cruisinon2

Because we have to pay for healthcare. ;) Nobody said life was fair...

I sympathize with your plight...but I've yet to see the modeler/ multi-fx unit that devotes equal time to bass and guitar stuff. And if there is one, I'll bet that it's lackluster on both ends. You're never gonna find all that in one box... at least not done well. The Zoom you mention is a bass- specific unit, so one would expect it to have more options for our low-end brethren than Helix.... which was never billed as purely a bass player's solution to anything.

537.2 ;) We're all just customers in here, so unless there was some official announcement with that info when they were released, nobody's gonna know. And any "official" personnel who do know, are very unlikely to tell you. That's how L6 rolls... of course, miracles do happen so maybe you'll get a real answer, but don't hold your breath. Every time a different color is released, we get one of these threads (there's one just a couple of titles below this one in the main menu). Stay tuned for others to chime in and announce their serial numbers..."I've got #173!"... that's about as close as you're gonna get.

Well you can find fault with his delivery if ya want, but it doesn't make him wrong. Don't hold your breath for any more updates... with the possible exception of the occasional bug fix, OS related "update", new drivers, etc. But it is a virtual certainty that there won't be any more new stuff added to this platform. And if by some miracle there is, it probably won't be free. That gravy train ended years ago....

Lol... well I was kidding, but you are 20+ years younger than me, so it's a virtual certainty that I've lost more high frequencies than you have at this point. We all lose them to a greater or lesser extent, the older we get. A word to the wise if you play at gig volumes: EARPLUGS. Every time. And not the $hitty foam ones from the drug store, unless you want to try and play all night hearing nothing but the bass player and the kick drum. Get a good fitted pair from an audiologist, with flat response filters so you can still hear everything, but at a tolerable volume... they'll cost you a couple hundred bucks, but it beats going deaf. You'll thank me later, but I digress. Bottom line is it's all of this stuff is entirely subjective... set the cuts wherever they sound best to you, and don't worry too much about individual numbers.

The perceived wisdom is that the dedicated hi/low cuts, or those in the parametric EQ are much steeper curves than the ones in the cab blocks, so that may explain the difference. Setting any of them at 20kHz though, really isn't trimming much... it's at the upper limit of what we're able to hear anyway, so I'm surprised that you notice much of a difference no matter which one you use. It depends largely on your choice of cab and mic models of course, but many of us end up needing much more savage high cuts than that to get rid of ice-pick fizz. Dragging it down around 5 or 6kHz is not at all unusual. Or it just means that you're 20 years younger than me, and I can't hear anything above 12kHz anymore...;)

It's the same with all the boutique stuff...past a certain threshold, unless the are 24K gold ingots embedded in the thing, how much "more" guitar can you possibly be getting? Eventually you're either paying for a name, over the top/gaudy aesthetics, or both..."Look what I can afford!" It's just like buying a Harley...$10K for the bike, and another $10K for the HD badge on the tank. ;)

I've never played any of his guitars, and while I'm sure they're nice serviceable instruments, the asking prices for used ones on Ebay are amusing to say the least. Can't find any pricing on his website, so who knows what he asks for a new one... but the cheapest pre-owned one I saw is $3K, and they range considerably higher than that. Some of the new listings from Japan are north of $8K...for Strat or Tele clone?!?! C'mon...I wouldn't pay that much for a bolt-on neck if it was the last guitar on earth. It's even more comical than what Fender wants for their custom shop stuff, which is usually good for a laugh...and I like Strats and Teles. Don't get me wrong, I'm not averse to spending money on guitars, and one man's waste of money is another's prized possession. Hell, I shelled out over $5K in late 90's dollars for a boutique instrument (with a set-neck), from a builder (https://www.phiferguitars.com/) whom probably even fewer people have heard of than James Tyler. His body styles are a bit unorthodox, and no doubt there are those who would think I pi$$ed my money away... but this is America, so buy what you like and/or charge what the market will bear! Lol...if folks are buying them, then salúd...I hope he's rolling in money. Just won't be mine.

Turn off "MIDI over USB" in Helix global settings and that behavior will stop... I find it super annoying when trying to record, especially if volume swells are on the menu. Only problem is that setting needs to be on if you want to use Workbench while connecting through Helix, otherwise it won't recognize that the guitar is connected... oh well, nothing's perfect. ;)

You mean you didn't like the cricket bat headstock with "James Tyler" emblazoned on it 53 times? I like my Les Paul, but I always felt it could use 10 or 12 more "Gibson" 's up there...;)

That may be... but you couldn't pay me to listen to music through anybody's 4x12 guitar cabinet, no matter how "uncolored" it allegedly is. Also, I've always found stereo-wired cabinets baffling in general, no matter what your pumping through it... calling anything that's stuffed inside one enclosure "stereo" makes no sense to me. There's no L/R isolation. If you want true stereo, you need physical separation of the L and R channels. But it's all a moot point anyway, and like I said, it was my own fault for not doing enough research... can't blame the device, no matter how bizarre it is.

Plenty of guys running 4CM... nothing wrong with it if that's what suits you. The OP had seemed to be juggling two very different options... combo vs. PA monitor. I was just trying to point out that out, so he'd get that they require different approaches, and that the the FRFR route allows for a bit more versatility... but versatility isn't necessarily what everyone needs or wants, of course. If it sounds good, it is good... however the hell you get there, lol

Yes, going into the FX return bypasses the preamp.... that's the whole point. If you're using amp and cab models in your patch, the last thing you want to do is take that signal and run it through another preamp... it'll color the tone significantly, effectively undoing all the effort you put into creating the sound in the first place. Another thing to consider is that since you are using an actual guitar amp, the cab models that you have in your patch are really unnecessary, and are probably doing more harm than good. Running a modeled cabinet through a real one is very likely the source of the muddiness that you had to EQ out. You'll probably get better results ditching the cab models altogether. If you want to use the amp for your basic tone, that's fine too... but you'll need to run the 4 cable method (4CM). There are numerous threads around here detailing how it works, but in a nutshell it allows you to insert the amp's preamp into the signal chain in place of an amp model, while also allowing various FX to be placed either before or after that preamp. Then everything is fed back to the amp's FX return, and into the power section. Needn't bother with cab models in this scenario either.

Lol...well that is quite the list. Given it's extensiveness, if I were you I'd prepare for what will very likely be an epic, personality-shattering disappointment. ;)

Oh now it's getting juicy..."controversial" additions, the laying of software groundwork for future "unthinkableness"... Any more things to guess blindly about, and I might never sleep again. ;)

As you can see from the responses, there are any number of ways to go about this... but your choice will largely depend on your needs. If you really want to take advantage of the myriad kinds of tones that Helix can produce, then your output device needs to be a blank slate.... that means going FRFR. There really aren't any "transparent" guitar amps or cabs... they all have their own character. If they didn't, there'd be no need for devices like Helix... half the point of gear like this is to allow you to bounce from a Dual Rec, to a Fender Twin, to Vox, etc. etc.... but monitoring through any traditional guitar amp will limit your ability to do that, because of those inherent characteristics. In other words, if you run a Marshall amp model through a Fender combo, you're gonna hear a whole lot more Fender than Marshall... speakers are half of your tone, if not more, and the result will be a "hybrid", if you will. This doesn't mean that you wouldn't like what you hear, however. If you just want a few basic tones, and you have an amp you like, then the 4CM might suit you just fine.... it's really up to you. There is no "best" option, only what's best for you.

Had the same problem a number of years ago. It's really my own fault for not adequately researching the Spider before I bought it....but I find it a puzzling design. The overwhelming majority of half-stack rigs are mono. No idea why they chose to force everybody into a stereo cabinet, or a pair of mono cabs.... other than to steer you into also buying the stereo cabinet they designed to go with it. Didn't keep mine very long...

It's totally normal. Patches will always return to their last saved state....doesn't matter what you've toggled on or off. If you want it to stay that way the next time you select that patch, you have to hit "save" before switching to something else.

Just for my own morbid curiosity... whatever the answer is, what are we going to do with that info once we have it?

In all likelihood that patch does have a cab block, but I'm not in front of my Helix at the moment either... Plug some headphones directly into Helix and see what the patch sounds like, compared to the playback from the DAW. If they sound radically different, then something's going on within Garageband.... channel EQ, etc. It's gonna be a trial and error thing to narrow it down.

We'll need to know exactly what blocks you're using in the signal chain and how you've configured the Powercab to answer that... but my guess is that if you have no cab block in the chain and are relying on the Powercab's onboard cab modeling, then that's your problem. You need either a cab model or an IR in the signal chain that you're feeding to the DAW. Otherwise you're recording a tone with only an amp model, and no speaker and mic emulation. That will sound irretrievably awful 100% of the time. Also, using the Powercab to monitor multitrack playback is not ideal... it's not designed for that, and you'd need two of them anyway. Look into a pair of studio monitors and/or decent flat- response headphones.

Your guess is as good as anyone's... but all the funky colors they've released were advertised as "limited" editions, which generally means one production run, and that's it. Either way, you'll never get a definitive answer from anyone official.... but don't hold your breath.

Who knows? I can't imagine being constantly on and hot is any better for a device's longevity, but honestly I have no idea...I turn stuff off when I'm done with it, always have. What I do know is everything craps the bed eventually, no matter who's book of wisdom you're following. Sometimes before you're ready for it, and sometimes loooong after you thought it would. The other thing you can bank on is this... with the pace of technology being what it is, the odds are you'll lose interest in Helix in favor of whatever comes along to replace it, long before it dies on you. There was nothing wrong with my POD HD...I just wanted a Helix, lol.

Tell you what... you tell me how many more times you'd like to hear "you win"... it'll save us both some time. Moving on...

Personally, I'd avoid Behringer... the Alto's are a favorite around here, Yamaha DXR series, Headrush has one more that's more or less identical to the Alto's, QSC, the StageSource stuff. Lots of options... much depends on your budget. Prices are all over the map.