HonestOpinion

I am sure the 0-50 aspect does play into it as that gives you half as much knob travel but it still seems like the mix should scale up more gradually at the lower end. It almost seems like the increments are too large when turning the mix parameter at the lower end of the scale. And you are right, 12% seems to be around where it first becomes audible. Sometimes it seems to almost jump from a barely audible delayed signal to a lot of delay with not enough shades of grey in between at the low end of the mix where the delay is just starting to be perceptible.

I'm curious, why back to Win 7? I am not big fan of Windows 10 but Windows "Mainstream Support" ended in 2015 for Win 7 and "Extended Support" ends in 2020. With that said, Windows 10 is so invasive that I can understand anyone rolling back, especially if they have older devices that don't play well with it. However, newer devices will inevitably end up with drivers that won't work on Win 7.

I'm all for adding max flexibility to the available configurations for preset/snaps/stomps usage on the Helix. Just wanted to mention you can add a MIDI controller as well for some extra footswitching capability.

I find the delays on the Helix cover a wide range of sounds and to be quite nice indeed and totally adequate for my usage which doesn't require some of the more obscure or boutique delays. My one small issue with them is that the Mix parameter seems to be particularly sensitive starting at very low numbers. The difference between for instance 13% and 20% is quite substantial depending on how your routing is set up. It would be nice to see the mix scale up a bit more slowly. The mix seems to jump rather dramatically down at the lower end. The mix parameter reminds me in some ways of an expression pedal with very uneven scaling during its travel.

I saw him later in his career and he was playing guitar quite infrequently and mostly conducting and singing. Didn't Steve Vai pick up some of his solos for a while as well? I know Vai transcribed quite a bit of Zappa's work. Zappa did compose/conduct as you mention with the Yellow Shark project as well as the project with the London Philharmonic but his was always a strong hand with conducting, composing, and arranging and you can even see him conducting to some extent with bands as early as the 'Mothers Of Invention'. I think it might be fair to say that composition and conducting may have become more interesting to Zappa than guitar playing in the latter part of his career. I always loved his guitar playing though and that sort of parked wah tone he got and his iconoclastic and freewheelin' guitar style.

Hitting Record a second time without hitting Stop immediately restarts the loop in overdub mode if I remember correctly. Not in front of my Helix at the moment.

This title refers to an awesome Zappa record containing tons of Zappa soloing out on guitar before he moved to primarily conducting his bands. I used to have the three record set that also included "Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar". Used to love listening to 'Variation On The Carlos Santana Secret Chord'. Great reference! :)

Link to general document regarding compressors: http://line6.com/support/topic/23488-compressors-explained/?p=178763

One thing to keep in mind if you are considering a Windows tablet is that many of the ones with mini/micro USB connections don't seem to interface properly with the USB connection on the Helix or many other devices such as external hard drives for that matter. Often if they have a detachable keyboard with a full USB connection you will have to use that instead of the tablet's micro USB. You are best off finding a tablet with a standard USB connection if you intend to interface directly with the Helix. It may work fine with the limited micro USB connection for Native app usage without the Helix however depending on what you are intending to connect to externally.

You need to explicitly assign the effects you want to footswitches if you want them to show up when you go into stomp mode. You may also want to look into the Global settings for footswitches such that for instance you may have 4 stomps on the bottom row and four snapshots on the top, or any of a number of stomp/snap/preset configurations.

I definitely see your point about overlap with other threads and Ideascale. However, threads that start with detailing what people think to be a low or high priority have a way of evolving/devolving into others listing their own priorities. Users posting a list of priorities with new amps listed somewhere towards the middle or bottom is a way of demonstrating agreement with the OP's opinion. I am surprised we haven't yet seen this digress into a discussion of the various merits and vagaries of the Helix amps and just how many there should be and how many amps other competing devices have. I suppose a simple "I agree/disagree" would do for this thread but that would mean way less interesting albeit less redundant posts. Where's the fun in that? ;)

Fantastic video and some extremely authentic Brian May tones there. He consistently got some of my favorite guitar tones of all time. Many thanks also for uploading this preset to CustomTone. You are very talented at designing presets! :)

Did I miss something? This thread was not titled "three immediate high priority items only". The way I read it the OP is simply saying that he has other higher priorities than new amps. Perhaps not a "huge" list but one that takes us somewhat further into the future seems like a perfectly legitimate way to prioritize. Nothing wrong with taking a somewhat longer view. Why is your list that only has a few items with everything else covered under your heading "Anything else" any more a legitimate way to prioritize than a longer more specific list that takes us further out through the development process? Frankly I just took your list format and fleshed it out a bit and perhaps took it a little further into the future in order of my own priorities. I think most items on my list are fairly low hanging fruit and could be executed in a more timely fashion than several years. I think "several years" is quite an assumption considering that we don't know what they currently have in the hopper and development time is somewhat contingent on how many resources you dedicate. The only items that appear like they could potentially take years to develop would be polyphonic tracking and the general item regarding "whatever users and L6 dream up". One might also argue that stability is to some extent a long-term goal as true stability often does not appear until the product matures and the development cycle slows. There is a tension that must be managed between stability and new features as new features can introduce new bugs or reactivate old ones. Additionally why shouldn't the list include short-term items like tuner stability, level meters, and HX reverbs as well as long-term goals? I would agree that cumulatively when you put together the different priorities of all the users on the forum you are looking potentially at years of development. Line6 sticking with the development of the first generation of the Helix for that long would definitely surpass my expectations.

I love the stock cabs as well as the ability to use IRs. The fantastic feature of the stock cabs is without a doubt in my mind the inclusion of the ability to select different microphones. This instantly gives you a substantially different EQ curve and sound with the turn of a knob and those mic selections can be changed via snapshots. That is a lot easier than running through previews of IRs. I only wish there was a way to do this with third party IRs. You do have the ability to completely swap through different IRs across snapshots however which is a great feature.

Stability HX reverbs and mono HX reverbs Tuner stability Level meter(s) More Effects Additions to user requested or L6 inspired functionality, e.g. MIDI clock, Workbench (coming in next firmware update). Continue to optimize DSP usage (also upcoming in next firmware release). IR management, an increase of the number of available IR slots, and perhaps even an increase to the size of the IR that can be loaded. Multiple tap for tempo control instead of current double-tap More Amps Real Time Analyzer and graphical visual curve for parametric EQ Ability to restore presets from flash drive if the current USB connection can be adapted with inexpensive flash drive and cable solution. Give an option to get rid of the camera icon that eats up six scribble strip characters or replace it with a 1 character indicator so that I can more descriptively name my snapshots. Provide a ten footswitch snapshot mode. If these two things happened it might become preferable to just use an all snapshot mode instead of the snap/stomp mode I currently use. Continue to work on reducing latency between preset switches and eliminate issue with feature/bug that causes the trails to glitch if certain parameters are changed from one snapshot to the next. Polyphonic tracking for effects if possible

Chuckle, now there's a rat-hole of infinite recursion we can go down. Hopefully the surge suppressor takes care of everything except the lightning strike from the perfect storm. Just trying to have a reasonable go-to strategy to account for Murphy's Law, can't plan for every contingency, but I build in redundancy wherever possible and try to make that backup equipment as light, small, and portable as possible. If worse goes to worst there is always the impromptu acoustic guitar, pots and pans from a bar kitchen for percussion, and audience sing-along (shudder). :D

I can't wait to get the Native app. I think, at least in conception, it is sheer genius. I truly hope it can act as a mostly seamless backup strategy in the event that the Helix has a problem during a performance. Looking forward to its release! :)

Stabilize the tuner (didn't want to the forum to slip)! :D

Ain't it the truth! I was hoping to make a quick and unobtrusive request for tuner stabilization to make it into this next firmware update. How naive of me to think this would not generate further thread hijacking debate. My bad. I reiterate, there are some very substantial improvements already in this update, much appreciated, the ongoing develpment support for the Helix continues to impress. :P Or.... they could just stabilize it! :D

More amp/effect models is good too but right now the tuner fix is more important to me. Lots of workable tones and effects already but the tuner is really impacting the Helix in performance. Would prefer not to go to an external tuner solution. Anyway, I will try my best not to hijack this thread by belaboring the point. :huh:

Is there any chance that you are feeding a delayed signal through the loops, perhaps the few extra milliseconds delay introduced by a loop in addition to an already delayed signal might introduce some subtle phase cancellation issues? If this were the cause it might still happen even when the effect was bypassed. Also, and probably not the issue as you would not get any sound at all depending on your routing but one thing to keep in mind with the Helix is that the send/return loops inputs are next to each other horizontally, not vertically as they are on many devices.

I like what I am seeing in the new firmware, some major new functionality and bass players are probably rejoicing, any chance of throwing in a last minute fix to the jumpy tuner? ;)

I often use a fairly typical path that generally goes Touch Wah or Wah, Phaser, Compression, Distortion/Overdrive, EQ, Amp, Cab/IR, EQ, Vol. Pedal, Mod FX( e.g. Chorus, Flanger), Delay, Reverb. If the Helix separated the preamp and amp blocks I would probably place modulation, delay, and reverb between them but since these two parts of an amp are not separated I generally place them after the cab block even if I set up a parallel path for them. Have other people tried and if so what do they think of the path used in jbuhajla's example of the modulation, delay, and reverb placed in parallel between the amp and the cab instead of after the cab? This effectively makes the cab the last block in the signal chain before the output. Do they sound better there? Although I have experimented with this signal path I have not tried this enough to form an opinion. Interesting! As always with block placement, rules are made to be broken.

"Fairies wear boots" ('Black Sabbath' song title reference, no offence intended to the devout) ;)

So true, I remember old routers were particularly prone to bricking when an update failed and often had to be returned for re-flashing by the manufacturer or just junked if they were not worth the expense. Wherever possible every device should allow a restore to its original firmware through a hardware button reset combination. This protects both manufacturers and consumers by minimizing warranty service, customer dissatisfaction, and returns. It also ensures that a bad firmware update cannot be used to "encourage" repurchase of an item. Not trying to whip up a conspiracy theory here about some of those old routers or other devices. Perhaps they did not intentionally scheme to put out defective firmware updates, but the hit to their reputation or bottom line did not seem to prevent some companies from being pretty cavalier about the robustness of their updates and every once in a while there would be a release for a device that fairly consistently bricked it for its unsuspecting user during the update process. Hey look, new sales!! Wow that sounded pretty cynical, just trying to say, if possible always have a way to reset to the original factory firmware unless the unit has hardware damage.