rvroberts

I'm sorry - what is your problem? This is very easy to do - You have 2 main signal paths. You can make the input of one guitar and the other Mic. You can pan the outputs of each path, so one can be hard left and one hard right. That means you will get guitar out of one and vocal out of the other. No problem as far as I can see? You can put a few basic effects (say compressor and mic EQ) you always use in each path and save it to use as a template for all your patches. Neat and easy. Are you asking something else I'm not getting from your post?

You can't plug the Helix straight into a speaker box. It needs a power amp. But the L3t is not a simple speaker box - it has it's own power amp. It is a 1400 watt power amp! - connected to speakers all in one box - that's why you wouldn't use a power amp - you already got one! And you can't connect a power amp to an L3t - that would be plugging an amp into the input of an amp - you'd probably blow them both up! Hope that clears up some people's understanding.

I think you misunderstand what the cuts do on the reverb (and delays). These are EQ only on the bounced sound - not the main signal. Think this way - you have an echo with just one repeat. The initial note is not affected, but the repeat is. It is common to want the delayed sound to be less bright than the original note - it makes for sweet sounding delay and helps repeats blend into the sound. It has nothing to do with the overall cuts which affect everything. Incidentally, if 8KHz works well for you then fine, but the idea of cuts on the cab block is to simulate speaker response, and it would not be unusual to have a cut at 5Khz - so don't feel worried that it looks like you are throwing away too much of your sound spectrum - it's all outside a bright sounding guitar anyhow.

Hi kazoue911. I've personally never found the DI thing a problem - I've actually found it makes their job easy. But your mileage may differ! They don't even need a DI - the Helix does the job and has a ground lift - so it's very simple. They just plug a mic lead into the left XLR and away they go. Can't remember going back a long way there wasn't a DI on the bass, and most keyboards - so you'd think it would be a very old and primitive soundie who couldn't deal with a line in. What I can say is that very "ordinary" sound people have to go out of their way to wreck your sound when you go direct - if your sounds are good through your FRFR, then they are probably good out front. But - if you are micing an FRFR box it would need to have dual concentric cones otherwise the horn and speaker would need 2 mics and the chances of an average soundie with little time getting that right is about zero! I've not used a power cab, but that's what the idea of it is - amp in a room - so I'd expect it would work fine. I don't think there are any solutions for no mic cabs at the moment - I think it's the unlikely situation. If you have to go that way I'd definitely investigate the power cab.

This is going to be a case of the truth lying somewhere in the middle. I agree with cruisinon2 that you can't just load someone else's presets and expect to get great sounds. That's because of the huge range of variables involved. That starts at the guitar and goes through all the other variables. I have 2 Strats that are pretty similar except for the pickups - the small difference in gain and high end mean certain sounds need tuning even when they are very similar - and envelope filters are a really obvious example. Even the glassy highs need tweaking between guitars as one is a bit brighter than the other - and for some sounds it's the difference between cut and cut your head off! On the other hand - assuming you actually know how to use your Helix (the real problem with people who just want to buy a box and a batch of presets and not do any work), you can often find some enlightenment in other people's patches. And you can often quickly adjust for differences like gain levels and guitar. So the thing I'm starting to believe is that the Helix is a tool for people who have some idea of what they are doing - although not absolutely necessary, it helps hugely if they already have experience of Valve amps and analog pedal boards - as that's what the Helix is modelling. I think we need to discourage people who just want a quick fix. There are probably better choices for them. For the rest of us who can read into an effects chain and understand what they are looking at, I find patches by people who know what they are doing sometimes good for thinking stuff like - hey, didn't think of using that amp for clean sounds - or here's a fuzz sound I actually like! Know what I mean?

Can the Helix do what you want - absolutely yes. Is it a good fit for a home hobby guitar player - even with a decent budget? I'm not sure - as others have said, you really need to put in time - and it is almost necessary to have used valve amps and pedal boards to understand what is being modelled and how those things might be plugged together to produce cool sounds. You could just buy lots of sound sets (libraries) created by others, but if you want a short cut to some good sounds......maybe the Helix is overkill and demands too much of you - it is a professional tool. Have you had a look at the Firehawk FX? It is designed for a less complex approach. Sometimes less power means a more friendly experience. https://line6.com/firehawk/firehawk-fx The Alto speaker system will be fine whichever way you go. You might even find your stereo works well if it's a decent system and you don't want to play loud enough to keep up with a drummer. So I think the Helix might be an unnecessary step too far into professional gear. Try the Firehawk and the Helix and see if you really need the big guns and all the complexity that goes along with it.

I'm going to say the opposite to those above - if the Helix frustrates you, don't go down the modeller path - well at least anything that doesn't just come with a ton of presets. (you did try the presets?) Firstly, you have to have had experience of a number of amps and had a pedal board that you understood - if not, you won't understand what it is trying to model. And yes, you got to be prepared to spend a week with the thing even then before you start to get the thing working for you. If any of that is not you - don't do it!

Yes, I so much agree with DunedinDragon! I don't want the raw guitar sound, I want the studio sound - I always did, but before systems like the Helix didn't know that's what I was looking for. The fact that I can process the sound after the speaker (IR) is fantastic! And I'm personally fine for live sound and feel - as is the rest of the band - with a fully produced sound though FRFR at decibels that still give some feeling of a big amp but better (I'm an old guy who used to play live with a 50w Marshall well and truely cooking in the day!). By the way, on a big stage even in those "olden days", I used to hear about as much of my sound through the foldback as my amp direct if I was lucky - that push up your bum disappears then you are 6M out from the amp and the 2000w side fills and a row of wedges are pumping! Professionals got used to hearing their amp coming from FB as much as the amp itself - bet you The Edge hears most of his sound from foldback. And you get into the luxury of having some reverb etc on that side fill really quickly!! A good stage mix used to be a thing of beauty - and a band always loved that guy that could reliably give them what they wanted to hear. Now I operate on a more conservative scale, I'm really happy to have the Helix do a better job than I used to get from my side fill mix. (I do take a aux line into the monitors so I can control the balance of the rest of the band) My wedges face me - I'm still getting all that interaction of the strings and the amp - I can still play the feedback - actually I can do that way more predictably that those old days. Be very confident the good harmonics are going ring and take off and as a result I can control that whole amp/guitar thing better than ever. But because its all facing me (in stereo) it has almost no impact on the FOH mix. Obviously it's a personal thing - that the way it is for me.

Can't imagine how it will go in stomp mode??!!

I use 2 FRFR boxes in stereo. But in my case It's rock guitar, so mostly either side of the stereo sounds OK. So I can place one box so it's shooting somewhat across stage and the other straight out - which works fine for an audience and the rest of the band. With one box, you'd need to be more careful with positioning. All that stuff about getting some distance and setting up your sound at gig level is 100% correct. When I have a good PA setup, I use the boxes as wedges for my personal sound facing me - that's the best - I get a foldback send into my boxes too so I can hear as much of the rest of the band as I want - standing in the stereo sound hearing really well is the best - but when I got to fill the room from the stage - no problem!

It's not a Helix tone

Yes - That analogue in should work. use line level out of the Helix. (I expect the analogue in to be for a CD or DVD) Obviously start with the volume down low. This will be basically FRFR - so you will need high and low cuts - check out the threads on that - and use your ears as you might need to EQ a bit more if your amp and speakers have really full on bass and high accentuation. (typical for low end HiFi amp and speaker combinations) Obviously your HiFi speakers have their limits too - but if you don't run it too loud it should all be fine. It helps to start with an amp you know - so you can tell when it's sounding right.

OK - the answer above is correct as far as it goes. But it sounds like you aren't very technical? The monitors on stage in a well set up PA should do the job. A half decent sound person should be able to send you a mix that features your guitar (coming direct from the Helix to the PA) so you can hear yourself well enough. He should also be able to give your band mates a mix where they hear you as well as they want. What's wrong with this picture? First you are totally in the hands of that soundie. That's not a good thing unless you work together all the time. Getting what you need has no guarantees. Experienced players will tell you to expect the worst. What you want to do is totally possible - the question is how likely are you to have a good experience gig after gig? Not very if you work in different places with different conditions regularly. And your band mates - they don't tend to get louder during the gig do they??........beginning to see the problem? You totally want a sound source on stage that you can rely on - if you don't have your own sound guy and always have good monitoring - don't expect it to work out. FRFR is as simple as one decent powered wedge - you can get something OK for $300-400 - once you have EQ'd for that and can get a sound you can play with - you have a reproduceable on stage sound. It's so comforting to know you will get the same sound every night! Also, you start to get the other things you expect from a guitar rig, like some interaction between the guitar and the amp - sustain caused by the interaction of volume hitting your strings and vibrating them. Don't even consider trying to plug into the effects return of some back line amp supplied - there are way to many variables - you will have more bad experiences than you want to know about! There is no setting that just works for every amp. You would not be the first to try this- and some might mostly have an OK experience - but I'm betting not many! Own soundie - work decent venues - always have good monitoring - no problem! if not - don't!

Would you be able to show us a screen capture? I'm afraid I don't understand what you are doing form your description - or if I do your approach is probably part of the problem.

I think it's just you! Do you use the noise gate on the input, or do you actually add one as an effect? The one in the input save a space on your path and seems to work fine for me. Yes - it's per patch, but there are plenty of reasons why everyone doesn't want it on for everything. Especially if you need to ride your volume knob. So it's not a one size fits all thing.

If using the high and low cuts following the typical thread of 100Hz and 5KHz gives you a muffled tone........ 1. Are you running FRFR? the concept is to put full range flat response speaker systems in the general ballpark of a guitar amp and speakers, but it is not for use on a conventional amp and speakers - because they already do that. 2. Are you doing that to a patch that is already sounding mostly OK without it? The high and low cuts (when using FRFR or straight into a DAW) do work. But you do this pretty much as a first step when building a patch from scratch. So you select an Amp, add a speaker and set the high and low cut - then tune the sound - it is EQ at the end of the day, so you might modify the cuts too to fine tune your sound, but if you start there, you get really good sounds quickly and overdrives and distortions sound sweet instead of harsh. 3. All EQ approaches are valid - the high and low cut is a starting point - I like a Cali Q Graphic on a lot of tones to tweak the mid cut. - but they are all a curve and you can make that curve with different tools.

Yes, in Australia, we could be in for a long wait too........ hope to not have to find out. I have had my Helix quiet a while - maybe getting on for 2 years. I’ve giged it a reasonable amount and my only concerns so far are needing to nurse the pedal. Fingers crossed you are just unlucky. Sorry and good luck!

As you say, it all sounds great through your amp when you just use the effects. What you need to do is get the sort of sound out of the amp simulations that you get from an amp so by time all this ends up coming out FRFR - in full range flat response - it sounds like you imagine a good guitar sound to be. Guitar amps tend to favour the frequencies that make a guitar sound good - that's why you need an amp sim to get any sort of decent guitar sound (well some super clean funk sounds can be straight into the desk) That's before we think about valve distortion/overdrive, sag etc. Next you need a speaker. This is the bit that seems to confuse lots of new Helix users. You have either Helix cabs or IRs - they both represent a speaker and mic combination. As a result they need to be EQ'd - just like the real world - well actually in a lot of cases more than the real world - depends on how the IR was made. A real guitar speaker falls off very quickly below 100Hz, and again there is a drastic drop somewhere beyond 5KHz. So you more that likely need to duplicate this as the first step to getting a decent sound. Often a mid kick is also part of the cut through you need. This all depends on the IR and your desired result, but don't think you can't get a bright Strat sound for example with a high cut at 5K - you can - it just gets rid of all the harshness. Try it! You'll find the cuts in the cabs and IRs - or you can do it globally. Most argue that you should do it per patch - I actually do it globally 100Hz and 5.5K with a slight mid bump (drastic cuts 24-48db slopes), and with amp EQ and the occasional graphic or cali EQ and the cuts on the cabs when I want to tighten the bottom a bit more for example, can get every sound I want and I'm in the ballpark straight away. This way I use EQ to tweak an already pretty good sound.

OK - I'm going to say something here and I'm betting a lot of you are going to disagree.......... I don't miss any of my old overdrive pedals! I'm totally happy to use the internal drive pedals. I'm always suspicious that people having problems with overdrive in the Helix have not fixed the basic issue of setting their high and low cuts to get great sound in the first place - not saying this applies to you. What I do think is that the overdrives included are great simulations of the pedals out there. If I want something different, it's probably something I can build using 2 overdrives together and say some EQ on those pedals. It's never failed me.................. Just my opinion.

The tuning range of a guitar and all the harmonic content are not the same thing. So no one is going to suggest you reduce your highs to 1K. The total experience of typical guitar tones that we are familiar with does however have a limited frequency range. Typically a guitar amp and speaker combination has say 100Hz-5KHz range before significant falloff tends to vastly reduce the rest of the range. This is a good thing - it's what makes the instrument sound "sweet" and makes distortion sound smooth rather than harsh. So High and Low cuts in that area are the likely way to make great tone. You have therefore to look at you total signal chain. If you have your Helix plugged into a traditional amp and speaker combination, you already have that. If you are using the Helix into a studio setup or FRFR speaker system, then you absolutely want to experiment with these high and low cuts - the tight bottom of the low cut will be really satisfying as will the sweetness oh a high cut. Set up the cuts any way you like - on your speaker high and low cuts, on your globals or with EQ - it's up to how you use your Helix and whether you want to tweak it per preset. Also look at the total frequency curve, you might also find playing with a midrange boost - try different frequencies - could well give you cut and clarity. So yes, most of us use low and high cuts! Regarding Reverb, you test it out for yourself - it's easy to do on the Helix - I personally never want to hear anything beyond that "nice" range of the guitar tone, and as it is processing that sound, I don't think you will get a great difference - but if you try it and you like it - then it's totally up to you!

I think you are missing something! That is if you use your Helix live. I use Native so I don't need to get the Floor unit out every time I want to practice. I also use it as a travel unit with my laptop and a simple interface for practice and any quick Ideas while travelling. It is the best solution I've had for that - I use Mainstage as the host application for travel on the laptop - but I could use a full DAW if I needed it - you can have it on your home workstation and your laptop with one license - so I find it really convenient. If the only place you play music is in your studio, maybe there is no gain for you........

I’m just going to say that the amp was not solid state. The first article say it had KT88 tubes. Nothing that old pretty much was solid state. “The KT88 is based on the 6550 but even more refined and boosted. It has even less distortion and an even cleaner tone then the 6L6 or even the 6550. It isn’t used in guitar amps as often as it is in hi-fi audio amps, but that being said, I know a few guys who totally swear by the KT88. I love the KT88 in a super-clean amp for maximum clarity, definition and chime or in an amp that’s got so much gain and power on tap that I want to clear up the tone. In other words, I use the KT88 instead of the 6550 (which seems to be the to-go tube for those kind of applications!).” So, you would imagine most of his overdrive was coming from overloading a valve mic preamp. Some further investigation might tell you which valves were in the preamp, and that might be useful, but I think what I’d get from that is a almost clean power section being driven just enough to to round out a seriously overdriven preamp. Dont know if Amy of that will help, but I mostly wanted to make sure you weren’t thinking solid state!

Have you turned on or off your global EQ?

A cab is not an amp - the sound you think of as a typical guitar tone is a combination of the amp and the speakers. The idea of the IR is so you can use your amp through some load box and back into the Helix (at line or instrument level - not speaker voltage), then apply say reverb or delay and go out to a DAW - or in fact potentially a PA. But the amp is the missing link. The real idea here is for recording. Otherwise why would you pay for the full Helix - even the LT? I would say that you could get a few interesting sounds direct from the HX Effects, but it would not be replacing your amp rig. Assuming you are looking to get classic electric guitar sounds...................could work as you describe as an acoustic rig - but you probably wouldn't use IRs then unless they were acoustic IRs - have read that you can do significant enhancement to acoustic sounds from inbuilt piezo/mic systems with suitable IRs.

There are no amp sims in the HX Effects - the other versions of the Helix are intended to be able to feed to a PA not the HX Effects.