Digital_Igloo

The manual went out for translation last week, but since then I've already found a couple of errors. In the meantime, I trying to answer questions as best I can. The manual will likely go live before the first Helix ships. I'm hoping to get the Cheat Sheet uploaded in the next week or two. The manual's very different from what we've done in the past—lots of step-by-step instructions and tons of color illustrations. As Helix's minutia is notably deeper that what we've done in the past, I'm expecting to write followup blogs, which should be available from line6.com/support. a ) Not at launch. b ) 4CM, 7CM, and 10CM in Helix is at Unity level. Volume loss from an FX loop should be able to be compensated with send and return level parameters; I presume tone loss is dependent on the equipment you connect, but the sends and returns can run at either line or instrument level; some amount of manual gain staging will always be necessary.

FX Loop 1: HD500X FX Loop 2: Fractal AxeFX II XL+ FX Loop 3: Kemper KPA FX Loop 4: Eventide H8000FW

You'd need 4CM for that even with HD500X, as L6 LINK doesn't provide bidirectional audio.

Not sure, but I'm guessing you shouldn't need a second MIDI cable.

Like HD500X, the Guitar Input has a variable impedance circuit.

I would say that's entirely dependent on the success of Helix, Helix Rack, and Helix Control. ;) Currently, you need to do it via MIDI. If you're willing to hook up the cable, we'll probably include some templates with the Command Center already premapped with DT messages. Oh we tested it all right. It was one of the first things I did at Line 6. Total madness. Stacks and stacks of DTs. Took a loooong time to get right.

You can do that with a single switch. Each Stomp mode footswitch can be assigned to up to eight items (processing blocks, parameter toggles, Command Center messages). If some blocks are enabled and others are bypassed, pressing the switch will toggle the bypass state of all of them. Stomp mode footswitches can be momentary or latching. You could also assign the Split > A/B Mix parameter to a footswitch and toggle between two completely different signal paths, with or without the same outputs. If the expression pedal (or Variax knob or MIDI CC) is assigned to that same A/B Mix parameter, you can seamlessly blend between the paths.

In one of our focus groups years ago, some guy made a casual comment about his back. He didn't ask for anything, or complain about anything, but we latched onto it and that was the impetus for Pedal Edit mode (and Firehawk FX's Live Edit mode). It may be your back's best friend.

I should make a template for inserting an M9 or M5 into Helix and controlling it with the switches.

Not at all. We love our DTs. The issue is simple—Helix's signal and output routing would have to be designed like HD500's if it were to behave the same way with DTs. There are simple workarounds today to get 80% of HD500X's L6 LINK functionality with Helix, which is actually more like 95% of L6 LINK functionality that people actually use. I don't believe there's a single person on the planet using wet-dry-dry-wet stereo with four DTs, which the Dream Rig can currently accomplish. It's mainly all the internal hardware. A side bonus of the extruded aluminum (besides strength) is that it's lighter than steel. But yeah, you're not stuffing Helix in your pocket. Will have to check. 12 Ohms? I forget. It's a loud headphone amp designed to drive even super-high impedance studio phones, so like HD500X, if you crank the PHONES knob up with very low impedance headphones (and don't do this—save your hearing!), you may notice some distortion.

I have no idea if this is true, as I had zero to do with the Yamaha acquisition, but a part of me wants to believe that Yamaha pursued us in part because of Helix.

One of the first Helix UI/UX designs had a touchscreen. We tested it, and touch footswitches ended up being way faster and more elegant in practice. Developing and maintaining both desktop and mobile editors would be a massive undertaking. We asked tons of people, and 100% said something akin to "Well, it'd be nice to have both, but if I had to pick, definitely Mac/PC."

Any future models we may or may not include will be largely prioritized from IdeaScale requests.

Helix is a bit larger. Dimensions have been added to the FAQ.

They're new. Based on HD500X's switches, but better.

Yes.

Yes, and trigger it via MIDI notes from the switches. You can even label the switches after the notes, if you like. We'll have a MIDI bass pedal template.

Helix's footswitches have been improved from HD500X.

Yes, we've been experts at doing more with less for twenty years. Now with Helix, we can do MUCH more with... more. Fractal and Kemper make awesome boxes; you'll never hear me disparaging them, and not just for political reasons. A bunch of us at Line 6 own studios full of competitors' gear, and a couple of us plan on using Helix and AxeFX together. And Strymon. And Eventide. And Lexicon. And Moog. Besides, we're more interested in comparing HX amp models with the original amps.

Hahahaaa! Because we actually named it "Super Serial" after Al Gore on South Park.

It's been addressed several times; I should probably add it to the FAQ. We don't know, as optimizing preset switching time is one of the last things to do. There's no such thing as perfectly seamless preset switching, unless we used four DSPs and charged waaaaay more. We're including templates for simple switching from within a single preset. The Split blocks can act as Ys, A/Bs, or Crossovers, and switching between the paths can be either instant (via footswitch) or dynamic (controlled via expression pedal, Variax knob, or MIDI CC). 1) One of our product managers is the bass player in a pretty well-known metal band. Line 6 has tons of bassists, including the Senior VP of engineering. 2) TBD, but we have a crazy 3-oscillator synth with 24 parameters. 3) Yes. 4) You can easily reorder presets with one knob from the Setlist screen. Plus, the librarian software makes it dead simple to drag and drop tones from one setlist to another.

None of us have said that, because it's not true. The AxeFX II XL+ has two extremely expensive TigerSHARCs (@600MHz each?). Helix has two 450MHz ADSP-21469 SHARCs, which are the fastest non-TigerSHARC SHARCs you can buy, and may be what Fractal's using in their upcoming AX8. Presumably, FX8 uses a single 450MHz ADSP-21469. POD HD500X uses a single 400MHz ADSP-21369. But DSP processors are a small part of the story. It's still ALL about the code.

Copying presets is as easy as saving one to a different location. At launch, there's no writing of user model defaults—copying and pasting blocks is the workaround (for now).

True bypass makes sense in something like M13 where there are 4 simultaneous effects and it's only one effect per switch. Turn four switches off—done. It also makes sense when chaining multiple single stomps, obviously. But a product like Helix? I mean, what are you going to do when 18 of 27 blocks are assigned to 10 switches, some in opposite bypass states? Turn as many off with the switches as you can, and then manually select each of the remaining blocks and press the BYPASS button? Cost has nothing to do with it.

Probably. I've been able to make pretty huge patches without running into the filter. Routing's very flexible. Each of the two paths can be serial (1 in into 1 out), parallel (1 in split and then merged to 1 out), parallel (2 ins into 1 out), parallel (1 in into 2 outs), true parallel (2 ins into 2 outs) or "super serial" with up to 16 block locations (DSP permitting). Then each of Path 1's outputs can be routed into either (or both) of Path 2's inputs. And, for good measure, Path 1 and 2 can both be "super serial" and routed into each other for up to 32 block locations (again, DSP permitting). Whether or not it sounds confusing, it's really not in practice. Plus, we'll have templates with all of these routings ready to go.