rwhite137

Truly sorry D.I. Pushed back was probably not the appropriate words to use in my post (although this is the wording that my Sweetwater rep used). I didn't mean to sound like Line 6 wasn't going to meet their projected release date. Ironically though, and I'm really not trying to argue here, Marcus Ryle (Line 6 President) stated in the Summer NAAM video that the pedal unit was expected to ship in August (maybe he just was mistaken). At any rate, I am not trying to argue over sematics or trying to cut on you. I thank you, phil_m, Sean and others for answering our questions and providing us with videos. I will make sure that I rely only on Line 6 for any future ship updates. Please keep the info and videos coming. I kind of thought that releasing the pdf of the manual was not your call. Again, thanks for all you and the others do to keep us informed.

Hey Phil, I didn't mean to imply that the Helix is not going to be easy to tweak. Everything I've seen seems to show just how easy it will be to make changes. Still, as I stated it would be nice to be able to look over the manual while I wait. I guess I am just weird in that way. If Line 6 doesn't want to make the manual available, that is certainly understandable and I would not be disappointed if they didn't. I thought I read a while back in one of the numerous forums where Digital Igloo said he would get the manual out in the future. Of course, the term future can mean many different things to different people. :rolleyes:

Me too. That's why I was asking about the manual. At least I could focus on reading up on the instructions. I know the helix is supposed to be super easy, but I'm a detailed type of person and would love to read about tweaking specific parameters. Maybe Line 6 doesn't want to make such a document available before the unit actually ships. Here's hoping that is not the case. B)

D.I., how close are you getting to making a manual available? My Sweetwater rep just called and told me the ship date has been pushed back to mid September. :( It sure would be nice to at least read and start learning the inner workings of the helix. If nothing else, make the cheat sheet available. At least it would give us something to do while we wait. :)

Thanks for your quick response phil_m.

1. Will the helix automatically compensate the channel volume when you adjust the drive parameter of an amp so basically your channel volume remains the same if you adjust amp drive up or down? It seems that the axe and kemper units do this or is this just my imagination? 2. Line 6: How does the helix sound in mono? I own a HD500 and pretty much everything sounds good in stereo, but I have struggled to get good mono tones to FOH. Unfortunately, due to the venue I play (place of worship), stereo is not an option. Still, I have already pre-ordered a helix and look forward to getting it in my hands. I just hope getting a good mono sound out of it will not be as hard as with the Pod 500.

Sorry to hear the simple solution didn't work. I hope you can get it fixed soon.

Have you tried adjusting the LCD contrast in the System Setup Menu. I think I would check that before taking anything apart. In case you don't know how to get into the setup screen, press and hold the View button to get into setup. Go to page 2 and adjust the LCD screen contrast with knob 1. I would definitely try this first.

I think I had the eq at default settings, but at this point I really can't say for sure. I barely remember what I did an hour ago.Too many late night music sessions have burnt up too many brain cells. :rolleyes: I do know that global eq is something that will be useful to me in my situation. I am probably in the minority here anyway in that I only use my 500 for effects, no amp modeling.Sorry if I muddled the conversation, but I will leave it to several here on this forum that have a lot more tone evaluation expertise and experience than I do to provide a more definite answer. There is a lot of good tone analysis that goes on here. I have been a forum watcher for a couple of years now and I am trying to put my toe in the water on joining in on the different topics.

Sorry guys, mystery solved for me. I had the global eq on at the time. With global eq off, I can't really tell a difference in my original patch. I kind of hurried through testing sounds and didn't pay attention to details. Still, I am very pleased with having the global eq. It helps not taking up an effects block or two for eq' inside the patch. I will use it to tweak my sound. I am fortunate to only play one venue so environments don't change. I have fought the trebly harshness for quite a while now and the global eq really helps. Just couldn't seem to completely get it out adjusting just the effects. I realize this situation doesn't fit everyone's needs, but it works well for me. Piano guy, I agree if you are going to share patches, don't create them with global eq on. You made a good point. I probably wouldn't have thought of that. Thanks for sharing.

Nico, just curious, did you have global eq on or off during the comparison?

I have a 500 and after updating to 2.62 I also noticed that my presets sounded warmer. I did leave the global eq on at its default settings. I normally have my inputs settings to guitar-1 and variax-2 (even though I don't have a variax). Then I tried setting input 2 to same and the presets sounded even fuller, more alive, not harsh like they did before the update. Not saying everyone will get these results, but this was my observation.Just to note, I do not use any amp modeling in my presets, just effects pedals going to my tube amp by 4CM using combo front input setting. All of this was just at bedroom volume for now. I will definitely hear the final results when I go to rehearsal Wednesday night. Here's hoping that all of this converts to stage level in a similar way. I know there is a vast difference in bedroom vs stage volume tones, but after the upgrade, my bedroom volume tones defintely warmed up and was a pleasant surprise that I did not expect out of this upgrade.

I use the ABCD footswitch mode on my unit and noticed this as well. I wonder if some of the presets use the FS5-8 mode and that is why some of the effects that are off seems to have nothing to turn them off and on. I'm at work and can't check this out right now.

I've had my HD500 for about two years and I too have struggled with getting the sound I wanted. Anything stereo (direct into head phones or to computer), all sounded good with very little tweaking, but anything mono was not that pleasing. I am in a Worship band and running direct into the mixer could only be mono. Also, the only time I could tweak patches at stage volume was during our rehearsals which didn't make the Worship Leader very happy. I finally found a solution that "right now" satisfies me (who knows about tomorrow). I also own a M13 which I really like, so I transferred it's effects settings as best I could (because of the interface differences) to the 500 and I now use my 500 for stomp box effects only using the 4CM method to go into my tube amp through an isolation cabinet to PA. I kinda hate that I'm not taking advantage of the amp modeling that I paid for, but I really like the sound of the amp that I am using and it stays at the church so there is no heavy lifting involved. Plus I can use the amp's second channel as a clean boost without using an additional effects block. I now use my M13 for practice at home. Guess it really just depends on what sounds good to you. You don't have to use all of the bells and whistles just because they are there. I'm just glad I didn't give up on the 500.

Not sure if you've already done this, but you must also assign the effect you're wanting to control with expression pedal 1 to the toe switch.

The M13 power supply is rated for 2000 mA. I don't see anything rated for that on the 1250.

One of my best presets is where I use the Expression Pedal to control the amp drive of the Treadplate. I can go from a fairly clean sound to full on overdrive or anything in between. Of course I also control the channel volume level at the same time to have control over the volume from one extreme to the other.

You may try turning your momentary amp knobs back and forth a few times. Sometimes they act like they have a dirty contact and this will solve the problem. I have had this happen to my unit as well. Most of the time I turn all of my knobs counterclockwise and leave them there unless I am editing a patch.

That's what I thought. Thanks for your quick response.

If I use both of the HD 500's 1/4" outputs at the same time, will the left and right 1/4" outputs both stay mono or will they behave like the xlr outputs and split the signal into left and right signal paths? Sorry if this has been asked before, but I tried the search option and couldn't find the answer to my question.