cruisinon2

I LOVE this cloak and dagger $hit! What color will it be? When will it get here? What am I to do until then? What if it's not released in time for Christmas? Will Batman escape before time runs out? Only The shadow knows..... BWUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Trying to use 2 different guitar amps as studio monitors is not going to end well... no matter what you do with patch settings in the POD, each amp will color the sound differently, and you'll have a different tone coming from each one. Especially for recording, the frequency response of guitar amp speakers is woefully inadequate for bass, drums, or just about any other instrument in the mix, The whole thing will be a huge mess and sound terrible. Small desktop computer speakers will be similarly difficult to get a good guitar tone from...OK for practice in a pinch , I suppose... but they're just not designed for this kind of use. You need a decent pair of powered studio monitors... plenty of good choices out there for $300/pair or less. Stick with the big boys...JBL, Yamaha, etc.

Yes, you can do that, but it just seems like a lot of extra work for little, if any benefit. It's just as easy to do the exact same thing that at the output block, or the amp block's channel volume, with no extra blocks or cables. Different strokes...

This is just a guess, but I seriously doubt it...imho, there wouldn't be enough folks looking for amp modeling with no FX. The HX Effects unit made sense... there are plenty of guys who steadfastly refuse to give up their tube amps, but who would welcome an all-in-one FX solution, instead of dragging around huge pedal boards. But the other way? I don't see enough of a demand... Regardless, this is a user forum, and posts from "official" L6 folk are few and far between. And historically, L6 is very tight-lipped about new gear, anyway. There are only a few guys in here who might actually know the answer, and they likely won't be talking.

Why waste DSP with an FX loop block if there's nothing in it anyway? And if you're gonna leave the block there with nothing connected, just turn it off.

History suggests that those guesstimates should be taken with a 5 lb bag of salt. They ain't tossing it out into the wild till it's ready, summer solstice or no.

That may be, but it's of little consequence...it's still chocolate, and it still says Hershey on the wrapper. You guys were bought by Yamaha, but the box still says L6 and you're still engaged in the same endeavors. Point is, I wouldn't buy a pickup truck from either of you...'cause it ain't your wheelhouse.

Yup...I like chocolate. But if Hershey announces that they're gonna start making pickup trucks, I'm not getting in line to buy one. Diversification ain't all its cracked up to be. If I owned a company, in any industry, I'd much rather be very good at one or two things, than trying to half-a$$ my way through ten...

That's likely due to volume differences... unless you're really cranking it at home when setting up your patches, stage volume will always make highs and lows more prominent, as compared to the same patch played at comfy bedroom levels.

I'm gonna start prescribing a Marshall combo and a tube screamer for any and all documented cases of "fizzophobia"...;)

I always put them first in the chain, just out of habit from years of pedals.... but I suppose it doesn't much matter if it gets the job done and you like what you hear. The only place you don't want them is after any FX that would have the trails cut off when the gate closes... that aside, put it wherever it works.

Well that's what the release notes are...it tells you what changes were made.

There won't be any way to tell what previous versions of firmware may have been installed at any point in the past...if you have the most current version now, then whatever was there before has been overwritten.

I've never used the XT Live, but assuming that it has an FX loop, that's where the wah pedal should be, with the loop placed first in the signal chain, before the amp model or any dirt/OD effects. Wah pedals want a raw guitar signal, not a processed line-level signal that's been run through the bowels of an amp modeler... it'll never sound right if you put it between the POD and whatever amp you're using.

Phew! For a minute there, I actually thought that nobody was gonna stir the pot again...that was close!

Ahh, memories...lol Did my time in music retail too, albeit at a small mom & pop store, back when those still existed. Years ago you at least had half a chance of finding someone in the building with knowledge about what they were selling, but now music stores are to musicians what McDonald's is to food... you might go home with something palatable, but don't be surprised if it gives you the trots. ;). I rarely venture into music stores anymore, as they're mostly staffed with kids who know little, and care even less. I bowed out a number of years ago upon being told by some indignant teenager that the MIDI foot controller I was looking for, "didn't exist"... never mind that there was one in a display case about 8 feet away, but I digress... Long live Sweetwater! ;)

Thanks... can't say I'm surprised, as ever-present as the 57's are in live settings, lol.

That's all gonna boil down to subjective evaluation on a patch by patch basis...A and B will either sound the same, or they won't...

Fair enough, thanks. Lord knows I don't "need" this thing, but it is intriguing...

Either choice is perfectly doable...I have an L2T, and it sounds great. Live, it's my stage monitor, but it never gets used at home. A larger pair of powered studio monitors that you can crank up to "nobody's home" volume would allow you to run stereo amps and FX... big fun, especially if you're gonna do any recording. Totally up to you though. Either way will work. Also worth considering is L6's new Powercab... if it lives up to it's own press, this might be a good option for you as well, possibly requiring a little less patch tweaking than powered monitors, or other FRFR options. The more I read about it, the more interested I get, despite the fact that I have no real "need" for it.

Two questions: 1)So the mic emulation applied to the XLR out is only selectable on the PC+... just out of curiosity, do you know which mic model is used in the "lesser" version? 2) If you're in "flat mode", is the XLR out just a pass through from whatever is coming from Helix?

I'm willing to bet that it's the 250 ohm impedance that's the culprit. I've seen it mentioned that higher impedance cans are recommended, but I've been using AKG K701's since I got my Helix, which are all of 55 ohms. Nothing clips, and if I turn the volume up much past 11-12 o'clock, it's uncomfortably loud anyway. So even if they would start to clip sooner than a pair with higher impedance, I'd go deaf long before I got there... You could always try a small headphone amp between the headphone out and your cans, but it may or may not add additional coloration to the sound.

If you have a 3rd party IR in your chain, some of them can be very bright. As previously mentioned, you can apply hi/low cuts, and/or additional EQ, but you're stuck with whatever mic they used... and a bright mic is a bright mic. Perhaps trying one the stock cabs, along with one of the mic models that are known to sound a bit darker, such as the ribbon mics, may help eliminate some of the harshness you're hearing.

Wouldn't be the first time...;) Honestly though, this is the "nth" FRFR thread. The same things get repeated time and again. There's no new ground to cover...

You've answered your own question... there is but one way to find out if you'll like any IR...roll the dice and buy it. Look at it this way... those 3 Sigma packs are what, 15 bucks? Down at your local watering hole that's 2 beers, with a tip. You dumped $1500 on Helix... it's 1%, lol... go ahead and splurge. ;)