I just could hear those tube "feeling" tones from a modest modeling Line6 pedalboard; nuthing but ONLY a POD xt I'm not presuming, but the music itself was very cool those days, even the atmosphere of the band's stage presence was awesome... and also the gear was a very important ingredient of the whole scenario from ultra clean chorused-delayed-compressed tones to ultra high gain smashing all over the place braking everyone's spines and LIVE show, which I consider the best music ever nowadays I'm a nerdy-musician obsessed with the tone so I am a digital/real-deal mixer my filosophy is: if it sounds good to your music, then just play it I went to a music academy to train myself in music, composition, and arrangements for 10 years so it's about the music, then the tone I remember a Guitar magazine in the 90's an article of Joe Perry having a new signature guitar: GW: hey Joey, how do you feel about your new guitar? JP: first, I write the song, the I decide what instrument suits best... probably I will use it in a new song; so it's not the guitar, it's the song that matters I never forgot this article thanx for reading and for your kind replies

realism vs hyper-realism: I mean Helix vs real-deal... guys, I don't understand... if you wanna sound real, then Helix, Kemper and Fractal ARE NOT your choices; go for real let's say for instance only a microphone price is about 100 bucks... then how can you just imagine a modeler from any brand or trademark may sound as a real divice there are tons of algorythmic elements out of reach!!! but if you want to sound re-mastered, hyper-real, incredibly solid, and be self -confident your sound is NOT gonna depend on a bunch of erratic elements such as valve tubes and lots of patches between stomp-boxes and many expensive electric devices, so to say, go for modelers but... what you can get from ANY divice such as GT 10, GT 100, korg, Line6, Kemper, Fractal, etc... it may be the same inspiring as a twin reverb black face... It's all about the music so, you'd better train yourself in music