HonestOpinion

Great suggestion, thanks!

I would love to see the backup and restore of IRs and presets be done automatically as part of the firmware upgrade process. Another option would be for them to be upgraded in place although a backup is always a good idea before a firmware upgrade, even if nothing needs to be reloaded. This could make upgrading more failsafe and painless for users while encouraging people to enjoy the latest and greatest firmware versions with all the benefits they provide. Given that Line6 is still adding and improving Factory presets I still think it is a good idea for people not to edit their Factory presets in the "Factory" user lists but instead to copy them to a User list and edit them there. That way new and improved Factory presets can be automatically installed by firmware updates to the Factory lists and your User lists can be backed up and restored exactly as they were. For people who use the Factory lists for their own presets they could have the option of restoring their old Factory presets. For most people though five User lists (excluding the Templates and Factory lists) is more than enough for customizing their own presets and the Factory/Template lists can be used for reference. If you do edit your Factory lists I suggest exporting the edited presets individually by highlighting them all and hitting "Export". This will enable you to restore as many as you want without completely overwriting the potentially new Factory presets after a firmware upgrade.

Excellent, glad to hear it!

LOL, no snapshots of "my precious". :angry: "One ring modulator to rule them all"

Let's get single-click assignment of parameters to snapshots in the Editor. It is a somewhat painful multi-step process that also requires a switch to the "Controller Assign" page right now. It would also be great to have the ability to assign all the parameters in a block at one time to a snapshot, for example, the amp block, reverb, delay, or overdrive blocks. Please vote it up at http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Assign-parameter-to-snapshot-with-click-in-Editor/833883-23508

Voted!

As long as you use "Export Setlist", the "Import Setlist" will restore your presets in exactly the same order to exactly the same slot they were in. It is the IRs that need to be prefixed with a number so that you can restore them to the correct slots. I think the IR saving and restoring could really bear improvement. Not only is keeping them in the right slots a bit of a pain but the truncation of the names often renders the names useless as information like cap versus cone and mic distance, are often in the truncated part at the end of the IR name. The namespace for IRs truly needs to be longer. I personally always like being on the latest firmware as long as it does not have a major bug but I could see waiting for the next version to upgrade if the differences between 2.0 and 2.01 don't particularly impact you. The difference between these two versions are not as significant as some of the past revisions. Note: I personally hope Line6 proceeds with their improvements to the pitch shifting regardless of whether it impacts the presets others have sold or created in prior firmware versions. If they can do it without impacting former presets adversely all the better. I do understand people not wanting older presets to be impacted by new firmware versions (particularly when they sold or purchased them) but sometimes that is the cost of getting better tracking, greater authenticity, or other improvements. I think Line6 has been outstanding in providing continuity from one firmware version to the next in this regard so far but if the old ark needs some movering, so be it, I will adjust my presets accordingly.

Glad to know I am not the only one who feels this way. All my old "snapshots" used to be of friends and family, concerts, beaches, mountains, and rolling hills. Now they are of phasers, overdrives, and amp models. Please don't include a Cortana or Siri type voice in any future firmware updates or things might just get weird. I'm already talking to my Helix when no one is around, thankfully so far, she has not answered back :D

The idea of being able to give constructive feedback might be helpful and ultimately might up everybody's game who contributes presets. I also like the idea of being able to hear the preset before downloading but as far as getting an idea of which posts are preferred, you can do that now.. You can sort by the rating and pick presets with four or five stars. This will essentially spare you from having to go through presets with low stars or that have not been rated yet. No stars or low stars can be (although not always) an indication, particularly on an older preset, that it is not particularly popular or well received, especially when it has been downloaded many times. If the preset you contributed 2 years ago has been downloaded 500 times and it has 1 or 0 stars that is a pretty good indication that it did not go over well. If you have uploaded several presets that fit that profile you might want to review your preset design or do a better job of describing how to get a good sound out of your presets in the description.

The optional Helix "Spinal Tap" pyrotechnic edition. Make sure to provide your drummer with adequate protective gear.

Snapshots on top row, stomp pedals on bottom; right now I still like having a few stomp easily pedals available for spontaneous changes I did not anticipate. Ten pedal stomp mode if I need it which is extremely rare. I can see potentially eventually transitioning to all snapshot mode if I get all my snapshots set up they way I want.

I am coming to the unpleasant realization that the Helix has made me feel co-dependent. The thought of being without this thing for even a brief repair causes anxiety. My wife is getting jealous. I have backup equipment but nothing short of a second Helix or maybe an AX8 would make me comfortable as a backup after gigging for a while now with the Helix. I am attached at the hip with this "play"-thing, she is my "Lucille". I have never been so attached to the sound, consistency, and ease of use of one particular piece of equipment. I have other amp-pedalboard setups that I love but the prospect of having to do a gig without the flexibility and the tone the Helix delivers is absolutely repugnant to me now. Way to go Line6!

The switching options are so flexible that you can set up your footswitches to use snapshots, presets, or pedals in a variety of configurations although some additional configuration suggestions have been made in Ideascale which are also quite good. Using the global options you should be able to find something close to or exactly the way you would want to set things up with or without the use of snapshots.

All good points Zooey, thanks! You addressed the additional points regarding which snapshot is active when you initially select a preset as well as how the Discard/Recall settings affect bypass states and Phil_m got the ball rolling with his notes on "Recall" behavior. And of course, bypass behavior is slightly different when you first set up a preset as the bypass settings you establish in Snapshot #1 will be the same in all the other snapshots. Once you start switching snapshots the bypass states in the snapshot you are editing (e.g. Snapshot #1) will not only be retained differently depending on the Discard/Recall setting, but the behavior will also change once you start saving subsequent snapshots and the bypass settings in Snapshot #1 are no longer necessarily the same in all of the other snapshots. Seeing these last three posts regarding snapshots almost makes me want to see a grid that shows "Initial Snapshot Setup", "Recall" and "Discard" on the "X" axis, and the various behaviors regarding bypass, parameters, snapshot assigned parameters, and initial preset snapshot behaviors on the "Y" access. The documentation is pretty good and you learn these behaviors through experimentation but that visual might be helpful particularly to people just starting out with the Helix or snapshots.

Love the "2001: A Space Oddysey" - "Hal" reference and totally agree! Windows 10 has some nice features but is incredibly invasive.

Phil, you did point out that "Recall" was pertinent to when you are editing the Helix but I wanted to make it a little clearer to anyone who has not messed about with those settings. Whether you have the Global Settings >Preferences set to "Recall" or "Discard" you still have to hit Save either on the Helix or the Editor at least once if you want those changes to be there the next time you either switch to that preset or after powering down the Helix. The "Recall" setting is not an "automatic" save. Without a save the change is only retained as long as you are in that preset. The difference is that when you are editing within a preset when the setting is "Recall" if you make a change to a snapshot and switch to another snapshot, your change will still be in the last snapshot when you return to it; but only as long as you don't switch away from that preset without saving. The parameters you changed in the previous snapshot also needs to have been assigned to "Snapshot" (indicated by square brackets) or changing that parameter in a subsequent snapshot will change it for all snapshots regardless of whether your setting is "Recall" or "Discard". Either way, you will have to save the preset for any changes to be there next time you use it. I prefer the "Discard" setting so that changes I make during a performance do not "stick" when I change away from that snapshot. I like the explicit save required with the "Discard" setting such that I know that when I return to that snapshot it will be in the same state I originally saved it in. If I want a change in a snapshot to be persistent, then I save it before switching snapshots. Just a matter of personal preference in how you like to program a preset and your process while performing, but depending on your preference setting ("Recall", Discard") you may have to save before you leave the snapshot ("Discard") or preset ("Recall") if you want certain settings to be there next time you use that preset. The difference is with the "Recall" setting you don't need to save snapshot assigned parameters between snapshot changes while you are programming the preset. You will need to save once when you finish editing all your snapshots in that preset.

Couldn't agree more!

Chorus effects also add a short delay. They get the thickening effect by modulating that delay and mixing it with the direct signal.

Yep, the biggest challenge on the Helix right now is narrowing down the infinite possibilities. Too bad getting the talent of my dreams requires all that pesky practice but at least I have the Helix to help out with the tone part of the equation :P

It has the Mutron III emulation as well as another really good envelope filter/touch-wah effect for those Bootsy funk sounds.

Absolutely! I mentioned snapshots in my post above as one way (and probably the best way) to approach this. You can set the parameters such as intervals on the pitch block to change from snapshot to snapshot.

One definitely should not expect a fuzz to sound like an overdrive or any of the non-fuzz distortion pedals but I would argue that there are good fuzz sounds and harsh hard to listen to fuzz sounds. Of course that is somewhat subjective and beauty is in the ear of the beholder. I have been playing way too long to expect a dog to fly and more than willing to admit I just haven't dialed them in correctly but I have not been able to get a good tone out of the fuzzes on the Helix. I am sure they are in there, just a bit more challenging for me than the other effects. Fuzzes have always been one of the easiest effects to have sound like crud and I am finding the ones on the Helix to be no impediment to that ;)

The most likely causes of this are the following: USB port or driver not cooperating with the Helix Helix Windows driver not properly installed Some app, driver, firewall, or antivirus program interfering with Helix Editor, Windows driver, and Updater not matched to the firmware version I would try the following, switch USB ports, try all available, most likely one to work will be on the back of your PC. If alternate USB ports don't work, backup your presets and IRs if you can, use another PC or laptop if necessary. If you just got your Helix and have not created any new presets, no worries, skip this step. Now uninstall the Line6 software using the Line6 uninstaller under "Programs & Features" in the Control Panel, Reinstall the latest 2.01 "Helix" app. This will automatically reinstall the latest Editor, Updater, and most importantly the Windows driver which is what allows the Updater and also probably the Editor to see your Helix. Now use the Updater to update to the latest version of the firmware 2.01. Finally, don't forget to do the global reset by restarting while depressing FS 9&10.

Heh, I remember their tune "Roller".

This one looks wide enough but a hell of a lot less robust and stable than the On-Stage. https://www.amazon.com/AW-Studio-Rolling-Adjustable-Equipment/dp/B01ELB39CY/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1470965371&sr=8-5&keywords=rolling+mixer+stand