ric1966
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Everything posted by ric1966
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The Revv amp model with stock settings, a Celestion Redback 4x12 mix IR at LC=80 Hz and HC=9000 Hz, the double tank stereo reverb and tape echo. Pure high gain bliss!
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Gotta say it... the Revv amp model with stock settings, a Celestion Redback 4x12 mix IR at LC=80 Hz and HC=9000 Hz, the double tank stereo reverb and tape echo. Pure high gain bliss! I have a new favorite patch.
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If you can find an IR made with a vintage ElectroVoice (EV) 12” speaker that may do the trick. I vaguely recall them being cleaner sounding with less breakup than your typical Celestion. I think their power rating was in the 150-200 watt range.
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You’re not the only one! My Mesa rig is collecting dust since I learned how to closely replicate its sound with the Lonestar amp model in Helix and a Celestion IR. The Mesa still sounds as sweet as ever, but it has to be cranked up to impractical levels to get that sought-after power stage distortion that I can get at any volume with Helix into a JBL EON. That aspect, and the tonal consistently mentioned by several others here are the reasons I just don’t fire up the Mesa anymore. I’ve also discovered the same patch sounds pretty good in a practice setting through a Marshall Woburn speaker, which effectively acts as a low powered stereo studio monitor.
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That’s the beauty of FRFR... once you get your tones dialed in on a decent monitor, they will sound pretty good though any other decent FRFR speaker, including most modern stage monitors and FOH.
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Sweetwater has JBL EON610’s on sale for $249 through the end of the month. I’ve played with a guy who uses one and it sounds pretty dang good as a highly portable FRFR with his Helix. Works great for rehearsals and stage. Hell, you could buy two for $500 and have a stereo rig...
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Very impressive!!! How did you generate the drum track?
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For live patches, I place a low cut before the amp block and typically set it between 70 and 120 Hz, depending on the amp model and IR. I also place a separate high cut block right after the IR block and typically set it between 7K and 12 KHz. This would work for recording if you track the dry signal and then re-amp, which is really the best way to approach recording anyway. It’s one of the great features of Helix IMHO.
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It looks in the photo like you have presence, treble, mid and bass controls dimed on the real Plexi. And you mentioned that the Helix models are inherently brighter. Can you offer up the tone stack settings you ended up with in the Helix model to get close?
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My two cents... I’ve owned an LT for about a year and the other guitarist in my band has owned his Helix floor for about two years. Sonicallly there is no difference (other than how we tweak presets to individual taste) and the blend is so nice that we often get wide grins when the mix in the rehearsal room sounds like we are playing double tracked rhythm parts in stereo. We both actually run in mono, FRFR direct into JBL EON powered monitors. I’ve tried 4CM into my Mesa rig and I greatly prefer FRFR for its flexibility and capability of emulating power tube distortion at low practice/stage volumes. We picked JBL monitors because our PA uses them. He controls a vocal processor via midi and has a variax, so he utilizes more of the connections than I do (LT actually does have both midi and VDI). I’ve gigged with my LT many times and have not had any issues with any lack of robustness. For what you want to do I would recommend an LT with a mid-range ($-wise) FRFR powered floor monitor. You could get an EON 612 and an LT for about the price of a Helix floor. The EONs have two input channels with selectable input level (mic or line) so you could plug your acoustic into one and the output of the LT into the other. Alternatively, you could use one EON channel for a monitor feed from FOH and the other for your LT. Or one channel for microphone and the other for LT. Lots of possibilities! We’ve played through a number of different house PAs and the sounds I dial in on the LT/EON translate very well out front. There are many other choices for powered monitors in the same price range and then some Yamahas and QSCs at a higher cost. Just make sure you get a modern FRFR monitor to maximize the Helix’s tonal pallete without coloration.
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Was it trails on/off? That is a per-block setting.
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Start with Jason Sadites’ Brit Trem Jump preset. Tutorial on YouTube.
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Theoretically, no tweaking should be required. That said, I suppose it would depend on how transparent the mixer’s preamp circuitry is. Sending mic level will require the preamp to boost the signal and therefore might expose it to some coloration of the tone. I’ve never had to do any tweaking myself, but you should try both methods and compare. BTW, I played an outdoor gig this past Saturday with my LT. The FOH was a single Bose tower/sub and a Mackie mixer. Sounded amazing on my Lonestar patch without any tweaking or global EQ. Truly plug’n’play. Since the Bose was behind us, I just placed my powered monitor in front of me facing back (as you would normally) and let the sound man set my guitar volume on the Bose system. I then adjusted my monitor volume using the LT’s knob to get a good balance of sound from both directions. We got quite a few comments after the show about how clean and professional the sound was!
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Yes, like Silverhead said. Sending line level to the mic inputs makes it easy to overload the mixer’s preamp. You can always trim it down on the mixer, but most sound men are expecting a mic level signal and have their controls set accordingly. It just makes things easier to send the level they are used to. The Helix gives you flexibility to set the XLR outs to either mic or line level, so you can choose the approach that best suits your needs.
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I’ve always had good live sound results using mono XLR out to a mixer at mic level. I also use the mono 1/4” straight into my powered monitor at line level and it works fine as well. I set the volume control to affect only 1/4”, which allows me to change the volume on my monitor without changing the level going to the mixer (a great tip I learned in this forum!) Advantage of XLR would be the balanced config, which could eliminate some noise over a long cable run. I don’t notice a big increase in noise with 1/4” over a 15’ run, so you would probably be OK saving your XLR inputs for mics. I don’t run stereo since I only go into a mixer when playing gigs and we run mono for FOH, but it should work fine if you have enough input channels. You will probably get a more focused answer to your question if you state your end use, i.e. are you using the mixer to record, run live sound or monitor Helix in your practice room?
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It’s a glitch in the Matrix! Wait, did I take the red pill or the blue one???
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Yep, it’s been going on for months. For a while I thought it was the fault of the “go to topic listing” link in the lower left, but it will also sometimes kick me out if I return to the Helix sub-forum via other paths and sometimes when I refresh. Once signed out, i can usually sign back in by clicking the “sign in” link; however, it often takes more than one click. I’ve done it up to nine times in a row before it responds. Thus defying the classic definition of insanity!
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I’ve tried both and have the complete opposite opinion. Just goes to show how subjective tone really is.
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Also check out Celestion’s Redback IRs. The 4x12 Cab model using a mix of three microphones sounds very warm to me. I use it to take the edge off active pickups. I also use a low cut EQ block first in my chain (before amp block) and a high cut EQ block at the end.
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If they are indeed Celestion’s, the letters probably correspond to Fat, Thin, Dark, Balanced and All (a mix of three microphones - R121, MD421 and SM57). Yours all appear to be based on 4X12 cabs with a Greenback speaker loadout. I have purchased a lot of these IRs. For me, the three-mic mixes are some of the best out there and they come in high gain “Hi-Gn” and low gain “Lo-Gn” flavors, the high gains being generally darker. I like their Redbacks, their Golds and recently uploaded G12K-100, my new favorite. It’s a very personal choice! Visit celestionplus.com for more info.
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A great resource is Jason Sadites’ YouTube channel. Lots of good stuff there! It does take some effort to learn the workflow, but it’s definitely worth it. After you get past the initial learning curve, you’ll eventually be able to set up a decent preset from scratch in a few minutes.
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The more your setup gets away from FRFR, the worse the factory presets will generally sound. Most of the presets developed by other users are also intended for FRFR. Therefore, with your setup you are going to have to develop your own custom presets, which will likely require a good bit of EQ. I tried doing this with my Mesa rig and got the best tone using a Lonestar “pre-amp only” model in Helix. Even so, I quickly went back to FRFR...
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FWIW, this is a known issue on Firehawk. I’m not sure what causes it. It was very repeatable on my Firehawk. I have not experienced anything like this on my LT, even after the 2.60 update.
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Good point on the sag parameter, bsd512. It’s been so long since I set up my presets, I had almost forgotten that I raised the sag up to around 7 on the Marshall Plexi model. With the master dimed, that really helps to get the sound of an overdriven power section. The Helix does react differently to your playing when you start tweaking the deep editing parameters. I also raised the bias slightly and reduced the bias excursion on the Plexi. I use the 2204 model for more of a modern tone, focused on preamp distortion. I think the OP has done due diligence with research here. At this point it’s just a matter of trying one out. Unfortunately going to the local music store and auditing the factory presets won’t get it done. If you seriously want to take the plunge, I would suggest finding a retailer with a thirty day return policy and making the purchase. The Helix experience is different, but I actually prefer it overall. I have a collection of high quality tube amps gathering dust, and I don’t feel like I am sacrificing anything!
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Why do IR's 'feel' different, less responsive than the built in cabs?
ric1966 replied to MarkJarvis's topic in Helix
I haven’t noticed any difference in feel. I have a small collection of Celestion IRs. My favorites are the Redbacks and the Golds. I use the mix files that blend three different mics. Blues also sound good on an AC-30 amp model.