mileskb

Well I'll play. I'd like to hear a clip of what you think is "good tone." Personally I didn't think the clip posted was all that good tone wise, and if that was the best I could get from my Helix I'd consider moving on as well. Although I'm not sure I'd "move on" to a unit that uses the same DSP... that doesn't' seem wise. In any case... as the sound is out of context, it's best to have a reference of a sound you'd like to sound like. FWIW, the sound clip posted sounded like what my first attempts sounded like when I wasn't using a AMP or Cab blocks, just the effects and no IR. Nice riffs by the way...

Ok, so just a little additional info.. maybe some form of this should go as a bug report... So apparently either importing or maybe exporting a setlist with a "bad name" the Helix will sortof resolves the issue by just eliminating the bad name. It was kindofa "just for fun" I loaded a backup I made of the goofey setlist, and it reloaded just fine, no errors, .. HOWEVER (he said using all caps).. the SAME preset (actually the US Double Nrm) was loaded into every spot. Mind you this was a completely customized setlist originally... I just found it odd that the Helix allowed the bad characters and somehow replicated one preset into all of the slots, while maintaining the names I had for the presets that were supposed to be in those slots. I thought something was wrong because every preset I chose sounded exactly the same, regardless of the name. So now the big question... WHAT ARE THE RESTRICTED CHARACTERS of a Setlist name, AND are there the same restrictions for PRESET names? Because, I have presets that have & + - = . , and ' in them. (they came from Scott, Glenn and Fremen) It seems this is only a restriction to Setlist name, not PreSet names. Can someone confirm ?

Bazinga !!!! You can use "-" but that's about it. It lets you do it in the editor, but it really REALLY mucks up the device in a weird way. There is no warning on the Helix, and in fact... nothing seems wrong at all... until you start selecting presets. I had renamed one of the setlists with a "+" and all looked fine in the editor. I was even switching presets with NO ERROR... but when I looked down at the Helix, I noticed the presets that were coming up were actually the presets from the Factory 1 Setlist. To be clear... the Editor was showing something like on user list 4 "01A MyCleanAmp" but the Helix was showing "01A US Double Norm" and was actually loading the US Double Norm, not the preset from the user list I was on, that the editor was indicating. All other setlists were ok... You'd think just renaming the setlist back would resolve the issue, but it doesn't. With such limitations on length of naming conventions... they really need to trap that as an error..!!!!! I was actually organizing my presets via Remote Desktop, so I couldn't see the Helix wasn't showing the same info that was in the editor. The renaming was one of the first things I did, so I essentially wasted the next couple of hours without realizing the Helix was in lala land until I decided at the very end that I didn't like my name choice and tried to change it again...

I would guess that or something similar would be the way to go. I trust their engineers to figure it out. They haven't disappointed me yet. While some think the "only 128" and the whole way they're managed is a bit of a design oops, I'm willing to cut them some slack as not only has the use of IR's from speakers rather than just "spaces" become more widespread rather recently, but there are actual companies popping up since the Helix has been in production to create them. Add in the number of folks who figured out how to do tone matching. I'm not sure they expected such a response so fast, and honestly, I'm not sure they expected the results to add so much to the unit by being able to not only match gear (cabs) but match tones (tone matching). Kinda reminds me of the commercial that featured a webpage launching... 1 hit... 2 hits... 10 hits.. 10,000 hits...100,000 hits.. 1,000,000....CRASH!!!!! But in this case.. no crash... just run out of room.

I would think they would go something similar. I purposely didn't put a suggestion of "how" to accomplish it in the IdeaScale but something along this would work. But... if they don't expand too far, maybe just a simple "file already exists" type trap would be less overhead. Not as slick, or future proof but less overhead.... maybe. Anyway, I'm comfortable letting their engineers figure it out. They haven't disappointed yet.

I figured a reset was involved but just checking to ensure it wasn't something "new". It's odd that the rest of the Helix seems to work just not those two setlists. It's like because the names were initially almost identical only a "+" at the end of one, things went south. What really sucks is just prior I spent nearly two hours loading my IR's and assigning them. I was just getting ready to "backup". I may backup the one setlist that reads good in the editor. Afterall, the editor shows the presets correctly, the device is the issue.

Has anyone seen this error before on the editor. It happens when I switch to a particular Setlist. Additionally that setlist has a "copy" of the next setlist up in the chain. What happened was I had a setlist called "TheHelixChannel" and as I needed some more room I renamed another setlist "TheHelixChannel+" (note the + at the end). But on the Helix unit itself, I noticed that it doesn't read that many characters in the window so I figured I'll change the second list to "MoreHelixChannel" and while it did change, I then got the " Badly formatted response from device" error. I turned the device off and on, and when it came back on, after doing a very long "rebuilding presets" routine, the new setlist had the same content as the original one from the next slot. And he're where is gets weird... (yeah) Any time I try to select a preset in the "bad" setlist, I get a "Timeout Waiting for response from device" error. When I switch to the original setlist, well things aren't normal there either, as I can switch to a preset, and the name of the preset appears in the Editor, but only the "patch location" (02b, 02c, etc) appears on the Helix itself, not the preset name. The blocks are there, and it works, just no Preset Name. When I switch to the "bad" setlist... I get the "Badly formatted response from device" error" and as stated above, "Timeout Waiting for response from device" when I try to select any preset from that list. I tried restoring from a bundle, and it didn't seem like it did anything. In fact, rather than overwriting like I thought it would, everything was still there that I had changed, like the import of the bundle did nothing.

Because I purchased a few sets of presets and they either came with IR's like Fremen and Glenn or I chose to purchase the IR's that the presets were created for from others. They add up quite quickly. Even if I just want to listen to a preset to audition it... it's kinda useless unless I put the IR's in their blocks and most take two. That compounds the adding up quickly.

Ok, I decided to bring this back up again in hopes more people will vote it up in IdeaScale. < - click here As the Helix gets more popular I'm seeing more and more issues with IR Management or lack thereof, least of which is only 128 slots. While I'm sure at some point I'm gonna narrow it down to just a few... Right now like I assume many others I'm in experimentation and learning mode. JMHO but, If I can load the presets, I should have enough space to load the IR's that support them. And this nonesense of loading a set of presets, then having to go through and spending a bunch of time loading the assigning the IR's to their blocks is insane. I've got a dozen presets using the same couple of IR's we shouldn't have to go to every single pre-set and assign it. Maybe that wouldn't be so bad if it didn't involve printing out emails cause there is no way of looking at a preset and knowing what IR it's supposed to use. Sorry for the mini rant... but this part of the process is not fun. I don't have a lot of time, I'd rather spend the time I have playing and listening to the cool sounds than loading IR's and adding them to Blocks. I have confidence that Line6 will come up with a better solution... my only fear is that to get there, I'm going to have to reload the 120 IR's I just loaded and assign them again. But I'm sure hoping it will be worth it at that time, and that will be the LAST time.

So after your clarification, I initially recommended a Helix rack... but based on your update, I'd say a second Helix in a nice gig case. Easy to carry, great backup of more than just your gear, no loss of quality or performance. You can alternate them and it's one helluva insurance policy and they are small enough. And, as I said... if someone elses gear fails, you can likely help them out quick enough. Short of a Helix, an HD500 Pod would work well and can be had for around $250 for a used one. You should be able to program it with what you would need in a pinch and again... it's the type of unit that could be backup for more than just you. I don't think you can come up with any other solution for under $300 and if you keep it up to date... you could swap it in as fast as you could get your hands on it and do the cable swap.

I will not comment on his stature only to say that he is the epitome of a HUGE talent crammed into a small package with enough room for a big heart too. :) Actually I think those traits are in ALL of their job descriptions. He was asked about his lead style I recall and he apparently played saxophone when he was a kid so there is some influence from that. Note the octave jumps he uses a lot just like the octave pad on a sax. Yeah, I'm very interested to see what Richie's "page two" settings look like as well. As you say, his approach on gain and EQ seems out of the norm, but it's obviously working well. His playing style and his guitar play a big part too but still... I'm intrigued. I think it will be interesting to see where he is with this in a few weeks or months and I will be interested to hear what their FOH engineer has to say as well.

Yes he was. However he was playing a lot of keys on that as well, someone had to, and he went back and found samples of the original instruments used for post production on the Agents Of Fortune album and added them in where they were supposed to be too. Normally, Richie plays guitar and keys. The "other" guitar for those "40th" shows was Albert Bouchard, orginal drummer and one of the founders. Richie actually started on Bass in 2004 and eventually switched to Guitar and Keys to fill Allen Lanier's spot on those instruments. Eric Bloom still fronts and Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser is still lead guitar. Jules Rondino is on drums. While we are on a "guitars and effects" board one of my favorite lines from Eric Bloom was regarding Buck Dharma's use of effects. He loves to try out new toys and was hyping some new piece at the time and Eric said something to the affect of.. "He's always bringing the latest gear on tour and experimenting, but his sound hasn't changed in 40 years !!!" Guess ya had to be there... I have been looking forward to Riche getting the Helix because of his way of doing demo's He has one for the Dream Rig on how to create the Brian May tone including setting up the Variax in workbench. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIxJFyLo48E I think this is brilliant (and useful in the Helix as well) because much like the above video he doesn't just say "do this and and do that" but explains WHY to do this and WHY to do that so I actually found the approach and theory really helpful for even creating sounds in Helix too. I hope he does some Helix Edit videos in the near future.

I have said this before... if failure really isn't an option, likely if I was gigging... I would have a second Helix. It's that simple. I might get a rack unit so it could "fly" with everything else in a fairly safe and secure manner. I'd ensure I could select pre-sets with MIDI so I could use whatever MIDI midi pedal I could store cheaply and didn't care about. My FCB1010 comes to mind and it could serve as a backup for other midi controls if needed. In fact, the rack-based Helix could be used by others if necessary if something like a reverb or delay goes south... it wouldn't have to be just "my" backup piece. As I write this... thinking about "backup".... wow.. Think of the band situation... just having a helix rack as backup... a guitar amp dies... covered... an effect unit fails... covered... recording interface fails, but you still have a laptop... covered.. need an EQ somewhere, or a gate... I mean it wouldn't be pretty, but failures on the fly rarely are. When I think about the 10-space rack of gear and small carry case I bring to gigs when I run front of house... "just in case"... as long as I didn't need more than two pieces... most if not all of it is in the Helix... Interesting..... ANd.... frankly... ONE Helix is worth a lot less than all that outboard gear that will likely get damaged or just fie of old age before it actually gets used. Again.. it's mostly for "just in case."

That really was one of the motivating reasons to post it. I hadn't seen an actual "in context" demo before of the edit mode although I heard reference to it. If the Helix has one fault... it's that you really can't give a "quick description" of it that does any justice.

I agree with DD on this. While I can't argue with the true-bypass aspect, I had a Lexicon MPX-1 that after 20 years just needed a new CMOS battery where all my Rockman gear from that time needed to be re-Cap'd as MOST pedals and analog devices of the 80's and early 90's as electrolytic caps from that time, unless they are kept in use, fail. (wow that was a run-on sentence) In fact the inherit nature of capacitors and the way their discharge pattern changes over time means that likely whatever 20+ year old pedal you have, doesn't sound like it did back then. It may still sound great... but the same would be a rarity indeed. Satellites in the hashness of space stay working just fine too. Things like switches and scribble strips, jacks and knobs are easy repairs if needed, and on the whole, the most used and most common parts to find. Hopefully the components of the Helix are common as well. I needed to replace the IC's in the Rockman Headphone amp and can still get replacements because they were such a common IC there are still new ones available. Anyway... other than the true-bypass, I don't really see any advantage to pedals anymore unless it's just a sound that I need. I even learned from the video I posted in another thread that with the Helix we can change parameters of a pedal while still standing up. So that puts another plus in the Helix column.

I can't figure out how he has time to do this stuff. Between touring 100+ gigs per year with BOC he also has his Band Geek podcast http://www.riotcast.com/bandgeek (shamless plug for a friend) AND he still has time to practice, learn how to use a new piece of gear and put a couple videos up about it. TWO things that really stuck out for me that for some reason I just didn't understand how to do before are: 1. The Stand-Up-And-Edit parameters. I of course knew about the touch, but to be able to adjust a parameter mid stream without getting on my knees is really special. 2. The other was that while I knew you could turn multiple things on and off with the switches, and I guess I knew you could adjust parameters with a footswitch, I didn't realize you could toggle multiple parameters of an effect with single switch. WHile he uses it on the Distortion to add gain while cutting tone, I could think of situations like using it on an AMP block to toggle between to sets of settings for Boost and Mid's and Presence. I'll be looking forward to seeing how he manages the larger stages. They have a pretty high stage volume still these days, and a LOT of real estate to cover. I'm curious if the wedge is going to be enough. But I guess, in contrast... a wedge that might be out-of-hearing-distance sometimes is a lot better than some piece of rented gear that should have been pulled out of service long ago.

I just had to share this here.

Ok.. now THAT is pretty cool. I just messed with it a few minutes... the IR selected has a dramatic affect on the outcome... While you can't be "spontaneous" with the feedback, it's pretty controllable and pretty useful. In fact I have already recommended it to someone else and that was after just playing with it for about 5 minutes. Thanks !!!!

Well if this was a prank... ya GOT ME !!! LOL.. If you are serious... could you send me a preset that you setup to work? All I was able to achieve was electronic squeal... nothing resembling feedback. I did come close to a feedback sound on some of Glenn's presets if I hit the right note, usually a harmonic, it seemed like the reverb was holding the note for a long long long time.... and as the rest of the signal faded away, it sounded like feedback. I'm thinking there is some way to take the reverb and maybe something else... I mean ya can get Organ sounds out of this thing, it seems like a feedback-esque tone could be achieved.

Are there any tricks to get "feedback" or something that sounds like it, without actually using speakers? I seem to recall some talk of it, but I can't find anything specific in search.

Sometimes reverb or delay is part of the texture of the tune as well... "Many a band has been unpleasantly surprised after the fact at how washed out in reverb their vocals sound in the recording they made of the show, particularly when they are mixing their own sound from the stage.." serious truth this !!!

Rule of thumb for reverb and delay... If you are listening to your own voice... if you can hear the reverb, there's too much. Cut it back until you can't really hear it. This trick only works if you're running your own sound like for a singer/guitar player thing... and you are checking you're own mic. Just so you can get confident, just record yourself with your smart phone actually singing when you have the reverb up to what might "sound" ok... then back it down to where you can barely hear it if at all and you'll hear in a recording how much better and more dynamic it is.

I can't speak for anything besides the Helix, but the Helix is only limited by the size of the blocks (amp, effect, etc) you are using. There are two DSP's that you can spread your pre-set across, but essentially, that's the limit. You are free to fill up the memory however you like, with whatever you like.

Well first, I think we're buying the presets, not the nonsense, and 2nd I think Glenn has a process that it is a little different than some others. There is more than one way to ToneMatch and based on using his and other's I'd say he's doing it a little different or with different gear or something... but no matter... it works. I have a pretty good ear, but I don't have hours to sit and screw around. I purchased presets from Glen, Scott and Fremen because they are the best I have heard for their particular area of focus and I use them to learn how to create the best tones for my needs and find out what's possible that I didn't think of. It's a pretty reasonable price of admission for the education alone, not to mention the great tones.

Thin Lizzy.... JailBreak !!! Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson on guitars !!! Finally logged in early enough to catch this...