Monter

Thanks to all. As I said I have tried the pitch with HD500x and M9 and found them to be glitchy, my real question was whether Helix could offer improved pitch effects. Using PS6 with Helix would Not be a solution for me.

Thanks guys.... 'Dragon is right in that if you place a pitch effect before the amp it will sound cac, and suck the tone out, the pitch should be after the amp and in the loop,b etween pre and post amp stages. But i am sad to hear Thurston9's response, because that syncs with what I read, and because I do use pitch effects (sparingly, but I do use them) that is barrier to buying Helix. I currently have two setups, one 'classical' pedal board using PS6 for pitch and the other using Atomic Amplifire and using H9 for pitch.... I was hoping to combine everything in the same box.

Hello, I am in a band that requires me to use double and treble harmonies, and currently I use a Boss PS6 to do that (two actually!). I want to know if Helix can offer usable harmony configurations. I ask becasue I thought the HD500x and M9 pitch offerings were poor in terms of audio, and I read somewhere that Line 6 had basically moved its M9 effects to Helix without improvements. Don't get me wrong, I think L6 effects are very good, I just found that the pitch algorithms were a bit .... squeaky... difficult to articulate, but compared with a Boss PS6 it was just not as a good and I ended up not using them.

Yep, make sense, similarly I have a 1971 Yairi which has never required any replacements and sounds great...but I'm not sure any mic system will work that well, they all look so clumsy and need more boxes in the chain to make it all work. Thanks for the feedback.

After not having used it for years my Variax 300 nylon string action is way too high, the manual tells me how to adjust 'neck relief', but I can't convince myself that will cure the string height which is a whopping 4mm at the twelfth fret. Am I right and does that mean lowering the string height from the bridge by sanding the saddle down?  

Thanks to everyone for your feedback, very grateful, all of interest.... I am sure the tones will be good... after L6 are the pioneers in this, wasn't it 1998 or so when the first bean came out? So they've had time to perfect the tones... my concern is more to do with using those tones in battle! You know how it is, you get a great tone at home and then you go to the rehearsal and discover there's no head room when you need it. And that takes some modeling... listen to the range and dynamic that someone like Robben Ford gets even out of a deVille...can anyone attest to hElix performing well in battle?

Hi, I have owned 5 PODs since 1999, and still have my trusty old V2 and XT, which I still use from time to time and get some decent tones from. I have always enjoyed Line 6 gear, and now I'm umming and arrrring about Helix .... BUT the very fact that all processor-driven devices time-out so quickly (= devalues fast) plus the fact that the cost of a Helix is not far south of a decent amp head makes this a completely different proposition. 

But i'm still curious, and there's one thing that might persuade me.

I'm a great believer in getting a good basic amp tone ... not masked by gain or other effects ... just a simple tone say, of a Plexi or AC30 with no heat dialed in at all. Over the years I have been able to get an approximation from the XT, but then when I A/B it against my Marshall 1987x or Blackstar Artist I am sorely reminded what all those components are doing! Both amps give great dynamic clean tones, and are a joy to noodle around with without any effects.   I well remember from my first beanie how important it is to have that benchmark, because it's so easy to go off piste with modelling. 

So is Helix really able to re-create the glorious base tones and dynamic of a good valve amp? Most of the U-Tube stuff tests hi gain models which I know L6 do well (remembering now my 500x) but I haven't seen evidence that Helix can perform well at clean and 'just clipping' tones.   

I'd like to hear from a Helix owner who doesn't always do hi gain tones, and has perhaps compared the playability of the Helix against a decent valve amp. 

Thanks. Did that, but it wants me to install a legacy version of Java which is a no no because it screws up other software

Hi, I have owned 5 PODs since 1999, and still have my trusty old V2 and XT, which I still use from time to time and get some decent tones from. I have always enjoyed Line 6 gear, and now I'm umming and arrrring about Helix .... BUT the very fact that all processor-driven devices time-out so quickly (= devalues fast) plus the fact that the cost of a Helix is not far south of a decent amp head makes this a completely different proposition.

But i'm still curious, and there's one thing that might persuade me.

I'm a great believer in getting a good basic amp tone ... not masked by gain or other effects ... just a simple tone say, of a Plexi or AC30 with no heat dialed in at all. Over the years I have been able to get an approximation from the XT, but then when I A/B it against my Marshall 1987x or Blackstar Artist I am sorely reminded what all those components are doing! Both amps give great dynamic clean tones, and are a joy to noodle around with without any effects.   I well remember from my first beanie how important it is to have that benchmark, because it's so easy to go off piste with modelling. 

So is Helix really able to re-create the glorious base tones and dynamic of a good valve amp? Most of the U-Tube stuff tests hi gain models which I know L6 do well (remembering now my 500x) but I haven't seen evidence that Helix can perform well at clean and 'just clipping' tones.   

I'd like to hear from a Helix owner who doesn't always do hi gain tones, and has perhaps compared the playability of the Helix against a decent valve amp. 

Just downloaded the manuals and cannot see any reference to the cabinet model listing, can anyone link me to the list ? Ta

I still use my trusty POD XT from time to time, because it is still a decent modeller, but I would love to be able to edit via my Mac .. I have a horrid feeling that Line 6's editing software won't talk to Mac's OS X now but I thought I'd ask the question "is anyone else managing to edit an XT via Mac?"  

cheers

Hi

Like others, I commonly use a distortion in front of a delay unit, however using an M9 to generate distortion and delay direct into an amp makes a harsh unpleasant delay sound, and the 'mix' value has to be set so low because the effect has become super-sensitive. What I believe is needed is to route the delay in parallel rather than series but I cannot see how to do that in this context. Others must surely have the same issue?

Does anyone know a workaround? 

cheers

Hi

OK, so it has probably been several years since I hooked up my POD xt and controlled it using Logic programme changes bias a Yamaha UX16 MIDI unit but surely this hasn't all timed out too??!!?? 

POD XT connected via Yamaha UX16 Midi unit - MacBook Pro running Logic Pro X / OS Mavericks (x.9+) 

Can anyone help?

Well that is what I suspected, thanks a lot for taking the time to reply and making my mind up!!

Hi

I love this pedal but as soon as I connect it into a chain with other pedals it generates a hideous sweeping noise which swishes in time with the delay light. I am using a Dunlop Power Brick to supply the power, so I am thinking the problem cannot be with that, yet if I power the Echo Park in isolation... It works fine. So what to do? Hoping someone out there has the answer

Regards

Thanks to everyone for responding, assigning a closed FX loop to a FS might just work in both preset and global settings, so i'll give that a go

HI

I want to assign a vomue increase to a FS for raiing the volume for soloing. I do not want to use the EXP1 pedal, nor use an EQ or any other pedal that adds colour or gain, I want a pure volume increase as if turning up the master volume nut a tad.

• In preset mode I was thinking that I could assign the FS to an increase in the master volume of the amp for the preset but could not get this to work.
• Using the HD500x as a pedal board (in global mode now) I sort of expected to see something like the MXR micro amp because it is in the L6 gallery, but .. nothing of the kind seems to exist in the HD500x effects without adding colour or gain.  

Any ideas?

• I havent found any preset that really addressess a 12 string in Line 6 or any other make. The pitch shifting isn't really up to it, you can get it to sound OK on individual notes but then it sounds awful when you strum. The best proven and reliable approximation i have found over the years is to combine a compressor, chorus and delay. The chorus modulates the note around the delay to give a subtle 'slightly out of tune' sound while the compressor gives sparkle and jangle.... it ain't perfect but it is reliable and a blind man on a galloping horse wouldn't tell the difference.

Thanks to all who have responded. It is a tricky affair, and one you dont have to the same extent when playing through a traditional amp. It has just occured to me that I do actually know how to get the presets to a semblence of balance: I will play and adjust against pre-recorded backing tracks that I have used before on stage succesfuly with an older POD and just keep tweaking until i get it right. After that, as you say, it's seat of pants live tweaking!!

Maybe one day our frinds at Line 6 will come up with some alchemy which dials in the requisit ingrediants to help POD users balance their presets quicker... after all, look at where they are going with StageScape.  

Hi

I have used PODs since the first one and have never cracked this old chestnut.

When you use a number of presets, each preset has a volume setting assigned by you, and your ear tells you roughly where those settings should be to get a balance that sounds right between the presets be they clean clipped crunch or crazy. However when you get onto stage with drums and bass the volumes that you thought were 'there or there abouts' can be way out, some are loud, some weak, and it can be surprising how the best musical ear can be proved wrong. In the past I have just had to set the volumes as I go playing live, and that takes some time.

Soooooo, does anyone know of a method of setting the 'preset' volumes so that they balance in terms of 'perceived sound' ??  I appreciate you 'll never get the perfect balance between the presets until you test them on stage, but I suppose I am wondering whether anyone has plugged into Cubase or Logic and set up a loudness meter or perhaps by way of some other alchemy to speed the process up.

Hi

I bought a classical variax some years back, and have used it extensivly for recording, and very pleased with the results. Does anyone know whether this is compatible with the new HD500X pedalboard?  

I did trawl through Knowledge base but could not get an answer to this.

Just about to buy an M9 but not certain how the 4CM applies. 4CM is used to split FXs pre and post pre-amp.  I know how to plug the guitar into the M9 and the FX loop arrangement between M9 and the amp's send and return, ;) ,  but nowhere have I been able to find the answer to where that fourth cable (which goes to the amp's input) inserts into the M9. The only one it can be is the remaining left output, and that means you can't run the 4CM in stereo - am I right?  

Very grateful if anyone can help here, and has anyone used this to configure a Flex pedal for use as a wah wah so that its signal goes to the amp input direct, while mod FX go to send/return?

cheers