rvroberts

I'm thinking about Native on a laptop through Mainstage. I've not investigated a foot controller - it would be a fallback solution, so i'm not thinking the best possible, just something that's OK - maybe Behringer midi board of some sort? I still need to get a better handle on Mainstage - I've just got it hosting Native at the moment, but I've not tried to program patches - and I run Snapshots live on my Helix floor. Imagine I can't fully duplicate that. Still a backup solution could have say 6 good basic rigs, and be a very good fallback position.

If you want to keep up with drums and you want to do a small to middle sized venue with sound mostly from the stage, only the first set will cut it. They are sound reinforcement and will have both level and projection - i would expect the others to get totally lost in any room much bigger than a lounge room. I use 2 x Berhinger eurolive b112s and at about half power I can keep up with a loud drummer and fill a small to mid sized room direct from the stage. They are rated at the same power (1000W) and the 12inch bottom end doesn't make that much difference seeing I'm cutting the bottom a lot anyhow. 100 transistor watts (50 RMS I'd bet) doesn't sound as loud as a Vox AC15 which just about keeps up maybe with a loud drummer. and they aren't designed to have much throw.

not again!@@

Well this kind of puts you in the exact opposite position to a lot of us. I use 2 boxes in stereo - cause it sounds good! I have them facing me - gives good spill control and I hear really well. Sound guys love it. In rehearsal, where we don't have as much foldback mixing, I point one wedge across stage so the others can hear me well. If not they can't - even though it's good and loud where I'm standing. So you want to do old school where the band and the Audience hear mostly direct from stage? I think you will need to experiment - a pole behind you and a bit to the side might work well - but I think you will loose a bit of umph because of no floor effect. Might add a bit more low mid in global EQ if that happens........... The potential problem is that these PA style speakers are designed to push the sound in a cone to the back of the room - getting coverage of both band, audience and you might require some compromise - a traditional amp although very directional up close, seems to have more spread in the near field. It's the difference between infinite baffle - your traditional amp and horn loading - which to some degree of another is the PA style box. Can you mix a little guitar in all the foldback and FOH so you have less need to do it all with one little box?

It is definitely an amp issue - nothing to do with the Helix - don't matter how hard you hit the front end! It's output not input. First thing to check is the speaker lead - make sure it never shorts out. Use a speaker lead, not a guitar lead. Be sure you speakers are healthy. They likely won't sound too good if they aren't. Check the wiring in the speaker box is good. If that is not your problem, you need an amp tech - all the rest requires a decent knowledge of Valve amps.

Hi - yes, this has been covered a lot before. The Helix outputs a full range sound. A guitar amp and speakers do not. To get to the sound we are used to hearing from a guitar amp - you need to adjust the output to a similar range. You can do that on the cab or globally - and some IR's have it pretty much built in........ But the secret sauce is something like this - cut at 100Hz - cut a lot using low cut. Go to 5Khz and do the same. Use the high cut drastically. You are now hearing your patch like it is cut by a traditional cab. I do it in Globals - but I have my top cut a bit higher so I've got a little per patch tweaking. That works for me - I've never seen it as a limitation on my sound. Some people only ever do it on the Speaker cuts and regularly use an EQ as well. I see their argument that it is more tailored to the patch - but in real world experience - it's just means more work setting up each patch - my fenders still sound like fenders and my marshalls still sound like marshalls......... Anyhow - whichever way you want to go - do that an all problems solved - I believe AxFX have that built into their patches.......??

What you want to do is totally possible - but Logic might not be the best platform for that - not my area of expertise (I have a fair bit but not applied to using a DAW live). My concern in general is that you are still going to need some way to cue that DAW - you couldn't just start a show and stop at the end however long that takes, so you will still need a midi device of some type - potentially a pedal board? You are also relying on a computer behaving perfectly for all that time............I'd be very cautious of that! You would need to turn off everything that was not related (all those little routines that go out to the net or the wifi network just saying "I'm here") so no cycles were lost checking Adobe cloud or something else stupid - so you would need to be sure you had a robust routine to make sure that Laptop (I'm typing this on something very similar) was just doing the job you wanted for the show and absolutely nothing else. That kind of means your safest path would be to have it devoted to your show and not have a life as a general tool. You can't have any stray "boings" due to any system events - yes, it's all possible, but what makes something like a Helix floor (which is the most obvious choice for live) so reliable is that although it's a computer, it is purely dedicated to making sound and a OS that does nothing else. Your Mac OS is doing tons by default that has nothing to do with the task at hand. I know people are doing it for Keys and even running a lighting rig, but those who are having 100% success are either keeping that machine for that one job, or have either personally or through a very tech savy contact created a routine (script or program) for setting that computer to do as little as possible that is unrelated while it does that show. I've seen something as simple as a powerpoint presentation go terribly wrong many times due to that computer pausing to do something "in the background". I've also never used Alberton Live, but I've heard it's the most suitable for live shows.........but you probably already have way too much time invested in Logic I suspect? So outside issues of latency etc, you are expecting a robustness from the system that would trouble me personally!

Interesting - you should be able to place it after your cab with a send and return - might work well in other places too - level matching would be your main concern. I would expect that you would want to set send and return to mic level. There is a valve preamp in the Helix - I gave it a try and was not convinced it was worth the DSP, but if you are in a critical recording environment, you might find it useful - here is the original note - "In the Preamp section of the FX blocks there is a subsection for the Mic preamp - the Studio Tube Pre. You select it, position it, and adjust its parameters like any other block" That's an old post, and I've not tried it recently.

Not sure what amp you are using or if you are going full FRFR- it all has a lot of effect. I use a Strat with a Helix. Rosewood neck - but it's just a little less bright than yours- I assume you play that guitar because you like a bright sound anyhow? I have a global high cut at about 5.5K - but it is really drastic - really steep - if yours isn't falling away at say 60º (24db I think) it's probably nowhere near enough - I never have to wind my treble on any amp I use all the way back although 3 might be normal on some amps - and I don't personally like a lot of top - About John Mayer clean is about as bright as I get except for some special funk thins. So if you are being gentle with that high cut - get drastic!

If your expression pedal is compatible with the Helix, you can set the range of the pedal - and it will stay set. Could this be part of your problem? Also, you do need to set the range - if you want 0-100% you need to set that up.

Sounds like you are yet another person who needs to understand the difference between FRFR (full range flat response) and a guitar amp. Also you probably need to consider the Fletcher Munson effect. I think they need to create a new manual with this stuff as it is the most common problem. Generally people say their sounds - particularly distortion sounds fizzy. What they want is warm smooth distortion. So it's not as technical as it sounds. Guitar amps and speakers are not capable of a wide frequency range and that is because a guitar doesn't want or sound good spread over a wide frequency range. The short cut to fixing your tone (you will almost certainly need to adjust the amp tone when you do this) is to go to global EQ and and cut everything below 100Hz. Then cut everything above 5KHz. Now you restrict your output to a typical guitar range and welcome to smooth guitar sounds. There are other ways to do this - but this is a great short cut and just works! Now to Fletcher Munson - this is about hearing - it says that as sound gets louder, you hearing is different - you hear bottoms and tops more. Do the Global EQ thing I suggest - chances are that's 90% fix. Then you might still need to tame your lows and highs a bit at volume - unfortunately you can only really do that with experience. Obviously this is all to taste - you might find you need a little more cut - try a slight boost at say 2K.

If you are you going FRFR or direct to PA? If so....... Try to set the global EQ. I suspect that is what you are talking about. Does this happen to tube amps - no - but that is because tube amps are not built to be full range but to only enhance a guitar. To get the same result out of the Helix, Set your global EQ with a drastic low cut at 100Hz and a high cut at 5KHz. You are then squishing the output of the Helix to come out through the frequencies of a typical tube amp - that is probably what you are looking for. There are other ways to achieve that, but from how you asked this question this is the simplest and least technical "fix" - and a totally valid one.

Can't say - just you - but not how it looks to me!

Very simple idea! I like it - we all share that problem although for me it is not so much of a problem because I just need to hit my next snapshot and it is all good again. I'd love a version of the Helix with more space.......probably not going to happen though. These look interesting too..........http://barefootbuttons.com/

Really, I hear your frustration - but bossgx700 was in the right track. If you want a quick fix - go to global EQ. Just cut everything above 5.5K drastically - you will start to get sounds you like straight away. Also almost everyone cuts the lows at say 100Hz - again pretty drastically. Then select a fender style amp and it will start to sound about right. If you find an "expert" either doing that in globals or in each channel will be the kind of "fix" they do. It is to match the range of the Helix output to that of a typical cab. We hear this all the time on this list - just try it before you spend dollars or give up.

Unpotted single coil pickups are susceptible to microphonic feedback. That's what that sounds like. Even unpotted humbuckers do it - I had exactly that problem with Fender Shawbuckers (even with a traditional amp - Vox AC15 and high-ish gain). So you have a batch of things you can do - first you need to know if the feedback is coming from your rig. If you are also in all the monitors, that might be contribution. But this is why we all got our pickups wax potted in the old days and now everyone is going.....it's not like the old days and not potting the pickups - so you could get your pickups wax potted. Imperceptible loss of "airiness". Obviously high frequencies don't help, so I did get significant improvement by cutting global EQ in the high end - which turns out to be good for guitar sounds in general anyhow - 5K and above cut drastically. But I had to actually change pickups to get good solid reliable performance - so much for true vintage pickups! Speaker placement can help too - but it sounds like you have tried that. I use my boxes as monitors facing me - but I'm not going to claim that will solve your problem. Like someone else said, try some modern humbuckers - if that fixes it - get your pups wax potted.

Then take the easy approach for now - go to global EQ and you will see there is a low cut and a high cut that you can enable - you will see that the values can be adjusted for frequency and cut in dB. What I'm suggesting is you adjust the frequency of the low cut to 100Hz (that's hertz the way you measure frequency - if you see A440 on a tuner - 440Hz is the frequency of A). then you cut it 24dB - it's the other adjustment you can make. Then you adjust the high cut to 5K or a bit more and again cut it by say -24dB. You will then have a graph for your global EQ that looks like a flat top hill. That's a good place to start. You might find that a little lift somewhere on one of the other ranges - maybe 2K (2K=2000Hz) - gives you nice presence - have a bit of an experiment.

There are 2 factors - one is the sound source and the other is the volume. Google fletcher munson curve. This fact that perceived frequency response varies with volume might be part of what you are hearing. The other part is that guitar amps do not produce very low or high frequencies - this is a really good thing for guitar tone, and very important for distortion. What sounds like "creamy" distortion as reproduced by a guitar amp sounds like a harsh buzzing when run through a full range speaker system. You might also find the different reproduction systems and that volume curve are what is giving you a harsher sound through your monitors. Most people here find they cut everything below 100Hz and above maybe 5500Hz to get back that creamy quality. It also makes clean and apparently very hifi tones sound rounder and nicer. Maybe this will help?

Someone in the past had a link to some footswitch extenders. Things that attached to your foot switches to make them easier to hit. Would love that link again. Something that simple might help?

There are midi controlled loopers like the gigrig G2 - so potentially you could run all your pedals through that looper and connect it to one send and return set and run everything using midi - or use 2 send/returns so one group can be placed after your amp say. But I'd have to ask you have you truely tried and tested the effects included with the Helix? I personally can't see any use for an external overdrive again in my life. Maybe if you are really big in Ambient sounds, there are delays and reverbs that might be better in some instances - but when you consider you can combine 2 delays for example, I still question that. In the studio - maybe, live..........just complicating your rig with little gain - at least for me. What I'm saying is about practical usability. While I'm playing, with a pedal board, all my pedals can only have one setting. In Helix, I can combine 2 different drives at one set of values for my verse, and then change one completely, change all the settings on the other and adjust the gain and tone on my amp all with one footswitch, and get my chorus tone with that huge amount of control. Overdrives are a particularly good example, because the subtlety of what you get is more about the level going from one unit to the next and combined with the gain on the amp. You might also find that a preamp makes the best valve overdrive you ever tried if you put that in front of your amp........and you can make big or small adjustments to everything any time you want at the push of a button. You just can't do that with a pedalboard. (except in the studio). Layering effects in almost unlimited ways gives you scope that again you can't get with a pedal board. After all that, if you still find you can't get you sound from the Helix, and you have to have all those pedals - are you maybe better off staying in the world of conventional amps?

1 year new to Helix floor - no problems yet...........fingers crossed! I've had more problems with computers - biggest problem is when (and it's got to happen one day) it goes down - what am I going to do??!! It's the only problem when all your eggs are in one basket of technology.........May have to buy an LT as a backup - but then I'd have to take it everywhere with me........which won't happen! But seriously, I think reliability is as good as you can hope for a chunk of well built solid technology - LT......yet to see enough of them around for a time.

Someone asked if your pickups are potted? I had squeal (as different to nice musical feedback) without a lot of gain at a medium level with the Fender Shawbucker - that was because it wasn't wax potted. This is a new and interesting thing happening with guitars - in order to recreate things we liked about old pickups we also bring back all the problems! I got rid of that Shawbucker fast - problem solved! Will happen with just about any speaker and amp combo.

Helix Edit is not a software version of the Helix - it is essentially a remote control for the Helix with some saving and archiving added. (Backup) Helix Native is basically what you say - but I believe you will need your DAW to use it - the story seems to be that you can build a patch in Helix Native and export it to the Helix for live use. We suspect that the Helix editor will be redesigned to look like Native and will gain better archiving along with that.......... Whenever that is.........

I'm listening to your examples - I hear a nasty after sound as the distortion fades away - is that what you are talking about? I don't experience this. Well I probably could make something do it - I've not tried to make that sound - obviously! I'm also not using those amps - but I'm guessing it's not amp model specific. Are you maybe running everything too hot? You say you are using a Strat - that should not be a problem - have you tried playing with your input impedance? Are your level outs matched to your recording levels. It's a distortion that from my experience should not be there. It's very digital and could well be clipping. Do you use any global or per preset EQ? (it doesn't sound like the standard problem of too much high frequency, but try cutting on the Helix everything above 5K - not that I think that is your problem) This is the sort of sound I don't like from some cheap guitar emulators that are totally PC based.....not what I experience from the Helix. You need to try to find where you are creating this sound - if you can't make it go away, your Helix might be faulty.......... But first check everything in the sound chain. On second listen - I'm sure there is clipping - I notice some quieter hits sound better - bring down the input level - see if you can make it go away that way - and again - check impedance.