HonestOpinion

This appears to be a critical fact to know when you are determining how you want to set your impedance! To paraphrase DI, I have always taken this to mean that it is the first block that determines the impedance set by "Auto", regardless of whether the block is bypassed or not. To me that implies that if you have a preset where the first block is usually bypassed, you want to set the impedance to whatever sounds best with the first active block rather than the first block. I guess my question to DI would be "As a general rule, since the first block always determines the impedance set by "Auto", even if it is bypassed, is it better to just set the impedance to match the first active block?" If the first active block works best with the impedance selected by auto than no harm, no foul. In many cases the first block and the first active block will both probably be fine with the same setting (as set by "Auto) but if the first active block works better with a different impedance than that set by "Auto" to match the first block, is it better to match the impedance explicitly to the first active block instead? I know this has been discussed before and perhaps it seems too trivial a concern to merit an answer but I am still a little unclear as to the best approach.

Although zooey is correct about the Helix being well behaved and not sending a nasty surge when it turns on/off, I still have to agree with DI on this one. Even if you have to get a simple extra power strip with a switch it is still always a good idea to turn anything that feeds signal to a speaker on first and then turn on the speaker. When shutting down use the opposite order with the speakers going off first before anything else. You never know when something be it a mixer or an MFX could fail or surge and blow out or damage your speakers. There could also be cumulative damage from lots of smaller surges. Not expecting that to happen with the Helix just describing best practice for on/off order.

Apparently (at least according to a discussion in another topic) if set to "Auto" the sound can also vary depending on whether the first block is on or off. You may want to use 1 MegOhm as your default and change to auto or whatever sounds best for presets with specific pedals like vintage fuzz emulations that may not sound best with 1 MegOhm and are not bypassed in the first block.

I do find myself having to adjust the high end on the Helix to my taste although I must admit I don't usually hear the "fizz" on the Helix that I have heard in some other earlier modelers. As as starting point I would try cutting the highs with a high-cut (low pass) filter on either the amp/cab block or an EQ block somewhere in your signal chain. Start with an aggressive cut at 5mhz and then try moving it up until it starts sounding too shrill again and then back it off a bit. If the sound is still not to your liking once you have your high cut in place to taste, try using a parametric EQ with a narrow Q and a large db bump to sweep the frequency range and find the area(s) in the frequency range that are particularly shrill, fizzy, or grating. Once you locate them you can dial them out. This should get you well on your way to a warmer less "digital" tone. Alternatively you can use the global EQ to get you in the ballpark but I prefer saving that for mixing to a specific room and prefer tweaking each preset to taste instead.

I have not encountered the issue with the Helix stripping the prefixes. You can back them all up by doing a Shift-Select and highlighting them all at one time and then hitting the "Export" link or right-clicking the mouse and selecting "Export". This will bring up a browse window. Select the directory you want (rather than double clicking and entering it) and then hit "Select Folder". You do not have to export them one at a time. I would suggest creating a separate directory for exporting them. Update: Looks like Roscoe5 was posting a few seconds earlier, sorry for the redundancy.

I don't have an AX8 so I can't weigh in on that debate but I can share an observation of comparing the Helix to my old MFX. I had an outdoor gig yesterday and decided to bring an old Mesa Boogie amp and my old MFX board instead of the Helix. I did not know what the soundman or the sound system would be like or if it would rain and I decided to wing it with some equipment I do not usually use in tandem. All I can say is I sure missed the dependable and quality sounds of my Helix. The whole day was a crap shoot with some guitar tones being so much less than ideal that they actually impacted the quality of my playing. The gig went well but I was never truly satisfied with my tone. There is a lot to be said of the predictability of my usual Helix direct to mixer and/or FRFR. I gotta say, I am getting spoiled on the sounds I am consistently getting out of my Helix live. I still love Mesa amps and my old MFX is not a bad board but it does not compare with what I can rely on getting every gig out of the Helix. I would have been better off just playing the Helix, or even my old analog pedal board through my Mesa. The Helix has ruined me for lesser MFX, I just can't groove on their tone any more, lesson learned. The Helix RAWKS!

Right now you need to connect the Variax to the provided USB adaptor and connect the adaptor to the computer to upgrade the Variax firmware and use Workbench. All of us Variax owners are definitely hoping that full Workbench integration is in the cards somewhere down the line but it is not available yet.

This is a good place to post a bug for help from the forum but if it turns out to be an actual bug you should contact or fill out a ticket at Line6 Customer Support. Your issue sounds like perhaps you should try a global reset and if that does not work try to reflash the firmware. What version of the firmware are you on?

Thank you for a thoughtful and honest response. I agree with you in regards to nit-picking and I would definitely hate to see resources diverted to petty requests. I do also see a lot of great and creative ideas on the forum and love to see experienced posters, beta testers like yourself, and even Line6 staff embrace them where possible. In any case, I realize everybody brings their own personal style to the table here and as long as people keep things civil it all serves to strike a healthy balance. You may not be quite as gung-ho about new features as I would hope to see but I am appreciative of your many excellent and helpful technical posts.

You're kidding right? ;) Count me in for the free Helix experiment though. Very few people have the budget or the floor space on a crowded stage for multiple Helix's. How about we just work on getting the most out of this Helix and beefing up the next version that comes out with the latest technology?

PeterHamm, you have mentioned that you are a beta tester for Line6. My apologies but I can't understand where that is an ideal fit for someone who so frequently seems to proclaim that the Helix is perfect as it is, does not need anything more, and "does more than I need". I hope that behind the scenes you are encouraging innovation and objectively appraising the features you are beta testing. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate your relentless optimism but as you are on the "front line" it seems to me to be of utmost importance for you to temper your enthusiasm for the current Helix by embracing new technology and providing good critical analysis and feedback, that is part and parcel of being a valuable member of the testing team. I would be the first to say you are generally respectful of users making requests or complaints but it seems that I rarely see you encourage a new request or do anything but mount a defense for the Helix as is. As a beta tester you get the privilege of being the first to test and perhaps improve new features. That does not seem to comport with tirelessly defending the status quo. As you are a beta tester I sincerely hope you enjoy new features as much as the rest of us do and your comments are just reflective of a protective stance towards Line6.

Some more free Impulse Response links Metal - http://metalhomerecording.com/best-free-guitar-cab-ir/ Ton of free IRs here - http://www.guitarampmodeling.com/viewforum.php?f=32&sid=060b519318b7f38e04b5eef6df6d19f7 Tone Vampire - http://tonevampire.blogspot.ae/p/downloads.html 7 Deadly Sins Pack - http://www.osirisguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/7deadlysins%20Impulse%20Pack.zip

Sell a pedal? Are you kidding me, what would I keep my doors open with? :unsure:

Buy it for what it does today? Really? Line6 is free to put a disclaimer on the Helix that says "No models, effects, bug fixes or new features will EVER be added to this processor, EVER!!!" and watch their sales plummet by at least 50% adversely impacting their entire user community (well the half that would be left). Or, they could have taken another two years maturing it and risked being leap-frogged by a competitor's product. You can either put out a bug-free, fully stocked MFX or one that has superior bones like the Helix and still requires a bit of development, either approach may result in robust sales and a loyal customer base. What you shouldn't do is choose the latter approach and then not develop it after release. Line6 chose the latter approach and I await the improvements I know are coming. And btw, I love the approach Line6 took as the Helix has more "potential' than the other choices on the market and is more than great enough as it stands now to make the waiting worthwhile. This is a hackneyed, disingenuous, and unrealistic debate that has been talked to death (but yet here I am posting anyway). Most people expect a rational amount of improvement to this device after release. If you don't you are either incredibly easily satisfied (not a bad way to go through life) or perhaps a masochist, a serial embracer of low expectations, or don't actually own one. Every one of Line6's customers as well as Line6 themselves benefit from improvement to the Helix. To quote Clapton "Let it grow, let it grow, let it blossom, let it flow". Gave myself a bit of a wince with that quote but you know what I mean.

You seem to be consistently making some of the best presets I have listened to on the forum. The accuracy and quality of them is head and shoulders above most of the offerings. Great work and thank you!

True, and you don't have to get "beat in" to join the Line6 forum (although it feels that way sometimes). ;)

I know folks have seen me bounce this one around quite a bit but if you are having issues with the Helix locking up or the Editor not starting, or starting and crashing immediately, it may be related to a few particular presets that come up with a "Rebuilding.." message when the Helix boots. Using the workaround in the link below may fix the issue for you. If any preset seems to consistently be involved with lockups or editor crashes you should probably change any parameter in the preset, however slightly, and then save the preset again, even if the preset does not come up in the "Rebuilding.." message on boot. http://line6.com/support/topic/20454-grid-for-getting-rid-of-the-preset-rebuild-messages-on-boot-in-latest-firmware-1120/?hl=grid

LMAO! :D

I use one of these as an emergency backup as well (actually the MS100BT, same idea though). Easy to stuff in a backpack. Kind of a bear to use though if you need to switch a lot of effects or sounds in and out. I usually carry my old MFX unit with me as well which has more flexibility and better tone.

Some great technical analysis on this topic. I still prefer to make the EQ adjustments for my presets on a per preset basis and reserve the global EQ for adjusting to the room or equipment I am playing through during a given performance. Yes, if you have someone qualified on the board they can perform that function but that is not always the case. I can definitely see where the global EQ can be a great quick fix however if you have not already EQ'd your presets individually.

LOL, great post!

I have to admit it is a giant challenge to get anything digital to sound as good as some decent analog pedals through the Mesa Mark V. Just curious, what has been keeping you away from the Helix?

I love your use of syllogisms here! I hope Inerzia and you can keep it friendly as you both make good arguments. I understand Inerzia's point despite the discussion of semantic accuracy. Just for fun and to play devil's advocate I am not sure the first syllogism is always true, particularly when it comes to art. The Venus de Milo may not have arms making it incomplete but many would argue it is perfect. Many artists and musicians never feel like their best works are totally complete but at some point you have to put down the brush or leave the recording studio. Others look upon those works as perfect. Lastly, I would posit that the ideal of perfection is generally projected from the status quo, as soon as we reach perfection that becomes the new status quo and from our new, higher vantage point, we perceive a new higher level as "perfection". For this reason, like the infinite, perfection may well be unattainable. I would admit that this definition of "perfection" may not have a whole lot to do with your syllogism. It might however help explain why no matter what Line6 delivers there will always be more requests for the next level of "perfection". That and the fact that a lot of people including me clearly have too much free time on their hands. :D

I don't think I would characterize it as "missing" as I am able to get most of what I want out of the current amp choices. There are a couple of Mesa Boogie and PRS amps, a Brian May Deacy type amp, and perhaps a few boutique amps I could never afford that would be nice to have but nothing that is missing even approaches being a showstopper for me. There are plenty of stellar amp choices to be found currently on the Helix. I think if Line6 continues to consistently add a few more top-notch amps most of their users will be more than satisfied. My current wishlist is that the focus remain on bug fixes (particularly tap tempo), stability, more effect and reverb choices, tuner enhancement, scenes, spillover, and reduced switching latency. I also think the Editor has a few core features that need to be incorporated and are probably coming although the Editor remains far down on my list of priorities as it does not impact using the Helix during a performance. To be honest, happy as I am to have the Editor I wish it would go through a redesign that had it relying less on those huge colored scroll bars that L6 uses for every parameter. Additionally the scroll bars essentially all look the same which means that app related elements that would logically and visually distinctly be grouped together in other GUIs appear as a jumble of colored bars in the Helix Edtor. The bars are also IMHO a less than ideal GUI element for text selection (particularly with larger lists, currently you can only see one selection at a time, not good). They unnecessarily eat up screen real estate and prevent operations with a larger number of parameters from all fitting on one screen. This forces you to use the scroll bar on the far right side of the screen to see the additional parameters. Alternative GUI design elements like pulldown menus would allow everything to easily fit on one screen. However, I would venture to say this level of Editor redesign will probably never happen and I would not want precious development resources being squandered on it, at least right now when there are more important things to work on. And... thanks very much for the Editor, it is great to have despite my design concerns. Last but not least I would love to have at least the option to position the "Master" volume on the amp models where the "Ch Vol" is currently located. That way I could save my presets with the amp block selected and be able to quickly use the parameter selector knobs to dial in the balance between "Drive" and "Master" just as I would on a real amp. Currently the "Master" volume requires you to page to the second page of the amp models. A very unnatural and inconvenient way to model an amp's controls in my opinion. Btw, you can vote for this option here if you agree, http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Put-Master-volume-on-the-same-page-as-the-Drive-in-amp-model/788502-23508 After all these wishlist items being expressed I will issue the standard disclaimer that I still feel the Helix is a wonderful confluence of art and science and I could not be happier with my purchase and the capabilities it offers me. Line6 hit this one out of the park and brought an item to market that competitors will be scrambling to catch up with in certain areas for years.

Although I enthusiastically await and embrace new amp model development as well as refinement of existing models, I think the approach you are taking is excellent! If Line6 continues to slowly add models but retains this level of quality on them, the Helix stands to have some of the most accurate and best models on the market, capable of competing with any other product. Again, I view this as the 3Sigma rather than the Ownhammer strategy and it is equally valuable. This dedication to accuracy and authenticity is exactly what I prefer to having hundreds of amp choices only some of which actually closely resemble the real thing. I do hope at some point you can reduce the amount of time to produce a great amp as a month+ hardly seems sustainable, but maybe that is just what it takes to get a great amp. I know it can be hard to keep the focus on quality with so many clamoring for more models and comparing the Helix to devices with many more. Nevertheless, I am confident Line6 can satisfy the majority of its users by steadily adding to the current library. I think most users would be happy to see a couple of new amps on a slightly more regular basis until a baseline of choices is reached and perhaps beyond, that baseline does not seem that far off to me. Thank you for the fine work and by all means please keep 'em coming!