HonestOpinion

You can just click your Idea in Ideascale and then cut and paste the Ideascale URL from your browser into a forum post.

Have to agree, this is the bigger idea here and one that has been bouncing around and requested for a while. It would not only address the OP's request to change the trails On/Off default setting but add some very powerful functionality. The ability to save and name the version of the effect/amp/etc. block you want with all your custom parameters and be able to select that block while building the preset would be easier and more flexible than the current method of having to find a preset with your custom settings and copying and pasting specific blocks. If you do implement 'custom' blocks another feature that can be very powerful is to have a 'Global/Per Block' setting within a custom block (not in the global settings) that allows all parameter changes in the block to be reflected in any preset that contains a custom block that has the 'Global' parameter enabled. Note: Just wanted to mention that you can create a template right now with most of your favorite block settings and copy that as your foundation when building a new preset but the custom block approach above would be much more powerful.

You should include the link in this topic, would help get more votes. The pinned Ideascale topic is always a good spot for a link as well.

I would prefer to see people talking about how to resolve the issue with trails glitching if certain parameters are switched between snapshots, or how to make them work between presets rather than worrying about what their default is. The default is a trivial matter when compared with more significant issues regarding trails and their operation when switching between snapshots or presets. Overall I find them eminently usable but it seems there are bigger wins to be had regarding trails than adjusting their default state.

From what I have heard from most of the acoustic guitar IRs they do seem better suited to helping a Variax or piezo equipped electric guitar (sometimes even with magnetic pickups) sound more like an acoustic. Most of the ones I have tried don't seem to do a great job with acoustic guitars. At least that has been my experience but I don't think that necessarily means that good IRs for acoustic guitars can't or aren't being produced.

Ultimately I guess I am trying to recreate the sound and 'acoustic space' of a good miked up acoustic guitar amp. Some acoustic IRs also give me the capability, similar to some of the acoustic stomp modelers, to emulate a selection of brands of acoustic guitar sounds (e.g. Taylor, Martin, Gibson, etc.). It would seem like a good approach might be an IR that strictly emulates the sound of a quality microphone placed in front of the guitar with no cab at all. Essentially having the body of an acoustic guitar be the equivalent of the cab in a conventional electric guitar IR. Anything that gets me a more natural sound than the piezo direct to the PA. I wonder if there is a way to make an IR like that for acoustic guitar or if perhaps that is what some are already doing.

I would assume you use an acoustic IR for the same reason you would you an acoustic guitar combo or acoustic head/cab. It is similar to the reason you use an IR from a cab intended for electric guitar. Not a bad question though, perhaps there are good reasons not to although if there are they don't appear obvious.

Don't know if I noticed this previously at some point or if was mentioned when this amp was first added but I was just observing that there is no 'Hum' parameter on the 'Cali IV' (Mesa Mark IV) amp. Anyone know why or the history of that parameter being omitted on this particular amp model? It does have the extra Mesa graphic EQ parameters so perhaps that is the explanation.

:)

I find the Jazz Chorus can work ok with some acoustic guitar presets.

Start with the obvious by making sure you are not trying to do a bundle backup into a directory that Helix does not have privileges on by attempting a setlist or preset backup to the same location. Also go into the 'Help/About' link in the upper left hand corner of the Editor and ensure that the Editor version is the same as your firmware. I am assuming you already did the 9&10 global reset the last time you updated your firmware and also that the Helix has been restarted since your last preset load to allow the rebuild process to complete. If the bundle backup is not a system or firmware/Editor issue it may be related to problem presets(s), we can't be sure of that at this point, and you don't want to just wait until the next firmware version to see if the issue resolves itself I would try the following troubleshooting procedure. If you don't care about saving any of your current presets you can skip to step #8 in the troubleshooting procedure below. If there are no system or firmware issues blocking the bundle backup there may be one or more problem presets on your Helix. There is no way to know which setlist they are from as you are backing up a bundle so you will need to narrow things down by attempting individual setlist backups and perhaps even individual preset backups. Btw, a bundle is generally not the best way to restore presets, most people do restores by setlist instead. The following method will be a bit tedious but may enable you to nail down the offending presets if that is indeed the problem. The troubleshooting may be a bit risky as you will be overwriting your current presets but as long as you have backups of all of your individual presets (see step #2) hopefully you should be able to get most of them back (no guarantees). Backup everything you can (bundles, setlists, presets, IRs, etc.) in these instructions and in general twice, preferably on two separate machines. Don't forget to backup IRs in the event that you take the option in step #8. Start by backing up any setlist populated with presets including the Factory and Template lists by selecting them and hitting the 'Export Setlist' link. If one or more of them fails to backup you may have localized the problem to the problem setlist(s). If none of the setlists fail to backup I would take another look at some of the potential systemic issues that might impact a backup listed in the beginning of this email as well as moving on to testing backups of individual presets in the next step. Backup the presets individually for each setlist to separate directories named after the setlist they reside in. You can do this by highlighting them all at one time and hitting the 'Export' button. If any of them fail to backup you may have found the culprit(s). Now here's the scary part. If you successfully backup all your setlists you want to start restoring your backups one setlist at a time. If they all succeed I would restart the Helix and then the chances are high that you should be able to get a good bundle backup. If a setlist fails to backup or load start trying to figure out where your bad preset(s) are by selecting the setlist you want to load to, and then highlighting and loading half the setlist at a time using the individual presets you backed up in step number two. If you get a failure split the the half-list in half again and try to load. Rinse and repeat until you get down to the preset(s) that are failing. Splitting things in half each time actually goes faster than you might think. Once and if you find the problem presets you can eliminate them from your load, load up the working presets by highlighting them together and hitting the 'Import' link, and finally backup all your setlists and hopefully a bundle successfully. You can either rebuild the problem presets at this point or perhaps send them off to customer support for a look-see. Finally, if nothing else is working you can take the nuclear option and uninstall the Helix software, download and reinstall it and reflash the firmware, again making sure that the firmware and Editor version are matching and that you have completed the 9&10 global reset and the subsequent restart after loading presets to go through the rebuild process. Before you do this make sure you have some successful backups though, even if they are not a bundle otherwise risk losing all your old presets.

I am curious where other people are setting the 'Mix' parameter on IRs for amplification of an acoustic guitar with piezo pickups? Not an electric trying to emulate an acoustic with piezos or a Variax but an actual acoustic like a Taylor or Martin. I find that even on very good IRs intended for acoustic guitar that if I try to run the 'Mix' on the IR at 100% the preset starts to sound more artificial and more like an emulation of an acoustic guitar than a real one. I always find that running the IR at 50% or some partial mix results in a more natural and far superior acoustic sound. The sound immediately thickens up, the bottom end sounds much better and the tone is not as thin. Anyone else finding this to be the case? It reminds me of the way acoustic guitars often sound better to me direct through the PA rather than put through various digital acoustic guitar modeling pedals. As soon as I back the mix off on the IR I start to get a woodier less 'artificial' sound back through the Helix.

You may want to uninstall the old Helix software on your PC first, then just download and install the 2.11 'Helix' application. This will unpack the latest version of the Editor, Updater, and driver. You do not have to run the Updater and reinstall the firmware again if you are already on version 2.11 on the Helix.

I hear you Silverhead, as I have not had any issues with updates I would definitely rather see resources go towards features, new effects/amps, etc... However, I am willing to compromise my own priorities a bit on this one as I can see from hundreds of posts how many people have had difficulties with firmware upgrades. Of course if I had my druthers I would prefer Line6 hire 'some temporary extra guy' to improve the update process and keep the rest of the team rolling ahead on feature oriented updates. :)

I have seen the posts from DI so I am expecting the process to improve. Maybe I need to clarify my point. I am not saying that the Updater has to be updated every time. I am simply saying right now that it is the vehicle/gateway for updating the firmware and should also be the arbiter that makes sure that the firmware and the Editor and driver versions are all matched properly. A bonus would be ensuring proper backups so people don't update their firmware without them.

I have never had an issue with updating but I think there are several improvements that could be made with two things in particular that would make it much more bullet-proof: Make backups an automated part of the firmware update process. The Updater should make at least a bundle backup but preferably a backup of everything (bundle, setlists, individual presets, IRs, and perhaps a text readout of the global settings). Issuing a reminder to take a screenshot of the IR positions for those who have not numbered them would not be a bad idea either. Ensure versioning is correct between the Editor, driver, Updater, and firmware. It seems like rather than having the 'Helix' app install the latest Updater, driver and Editor that a better process would be to have users download only the latest version of the Updater (not the Editor or driver). Each Updater version would be the only Updater version able to update to the its matching firmware. It would first do an automatic backup using the Editor currently on the user's PC. After a successful backup the Updater would download the latest version of the Editor and driver and then update the firmware. I know this is a tall order for the Updater but there is a substantial segment of the Helix user base that are musicians first and computer users as a distant third. There are probably some issues with this kind of an update that need to be considered in the event that someone needs to roll back but overall this type of update might be much simpler and less error prone for the wider Helix community.

Sounds like a feasible even probable theory. That could well be it. Or it could be one of the first amp models they made before they learned how to better optimize the code... :) I would love to see a DSP percentage meter on the Helix so we could figure out how much DSP each block uses. It would be helpful in designing DSP intensive presets. It might also be useful for Line6 developers to assist in optimizing the block's DSP usage although they may/probably have a tool or method they use internally to determine a block's DSP usage.

I highly recommend everyone do this periodically/now but particularly before and after updating firmware, and making backups for firmware updates. Go into the Editor's 'Help/About' section (upper left hand corner of the Editor) and confirm that your Editor version is the same as the firmware version indicated below it in the Editor screen. Do not update your firmware until you have backups from a version of the Editor that matches your current firmware. The Editor version should also match the firmware version that comes up when you first start your Helix. This may seem unnecessary but I think some will be surprised to find that their Editor version does not match their firmware version, even though they executed all the right steps (or didn't ;) ) during upgrading. Sometimes the Helix software must be uninstalled first and reinstalled to get the software to install properly or get rid of stale registry entries or links. You may be using an older mismatched version of the Editor and not even realize it. Especially in cases where the difference between the Editor versions is subtle as in the change between 2.10 and 2.11. Having a version of the Editor that does not match your current firmware can cause problems with your loads from backups in future firmware versions as well as a number of random issues with using the Editor. I wager some users will be surprised to find that their firmware and Editor versions are not the same after doing this check. Update: The HX Edit version that matches your firmware version are not always the same. For example, currently HX Edit 2.52 is matched with firmware 2.53.

Thanks for checking!

I am not sure whether this is a bug or was just necessary for this model but the 'British Plexi Jump' amp takes up more DSP than any other amp model on the Helix. Unless this greater amount of DSP used for this model was intentional or required it would be nice to see L6 optimize this model. I guess my question would be why would this amp model use the most DSP? Is it the 'Bright Drive' parameter? There are certainly amp models with several more parameters than this model. Extra parameters may not be the only thing on an amp that takes up more DSP but I don't understand why this amp is the most DSP intensive?

I don't know if this has been reported yet. Could some other folks please confirm this. Thanks! Firmware: 2.11 OS: Windows 10 Bug: The 'Send 3/4' selection does not appear in the 2.11 Editor on the 'Output' block. It is available for selection from the 'Output' block on the Helix itself.

Hmm, the first time I remember seeing this error being reported is since the 2.11 update. Could be total coincidence but I am curious to see if we start seeing more reports of this. If we do I hope people mention their firmware version and how long they have had their Helix so we can see if this connected to the age and usage level of the switches, random failures, or if it is connected to the latest firmware update.

It should not be doing this unless you are touching and holding the cap-sensitive switch for a second or two. It sounds to me like one of your cap-sensitive switches is acting up. Is it always the same switch asking for your to select an assignment? If so, you may need a repair, if not it could be a firmware issue and I would back everything up and try reflashing the firmware again. As a matter of fact, I would try reflashing the firmware again in either case. Also, did you make sure you did a global 9&10 reset after your last update?

It does not sound like this is what happened in your case but I just wanted to mention the possibility to help other users avert potential problems with firmware updates. Another way I can see the backups having problems is that people, particularly those who rarely use the Editor to design presets, sometimes update their firmware but never get around to downloading and installing the latest version of the 'Helix' app (Editor, Updater, driver). When this is the case they could end up making backups with an even older mismatched version of the Editor then the version of the firmware they are upgrading from (in your case hypothetically that could have meant an Editor version prior to 2.01 that did not yet include snapshots and therefor would not back them up). Again, I don't know if an older mismatched version of the Editor will work with a newer/different version of the Editor, but if it does I can see having problems with the backups when you go to restore on your new version of the firmware. It comes down to making sure the Editor is the same version as your current firmware when you do your backups before an update.

The sound of any given preset is often highly contingent on your guitar, the equipment you are using to amplify your Helix, and your playing style. That is why there is no way for preset sellers to provide custom presets or for Line6 to provide Factory presets that will work for everyone and with all equipment. It is impossible to predict all the factors in your unique setup. That is why you will see DI periodically joke that "all pre-made presets suck". Ultimately I think regardless of the source, Factory, purchased, CustomTone, unless you get lucky you are going to need to modify other peoples' presets to fit your setup and style. Those required modifications may be minor or major depending on your setup. This does not mean you may not find presets that work perfectly right off the bat now and then, you may. Some setups and styles are a bit more 'universal' in this respect. One of the premier benefits of OP (other peoples') presets is you can learn a lot about preset design from other people. Ultimately though there is no short cut or quick fix for every preset. You need to learn to EQ, tweak settings, and route things properly for YOUR setup. There is no way around putting the work in, you either have to spend time sorting though many presets to find the few that will work perfectly straight 'off the shelf' with your system (a rare occurrence in my experience), or you need to learn how to adapt other's presets to your system, or better yet design your own. If you don't have the time, experience, or inclination to design presets from scratch or are simply looking for new methods you would never have conceived of or employed on your own, modifying other's presets may be your favorite way to go. With few exceptions all of my favorite presets are ones I have created from scratch because they fit my needs perfectly and have been adjusted to sound ideal on my rig and cater to the way I attack and play the guitar.