cruisinon2

I suppose anything is theoretically possible, but I seriously doubt the existing hardware would support it. The Variax platform is complicated enough as it is... adding onboard FX typically reserved for individual pedals or multi-fx units is just something else that can fail. These guitars are weird already.... personally, I wouldn't want them stuffing digital FX in there. Get a whammy pedal....

There is always a "chance" that you might receive a product with a defective part(s)... nothing is perfect, and that potential is inescapable. But no company interested in staying in business will invite headaches and expenses in the manner you suggest. It just won't happen...not without the risk of crippling financial liability if the device in question puts life and limb at risk, should it fail... in other words, until they start bursting into flames and leaving a trail of charred guitarist corpses, don't hold your breath for any "preventive" intervention from L6. I know some guys make their living with this stuff...I get paid to play, too... but when all is said and done, these things are toys. Annoying when they break, yes, but hardly life threatening. Now you could argue on moral/ethical grounds that companies "should" go out of their way like that, and I wouldn't even say you're wrong, but that doesn't make the expectation any less of a pipe dream....this is about money, not philosophical truths. Until we live in a world where anything and everything is free, this is how it's gonna be. Wringing your hands over it is pointless... worry about it if and when your unit fails. Till then, crack a beer and play guitar...

No, there's no "whammy pedal" type pitch shifting native to the guitar. The alt tuning functions in a Variax are all fixed intervals.

Are you using a USB hub, or connecting directly to a port? Hubs can cause problems sometimes...

Agreed... we can already dime all the controls we want without blowing ourselves into next week with volume. The "virtual attenuator" he's asking for already exists...

See whatever you like... and if you'd like to be right, then here ya go: You're right. I have no intention of being dragged into this ancient discussion any further.

Nobody will be able to answer that for you, as the final results will depend entirely on the guitar, and what sort of rig you're using... straight to FOH, through a "real" guitar amp, some sort of FRFR stage amp, etc etc. And the odds of any random factory preset replicating one particular tone is essentially zero anyway, for the same reasons... too many variables. If you're new to Helix, you might want to think twice about gigging with it until you've been around the block with it a few times... modelers are very different beasts, compared to your favorite amp and a handful of pedals.

I'm sure there's a question buried somewhere in that massive sentence, but I'll be damned if I can find it, lol. ;)

Well that could certainly be part of it... if you have the threshold set too high, it could easily choke everything off unless you're really banging on the strings.

Well from the description, you seem to be suffering from an overabundance of dynamics...;) It's gonna be hard to diagnose without looking at the patch(es) in question. Is there a noise gate? Maybe the one in the input block is turned on? Till we know what's there, we can only guess.

A studio is a completely different ballgame.... nothing wrong with stereo in that setting.

No, using a device(s) that models mics and cabinets, only to turn around and throw an actual mic in front of it would be pointless. A mic will color all your patches that you've painstakingly created... the whole point of this kind of gear is to eliminate the need to mic anything on stage. You could use a Powercab for stage volume if you want, but run Helix straight to the board with an XLR. As for the problem of the patches you created at home not translating well live... the QSC seems to have some sort of onboard EQ and DSP... depending on how you have everything set, that could account for the differences you heard through the PA. If it was running flat, then much of the problem is likely related to volume. The perceived loudness of different frequency ranges varies drastically with volume. You really need to tweak your patches at (or a close as possible) to stage volume. If you're listening and tweaking away at a nice comfy living room volume, you really have no prayer of them sounding the same when cranked. Likewise, a Powercab will only help you with this issue if you crank that too...

Well there's almost nothing in life that's 100% true, guaranteed, etc etc... so if that's your yardstick, then there's not much point in trying to define anything... Except dropping dead, which had a definition that's hard to dispute, and is generally rather "final", lol. ;)

This is one of those questions that doesn't really have an answer..."the best sound possible" is entirely subjective. But generally speaking I'd stick with the big boys...JBL, Yamaha, Sony, etc. Personally, I'm partial to JBL, but they all make powered, near-field monitors, and used properly, you should be able to get sounds that make you happy with any of them. If the price tag doesn't matter, then just figure out what size makes sense for the space they're gonna be in, and audition a few different pairs if possible, and pick the ones you like best.

Or this... lots of options, lol

You've got two isolated paths with both input blocks active at the same time. Even with all the blocks bypassed in one path, the signal is still cruising through unmolested, lol. Easiest thing to do is change Path A's output block to feed into Path B... then you've got one long serial chain with just one input. Use snapshots to toggle the various blocks on or off, accordingly. Might also be able to just use snapshots to switch the input block to something not in use...I assume that'll work too, but I've never tried it.

If you're playing weird ambient music where the instrument ends up sounding more like a spaceship than a guitar, then I suppose this might be a necessity. But that aside, I cannot fathom a situation where I'd need to do so much tap dancing that the available DSP and footswitches were insufficient... and frankly, I wouldn't want to... so not my thing, lol. But as always, ymmv.

There's no mystery to it... that's exactly what it is. FRFR= Full Range Flat Response It's really the "flat response" part that we're all interested in for our purposes. "Full range" is easy to find, and doesn't really mean much in the end...you can buy full range $7 ear buds on Amazon, but I wouldn't use them to create patches because the response curve is probably a roller coaster... and it's the curve that matters.

You're overthinking things. Most of the time you'll end up EQing away all those "extra" frequencies that are normally filtered out by a "real" guitar cabinet. High and low cut filters are a necessity to varying degrees, depending on the tone. The purpose of an FRFR rig is to provide an un-colored "clean slate" for a modeler... its what allows a device like Helix to convincingly mimic so many different kinds of amps... but a lot of the time you're not gonna want all those "extra" frequencies. You don't want stereo in a live environment, period... Powercab or otherwise. It never works. No matter what you do, the only one in the room who'll end up hearing the desired stereo spread is the one guy who happens to end up standing dead center between the mains... everywhere else it'll sound odd. Depending on how everything bounces around the room, you can get weird phase issues, and any stereo FX are totally wasted. Its totally unnecessary... sound guys will look at you like you have 3 heads if you insist on running stereo. Or they'll just nod, and then run you mono anyway, unless they're actually willing to make everything sound like crap out front.

Yet that was his assertion...I didn't think so. Just as easy to claim that a set of 11's will make a ham sandwich better, lol.

Forgetting the connections for the moment... why do you feel the need for 2 Powercabs? The answer will depend on what you actually need your rig to do. If you're playing live, forget trying to run stereo. It's a nightmare waiting to happen, and that's never worth the trouble...for myriad reasons. 1 Powercab will more than suffice. If you're playing and recording at home... that's a different story, and a stereo rig is glorious, but 2 Powercabs is way overkill... and they would be ill- suited for mixing and monitoring multi-track recordings, anyway. For that you need a good pair of studio monitors, which will run you ~$1000 less than the cost of 2 Powercabs...

Well I'm neither a physicist nor a software engineer, but I fail to see how increased string tension can make the software "better" recognize the note that's being played. That would imply that all one would need to do is throw on a heavier set of strings, and somehow the alt tunings would work "better"... after years of listening to gripes about the alt tunings, don't think I ever recall someone claiming that things suddenly improved with a heavier gauge. To address the "plink" issue, and to make the acoustic models sound abit more authentic, yes... but never a word about the tunings.

No, I'm not saying that at all. Obviously that configuration is possible... there it sits, in living color, lol. In fact, I have a few similar patches myself... one path for an acoustic tone, and the other with the mags for crunch. One path forces the acoustic model, and the other recognizes only the mags... however, that has nothing to do with the current discussion. We're talking apples and oranges here. A simple patch, using a single path, and the input block set to "multi", you are not going to hear both mags and models simultaneously. You just won't...it doesn't happen. I don't pretend to know why... but it doesn't much matter. The behavior is what it is. If you save the patch with a model selected, then it'll recall that model the next time that patch is selected. You can still override it from the guitar, too... select another model, or switch the modeling off altogether, and you'll hear the mags..... but no matter what you do, you won't hear them both simultaneously just because the input block is set to "multi". You have to create a custom model to do that.

The "multi" input block setting does not determine the Variax output. The guitar does. You will not get blended mags and models unless you have created a custom model to do exactly that, and save it to the guitar. Period... try it for yourself if you like, but it won't happen. I've never bothered to change the input block to anything but "multi", and my Variax sees daily use. There is no blending of mags with the models.

No, you won't... the "multi" input setting means any of Helix's various inputs (VDI, 1/4" guitar in, aux, etc. ) will all be recognized by the patch, but it's not controlling the Variax output. The guitar won't combine the mags and models unless you've created a custom model in Workbench that deliberately the blends them, and then saved it to one of the "custom" slots in the Variax. I suggested "multi" because it's the default with a blank patch, so there's nothing to change, and he doesn't have to think about it. The "Variax" input setting will also allow either the mags or the models to be selected, but you can't use anything but a Variax with that setting. If you were to plug another guitar into the 1/4" input, you'd hear nothing, as everything but the VDI input is being ignored.