littlespaceman

This is mid-morph, a still from a slo-mo video I took of the icons swapping positions when I press the FS assigned to Song Play; to be clear, I have NOT re-assigned any of the FS, this is still from a vid of them changing on their own

Here's the stills of the icons swapping position; this is what it SHOULD look like (all these functions are assigned in Control Centre)

First live gig this weekend with the Helix Stadium, having migrated from Quad Cortex and StageTraxx3, I'm looking forward to using the Helix as a standalone-do-it-all device. The more I try to get things set up though, the more there are little bugs here and there that crop up. The one that's causing the most trouble is this; I've assigned flags in all my backing track Songs, to assign Presets and Snaps as needed throughout the song. The very first flag is at the very beginning of the song, to select the correct Preset/Snap for that Song. I am then using the Stomp A mode as my main screen to navigate through the Song Set list, having assigned some of the F/S's to Prev Song / Play / Next Song etc within Command Centre (see yellow circle in pic below). And here lies the problem; for some reason, when I navigate to the next song by pressing this FS, with the Global Settings / Songs/ set to 'Select Song = Cue' and 'Song Play = Load + Preset' the Stadium does some really strange things if I try to change to the next song; for example, it loads the next song, then when you press the Play (song) FS, nothing happens at all. Press it again and it starts playing, but then ALL the assignment icons on the Home screen go really freaky, and swap positions for a short time, before swapping back again - I've attached stills in a separate post below, of this, as I can't upload a video (what is with a 2.5mb limit??) Also, the flags I have in the song (set to the very start of the song) to select the correct Preset / Snapshot don't work - the song plays but the Preset remains on the one assigned to the previous song. Has anyone else come across any of these strange bugs?IMG_5438.heic

Wow, that's a long-winded way of having to do things. And it seems like quite an oversight not to have a basic function like this included from the get-go...

Done

I usually only have 3 tracks backing tracks (Track 1 is Backing Track, Track 2 is Click Track, Track 3 is Voice Prompts) and therefore label the backing tracks in the same format on the Stadium Mixer accordingly. Occasionally though I do need an extra track here or there - say a guitar riff over which I play lead when playing live, or an additional short keyboard part. Because the songs where I need an additional part may be different instruments (ie in one song it may be keys, in another it may be guitar, in another it may be both) it's hard to remember which track is which, and this is made more complicated by the fact you can't have an empty track in the Mixer; what I mean is, it would be easy for me to remember, if extra guitar is always Track 4, and extra keys is always Track 5, but if I have a song with extra Keys and no extra guitar (in addition to my basic 3 tracks) it will always place that track as the 4th one, it won't allow me to place that keys track in track 5, leaving track 4 empty; the Keys track is then in Track 4, which I usually reserve for extra guitar - hopefully you get what I'm saying. It would be really helpful to be able to name the Mixer labels as specific to each song, therefore, but I can't seem to find a way to do this; is it possible, does anyone know, or is this a feature request I need to make?

Getting a bit frustrated by how complex it seems to be to CLEAR a F/S stomp assignment. The quick action methods all seem to be geared towards assigning and not clearing - for example tap the icon on the Home screen and you get a pop-up to do lots of things, including assign a F/S, but nothing there to clear it if one is assigned already. If I go to Command Centre, and use the Clear/Reset All function, for some reason it doesn't actually clear Stomp assignments, it only clears the other things I may have assigned, like a Hot Key or Midi Message. The method of touch/holding a footswitch to bring up the Assign pop-up is all well and good, as that does offer a 'Clear Stomp' option, but it means your hands are flying around all over the place - hardly a slick way of operating. And lastly, you can clear a stomp by selecting the Bypass/Control menu option, then tap each block that has a F/S assigned, then dial the 'Switch' rotary dial to the left until it says 'None' - but this is a crazy long-winded way of doing it. Am I missing something - is there simple and quick way to clear a stomp assignment?

This has been bugging me too. The thing I'm getting frustrated with, having made all my initial presets when I first got the Stadium with the footswitch assignment set to Auto (why would anyone want that?!) I now want to delete all those footswitch assignments. The quick action methods all seem to be geared towards assigning and not clearing - for example tap the icon on the Home screen and you get a pop-up to do lots of things, including assign a FS, but nothing there to clear it if one is assigned already. If I go to Command Centre, and use the Clear/Reset All function, for some reason it doesn't actually clear Stomp assignments, it only clears the other things I may have assigned, like a Hot Key or Midi Message. The method of touch/holding a footswitch to bring up the Assign pop-up is all well and good, as that does offer a 'Clear Stomp' option, but it means your hands are flying around all over the place - hardly a slick way of operating. Am I missing something - is there simple and quick way to clear a stomp assignment?

In the UK and EU, the Yamaha warranty is 2 years. I believe that is something that is stated in EU law, though, so I don't know what the warranty would be outside the EU/UK. FWIW, Neural DSP offer 3 year warranty on the Quad Cortex, and mine died just before the 3 year point, so I'm glad they backed their product that long!

Thank you, I'll take a look

Ha, no, not a printed PDF version - I use Goodreader on both my iPhone and iPad, for all of my pdf's (including many user manuals for different devices). It has a great highlighting and bookmarking system, so it's super easy to find the parts I need, when I'm off the grid, and I can carry a huge amount of documentation around that way

Funny you mention this, I’ve been wondering the same. I’d say it’s probably inevitable that a smaller version will come one day, and if you think about it, even L6 said the perfect modeller only has one footswitch, and that’s for irony of Showcase - for my use anyway, with Showcase I don’t need many footswitches or pedals, as if I play live I have everything set up to be automated, I ideally don’t need or want to have to operate anything manually. So a smaller unit with the same processing power and Showcase is all I need

I’d say it still isn’t (and I’ve owned one for over 3 years!)

Ah, good to hear from you! Ha, yes, me too. I think I saw that another platform (maybe Fractal?) has added this functionality via a firmware update. It’s incredibly useful, and definitely isn’t the sort of thing that has to be seen as ‘proprietary’ as some things are with these manufacturers (such as L6 using the word ‘Snapshots’, and Neural calling them ‘Scenes’, or using the word ‘Homepage’ vs the word ‘Grid’). If it’s a helpful feature, let’s add it, rather than deliberately not do so because another brand does it already.

Something weird happens when in Snapshot Mode, and you send a MIDI message to select a Song but then press 'Cancel' on FS6 on the Stadium (to cancel that song selection) OR if you select a song then play the song via a MIDI message sent to the Stadium - in both cases the Snapshots go blank, and the only way to get them back is to cycle to FS6 (Mode) away from Snapshot and then back again. NB, this does NOT happen when Snapshots are visible in Combo Mode. See pic attached of the Snapshots blank, after doing what I've described above. Probably easier to let a video explain, but it seems I can't load anything over 3.34mb... Has anyone else come across this? Assuming this is a bug, is there a particular way to report this, or just send the info via a Feature Request?

Ha, i know the feeling!

I'll let you know what happens if I find myself in the same situation again - like you though I think just using a click track is probably the way ahead...

Thing is, with YT videos, we all skip through them anyway, don't we, because we all basically want them to be only 5 seconds long, and explain EXACTLY the thing we don't understand, and nothing else. Or is that just me?!

It does sound like a feasible way to do things - maybe that's the way L6 can implement this feature in the future! I am of an age though where I never trust what I read on the internet, and yet even with my inherent wariness, I find myself more and more reading the AI response to a Google search, where before I would always skip past it. Thing is, at least WE know that it's very possibly inaccurate, right?! The majority of people out there probably never stop to think about whether what they're reading is true or not - Confirmation Bias is everywhere these days! (in fact it's the very basis for the algorithms used by companies like YouTube and Amazon etc)

Sounds like it could work, but sadly doesn't - you get as far as step 2; if you click on the musical note icon to try to open Song view, all that does is open the window to drag and drop files to create a new song. So step 3 doesn't even exist, ie there's no way to double tap on a song and load it in to an editor of any kind

I'm looking to do the same, but in my case I want to use a new version of the same backing track, having adjusted the levels in my DAW, as the keyboards were clipping at times. The manual says '*Note: You’ll want to be sure that all your desired audio files are added for your song before doing the Transfer. Audio tracks cannot be added to a song that already exists in Helix Stadium. Yet interestingly a Google search tells me that it is possible now; I searched for 'add new track to song in showcase in helix stadium' and the AI response was; To add a new track to an existing song in the Helix Stadium Showcase feature, you must use the companion app Line 6 Helix Stadium app on your computer, as you cannot edit the track structure directly on the hardware unit. Follow these steps to add a new audio stem: Connect the Devices: Power on your Helix Stadium, ensure your microSD card is inserted, and connect your unit to your computer via Wi-Fi or USB. Open the App: Launch the Helix Stadium app and click the musical note icon at the top to open the Song View. Select Your Song: Find and double-tap the song in your library to load it into the editor. Add the Track: Drag and drop your new audio file (must be a .WAV file) directly into the track list, or use the Browse button to locate it. You can have up to 8 tracks per song. Reorder & Rename: Drag the track into your preferred position using the drag icon, and rename it accordingly. Transfer: Click Transfer to upload the updated song structure back to your Helix Stadium. But this is not yet possible, is that correct?

Ha ha! I shall proceed with caution on this matter!

I have the Widiflex dongle - it's the 5 pin version, it's excellent, it takes power direct from the Stadium midi ports (which to be fair it also did with the Quad Cortex) so no external power needed. The tech support is brilliant with Wideflex too, the CEO of the company is very helpful if you get stuck trying to work out how to get it to work. I use it with Stage Traxx 3 and it works brilliantly; to be clear, I'm using Stage Traxx for lyrics only, now I'm using Showcase. I want to keep the backing tracks on board the Helix; it is possible to set ST 3 up to select the correct Helix Preset and Snapshot etc, but you have to type in longwinded midi commands in to the lyric text, so it's much easier to do it in Showcase, plus you have the advantage of having all your backing tracks on board your modeller. In my case, my wife does the singing, and she needs the lyrics, and manages the set list, song selection etc all from the iPad. For my part, all I have to do is set up both devices so that when she does select a song, everything happens automatically, as simply as possible. And the ultimate goal is that when she presses play on the iPad, the lyric prompt in Stage Traxx 3 is synched perfectly to the backing track playback in Showcase. So, as an example of how I have it set up, 1. I recall a Stadium preset and it sends a signal via WIDI from Helix to ST3 to recall the appropriate ST3 song on the iPad. 2. As I mentioned though, my wife will usually control the set list, song selection etc, so each ST3 song contains the MIDI command to recall the correct Stadium PRESET, so it's a 2 way process - whichever you select first (song on iPad, or Preset on Helix) loads the correlating Preset or Song on the other device. 3. The ST3 song ALSO contains the MIDI command to recall the correct Stadium SONG. 4. Pressing Play in ST3 will send MIDI command to Play the Stadium Song, so both start at the 'same' time. (You may have to trim the song start point in Stage Traxx, to get the timing absolutely spot on, as although both devices contain the same backing track, for some reason they can be half a second or so out of time with each other. This is easy to do in ST3, however, and tbh isn't that important, as there is NO audio coming from the iPad, it's purely to have the lyrics highlight at more or less the correct time in the song. 5. And of course the volume sliders or Mute switches are 'on' in ST 3 Hope that helps...

Thanks for the reply - have to admit that I've been hugely impressed with what L6 have done to keep the OG Helix evolving, and that certainly was a factor in my decision to move back across to the Helix universe. Conversely, even Quad Cortex fans can't deny that Neural are very very slow with updates, and when they come they sometimes do not include what people request the most (and remember the QC forum uses a transparent voting system for feature requests, so you can see how many votes a request has)

Got it, thank you. Tbh I find the online-only manual cumbersome, how do I read it/bookmark it etc when I'm on a long haul flight for example? Much prefer a pdf version