HonestOpinion

I go directly to the mixing board and use the PA monitors, no fuss no muss, minimum equipment to carry. However you may prefer the thump and sound of a real amp or an FRFR coming from behind you. Really a preference thing contingent on how much equipment you need to get a sound you are happy with. Of course each piece of equipment adds another possible point of failure (but possibly redundancy/backup as well). I don't find the PA too dry but I do find it requires more EQ to keep the sound from getting muddy, brittle, or fizzy. Any full range PA speaker or FRFR and even many guitar amps will generally require correct EQ on the Helix to rein in the high and low end and get the best sound. I will say that a PA may be a little trickier to get a warm sound from than a tube amp which already has that warm analog thing going on. The upside is that the PA or an FRFR is relatively neutral allowing you to get a sound truer to the amp you are emulating when dialed in properly. If you are going through your Marshall, even if you have the settings neutral, no matter which Helix amp model you pick, it will always have at least a bit of that filtered through a Marshall sound (which you might prefer).

You may find ultimately that you don't need these pedals, or only really want to use the Tubescreamer, but if you decide to use them both, ideally you would run each of them through a different FX Loop. Place the FX Loop 1 block with the Tubescreamer before the Helix amp model and place the FX Loop 2 with the reverb after the Helix amp model at the end of your effect chain. If you need more detail on where to place the Tubescreamer and the reverb in relation to the rest of your effects here are a couple of good links for how to set your effects order, as always use your ears to determine what you like best but these are good general guidelines. If you were using a physical amp often the best place for reverb/echo and many mod effects is in the effect loop which is why you put them after the Helix amp model (or ideally between a preamp and power amp block but let's not go there). http://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/effects-chain-order--audio-6003 http://www.rolandus.com/blog/2013/03/06/how-to-chain-your-guitar-effects-pedals/

Sometimes the issue is that you are losing the internet connection. You may want to try downloading the firmware file from the L6 Downloads page to your local machine and then run the update using that file.

Upon further examination this appears to be a physical problem with the switch. This switch does not feel like any of the others and seems to have something like a second click in addition to the normal one. Going to have to swap this unit out. Sheesh, what luck, I hope this is not a frequent occurrence. :(

Upon further examination this appears to be a physical problem with the switch. This switch does not feel like any of the others and seems to have something like a second click in addition to the normal one. Going to have to swap this unit out. Sheesh, what luck, I hope this is not a frequent occurrence. :(

Not sure whether this is a bug, or a hardware issue that just happens to coincide with my upgrade today to 1.04.2. My #12 footswitch, the one directly to the left of the Tempo footswitch, is no longer consistently turning on and off. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I have multiple blocks assigned to this footswitch. This is the one I generally assign to my distortion pedal so I can no longer reliably switch from lead to rhythm. This is happening on my saved presets that I have reloaded after the Global Reset procedure. I have yet to test it on the factory presets. Have a gig coming up so I am not too happy. If anybody who upgrades to the 1.04.2 firmware starts having this issue please post back here. Otherwise I will assume this is a hardware issue and unfortunately get the unit swapped out (hope another one is readily available). Really hoping this is either a firmware issue or an issue with restoring user presets with multiple block assignments as having a footswitch go bad in the first month of light use does not bode well for switch durability unless this turns out to be a rare case. Bumming me out 'cos I love my Helix :( Btw, the Helix App 1.02 is still having issues with restores If your presets are not all contiguous it is putting User presets blocks back in the correct preset slot but puts the preset's name in the first empty slot, such that the preset's blocks end up in one preset slot and the preset's name in another (with no blocks). This of course necessitates you having to rename all your presets.

Not sure whether this is a bug, or a hardware issue that just happens to coincide with my upgrade today to 1.04.2. My #12 footswitch, the one directly to the left of the Tempo footswitch, is no longer consistently turning on and off. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I have multiple blocks assigned to this footswitch. This is the one I generally assign to my distortion pedal so I can no longer reliably switch from lead to rhythm. This is happening on my saved presets that I have reloaded after the Global Reset procedure. I have yet to test it on the factory presets. Have a gig coming up so I am not too happy. If anybody who upgrades to the 1.04.2 firmware starts having this issue please post back here. Otherwise I will assume this is a hardware issue and unfortunately get the unit swapped out (hope another one is readily available). Really hoping this is either a firmware issue or an issue with restoring user presets with multiple block assignments as having a footswitch go bad in the first month of light use does not bode well for switch durability unless this turns out to be a rare case. Bumming me out 'cos I love my Helix :( Btw, the Helix App 1.02 is still having issues with restores If your presets are not all contiguous it is putting User presets blocks back in the correct preset slot but puts the preset's name in the first empty slot, such that the preset's blocks end up in one preset slot and the preset's name in another (with no blocks). This of course necessitates you having to rename all your presets.

Might just be my imagination as I did not time the old firmware but it seems as if the Helix is booting up faster with this update. Not that I thought it was an issue before.

Call me overly cautious but I not only wear a seat belt but prefer to follow the recommendations made by the folks who write the software. Reset process run! Thanks for the response!

So is Line6 recommending we run the 9&10 "Resetting Helix Globals" procedure after the update or is this strictly optional?

They probably have ways to code around it but this might be a reserved character because the front-slash is a path divider, e.g. "/Helix/Effects/Mods/Phaser" in Linux/Unix which could well be the OS kernel underlying the Helix codebase.

Voted this up already, Helix needs this badly!

I wonder if any of this is heat related? The Helix has what appears to be a heat vent on the bottom of the chassis. I am being careful not to let the Helix overheat and avoid setting it on a carpet in case the heat is indeed venting from the bottom. Carpet probably hinders heat dispersion from the surface of the metal on the bottom as well. Do we need to keep this vent clear L6?

Love me some auto-volume, I had already voted that one up, great idea!

Thanks! Clearly some other more experienced folks were already aware of it but I just stumbled across it.

I find the Linear setting alright for general volume adjustments but Logarithmic far superior for volume swells, but you have convinced me that maybe I should try leaving it set to "Logarithmic" for general use as well. I would agree I am not ready to give it an "Expression Pedal Of The Year" award yet, but it is working really well for certain operations. Not quite sure what you were referring to with the "auto" option. Do you mean like having an "auto volume" effect like the old Boss "Slow Gear? Loved the "Slow Gear", hope they add that effect at some point.

Sorry, don't have anything set up to record at the moment. Only using the Helix for practice and live use. I will work on that.

The Helix expression pedal is killing it on volume swells! I just wanted to take a second to say how amazing volume swells on the Helix sound with the volume pedal block's "Curve" parameter set to "Logarithmic". I am getting extremely musical violin-like swells with zero effort; no capoeira, ninja, or dance skills required. Really effortless and sweet sounding. These are the best sounding and easiest to create "violin" swells of any expression pedal I have ever tried. Something I only use on a few songs but it sounds superb!

I know adding the ART pre or other similar schemes to get a tube in the signal chain after the Helix are working solutions but I am stubbornly clinging to the belief that I can EQ the nasty frequencies out just using the Helix. Although adding another device is a perfectly legitimate and simple solution, I feel like having to add additional processing and devices to get the Helix to sound natural is conceding defeat and I am not there yet. And the Helix does sound natural on many settings, but it is not totally consistent, the ghosts of crappy digital sound still do show up here and there. I do wish there was a selection in the EQ section entitled "Fizz & Digital Crud Filter" that already had all the offending frequencies dialed out. I am not sure if that is possible as I don't know if the fizz is caused by the interaction of the Helix with a huge spectrum of possible external equipment, leaving no way to anticipate where the cuts should be. If it is impossible to anticipate where the fizz will be, ideally I suppose I would be able to plug in a reference mic that listened to the sound being produced and responded by using an L6 designed algorithm and filters to automatically tweak it to analog warmth. Until then, I intend to become a wizard with EQ. I don't get the fizz when I go through a tube amp and analog pedals and I would really like to not have to hear it on a high end MFX. At least many sounds/settings leave me exclaiming "this sounds really close or even indistinguishable from a real tube amp", but consistent analog warmth still appears to require some tweaking. A little disappointing I must admit but probably producing a device that has the option of full frequency response may always require specific filtering to emulate analog warmth. Even when the Helix delivers perfect tone the device you play it through might emphasize an unpleasant frequency. It would be great to see it made it a little simpler for the end user with some concrete recommendations on what to tweak, an EQ "analog" filter selection, or as mentioned above, with reference mic technology and automated filtering.

Tagmusenmagnus1 has it right. Just grab any effect from path 1 and drag it down to create what will now be path2 and two new split/merge blocks, then follow his directions to drag the split and merge blocks down to create the separate route. You can copy the block your dragged down back to the path 1 after you create the new route but remember you need to leave at least one block on what is now path 2 or it will collapse back up into path 1 again. The key is always having a block on a path other than the merge and split as a placeholder or the two paths collapse back into one.

You can have up to a total of four path lines. If required, each one can have its own input/output. Take a look at the Helix provided template "04B" in the Templates presets list. I am not quite clear on whether you are trying to run two separate input/output routes out to two different external amps with a third input/output for a mic or or just trying to switch between two "virtual" Helix amps out to a single external amp with an additional Helix input/output for the mic. There are routing alternatives for either of these scenarios. I think the best way to find the routing method you are looking for may be to scroll through the Templates preset list on the Helix. The templates include many different routing scenarios for up to 4 separate inputs/outputs routes. One of them will probably get you close enough to customize it to what you need. If you are only running out to one amp and need a second input/output for the mic you can use the link for the template I created for CustomTone http://line6.com/cus...e/tone/1460280/ . As you have probably discovered, one of the tricks when you are setting up routes on the Helix is you need to keep at least one block, even if it is a dummy effect you are planning on moving or deleting, on existing route lines as you move things around (like merge & split blocks) or the two route lines can collapse back into one.

Yes, just drag down both the split and the merge blocks to the second path you already created. The split and merge blocks are those tiny little blocks created once you drag a block down and create a second path. This will create a totally separate path with its own input and output. I put a Template in the CustomTone repository that gives you the bare bones setup for this. You can find it here: http://line6.com/customtone/tone/1460280/

I am hearing the fizz too, particularly when the distortions are cranked up. Have not done enough tweaking on all my presets yet but it usually requires finding the offending frequencies with a parametric or graphic EQ. and dialing them out. The "fizz" I am hearing is what gives MFX that "digital" sound, Setting up a low pass filter helps but does not totally get rid of it unless you cut the highs more dramatically then I want to. There are some other offending frequencies elsewhere that I cut out more surgically with EQ. I want my sound to be as close as possible to an analog tube amp and pedals (at least for my meat and potatoes, go to sounds). That fizz is what gives it away. Was hoping that would be completely absent in the Helix and it is absent from many sounds but it looks like it needs to be dialed out on some effects and settings. Not unusual I guess. I am thinking 3khz may be one area to keep and eye on. Saw an interesting quote in the documentation for Ownhammer's demo IRs. It is supposed to apply to his IRs but it might be worth trying with the Helix cabs. Not sure if it will apply as this seems like a lower range than where fizz would be present but perhaps not as he sets the "Q" on the parametric quite wide. I am going to play around with it. Here is the quote from the Ownhammer documentation. "With the files contained in this library there is a very quick, simple step that can be taken to duplicate the sound of a guitar tube power amp with the Presence and Depth set to 0. To replicate this sound, following the cabinet IR loader add an EQ with a parametric bell curve set to -3 dB at 400 Hz. Adjust the Q/bandwidth to roughly where the edges of the curve start to make the initial cut around 100 Hz on the low side and 2 kHz on the high side. If necessary, adjust the Q/bandwidth to taste from here to best suit your sound source and tonal preference." Any of you audio engineers out there know exactly where the "fizz" lives?

Thanks, 'cos I am thinking about going with that case.

You can click on the "RT60" column heading and this will sort from the samples with the shortest decay to the longest. There are some IRs that might be short enough in the OpenAir database, even truncated. http://www.openairli.../auralizationdb However, I think most of them will be too long as you indicated for Helix use but great for use in a DAW.