Meiannatee

Thanks for the help guys! Feels nostalgic to be back in this community (in a good way)

Hi guys (and gals), it has been about a year and a half since I gave away my Pod HD500x. With all the criticism it got, it's a great unit when you finally figured it out. Since then, I've been using the Atomic Amplifire. It's been a great experience so far, the ease of use is instantly apparent when compared to the Pod. At that time, Helix LT wasn't out yet, and the full Helix was out of my budget, so the Amplifire 12 was one of the only decent MFX units with IR loading. A sensible upgrade. It's amazing how compact it is. It fits in a laptop backpack no problem. And then Line 6 had to release Helix Native... And that teaser of a trial... After a year of having the decent but simple effects on the Amplifire, tasting that delicious Minataur drive and taking a sip of that dripping wet Cosmos echo seriously messed up my state of satisfaction. Fast forward a few months, and I'll be getting my Helix LT this week! Exciting, yet there's a bit of regret, in that if only I knew the LT would be released at a price so close to the Amplifire 12, if only I waited 2 MONTHS longer for the LT to be announced, I would have saved some $$. Thanks for reading! Quick request: Any suggestions for good presets for contemporary worship genre (Hillsong, Lincoln Brewster, Chris Tomlin, etc.) Sorry if there's another thread for that already.

Hmm you guys are starting to blur the line between "essential" and "icing on the cake" It also got me in the "future-proofing" trap. Like what if I didn't like the overdrives or reverbs, and end up upgrading them with pedals in the future, which would total as much as a Helix,and defeat the purpose of an all-in-one unit? I quite enjoyed the Helix that I tried at a store. Especially the OD blocks which are much better than the Pod's, which had a "make-every-guitar-sound-a-certain-way" thing that I didn't like. But I also like the concept of the effects in Amplifire, where you have a few effects types but a whole bunch of parameters to get the sound you want. Sort of like how I work with VST plugins. Like why have 100 compressors when you can have 3-4 that can do all that those 100 can, given adjustable treshold, ratio, attack, hold, release & knee? The justification by saying it's because the original pedals didn't have them gets old. It's a modern processor; sure you can model the good qualities of popular pedals, but it makes no sense to copy its limitations or unpleasant bits. Ideally I would get them both, but the first word of this sentence doesn't agree with my situation . Anybody else having the same dilemma?

Since I gave away my HD500x (yes it came as a surprise even for me), I've been looking at getting a Helix. Then the Amplifire 12 came up. Before that, I've never had heard of Atomic Amps, but after a dozen videos, I'm intrigued. The form factor neatly fits into a regular backpack, and it's almost half the price of the Helix. The routing is simpler, the on-board editing seems complicated, there's no audio interface. But anyways, I won't be doing any crazy routing, prefer editing on the computer, and already have an audio interface. So while I REALLY want the Helix ('till it hurts a little), I'm having a hard time justifying the price after comparison. Another problem is that there is hardly any info on the official website, and I'm not too familiar with the company. What do you guys think about the Helix vs. Amplifire 12, as an all-in-one direct to FoH solution, primarily for a church setting?

Kind of contradicting, seeing this thread and then on the same page, 2-3 other threads about footswitch problems. I'm on the fence with getting the helix. Had footswitch problems on the HD500x after a year, and don't wanna go through the same thing with the helix

It has a clarity and openness that the UK custom doesn't. Sounded great with the Emissary VST from Ignite Amps, both clean and distorted.

Dang, I just bought the US custom 2 weeks ago! 😢

Well yeah, there's also Demon Hunter, Red, and a bunch of other newer bands. All good stuff. Of course you know what I meant, the typical modern family church where you have a mixing pot of people of all ages and background. It's already a miracle that everyone can mostly get along. Not sure if aggressive Christian genres will help here :) But even in metal and all its variants, some younger folks these days are wearing earplugs at concerts. Authorities are putting new emphasis on hearing health related issues. And there's growing criticism over the whole loudness wars in the music industry. So people are starting to see that louder is not always better. Even in metal (someone scream blasphemy!)

Ah I think I see why we disagreed before on loudness perception. It's just a matter of difference in context. You see, performance levels for some of you will probably be far higher than the OP's. He specifically mentioned a church setting, which would definitely be much quiter than a club or rock concert. In that church context, performance levels are very similar to comfortable practice levels. Which is why I felt that loudness perception didn't play such a big role.

Thanks for pointing out stuff I missed. The IEM vs FoH frequency response is a different subject from Fletcher-Munson, and it is important. Even FRFR IEMs & FoH speakers are not perfectly flat (especially FoH which is affected by room & directionality). Listening to a reference track on both sources will help you appreciate the differences. How different, you'll have to find out for yourself. But back to the Fletcher-Munson stuff, people seem to imply that your IEM or tweaking volume is lower than audience volume. At a modern church, that's 65-80db. IEMs can easily do 95db. So the danger is not only that the fear of the Fletcher-Munson effect may drive someone to practice/monitor at excessive volumes, and end up on the opposite side of loudness perception (louder than audience level). At best, he/she will get ear fatigue/cotton-ears/temporary hearing loss. At worst, it'll be permanent. In summary, sometimes "not hearing loud enough" is the cause of discrepancies. Other times, it could be: -hearing too loud -ear fatigue -differences in source freq response -room effect -directionality -intentional change (soundguy) -other causes?? So guys/ladies, please take care of your ears, for they are precious instruments themselves. 85db and above is where damage could happen for prolonged exposure. If your IEM/practice level sounds as loud as FoH level (at audience distance), trust your ears or do SPL measurements. Take frequent breaks, and hopefully we'll all still be making & enjoying music 50 years from now! Ps: HonestOpinion, thanks for the links, I'm a nerd and will check them out for sure!

Hi there, I play at church too, and we use IEMs. Lots of good advice here, but they should be taken in moderation and context. First, regarding band arrangement and personal tones, I assume it's all good since your IEM mix sounds good. Just to be sure, have a listen to a recording of the IEM mix and check with your music director/bandmates. 2nd, regarding the IEMs themselves, as long as your levels are relatively similar to the audience's, don't worry about the Fletcher-Munson stuff people tend to throw around. If you take a look, between 80 and 100dbA, the loudness curves are almost the same, especially within your guitar's 80-8000Hz range. Since church volumes are not that high, just make sure your IEM gain isn't too high as well. 3rd, room acoustics matter much more than you think. This is mostly under your soundguy's scope, but understand that there's a limit to how much he can do for a particular room. Have a dialog with the band and soundguy, compare recordings and get the conversation going both ways. Remember to put people above striving towards perfection. Each week my band gets a different soundguy, and as expected, each recording sounds very different depending on who's mixing. We should do our best to improve the overall sound, but sometimes we just gotta let go a little. As long as your heart's right and your sacrifice costs you something, God will honor your service ☺

More possible reasons: 1) You could be putting more dB's into your ears with your home FRFR speakers than the venue itself. Remember that SPL at the ear depends on: source SPL, proximity, room, directionality. Your room is much smaller, you're much closer to the speakers. Loudness perception also works the other way, i.e. if your patch creation level is higher than the venue. (The need to do many more low & high cuts is a sign.) If your soundguy will not be giving the audience window-shattering SPL, you don't need window-shattering SPL to dial in patches. 2) FRFR speakers are only FRFR at a certain range of SPL. You may have gone beyond that range. Some are also quite directional. Just a little off axis and the freq response is different. 3) Assuming your headphones are flat studio monitors, they could also be removing the room effect from the sound. Helps if your room is untreated

Would it help if I upload my clean patch for you to try out? I also use the input pad, you might wanna try that.

So is it solved?

It's most likely the output mode. Also, are you using the balanced xlr out or unbalanced trs out? Just in case, how are you monitoring while dialing in tones? Does it sound good at that time? As long as you're using FRFR mons or headphones, there shouldn't be too much of a difference. Contrary to popular belief, you can far exceed stage volume sound pressure levels at the ear drum on a pair of headphones (take care of your ears). To be sure, play a CD on your home monitors and compare them to the gig venue. If they sound more or less the same on both, it won't magically do something different to your guitar tone. As mentioned already, boosting the mids works, but too much bass muddies things up. Also, you can use different mics to EQ your sound, or you can, well, use an EQ :) I find the sm57 is the least fizzy and most neutral, just needs a low-pass filter (mid-focus EQ).

In that case, I totally agree with Billbee. Don't expect to sound as dense as album versions, where there are more layers than a 1 foot lasagna. When the music "breathes in", let the bass and drums do their thing, and the vocals carry. Here you can do things like ambient swells. When it's time for the music to "belch out", the mids are all yours. On your crunch tone, let the kick, bass and cymbals have their space by removing excess low and high frequencies. High-pass 80-120hz, low-pass 6k-8.5k hz. The mid-focus EQ is great, you can use Meambobbo's freq chart. Low freq's are energy-intensive, so cutting there frees up headroom for your DT. Cutting some of the highs reduces fizz and allows you to be loud enough without taking someone's head off. Effects wise, octaves and harmonizers are fun for highlights but get boring if overused. If your venue is not too echo-ey, don't be afraid to use more prominent delays and reverbs. Using delays rhythmically instead of just to fatten stuff up turns you into 1.5 guitarists (e.g. the Edge). Find a good balance between mix and feedback. Finally, playing wise, the guys covered it already. More chords and arpeggios, with fills interspersed. Let us know how it works out!

Great tips. Summarizing and adding a few points: 1) set all controls to left (0%) 2) increase the open threshold until your softest intentional playing (SIP) can't open the gate. Be sure to mute strings after every check to allow the gate to close. 3) back down the open threshold until your SIP gets through but hum and handling noise do not. Remember to mute! If you have trouble closing your gate, do step 4) and come back to step 3). 4) increase the close threshold to about 5-10db below your open treshold. Play a sustained note and check to see that the gate doesn't close until the note decays almost completely. Make sure the gate will still close despite the hum and handling noise. 5) check and repeat 3) and 4) until satisfied 6) decay: for an always on gate, set to around 20-500ms to sound natural. Tight metal would need a very short decay, but 0ms sounds weird to me. 7) hold: doesn't matter too much if your other settings are good. I usually set mine to 0-100ms, it's up to you

It would help if you let us know your band's genre of music. Sorry if you've mentioned it already.

Hey there, just FYI, I have the input pad on, since my pickups are quite high output. I find most of the amps and pedals have TOO MUCH GAIN, and hitting the front end hard just makes it worse. That may help if you're trying to get really pristine cleans. Also, I level my patch very differently, in that my reference point is an empty patch (so that patches with amps match my no-amp ambient patches with flat mixer). So instead of having to push up mixer volume for cleans, I lower the "volume" or "master DEP" parameters for the higher gain amps. I have no idea why the default settings are so loud, especially compared to the cleaner models. The end result is a comfortable volume for headphones with the master knob at around 12 o'clock. Totally agree with you for the ideal case. But many have complained about the Pod cabs, so I guess some of the IRs need some work. Typically, rolling off some sub-80Hz and low-passing over 8k-9k wouldn't be too detrimental to tone right? Would like some advice on this, as I haven't been comparing much with other IRs on my DAW. Btw, was it you who posted an amp-cab-mic combination, but edited it out? The one with the JC120 cab. I was planning to test it out when I got home :(

For quite a while now, I've been using the A30 Fawn (Nrm) with the Hiway cab and SM57 on-axis mic ALOT, with mid-focus EQ (hi-pass 15%, lo-pass 80%, wide Q of 5-25%). I was using the default cab (silver bell I think?), which sounded okay. But once I switched to the Hiway + '57, the amp suddenly came to life. There was that restored chime and sparkle that was lacking before. The highs needed to be tamed, along with the bass, which can be easily done with the amp tonestack plus mid-focus EQ. At the amp, bass and presence is 0-15%, with cut around 80%, treble around 65%. Also boosted the "thump" DEP to compensate for the bottom end. Drive and "master" DEP around 40-80%, adjust to taste. With my H-H guitar, it works so well that I use it almost exclusively now, replacing my old favorites, including the Black Panel Pete, which I felt sounds better with single coils. It takes the Screamer (TS) and Classic Dist (Rat) really well. It's also versatile. After rolling off the tone knob a little, it sounds great for ambient stuff with a delay and the Particle Verb. At church, with a few variations, it covers almost everything I need. There's the excellent Soldano Crunch for heavier stuff, and a few amp-less synth and ambient patches, but that's it. I'm not sure if it'll work with your guitars, but no harm trying. Just don't be turned off by the initially sharp treble, it's easy to get rid of that. I guess the lesson here is to experiment with different amp-cab-mic combinations, and don't be too quick to judge a particular combination before trying some pre/post EQ. Quite often, the default cabs/mics may not be the best choice. So please share your recent Pod discoveries!

Yes picks! (btw I didn't arrange them in any hierarchy of importance, just followed the signal path) Picks, fingers, violin bow/EBow, electric toothbrushes, etc - attack/transients, dynamics, string noise/fret buzz, finger expressions, the list goes on

Yup strings are so much more important than people think. For me, the components and what they affect the most: Strings - basic tone, feel, sustain, tuning stability Guitar - tuning stability, sustain, comfort, weight Pickups & other electronics, plus cable - attack and response, noise, output level (not so important, easily compensated on processor), tone (can be EQ-ed to a certain extent) Speakers - volume, frequency response, stereo width Spouse - the quantity and unit price of all the components above Probably missed out a bunch of stuff, just plucked out from the top of my head.

Since it'quite an old product, u may get a good deal for a used unit/old stock. Give it a go! To help u start your journey of becoming a Podigy, there're many great guides out there. But once u got the gain staging and hi/low-pass filters right, shouldn't be too difficult to find your sound.

Dude, u forgot the premium HDMI cables included. Makes all the difference, totally worth the extra dough!

I think for the future, all these neighbourhood stores have to offer something different when they can't compete with online stores. Some stores here do music lessons as well. After building relationships and trust, students will be more comfortable with having their teacher as a gear guide at the store. For the Helix, they could do maybe a 20 minute kickstarter lesson on using the Helix if you buy from them. Some people are willing to pay for patches, so paying a little more than online retailers to get a free tutorial from a pro so you could quickly dial them in yourself? Sounds good to me. Another way is customization and repairs. It's nice to have a complementary setup on a new guitar tailored to your needs. To perhaps take the mod thing to a new level, stores can go in the direction of the restaurant industry, offering their own twists (mods) on "stock" recipes. Hopefully in the future, when your friend asks you where you got that special XYZ, you could tell them, only from this ABC mom&pop store. For old fashioned people like me though, we're happy to pay 3-6% more than online stores for the service and simply the human element.