rbum

Before I come to your question, may be good to know my history regarding piezo equipped eletric guitars.... I use piezo guitars since 1985 (Godin LGX), also a PRS 22 (since 2 years), a Godin xtsa and an Ovation Elite 12. So being used to get a decent sound out of a GT-10 and L2t / L3t I wanted to give a variax JTV-89F a try with the Helix and ordered one. But I was disappointed. ...I did not like the acoustic modeling sounds at all... I wish the JTV-89F would provide an original piezo signal without any modelling, but so I returned it. But I did try the sound of the JTV-89F with modeling of the L2t before without helix and for me it still sounded artificial (picking might do, strumming lacks a bit of ...soul?!) I liked the sound of the other guitars and the L2t modeling better. But Not as good as Helix + L2t without modeling. So That's my approach to get real acoustic sounds and good rock guitar sound to audience and stage: I use the aux input for the piezo and the 1/4 as acoustic outputs which go via a stereo DI to FOH - real acoustic sounds possible. The mags go in via guitar in and through xlr out to FOH, with global eq to cut both ends. For monitoring I use the (mixed) earphone output, here the global eq is on piezo and mags, separate volume possible, the signal is summed to a mono signal which goes to channel 1 of L2t. I have full control over the stage sound depending on the location. Channel 2 is used for my voice signal coming from FOH and can be altered for the stage sound. The other monitoring of the band gets to the xlr input at the back of L2t. So Helix + L2t gives me real sound control on stage not depending on the FOH and FOH can work on acoustic and electric sound separately for audience - something I wished for since... maybe 1985... (not to mention SNAPSHOT POSSIBILITIES - outstanding!) For small clubs without FOH, I use L3t as speaker... Ralph

Do you play in snapshot or stomp mode ? I found in snapshots you don't use script mod phase, flager and scream 808 in 1a ? They are "off" in all snapshots, so why not delete them + delete the gain blocks - you can achieve raising the volume via the lead snapshot by pumping up the volume in other blocks. If you don't use the looper, you have another slot free - so just rearrange the "line up" and you shpould have every block before the split.

I see this only as an option and that worked for me updating to 2.0 when Helix started to rebuild hundreds of preset erverytime I switched it on. I did the same this time right after resetting my globals and importing my presets, and at least it did no harm. I don't think it's a "must do" , but obviously it can help in certain situations.

It has been an issue before in very different variations and depends on several parameters. For me (Vers. 2.0 ), the noise is only there while the Laptop is on external power supply. If I use the internal battery, it's quiet. It seems to be a problem of the eletricity circuit reacting with the usb connection, but there seems to be no cheap solution like a "DI-box" for this...

As I understood so far, after re-importing the own (old) presets, one should update these with FS 10 &11 while powering on: http://www.helixhelp.com/pmwiki.php?n=Main.ResetOptions

And: is there a way to change the colour of the led rings in snapshots? On is red and off is off .... Could be handy to assign same colour to snapshots like verse or solo or whatever in every preset... I didn't find a way to achieve this.

Yes that's possible, I have a preset where I control something like the mix of delay in snapshot 1, the tempo of a tremolo in snapshot 2 and the wah in snapshot 4... all with Exp 1 . I just assigned the controller in stomp mode and then worked on the snapshots. The Exp 1 changes the value of all assigned parameter when the fx block is "on" in the chosen snapshot. That means, you can change this values even together when you switch on more than one assigned fx block at a time. Ralph

Did you remember to assign the a/b block to a controller? As I understood, the values / settings choosen in the home area can not be changed / saved from snapshot to snapshot unless you assign one controller to the value. Ralph

Be aware that for some users these new preset impedance settings are not saved while saving the preset. After opening these presets anew, the displayed value is the saved one but the sound returns to "auto" until it is altered again. It's already mentioned as a bug.

As you mentioned, it did not occur to the strat sound.... maybe it's depending on the impedance of the used guitar (guitar in-z value) ? Be aware that the update changed from global impedance to preset impedance and set ALL patches to "auto" which seems to me 1M ohm in most cases, which can be to much. As I had global impedance on 10k before, after the update all my presets sounded awful, much to loud and distorted before I changed them all. (In my case helix does not save this new value correctly, but that's another issue) Ralph

Thanks, at least it seems not to be a bug, but either something in my unit or update... I tried old and new factory presets as well, but in my unit the value is not saved correctly. Have opened a support ticket. ... Yes, global value worked good for me, but preset value may be handy, if you use very different guitars and you don't want to change the drive and master value of presets that sound good with another guitar (and this may have an effect on controller values) . So you can copy the preset, adjust the impedance and you are ready to play...

Well the update seems absolute great, the snapshot feature is more than I had hoped for, respect to Line6, very well done! But .. After updating to 2.0 I changed the guitar in-z value in all my presets from "auto" to 10k because my Godin xtSA / PRS P22 sound much better then (and it fits better while I use AUX in for the piezos). I SAVED each preset, and changed the next one. But returning to a already changed preset let's the value of guitar in-z return to "auto" but the displayed value is still 10k ?!?! So first I just wondered, why the sound was suddenly so harsh again... When I push the related knob the display returns to default "auto" and I can hear that there is no change in sound. So obviously, the the real value is is set to "auto" while the display shows the "saved" value 10k. When I then tweak the related knob, the value will follow to whatever I choose and the display shows the related value, all seems ok. But when I save (or export) the preset, and load it again, I can hear, that the value is again set to "auto, while the displayed value is 10k (or whatever was saved) Gives me a huge problem, for all my drive and master settings depend on the incoming signal, which is now 1M OHM instead of 10k. Any idea what to do, Anyone the same problem - or can someone please check it out, for knowing if it's my unit or update ? Ralph

First I used L3m as monitor lying in front of me, but that seemed too big for smal stages and the singer standing next to me heard too much of the high frequencies. I use them now standing behind me to replace an amp (in case we play without FOH), and it makes a powerful sound, works great. I use L2m for monitoring and editing at home. I use the Line6 Link to get rid of the anoying noise coming from the usb port when a Laptop is connected. As there is NO global EQ with Line6 Link, it can sound a bit harsh - depending on the room acoustic. In this case it's very handy to have the the "m" version, so I can use a normal input and can adjust the sound with the mixer panel without touching the Helix presets (which I have "prepared" for the L3m Pa/refernece use) + I still have one input for incoming monitoring of the band (which can be adjusted too, without the help from the FOH). Very flexible and easy to adjust to any room (feedback surpression for backing vocals on monitor can save the gig ...)

No, but you are right, that can be annoying. If you work with the editor, it is quite fast to type in the names again, though. What is more work, more annoying and one should be aware of: if you have put CONTROLLERS to the footswitches, you loose ALL edited values and it switches back to default if you change the number of the fs !

Yes, that works: output headphones into (stereo) volume pedal into active monitor is what I do since ten years. I got my monitormix (from m20 or whatever) in the main input of the monitor (I use stagescource 2m) and add my signal from my rig (now Helix, before Boss GT-10) into the cinch input. Works perfect and you have full control over your volume on stage.

I get an odd extra noise on my PA or stagesource speakers as long as an usb cable is plugged in and the laptop is on... you might check this too. Ralph