ofp2079

Same problem with Helix LT and Cubase Elements 8.0.10

No sound in Cubase but all is ok with Adobe Audition (playing/recording).

Any ideas?

What version of MacOSX are you running exactly ?

I haven't had any problem since 10.11, so it may be an OS issue if you haven't upgraded or updated in a long time.

Hi... 

So yesterday we had the first rehearsal with the Marshall 100W and its 4x12 VS a pair of Alto TS210...

Well I can really say that the pair of Alto did more than well... I was quite blown away by the magic, clarity and power.

Even when the other guy pushed the tubes a bit.

We've found the perfect balance between the two sources easier than I thought, and not drowning the others  in the room.

I feel much reassured now, this is the way to go with my Helix.

Since I actually currently own only 1 Alto (the other being the vocalist's), now I'm hesitating between the 2 following options:

- a pair of Alto TS10 (maybe 12)

- a pair of DBX10 (maybe 12)

I would keep my current Alto only for monitoring.

Would love to hear if you guys have been able to compare the Altos and Yamaha's, the later being like 40% more expensive, is this justified in terms of quality ?

Or, you could kill him and sell his gear on eBay and buy even more speakers. :lol:

:ph34r:  mmmm.... that's a creative way out indeed ! ;)   (let's home he never finds this forum though !)

I think we can all agree the great solution is to get the other guitarist to play at a reasonable stage volume and for the OP to buy a pair of the Yamahas.

I think I'm gonna leave that band. Problem solved !!  :D

Next week we have our first rehearsal since he bought the Marshall. 

I'm gonna bring 2 Altos TS10 to see how it goes.  

I'll tell you at what level the Altos and our ears all die all together !  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

The 3 other band members will have left the building way before that threshold I think !!

Hi, thanks for your remarks.

I must say I was joking about the other guitarist, hence the smiley, it's just that he kinda likes to play loud, like most metal heads. (and he's young, I'm old !)

Of course we don't want him to drown the rest of the band, and he does not want that either.

I must add that the drums are not mic'ed, the bass player plays on a real amp, and the vocalist though PA and the help of an Alto TS10.

From your answers, I must say I'm still hesitating, pricewize the Firehawk costs 20% less than the solution with 2 DBX10 (I'm in Europe).

The Firehawk although its weight is still more 'mobile' than the solution with 2 DBX, but I'm loosing a bit of spatialization.

Some say that a single DBX10 would do ok, but in that case I'd prefer to opt for the Firehawk.

What about 2 ALTO TS10 vs 2 DBX10 ?  

Is there a gap in performance ?  

The two Altos cost the price of a single DBX.

100 tube watts through a 4x12 will kill a pair of yamahas in a small room. Hell, it could kill a small animal. It really depends on what the other guitarist does with his hundred watts. If he's one of those guys who likes to crank his master volume to get his sound, you have to get something bigger than a pair of yamahas.

 

If he is reasonable and uses pedals to get his dirty sounds, than you should be ok with powered monitors.

He is not the reasonable type, and he sure likes to crank his master vol !  :D

The real challenge, honestly, is that a 100W tube amp through a 4 x 12 is ridiculous for a small venue, and sound will carry so much from that that you almost need the same kind of speaker to compete, imho.

 

Deluxe Reverb-sized amps are all you need for a space like you are probably talking about.

 

One thing for sure, I've heard enough noisy music in my life and wouldn't be coming to see your band that sounds like it's probably too loud.

 

Ithink the 1500 is the right call, and I think your other guy needs to get a smaller amp and/or power attenuator so that y'all's ears survive...

Not just small venues, medium too, outdoor, and he can attenuate it to 50W obviously... but I agree it is kind of overkill anyways, he pleased himself on this !

Another thing, how about Line6 releasing a  Helix1500 ?  

an amp/cabinet designed for the Helix.  I would not be surprised if they do so at some stage.

Because we're talking entirely different technologies.  Something like a DXR12 is designed to be capable of operating as a FOH PA speaker in a medium to large room, and filling it with sound.  The reasons are numerous, but it comes down to efficiency and preservation of sound energy.  All of the energy is directed forward in a fairly tight rectangular area, whereas a traditional 4x12 cabinet projects widely in a conical pattern.  So in the case of a 4x12 cabinet lots of sound energy gets expended and lost in the ceiling and in the floor and dissipates fairly rapidly across distance, whereas a speaker like a DXR12 projects in a wider pattern horizontally but a tighter spread vertically.  And it's really not just a 1x10 or a 1x12.  The power of the amp is allocated between the two speakers(horn with a compression driver and the 1x12) based on the frequency ranges they'll be responsible for and how efficient those speakers project across distance.

 

There are actually quite a few factors when it comes to the difference between a passive cabinet arrangement and an integrated power amp arrangement, but suffice it to say I've easily kept up on stage with Marshalls and Orange amps with just a single DXR12.  In practice, in a room where the instruments aren't mic'd, a DXR12 will lose much less sound energy and will retain it's volume better even at the back of the room.  This is one of many reasons why you would never use a 4x12 guitar cabinet for a PA speaker but a DXR12 would not be out of place at all.

Great Explanation (I'll have to reread slowly though !) , thanks a lot for taking the time to expand on this. I'm saving your post for later reference.

How about YOU get a 4x12 and a big tube power amp? It might be a great option.

Actuallly I like to use modulation FX like delays, reverbs so in a way I don't want to loose the stereo quality  if outputting to a single cabinet. 

I'm guessing the Firehawk would be a fine compromise.

Are you using your on-stage speaker as the main audience sound source? If so, the 1500 is the clear winner imho.

Yes that is the idea.

So Peter, you think I'd be better off to for  Helix -> Firehawk1500  (no PA)  small venues, rather than using 2 FRFR speakers (even the Yamaha's) ?

Forgot to say but I have an Alto TS10 for stage monitoring.

If I use the Helix into the Firehawk will it the sound output from the 6 speakers, I read somewhere the 6 speakers would work only when using the internal Firehawk which seems really strange.

If his stage volume is loud you're going to have a hard time competing. Firehawk 1500 is the best for your situation if he likes his hundred watt behemoth loud.

 

Also, you may not be interested in the modeller inside the 1500, but if your helix goes down for some reason the firehawk makes a good backup.

Good point on the firehawk backup... 

I wonder how the stereo effects are rendered though the Firehawk,  I'm guessing you cannot have the spacialization you'd get with a pair of speakers ?

A single dxr10 will stand up to that 4x12 volume wise

 

Or get 2.. one behind on a pole, one in front as a wedge

This is were I have hard time understanding how 1x10 can compete volume wise with 4x12 , and this is also why I am considering 2x12 instead of 2x10.

can you guys please elaborate on that ?

I mean whatever the power amp, how can 1x10 move as much air as 4x12, I probably sound newbie here but I need to understand the physics behind.

Hello,

I'm looking for the best FRFR speaker solution for live use for my Helix.

I know there are tons of discussions, read many, still can't make up my mind... 

We are 2 guitarists in a cover band, rock/metal tracks, we play in small/medium places.

The other guitarist has just bought a Marshall Silver Jubilee 2555 (100W) with a 4x12. 

So I need a solution to stand on an equivalent level when it comes to global volume with his own rig. 

My choice comes down to this but I'm still opened for suggestions.

- a couple of Yamaha DXR12 or DXR10 

- a Firehawk 1500 (though I am not interested in the modeller inside, it would be just for the speakers and power)

What would you guys recommend ?

Any advice

Thank you

cheers

Hello

I added this 

http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Guyatone-SV-2/856813-23508?submitted=1

Guyatone Slow Volume SV-2 pedal.

I'd love to have an autoswell to get the violin-like tones, or like a BOSS SG-1.

Need something like this in the Helix arsenal ;)

Each patch I make is customized for 1 specific guitar, and usually for 1 or 2 mic positions on the guitar. 

I tend to use a Bank for a specific guitar:

For instance :

Bank A <> Ibanez xxx

Bank B <> Fender yyy

And inside each Bank, each preset is sort of tweaked for 1 mic position or 2

For instance ;

Patch 006 =  "Metal Lead (5)"   where 5 is the bridge humbucker

Patch 007 =  "Jazz Rythm (1)"   where 1 is the neck humbucker

Patch 008 = "Rock Rythm (2,5)" where 2 is... split position 2 etc etc

Only trouble there are only 5 user banks avaiable If I remember well, so If you have tons of guitars you may have to split banks between guitars. 

(In all cases I try to avoid having to use the up and down buttons in the banks to reach a specific preset.)

Got the Helix back from repair center, after 6 weeks out.

They have changed the power switch and power supply, and it does work fine again !

But I'm a bit upset because they have sent the unit back directly in its original box with no surrounding protections, just the black tape to mask the parcel. Crazy !

Of course the box arrived damaged on the sides.    

Originally I had sent the Helix to Woodbrass inside a box in a box like Russian Dolls with lots of filler and stuff to keep it from moving as they request it in their instructions by the way.

As everyone knows how these packages are being processed during shipment the least I can say this is very unprofessional and surprising  from the shop.

Anyway story over.  Installed the 1.10 firmware, and the new app is amazing. Good to be back in the community ;)

I think I owed an update on the subject for those who had participated in this thread :

So since the last episode, I have been sent successively to two different service centers in France.

None of them were certified for Line 6 maintenance, even though both centers were Yamaha partners.

I will spare you the details but the whole story has been a bit of an administrative nightmare for me from day 1.

Now, the distributor has finally got a good location for the repair (actually believe it or not I have found it for them !!  yes really),

and so we have an agreement : tomorrow the Helix flies to the distributor which will manage the issue with the service center (there are 2 in France).

Back to the beginning...

So hopefully now this unit should be taken care of in the next days, weeks...

I'll keep you updated.

Reading the new comments : unsoldered, faulty component, etc  

All I can say: I have all parts and they look "sane", it's just like they are not glued together anymore. 

When I switched off the Helix as usual and I can't say I have Chewbacca fingers, the switch fell like the metal piece inside disconnected from the chassis, that is what I call unsoldered maybe it is not how an electronician would qualify the issue.

I know someone who's had a similar issue on an active speaker's power switch, it just cracked from the inside without any particular trauma as someone wrote, so s*hit happens yes ! Probably not a big repair though,

 

Tomorrow I'll bring the unit to the repair shop Woodbrass asked me to get in contact with.

I'll keep you updated.

thanks to all for the support,

 

... and again I still do think the Helix is the most advanced pedalboard ever made for guitarists, It took 6 years in the making, I think Line6 wanted to hit big, and I think it is a success on many levels. It's bad luck for me, I'm certain most people won't experience such problems and will be very happy with their units (to address the people concerned).

I cant get my head around why the preamp-blocks both have Gain, Ch.Vol and Master parameters. 

 

Does anyone know ? 

I would say the more options you have to control the gain at different stages, the better.

I know it can be tricky to really identify the difference it makes in some circumstances, but I like it that way.

But on a sidenote I'd love to see a meter level for the output to control the global gain difference between patches.

Anyway going back to your original question, yes It'd preferable to open a new ticket to the support,

they need to track down those bugs as they come, it sounds like a regression softwarewise.

What is your Helix firmware version ?

Do you do backups of your custom presets after each tweaking sessions (I do and advise you to if you don't) ? 

If you use the Helix app, on which OS does it run ?

I remember strange things could happen in patch management in the very first Helix firmwares.

cheers

Reading the new comments : unsoldered, faulty component, etc  

All I can say: I have all parts and they look "sane", it's just like they are not glued together anymore. 

When I switched off the Helix as usual and I can't say I have Chewbacca fingers, the switch fell like the metal piece inside disconnected from the chassis, that is what I call unsoldered maybe it is not how an electronician would qualify the issue.

I know someone who's had a similar issue on an active speaker's power switch, it just cracked from the inside without any particular trauma as someone wrote, so s*hit happens yes ! Probably not a big repair though,

Tomorrow I'll bring the unit to the repair shop Woodbrass asked me to get in contact with.

I'll keep you updated.

thanks to all for the support,

... and again I still do think the Helix is the most advanced pedalboard ever made for guitarists, It took 6 years in the making, I think Line6 wanted to hit big, and I think it is a success on many levels. It's bad luck for me, I'm certain most people won't experience such problems and will be very happy with their units (to address the people concerned).

Please open up a ticket with customer support so that we can resolve this issue for you. We deal with every issue on a case to case basis, so it is best to contact us as soon as possible so that we can get you taken care of.

 

http://line6.com/support/tickets/

Hello,

thank you I have just done that  [L6TID: 273348] , but I thought it would not work since I do not live in USA. ?

Best regards

Update :  

Well Woodbrass sent me an email for a local repair shop supposed to be able to fix the unsoldered button issue...

But as I read the reviews (google) for this repair shop I cannot say I am enthused, they sound terrible.

I'm afraid they gonna make things worse. Their main field being household appliances (fridges, ovens etc... nothing audio...)

Hey ofp,

 

I too got mine from that first batch Woodbrass Paris got in November. A few days in FS10 began failing and now so is FS6. I got in touch with them and they could supposedly fix/exchange for a new one within 30 days. What worries me is they have none in stock, so I got in touch with the support/repair guys Line 6 recommended and they told me they don't have footswitches for the Helix yet.

 

I just chose to hold on to my unit for a few more weeks until they really have them in stock before I send mine in. I can't be without it for now.

 

Please do update the thread on how things go.

 

Where are you located at I ask?

Hi Bangha,

Sorry to hear your story.

so probably our units come from the same batch, actually mine has had no issue with FS. It ran perfectly until yesterday.

In my case it is sort of worse because the unit cannot be powered on now without the button, it's not mechanical... and I'm also concerned I'll have to stay long before replacement.

I have rehearsals coming and I have sold everything (stupid me) to work only with the Helix...

I'm from Bordeaux, I'll update the thread sure.

thanks for the info.

Looks like component failure instead of an unit assembly error? I know how this kind of thing can feel but that looks easily repaired... Best of luck with it!

Yes, and I also think it can be easily repaired, but I will never try to do that myself, because that would put the unit out of warranty,

anyways lollipop happens they say, it just comes so early you know...

thanks for the response !