cruisinon2

On 12/8/2023 at 1:26 PM, craiganderton said:

Here's an interesting article on the subject of skeuomorphism. 

 

For some, images stimulate creativity because parsing images is largely a right-brain function. For others, images are a distraction. For example, with something like a picture of an amp, it can take longer to locate, say, the Treble knob on an amp image than text that says "Treble." 

 

Typically, skeuomorphism's main purpose is to create a bridge between a user's knowledge of something in the physical world that can translate to a computer screen. The floppy disk icon is a good example. People could relate to the picture as "this is how I save data, got it." However, as more people become familiar with the virtual world, images can actually get in the way. This is why companies like Apple have gone from a full-on skeuomorphic approach to a flat design.

 

I know, TMI but it's an interesting topic.

Just seems like much ado about nothing to me...I'd get it if the devices that have pictures of each modeled unit allowed the user to tweak parameters on the image itself, "turning" a gain knob on a touch screen, etc... at least that would be closer to the tactile experience of working with actual amps and pedals... but that doesn't seem to be how it works. They just give you a big silly graphic to drag and drop onto your "pedalboard", and that's it... then you're right back in the digital realm, scrolling through lists of parameters to tinker with. I fail to see how that's any more "creatively stimulating" than doing the exact same thing without the image of the fuzz box on the display. Just my 2 cents...to each their own, I guess, lol.

I'm curious what you plan to do with the pictures...

We're in the business of creating sounds, no? So who gives two wet farts what a model's real world counterpart looks like?;) I've never actually seen half the stuff that's in there in person anyway, and pretty pictures certainly won't make anything sound better, lol. Maybe it's me...

On 12/7/2023 at 2:59 AM, jealousblues said:

Hi, all.  I am a long time Line 6 user and have been gigging with the Variax for a long time.  Had the 700, 500 (later transplanted), 600, JTV69 an right now im gigging with 3 of the JTV59s.  They have been central to my job for a long time and if they are gone im not sure what I would use if I cant keep my current stock going.  The closest thing I could get would be an OG Parker Fly and those are even more rare and parts harder to find lol.

I think many of us have noticed most of the Variax guitars are out of stock everywhere and Im not sure if they will ever be back but on the chance they will and if they are going to replace/discontinue the JTV 59 I really hope they will put the Variax guts into a Revstar guitar now that Yamaha owns it. 

 

They are great guitars and they look cool too.

 

I will be honest I do a lot of corporate parties and weddings and I cannot show up to a gig with a Shuriken.  

 

 

Anyway if anyone is listening and if these awesome guitars still have a future this has my vote especially if they do that sunset burst finish.

All Variax models were officially consigned to the dustbin of history a couple of months ago. While it took some time for them to be formally discontinued and announced as such (see link below), it's basically been a dead platform for nearly a decade, as the last update of any significance was sometime back in 2014.

Whether or not there will be a successor is anybody's guess... but my money's on "no", as previous iterations, despite having a rather devoted cult following, never really caught on with the masses. Yours is a relatively uncommon situation when compared to much of the guitar playing community. Most guys are one trick ponies who gravitate towards a fairly narrow range of musical genres and tones, and they simply don't have the need or desire for a product like the Variax.

The guitars themselves are also notoriously finicky, and require a great deal of tweaking out of the gate to get usable sounds, which I  suspect turned a lot of people off if they weren't particularly tech-savvy, or willing to put the time in. There was also a huge disconnect between the marketing and reality for a lot of folks. As evidenced by the numerous threads on the topic, a lot of guys bought them thinking that a booming jumbo acoustic tone would come billowing forth from their Marshall 4x12 with the flick of a switch, because they were blithely unaware that typical guitar speakers simply lack the frequency response necessary to do that, and it would never happen no matter how many knobs they fiddled with... so they blamed the technology and the guitar, when the problem was the actually everything else BUT the guitar, lol. Collectively, it all adds up to a tough sell for Joe Average Guitar Player. Without significant demand for a new version, I'd say the odds are slim at best... there's just not enough money in it for L6 to bother. That's just my 2 cents, though...I have no inside knowledge one way or the other.

All of the above... and then just accept the fact that it may have some weird issue(s) that only crop up under certain circumstances. It's a complex device that does lots of different things... and to quote Capt. Montgomery Scott: "The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to clog the drain";)... so while it's a good idea to give it a test run beforehand, no matter how thorough you think you are, there's just no way to audition everything with just a few minutes of noodling. Used gear is will forever be a gamble...

On 12/4/2023 at 8:47 AM, astueger said:

After creating a new preset with some different modules, how can I check/see the DSP load?

You can't... you'll know you're at or near the DSP limit when almost any additional amp or effect you try to add becomes "grey-ed out" and unselectable. Keeping a running tally wouldn't really help you much anyway... having some counter tell you there's "17% DSP remaining" isn't gonna prevent you from hitting the wall. There's either enough room for everything you want to shove in there, or there isn't. Doesn't much matter how you find out...

On 11/30/2023 at 4:17 PM, amaurythewarrior said:

Hello,

OK, I'm an old Line6 user, I had a Flextone III back in 2006, didn't keep it very long, until I upgraded to a tube combo, had one of the first TonePort UX2 in the summer of 2006 which I kept for 7 years.

I felt a bit nostalgic and looked at the old gear and models, and I'm actually really confused.

Now the Helix has "HX" models.

At some point they had introduced "HD" models.

And before that I suppose they were just "models". So, how many generations of models were there? Did they coexist on some device? Were they just updates or new models made from scratch? Are there lists?

I undesrtand the Flextone and GearBox were before HD models. But  the TonePort also had Podfarm. and podfarm has HD models?

Can someone shed some light on this?

Thanks

The HD/HX designations are essentially meaningless... little more than marketing blather for press releases and product descriptions. All it does is allow you to roughly determine the relative ages of different products. The current generation of devices has carried the "HX" moniker since Helix debuted 8-ish years ago. Prior to that it was "HD"... but do they actually mean anything? Not really... but they need some way of announcing "this is our newest $hit" to the masses. Eventually some new platform will put Helix/HX out to pasture, and a snazzy new designation will take its place.

In practical terms all you need to know is that nothing is backwards compatible... you can't load HX models onto an HD device. Occasionally older "legacy" models are ported over in the other direction into newer devices, but it doesn't happen very often, and generally only if they were super popular, and after enough people have all clamored for it.

Or just cycle through them in HX Edit, and you don't have to bend down and fiddle with knobs...

On 11/27/2023 at 5:10 PM, lou-kash said:

 

This forum software is capable of many things. But it requires an admin that would enable all the features. And perhaps promote a bunch of trustworthy longtime members to moderators.

This has been a "set it and forget it" enterprise since day one... and even if that weren't the case, I seriously doubt that you'd ever see any of the rabble being promoted to "Sheriff of Nottingham". First of all, it just ain't L6's style. And second, the last thing we need around here are more swelled heads ;)

Lol... good luck. The very people you're seeking action from are never here ;)

On 11/22/2023 at 11:44 AM, doctormcfarland said:

It would be awesome to have segmented colors on the output meter.  Even better would have a meter on the Home screen so you can see at a glance how loud your preset is.  This will aid in leveling all your presets much faster. 

 

Thanks,

The Doctor

Won't help you level things as much a you think. Keeping patches level is all about perceived loudness, not measured amplitude. A patch that's midrange heavy will always seem louder than a tone that's more scooped, even if they're both registering exactly the same on a dB meter. It's just how our brains are wired...blame biology, thank Fletcher and Munson...;)

On 11/20/2023 at 5:17 AM, BIASBASS said:

Hi everone. I play both bass guitar and guitar in my band depending on the requirements. I like the sound choices of the bass cabs, amps and the guitar cabs and amps but is there a way to run both guitars into an HX Stomp so I can switch between the two with less hassle. Thanks in advance. 

Can't swing a dead cat without hitting an A/B box... pick your favorite, they all do the exact same thing.

On 11/18/2023 at 12:32 PM, skiman1 said:

Like any other software or firmware update to ANY device, never install when it first comes out, wait a few weeks, let the additional bugs get figured out.

Yup... and this time around seems to be worse than usual. I counted no less than 9 separate threads of update woes over the last few days. Either nobody ever learns, or the need for instant gratification is the most powerful force in the universe. Hard to say, lol...

On 11/17/2023 at 2:22 AM, zeropluszero said:

So like everyone else today, I went to update to 3.7 today. I opened HX Edit, backed up all the presets & my IR's and went on my way. I wanted to factory reset to see if there was any new factory presets - maybe there is, maybe not, thats cool, I wanted to revisit what was there anyway.

Anyway so I went to reimport my IRs. I only have 40 or so of them, and frankly barely use them, but I selected all of them in my PC and then just...dragged them into HX edit, and it just worked.
I was really expecting to have to do them individually.

Thanks to whoever coded HX Edit. I was expecting it to be a pain, and someone out there had already thought of the easiest way to do something and it just worked.

Coder 1st Class, Philip A. Schumpfgeek will be pleased to know that you appreciate his efforts ;)

On 11/17/2023 at 7:41 AM, DunedinDragon said:

I'm not exactly sure how this update went south but I've never had any problems on any update until now.

 

To be honest it very well could be a physical issue with my Helix since this is the Floor unit I use in my studio and it's been exhibiting some odd behaviors related to the USB and audio interface recently.  After updating and restoring my old presets, I rebooted and got a failed message and the Helix was in update mode.  I finally got it to boot by manually rebooting it a couple of times but it hung up during the rebuilding of the presets.

 

One thing that differs on this unit from my live performance Helix Floor is this one is powered on via Alexa which turns on the Helix as well as the studio monitors and some other items like my electronic piano and a desk lamp.  I re-did the update via Line 6 Central and got it working, but I'm not confident it's going to be stable yet.  I'll just manually power up and down the Helix individually and see where it takes me.

Alexa? Really? Count your blessings that Amazon isn't airlifting a pallet of guitar strings onto your front lawn every time you power up...;)

On 11/17/2023 at 12:11 PM, rd2rk said:

Well PRAISE OUR FORD!

 

We FINALLY have an AUTHENTIC(?) 2203 with BRIGHT CAP!

It sounds EXACTLY like CRUSHED GLASS AZZ!

 

I think "chewing on tinfoil whilst caught in a thunder storm" is closer...;)

I love the smell of Firmware Russian Roulette in the morning...

It doesn't have to be this way, folks, lol... this happens with practically every update. DON'T be an early adopter, unless you like being a guinea pig. Barring some sort of "my life depends on updating Helix TODAY" scenario (and frankly I cannot fathom what might cause such a situation), just wait. Your Helix is still every bit as good as it was yesterday. Give it a week, perhaps two. By then, courtesy of everyone who volunteered to be cannon fodder, the bugs will either have been squashed, or they won't... but at least you'll know what the score is. Either way you'll have saved yourself hours of aggravation and wasted time, and you'll still have a functioning device... while the "I need it now!" contingent goes quietly (well ok, maybe not quietly) insane.

So rock on, if it still turns on...

If not, we now return you to your regularly scheduled stress-induced alopecia ;)

On 11/15/2023 at 12:55 PM, datacommando said:

t would be very odd if it could detected Tempo from a single hit.

It wouldn't be odd... it would be miraculous, lol. It's hard to get directions to a place that doesn't exist...

On 11/16/2023 at 12:07 AM, craiganderton said:

 

That, and not being able to use the Variax concept with "their" guitar. OTOH when I  was doing studio work in NY, I would have given anything for a Variax. 

Sure... for session guys who have to be EVH one minute and Joe Pass the next (and can actually pull that off), the Variax is a dream come true. But the other 99.97% are generally only interested in one or the other. Most guitar players, even the good ones,  are one trick ponies... and yes, I'm including myself in that lot, lol

On 11/15/2023 at 12:11 PM, ricstudioc said:

Inasmuch as I'm now pretty much "retired" (various physical issues, and just plain gettin' too old for this sh*t) this will have no major impact on me, other than not feeling comfortable trying to sell either of my Variaxes.  How do you look at a potential buyer and say "oh by the way.....?"

 

That said - next to the Helix, the Variax was the most useful bit o'kit I purchased/used in the last 6 years or so.  In a working "business" band, where the songlist is wildly diverse, the V was a godsend.  I used various electrics, acoustics (6/12 string), dobro, banjo, sitar - the custom tunings put licks I could not otherwise play under my fingers.  It (they) certainly payed for itself many times over, over those years.

 

So for the sake of the next generation I hope a new iteration is forthcoming, regardless of the brand name on it.  A bit "niche"?  Possibly, but it fills a need that - once you have that need - no other instrument can.

There's lots of reasons why they never really caught on... but mostly I think it's due to the fact that Joe Average guitar player just doesn't have needs/wants that are sufficiently diverse to justify the purchase, as those you've described... and that makes it a hard sell on a scale that would make it worthwhile for a big multi-national corporation to bother with. It's also a device that requires a great deal of time and tinkering to get the desired results, particularly with the acoustic tones... and I think that was a turn off for a lot of folks who aren't that tech-savvy and/ or knowledgeable about what makes different types of guitars sound the way they do in the first place. The latter was exacerbated by the way it was advertised, which convinced a lot of people that a realistic jumbo acoustic guitar tone would come flowing out of whatever electric guitar amp/cabinet setup they already owned, with just the flick of a switch on the guitar. Many of them, having no clue that the frequency response of typical guitar speakers simply can't do that, blamed the resulting crap-tastic acoustic tone on the Variax... there was a new thread complaining about this every 11 minutes back in the day, lol.

Plus, most of the guitar playing universe gravitates towards a particular genre, with limited crossover outside of whatever it is that they like to hear and play. There just aren't that many guys out there who are equally at home playing a dobro, banjo, and shredding their way through "Matter of Puppets".

The Variax concept was ambitious, and while not without its limitations, was largely successful. I just don't ever see it being widely adopted by the masses, even if there is a next generation at some point. My guess is that the bean-counters came to the same conclusion some time ago...

The only thing that surprises me about this, is that it took this long for the axe to officially fall...(pun intended) ;)... development ceased long ago, as the last update worth discussing was in 2014, if memory serves. That's an eternity for any product that's heavily tech-dependent.

On 11/13/2023 at 6:47 PM, codamedia said:

 

I logged in with a little used Gmail account... but when it insisted on a phone verification (my phone number) I exited and will not return. 

That's nothing... after your free trial is up, you have to send them a complete set of dental records and a DNA sample. ;)

On 11/14/2023 at 11:14 AM, theElevators said:

I own two Helixes: LT and Floor.  The Floor had 2 foot-switches that stopped working properly after about 1.5 years of occasional rehearsals and playing 2.5 hour shows.  I think I played about 20 shows in total. 

 

These 2 foot-switches were for my solo boost snapshots.  And there was no abuse, excessive stomping... simply pressing the buttons to change my sounds throughout my set.  After cleaning the micro-switches, I went on the road for 4 weeks, so that's around 35 shows, and the buttons were absolutely fine.  They still are fine a year and a half later.  I always test every single foot-switch before playing any gig. 

 

 

 

The LT(which I had bought used a year prior to getting the Floor) got way more use.  I use the LT pretty much exclusively to practice at home, plus all the questionable outdoor jams.  The LT did not have the same issue as the Floor!  Yet still the same 2 foot-switches were not as reliable as when I first got it.  Still a lot better than what the Floor had.  I opened it up and cleaned the micro-switches and a year and half later everything works just fine. 

 

If your Helix sits on your desk and does not go on the road, it's one thing.  If you play 2.5 hours where you frequently switch sounds, that's something else.   The Helix is not something that gigging bands can use without a backup.  I bring 2 Helixes, because I cannot wing it if my sounds do not switch properly, absolutely no way.  Every song has very specific sounds, tempos, etc. 

 

Plus it's pretty clear that Helix build quality varies.  How else can you explain that my LT was more intact than the Floor, that was more babied? 

 

 

Like anything else in life, your mileage may vary. There are always lemons, and somebody gets stuck with them.

Nevertheless, I stand by what I said. The overwhelming majority of users are not touring pros, and their gear will not be subject to the ravages of life on the road. If they gig at all, it's every third Friday down at Walt's Trout Hut, and they have far more to fear from spilled beer than anything else. Not to mention the fact that half of the guitar playing world is still afraid to give a truss rod a 1/4 turn... they're not gonna confidently go futzing around with the Helix's inards, and especially not when there isn't a compelling reason to do so in the first place.

And even if I'm completely wrong about all of that, appealing to L6 for some interior preventative maintenance cleansing protocol is a compete waste of time. In a million years, they'll never openly encourage customers to tinker around inside their products, because too many would f*ck it up beyond recognition.

This is a solution desperately in search of a problem...

I've owned my Helix for at least  6 years now, and I've had numerous similar floorboards, midi controllers, and pedals of just about every conceivable variety over the years/decades prior... and not once have I ever had the need to open one up to clean anything.

I suppose if one regularly performs out in a wind-swept desert, then you might have some issues eventually... but that aside, this simply isn't something that most people will ever need to do. And not for nothing, but we live in a society where it's necessary to put warnings on plastic bags, so Joe Average doesn't stick his head in it....encouraging folks to start poking around under the hood of these things looking for a problem that isn't likely to exist, is a recipe for disaster. It's the very LAST thing that L6 themselves will ever encourage, and they're certainly never going to  provide you with something that for many, would end up being a "How To Destroy Your Helix in 3 Easy Steps" manual...

On 11/13/2023 at 3:21 PM, silverhead said:

I notice you require users to ‘sign up’ to use the tool. What information do you request, and what do you plan to do with it? Are there any fees?

It'll only cost you a kidney... but don't worry, you can live quite happily with just the one, lol

We'll I see we've finally reached the summit of Mt. Lazy... I'll tune back in when the AI algorithm plays the notes for me, too.

I forget...which one of the Four Horsemen is this? ;)