Digital_Igloo

Yep, the communication protocol for the Helix app is very different from that of HD500. If you remember, it's really clunky to attempt to edit from the HD500 hardware and software at the same time. With Helix, you can have three band members editing things simultaneously—one from the front panel, one from the software, and one via MIDI. With Helix Rack, since Helix Control's Pedal Edit Mode is in a separate box, you can have four band members edit things simultaneously. No offline mode also means we can provide updates faster.

Ah, cool. You could use those toggles to adjust parameters (and mapping them's really fast with Learn Controller), but currently, individual block bypass can't be assigned to incoming MIDI CC. The only way to bypass blocks from external devices is to first assign them to Helix switches and the CCs emulate pressing those switches.

Yes. Assign FCB1010's first pedal to CC002 and it'll emulate Helix's EXP 2. Assign its second pedal to CC003 and it'll emulate Helix's EXP 3. I assume this is so you don't have to sell the FCB and buy two expression pedals?

It's not bypassed as much as it simply doesn't apply to any outputs other than 1/4" or XLR.

Global EQ only affects the 1/4" and XLR outs. You can specify which on Global EQ > Page 4.

Unfortunately, no. POD HD and Helix have vastly different architectures.

The latest FW is 1.10, available here.

Doesn't matter what's assigned to the footswitch, it can still be named from the Command Center screen. The only reason you couldn't customize a scribble strip is if nothing's assigned to it.

It's definitely a bug. We'll have it fixed in the next rev.

G10 is really cool and dead simple to use, but it's important to understand that it's designed for home, practice spaces, and smaller venues. Don't expect to run around a big theater with no dropouts. Also, ease of use was paramount, at the expense of manual channel selection. So if two band members each have a G10, everything needs to be powered up and paired in the right order, otherwise there's a chance of transmitters pairing to the wrong receiver. You can run multiple G10s simultaneously if you're careful, but it's intended to be used solo. For larger venues and tours, we strongly recommend G30/50/55/70/75/90. I swear it's not an upsell thing.

You're probably looking for 4-Cable Method. I won't get into the madness here (lots of great 4CM videos out there), but once you're hooked up, here's how you set it up in Helix: Press the PRESETS knob and use the joystick to select 8 TEMPLATES > 02A 4-Cable Method. Press HOME. Footswitch 2 (HELIX PREAMP) lets you toggle—in real time—between your real Matchless preamp and any of Helix's preamp models. Any effects blocks before the FX Loop block will be in the front of your Matchless; any effects blocks after the Preamp block will be in your Matchless's effects loop—between its preamp and power amp. Save what you've made to other preset locations and try out other preamps and effects. Done.

No, but provided you're not clipping Helix's A/D, you could place a Volume/Pan > Mono > Gain block at the very beginning of the signal path.

The next version of the editor should (SHOULD) fix the woes that mid-2012 MacBook Pro and iMac guys have been experiencing with El Capitan. The solution came from a combination of 10.11.4 (you'll need to update to this version of El Cap), additional diagnostic tools provided by Apple post-10.11.4 public release, and a lot of deep digging. I shouldn't say it wasn't our fault, but... My mid-2012 MacBook Pro was the only computer in the building that didn't work. The editor works great with my computer now—fewer dropouts than before El Cap—and with luck, we should be able to release it to the public in the next couple of weeks.

To be fair, our wish list is gargantuan—many hundreds of features and many hundreds of models. We likely won't get to 90% of it before Helix is EOL'ed who-knows-how-many-years from now. That's why IdeaScale is important; it helps dictate what ends up in the 10% we do get to. A big part of my job is prioritizing that list; that's why I wear asbestos pants every day.

Because there's no such thing as a footswitch on/off. Each stomp in Helix can have up to 8 items assigned to it. Pressing FS2 could turn three blocks on, turn another three blocks off, set an Amp block's gain to 4.5, turn a Delay block's feedback down to 34%, and spit out a CV message to a vintage Moog pedal, all simultaneously. "On" and "off" don't really apply in this case. The switch's LED reflects the state of the currently focused item (touch repeatedly to cycle through multiple-assigned items), not the state of the switch. However, On and Off would apply if we were to allow for individual block bypass via assignable MIDI CC; I would imagine receiving a value of 0-63 would turn the block off and receiving a value of 64-127 would turn the block on. Helix doesn't currently do this, but it's in our gargantuan list of things we may or may not ever get to. PC Toggle is doable. Vote that sucka up!

And you are, so genuine thanks for the input. If enough people feel it's important to include a paper manual, we'll budget for one. It's certainly worth posting on IdeaScale. I can't say we won't include a paper manual in the future; I can only explain the reasoning behind why we didn't this time. Traditionally, Line 6 includes a small black and white "Pilot's Guide" to get users started and then posts a deeper full Advanced Manual online (no USB key). With Helix, we consider the full-color Cheat Sheet to be our printed Pilot's Guide and the USB key to be the Advanced Manual. We rethought pretty much everything with Helix—distribution, marketing, dealer networks, packaging, information dissemination, development resources, the gamut... IdeaScale exists to provide metrics on whether or not we made the right decisions, and informs new decisions going forward. I will say that we left it wide open to change key elements in Helix that unfortunately, could completely undermine any printed material, so that was a big factor as well. It's not just the model list that would be out of date; all screenshots could eventually be wrong, or menus could be reorganized, which could cause a ton of confusion without living, dynamic documentation.

All effects except for the reverbs and 8 of the 10 wahs were created in Helix from the ground up. The HD/M-Class reverbs and wahs were rebuilt in HX tho', so they sound better and in some cases, have more nuance and control. Also, the analog front end and A/D/A conversion is superior in Helix, so the raw sonic quality has improved as well, even with no modeling active.

Correct; you'd have to do that in the real world with real amps too. The only way to hear stereo effects through 99% of amps is to... have two amps. :) In the studio, stereo effects are typically added after the amps, but yeah, they sound very different. Effects before amps tends to shave off their squirrelly bits in a pleasing way. I have Helix Rack/Control, Helix floor (at work), POD HD Pro, and M9. I still play through my DL4 all the time, mainly because it's so easy to make killer weird ambient noises with the expression pedal: Connect an expression pedal to DL4. Move the expression pedal to the heel down position and move any or all of the knobs. Move the expression pedal to the toe down position and move any or all of the knobs. Now moving the expression will morph all knobs. Instant weird tape echo madness. I've made entire ambient pieces with only a DL4. Why everyone and their mom isn't using expression with their DL4 is beyond me. It's killer fun.

From page 28 of the Helix Owner's Manual: Loading Custom IRs Loading custom impulse responses requires connecting to the Helix application in your Mac® or Windows® computer. The Helix application is available as a free download from line6.com/software. Connect Helix to your computer via USB and open the Helix application. Click the Impulses tab. Drag one or more IR files from the desktop or any Finder window directly into the Helix app's Impulses list.

Yep. 8 TEMPLATES > 02A 4-Cable Method. Pressing FS2 (HELIX PREAMP) toggles between your real amp's preamp and one of Helix's. So if 90% of your songs use, say, your real MESA/Boogie Mk IV but one song sounds better with a Roland JC-120 model, you can swap them with a single footswitch.

Note that each of Helix's two paths gets its own DSP. If you attempt to build everything on Path 1, you're only using half the available horsepower. Check out the 8 TEMPLATES > 01B Parallel Spans preset as an example of how both paths can be utilized to make one huge parallel dual amp tone. Also, page 19 in the Helix Owner's Manual provides a few tips and tricks for getting the most out of your DSP.

Hmmm, that wasn't my intention; thanks for the heads up. I'll change that when I get to the office. EDIT: Updated illustration, added two lines where the signal integrity is stereo.

Helix currently supports mono IRs, but yes, it can run up to four IRs—two per path (DSP permitting). Let's take a Ping Pong Delay with echoes that jump from left to right and back every 300ms. If a Split block splits a stereo signal into separate mono Left and mono Right paths (which Helix does NOT do), the Amps will be fed different signals—Amp 1 gets the Left at 300ms, Amp 2 gets the Right at 600ms, Amp 1 gets the Left again at 900ms, Amp 2 gets the right again at 1200ms, and so on. Doesn't matter whether the amps are mono or not (they are), they're passing different signals through at different times. If the two paths are later panned hard left and hard right at the mixer block, the signal bounces between your ears and these differences make the resultant signal sound wide and stereo-like. See diagram A below. But if a Split block splits a stereo signal into two identical stereo Left+Right paths (as Helix does), the Amps are being fed the same signals—Amp 1 and Amp 2 both get the Left at 300ms, the Right at 600ms, the Left at 900ms, and the Right at 1200ms. And because they merge these two duplicated stereo signals to mono (like amp models in all other modelers), the result sounds mono-ish, because they're passing the same signals through. See diagram B below. Adding Pan blocks to each Helix path before the amp forces the paths to pass through different sides of the Ping Pong delay at different times, which makes them sound stereo. See digram C below. Or if we eventually add a Split > Separate L/R block, it'd do the same thing, but wouldn't waste two block locations. EDIT: Since this writing, we've added Balance Parameters to the Split > Y block. Panning these hard left and hard right effectively accomplishes the same thing as adding two Pan blocks after the split. There are good reasons for not making stereo amp models: (Almost) no real guitar amps are true stereo; that is, they don't accept a stereo guitar, process each side separately, and spit them out separate outputs Stereo amp models would take literally twice the DSP; as Helix's Amp+Cab models are the most DSP-intensive category, you might not have enough horsepower to add stereo effects to pass through them anyway! Any true stereo amp model would effectively be just two identical mono amp models with virtual pan blocks before them anyway. So really, by adding those Pan blocks before the two Helix amps, you're effectively creating one big stereo amp model :) EDIT: Wasn't entirely satisfied with my verbiage, so I drew a picture. Think of the green dashes as Ping Pong Delay echoes; if it's above the line, it's in your left ear, if it's below the line, it's in your right ear, if it's on the line, it's mono.

So much more succinct, amigo. I type way too much. :P

TL;DR: Yes, Helix can approximate this. All of Helix's paths are stereo, and the Split Block splits both the left and right signals to both A and B. What's happening in your other modeler is that its split separates the left and right signals to two separate mono feeds into two mono amps, which if their downstream paths are panned hard left and right, will appear stereo. Any stereo effects are indeed summed to mono into the amp, but the path after the split was more than likely mono to begin with. With Helix, it sounds mono because both the left and right signals appear at both paths, and when merged to mono at the amps, don't give the same stereo width as two mono paths—the sonic difference between the amps and cabs give you a bit of separation, but you're right, the effects before them will appear mono. However, you can do what you want in Helix with two additional blocks: After any stereo effects block but before the Amp block on each path, add a Volume/Pan > Stereo > Pan block. Pan one Pan block all the way left and the other all the way right. "Pan" is actually a misnomer, as the block actually acts as a stereo balance control; that is, when panned all the way to the left, it'll pass only the left side of, say, a ping pong delay. The reason we don't call that parameter "balance" is because few people know the difference, and "pan" is much more ubiquitous. Make sure your Merge > Mixer Pan parameters are panned hard left and hard right as well. We have a wish list item for a new Split > Separate L/R block that would send the left side to Path A and the right side to Path B. Not sure how far down it is tho'. It'd save two block locations, but the DSP savings would be negligible. EDIT: Since this writing, we've added Balance Parameters to the Split > Y block. Panning these hard left and hard right effectively accomplishes the same thing as adding two Pan blocks after the split.