fredsiegle

Updated to 3.01. Opened HX Edit 3.0 and clicked on check for updates and followed directions. Made backup. All went smoothly.

I play a Les Paul and a Strat and face the same issue with a difference in level at the Helix input. I also want the tone settings for the LP to be different from the Strat - not to make them sound the same as each other, but to both be somewhat similar in amount of lows and highs for my taste. For example on the Strat I prefer to boost the lows and mids and cut the highs to a degree to make the Strat more in the ballpark of the Les Paul. I do this not only for personal taste but I also keep two guitars on stage in case I break a string and need to get through a song or a set. If I have to switch guitars I can't have a sudden drastic change in level and tone. In the old days I used to switch on an outboard EQ on the Strat to boost its level and modify its tone so I did the same thing in the Helix. I have a 10-band graphic EQ as the first block in my chain, bypassed for the LP and turned on when I use the Strat. It is not assigned to a footswitch because like you I don't want to waste a footswitch for this purpose. Also, I use snapshots so even if I had it assigned to a footswitch and turned it on for the Strat, as soon as I change snapshots the EQ's bypass state would change so I'd have to keep turning it back on. However! The new Snapshot Bypass feature introduced in firmware 2.8 helped me greatly with this. I use this feature to set the EQ block to ignore snapshot changes. I save my presets with the EQ block selected but bypassed, so when I load a preset the cursor is sitting on the EQ block. When I switch to the Strat I just reach down and press the bypass button on the Helix. It then stays activated regardless of snapshot changes. When I go back to the Les Paul I reach down and turn it off the same way. For me it is a great solution.

The Helix expects a TS plug - not TRS as many expression pedals have. Per the Roland web site the EV-5 is TRS so that won't work as is and would have to be modified. I attached a schematic for the EV-5 mod. Thanks to the author of these circuits! I forget where I downloaded them from. I use a Moog EP-3. It has a TRS connector but I rewired it for TS using the attached schematic. Most common TS expression circuits use a 10k pot but my Moog EP-3 has 100k pot and it works fine. Not sure why the graphic shows a 10k pot for the EP-3. Mine is 100k.

This is excellent! I've been looking at Arduino to do something similar but doing CCs instead of PCs. Can I use your design and code but send CCs instead?

http://line6.com/support/page/kb/_/effects-controllers/helix/helix-extended-warranty-program-faq-us-only-r864

There are probably several ways but my first thought is to set up a split block and use a footswitch to send the signal to output A versus output B. Connect clean amp to output A and dirty amp to output B. You could also use the pedal instead of a switch to move between them or even blend them on the fly.

There are more than four outputs on the Helix (floor) so using two for stereo guitar doesn't leave you with only two more. In addition to the XLR left and XLR right there are six 1/4" outputs - 1/4" left, 1/4" right, Send 1, Send 2, Send 3, Send 4. So you could send your stereo guitar out the main 1/4" left/right (or use the XLRs) for your first path (stereo) and then send the other 3 paths to any of the sends. Of course if you have the Helix LT there are only two sends so no Send 3 or 4.

Is the Helix supposed to send Aftertouch messages? I'm monitoring the Helix MIDI output stream using MIDI-OX. When I change presets MIDI_OX shows Aftertouch messages in addition to bank/program change messages being sent. If I disable sending program change that turns them off but I still get Aftertouch. I can't find any documentation or discussion about this.

I know what you mean. I was playing with the MIDI instant feature too and faced that issue. However the "instant" feature by definition means it will be sent instantly when you select/change to a preset. So you need to change the preset to send the message. That's what instant means and how it works. Of course if you don't save before changing you lose your setting. Maybe it would be good to have a "Send" or "Test" button there to test it before committing to it? What I wound up doing was either saving it as you did, or temporarily assigning to a footswitch just to test the message and if it does what I want, then assign it to instant and remove the footswitch assignment. Either way it does take a couple of steps. I'm going to try it all again to be sure I'm not missing something.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "I don't have to have the tuner on all the time". Do you mean you don't want the tuner engaged (tuning mode) all the time, or do you mean you don't want the tuner "on" (powered on) all the time ? It sounds like you want to do option #1 which is just the traditional old school way as if you were going guitar to tuner to amp (or other effects pedals etc.). Makes sense, especially with your true bypass Turbo Tuner. When tuning, your guitar signal goes to the tuner and sound is muted. When not tuning your guitar signal goes straight through the true bypass tuner into the Helix guitar input. As with ANY true bypass setup keep your cables short like a 10 - 15 foot from guitar to tuner then short like a 1 or 2 foot into the Helix. Bottom line is keep total cable length under 20 feet. There are reasons why someone might like option #2. For example if your tuner is NOT true bypass and has a bad buffer circuit that sucks tone you might not want to put that before the Helix. In that case you can employ the Helix external tuner feature (see Tuner section in the manual) to send your signal out one of the sends to the tuner that is always in tuning mode. That way your signal doesn't pass through the crappy tuner circuit while you're playing. It only goes there when you're tuning. Another reason might be you want to bring the tuner closer to your face for visibility. I thought of doing that with a Boss TU-3S mini tuner (no footswitch). You could mount it to a mic stand to see it better but kick it in/out using the Helix tuner footswitch. Of course you could do that with any tuner - the TU3S is just small. I was going to use option #2 with my regular Boss TU3 pedal tuner because even though it has a pretty good buffer I just thought it might be better not to have it before the Helix at all. I wanted to have my guitar going straight into the Helix guitar input. However I wound up going wireless with a Shure GLXD16 that has a tuner in it which is of course an active circuit before the Helix after all, but it sounds perfect and I prefer the tuner in the Shure over the Helix tuner. So I'm back to option #1 - just no guitar cable.

I agree the large, beautiful Helix tuner, while a great idea, jumps around too much for me. However, IMO using the headphone output is a bad idea. You want your clean, unaltered guitar signal going to the tuner before any effects. If you plug the headphone output to the tuner's input and you kick in any effects, especially choruses or other pitch altering effects, the tuner will have trouble. Also if you place your tuner in one of the Helix the effects loops that means you're including the tuner's circuitry in your signal path. If the tuner is true bypass or has a good buffer that may be okay but it is not ideal and not necessary. I would either: 1) Place the tuner before the Helix - between your guitar and the Helix's guitar input. If tuner is true bypass that's good with a short cable between the tuner and Helix input. If the tuner is not true bypass but has a good buffer that works too. OR 2) Do exactly what SAKS said above: "I use a TU3 plugged into send 1 and set the helix tuner to 'Send 1/2', when I activate the helix tuner it outputs to the tu3." Just my opinion. Hope it is helpful. Good luck.

Ok I gotcha - good point. Those specific TL harmonies do use perfect 4ths and I was thinking in more general terms about using a mixture of minor and major 3rds or 6ths etc. I'd be surprised if there's any device that knows how to play the exact harmonies desired for specific songs like that.

Is everyone sure the HD500X and Helix can't do this? My Digitech GNX2, and RP-355 do this easily. You just tell them the key and you play. That's it. My TC Helicon Harmony G does the same thing for my voice. If not using the guitar input trigger the Harmony G allows you to specify the key as well. None of these units require any user interaction - they just work. It's not that complicated to program this feature into a DSP. It's just music theory.

Sorry if already asked but looks like it wasn't. No Big User View on the Helix? Seems with all that display real estate it could be there and be even better than HD500X like patch number plus name - in big font. When performing live I don't care about seeing routing - just big clear display of the patch I'm on.