cruisinon2

Getting a convincing acoustic tone is mostly about what you're listening through when creating your tones. You need some sort of FRFR speaker solution, as that's what you'll be dealing with at the gig... studio monitors, a good pair of reasonably flat response headphones, etc. If you're currently running your POD Go through a traditional guitar amp, you can tweak until you turn blue, and it'll never sound like an acoustic guitar as typical guitar speakers lack a sufficiently wide frequency response. Also, it will then sound wildly different when you run through the PA. Beyond that, you don't really need to bother using an amp sim in your chain either, in fact it'll probably do more harm than good. Some compression, a studio preamp, EQ, and any fx you might want (reverb, delay, etc) are really all you need to get a decent acoustic tone. You could also just run a completely empty patch using the raw Variax acoustic model of your choice, and let the sound guy deal with the EQ and fx...if you were playing an actual acoustic/ electric guitar, or a mic-ed acoustic at the gig, that's exactly what would be happening anyway.

You don't mention anything about what cabs you're pairing with a given amp, or more importantly your choice of mic sims and their position. Just grabbing a cabinet and dropping it in the chain after the amp block is only half the battle. The mic choice and where you put it have a HUGE impact on the final result... just as it does in a studio mic-ing a real cabinet. There are a bunch of mics to choose from... try different ones and move them around. I assure you that the cab/mic sims in Helix can produce anything from the "wet blanket" effect you mention to "screeching like a f*cked cat during a bird calling contest". Your job is to find a happy medium...

You should post this over in the POD Farm section, under "computer based recording". Those whom might have the answer you're looking for are not likely to see it in here... The Lounge is a ghost town, lol.

The mustard sub-menu would be exhausting. I can think of at least a dozen adjustable parameters for Dijon alone...

Pastrami Overdrive would be a great Weird Al album title...

If Helix can't make me a sandwich after the next update, I'm going Fractal...

Might as well ask for a tuna sub and a foot massage... nobody "official" frequents this forum. Feature requests have to go in IdeaScale.

Well my initial thought was why are you daisy chaining two modelers together? Without the specifics regarding exactly how you have things set up and what you're actually using each device to do, is gonna be difficult to troubleshoot...

"Something I'm trying to do ain't working" ...;)

Ok, I'll bite. What does a steam pipe sound like? Honestly, I have no idea... all I can picture is a lot of loud white noise, and I'm trying to undesrtand how that would ever be even remotely usable or desirable in a musical setting...

It's the Fetzer valve...

That might have accounted for some of it, but I think it was a tough sell for a lot of reasons, and it's a bit of a stretch to blame the whole thing on a "Big Retail" conspiracy, lol. The Variax is/was a rather quirky beast that requires a great deal of tinkering to get everything just right... and even then they're tempermental, prone to going on tilt if anything is the slightest bit out of whack. And that's just not something that the masses generally want to get involved with. They want the instant gratification of "plug and play" gear... and the Variax just ain't that. Not to mention that they also require an additional investment in other gear that a lot of players didn't necessarily have, if they wanted to take full advantage of what it can do... specifically with regard to the acoustic models. I think a lot of people bought them under the mistaken impression that it would make their favorite traditional guitar amp pump out tones indistinguishable from the raw sound of their favorite Martin or Gibson Jumbo, not realizing that it would require a further investment in FRFR speakers to get there. Imho, Variax was always gonna be niche product.

Wow...I've been wanting something like this for years, lol. This should accommodate the 3 or 4 other pedals I use along with the Helix quite nicely. Thanks for sharing!

Helix debuted sometime in 2015, if memory serves. Given that they haven't gotten around to cranking out an iPad editor during the first 9 years of the product's life cycle, then the smart money says that it's gonna be a long wait for a train that ain't coming...

I've never understood the obsession with having the latest and greatest "Product X". A device either fulfills your wants/needs, or it doesn't. I have a 5 year old phone in my pocket. Why? Because it works. How different could the brand new one that Verizon wants to sell me for $1K possibly be? Who cares if an even newer one is coming out in 3 months? SPOILER ALERT: We live in a disposable economy. Something new is always coming out in 3 months. Couple that with a buying public who: A) Has been conditioned to believe that they're "missing out" if they don't treat themselves to every shiny new toy that hits the shelves, and B) Often has the attention span of a house fly... And the result is discussions like this, lol. At this point the "next big thing" IS just around the corner... and that ain't gonna change anytime soon....whether it's from L6 or somebody else, whatever it is, it's coming. You can play the waiting game if you want, but if you get sucked down that rabbit hole, you'll never buy anything... because "what if the next thing is better?" Oh, the horror...;) Buy whatever you want/ need, and can afford. But waiting with bated breath for extended and/ or unknown periods of time for some future, even more magical device, is just an exercise in self-denial. Just my 2 cents...

So choosing to read instructions instead of forging ahead blindly with a multi-step process, assuming that you won't f*ck it up, now qualifies as "special logic"? There's actually another term for it: common sense... but I digress. That aside, how much time do you think you've wasted getting miffed at words on a page? Words that were not even directed at you personally. Or are you just cranky because you screwed it up, and then got called out by a memo? If this kind of thing gets your knickers in a twist to this degree, then what sort of short circuit is precipitated by somebody giving you a dirty look in person? Life's rough... if you can't develop a thicker skin, especially for things that don't actually matter and can be readily dismissed, then you're gonna be miserable for the rest of your days. And by your own choice...

I crack walnuts with mine...

Can't say I'm surprised... and with the official demise of all things Variax back in October, don't hold your breath for any help from L6.

I checked out the Full Compass link... seems that ordering it here in the states is a crap shoot, too. Says "Out of stock, lead times vary". If you ask me that's code for "we have no f*cking clue when this thing will be back in stock", lol. I can try ordering it for you if you want, but for all we know, I might be firing up the BBQ for the 4th of July before it gets here. Your call...

Don't think so...

Really? They kept the absurdly overpriced US models and discontinued the ones that 99.97% of people might actually buy? Lol...That's among the more bizarre business decisions I've seen.

Are you having issues with the modeled sounds, or when using the mag pickups? If it's the models that are the problem (as they often are with the piezo saddles), individual string volumes can be adjusted in Workbench. Adjusting the mag pickup height, or the height of individual pole pieces won't help you... the mag pickups are disengaged when using the models. They have nothing to do with the string volume of modeled tones.

Well let's see... 1) Semi-awesome 2) Awesome* 3) Graphically challenged 4) Virtually knobless Let the games begin... lol

It's anybody's guess of course... but in my experience, companies that wake up one day with a bug up their a$$ to "reinvent themselves", tend to regret it. Now where'd I put that bottle of New Coke? Lol... They either go back to doing what they do best, or they end up in Chapter 11. Being one of the pioneers of amp modeling, I can't see them abandoning the market completely in pursuit of some untested gamble as their new "flagship" device. I doubt Yamaha would be on board with that sort of financial Russian roulette, either...

Could be two weeks, could be years away... the only ones who know, ain't talking. But the smart money says it's still a ways off, so tuck in, as it's likely to be a while.