cruisinon2

Good/bad is entirely subjective. Your definition of a pleasing guitar tone might sound like somebody rattling a coffee can full of nickels to me, and vice versa...and it has absolutely nothing to do with the gear. Perception is just weird, highly variable, and mostly unexplainable...but I digress. For the purposes of this discussion I'll assume that we're not talking about some junk "experiment" of a distortion pedal from a company that's made nothing but toasters and microwaves for the last 50 years. That scenario aside, most gear combinations can be made to sound good. However, the exact same gear in different hands might sound like $hit...and when the results are lousy, 99.97% of the time it's because of user error and/or lack of experience. In other words if you don't have an understanding of what makes different types of gear sound the way they do, and what you might have to do in order to get any two units to play nice with each other, then the gear itself is almost irrelevant and you will struggle no matter what's in your rig. Your mileage will vary accordingly.

No...the problem is that it's an abrupt and drastic change between two sounds with vastly different gain structures, it has nothing to do with what amp model produces which tone. And in this case everything ultimately has the same origin anyway, regardless of how things are visually represented in the signal chain. One, two, or ten amp models, it makes no difference...it's all one computer generating generating everything you hear. Gain staging presets takes practice. When you get weird results like this, go through each block in the chain and look at the input and output levels...you may have inadvertently boosted an output stage somewhere.

I think this is the first case of 3rd party user error I've ever seen...;)

It's not really much of a surprise...the Variax just never caught on with the masses. Most of the guitar playing public either never heard of it, or simply had no interest in it. Then there's the boots on the ground reality: The Variax tends to be even more fickle and difficult to get up and running than an amp modeler. While the more tech-savvy players are often willing to do all the necessary tinkering to get it "just right", most of the time Joe Average can't be bothered. Simple sells...complicated stuff just gives people a headache. It also didn't help that they couldn't solve some of the nagging technical issues that plagued some users, (piezo "plink", cross-talk between adjacent saddles, etc, etc). Such products are always doomed in the long run, and especially when a multi-national corporate behemoth is involved. Outfits like Yamaha are never impressed by stuff that only generates a cult following, no matter how devoted. They want mass adoption...if they're not convinced that they can sell "Product X" to a significant percentage of the target demographic, then whatever it is it's going in the dumpster.

It's a computer. Computers do weird $hit. Any problem that has persisted for months on end like this obviously isn't going to fix itself, and the odds of you being able to do anything about it yourself are slim to none...unless you're an engineer familiar with the innards of stuff like this and are comfortable doing your own surgery, warranties be damned, but I digress. I doubt it's a hardware problem anyway. Otherwise your options are rather limited, as is the case for most of us: 1) Back everything up and do a factory reset. 2) If you're still running 3.11, do your back up and then upgrade to the latest firmware...perhaps it's a bug peculiar to the version you're running. Besides, there's been a bunch of stuff added since 3.11 that you might want to explore anyway. Beyond that, these things just aren't particularly user-serviceable devices...at some point it's time to open a service ticket and see what they tell you.

There's always the global EQ...obviously it won't help for drive or channel volume settings, but generally speaking most tinkering in a live setting will be EQ related anyway. Once you start mucking around with too much on stage you're inviting a Spinal Tap moment...;)

Nope...and unless you're using the same amp model for every patch, I'm not sure why you'd want that anyway. Settings that work for the kinds of sounds you'd typically want from a Fender Twin aren't going to help you for any of the high-gain monsters, and vice versa. Standardizing arbitrarily selected settings for every knob wouldn't prevent you from having to adjust things...

The "best" anything...be it a vehicle, brand of boxer shorts, or toenail fungus ointment is the one that works for you. What works for me, or the guy in line behind you at the bank is of little consequence. Everyone's needs/wants are going to differ. Do you actually need an amp on stage? I haven't used one for years now. The modeling wizardry that brought us all here makes running an amp completely unnecessary. Now if you want one, so be it...get whatever twirls you're beanie. There are no wrong answers...

Line 6 has a long and glorious history of operating with a veil of secrecy that rivals the NSA...anything that relates to the inner workings of their "secret sauce" is never divulged. Might as well ask the CEO for his wife's measurements.

Nothing... You've just learned the most important modeling lesson there is: The final result of any patch is heavily dependent on a long list of variables, most of which are peculiar to the player who created it. Whatever you've downloaded was created by somebody else with a different guitar, different playing technique, a different playback system from whatever you're using, and (most critically) dialed in in an unknown context (solo, live with a band, playing along with backing tracks, etc), and at an unknown volume. The only common denominator is Helix...everything else is a mystery. That makes the odds of any given patch sounding the same on your end as it did to the guy who built it, slim to none. CustomTone is an idea that looks great on paper...especially advertising copy...but translates poorly into reality. Unfortunately for us all, it's been used to push the idea that tonal bliss is just one mouse click away. The truth is that there's little in the way of tonal continuity from one player to the next...there are simply too many variables, and no one piece of hardware can compensate for it all. Don't feel bad though...most of us end up learning this the hard way. The moral of the story is you have to get used to creating your own tones from scratch. The alternative is to spend hours downloading everything under the sun, then auditioning one after another in the hopes of eventually stumbling on the one or two patches that you might be able to use without extensive editing. Skip the middleman, you'll waste far less time in the long run.

I doubt it's the amp. Do you have a volume pedal block in any of the patches? Sometimes the expression pedal can start doing weird things and needs to be re-calibrated. Beyond that just about the only other thing you can try is back everything up, and then do a factory reset. If it persists, it's time for a service ticket.

You might get it to work, but the last thing in the world you want for a live mix is two identical guitar tones...hell, forget about identical. You don't even want tones that are a too similar. When two instruments try to occupy the same sonic space, they both get lost. It'll end up sounding like one huge muddy guitar. Back away from the idea slowly, and don't make any sudden movements...;)

Your problem is going to be DT25 and the Fender cab...traditional guitar/bass cabinets lack the necessary frequency response to produce convincing acoustic tones. Even running real acoustic guitars into an electric guitar amp tends to sound more like a clean electric for the same reason. But with the modeled acoustics in the Variax it'll be next to impossible. Your best bet is a patch with no amp model, and just a little compression and reverb. It's been a while since I've plugged in my old HD 500, I forget if there are any mic pre-amp models in there...if so, you can throw one of those in the chain as well. For the tunes you need the acoustic sounds, run an output straight to the PA...anything else is gonna be a struggle.

Can it be done? Yes. Will you like the results? There's exactly one way to find out. Obviously the Vetta has it's own onboard amp models and effects...if you intend to use those, then my question is why bother with the Helix at all? But that's a whole other discussion. The Vetta has an FX loop I believe, so you also have the option of running in 4cm, which will allow you to use the amp models and FX in either unit. You could also just plug the Helix straight into the FX return, and only use the Vetta's power section. In that case you'd typically disable the Helix cab sims, though it's not "required". As is always the case with modelers, as long as you like the results you can do pretty much anything you want.

Wow, this one is moldy...I think it's safe for us to crown a new record holder for "Most Ancient Thread Resurrection" ;)

If you're using a USB hub, ditch it and connect Helix directly. Failing that, the only other option you really have is a factory reset...might not help, but it won't hurt either. After that it's service ticket time...

If you only get the complaint sporadically, and assuming there's no intermittent hardware malfunction, I'm inclined to think that it's just the occasional sound guy who either doesn't know what he's doing and/or has lost his marbles...they're out there. I've met them, lol ;). Don't see how the output can be fine one day and pinning the needle the next...

I could be wrong, but I believe the list of factory presets to which you are referring applies to other amps in the Spider family above the V20. From what I've seen in the manuals the V20 is a pretty bare-bones, entry level practice amp that lacks many of the features that the rest of the Spider amps have, especially with regard to preset storage capacity. You can edit and save the 16 options on the preset knob, but that seems to be all there is. I don't think you have separate banks each with multiple song/artist specific presets, as the rest of the Spider amps do. There is a computer based editing app that will allow you to make changes to the 16 available presets...and you may also be able to load other external presets into those 16 slots via the app, though I'm not entirely sure about that. Perhaps someone else will chime in...

There's no magic bullet. Emulating any specific tone is a trial and error process. Even if you were to stumble upon a patch that someone created that claims to be exactly what you're looking for, the odds of it being a perfectly convincing reproduction on your end is slim to none. There are numerous variables that affect the final product...from the instrument used to create the patch, to the playback system, to the individual's playing style...all of which are different from the tools that you have at your disposal. The only common denominator is the Stomp, and that's only one piece of a very large puzzle. If there's anything close to a "universal" approach to reproducing a specific tone, it would be to start with Helix models that are the same (or the closest thing that's available) to the gear that was used on the original recording...if you even know what those were. And that includes the instrument you're playing as well...there's little point in trying to reproduce a tone that was played on a Tele when you've got a Les Paul in your lap, but I digress. Otherwise, it's up to you to twiddle enough knobs until it sounds right to your ears.

I doubt there'd be enough takers for them to bother with a product like that in today's market. The guitar playing world is pretty firmly divided into two camps at this point. You've got the quiet stage/straight to PA/IEM crowd who don't even want monitor wedges on stage anymore, and then there's the 'washed in the blood and filled with the spirit' tube/stomp box snobs who, oddly enough, have seemed to become even more committed to their "Death Before Digital" philosophy as modelers have gotten better and better. Pick a side, lol...I don't think manufacturers are interested in bridging the gap anymore. It's easier to just target one demographic or the other...

Oh, you'll get opinions alright, lol... and no two will be the same. I've used a bunch of different cans over the years, some with impedance well below the recommended range, and others well above. And I could have made my ears bleed with all of them if I wanted to... so frankly, these discussions have always baffled me. I suspect that those having issues with low volume either have a hardware problem with the headphone amp, or there's a leveling issue elsewhere in the signal chain.

Learn to use snapshots and you'll never have this problem again. It'll take some experimentation to figure out how to best utilize them to serve your particular needs, but I'd be stunned if you couldn't manage to use snapshots to dial in what you need 98% of the time. Practically every patch I have can go from clean to stupid gain, with a variety of typical fx. I can count on one hand all the times I've hit the DSP wall, and I honestly can't remember the last tune that I couldn't get through using just one patch. There might be the occasional situation where you need to switch between two tones that are so radically different that it can't be achieved within one patch using snapshots, but those instances will be few and far between.

I sympathize with your plight, and you're not wrong...however we're dealing with a unit that, despite still being available, was effectively mothballed quite some time ago. Even the Helix stuff, the current "flagship"family of devices, are pushing 10 years old now, and the 500X passed it's prime well before that. If memory serves, I got mine somewhere around 2012. That's why you're getting a lackluster response to your service ticket...it's not right, but it's also not surprising. It's a sad fact of life in a disposable economy. I seriously doubt they're devoting much in the way of resources to the HD stuff at this point.

And failing that, there are a thousand youtube videos that describe the 4CM in gory detail.

One man's "simple" rig is another's Rube Goldberg contraption...;) Just contemplating that much signal gymnastics and add-on hardware, especially in a live situation, gives me a migraine. Best of luck in your quest, though! :)