Digital_Igloo

If you want Helix to only send PC messages manually; that is, not when switching presets, you must turn Global Settings > MIDI/Tempo > PC Send/Receive off.

Here's an easy test: Place an Amp+Cab block on Path 1A and separate, identical Amp and Cab blocks on Path 1B. At the Mixer block, invert Path B's polarity. If the two paths are identical, the signal should all but disappear.

Press and hold the Delay's Feedback knob. Helix jumps to the Controller Assign page for that parameter. Press Knob 6 (Learn Controller) and then the footswitch you want it assigned to. If desired, tweak the min and max values. Press HOME to exit.

It's not that IRs are inherently better than Helix's cabs (which are IRs themselves), but when searching for your ultimate guitar tone, there's a LOT more to choose from in third-party IR land—thousands (tens of thousands?) vs. Helix's 30. We didn't add IR support because people demanded it; we added it because we wanted it. I have my favorite RedWirez and Ownhammer IRs as well. :) Similarly, just because I choose to track vocals through a Manley VoxBox and real hardware LA-2A doesn't mean that Helix's mic pre and LA-2A model are inadequate—I just gravitate toward what's always worked for me.

I feel your pain, but it should be stressed that aside from individual model parameter descriptions (which we're not allowed to include for legal and ethical reasons), the Helix Owner's Manual covers literally everything the box can do. Any how-to videos or KB articles just reiterate what's already there.

Not sure how anyone could consider what I wrote condescending; there are empirical, pragmatic, technical explanations for why we don't support SysEx; the fact that almost no guitarist knows SysEx is just icing on the cake. Regardless, I wasn't sure which part of my post you took offense at—the manual thing or the SysEx thing—so I addressed both. The 90% comment wasn't pulled out of a hat; we've spent countless hours watching users interact with Helix's UI, months or even years before it was even announced. If a feature, function, or procedure wasn't obvious enough to discover without help, we'd redesign it until it was. If you read the Cheat Sheet, it covers almost all functions someone needs to create and edit tones. A lot of the minutia it doesn't cover (such as moving blocks down to create parallel paths) appears as helper text on Helix's screen. Anything else is covered in the manual. Craig Anderson is currently writing a comprehensive Helix review on Harmony Central and is actively eschewing both the Cheat Sheet and the manual to test Helix's discoverability and ease-of-use. Regardless, there's a purpose behind everything, and there are many reasons why the full Helix Owner's Manual is only 50 pages. Here are the two most important ones again: All 1.0 features and functions (aside from individual model parameters) are indeed covered in the Helix Owner's Manual Individual model parameters cannot be covered in detail for legal, ethical, and operational reasons, and exhaustive information exists elsewhere The Cheat Sheet is really a desperate ploy to get people up and running very quickly, knowing full well that the majority of people will never crack the manual. Plus, it lists all the cool shortcuts that really speed up tone creation (touch switch to select, hold switch to assign block, hold knob to assign controller, touch TAP to open tempo panel, hold BYPASS to turn Global EQ on/off, etc.), and knowing them makes the whole process a lot more fun.

If your distortions are at the front of your signal path, also try setting Global Settings > Ins/Outs > Guitar In Impedance to "Auto". Helix will properly load your guitar as if the real pedal were connected.

Ah, yes. Helix is doing both. It's sending your Instant Command, and then sending the preset's PC message immediately after. It appears as if your Instant Command was not sent, even though it was. Go to Global Settings > MIDI/Tempo and turn "PC Send/Receive" off (which doesn't affect manual Command Center assignments). It should work after that.

This is Technical Writing 101: The goal of technical documentation should never be an exhaustive dissertation covering anything anyone could ever possibly ask about a product. The goal of technical documentation is to entice the user to read it. Studies show almost NO ONE will read a 300-page passive voice wall-o-text. A bunch of people will read a concise, 50-page user guide with illustrations and active voice step-by-step instructions. Almost everyone will at least peruse a full-color, glossy Cheat Sheet with pretty pictures. Helix's day-to-day functionality is 85-90% covered by the 1-page Cheat Sheet alone. The remaining 10-15% is covered by its 50-page (50 pages on purpose!) Helix Owner's Manual. All of it is backed up with videos, KB articles, blogs, and a metric ton of discussion on the forums. The reasons we don't include an exhaustive play-by-play on every model parameter are simple: Since we model other manufacturers' IP, there's a constantly moving fine line dividing what we can and can't say. We include a list of the original products modeled so that one can dive into Google and get as granular as they like. For example, the full description for the Universal Audio (Teletronix) LA-2A Compressor's Emphasis Knob could fill two pages. If you need to know how a particular amp's tonestack behaves, Helix's model is close enough that the original amp's manual can serve you better than we ever could... or would be allowed to, ethically or even legally Helix's model list continues to be a constantly evolving target, and we now have to translate Owner's Manuals and Pilot's Guides into over twenty languages If the vast majority of people prefer to watch how-to videos over reading a manual, the smart company would put their resources there The main reason we don't support SysEx isn't to keep two people from making their own custom editors—it's because our communication protocol is a lot more flexible, robust, and faster to implement than SysEx. It makes for better products.

There are a few ways to do it: Assign the Level parameter of each Output block to a footswitch, set the max for both to 0.0dB, and swap the min/max for one of them. In that case, stepping on the footswitch will toggle the Output level on and off Add a Gain block to the end of each path, press BYPASS to disable one of them, and assign both to the same footswitch Start with 8 TEMPLATES > 02C TwoTones A-B

When everyone and their mom owned Mackie Digital 8•Buses, Mackie announced they had stopped working on Version 4.0 software and that it would never be released. The internet blew up, everyone freaked out, and the next week they released 5.0. Completely skipped 4.0, just to be trolls. Maybe the next Helix firmware will be "42.0.0", followed by "9.Pi", followed by "Million.Steve".

<_< IIRC, Line 6 has never supported full SysEx implementation; our editors communicate via a simple yet proprietary data protocol that no white paper could ever hope to explain without divulging IP. The Helix Owner's Manual is the length it is because the box is so simple to use—90% of what your average guitarist needs to know is on the one-page Cheat Sheet! I suppose it'd be nice to have an exhaustive section detailing every parameter on every model, but from a functional standpoint, any more text would only serve to confuse. Its brevity is by design.

Exactly. Path 2A acts as an extension (both visually and DSP-wise) of Path 1B. One should never compare embedded DSP solutions with computer-based ones. DAWs are optimized to run tons of stuff at once with dynamic memory buffers, at the expense of unusable realtime throughput latency and the inability to quickly swap modules/blocks in and out. If Helix was designed to work only for project playback (and not realtime), we'd throw a Raspberry Pi in the box, load Linux, and call it a day. Your X32 uses embedded DSP as well for the same reasons. IIRC, Behringer's X32 has two ADSP-21371 SHARCs running at 266MHz, and that horsepower is shared across all inputs, channels, sends, inserts, effects, and outputs. Both Helix and StageScape M20d have two ADSP-21469 SHARCs running at 450MHz (the fastest non-Tiger SHARC SHARCs you can buy). So yes, both Helix and M20d have considerably more horsepower than the X32. Basically, if Helix had the same code as X32, it'd be able to run hundreds of EQs, compressors, and effects (or dozens of original PODs!). However, modern professional-level amp and effects modeling is a lot more sophisticated and DSP-intensive. Strymon pedals have a dedicated SHARC DSP (likely faster than one of the two in X32) for one effect only. We've spent a lot of time making sure that the vast majority of use cases can be accomplished with Helix's SHARCs, but there will always be people pushing the limits. A lot of the factory presets showcase some of these extremes. Cheers!

Unless your aux instrument or vocals require a lot of blocks, you can share Path 2's DSP: On Path 2, create true parallel paths (start with a parallel path and then move both the Split and Merge blocks down). Set Path 1's Output to Path 2A. Set Path 2A's Input to None. Use Path 2B for your aux or mic. In the above scenario, you're using Path 1's whole DSP and half of Path 2's DSP for guitar, and the remaining half of Path 2's DSP for aux/vocals. Obviously, if one's using Helix as a guitar processor only, they have to work pretty hard to run out of juice.

On top of all of all the crap I do, I have to code DSP now? You kids are ungrateful; wait 'til your mother gets home. <_<

I believe all versions of ProTools respond to MMC (MIDI Machine Control) now, so all you need to do is enable MMC reception in ProTools and select 8 TEMPLATES > 04C DAW Remote. From the Command Center screen, press ACTION and copy/paste all the MMC commands into your favorite presets. Helix isn't have any sort of HUI or EuCon emulation, if that's what you mean.

It'd probably add $200-250 to the box, without the transmitter, which would be another $199. Are people willing to pay that sort of premium for built-in G70-level wireless? On the upside, each preset could instantly switch channels/guitars and cable tone, so that'd be cool. My wish list for Helix 2 is bigger than yours. :P

Okay, I'm gonna finish my Dynamic DSP blog this week if it kills me. Helix is not underpowered. The design alternative is to artificially restrict the number of amps and simultaneous effects to fool you into thinking your box can take anything you throw at it. Just like your digital desks artificially restrict the number of channels, auxes, busses, and effects to fool you into thinking it's maxed out, when it likely may have 20-60% of its DSP sitting there, wasted, depending on what's actually running at the time. Check out presets like 1 FACTORY 1 > 17D, 20D (three amps!), 21B, and 27D. Also try spanning your Amp+Cab blocks across both DSPs, as in 8 TEMPLATES > 01B Parallel Spans.

That's it, I'm pulling the car over! Since you guys can't play nice, Line 6 will NEVER release 1.05.0 for Helix. :angry: 1.05.0 is for Rack only. Both will get 1.06.0 soonish.

Any parameter can respond to MIDI CC (and can be assigned in 3 seconds), up to 64 per preset. If a block is assigned to a Helix footswitch, however, your GCP can emulate its switches via fixed CCs. Individual blocks not assigned to Helix footswitches cannot currently be bypassed/enabled via MIDI.

I can't see why it wouldn't work. :)

It's gonna be a while before anyone can hit Bob's Music Emporium and walk out with Helix the same day. AFAIK, dealers filled all initial (read: last summer) preorders; it's just that more preorders keep filling the gaps in availability. So far, we've shipped way more Helices than expected. TL;DR: Get your preorder in.

In that template, FS6 (HELIX PREAMP) controls both the Preamp and FX Loop's bypass—it lets you toggle between your real preamp (in 4 cable method) and one of Helix's Preamp models. Here's what you can do: Highlight the Preamp block, press ACTION, and then Knob 3 (Clear Block). Highlight the FX Loop block, press MENU, and then Knob 1 (Footswitch Assign). Turn Knob 1 (Footswitch) to None to disable footswitch control of the FX Loop.

Select the block, press ACTION and then Knob 1 (Copy Block). Choose the destination—even in a different preset—press ACTION, and then Knob 2 (Paste Block).

Footswitches can be assigned to blocks (Footswitch Assign), parameters (Controller Assign), and MIDI/CV/Amp Control messages (Command Center). There wasn't room for a Customize button on the Controller Assign page, but you can get to the same spot from the Command Center screen.