cruisinon2

How good are jelly donuts, lima beans and baked scrod? And who's opinion would matter if you hate those things regardless? As far as I'm concerned, they every bit as good as all the factory presets that preceded them...in other words, they're craptastic! ;) I'm me, and I approved this message. Your mileage may vary... and a test drive is the only way to find out.

No... just one of the myriad reasons that factory presets are largely useless.

I don't see how it would be possible to add DSP without performing surgery on everybody's device...and I doubt that would be logistically feasible, or cost effective. And even if it were, there's certainly no way that the average end user would be able to do it themselves...hell, every single firmware update is torpedoed by folks who don't/won't/can't read instructions, and f*ck up their units as a result... and the only prerequisites for completing that task successfully are literacy and the ability to click a mouse without falling off your chair. "Helix 2", or whatever this product line's eventual successor will be, will no doubt have more horsepower... that's practically a given. But we all bought what we bought. You can expect evolution via firmware updates for a while as long as they're still selling enough units to offset development costs, but the hardware is what it is.

If my options are being labeled arrogant, or plowing through life paying no attention to anything, causing problems that otherwise wouldn't exist, I'll take the arrogant label...

How does Step One consistently get missed with every firmware update? Boggles the mind...

Responses will be hard to come by with a thread titled "Tom"...

Pope Modeler XIV also had a few choice things to say about factory presets and the tuner, but the official records have been sealed by the Vatican until the release of Helix 2 or Armageddon, whichever comes first...;)

He means using a preamp model (as opposed to a full amp model), then running into your actual amp, or poweramp/cabinet rig, whatever you're using. There are no isolated poweramp models in there... they only exist as part of the full amp models.

That's exactly how the global EQ is supposed to be used... minor tweaks to otherwise "done" patches in different acoustic environments and at different volumes, etc. etc. The only way you can get into trouble with the global EQ is leaving it on when creating patches from scratch. A curve that works for dirt often won't for clean, or silly loud vs. living room levels, etc etc.

This makes 3.0 the best update ever! There's nothing better than an inaudible factory preset...;)

On their list of priorities, this will probably land somewhere between staff requests for monogrammed toilet paper in the workplace, and making National Gazpacho Day a paid holiday...

Yup, lol... You can't quantify an opinion. You can't prove that opinion A is "better" than opinion B. There is no "why", or Universal Good Sound Standard against which to measure one's modeled creations. There is only what you like, and what you don't like... and if I had a thousand years and a limitless research budget, I still wouldn't be able to tell you why you hate oatmeal...;) How these merry-go-round, conclusion-less conversations continue to persist is beyond me. That being said, will somebody please explain my fondness for sautéed pickled goat's liver?. This is a question that needs answering, and I'm anxiously awaiting everyone's independent test results. A list of approved spices and sautéing instructions is available upon request... please don't deviate, or it will skew the results. ;)

Since it seems to be affecting all audio, I would tend to think that it's a computer issue, rather than the Stomp itself... but you can always try a different USB port. USB hubs sometimes create problems too. If you're using one you can try ditching it and see if the problem persists.

Are my tones better now than they were a few years ago? Yes... but as noted above, it's gonna be kinda difficult for anybody, even an experienced user, to determine precisely "why". Like anything else, the more you do something, the better you get at it... so figuring out whether my sounds are better because there has been some technological quantum leap delivered via a firmware update, or if I've simply gotten better at using the tools at my disposal, is almost impossible for anyone to determine. Personally, I'd argue against the "quantum leap" theory. While firmware updates often include new amp and effect models, I don't think that any huge changes are made to existing ones... and if there are, it's certainly not "night and day" obvious. But that's just my 2 cents, as I have no inside knowledge of what they actually do behind the scenes. Here's the bottom line: any of today's top-tier modelers are fantastic tools that will deliver great sounds IF (and only if) you know how to use them... and that takes time. It's a computer, and like every other computer on earth, garbage in=garbage out. And no matter which unit you buy, none of them will deliver instant gratification right out of the box. That much I promise you...

Ok... now I see your problem. 5 minutes with any modeler is woefully insufficient. Modeling is a whole other world... there are many things that aren't terribly intuitive or obvious when you're just getting your feet wet... give it 5 weeks noodling around and you'll start to get acquainted with it. It's a marathon, not a sprint. And the factory presets are... how shall I put this diplomatically... oh, screw it. They're as worthless as an elevator in an outhouse. You have to build your tones yourself. It's the only way...

As already mentioned, one man's "couldn't care less", is another's deal-breaker. You might give Helix another shot and decide that it's exactly the same as your first experience, infinitely better, or infinitely worse. Perception is weird, and largely without explanation. The only way you'll ever know is to give it a try... and I don't mean a couple of hours on a Saturday. You need to spend a significant amount of time with Helix (or any other modeler for that matter) to really know if it's the right fit for you or not. Buy from someplace with a decent return policy so you've got nothing to lose...a couple of weeks at a bare minimum... and see what's what. Relying on someone else's experience is almost entirely worthless... besides, everybody here is a fan. You won't get much in the way of negative feedback... but a bunch of glowing reviews guarantees nothing. You might end up hating or anyway.

Yup... demand an answer to the unanswerable, then scoff at others' inability to accomplish said task. I honestly don't think I've ever been that bored...

Test what? You're asking for someone to dial up a bunch of arbitrary settings and explain why you like the end result... Nevermind. Good luck in your quest for objective truth amongst the countless variables that shape individual perception.

And you can keep asking until the end of time and never get a concrete answer... because there isn't one. What sounds good to any of us if 100% subjective, and how you got there is completely irrelevant to anyone's experience but yours. There's nothing to measure, quantify, or validate against any "standard"... It's a useless as hiring a team of PhD neuroscientists to determine why your favorite color is periwinkle blue. It just is...and who cares? Would you stop liking it if they told you the answer was "9"? You've found your secret sauce. That's a good thing. Tearing it apart with micro-analytical philosophical questions is pointless. If you like your sound... go play. This will get you nowhere.

And I would have liked to know that my ex-wife was crazy before I got married... but that knowledge doesn't do me any good now though, does it? You've already returned the thing. A revelation won't help you now... if you're looking for reassurance that you made the right decision, then you're barking up the wrong tree in here... post this over in the PodFarm forum, and you'll get all the "thumbs ups", back slaps, and standing ovations you can stomach. But you will get little to no validation from fans of the gear you claim is inferior... especially when the only requirement you seem to have is "I want to drown everything in reverb". We've all bought stuff we ended up disliking for one reason or another. It's unavoidable...but this discussion is irretrievably pointless.

lmao... this thread needs a new title. Something like "I'm comfortable with my old setup, and the LT gave me the $hits because I didn't know how to use it, so back it went"...

There's been rampant speculation about this for years now...given that there's been no firmware update of any significance for ~5-6 years, at this point. Your guess is as good as anybody else's...

Become? LOL... This ain't new.

Nobody does. Trouble is, there's no way around it, and if you think that someone else's patches are going to save you, you're mistaken. When the only common denominator is the Stomp, and the rest of the rig from the guitar(s) used to create the patch, to the playback system, to the player's himself, to the volume at which it was done are all a complete mystery, any hope of tonal continuity from one guy to the next is pure fantasy. Any patches you buy, you'll end up having to tweak anyway. No matter how awesome the demo video sounds, it's not gonna sound identical when you fire it up on your end... that much is a guarantee.

If you otherwise like the 69, aside from the neck width at the nut (and you're not alone, believe me), invest in any Strat replacement neck with dimensions that suit you better. Most come pre-drilled for Strat mounting bolts, so you will have to dowel and re-drill to accommodate the one offset bolt, but otherwise the dimensions are identical. If you're not comfortable doing that yourself, any tech/luthier with half a skull can do it, and it should be relatively inexpensive. Trust me, it'll become a new instrument, and be a hell of a lot cheaper than shelling or for a 59, even if you pay to have it mounted... I've always had good luck with Warmoth, but there are other options out there.