cruisinon2

This is a red letter day... the first official sighting of an accordion player here on the forum! ;)

The arbitrary default value of any one parameter is really not what matters. But the sound that comes out does...if you're content with that, then you're done. Either way, there's no guarantee that matching the theoretical value of a model's real world counterpart for any given parameter, will get you any closer to the tone you're looking for.

Actually, I was basically advocating using the interface if he's happy with it... it's all personal preference. Yes, Helix routing makes things absurdly easy for recording dry tracks, reamping, etc... but I don't do that much. For day to day use, I like having the volume controls for the monitors, headphones, and especially the Focusrite's direct monitoring mix control all right there next to each other on the desk... not a big fan of having to bend down to the floor to adjust volumes, but that's just me. As always, ymmv... whatever works.

Some guys (and their "golden ears") balk at the extra D/A conversion involved issuing anything but the USB connection, but personally I can't tell the difference... and I'm as picky about my tone as the next loony guitar player. Plus, I prefer using the interface so I can leave my monitors connected...it's neater cable management if they're not lying on the floor every time Helix leaves the house. And with Focusrite's direct monitoring (I've got one too), I never have latency issues. Ymmv...

It'll need work, yes... but he did say he's tuning down a half step, and then drop D on top of that. So those 13's ain't really 13's...likely closer to 11's in standard tuning.

"Piezo plink" is a well known problem, yet seemingly poorly understood, as evidenced by the official declaration from the powers that be that they would no longer be devoting much (if any) resources towards finding a solution. In essence, some guitars will do it and others won't, and it's not necessarily the same cause each time, making a universal "fix" elusive. There are numerous other factors which will contribute to whether or not you have this problem...high gain tones often being a major factor. In other words, if you've got it, you're probably stuck with it. Anecdotal evidence of one fix or another abound in throughout a zillion other threads around here. Everything from switching to a heavier gauge string to dampening various sources of sympathetic vibration have been touted as "solutions". Might work for you, might not...

With the Mac version of HX Edit you can enable snapshot control of any parameter quickly by holding down the "option" key, and clicking on the parameter value. You'll see the brackets appear...not sure if it works with "ctrl" or "alt" keys in Windows. Worth a try tho...

Or just continue using the interface...I do, with plain old TS 1/4" cables from Helix to my 2i4. Did the same thing with the POD for years on end...never been an issue.

But they'll be more than happy to make something up...😉

Ahh, she's getting more than everybody else already anyway... they always do, lol. 😂

. No, I wouldn't...I've been issuing one modeler or another for years on end, and if there is one thing that they ALL have in common, it's that the presets suck. Everybody's rig differs. Everybody plays a bit differently. Continuity is a fantasy. Modelers ate not amps, and requires some getting used to. Are you serious? This is EXACTLY how it is out there in the world. Otherwise, there'd be one global tone that everybody had, and no way to distinguish Slash from Eric Johnson, or EVH. Nor would there ever be a discussion about how to create whatever elusive tone one seeks...for $%$#! sake, that's half of this forum's content, lol. I didn't day it would be quick and easy... and for most it initially isn't. Definitely not as simple as plugging into and amp and setting all your tone controls at noon.

Ty Tabor Eric Johnson Eddie

It's all about the combination of amp model, mic model (and the distance thereof), cab model, and EQ, specifically high cuts if brittleness is the problem. If you have the know-how to make your own IR's and that turns out to work, great... but the brittleness can be dialed out, you just have to spend some time finding what combinations work for you.

"Nasally" tone is generally due to an overdose of mids...making this largely an EQ issue. Just about the only thing you'll be able to do with Workbench is try different pickups, and/or changing the position of the modeled pickup on the body. Generally speaking, the closer a pickup is to the neck, the boomier things get. Move stuff around and see what happens. It's all trial and error.... But I suspect a parametric EQ, with a narrow Q, set to dial out the offending frequency will produce better results.

There's no objective truth to be found here... it's just another "tastes great / less filling" debate. The whole VDI vs 1/4" discussion ain't new. There are guys who prefer one over the other, and they'll all swear on a stack of Bibles that one is "better". Who's right? Nobody...at the end of the day, it's just a preference. My "best result" and yours won't necessarily be the same, but that doesn't make either of us "right" or "wrong". It's all subjective...use whatever works for you.

Afaik, you can still get them. As for not finding too many "in the wild"...I'd say that's because there are precious few who are willing to pay the hilarious asking price.

Really shouldn't be happening...sometimes I wonder if latency isn't a RAM issue, if too many other things are up and running at the same time. I use GarageBand on a MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM. Now that's a fairly bargain-basement DAW, lol, but running on a decent amount of horsepower. And Garage Band doesn't even have buffer controls anymore, so if I did encounter any latency, I'd basically be stuck with it, but I have none whatsoever. Helix runs into a Focusrite 2i4 interface, which has a direct monitoring/playback mix control. As long as the track I'm recording to has monitoring turned off, everything lands right where it should. And FWIW, I can set that mix control entirely to "playback", so I'm not hearing my input signal at all, everything is being monitored from the DAW through the interface, and there's still no perceptible latency while playing, and listening back to recorded tracks, everything is exactly where it should be...

It all depends on how much you're willing to spend for peace of mind, vs the likelihood that something will actually go wrong. Generally speaking, extended warranties are nothing more than money making scams, preying on one's fears of a defective or suddenly inoperable device. Big Box electronics chains have been raking in money like this forever, and mostly you end up throwing your money away, because 99% of the time stuff outlasts the warranty. The ONLY reason I'd consider it in this case, is that L6 is asking considerably less (as a percentage of the unit's original cost) than most extended warranties that I've had waved in my face over the years. It's not unusual for them to add an extra 15-20% to the cost of a device, which imho, is absurd. May as well move across the pond and pay a VAT tax on everything you buy...but I digress. The MacBook Pro I bought a couple years ago was $2K, and Apple wanted another $350 for an extra year of coverage. I laughed. That's almost 18%... whereas L6 is asking about 6-7% of the unit's original cost, which is considerably more reasonable, as far as I'm concerned.

One day it's fine, then it isn't...you just described every broken thing in history...lol. 😠Don't think they'll give you much grief over a replacement if it's only two weeks old, and there's no reason to assume that the new one won't be gig-worthy...every batch of factory produced devices on earth has the occasional lemon, don't care who's making it.

Doubt it's the cables... everything would sound $hitty if that were the case. You're tone is never gonna remain static switching from headphones to speakers... any speakers. The cans are a closed environment. That same patch through different speakers, rattling around the room will likely have to be tweaked a bit. Those speakers also have +/-2 dB high and low boost/cut switches on the back. Make sure those aren't set funny... if you're cutting the lows and boosting the highs at the same time, they might sound a little tinny...

It will work, yes...but I was really only responding to the 1 vs 2 speaker question with regard to music playback. But what you already have is ideal for a home set-up, and I tend to agree with the other assessments above. If you want to rattle the windows at home, go ahead...but the Alto's are probably overkill in the volume department of you're never gonna leave the house with them. And fwiw, I have that same pair of JBL's, never pushed them so hard that they clipped, and I can still get plenty loud. If yours are clipping, perhaps something isn't gain-staged properly, or one or both may be damaged. Helix should sound great through what you've already got... get that first before you decide you need new speakers.

You'll likely get more than one opinion on this, but imho, it's s big "NO" if you only get one...mono is fine for a guitar rig, and most are...but trying to listen to a stereo recording through only one speaker just sucks, lol. Without physical separation, or ain't stereo...that's all there is to it. Two should work nicely though for music playback, as the Alto's are essentially PA speakers.

This is a user forum... nobody in here is gonna be of much help. You'll have to open a service ticket and get L6 to solve it from their end. On the bright side, assuming that you're Helix is otherwise functional, there's no reason to sit around waiting for customer service to register it for you. Customtone is mostly a waste of time anyway. Dig in, get familiar with the unit, and create some patches yourself. You'll be better off in the long run.

lol...😂 Welcome to the Twilight Zone Forum, where numbers are subjective...

I'm trying REALLY hard to imagine something that matters less than boot-up time... Ergggkh!.....grunt!.... arrrrrgh! Nope, can't be done. ðŸ˜