bsd512

7 hours ago, zolko60 said:

What a nice number of that update! 2 dot 8. Eight is the lucky number in China. I knew it wolud be greater than 2.7 but I did not expect exactly 2.8.
... and that promise of free pet pony for SKU core metal players! Yummy!

I bet you can't wait for the actual Version 8. And Version 8.8 soon after. :-)

You mentioned you are running in 4CM. If you are doing that with an FX Loop block, this would not apply.

But if you are doing it using a separate Send followed by a Return block, make sure the send block has the "Dry Thru" set to -120db.

You can't do it from HX Edit, but when I've found I've modified a preset and I liked the result, but I still want to keep the original, you can do what you want on the hardware itself.

Hit the "save" button (upper left), then use the rotary knobs to scroll to an empty preset location, then hit "save" again.

Back in HX Edit, you can then edit the preset name using the keyboard instead of using the rotaries.

Why not create a snapshot with all blocks turned off?

EDIT: opps, just noticed this is very old thread from back in April 2016 when we did not have yet have snapshots.

I couldn't resist and snagged Glenn's Banjo+IR preset. I used my new Strat with a single coil bridge. Sounds great! Now I need to learn how to banjo roll! Right now I just sound like a monkey randomly picking strings. :-)

As DunedinDragon said, it's hard to know what you don't like about the other setups you've tried in order to make a recommendation. Even more difficult, one person's perfect setup is another's unhappy setup.

There's probably 100's of different setups folks are using. There's no one setup that's going to make everyone happy.

Personally, I can recommend a pair of L3t's (pretty awesome!), a pair of Yamaha HS8's (also great), and while most might not consider something like this, I've found that the little lunchbox sized Vox Adio GT guitar amp sounds pretty great when fed by the Helix into it's aux-in 3.5mm stereo jack. That little thing is not super cheap, I think it's $300. It sure sounds a lot bigger than it is, though, more than loud enough for average home use. You'll just need a 2x1/4" mono to 3.5mm stereo adapter to connect the L/R Helix outs to the Adio.

And even though I like those above, you might not - so just make sure you buy from a place with a good return policy, just in case.

Good luck on your search.

Thanks! To say I'm excited is an understatement. Should be here in a few hours. And I have the whole off for vacation so plenty of time to play and goof off before heading back to the mines next week. :-)

Arriving Monday :-)

59 minutes ago, DunedinDragon said:

Apparently they're not aware that no matter how many amps you have available, it's not going to improve your guitar playing ability.

You are hereby voted least likely to succeed in common guitar gear marketing tactics that prey on the belief in magic pill solutions that bestow creativity and skill through simple gear purchases. 

Mine sounded great through headphones, both Helix and Stomp, so I doubt there's anything wrong. Shouldn't need a bunch of EQ - depending on what mic you are using, like a bright brittle dynamic, you might try some high cut on the cabinet. I rarely have found I need a separate EQ block. Otherwise, just dial in the amp, add a little reverb, and you should get good results. Depending on headphones, of course - some sound better than others. So much depends on the playback system - whether that's external speakers or headphones - both need to be good quality and suited to your preferences.

Good luck!

On 11/14/2018 at 3:16 PM, brue58ski said:

I agree. Vote it up hear on ideascale.

 

https://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Ability-to-save-default-blocks/741187-23508#idea-tab-comments

Hey, it's over a 1000 votes and has been in review for over 3 years, so I expect this to get implemented ASAP! :-)

Seriously, though, I think it's a great idea. I went to vote it up, but it showed that I already had a long time ago.

Need more information - it shouldn't sound thin and buzzy. You mentioned you are going directly into "the board". That's where I'd start looking especially if you are using one of the "DIR:..." factory presets.

Double check that your global output preference are set to "instrument" or "line out" and make sure that matches what the board is expecting. Then make sure the board has enough level and a flat EQ.

Alternatively, send your output directly into a powered PA speaker (or a pair of them for stereo). Make sure your volume knob is up so you have a good hot signal going to the board or PA speaker, and then use the speaker's volume knob to adjust from there.

Try those and see if that gets you closer to what you expect.

I guess we like what we like and whatever it takes to get the sound you want. Most of my presets are high gain, though, and I disagree that there are only a few cabs that sound good with high gain. Actually, I used to think the same thing, until I was forced to delve into them again with the Stomp. For example, I never would have thought to pair the 2x12 Interstate with an ENGL amp, but with the right mic, distance, etc, it sounds great. I used to think that the folks that kept claiming the Helix stock cabs were good must only play through Fenders. I was wrong. :-)

Whatever gets you your sound, though - I'm not trying to make a convert out of you. I'm just relaying my experience of once being a die-hard IR guy that now uses just the stock cabs and love them. I will say that I'm rarely thrilled with the stock cab defaults choices when you pull up an amp+cab. I almost always change the mic, distance, etc, and often the whole cab.

Channel Volume on amps allows you to change the volume without affecting tone. But like codamedia said, that will also affect the input level for the next block after the amp which may affect tone.

Your original plan of controlling the output block level would work fine with this. No need for an actual volume block - just assign the output level parameter to an expression pedal or similar. Just remember you might want to limit the max - I think they go to +20dB which might blow your ears out with the expression pedal at 100%. Just wet the max to something lower than that.

You can copy blocks, with certain limitations. You can't copy presets.

The limitations with blocks is that if you are copying a preset that uses snapshots, the block copies over using the settings of the snapshot you happen to be on when you copied it. After that, you have to go in and manually adjust the snapshot settings for any other snapshots, and also reassign the controller to all the snapshot parameters to "snapshots".

If you're copying a preset block-by-block that doesn't use snapshots (or any other controllers), it works easily and is quick. If you intent is to keep presets in sync between a Stomp and a Helix (or Native), this will get old very very quickly - especially if the devices are rarely in the same room since they have to both be connected to the same computer to do this. If you were able to transfer presets between them, you only need access to the preset files - like dropbox or similar. Save preset from Helix to dropbox. Load from dropbox to stomp. Modify that preset in the Stomp and save it back to dropbox. Load it back into Helix to get the updates. That would be the workflow I'd want, and is what you can do between Helix->Helix, Helix->Helix LT, and Helix->Native, and all combinations. The Stomp is the left all on it's own and can't participate in that party.

23 hours ago, gunpointmetal said:

That's not really dynamic DSP like the bigger siblings.

Well, with the massive hardware limit, even with the exact same DSP it would never do what the other ones do, but that obviously wasn't the intention of the product. I was jazzed on the Stomp as a backup, but half of my live patches NEED at least 8-10 blocks or gapless preset switching with spillover, so now its back to pinching pennies for an LT as a backup.

My use-case is a bit different and I LOVED the Stomp. The kicker for me was the inability to share presets between the Stomp and Helix and Native, even those that all fit the Stomp's limitations.

The block limit is artificial and according to interviews with the Stomp product folks, it didn't sound like they were going to be increased in the future as it went against the intent of the product. Their market are tube-amp pedal-board folks - and that's a large market. They are not marketing to us who are already sold on modeling.

Even knowing I wasn't their intended market, I bought one anyway and like I said, I LOVED it. And I still do. But I returned it - just too many constraints. The biggest one for me was the inability to load Helix presets and the inability for the Helix to load Stomp presets - even when they are lowest-common-denominator presets that conform to the Stomp limitations.

But ... Line 6 are truly geniuses, though. They just sold me a second Helix. They sucked me in with the Stomp, and when I found it a little too limiting, I returned it and paid the difference for a full Helix. I thought about an LT, but what the heck, I already have a full Helix, and once you go full Helix, there's no going back. :-)

One more thing that made this swap a little easier is that I recently purchased a PowerCab Plus. I have to say, I was underwhelmed with it. So actually, I returned both the Stomp and the PowerCab Plus, and that funded 90% of the cost of the second Helix. The way my GAS rationalization works is - the Stomp and PC+ was money already budgeted and spent, so it was effectively gone. So my new Helix #2 only cost me about $150. I love the way the human brain can rationalize things. :-)

My experience was similar to yours, @njglover. For a long time I've been a die-hard IR guy. This was way back in early 2016 since I got my Helix. I thought Helix sounded great, of course, then were all these folks saying IRs really make it sound better and more natural, so of course, I tried some and liked them. Never looked back and fine tuned my IR usage down to a science - and in the meantime, learned a lot about mics, cabinets, speakers, mixing mics, and so on. I could dive into a 700+ OwnHammer IR pack and pull out the 3 or 4 IRs I wanted because of the mics, mixes, and speakers they used. All knowledge I didn't have a lot of when I first got my Helix.

Then the Stomp came out and I got one, but it was released without an editor so you couldn't load IRs and I wasn't looking forward to having to use the stock cabs. But in doing so, after the 2+ years of experience I gained with using IRs, I was pleasantly surprised when I applied that to the stock cabs - this time with more education, and thought they sounded great!

So ... long story  short, I'm now a stock cab guy. Convert from the IR hassle, and don't plan to look back, with maybe a few exceptions (like acoustic sim IRs).

Helix stock cabs are great! I wish they had a way to mix mics without using a split path and two cabinet blocks (dual-cab doesn't do it since the cabinets are panned hard-left and hard-right with no option to change that - which is not the same thing). That's about the only thing lacking with the stock cabs, but I can find the right sound I want with the parameters available - mics, distance, cuts, and early reflections.

Part of it is also what you're ears get used to. Occasionally I'll go back and pull up one of my IR presets. It just doesn't sound right. :-)

Note, however, based on a few pretty full presets, stock cabs take up more DSP than a 1024 IR slot. I've had presets where I could put in an IR but not a cab because of DSP usage.

Considering how long it takes to bring something like this to production I wouldn't be surprised if Helix II is in the works now. And I would agree it's likely a few years off at least.

I use Sennheiser HD600 300 Ohm and they've been the ones I've like the most. Helix has no problem driving 300 Ohm headphones so no need for a preamp. http://a.co/d/f16nOsW

I also use Sony MDRv6's with my Stomp ($80) and they sound very good, too - lower ohms so the Stomp can drive them better. The Stomp's headphone amp is not as strong as the Helix so it had trouble driving the HD600's.

Note - I've tried many headphones back-to-back - Sony MDR 7520, Sony MDR 7506, Sony MDRv6, Sennheiser HD600, DT770's, and the two I chose to keep were the Sennheiser HD600's and the cheap Sony MDRv6. If I was doing it again, I'd have to try the HD650's, too.

Many people like the DT770's or any number of reputable headphones. I think it comes down to personal preference, comfort, whether you like open back or closed back, etc. After buying a few pairs that came highly recommended by others here, and not caring for them, I decided to buy a bunch, pick the one pair or two I liked the best, and send the rest back. (Thank you Amazon no-hassle return.)

Each of the ones above have their strengths, though. Open back, closed back, more comfortable, not as comfortable, frequency range and flatness, etc. The Sony MDR 7520's are great for blocking out external sound - I used those when doing Kemper profiles with pretty loud amps and positioning the microphone and they do a great job of blockout out very loud amps while monitoring the mic through the 7520's. So actually, I guess I kept a few of them and use them for different purposes.

A buddy of mine got the DT770's and likes those better than the HD600's. So really, it's hard to say which ones YOU will like the best. If you can buy from a place with a great turn policy, I recommend buying several, trying them all back-to-back, and choosing the ones you like the best for your purpose.

For me, it's really hard to beat the prices of the MDRv6 and MDR 7506. I liked the sound of the MDRv6 on the Helix and Stomp very slightly better than the 7506's. I like the 7520's for their sound isolation, but thought the lower priced Sony's (v6 and 7506) sounded better to me for Helix and Stomp. I really didn't gel too well with the DT770's. And I've never tried the Senn HD650's.

The other day I set out to make a big thick wet preset just to experiment. I didn't have any particular tone in mind - mainly do something different and make it pretty nutty. It's a dual amp preset with an Engl Fireball panned mostly left and a Vox AC30 panned mostly right, each with their own mis-matched cabinets - hey, it was supposed to be nutty! After panning those and setting the levels for left and right in headphones, it feeds into the crazy 3 OSC Synth, and on into a couple of delays and a thick wet reverb.

I wasn't expecting too much, mainly I was just experimenting and wanted the delays to match in the BPM and harmonize preceding notes, and so forth, thinking maybe I could get a rhythm going with the delay repeats with some harmonizing going on.

Anyway ... here's a sound sample of it along with a link to it on CustomTone for anyone interested. Note - the recording below is direct from the Helix into my DAW. And there are only two tracks on this - guitar and drums. And on the guitar, this is a single play-thru take, no overdubbing, punch-ins, or anything like that. No bass, no synth, nothing, except one guitar and this preset. I was pretty amazed at how huge it sounded. I didn't spend much time on the recording, I was fighting with Logic and a computer upgrade at the time but managed to get this recording. So it's pretty rough around the edges.

Check it out ... if you're so inclined. Crank it up in good headphones.

If you do like it and want to try it, the preset is linked below. Just adjust your BPM to whatever you want, and the delay time-division to whatever is appropriate - they are set to 1/4 notes, but you'll want to set those to match up with whatever your playing and tempo using BPM and time-divisions on the two delays. Also, this really needs to have stereo output. If in doubt, try some good headphones.

https://line6.com/customtone/tone/4106209/

8 minutes ago, silverhead said:

... at least not at this time.

<Raises eyebrow> :-)

A future update enabling compatibility where possible would be great!

Thanks guys. I do know that ... sometimes I'll want to use the power cab in flat mode where a cab will be needed, and other times in cab emulation mode where a cab is not needed. And I was trying to do it without having to have a separate cabinet block that I could bypass for one case, and enable for the other, but otherwise use the same preset.

Thanks for confirming, though. I was hoping maybe there was an option with the amp+cab block that I had missed.

Of course, this is no big deal on the Helix where we have plenty of blocks, but on the Stomp it's a bigger issue when you only have 6. It won't be a problem most of the time, but I do have some presets that use all 6 blocks even with an amp+cab block.

Thanks!

Since getting a Stomp, I've been minimizing block count on some of my presets. To that end, I have several now that use the amp+cab block vs a separate amp and cab block each.

Hindsight is 20/20 - but is there any way to turn off just the cab portion of the amp+cab block? The reason I want to do this is to run the raw amp direct into a power amp and on into a real cabinet, bypassing Helix cabinet modeling in that situation. For example, for use with a Line 6 PowerCab and taking advantage of its speaker emulation.

Or to do that, am I stuck burning a separate block for the cabinet so I can bypass it independently of the amp?

Here's the same patch converted to the Helix for folks here that don't have a Stomp but might be interested in the patch.

Sure wish Helix would translate Stomp patches and allow them to load into the Helix and vice versa for Helix patches that don't contain stuff the Stomp can't do (more than six blocks, etc). It sure would make stuff like this easier.

https://line6.com/customtone/tone/4089016/

Still ... pretty amazing what you can do in just 6 blocks and one DSP. :-)

Note - you'll need to be in snapshot mode to see the snapshot scribble strips for the 'clean', 'crunch', and 'gain' snapshots.

For those that have a Stomp and are interested, I uploaded my BE100 (Placater) dual amp preset to Custom Tone in the new Stomp section. It's both channels of the amp with a Clean, Crunch, and Gain snapshot using both amps and snapshots to do all the work. Note the cabinet it snapshotted pretty heavily also to change out mics, distances, etc - trying to get it sounding good to my ears as I could. Tested with my Les Paul (humbuckers), Fender Tele (single coils), and Suhr Modern T (humbuckers).

Just with those three snapshots and your volume knob, it's pretty versatile. I like it. Give it a whirl, and I hope you like it!

https://line6.com/customtone/tone/4088879/

Note - I adjusted this using both headphones and my studio monitors (Sennheiser HD600's and Yamaha HS8's) and the result was good for me using both of those. It may need some work for live gig volume, though.

This is actually my first Custom Tone upload, so go easy on me. :-) Actually, scratch that - feel free to unload and tell me it sucks, it's just a preset after all. :-)

EDIT: Oh - you may have to go into global preferences and reassign FS3 to be FS3 instead of the Tap/Tuner. You can always get back into the tuner by pressing "Action+Page Right" at the same time. Otherwise you might not be able to see Snapshot 3, which is the high-gain setting.