MakeItShredNo1

So - Update I gave up on getting Airturn to work with Helix. What does work wonderfully is the Yamaha MD-BT01. So, if you're not familiar, the MD-BT01 is a bluetooth LE (low energy) dongle that plugs into MIDI in and out (getting power from the midi out) on a device, and then broadcasts the MIDI over bluetooth. To get it to work on older ipads (and by some accounts even on newer ones), you have to have an app that will specifically pair with BLE devices (Yamaha has one called Digital Piano, though I couldn't find it in the App Store - a google search for it did eventually lead to the app store link). Once paired, then iOS will see it as a bluetooth device in settings, and then it will send midi to whatever app you want. So, on the Helix I just programmed two pedals to send arbitrary midi signals (I choose Channel 1, CC 68, Value 127, more or less randomly, and since it didn't conflict with anything else I use should I use the Helix's midi-over-USB for a different project in the future). Then I opened forScore, and under Settings, "Shortcuts," tap on "Next Page" and it starts listening for commands - press the Helix pedal assigned to the midi CC, and viola - it should see it, interpret the MIDI as a Hex string, and now pressing that pedal on my Helix changes the page on my ipad. One problem I have found is that eventually (over several hours, or if the ipad is repeatedly screen-lock'ed) the connection stops working, and you have to completely disconnect (in the Digital Piano app, and by turning off bluetooth in Settings) and then repair the MD-BT01. But so far I haven't had problems with disconnects over the course of a set.

So there's been some posts about using the Helix switches to trigger page turns on sheet music apps, or triggering things like Loopy HD with Helix, but they all basically come down to using MIDI. I have an iPad (older, used only for sheet music) that I trigger page turns with the Airturn BT-106 and a dual momentary switch (basically an AirTurn Duo, but different pedals). So, I figure, Helix should be able to trigger the AirTurn with the ext amp output. So here's my testing procedure: I take my physical momentary switch - it has two TS outs rather than TRS, so I take a dual-TS-to-TRS Y cable, plug into my momentary switch, and into a pedal that has a remote input (Bogner Ecstasy Red). Everything goes fine - I can turn the pedal on and off, and engage the boost. I take away my momentary switch, and leave everything else as is - I plug each of the TS cables from the Y cable (still attached to the remote switch on the Bogner) into the "ext amp" on the helix*, I of course I only have access to either on/off or boost depending on which TS cable I have plugged into Helix, but both work fine. Then I take away the Y cable, and plus the TRS cable straight into the "ext amp," and I have access to both functions on the Bogner, exactly as expected. Ok, now, I hook my momentary switch into the Airturn BT-106 - one TS cable into "pedal 1/2" on the BT106, and another TS cable into "pedal 3/4." Using the momentary switch, the AirTurn connects to my ipad, and I can turn pages in forScore, and I can see the pedals activated as expected in the AirTurn Manager App. So, I have a momentary switch that I know controls the AirTurn and a guitar pedal perfectly well. That same guitar pedal is controlled perfectly well by the Helix "ext amp" function. YET, here's the problem: Connecting the Airturn to the ext amp function does nothing. So far I've tried: Connecting one input on the BT-106 to the "ext amp" via a TS cable Connecting one input on the BT-106 to the "ext amp" via a TRS cable Connecting both inputs on the BT-106 to the "ext amp" via a TRS-to-dual-female-TS Y cable plugged into the Helix and a TS cable plugged into each of the BT106 inputs. I also tried reversing the TS cables. and in each test I tried toggling both the 1 Tip, 2 Ring and 1 and 2 Tip and Ring setting in the Helix Has anyone tried to do something like this, and have you found any success? Any troubleshooting recommendations? As for a use-case for this - it allows me to charge my ipad while using a page-turner, which using a midi-adapter would preclude. As for why I would want to take up Helix pedals to do this - it's because on gigs where I'm doing a lot of reading, I typically need fewer sounds, and I also typically have cramped stage/pit space on these gigs, so this allows me one less thing on the floor. *since both the bogner and the Airturn are expecting momentary switches, and the Helix typically uses latching for ext amp I am either double-pressing a helix switch, or merging the ext amp switch with a "Simple EQ" block set to momentary.

Whoops - should be updated now

My regular gig this summer had exceedingly small stage space (a six piece band, mostly multi-instrumentalists, in a tiny alcove of an outdoor seating area at a bar), so I had to get inventive. I crammed my satellite board into a trumpet case - I checked to make sure they weren't generating too much heat, and then closed the case so I could put my preamp on the case. Here it is at a rehearsal, with the case open and the preamp seperate - the Carvin preamp is in loop 1, Bogner red and the Alter Ego x4 are in loops 2 and 3 every gig. The PH3 is in loop 4 and the hof mini is between the Helix and my amp for church gigs only. (Spider is for rehearsal only, I use a Hod Rod Deluxe into the power amp in for church, and straight to FOH for other gigs) Pic here And here it is at a gig - which, is not the greatest picture, as I mentioned it is an outdoor gig. What you can see is pretty much my space on the stage. My feet are literally just off the picture to the bottom, and my heels are up against the back wall! Other pic here and here

I was never a klon fan, but my most recent gigs call for more light-to-medium drive, and I'm loving the minotaur model. I now also use it on my high gain patches in conjunction with a post-amp clean boost for solos - the klon helps solos cut.

I honestly thought the ax8 sounded better in that demo, and it well may be "more realistic" sounding in general. I kinda figured that before I bought a helix, so I'm not too upset. And the reason is that if sounding true to an amp was the only thing I cared about, I'd get a kemper - full stop. See also, the most recent Anderson's kemper shootout. And also, Cliff is a douche and I don't wanna give him money.

Guitar mixes are very nearly always 100% include the amp and cab - it's not normal to talk about a guitar mix that includes the dry signal. But bass mixes very often include the direct signal, the preamp before the speaker, and a cab mic'ed up - all blended together.

As others have suggested, I would try turning the helix down and the amp up. Running a super hot signal from X into Y and then compensating by turning the volume down on Y can often result in increased treble. You can see this if you take on old delay pedal (like a vintage Memory Man) and put it in an fx loop. Instant icepick.

Or the auto pot from The Gig Rig. Receives midi messages, turns knobs. Dunno if it can do continuous or just presets, but I bet there's a manual at thegigrig.com

I have yet to find a setting in Helix that sounds like my beloved-by-me-but-maligned-by-most boss PH-3. I've got the "deluxe phaser" to sound close, so the ph3 only comes on gigs where I'm going to use it a lot (usually church). Also have an ecstacy red that turns my meager hot rod deluxe into a fire breathing dragon, but I can't quite get it to sound great with the helix models. It's staying in case I build a non-helix pedalboard. Also have a HOF mini. I could probably take the ph3 for modulation, the ecstacy red and the hof and survive a gig, probably add a delay and a medium gain pedal.

I snagged one off eBay that has this problem. I decided not to return it despite the eBay description not mentioning this defect because the price was good. I've been wondering what it would take to get it repaired since the warranty probably doesn't transfer.

I've been wondering the same thing. I have found that the Shiva is still loud with the drive on 0, unlike most of the other models, so I was using that for my cleans for a while, but I was having trouble dialing the flubbiness out, so I just moved on to other amps for me cleans (currently the mark iv channel 1)

(can't figure out how to edit on mobile) *It's the Marshall HDfx, which I think used to go by the name MG, but it occurred to me that I think MG refers to a different model now. I don't keep up with Marshall stuff, not a fan anymore.

I really like both the suggestion of full amp models into the hot rod and eq to faux-frfr, and also using a SS amp. I've got an old Marshall MG head that is very transparent. It'll be a few days till I can sit down with both the pa and an amp, so I'll report what happens. I didn't realize the cab clone had a dry out, that definitely worth investigating as well.

So, a couple people suggested using a preamp model and then splitting that into two paths, one with an IR and post FX sent to FOH and the other with post FX and no cab sent to the hot rod deluxe. The problem with this is that the FOH mix then does not get power amp modeling. A preamp into an IR will sound ok, but it will definitely be lacking compared to a full amp (that's why there are separate preamp and full amp blocks, in addition to amp+cab). One option would be to get something like a Torpedo Cab and run it in a loop, replacing the IRs in the path I mentioned earlier. That would free up a ton of DSP since I wouldn't have to have duplicate amp blocks, but that's gonna cost halfway to getting a cheaper frfr speaker. If I had to outboard something, I'd rather something sexier like a Timeline. Just in case it comes to that - does anyone know if the Timeline can be "dual mono" instead of stereo? That is, two inputs* into a mono delay, and then two separate outputs? Seems like it should be but I'm not taking anything for granted. *The signal path is getting complex for describing verbally here, but basically I'm asking can it keep the path going to the HRD separate from the path going to FOH.

Any advice on creative routing/fx usage for similtaneously sending a frfr signal to foh and preamps the fx return of an on stage amp? (Or another cheap solution to the following problem) I've happily gigged with an HD500 straight to Foh for five years now, but I've wished for a while now that I could have some more air moving on stage. I know I could get a frfr cab - but I'd prefer not to drop that kind of money, so I started trying to figure out how to get my hot rod deluxe to fill the bill now that I have a helix. I've made a couple patches with two preamp models in path A and two full amps in path B. All the pre fx are fine, but then I have to have duplicates of all the post fx, which gets limiting very fast especially with reverb. (Pretty sure the hrd power amp in bypasses the spring verb, but I only experimented with that a little) I would be OK with having the stage amp dry since I'd still have in ears, but I still don't have enough DSP to have a "normal" verb/delay and also a wet "swell" verb/delay* Btw, this is a use case where separate power amps or fx loop modeling would be super handy. *Side note, got a pretty good emulation of the Strymon "ice" reverb going I'm going to share soon.

The SKB SC2111 https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B004H1RY52

I just got my helix, but at rehearsal so far I've been using Snaps on top with Stomps on bottom, semi-frequently switching to stomp mode, with the â–²andâ–¼ set to Presets. I also use the shortcut where you tap the Preset buttons and more Snapshots show up that I use for certain one-shot effects (like a whammy for Like a Stone). So far that's actually kept me in one preset for a whole evening, but I could foresee with different bands needing more than one preset in a set. I've been experimenting with using a HD500 as a midi controller. I thought about using 8 Snaps mode on the Helix and having the HD500 be stomp boxes, but then there's not 2 way feedback. So I'd have to look at the main Helix LCD to see if a pedal is on or off. I already use an external expression pedal, so I'd be trading that for the HD500, plus I'd have a backup pedalboard on-stage ready to go if anything went wrong.

Sorry for the thread necro, but I've been referencing this thread searching for a case for my Helix. I know the Helix backpack is out, but I wanted something with a little more protection. I finally broke out the case I had been using for my HD500 - the SKB SC2111. I assumed since the Helix was larger, and the HD500 was a perfect fit, that the Helix wouldn't work. I was pleasantly proven wrong. It's a snug but workable fit. You can see in this picture that it fits lengthwise. The front-to-back depth is just a hair too long, so that the I/O panel sits on the case - but luckily the top foam is removable, so that added height does not stop the bag from closing. https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMsRgz78QTY-OzFzqlPoUaM01IqZqFvmjX64IwJyY0K1UH5wni3mhsZ196868tmKQ/photo/AF1QipNQ0AxQ7zHTieFLlB4TWvu3_EJP7Ka2hBwApT3U?key=dzFEa3ZfeGZVbEdjR1J4RFdYcTBjSllCODVCcVF3 Here's a picture of the HD500 in the case with the Helix beside for comparison https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/DFNPPlGkvSMy5FTnrGC5GQWh9MyDXQVyBS1sfTcva6mzUGiLanqoAswRz95Q_GosXqcjfSo1p_v5Eg=w1698-h955-no And here's why I love this case so much. It's been humped around on gigs for 5 years now, on tour twice, run over twice (!!!!), and in checked luggage round trip from Atlanta to Japan. It looks trashed....but my HD500 is in perfect shape. Which, in my view, is exactly what a case/bag is supposed to do. And best of all, it's $50. I just ordered another. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ohY577OkyNJyJ2fdQPWSe3pAFJidRyZ4WmFYJTFcOURLXzLd9v8QNwbx9NYcXkjzUBcXY69mSQaPCw=w615-h346-no

One of the "secrets" of the typical djent bands is that they have some pretty radical eq'ing aside from the amp - that one of the reasons that many of them (including, notably, Periphery) use an Axe FX. The good news is that Helix can do every bit of the EQing that the FX2 can. Start with a pretty aggressive low cut, and back off on the lows on your amp. Then dial up a parametric eq and crank it, and sweep around the low-mid range while playing some palm-muted stuff (the looper can help here) until the chuggy-ness becomes prominent - then back the level on the eq down to taste (it'll probably still be pretty cranked). There's some more eq going on in most djent bands, but those two things - low cut and a narrow low-mid boost - are pretty universal.

Huh. No, I was wanting to hear it on the Cali model, but I hadn't heard they made the eq part of that model. That's potentially very exciting.

So the thing that excited me the most about 2.0 is something I haven't seen a lot of chatter about - the 5 band eq from the Mesa Mark series. There's a reason they can charge $250 for a pedal that is just a 5 band eq, it's pretty crucial to the sound of a Mark. And also weird - centering around frequencies that many other eqs don't use, and having a Q than varies depending on where the slider is.* So I would love to see someone make a video/soundcloud going to town on the EQ. I do have one concern though: So most people are familiar with the "Mesa V" that people often put into the eqs of their Mark. But a "scooped mids" sound is notorious for sounding fizzy and hollow in a mix - see also: every early 80s metal album. However, many famous/well-regarded guitarists use a V shape in the EQ of their Marks, like John Petrucci. So I did some digging, and it seems that it's crucial where the EQ is in the chain. So it often (including in Petrucci's rig) goes like this: First, boost the mids going into the amp, say with a tube screamer.** But then, the Mesa EQ lies BETWEEN the preamp and power amp - so before the distorted sound hits the poweramp tubes, you scoop the mids out and boost the treble and bass. For whatever reason, this keeps things hunky-dory in power-tube land, as well as putting back some of the lows you probably backed off to keep the preamp from getting "farty."*** Trouble is, the Helix doesn't let you put things between the preamp and power amp of a full-amp model. So if the Mesa EQ doesn't work quite that awesome post-amp I would love to see someone try it: Between a dirt box and a full amp model. or Use a distorted Cali-pre model as a "pedal" in front of a clean Cali model, with the EQ in the middle (I've experimented with this sort of thing in the HD500 - and Chad Boston has experimented with it in the Helix on his Youtube channel) *(details are a little fuzzy, but various forums around the net - especially those trying to build a clone of the eq pedal - support this) **There are various theories on why this works/is necessary when you're just going to take them out again, usually revolving around "boosted mids make preamp tubes do nice things" ***I have a hypothesis that a power amp is going to bring the mids back out again, by virtue of tube compression - or perhaps that too much mids overwhelms a power amp tube and they can get along just-fine-thanks with -6db of mids. Just pet theories.

Hm. I was kind of afraid of that. It might come down to making patches that are all-Helix for the no-amp gigs, and separate patches for use with the amp - instead of just modifying the with-amp patches to use a full amp+cab model in Helix. Side note - I may make a separate thread for this, but does anyone have experience using a real preamp (either from an amp or a rackmout pre) to "tube-ify" a Helix model. For example: Gtr- Helix - FX loop - rackmout pre set clean - FX return - Helix amp model I've heard of some people using a ART mic pre to warm up some modelers, but that is relatively flat, and of course a guitar preamp would modify the tone, even if left "everything at noon." I've messed around with the idea with my HD500 and got mixed results - pedals before the preamp sound better, but the overall sound is a little boxy (could probably EQ it out, but haven't gotten that far). Also, if it is of any consequence, I'm not using traditional "distortion" pedals like a Boss DS or tube screamer - I'm using amp-like pedals, specifically the Bogner Red and possibly the Flux Five (to stave off my jonesing for a Mark V:25 after I drop the coin on a Helix).

So, I'm pretty sold on a Helix. I've been wanting one for a long time and I'm getting close to being able to pull the trigger. But I have a question that I haven't been able to find. How well does the helix take distortion pedals when not using an amp? I've seen a fair bit of info about incorporating pedals into a 4cm rig, and that looks awesome - and indeed, I have a use for that. But some gigs I have to go direct, or I can't have a live amp on stage. I've owned and gigged for years with a HD500, and it does not take dirt pedals well. I very nearly returned a couple of very nice pedals because I didn't like the sound, because I was doing a bunch of no-amp gigs and hadn't thought to run the pedals through a tube amp. So, how does the helix amp models handle distortion pedals (not as boost/overdrive, but as actual distortion into clean amp sound)?

@Palico I have a few of the Dunlop white thumbpicks (you can see one in the photo album) that I've hand beveled. If I play an entire gig of fingerstyle (which is pretty rare), that's what I use. Otherwise I like being able to switch between playing "normally" and with a thumbpick at will, which the Chris Broderick Pick Clip allows me. If for some reason I know I won't use that for an entire gig, then I just use my trusty jazz IIIs.