rvroberts

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.

You can arrange your shapshots however you like - keeping to the bottom row in the layout you are suggesting (which incidentally is how I run mine). Obviously, if you have filled every slot and then you change your mind, you will have to recreate one as you copy and paste snapshots. I tend to have my low gain sound on the left and the solo sound on the right and some variation like chorus somewhere in between. I also probably have amp gain and delay settings varying across the presets - but it's all just copy and paste for rearranging.

The output level on the Helix - both XLRs and 1/4" are assignable in the interface. Use the manual - if you search the manual (it's a PDF, so you should be able to just do a search like on any PDF - or just go to quick start page 9) - and you will get how to set the output to line or mic - sounds like yours is set to mic - you could set your monitor to mic - but it is probably better to set everything to line.

I was interested to hear what non US Helix users think about the 2 year warranty only for the US. Seems that thread has disappeared? - well I just get an error message??

I build my presets much like you do. I have a global EQ that seems to work very well for giving me the sound I expect at volume. Mostly I play stereo, but when the FOH will only give me one channel or is running in mono, I just go out of the left output. (I actually still use my 2 FRFR boxes on stage but I loop from one through to the other so they are both getting mono - means the same volume settings work) That automatically sums the left and right channels and gives a perfectly good mixed channel sound. If you only plug into the left output you get that by default. Still sounds pretty good!

Yep - that would be my guess!

The Amplifi should be fine - it sounds like you either aren't a live player, or you want a home system for when you are at home!?! But instead of using the Amplifi as a guitar amp, you would run the Helix into the amplifi like you do your music - so it's a clean flat sound system without any coloring from the guitar effects side. That way the Helix is totally creating the guitar sound. I use studio monitors at home - that also works fine - and is not too different to my live set up as I go FRFR and straight out to FOH. What you can combine depends totally on the setup - if you are using the music input on your Amplifi, then obviously you won't be hearing your music through that too. What I do is run it all from my computer. So the Helix is connected to the computer by USB - that lets me use the Helix as the audio interface - I come out of the Helix into the amp and speakers (if you have self powered speakers then It's a tiny bit simpler.......) The Helix will pass through the audio from the computer - music, Youtube or whatever. I use the Editor on the computer to control the Helix - all works well. But it will never be as simple as your Amplifi - it was designed to plug in a guitar and some audio and play along. Introducing the Helix is going to lead to a more complex setup.

I would just run out of the pedal board into the Helix with a classic Twin patch - you can run into way to many level matching issues if you do anything more complex (assume he's just plugging in on the night? - brave/foolhardy move for that guy!) - you will obviously need to give him a gain and tone just like on the real amp - but straight in the front is the way I'd go. (a gentle bit of noise gate might be worth adding - but he needs his own patch that is a nice fender clean that you can push to the beginning of overdrive - I'm assuming he gets his sounds with his board mainly or he is really crazy!

Assuming you have all this stuff backed up on your computer - what you are really asking is a computer related issue. You don't say what OS you are using - but If you google something like "save a directory list as a text file" or XL file or csv - a quick look seems to indicate (as you would expect) plenty of solutions. Have fun being organised!

How do you get the idea that each patch can only have 8 units? (I'm assuming a "unit" is an amp or cabinet or stomp box?) It is possible to fit 8 "units" on each path - there are potentially 4 paths - if you choose to use them - that would make 32! You will certainly run out of DSP before 32 - but I've got lots with considerably more that 8! Time to look at some YouTube videos and read the manual! Try something like this

One thing that might confuse you is that when you split a path, you have control of how much of the signal goes down each path - I first was wondering why I wasn't getting much effect from a delay in a parallel path until I realised that. If it was only getting half the level then when set full wet, it was still only a 50% mix. That parallel path thing is also a matter of taste. I have mixed 2 completely different amps to great effect that way though. Your Strymon Flint might be a slightly better reverb for some sounds - possibly say vintage tremolo - than the units in the Helix - but you can use 2 together - and personally I don't find that a problem - there are definitely some on this list that are lobbying for more and better reverb and delay units. Straight into the front of the amp, you should be able to get very close - it's more in the studio situation you might notice something you like about the Strymon that you aren't quiet getting out of the Helix. I assume you run your amp clean and get drive tones from your pedals? If so, some people have had great results using a preamp as a kind of overdrive, and it can help your amp sound a bit different to the Fender it is! EQ will also help there, But the sound of your amp and speakers will always restrict how far you can move away from the basic sound of your amp.

I must admit that since snapshots, I never use stomp mode. Now there are a few reasons for that - any combination of stomp boxes (and any modification of their settings) can be set up as a snapshot. secondly, I use a brand new patch for each song - I don't try to set the thing up like a pedalboard and not use many patches. So I never run out of Snapshots. Well in fact, I have a number of patches that do a number of songs - like a good classic rock sound with a few levels of gain and delay. - that does about 8 songs so well I don't really see the point in changing it. But I also like to use dramatically different sounds - so I've got some funk patches that use amp and pedal combos that are at the opposite end of the spectrum from that rock sound. I think that you are either willing to look at the device in front of you and say - "how can I use this thing to give me all I need to play the music I want?" Or - you can say - "my mind works this way - I want the technology to feel like it reads my mind". All perfectly fair I guess, but I suspect that most people think in a certain way about effects and amps because they had to adapt to a particular path at some point - and it's being able to see the potential of another viewpoint that gets in their way. In the end I suspect that's as likely as anything else to influence the technology we buy.

you might also find this interesting -

Have you seriously looked - Clean - Low Gain - So apart from a batch of users saying - no problem - it is so much like the amps it models, that it is more that you aren't necessarily monitoring in the same environment as you might with a cleanish Hendrix sound for example with a double stack of Marshalls behind you - that it becomes actually everything you wanted from those amps in a more predictable way - that's my experience. You do need to learn to set the thing up for your rig - you can't expect to sound like a fender blackface if you plug it into a Marshall! But if you run it FRFR, you can do an excellent impersonation of a Blackface (for example) and with the flexibility of delay after your speaker and mic - just like the studio sounds you love on the record. But if you start not wanting to buy into the digital simulation, you will find fault till you give up - you have to think of it as an amp in the studio and you are the engineer. You hear the examples I've just supplied - they might not be to your taste - I don't know because you did not pick an actual sound to have created in the Helix - but I've not found anything that I can't get an extremely good version of - with a little effort. That's something you can't do with a normal rig - it will have a range of sounds around the center on that natural sound of the amp, and might be great in that range, but unable to go outside that basic flavour. And can I have a gained up sound and turn the volume down and have the amp clean up naturally - absolutely. What's more most people's low gain sounds are likely to be augmented by a pedal - check this classic low gain pedal test - not 100% but you only know because you are A/Bing the sounds - not better or worse but just slightly different as 2 Klons would be. and a last one - it's taken me about 10-15mins to find these and write this -

I'm also very happy with a 57 mostly. But a general question - in what conditions............................... So if I'm trying to cut through the mix in a live situation, the 57 helps me do that - if I'm trying to get a sweet sound at low volume, then ribbon is good. But this is directly connected to EQ and the good old Fletcher Munson curve - that extra "thickness" is my enemy on stage in a live situation.

OK - I'm basically giving a more detailed version of the above - firstly you don't tell us how you are using the Helix - through an amp or FRFR. The Helix is like an amp in a studio with a mic on it - and you are in the control room - well if you run FRFR that is. If you are running into an amp, how are you set up? 4 cable method? And what amp and speakers?. You can't nail any sound if you are running into the front of an amp - the amp will rule the overall sound and you should mostly avoid amp and cab sims. Use the Helix as an effects rack/pedal board - don't use amps and cabs (I've seen people use preamps like a valve overdrive effectively though) If you are running FRFR, there are 2 equally valid approaches - but they both boil down to the fact that you need to tailor your EQ to a realistic guitar speaker sound - the Helix can put out way more bottom and top than a guitar speaker - so you need to deal with that. You either use high and low cuts within each patch, or you do it in global EQ. Basically anything below say 100Hz and above 5000-6000Hz is probably going to give you an unpleasant result. So cut outside those frequencies drastically. Compounding this is using IRs. As these simulate speakers, depending how they were made they might or might not have some degree if this effect built in already! From what you describe, this is where your problem starts. Downloading patches is all fine, but depending on your rig and the rig the patch was created for, the chances are you will still not get the result you are after without tweaking. Do you have a past of using amps and pedals? If so, the Helix does a really good job of duplicating that. If you don't, you are at a bit of a disadvantage creating guitar tone - as everyone is trying to produce sounds created originally the analog way. If that kind of tweaking is not for you, then you probably won't get along with the Helix - "Easy campezee" sounds Aussie to me? If you decide to sell in in a few months - let me know!

What they sat ------EXCEPT---------if you are thinking Helix LT, you won't have the other inputs - just the guitar.

Not used one - but I'd bet it would do the job fine - 1500W - sounds huge, but reality will be that it might give the impact to a guitarist on stage that you might have had with a good sized valve head and a 2x12. Just guessing that from my experience of similar systems - which is plenty for me! A bit of global EQ will no doubt be needed, but that's why you got it!

And here's another........hope some of that is useful

The idea is that you can use an amp you love into a load box instead of one of the amps in the Helix. And that is where you would put it. you would put a send to your amp in you effects chain in the normal position - generally after you effects - but that depends on what you want to achieve. You then send either into the front of the amp (the most likely solution) or the effects loop if you only want to drive the output stage. You then plug the amp into the Suhr Rective load and feed that back with a return - probably - but not absolutely necessarily - straight after the send. You then use a IR to get the effect of a speaker cab. Pass that through any reverb or delay or whatever you want post amp and mic. and come out of the Helix just like normal. You will need to set suitable levels in the send and return to suit the front of the amp and the output of the load box. Pete Thorn does it a lot especially for recording. Check his youTube stuff on it. You would want to particularly want to love that amp you are putting in the chain though - it's a fair bit of fiddling so you would want to be sure it pays off - he seems to believe it does - I've never used it - I got rid of everything in the way of old valve amps when I realised the Helix was going to do everything I needed. Here's one -

Hi - strange choice. Even the keyboard player in my band plays through what we call FRFR - that's full range flat response system. Are you only intending to play at home?. 30W is really not very much when you want to reproduce a full spectrum of sound with plenty of headroom - don't confuse this with say a 30W valve amp like say a Vox AC30 - you need a few hundred watts at least to have an amp simulated sound that feels anything like that loud (a 30W valve amp with efficient speakers can be very loud!) The price for this cube is about the same as something like the Behringer B112D http://www.music-group.com/Categories/Behringer/Loudspeaker-Systems/Portable-Speakers/B112D/p/P0AJN I can tell you with no doubt that that will put out a better sound for the Helix and a ton more level - with basic mixing options if you want to use something else too. There are a lot of self powered speakers in direct competition with the Behringer - I'd look there before the cube. Regarding mono - you use the left output on either the XLRs or the 1/4in outs to get mono - don't need to do anything extra - automatically sums the 2 channels if you don't plug in the right channel.